What are the urban legends in you ur world, and how did they come to be?

Urban legends exist, and often refer to creatures that just don't exist.

There is no such thing as solitary unicorns that hunt men who evade death for too long. There are no creatures you can only see at the corner of your vision. Really, people should just trust the sages and scouts, if something existed, they would have seen it.

There are no giant worms, burrowing isn't as easy as you think. There are no Titans on our world. That is absurd. There are certainly not jellyfish that swim in forests.

There is absolutely, no matter what you think, not a thing that you cannot recall but for the vaguest dreams, yet dominates the world, only perceivable indirectly by the observation of non existent actions. It is not real, it can not hurt you. Do not bother looking where you shouldn't.

Urban legends are entirely the imagination of simple folk. If something could hide from sages and scouts, you wouldn't know about it.

People say a half of Republic of Gaullia is haunted. When night falls, citizens can hear faint cries echoing from the dark. A mix of cries, screams, begs, curses, sometimes they see transparent armies marching with pale faces. They knew they were marching into certain death, and every charge out of the trench results in very deadly outcome, even when mages use magics to create walls blocking machine guns. It gets worse as sometimes, there are sudden flashes in the sky. Nearby residents say those are phantoms of nuclear warheads, because Gaullia used to be a nuclear battlefield.

The Quince - In the corner of Livry, there amidst the tall buildings and canopies, stood a curious little clinic that can cure you of your past guilts, no matter how grave it is.

Veracity: True. The clinic is run by Reizes, a somnibus who specialized in creating a dream world where the person's face their guilts head on. No strings attached, probably.

There is an urban legend that at the end of the Vuldavian civil war, the victorious Regent Farkas Arany (or one of his subordinates) brought out various enemies to Lake Kardos, usually said to be communists, executed them and dumped them there. This particular tale is somewhat far fetched, both due to lack of evidence and Farkas’ nature (he pardoned a great many people for the sake of peace and others he only imprisoned.) That being said it’s not exactly easy to disprove either.

It’s not the only horror story or mystery about Lake Kardos, its depth makes it more difficult to explore. It’s a popular lake, so sometimes things wash up, including human remains on occasion.

Taking it a step further, it is said in campfire stories a phantom army can rise from the lake, made up of all those who died in or around it in pivotal moments of Vuldavian history(it’s right next to the capital.) Of course this is even more far fetched as paranormal occurrences don’t really occur in this world, ones we can prove anyway, but it makes for good scary stories.

There is story about Mindbreaker. Everyone talks about this horrifying monster that finds beautiful women and leaves them cataonic out of fear.

Now, Mindbreaker was real. First one was extremely powerful mind mage and serial rapist. When he just started he wasn't very good, so most of his victims were rendered catatonic. With practice he figured out how to not break victim's mind while asserting control, so number of catatonic women dropped off in favor of memory wiped ones. Mindbreaker himself was active for almost forty years, had few close calls with other mages, ultimately got away with almost everything and one day decided to become Principality's Prince-Consort. It's ruler was just a woman anyway, ancient archmage or not, and he was certain that he could control her. Naturally by the end of the week he was sitting in the cell, getting tortured on daily basis and awaiting execution. It was here where one of his daughters offered him a way out in the form of mind transfer, creating second Mindbreaker who carried on in service of Principality for centuries to come.

There is a popular legend that a man, who defied the god of gods himself, got pregnant as a punishment and he died, leaving an undescriptable criature who is condemned to the eternal living, people on the south specially say that this criature haunts the ones who want to defy this god.

There's two tales, one about tiny forest elves that live on top of trees and scare children out of the forest.

The other tale is used by slaves, common people and royalty to keep their children away from the mines of the north, altho they can't assure it didn't happened, it tells that the ogre miners of the north heard something nearby, some rocks that fell near them for no reason, then one of them saw, in the darkness of the cave 2 big red yes and 2 pale fangs, but no body nor face was to be seen. Then the criature crawled foward, at high speed but soundless and killed one of the ogres eating it, some tell the company saw tons of teeth inside the mouth in the half second the criature opened his saw of mouth. Another ogre tossed a torch towards the criature, then they got the last look at it, a kind of criature with the head of a dragon, the body of a worm and two claws he used to move. It was hairy but they only deducted ot by its siluette, because it was pitch black, only thing that was not eternal darkness was its red hunting eyes and his fangs. The criature left in 2 blinks of an eye, without any sound, it just vaishes in the darkness. The ogres who saw it that day escaped in panic never to be seen again...

The are legends saying that islands fly very high up.

These come from stories and supposed sightings along the northern trade routes.

Lapis_Wolf

That the gods live in a moving tower in the sea

Yes. Among the Bastion culture there are persistent stories about the Gecko culture (aka "Fucking tree savages") that emerged as a mix of propaganda, resentment and control-by-fear of their own (bastion) population.

Some of the more colourful stories are thst the Gecko clans are cannibals who will eat outsiders, and those of their own who violate the laws or betray the clan to a neighbouring group.

It is also said that they use parts of their victims in items, specifically the linings of their gut to make bowstring that contain the victims power and essence, and use thr bone, teeth and hair pf their victims in necklaces to protect them when fighting.

The Bastion tell their children if they are caught by any of the Gecko clans they will be disembowelled alive and forced to watch as the "chief" of the clan eats the victims raw entrails in front of them.

None of this is true. It is simply propaganda used to control their own people. The Gecko culture does make use of human body parts in decoration, however. Human teeth is frequently seen on their story necklaces, as the loss of the last of one's milk teeth is taken as a sign of coming of age, and are thus kept on the story necklace as a commemoration of that. They will also commonly take a tooth and lock of hair from the dead as a momento of a loved one. The hair of a newborn is also usually kept for similar reasons, along with their first milk tooth. It is believed this may be the origin of the Bastion stories which were inte tonally exaggerated and turned "evil" to "other" them I to this terrifying and exotic predator.

Miner who never left

It's just a story about short man who was said to be miner. Far away in the east, in mist many people have seen siloette(idk how to write that word) of short man with pickaxe. It have creepy vibe on it. Shortly after people see it or get close to it, they hear howl of wolf and that's the point when most of them run away.