Genesis of grief
Long, long ago before the earth and the heavens existed, two brothers lived in the world.
Able to read each other's hearts without so much as a glance, the two were fully satisfied.
The world was the two. The two were the world.
One day the Elder Deity accidentally broke the Younger Deity's treasured sword. Furious, the Younger Deity retaliated by slashing the Elder Deity's treasured spear with his broken sword. The spear was split in half and the Elder Deity erupted in anger.
And so, glaring at each other, one holding his broken sword, the other his broken spear, they fought.
The War waged for seven days and seven nights. On the eigth day, the Younger Deity realized their foolishness and went to the Elder Deity to request a truce. But the Elder Deity, still blinded with anger, saw this as an opening and thrust his spear. The spear pierced the chest of the Younger Deity and took his life.
The Younger Deity's final breath became the heavens, and his fallen body became earth. The fountain of blood erupted high and became the sun. The broken sword shattered and formed the moons and stars in the heavens. Feeling great shame, the Elder Deity wept. His tears became rain and fell to earth, forming oceans in its deep contours.
From eternal tranquility, the world was set into motion.
New Life
The Elder Deity mourned the loss of the Younger Deity for many years, but eventually he grew accustomed to his sad, lonely life
One day, unable to bear his loneliness any longer, the Elder Deity removed one of his eyes and created a goddess. The new goddess looked at the Elder Deity and exclaimed: Thou art handsome. With this voice, the world was filled with sound.
The Elder Deity and the new goddess gave names to each other. The Elder Deity received the name of Sol the God of Creation and the goddess, Myulin the Goddess of Harvest. Then the Elder Deity created a land of the dead in the darkest part of the world and sealed the spirit of the Younger Deity and gave him the name of Cernunnos the Lord of the Dead. This was how all things were named and given a purpose. Sol gave birth to more gods and goddesses. Myulin gave the new gods names and Sol gave them purpose. One rules the sun, and another the oceans. One ruled the weaving thread, and another the stoves. This was how the sun traveled the sky, the oceans beat against the shores, the loom spit out threads, and the stoves held the fire within. Sol then gave birth to trees, plants, beasts, birds, fishes, and insects. They were all spread throughout the world and found a place to live.
The world was filled with life.
Last to be created were the Elves. Sol created them in his image and he loved them best. Sol asked all the gods and all creatures to grant the elves their blessings.
Each god, goddess and creature happily gave its blessings to the elves.
As a result, the elves were faster, stronger, smarter, and more beautiful than any other creature, and they were able to speak the language of all creatures.
However Cernunnos, the Lord of the Dead withheld his blessing from the elves. Unaware of darkness, the elven hearts were ever wrapped in light, but because of it the elves had an incredible innocence in them.
The Fools
The gods entrusted the earth to the elves, and created their own realm in the heavens known as Airceltrai, the City of Dawn.
And so the elves ruled the earth
And the gods ruled the heavens.
The gods built a path connecting the earth and heaven and called it the Heavenly Path. The Heavenly Path was used to deliver the light of the heavens and the gods down to earth.
Guarded by the light of the sun and the light of the gods, life on earth flourished and it seems that peace would last forever.
But as time passed, the elves began to believe that their powers equaled those of the gods. They built the aerial fortress, Fort Ouph in the sky to enter the realm of the gods and insisted that they be treated as gods. Sol was furious and he took from the elves all that were good in them. The elves became slower, weaker, and uglier than any other creature.
Myulin scorned these foolish creatures and named them Humans.
Grunty Race
Having lost their wisdom, humans brought war and chaos to the world.
They had been reduced to creatures concerned only with domination, and so they commenced to make war on all the other races.
Sol gazed down in sadness at the ruined earth and decided to use the goodness that he had taken from the elves to create the race of Grunties. He dispatched them to return peace to the world.
But the gods were afraid that the Grunties would suffer the same flaw as the elves and voiced objections to Sol’s action.
And so, Sol cast a curse upon the Grunties and proclaimed: “Listen carefully to me. I have cast a spell on you. It is a curse and a magic word is its key. If someone, even just one person on this earth says this word, a terrible calamity will befall on all of you.”
The Grunties beseeched him, “Great lord, when this calamity occurs, how are we to escape it?” Sol nodded his head an answered: “You must not oppress others. You must not be bitter. You must not be envious. Have a good and pure heart and live your days peacefully.”
The secret word was told to all gods and all creatures except for humans. The gods were satisfied and the Grunties were sent down to earth.
Without shedding a drop of blood, the Grunties stopped the violence of the humans. Overjoyed, the gods created magical powers and gave it to the Grunties. But even with such great power, the Grunties did not fall prey to the sin of pride.
Banquet of Conspiracy
The Grunties were loved by all creatures with the exception of the bitterly jealous humans.
This was because all of the things that made Grunties so wonderful had once belonged to the humans.
Humans began to look for Grunties’ weaknesses and learned of the curse that Sol had cast on them. Overjoyed, the humans next set out to learn the secret word, but even the normally talkative monkey would not betray the secret word.
So the humans held a banquet and invited all the gods and creatures in order to fog their minds with drink.
One after another, the guests became intoxicated until finally only the snake, the strongest drinker, remained. The snake still would not tell the secret word, so the humans brought out their strongest drink and gave it to the snake. As expected, the snake became drunk and told the secret word to the humans.
The humans rejoiced and intoned the words.
Immediately, the Grunties lost their intelligence and found themselves unable to stand upright.
The humans called them Puchi Pongo and made them into their beasts of burden. Then they proceeded to continue their war against the other races.
For telling the secret words, the snake was punished by having to forever crawl about the earth on its stomach.
Path of Evil
The gods fell into despair over the humans’ deed.
They created a great gateway called Morrigu Barrow and blocked off all earthly access to the Heavenly Path so that none could enter heaven.
Along with the sealing of the Heavenly Path, the light of the gods was also blocked from earth. Without the protection of the gods, the earth gradually became wilder and began to be corrupted by a dark power called the Shadow. Corrupted by the Shadow, the earth overflowed with monsters and demons.
These demons roamed the world and killed everything in their path. Many creatures were lost as a result of their brutality.
Humans also came under attack by the monsters. They formed barriers in the major cities and closed themselves off. They fought against the monsters, but lost battle after battle. One by one, the cities were cut off from each other, and the barriers protecting the cities were destroyed one after another. Finally only five cities remained standing.
Banquet of Conspiracy
The savior of mankind was a young apprentice magician.
He confined himself in the temple of Arche Koeln and prayed to the gods. In exchange for his life, he was able to call upon the six great spirits and two goddesses. The eight gods that were summoned were:
Vulcan the Fire Spirit,
Merrows the Water Spirit,
Krake the Wood Spirit,
Yarthkins the Earth Spirit,
Lanceor the Lightning Spirit,
Wryneck the Darkness Spirit,
Anu the Star Goddess, and
Aurora the Goddess of Light.
The light of the gods shined once more on the blessed earth and the Shadow was contained.
Thanks to the newfound peace, humans once again prospered, but it did not last long. Once the threat of the Shadow was gone, the humans began to fight with each other. After sealing the shadow, the eight gods and goddesses remained on earth, but some were angered by the foolishness of humans and others grieved their wretchedness and left until finally, only Aurora remained. Fearing that the light of heaven would again depart the earth, humans placed eight curses on Aurora and sealed her inside the Hulle Granz Cathedral.
Battle Agains't the Gods
When the gods learned that a goddess had been imprisoned, their fury knew no bounds and they vowed to destroy mankind. But the humans had no intention of meekly succumbing to extinction and used their magic powers to devise a weapon that they could use to fight against the gods. So began the war between the gods and the humans.
The humans were no match for the power of the gods. The Aerial City of Fort Ouph fell from the sky and the Highland City of Dun Loireag was crushed underneath it. The Cultural City of Carmina Gadelica was destroyed by the god of lightning and many lives were lost.
As a last resort, the humans took all of Aurora’s power, transformed it into magic power and fired it at the heavens. Heaven was engulfed in flame and the gods fled or fell burning to die upon the earth.
The humans sacrificed much as well. The Relic City Lia Fail, from where the goddess’s power was fired, was reduced to ashes and many excellent magicians died along with it.
And so ended the age of the gods.
God's Rebirth
All the gods in heaven disappeared.
But a single god who remained on earth lived.
This was the God of Law, Folset, who guarded the gate that blocked the Heavenly Path.
Winning the war against the gods, the humans wanted the wisdom and power of the gods and stormed Morrigu Barrow and demanded Folset to invite them in to the realm of the gods. But Folset refused to grant them entry.
At first, the humans pointed their weapons at Folset and demanded he open the gate. But Folset answered thus: “Do whatever you wish. There is no way any of your weapons can harm me.” The humans followed his words and tried to attack Folset in any way they could, but they were unable to harm even a single hair on his head.
Once they learned that force was to no avail, they tried to convince him to open the gates by seducing him with gifts.
After seeing the gifts, Folset said, “Build a mountain of gifts for me if you wish. I’ll make a mountain twice that size in an instant.” Before Folset was even finished completing his sentence, a mountain of gifts more lavish than the gifts of the humans sprang up before their eyes.
After learning that both force and flattery were of no avail, the humans got on their knees and begged pathetically. “If a power that is greater than the Shadow emerges, we would fall into ruin. But if we could regain the wisdom and power that lies beyond this gate, we would be able to protect ourselves and not fight one another. So please open the gate.” Folset laughed and answered them: “Was it not you who took up sword and shield and slew the gods? You should suffer for your sins.”
Protesting, the humans replied, “So you are saying that we should have simply allowed the gods to drive us all to extinction?” Folset shook his head and answered: “Recall first the sins that you committed. Is it not just that sinners receive judgment?” To this the humans could make no reply. Folset continued to speak: “But all beings have the right to atone for their sins. Human! Child of sin! If you want this gate opened, then bring back the lost gods. The gods will rise again, born from the dogma of the believers. If they are true gods, then I will open this gate. Bring back what has been lost and only then can you be pardoned.”
And so the humans argued over Gods’ Rebirth and once again made war against each other.
World without Gods
The world fell into stagnation without the gods.
With none to command them, the sun stood in place and the tides ceased to ebb and flow. The looms gave forth no thread and the ovens no warmth. Mankind now had to perform all of these functions themselves.
Despite these hardships, humans did not cease their wars with each other. Soon they invented different types of magical tools to improve their lives.
Ten years after the Great War with the gods, a researcher visited the ruins of Fort Ouph. Many have avoided the ruins of Fort Ouph, Lia Fail, Carmina Gadelica, and Dun Loireag after the Great War in fear and hatred that they were haunted by the spirits of the dead gods and goddesses.
This belief was further enhanced by the fact that most who set out to explore the ruins never came back.
However this particular researcher did return and he brought along with him a creature with a body of a human and a head and tail of an animal. The creature was a Beast.
Humans and Beasts
At first, humans and beasts were friendly with each other.
But while the beasts revered nature and old ways, the humans were too innovative.
It was the beasts who first discovered the creatures called Chim Chims. When the beasts saw the light of the gods in the Chim Chims they decided to revere them as a legacy of the gods. But the humans captured the Chim Chims to research them and after discovering a way to extract energy from them, used them to invent steam machines. The beasts protested this treatment, but the humans would not listen.
As the humans’ use of steam technology advanced, they abandoned magic as old and obsolete. The beasts continued to revere magic culture and rejected steam technology. Humans scoffed at the beasts for being stubborn and small-minded, and beasts came to despise the humans’ foolishness.
Eventually the beasts decided they could not leave the Gods’ Rebirth to the fools and proclaimed that they too will participate in the Gods’ Rebirth. Folset granted their participation. Humans were outraged. They believed that the Gods’ Rebirth was their right.
The two sides’ antagonism toward each other began to deepen and finally war broke out.
Humans gathered their armies and steam weapons, but found their weapon production was lagging behind. Desperate, they built the great factory of Breg Epona, but still they were unable to create the necessary weapons.
Beasts were mighty in the ways of magic, but were small in numbers. They were unable to marshal a large enough army.
Humans were weaker but more numerous. Beasts were stronger, but fewer in number.
And the war continued to rage on.
Three Dogmas
Both humans and beasts grew tired of the long years of war. However, neither side was able to strike a decisive blow and none knew a way to stop the cycle of wars and bring the entire gruesome conflict to an end.
In this never-ending cycle, a new Faction was born. Composed of both humans and beasts, the new Faction concentrated on pure pursuit of power and incorporated the crest technology derided by humans and the steam technology loathed by beasts.
Both humans and beasts were afraid that this new faction would enter the wars, but they sent emissaries to both humans and beasts and called for a cease fire. At first, both races were hesitant, but they both were forced to accept from the sheer toll brought on by the war.
And so the war between the two races ended but the conflict continued. Beasts continued to insist on participating in the Gods’ Rebirth and the new faction proclaimed their participation as well.
Humans chanted for “Steam technology and innovation.” Beasts were for “crest technology and tradition.” And the new faction for “the pure pursuit of power.”
They began a quiet war without a show of force. No winner was decided in this war since no gods were born from any of these forces. The three-way war continued, and in time the factions came to be called the following:
Arvakv the Innovators
Ogmios the Conservatives
Teutates the Pursuers
To this day, the three-way war knows no end, and it quietly drives the world ever closer to its doom.
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