On the world of Shi'hidrah, the sky is full of firebirds. Red, orange, honeygold, sun yellow, pale violet, royal purple, jungle green, and ruddy copper-toned birds of flame and feather dominate its firmament. The people live in awe and worship of these birds, in dense, intricate jungle-canopy cities and nations, never even touching the ground in their lives.

Tales amongst the Tree-People of Shi' tell of other colored birds: some elders remember the silver, the bronze, and the black. The truly oldest folk whisper of the brown and the grey and the pastel green. Historical records mention the magenta, the teal, the cyan, and the emperor crimson.

But only legends mention the ash white and the ash blue. The legends say that these firebirds were the most beautiful and powerful of the firebirds. A man named Uvi'hidrah, legends say, was the greatest warrior of those times, and he fought and killed many of the dangerous beasts that crawled up from the ground or stalked the thick canopies for the Shi'. He was a proud, angry man who, though he could kill with ease, ruled poorly. He was a tyrant, and he demanded extravagant obeisance from all who dwelled under his protection.

So it was that a weak, poor man named Novoho lived out his life as a meager trapper, hiding when he could, giving what small furs and feathers he had gathered when Uvi'hidrah's collectors found him. One day, he was caught and beaten for having nothing more than a few long-tailed chipmunk furs to give. The collectors told him that if next time he did not have something magnificent for their lord, he would be hurled to the ground, where the thunder lizards dwelled.

Novoho was terrified more than anything of this fate, and he set out to seek a gift worthy of Uvi'hidrah. He spent weeks thinking, until he realized: the answer was everyone around him. The firebirds that dominated Shi'hidrah were owned by none. If Novoho could capture one and give it to Uvi'hidrah, he would make his lord the first to own a firebird. Novoho set about making new, intricate traps that would hold one each of the two finest varieties of firebird.

For weeks, he hid from the collectors, terrified of being caught before he found his present for Uvi'hidrah. For weeks, his traps bore nothing, until one night, he went to the top of the tallest tree in his area and prayed to the firebirds for their acquiescence to his plan. He prayed and meditated and bemoaned his fate, until he fell into a slumber.

When he woke, there, in his traps, were one ash white and one ash blue firebird. Delighted, he snatched them up and ran to Uvi'hidrah's temple. He climbed the boles and boughs to the small chamber Uvi'hidrah kept, and he humbly submitted to the guards.

As he ran through the tree-city, though, the people had noticed what he carried. A wave of shock and horror had filled them, and all who saw followed him in outrage at this unthinking heresy--caging a firebird. There, gathered beneath the door of Uvi'hidrah, then, were the majority of the populace of his city.

Uvi'hidrah came out, sneering at poor Novoho, and looked down at what he had caught. "Firebirds? Little trapper, what care I for firebirds?" he sneered.

"The Great Uvi'hidrah already owns all the firebirds. The sky, the ground, and the canopy are mine, as are all that are within each. All you have done is taint these specimens of my menagerie."

So saying, he reached down and crushed the cages of each bird, killing them both instantly. The populace stared in shocked horror as the birds flared and sang out in terror. The white and blue flames killed Novoho, who was too near to their deaths, instantly, but Uvi'hidrah was somehow spared.

The people watched him in terror. For a heartbeat, no one moved. No one reacted. For a heartbeat, it looked as if the city's denizens were still cowed by this warrior, this false protector, this tyrant. For a moment, the skies were silent.

Then, a child threw a stone. A man cried out in outrage. A woman screamed for blood. As one, the populace attacked their leader, who had gone too far. Uvi'hidrah was beaten and broken and cast down to the ground, but by then, it was too late. The rain of ash had begun:

The brutal murder of their kin had filled the ash whites and the ash blues with sorrow and madness, and they had all begun to burst into flames, dying permanently, leaving the sky filled with white and blue ash, which blanketed the world for a fortnight.

Gathering their sorrow and their pain, pulling all the ashes together, taking the hides and trophies of their former lord, they bound them all up into a set of masterpieces--mixing ash with the leather of the thunder lizards Uvi'hidrah kept, they created the Ash White Ash Blue Leather, crafting twenty one perfect suits of armor, and gave them each to the young men who would take Uvi'hidrah's place.