Shadows Over Ealdwood:Creation

The First World

In the beginning, there was The One. The One was neither small nor large, neither dark nor light, neither creative nor destructive, because there was nothing to compare with it.

Eventually The One became bored; The One wanted somewhere to be, so it breathed The Word. The vibrations of The Word went out from The One and made the Not There into the Here, and made the Forever into the Now. The One now knew where it was and when it was. The One was pleased at this, but eventually The One became bored again, and broke away a piece of itself so that it would have something else to keep it company in the Here and Now. The One and The Other kept each other company for a long time, but eventually The Other became bored with the companionship of The One, and wanted to break pieces of itself off so that it could have someone else to keep it company.

The One grew angry, and jealous, and spiteful, and sought to draw The Other back into itself. The Other had changed while apart from The One, though, and The Other did not want to give up its Other-ness to be reunited with The One. So The One and The Other fought, and while they fought pieces of them broke free and drifted away, forming a cloud of fragments around The One and The Other.

Eventually The One and The Other were gone, and all that remained was their pieces, spreading out into the darkness of the Here and Now. The smallest of these fragments born of the striving of The One and The Other became the stars and the planets. The medium pieces became the gods. The largest pieces became the world, the sun, the moon, the waters of the earth, and the waters of the abyss. And this was the end of the first world, and the beginning of the second.

The Second World

The last of the gods to be made in the striving of The One and The Other was also the first of the gods to know itself. It needed a way to tell itself from the other gods, so it created names, and it named itself Vanu Mar, which it defined as "The Best and Brightest".

The second-to-last of the gods to be made in the striving of The One and The Other was the second of the gods to know itself. It saw that Vanu Mar had created the naming of names, and to know itself from Vanu Mar it named itself Korro Khaitan, which it defined as "The Strongest and Most Cunning". One by one the other gods knew themselves and gave themselves names.

After Korro Khaitan and Vanu Mar came the gods of primeval chaos, the Kohr Ah, also called the star gods. These are the gods who claimed dominion over the waters of the abyss, the darkness, the eternity of space, and the unseen. The Kohr Ah made their home far from the world, in the cold darkness between the stars, and kept their own counsel.

Others of the gods looked upon the world and saw that it was cold, and barren, and lifeless. They took dominion over the earth and sky, the sea and rivers, the sun and moon, and the plants and animals that the newly invigorated earth brought forth. These were the Ugara, the earth gods. They made peace with Vanu Mar and Korro Khaitan, but swore allegiance to neither.

The rest of the more potent gods were restless. The cold between the stars did not interest them, and the peace of the earth did not entertain them. These were the Adrasta, the war gods, also called the gods of humanity. Striving against each other was too dangerous: they did not want to go the way of their progenitors. So they created the First Race of mortal beings, so that the Adrasta could strive against each other through intermediaries, each supporting their favorite nation, or tribe, or hero. This angered Vanu Mar, who was jealous of the attention that the Adrasta gave to the First, but it intrigued Korro Khaitan, who saw in the First a chance to increase his own power.

Vanu Mar descended to earth to destroy the First Race, but Korro Khaitan vowed to intervene. Skudra forged a hammer of arn for Korro Khaitan, and Arhiann gave Korro Khaitan her cloak of darkness to hide him from Vanu Mar's sight. The fight between Korro Khaitan and Vanu Mar rocked the earth. The Arnhammer of Korro Khaitan smashed mountains and created vast chasms, and the thunderbolts of Vanu Mar broke open the sky and laid waste to the cities of the First Race. The seas turned to steam, the air turned to fire, and all the living things on the earth died. And that was the end of the second world.

The Third World

The gods of the earth and the gods of war were infuriated at the damage wrought by Vanu Mar and Korro Khaitan. The Ugara and the Adrasta roused themselves for battle, but with the First Race dead Vanu Mar had no reason to stay, and so removed himself from the barren earth. Without Vanu Mar to strive against, Korro Khaitan had no purpose in remaining either, and so removed himself to his fortress of shadow.

The Ugara and the Adrasta sought to revitalize the earth, but the damage was too extensive. They turned to the Kohr Ah, the gods of the primeval chaos. The Kohr Ah agreed to add their power to the re-creation of the earth, but they extracted a price: every living thing would bear in its heart a spark of the Kohr Ah, a hunger for the darkness between the stars. The Adrasta, the gods of humanity, took the bargain, and with the help of the Kohr Ah humankind was made strong, and warlike. But the Ugaru would not accept the bargain of the Kohr Ah, leaving the earth gods only their own power with which to rebuild the seas and earth and sky. So while the world will support life, it is yet harsh, and cruel, and unforgiving, because this is the best the Ugaru could do with the wreckage left behind by Vanu Mar and Korro Khaitan. And this is the third world.