ludwig1beethoven
Acolyte
Before I post the writing I want to preface: I concentrate a lot on narrative, its construction and its use, so keep in mind that the myth was constructed and reconstructed from a previous version to a modern one to fit the needed narrative. What I want to do is to make some subtle hints to a previous meaning of the myth, since once it can be understood in many ways, there can be heresy. Which is my goal. Anyway, the story itself, divided into three myths.
Myth #1
Before revolutions and great collapses, before catastrophes and turmoil, before heresies and the Great Descent of the Prophets, before the ascension of Shanti and the birth of monsters, before the first All-Elven Council, before the Slaying of the Twins and the Birth of the Elder and Younger Children, before the very counting of time—in days so ancient that not even the world's memory preserves them—nothing existed.
The elders of the oldest peoples call that time Chaos, and that Chaos was all-encompassing and boundless. There was neither light nor shadow in it; there was no reckoning of years, not a single sun or moon to measure the days and months. There were no earthly measures, nor any speculative ones, for there was neither land nor seas. Chaos was as great as the Disc of the Future World, and as small as a forgotten grain of sand. And within it there was a mindless roar, barking and gnashing of teeth, and murmuring—for within that single grain of sand were crowded all the peoples, all the gods, all the seas, mountains, and future forests. They were cramped, and their spirits were weary.
Through the maddening din, a voice rose—quiet but commanding—the voice of the Mother. And after it came the voice of the Father, calm and resonant. And Chaos, suddenly silent, began to listen with amazement. The two voices recognized each other, and after a time, they called themselves family, and soon, spouses.
And the louder their speeches became, the sooner the boundless chatter died down. And when the Father and Mother emerged from Chaos, clothed in flesh and blood, the sky around them opened and spread out like a shaken veil; the cosmos wrapped itself around them, pretending to be the earth beneath their feet.
The Mother looked around and foresaw the coming creations. She raised her right hand, and from the bottomless cosmos, meadows and flowering fields arose. She raised her left, and spring waters rose, and the sea began to roll.
The Father raised his right hand, and mountains grew, and forests rustled. He raised his left hand, and boundless sands appeared, and wind-born rocks.
And they were pleased with their creation. And they lived together and came to know each other. And from the wombs of the Mother and Father emerged the Elders:
Nuerin—passionate and fiery;
Oikiyon—judicious and proud;
Ena—chaste and gentle of form;
Baor—merry and angry, like a summer storm;
Ralwi—the Righteous One, who gives balance;
Qalb—the Zealot;
Irazis and Zaphos are the sea and the wind, united and irreconcilable;
Moloth the Industrious One who loves labor;
Erzeion the Thousand-Wise, Knower the heart of all sciences;
and Hithia the Conspirator, in whose shadow plans are hidden.
And from Ena, filled with great love, three were born:
Lueroth—the Whisperer and the Secret-bearer;
Keleste—the Bestower of good fortune and new beginnings;
and Teclios—the Greatest Storyteller of all times and lands.
Myth #2
At the dawn of time, when the world was still young, and the names of things were not heavy with meaning, each of the Elder Children chose an activity according to their heart, and They played divine games, day and night.
Irazis and Zaphos braided hair of the wind and the waves of the ocean; Lueroth and Keleste listened to the whispers of Chaos and rolled shining marbles. The other Elders staged competitions among themselves—in wit, wrestling strength, and discus throwing. Ralwi and Qalb served as Their judges.
And Erzeion, Teclios, and Hithia found each other equal in wit, and none surpassed the other. But none of Them defeated Moloth and Baor in physical combat. Moloth could not surpass the former in riddles, and Baor was defeated by the twins—Nuerin and Oikiyon—in discus throwing. And only the Twins knew no defeat from anyone, not even from each other. They clashed again and again—in wrestling, in throwing, and in the intricacies of thought, but none could say for certain that one had defeated the other. And They were the first to experience exhaustion.
Ralwi, the Most Righteous, said:
Let us leave the game until the coming day. Both Nuerin and Oikiyon are exhausted, their eyelids heavy, and their flesh yearns for rest.
But Oikiyon, blinded by pride, cried out:
No! Today we end. Let this be the last throw of the discus, and I will triumph over My brother.
And rage boiled in Nuerin's heart, for how could Oikiyon soar above him in thought? And He answered:
So be it.
And He took the discus from Qalb's hands.
And Nuerin stood at the head of the field, and the other Elders dispersed to either side, with Oikiyon standing farthest away. And Nuerin gathered his strength: His muscles bulged, His shoulders straightened, and He inhaled deeply. And, spinning with the speed of lightning, He hurled the discus, closing His eyes. But He knew not the extent of its power. And the disc flew in a crooked line and with a terrible crash and a vicious hiss, struck Oikiyon's head, and He fell with the first drops of rain.
And the Elders stood silent, beholding the first blood, until Qalb called out to the Mother. She, seeing her dead son, cried out in a terrible voice and, raising the blood-stained discus, asked:
Who did this? Who threw the discus and killed my eldest son?
Nuerin, humbly bowing, came out to her, shedding tears of remorse. But they did not touch the Mother's heart, for grief clouded Her mind. Overcome with despair, She swung the disc and struck Her second eldest son, and He fell to the ground, lifeless.
Only after time had passed did the Mother comprehend what she had done and learned that with Her own hand She had deprived Herself of both Her eldest sons.
And then She shed bitter, salty, and cold tears upon the disk, and the tears fell upon Nuerin's blood—and froze into ice.
Myth #3
The twins, Nuerin and Oikiyon, perished, Her two eldest sons perished, and the Mother wept inconsolably, and She withdrew to Her chambers and fell to Her knees behind the locked door, and from then on Her presence was a breath of wind and the kiss of leaves on the crown of one's head. The Father gathered the Council of Elders, and they began to decide what to do with the bloody discus. They considered destroying it, the instrument of death, but then Ena the Blessed stayed the Father's hand and said:
My Father, I see: the blood of my brothers still lives.
And they peered into the discus, and they saw a tiny squirming in the blood of a brother-man and a brother-beast. And Qalb, the youngest son, said:
That is, the living beings born from the blood of my elder brothers.
And there was a stirring in the cold tears of the mother. And the gods saw that from the blood of the twins and the tears of the mother emerged naked men, furry beasts, and cold-blooded elves. And the Father said:
Let these beings be our youngest children; let them be our grandchildren, for they are descended from my sons.
And the Father took the eyes of Oikiyon and Nuerin, and with His breath awakened them, blessing Them for eternal vigil. And He raised Them above the disk, so that They might shine in darkness and light, indicating the cycle of day and night to all his peoples. And to this day, the Twins look down upon us from the heights of heaven, and with Their silent light guide us through time.
(And then Qalb tries to eat the discus and then he is cast down inside of it to eternally power the movement of the two moons and two suns. And now he is the most evil guy ever in the whole world that wants to destroy it. Or so the official story says.)
Any feedback, questions, critique, pointing out loose ends are welcome!
Myth #1
Before revolutions and great collapses, before catastrophes and turmoil, before heresies and the Great Descent of the Prophets, before the ascension of Shanti and the birth of monsters, before the first All-Elven Council, before the Slaying of the Twins and the Birth of the Elder and Younger Children, before the very counting of time—in days so ancient that not even the world's memory preserves them—nothing existed.
The elders of the oldest peoples call that time Chaos, and that Chaos was all-encompassing and boundless. There was neither light nor shadow in it; there was no reckoning of years, not a single sun or moon to measure the days and months. There were no earthly measures, nor any speculative ones, for there was neither land nor seas. Chaos was as great as the Disc of the Future World, and as small as a forgotten grain of sand. And within it there was a mindless roar, barking and gnashing of teeth, and murmuring—for within that single grain of sand were crowded all the peoples, all the gods, all the seas, mountains, and future forests. They were cramped, and their spirits were weary.
Through the maddening din, a voice rose—quiet but commanding—the voice of the Mother. And after it came the voice of the Father, calm and resonant. And Chaos, suddenly silent, began to listen with amazement. The two voices recognized each other, and after a time, they called themselves family, and soon, spouses.
And the louder their speeches became, the sooner the boundless chatter died down. And when the Father and Mother emerged from Chaos, clothed in flesh and blood, the sky around them opened and spread out like a shaken veil; the cosmos wrapped itself around them, pretending to be the earth beneath their feet.
The Mother looked around and foresaw the coming creations. She raised her right hand, and from the bottomless cosmos, meadows and flowering fields arose. She raised her left, and spring waters rose, and the sea began to roll.
The Father raised his right hand, and mountains grew, and forests rustled. He raised his left hand, and boundless sands appeared, and wind-born rocks.
And they were pleased with their creation. And they lived together and came to know each other. And from the wombs of the Mother and Father emerged the Elders:
Nuerin—passionate and fiery;
Oikiyon—judicious and proud;
Ena—chaste and gentle of form;
Baor—merry and angry, like a summer storm;
Ralwi—the Righteous One, who gives balance;
Qalb—the Zealot;
Irazis and Zaphos are the sea and the wind, united and irreconcilable;
Moloth the Industrious One who loves labor;
Erzeion the Thousand-Wise, Knower the heart of all sciences;
and Hithia the Conspirator, in whose shadow plans are hidden.
And from Ena, filled with great love, three were born:
Lueroth—the Whisperer and the Secret-bearer;
Keleste—the Bestower of good fortune and new beginnings;
and Teclios—the Greatest Storyteller of all times and lands.
Myth #2
At the dawn of time, when the world was still young, and the names of things were not heavy with meaning, each of the Elder Children chose an activity according to their heart, and They played divine games, day and night.
Irazis and Zaphos braided hair of the wind and the waves of the ocean; Lueroth and Keleste listened to the whispers of Chaos and rolled shining marbles. The other Elders staged competitions among themselves—in wit, wrestling strength, and discus throwing. Ralwi and Qalb served as Their judges.
And Erzeion, Teclios, and Hithia found each other equal in wit, and none surpassed the other. But none of Them defeated Moloth and Baor in physical combat. Moloth could not surpass the former in riddles, and Baor was defeated by the twins—Nuerin and Oikiyon—in discus throwing. And only the Twins knew no defeat from anyone, not even from each other. They clashed again and again—in wrestling, in throwing, and in the intricacies of thought, but none could say for certain that one had defeated the other. And They were the first to experience exhaustion.
Ralwi, the Most Righteous, said:
Let us leave the game until the coming day. Both Nuerin and Oikiyon are exhausted, their eyelids heavy, and their flesh yearns for rest.
But Oikiyon, blinded by pride, cried out:
No! Today we end. Let this be the last throw of the discus, and I will triumph over My brother.
And rage boiled in Nuerin's heart, for how could Oikiyon soar above him in thought? And He answered:
So be it.
And He took the discus from Qalb's hands.
And Nuerin stood at the head of the field, and the other Elders dispersed to either side, with Oikiyon standing farthest away. And Nuerin gathered his strength: His muscles bulged, His shoulders straightened, and He inhaled deeply. And, spinning with the speed of lightning, He hurled the discus, closing His eyes. But He knew not the extent of its power. And the disc flew in a crooked line and with a terrible crash and a vicious hiss, struck Oikiyon's head, and He fell with the first drops of rain.
And the Elders stood silent, beholding the first blood, until Qalb called out to the Mother. She, seeing her dead son, cried out in a terrible voice and, raising the blood-stained discus, asked:
Who did this? Who threw the discus and killed my eldest son?
Nuerin, humbly bowing, came out to her, shedding tears of remorse. But they did not touch the Mother's heart, for grief clouded Her mind. Overcome with despair, She swung the disc and struck Her second eldest son, and He fell to the ground, lifeless.
Only after time had passed did the Mother comprehend what she had done and learned that with Her own hand She had deprived Herself of both Her eldest sons.
And then She shed bitter, salty, and cold tears upon the disk, and the tears fell upon Nuerin's blood—and froze into ice.
Myth #3
The twins, Nuerin and Oikiyon, perished, Her two eldest sons perished, and the Mother wept inconsolably, and She withdrew to Her chambers and fell to Her knees behind the locked door, and from then on Her presence was a breath of wind and the kiss of leaves on the crown of one's head. The Father gathered the Council of Elders, and they began to decide what to do with the bloody discus. They considered destroying it, the instrument of death, but then Ena the Blessed stayed the Father's hand and said:
My Father, I see: the blood of my brothers still lives.
And they peered into the discus, and they saw a tiny squirming in the blood of a brother-man and a brother-beast. And Qalb, the youngest son, said:
That is, the living beings born from the blood of my elder brothers.
And there was a stirring in the cold tears of the mother. And the gods saw that from the blood of the twins and the tears of the mother emerged naked men, furry beasts, and cold-blooded elves. And the Father said:
Let these beings be our youngest children; let them be our grandchildren, for they are descended from my sons.
And the Father took the eyes of Oikiyon and Nuerin, and with His breath awakened them, blessing Them for eternal vigil. And He raised Them above the disk, so that They might shine in darkness and light, indicating the cycle of day and night to all his peoples. And to this day, the Twins look down upon us from the heights of heaven, and with Their silent light guide us through time.
(And then Qalb tries to eat the discus and then he is cast down inside of it to eternally power the movement of the two moons and two suns. And now he is the most evil guy ever in the whole world that wants to destroy it. Or so the official story says.)
Any feedback, questions, critique, pointing out loose ends are welcome!
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