Approximately five thousand years ago a vessel arrived from the stars, The high wilderness, from the world called Axile. It traveled via the This vessel was the Bazaar- a messenger. The message was the correspondence. Powered by the stone pigs it found or created the neath and made it’s home there, hiding away from the light of the sun. It brought passengers, or crew- the Rubbery men and the lorn-flukes, as well as the thousand nameless horrors of the zee. It was composed of a thing that could be called coral, which it now hides, or perhaps bone. It has siblings or children, the principalities and the mountain-god called stone, who does not hide her light. It now gathers cargo or fuel or martyrs to reactivate the stone pigs.
Sources: Nacrous Survivor, Tireless Mechanic, Principalities, the Wistful Deviless
Further note: The status of the Sage in the impeller is not important because he is a martyr, but because his people (who were they? He looks like nothing else I’ve seen) used him as a repository of stories. Presumably including love stories. edited by Phrux on 3/29/2015
The Bazaar is gathering evidence for its trial before the Dragons Who Devour. It was given a stay of execution for the length of 7 cities’ worth of love stories to find one (or more) that would convince its accusers that it was not a crime for a Messenger to fall in love with a being higher than itself on the Great Chain, in this case, the Sun, who is a Judgement. The product of this union is the Mountain of Light, aka Stone.
The matter of the Axiles is a little muzzier to me. Given the Bazaar’s/the Masters’ propensity to make deals, it seems likely they made a deal to bring the Axiles with them on their journey through space, which was eventually interrupted when the Bazaar decided to fall in love instead of delivering its message to the Sun. Where would they have all ended up if not for this diversion? A fine question, and one that I don’t think has been addressed yet in the lore.