Varas Monster

The Varas Monster (: Varas briesmonis; : Варас монстр), affectionately known as Varis, is a creature in Galvic and Zemaki folklore that is said to inhabit WesternVaras Lake in southern Galvia. It is often described as large, long-necked, with a long tail and four fins. Popular belief in the creature first emerged among the native population around the 19th century, when Galvic historian Zigfrīds Skuja compared the written mythology from both Galvic and Zemaki peoples regarding the Western Varas Lake and the creature that lived in it, known as Ūdenšausmas in Galvian and Скрытыйужас (Skrytyuzhas) in Zemaki. International attention and interest to the creature first emerged in 1972 when the photograph "The Creature" by Lāsma Ozoliņš was first published. Evidence of its existence is anecdotal, with a number of disputed photographs, sightings, and readings.

Since its popularization, the Varas Monster has become a staple of southern Galvia, particularly in the city of Varasitija, situated on the shores of the Western Varas Lake. Several movies and books have been released throughout the decades, particularly between 1975 and 1985. This phenomenon has been regarded as the "Varic Craze", during which the tourism in southern Galvia increased by 150%, and several Galvian citizens, particularly from the kingdoms of Rozežjosla and Vakars, began thorough research of the lake's shores and its floor that has lasted for several decades. The scientific community explains alleged sightings of the Varas Monster as, , and the misidentification of mundane objects.

Origin of the name
The name was first coined in 1854 by historian Zigfrīds Skuja, who became the first person to study, compare, and eventually compile Galvic and Zemaki mythology, folklore, legends, and religious tales. Galvic myth speaks of Ūdenšausmas, a wingless -like creature that lives in the Western Varas Lake, and one of the direct antithesis of Tecēt, goddess of water in Galvic mythology. Zemaki folklore includes the story of Скрытыйужас (Skrytyuzhas), a sea monster living in the depths of the lake whose main purpose is luring fishermen to eat them. Referred to as a 'monster' by both cultures, Skuja decided to rename it after the lake where the myth took place in his book "Creatures of Galvia", where the name "Varas Monster" is first used in both and. The creature has been affectionally referred to as Varis, a popular Galvian masculine given name, since the 1960s, a name that only increased in popularity with the following decade.

Galvic mythology (400 BCE)
Though not considered an official sightings, the earliest report of a monster in the vicinity of the Western Varas Lake can be traced back to Galvic mythology, which is known to have been written sometime around 400 BCE. The first ever mention of Ūdenšausmas is in the myth of Jurģis, that tales the story of a fisherman living with his two daughters on the shores of the Western Varas Lake who one day saw himself forced to sail on his boat to the middle of the lake as all the fish had gone missing from the shallow waters. Legend has it Jurģis was attacked Ūdenšausmas at night, right as he was about to return to land, before being saved by Klejot, Galvic goddess of the Moon. According to myth, Klejot then named Jurģis protector of the lake, and tasked him with ensuring nobody would enter its waters again. Jurģis died eventually, and as part of Galvic folklore, his soul is believed to protect all those who enter the lake, and Jurģis himself was later adopted as the Galvic god of the Varas Lakes.

Zemaki folklore (1st century CE)
Unlike Galvic mythology, most Zemaki legends and folklore have never been written with only a few noticeable exceptions, amongst which is the tale of Скрытыйужас (Skrytyuzhas). The story speaks of a fishing village situated on the westernmost shores of the lake, where it was rumored that one of its residents had the ability to turn into a during the night to then attack all fishing ships in the lake, Zemaki or otherwise. The man was one day found out and exiled into the lake, where he continued to live for the following years, hidden in the depths only to come out at night to feed on the citizens of the village that had banished him. The story is believed to have been fabricated after numerous alleged sightings in the lake among Zemaki people living in the vicinity, evidenced by several but brief mentions of a sea monster in the lake, that date further back than the tale of Скрытыйужас.

Marģers Ēķis (1898)
One of the earliest police reports in the kingdom of Vakars dating back to 19 July 1898, made by fisherman Marģers Ēķis, speak of a "massive creature jumping out of the water a few meters away from [Ēķis'] boat, creating a big splash and ripples in the lake". The report shows that, at the time, Ēķis' claim was disregarded before being redirected to a hospital. It re-entered circulation among conspiracists in the region in 1965, and became public knowledge after being picked up as an article by the newspaper Pīdinātājs a few months later, before a group of marine biologists from the Līdzivirsa province came forward explaining how Ēķis most likely could have been talking about a particularly large, not uncommon in the vicinity.

Austra Lagzdiņš (1942)
Former Cietoķsi journalist for the Varasitijas Vēstule magazine, published an article for the October issue of 1942 titled "Briesmonis zem virsmas" (The monster below the surface) that described in detail the existence of a monster inhabiting the waters of the Western Varas Lake, targeting specifically the Zemaki population of the region, and ruining the local fishing economy. The article was quickly disregarded, particularly by Galvic citizens, due to the obvious correlation made by Lagzdiņš between the Varas Monster, the socioeconomic state of southern Galvia during the 1940s, and the central government at the time. In 1943, the author admitted to utilizing the popular myth as an analogy to criticize the Galvian government, and was arrested for 14 months that same year for charges of, the spread of , and. Despite of this, those who believe in the existence of the Varas Monster consider Lagzdiņš's article useful and veridical, and state that the photographs and descriptions included in it could not have been doctored or made up.

Lāsma Ozoliņš (1971)
On 3 November 1971, nurse Lāsma Ozoliņš was on a boat ride going from the town of Mazsakmentiņš, situated on the southwestern shores of the Western Varas Lake in the kingdom of Cietoķsni, to the city of Varasitija with her husband Ritvars Ozoliņš and their two sons, Vilhelms and Oļegs. The family covered more than halfway the journey to their destination before the boat was hit by what Lāsma has referred to several times as "a large body" just below the water's surface. Ritvars stopped the boat to make sure their boat wasn't damaged, before Lāsma, who was carrying a camera with her to capture the landscape of the surrounding areas, witnessed what would later become the reported sighting of the Varas Monster. Unlike past alleged sightings in the region, Lāsma took her photo directly to the national newspaper Galvijaiks asking for a space in the December issue to print her story.

The photo, titled "The Creature" (Radījums), was published along with an article in the Culture section of the newspaper, retelling the story of the Ozoliņš on November 3rd, as well as an interview to Lāsma and her husband. The article quickly gained traction and became a matter of debate on Galvian news channels, both regional and national. In February of 1972, Lāsma was fired from her job under the pretext of that hindered her from properly doing her job. She quickly gained popularity and support en masse, and in June of 1972 she founded the Varas Lake Monster Research Center, headquartered in Varasitija, Rozežjosla. Despite previous sightings, Lāsma Ozoliņš is regarded as the founder of the most famous in the country due to scientists' and sceptics' inability to debunk her story and photograph.

The common circulation of the photograph that came with the publication of Lāsma's article, as well as the chain of events that followed are considered to have started the "Varic Craze" (Varasmanija) that lasted from 1975 until 1985.

Cormac Moore (1982)
In the middle of the "Varic Craze" that spread over Galvia, particularly the kingdoms of Rozežjosla, Vakars and Cietoķsni regarding the existence of the Varas Monster, Lathadun journalist Cormac Moore arrived in the city of Vilciena, capital of the kingdom of Vakars in March of 1982, with the purpose of taking a second photo of the Varas Monster, following the success of Lāsma Ozoliņš a decade prior, to be taken back to Lathadu. He settled in Varasitija shortly after, where he took off on a consecutive series of research expeditions to the center of the lake, as well as its less visited north and southern shores, over the course of two months. His determination and enthusiasm, thought not uncommon for the time, caught the attention of local news outlets in the region, bestowing him the name of "Swamp Jurģis", named after Moore's country of origin's staple landscape. Moore attempted to publish several photographs of what he claimed to have been the Monster, but newspapers and news channels alike disregarded as logs, fish or dead bodies.

Moore returned to Vilciena in early June of 1982, and continued his research in the East Varas Lake, this time for a shorter period of 3 weeks. He filed a report with the Vakarian police in the evening of June 17th claiming to have witnessed the Varas Monster somewhere between the city of Vilciena and the town of Dzeltenaiceļš, 200 kilometres west. Moore disappeared sometime between the night of July 17th and the early morning of July 18th along with the rented speedboat he had been using to move across the lake. Patrolling of the East Varas Lake and its tributary rivers started on July 19th. The speedboat was found on July 25th washed ashore and semi-destroyed with most of Moore's personal belongings inside. The search came to an end on August 9th, when Moore's dead body was found by a on the lake's southern shore. The body was missing the entire left arm, which has never been found, and has led many to believe of the existence of a second Varas Monster in the eastern lake, or the possibility of the same monster moving between the two. No reports of the autopsies performed by the Galvian and Lathadun governments have been released to the public to this day.