16.2.1 Creation of the Gods
Before all, the Celestine existed. He alone came before all, and He was
alone. He knew Himself to be Varian. He floated in the emptiness and
thought. The Celestine frowned, discontented with the nothingness. As He
frowned, He poured forth from Himself a river of essence.
Yet as He looked upon His essence, He saw that it had become entangled
and dark. The Celestine frowned again and pondered the dark essence for
countless eras before He reached into it. His fingers grasped the
strands of light and dark, and pulled. He pulled forth the Spirit of
Truth and, with it, the Nature of Artifice. Neither was alone, for they
were pulled together. They were forged of one thought, each a complement to
the other. The Celestine looked at His two children and smiled, and bestowed
upon them the Gift.
The Spirit of Truth looked at His shadow. Warily, the Spirit of Truth
took His brother and They walked through the universe to witness it. And
the Spirit of Truth realized why the Other had been formed. The Nature of
Artifice realized why the Truth had been formed. The Truth saw through the
darkness, but without Artifice, there was no darkness.
The two Gods looked upon the universe. Each envisioned the universe for
Himself, and each saw the supremacy of His own vision. The Spirit of
Truth, known as Lanos, saw a universe where all truth was equal. Artifice,
called Severn saw a universe where all made their own truth. The Gods fought
over their conflicting visions of the universe, and the Celestine frowned.
The Truth and the Shadow moved away from the Celestine to supervise the
universe. His children fought, and He was lonely once more.
The Celestine pondered the essence. The universe was without limit and
greatly lacking. He looked at the essence, and the darkness, and He
thought. All was static, and He wished for endings and beginnings. Once
more He reached into the essence, and three were brought forth. From the
same thought came the Lady, the Hunter, and the Bringer of Ends.
They came together, hand in hand, to work the will of the Celestine
over time.
The three, understanding, took the Gift and started Their work. The Lady
of Renewal crafted tiny sparks of life from Her own essence. He Who
Hunts, called Haern, saw the needs of the sparks and came to stand
beside the Lady. He nurtured the sparks, forging within them an
understanding of severity and necessity, and they thrived. Yet in time
the sparks grew too full and they began to sicken. The Hunter and the
Lady called to Their sibling, and the Bringer of Ends answered Them.
The Bringer of Ends looked upon the sparks and saw their need. He grimly
accepted the burden given Him. He understood that the End was not
welcomed by the sparks, but needed, and that His gift was one of loss.
The Lady looked upon the Bringer and felt compassion. Together, the
triplets began the Cycle. Thus the sparks and the universe came to know
the passage of time.
The Celestine sat, and the First and the Second sat with Him. They
watched the three siblings shape life and time. Yet the universe
remained featureless, and the creations knew no home. The Celestine
pondered the essence and His children. He looked at the Truth and He
looked at the Shadow. He looked at the Siblings, and He thought. He knew
a world must be created, and He reached into the essence with care.
Once He called, to bring forth the world, and Four answered. Formed from
the same thought, the Four who answered came in Balance. Never were they
alone, for they were each siblings. They came of the same essence yet
each was different.
The Celestine smiled, and bestowed upon each the Gift. The Four looked
to the Celestine and They listened. Understanding, They moved through
the emptiness and began to shape our world.
Each of the Four shaped the world according to Their essence. The One
Who Walks received the Gift, and He walked with the Lady Who Gives Hope.
He spoke with Her of the need of the sparks, and other things. And as
They walked, the Walker and the Lady discovered the Bringer of Ends. The
One Who Walks looked at the One Who Ends, and They spoke with the Lady.
As They separated, the Bringer of Ends felt warmth blossom amidst the
cold. The Walker's eyes shone with love.
The One Who Changes, being the Lady Slyphe, found the earth Her brother
had molded. She frowned in thought. The brown earth was boring and
solid, and the land never changed. The Changer placed Her hands on the
earth and summoned a great wellspring of Her essence. Her essence flowed
upon the land in icy rivers and warm seas, and with Her waters came much
variance and motion. The water flowed over the earth, and the Lady Who
Changes turned away to find more to change.
The Gift barely took hold on the Spirit of Consumption, for it had yet
to need the Gift. While the earth was molded and the water flowed, the
Spirit sparked and brought warmth. It crawled over the world, bringing
warmth and consuming the flawed. Fire brought instability and power to
the world.
The One Who Watches claimed what was left of the world. He raised His
arms and air filled the world. Underlying streams of ether flowed under
the earth, the waters, and the flames. The Four, together, spread Their
essence apart and the world became of the nature it is today. They began
to struggle amongst themselves, for each wanted His essence to be the
foremost of the world. For the last time, the Four worked as One.
The Lady, urged by Her brothers of the Triplet, went before the Four in
One. She told Them of the sparks, and told Them of how They needed the
world as a home. The Four listened to the plea of the Lady, and They
looked upon the sparks. They opened the gates and into the world came
the sparks, taking a shell of flesh and blood and bone. The sparks began
to walk upon the world.
The Celestine pondered the essence. He looked at the order, and He
looked at the life, and He looked at the world, and He thought. The
Truth left the Shadow to stride behind the Creator. The Shadow faded
into the darkness, seething. Together the Triplets and the Four walked
with the sparks, molding life and time and the world.
Yet the world was changed only by waters, and the sparks in the world
wandered without purpose. The Celestine sat, and He frowned
thoughtfully. He reached again, and called. His need brought forth the
Five. Each of the Five was formed from the same abstract thought, and
never were they alone, for They came together. The essence of each was a
concept with which to shape the purposes of the sparks. The Celestine
smiled, and bestowed upon each the Gift.
The Five awoke and they looked and They brought Their gifts to the
world. Arion, the Knight, strode valiantly into the world, bringing
Valour and Honor. He looked at the sparks, and pitied them. He taught
them combat, and honor, and to be courageous in the face of the
dangerous new world. Alongside Him strode the Hidden One, Who we now
know to be Corruption. They were friends at that time, for the Hidden
One still hid cruelty behind a mask of kindness. Yet behind the mask
blossomed a cruelty both sweet and sharp. The Hidden One looked upon the
sparks, and knew delight. It saw lesser life to torment as It wished.
The Muse, Iosyne, brought color and art while the Child, Khepri, brought
mischief and trickery. The Muse saw that Her brother the Knight had
brought combat to the world. She frowned, and thought to Herself. She
was not one of violence, and loved challenges of mind and works of
beauty. She taught them art, and color, and poetry to expand their
thinking past fighting. The Child looked at both, and laughed. She
walked among the sparks behind Her siblings, and taught them that not
all things were serious. She taught them the joke, and the prank, and
how to act innocent. Far away, the Second heard the Child and smiled to
Himself.
And behind them all came the Dreamer, who carried emotion. Yet It held
Its gift in Its hands, waiting and waiting. The sparks were ready for
the intensity of neither love nor hate; each would destroy them, in its
own way. It sat sadly with the Celestine and watched over the sparks and
the world with Him, waiting for the time of need for Its gift.
The world became vibrant with purpose, and the Five fought over whose
philosophy would rule the sparks. The Knight and the Hidden One boldly
stood before the sparks and showed by example what they thought was the
proper way to live. The Muse swayed the spark's convictions with her
rhetoric, while the Child won their affections with her laughter. The
Dreamer waited, and made great plans. The Four in One fell apart, and
they began to quarrel amongst themselves over who should shape the world
next. The Triplets, too, looked sadly on the conflict. And the Spirit of
Truth walked with Severn upon the world, under the watchful gaze of the
Celestine.
