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The Brothers Glib

Jack and Willy Glib were twin Arildi brothers--storytellers, by trade. They are remarkably famous, especially considering how astonishingly little anyone knows about them or their history. Mostly they are referenced as the source of various stories (historical or otherwise) and recipes; it is not uncommon to hear someone say, "Have you heard the Glib tale..." or "Try this, I used the Glib recipe."

As children, the brothers were fascinated by history--of which the Arildi knew almost nothing. Once they were of age, they did something quite bold and terribly rare among their race: they left home to travel the world. In their travels, they made it a point to collect stories wherever they went. While it is hard to say why, they wrote these stories down without any concern for historical accuracy--into their journals went fiction and nonfiction alike. It is not even entirely clear when they lived, though it was sometime during or shortly after the Spica Wars, judging by the events that did and did not make it into their final work.

After many years of traveling, the brothers returned home and compiled what they had collected. Their compilation included morality tales, adventure stories, dry political epochs, children's nonsense poems... a little of everything, really. The one unifying feature of every story was that it included the original teller's name, race, and favorite recipe.

The resulting work, Mother Nancy's Fancy Cookbook, was an enormous success across Battal (it is widely believed, though by no means documented, that Nancy was the boys' mother). Not only did it contain valuable historic accounts of obscure events like The Ritual of Brain'age or the more contemporary Darkwardrobian Uprising, it also put into writing for perhaps the first time ever famous folk tales like Mort and the Day Absoultely Nothing of Any Import Happened, Mort and the Earl of the Pirates, and other significant cultural stories. Mother Nancy's Fancy Cookbook also contained the most fabulous Dolphinthrope recipes ever conceived. Culimancers in particular have a special love of rare first-edition copies of this cookbook, as the famous and simply-to-die-for Eldritch Pie recipe included in the book actually requires a page from a first-edition copy of Mother Nancy's Fancy Cookbook.

The Brothers Glib went down in history as the preferred source for cultural tales and cooking tips. Even their name entered most language as an adjective, meaning "one who talks about cooking when weightier matters are at hand," or more metaphorically, "someone who is not thinking too hard about what they're saying or doing." So influential was Mother Nancy's Fancy Cookbook on recipes and tales alike that, when one cannot remember the origin of one's story or recipe, one by default misattributes the work to the Brothers Glib.