Of The Age Of Creation
In darkness there was the creator, who was form and not form, who was void and not void. The Creator was and is and will be even until the end of all things for without the Creator there is nothing. The dreams of the Creator write the existence of the Gods and Folk and they are many. The dreams of the Creator reach throughout existence, mold and shape it into the Gods we have known and will know again before the end of days.
There are yet four dreams of the Creator, dreams of such power as to bring into existence the Gods who wrought the folk. For even as the dreams are filled with power they are lacking in attunement, for they are as a grand design of the shape of things, needing definition and specification.
The first dream of the creator was of power. This power that was dreamed of was more than the power of magic for it encompassed even the power that one being wields over another. In the dream the Creator saw two uses for power, ever opposing, ever competing, ever at odds. And from this first dream were born the fates. Two without faces, without sex, either fair, neither foul, even two sides of the same coin.
The second dream of the creator was of light, and thus was born the Celestials, the stars, the sun and the moon. The sun spun her golden radiance in the darkness even as the moon did spin his argent light. The light of the stars together was equal to either of the other two, but diffused as it was it was weak and nearly colorless and in the ancient days rarely was it perceived.
The third dream of the Creator was of form, stone and air, fire and water and life, and thus were born the elements. Thus was the earth allowed to take shape and bring forth the forests and plains, the rivers and oceans and even the beasts of land and sea and sky.
The fourth dream of the creator was of the folk and so were made the aspect, seven who would represent and guide the folk of the world. They were the Father, the Smith, the Warrior and the Maiden, the Mother, the Crone and the Other. Within all of them were the aspects of the folk, and within all of the folk was their power.
Thus were the Gods, and so the Folk could be made. The sun wove her golden beams into Elf and Man, Dwarf and Wizard, Troll and Orc and others. Others stranger than many have dreamed and who have much of the aspect of the Other in them and who are secret even from the rest of the Folk.
The Folk went forth across the face of the world and dwelled in the light of the Sun and Moon which were equal in those long ago and far gone days. Yet even as they had been born of the Sun’s light the Folk preferred to go abroad and do their work in it and shun the light of the Moon. For the Moon’s silver radiance held no sustenance or solace for them.
The Moon was fair wroth at this for he greatly desired that some folk should live in his light and gain sustenance from his radiance. Also he was jealous that his sister the Sun should create such Folk of beauty and depth, jealous that they should be so changeable and yet so constant. And in his envy and anger the Moon wove his silver light into folk of his own, folk who would bask in his light, live by it and shun his sister’s golden radiance.
And so his folk were of his own making, born of his jealous fury, born without knowing the aspects and they were misshapen, soulless and foul. They did roam the earth in the light of the Moon, filled with their maker’s fury.
Of The Dawn Age, The First Age Of The Folk
The seasons passed uncounted in the dawn of time and the children of the Sun and those of the Moon did live separately in their own corners of the world. The children of the Sun dwelt in peace in the mountains and valleys and forests of the known world. Great were the works of their hands and minds as each of the Folk came into their own. The Wizards did turn their hands to the crafting of spells and manipulation of arcane powers. The Trolls went apart from the other folk and came to know the deep and wild woods. The Elves turned their hands to the orchards and grasslands and made them bloom. The Orcs went into the great mountains and carved out great kingdoms in the halls of stone. The Dwarves raised shining cities of multicolored towers reaching for the sky. The Humans did roam even to the far shores of the sea and did but rarely settle, remaining nomads and yet becoming numerous.
In the far places of the earth did the children of the Moon dwell and none but wild rumor and speculation is known of their various species and people. What little is known of those fell beings is thus, while the children of the Sun turned their hands to peaceful exploration and cultivation the children of the Moon were turning their hands to red war. For the Moon was bitterly angry at the great works of his sister’s children and his hatred of them did grow with each passing season. Thus it was in his mind to lad his own creations forth in a war to destroy and who took joy in the Sun’s golden light.
The stories of the heroes of this first of the great wars are many and will not be recounted here. Many are the tales of heroism and treachery as the Sun’s children were caught unprepared and unawares by the Moon’s children, and the end of the Dawn Age was terrible. The children of the Sun were overrun by the invaders and they were forced from the homes they had chosen and built for themselves and made to stand before the Moon and receive his judgment. Thus did the end of the Dawn Age come when the last of the warriors laid down their banners in surrender.
Of The Second Age Of The Folk and Of The Third Age
The Moon’s judgment of the Sun’s children did mark the beginning of the second age for the Moon found his sister’s children lacking and sentenced them in ways most cruel. All of the punishments of that time shall not be recounted here for many of them were unspeakable horrors. It shall be said however, that each of the folk were required to destroy that which was most dear to them. The Humans were required to sacrifice their families to the altars and otherwise to relinquish their nomadic lives of exploration. The Wizards were forced to burn their books of great knowledge and magic. The Trolls were driven forth from their forests and made to dig ore and coal from open pits. The Orcs were made to twist their under-mountain realms and pervert the beauties they had wrought in the living stone. The Elves were forced to hew down their sacred heart trees, which they believe are the temples of their souls. And the Dwarves were chained to their glittering towers and driven to destroy them one stone at a time.
Thus were the spirits of the Sun’s children slowly battered to very near the breaking point until one day they lifted their hands in rebellion. None alive today know truly what day that was, some hold that it was the day of midsummer, others that it was midwinter. Many great scholars believe that it was the first day of spring and so that is when it shall be named in this work. So it was on the first day of spring that the children of the Sun raised their heads and turned on their tormentors. They forced the weapons from the hands of their guards and used them to drive the Moon’s children from their lands and across the land bridge from whence they had come. Then the Wizards seized hold of their magics and caused a great mountain range to burst from the sea and make the bridge impassible.
The Fire Mountains remained a raw and open wound until the end of that age, spitting fire and permitting none to pass by land. The children of the Moon do truly hate and fear the sea and so the Folk are safe from invasion by that route even to this day.
In the aftermath of that great rebellion the Folk turned their faces from the Mountains of Fire and back to their spoiled homelands and wept at the great works that had been lost to the sight of mortal and immortal eyes. The Humans did not return to their nomadic lives but instead built great fortified cities and vowed never again to be taken unawares. The Wizards turned themselves to recovering their lost knowledge and storing it in vault built with their magics inside a mountain that was thereafter called the Mountain Of Wisdom. The Trolls did return to their wild forests and sought to become apart from the other Folk and forgotten by them. The Orcs returned in sorrow to their under-mountain realms and began to salvage their beloved halls of stone. The Dwarves abandoned their ruined cities and fallen towers and sought to rebuild taller and more beautiful towers in places that did not have the fallen stones of their first homes. The Elves did but barely survive for their heart trees had been cut down and burned out even to the last tree. Only one sapling did remain in the hands of one elf-maiden and all of the elves save for a very few did wither and fade into death before the tree did flower and more seedlings sprout.
Thus was the second age begun and it was a sorrowful age for the Folk as they mourned what had been lost and prepared themselves for the next coming of the children of the Moon for they did not doubt that it would come and they would be forced to the brink of oblivion again. Yet many and more seasons did pass before the Mountains of Fire ceased erupting and the dark hordes spilled forth across the lands of the Folk again. In this war there were again many great deeds that shall be spoken of elsewhere though it must be noted that several things did happen of great import.
The King of Men was slain in battle and died without an heir, thus ending the royal line and breaking the spirit of mankind. Ever after were Humans scattered and their numbers steadily falling. A ship of Elven warriors was blown off course and the new continent was discovered though they did not find their way back to their kind for many years. The hidden children of the Sun were discovered, Wolf-riders, Dragons and Faeries among them.
While all of the Folk fought in the war and drove back the dark hordes once again beyond the Mountains of Fire, it was the Wizards that sealed the fate of the world and ended the second age. In desperation the Wizards sought to break the power of the Moon and thus weaken his children and so they cast together a great spell that caused the Moon’s light to be changeable and to wax and wane in strength. Thus was the second war ended and the second age also.
The great Wizards did not feel that they were yet safe from the children of the Moon so they bent their powers to form a greater barrier on the dormant Mountains of Fire. They wrought along the length of the barrier many great statues that were in the images of each of the Sun’s children. Each statue was itself as high as a mountain and held aloft a sword that would burn as brightly as the sun should one of the Moon’s children dare to come near.
What the Wizards did not and could not know of the results of their great spell was that it did not only banish the God of the Moon, it did also banish all of the other Gods as well, leaving the prayers of the faithful unanswered and the structures of existence at risk of erosion. Even now strange faiths and gods do appear. The Moon’s children are become more peaceful and do release much of their maker’s fury as the seasons pass. The future of creation is in doubt, even as none know if the true Gods of Creation can be brought back to save what has been made.
