To trap the First Doom, the New Gods split part of his being into nine pieces and tasked nine mortals with hiding the shards so Kudamat could not reach his full power. The riders took them as far from the mountain as they could manage and buried them in the arid earth. It wasn't far enough.
Over the centuries, Kudamat reached out through the dirt and stone, veins of crystalline essentia stretching out like tendrils to find his missing pieces. When he found the first, he began channeling its power to restore his godhood and raised a colossus to guard it.
Preacher Rayos preaches that above all else, the shards must be found and kept from the god.
Source · Drylands History