Assembled by Vesper Alan Nisroch, Thought of Mirk
For Elucidation and Edification
With Annotations and Marginalia[2]
Before the beginning, there was not nothing. The world was, however, without form, and void, and nexus[3] was upon the face of the deep.
In coalition, the gods, led by Numiel, acting on mystic secrets invented by Mirk, threw back nexus, gave time a direction, and permitted the world to burst into being.[4]
The gods took immediately to the game of creation, collaborating first on humanity. But each god saw their collaboration as imperfect and devised individual upgrades -- Sequoia the elves; Hafgufa a succession of seafolk; Magzagrond and Urdle the dwarves and gnomes, respectively, plagiarizing freely from one another; Dalya the halflings; the Burning Hate a prolific oeuvre of variously monstrous and chimeric races; and so on.
Each god planted their creations in an environment optimized for them. Humans, adaptable, along with halflings, were placed on Androsia, that continent of a variety of environments (humans later migrated to cold Kryia and hot Sola). The dwarves, gnomes, and elves were placed on Heim, where Mirk went to work persuading elves to follow the ways of night, shadow, star, and moon. The other gods let the Burning Hate have barren, arid Stepa for her minions.
Sequoia and Hafgufa created the wild flora and fauna of the lands and seas, respectively; Numiel created dragons and the Burning Hate perverted them in her own image[5].
It is not known who invented the all-sacred Cat – the priesthoods of half a dozen gods attribute this creation to their patrons. Certainly, Sequoia created the catfolk, the tabaxi, who still revere her today. Sequoia and Numiel, in the days when they were close, collaborated on the lion. The Burning Hate created the tiger-demonic Rakshasa. But these were based on a preexisting model; the Cat herself may have existed with the gods, before time was.
Early on, but not immediately, Numiel invented Good and Mirk invented Evil[6], which led the gods and their creations into conflict[7]. Sequoia and Dalya sided with Good, the Burning Hate sided with Evil, and other gods refrained from taking sides, or attempted to play both sides against each other, or invented Chaos and Law in imitation of the Good-Evil dichotomy, until all of morality and ethics was a hopeless muddle[8].
[1] Assembled from parallels of stories found in the Numielite Book of the Sun, the Sequoian Songs of the Moons, the Hafgufan Descent of the People and Fin and Oar, the Dalyan Hymnal, the Inglipian Inglipnomicon, the Urmaggran Textbook, and other texts of ancient pedigree. – V.A.N.
[2] Annotations and marginalia assembled from copies of texts owned by high priests, prominent theologians, and other luminaries. – V.A.N.
[3] The almost hapax legomenon "nexus" appears only here, twice in the opening chapter of the Book of the Sun and once in the same context in a few other gods’ holy texts, and in no other known contexts other than later discussions of what it means. Some translations translate it to "chaos", some leave it untranslated, some even translate it "???". – Viccent Deae the Strong, Numielite Archbishop of Shell
[4] There are references in some ancient texts to “Kwn”, an entity related to nexus, whom the gods may have had to defeat in order to throw back nexus. – Thimire Lirina the Mute, High Librarian of Myth Selu’glaurach
[5] Vutha'kivan, second known Pope of the Burning Hate, was the first to promulgate the claim of the reverse – that the Burning Hate invented dragons and Numiel purified the concept – but this is a heresy to Numiel and to be purged. – Kifer Kifer, Numielite Archbishop of Banor
[6] It is therefore known, as answer to the question ancient philosophers have asked, that Good is Good because it is loved by Numiel, and Evil is Evil because it is loved by Mirk. – Saint Doyle Harriqon the Monk, Numielite Archbishop of Shell
[7] It is thought that in the time before they brought time into being, Numiel and Mirk were allies, even friends. It is thought that their inventions of Good and Evil first brought them into conflict then, near the beginning of time. - Macamecirethiliceÿi Sutheecelawe, High Druid of Sequoia
[8] I have a sneaking suspicion, partially corroborated by some of my research, that this conflict – not morality itself – was the purpose when Numiel and Mirk invented Good and Evil. – V.A.N.
[2] Annotations and marginalia assembled from copies of texts owned by high priests, prominent theologians, and other luminaries. – V.A.N.
[3] The almost hapax legomenon "nexus" appears only here, twice in the opening chapter of the Book of the Sun and once in the same context in a few other gods’ holy texts, and in no other known contexts other than later discussions of what it means. Some translations translate it to "chaos", some leave it untranslated, some even translate it "???". – Viccent Deae the Strong, Numielite Archbishop of Shell
[4] There are references in some ancient texts to “Kwn”, an entity related to nexus, whom the gods may have had to defeat in order to throw back nexus. – Thimire Lirina the Mute, High Librarian of Myth Selu’glaurach
[5] Vutha'kivan, second known Pope of the Burning Hate, was the first to promulgate the claim of the reverse – that the Burning Hate invented dragons and Numiel purified the concept – but this is a heresy to Numiel and to be purged. – Kifer Kifer, Numielite Archbishop of Banor
[6] It is therefore known, as answer to the question ancient philosophers have asked, that Good is Good because it is loved by Numiel, and Evil is Evil because it is loved by Mirk. – Saint Doyle Harriqon the Monk, Numielite Archbishop of Shell
[7] It is thought that in the time before they brought time into being, Numiel and Mirk were allies, even friends. It is thought that their inventions of Good and Evil first brought them into conflict then, near the beginning of time. - Macamecirethiliceÿi Sutheecelawe, High Druid of Sequoia
[8] I have a sneaking suspicion, partially corroborated by some of my research, that this conflict – not morality itself – was the purpose when Numiel and Mirk invented Good and Evil. – V.A.N.
No comments:
Post a Comment