The Histories of the Islands by Haru Katoyama, written at the start of the Second Age, is a remarkable work. Blending history and myth, within its several thousand pages the human cost of the battles of prehistory are recorded. One of its chapters is devoted to the destruction of the city of Yabuna by a force Haru identifies as The Starving One.
According to The Histories, the city’s outriders identified it three days before it got to their walls. Their leader, Aya Yamako, born 19 years earlier, drew her spear, and, urging her horse forward, attempted to skewer the entity through its foul heart. Instead, she made contact with its wrist, and then was thrown across the forest, a tree breaking her bones. Her fellow riders lifted her to horseback and rode back to the city.
With word out, and Aya with the healers, the rulers of the city devised their plan. With unknown territory between them and safety, an armed escort would take as many as their horses would allow. The remainder of the city would try to fend off the monster. Ryota, a storied warrior, would lead a militia with javelins and clubs, the people of Yabuna rallying to come to the defense of their home. In the temples, the people prayed for deliverance from the Shin’rei.
The fighting went badly, countless dying as the monster tried to breach the walls. As the dead began piling up, Aya, still seriously injured, began evacuating people from the city. Ryota’s club shattered the bones of the Starving One’s fingers, even as the people around him began to flee.
The Histories states that this enraged the beast so much it cast the city into the earth, ruining it. It places the casualties at around 30,000, Ryota and Aya among them. Yabuna-shi has been found by explorers, but very few wish to investigate further, since the place is widely considered cursed.