Our Understanding of Creation

“In the beginning, there was only the ever-expansive darkness given form known as the Night. The universe was her body and her blood, the very essence and foundation of everything that was ever to be.

The world as we know it was created when an intrusion occurred- like a sword in her side, light flooded into the Night and began to create a space where She wasn’t. For six eons, the Night bled from the wound that had been created, and from her blood came the seas, floating milky in the ether. Then, in an act the Night could hardly comprehend, the Radiance reached out to her to stem the flow- It sealed her wound and created from a portion of itself the solid land for the seas to be contained within.

The Night could hardly understand why The Radiance- an intruder within herself, a parasite, would show her such a kindness. She yearned for the cauterizing touch of the Radiance again- but whenever they met, the earth they had formed became unstable and tore from the seams. The places where they caressed fought to unmake the other. Their love could never be.

To remedy this, they took the pieces of the earth that had been fractured and imprinted upon them a form not unlike their own. These were the first gods, in the form of the sun and the moon, made to stand watch eternal over the world that had become a vehicle of their love. Though still fated to never truly be together, they could share with each other their light and their void through the places where their extant selves met. These gods, in love as they may be, stood still for an eternity, desperate and afraid just as the creatures who had created them that their love would tear their planet apart . The sun would forever burn itself onto the illuminated land and the moon would push and pull the surface of the dark sea.

The sun looked upon the world and found the sight of it terribly lonely, and so she reached out to the forces above her and cried, “Please, give me the gift of creation as you’ve shown us to have. Grant me the tools to give unto the earth my love in the form of Life,”

And the void reached out, and the radiant light reached out. And unto her they presented her with the gift of Life, which she would become known for as the god Callista. She made from her own body and blood three children, each in her own form, and set them upon the land and these were the first dragons, and they were warned by her to never leave her sight, for fear of what would happen should they seek the dark.

Hardy were they made, and the surface of the world burned them not. But accustomed to the heat as they were, the three dragons which explored the land found themself starving, bored. They made their requests to their mother; “Please, grant us food so that we may be satiated and vegetation so we may feel comfort.” And she obliged. From her came the first plants, and the first animals to roam the land.

The Moon saw these darling creations at the peripherals of her vision. Though the sight of them was unclear, rippling things- messes of light reflected atop the monotonous surface of her seas, she thought they were beautiful- and she sought to create beings of her own. The Moon known now as Aphelia created a number of creatures that lived within the depths of the ocean- among these were the first of what would become mortals, in due time.

They were unstable creatures- unable to survive in the water meant to be their home, desperate few crawled along to shore. Pitiful things they were, deformed and wretched reflections of the beings they were meant to be. Hardly able to survive, Callista laid her blessing upon them, and born from her beloved, she began to see them, too, as her children.

Over time, they became favored by Callista for their charming form and their intuition. They began to form societies, and different races began to evolve from the cultures they’d developed. However, life was difficult for mortals during these early years of their conception- the sun still beat unrelentingly on the surface of the Earth, unyielding to the darkness which they were so familiar with. They were living, but they suffered, unable to die and escape the searing heat.

Her eldest children became quiet during this time. Jealous of the attention Callista’s other children had been given, and ungrateful of the gifts they had been granted to comfort and feed them, the eldest two children conspired with the unhappiest mortals and waged war against their mother.

The dragons and the mortals which had multiplied beyond her control struck her three times at her side, and her blood spilled on the land. She cried out in pain.

Hearing her beloved in agony, for the first time since creation, the moon left its spot in the sky and moved to her side to defend her. Seeing the bloodshed that had ensued and what they had done to the very thing that had given them life, it hoped to come to an agreement, or to at least put a stop to the needless violence. But as she grew closer, in her anger, the beings before her began to die. First were the two eldest dragons who had committed what was the ultimate betrayal against their mother, and next, the mortals who had helped them. Finally, a curse beyond the moon’s control was laid upon the land, damning each living creature to a finite life on this planet. Aphelia became known as the goddess of death.

And such is how the world came to be and for the god’s creations to live and die.”