The Tale of the Diamond Tusks💎🐘

Tusker Finance
3 min readApr 10, 2021

Deep in the heart of Africa…

…many centuries ago, there used to roam a herd of mythical elephants. Stories of their great power have been passed on through the legends of the local tribes, and paintings of them can still be found in some remote caves on the flanks of Kilimanjaro.

They are described as huge, hulking, but peaceful creatures that watched over the tribes in the area. The tribes worshipped them as protectors of the land and its people. It is said that their tusks were made of diamond, that would glimmer in the savannah night with a thousand reflections of the moon.

Legends state these mighty elephants had the power to heal wounds, dispel sickness, and restore lifeless places. It is said that they could form an oasis in the desert by sticking their magical tusks into the earth.

For hundreds of years there was peace between the elephants and the tribes, and no man dared poach them, not even for their diamond tusks. When an elephant died, however, his companions would offer the tusks to the villagers, just as the villagers would share their crop with the elephants.

That was until a group of traders arrived from other lands. An outcast tribesman, eager to barter with them, struck down the alpha, Valmiki, with a spear. However, when he touched Valmiki’s tusks, his mind intoxicated with greed, he turned to diamond and fell to the ground — dead. With that the peace was broken, and the elephants left, to where no one knows.

Those tusks given to the villagers have been passed down through the generations. Some are held by their ancestors, who use them to protect the habitat of elephants today. Two pairs were found by British treasure hunters, who, after returning across the open sea, put them up for auction on London’s biggest exchange.

Legend has it there is still a yet undiscovered pair, those that belonged to Valmiki, buried somewhere near Kilimanjaro.

Diamond Tusks Trophy NFT

Protecting the Elephants

This NFT was created to commemorate all those who participated in Tusker Finance’s charity drive. The latest charity chosen by the community via a governance vote was C.R.O.W, an organization that trains and equips rangers in their battle against elephant poachers.

Our previous donation was given to Wild Tomorrow Fund, an organization preserving elephant habitats in South Africa. You can read our interview with them here. For more information on how our DCO (Decentralized Charity Organization) works, you can read our introduction here.

NFT Distribution

As mentioned in this lore, some tusker protectors have been awarded the diamond tusks…

NFTs will be distributed to all direct contributors to the marketing wallet over 0.1ETH (period: 6th April to 13th April included) 0x30F11f42E88Ad26c4Ce27a0aF95DA7733567732c

Two pairs of diamond tusks were brought by sea to a big auction house…

2 copies of this NFT will be auctioned on OpenSea with a starting price of 0.25ETH, all profits will go directly to the charity wallet (period: 14th April to 21st April)

One legendary pair of tusks is still in the wild, waiting to be found…

1 copy of this NFT will be awarded in a treasure hunting game, first winner to find the treasure will earn the NFT! (Starts on 22th April and finishes on 29th April)

Official links

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