In the beginning, there were two primordial forces: the light and the Void. From the Void came Neit, and of the light, Skeinir. They were twins, born of the same cosmic forces which govern our world. All magic has roots in these two forces: each element has an equal amount of the light and the dark, for they have the potential to do good as well as harm. There is an equal amount of the forces in men and women, but magic is sexist in its selection. Earth and fire play up men, while air and water are drawn towards women. Spirit is present equally. Neit represents the harsh side of magic, and of life itself. Skeinir, on the other hand, represented good and order. Upon seeing chaos swallowing order, the Void eating of the light, Skeinir decided to create a world in which that would not happen. He fashioned Tammarst more from the light than the Void, so that the natural balance would not be upset overly much. Water covered Tammarst. There was evening and morning a first day.
On the second day, Skeinir said ‘Let there be a partition between the waters, to divide water from water’. So Skeinir created the partition, which separated the waters below it from those above. He called the partition Hævin, and saw that it was good. There was evening and morning a second day.
On the third day, Skeinir said ‘Let the waters below Hævin collect into one place, so there may be dry land’. He gathered the waters into one place, and called it the Sea of Tears, for those who would fall into Neit’s influence. He dubbed the land Terra. Skeinir saw that it was good. Going one step further, as He was feeling creative, He said ‘Let Terra produce growing things; let it produce plants that bears seed, and trees which bear fruits of all kinds and have their own seed, too. Terra bloomed, and burst forth with growing things of all sorts, from harmful to helpful, none so much of one that it could not be the other. Skeinir saw that it was good. There was evening and morning a third day.
On the forth day, Skeinir didn’t say anything. He took the Void, and severed it from the light. He contained the light into two different spheres, one set into the Void, the other on its own. He called the larger the Sun, and the smaller one set in the Void, the Moon. He spangled the bottom of Hævin with tiny lights, which He called stars. He gave the Sun governance of the Day, and the Moon, Night. There was evening and morning a fourth day.
On the fifth day, Skeinir was bored. As a result of this, He felt the need to do something. Therefore, He decided to put living, breathing things on Terra and in the Sea of Tears. It was as He wished. The Sea of Tears teemed with fish and sharks and whales, but the most awesome creation in it was Lavietain. There was only one of him, else he would create a race powerful enough to destroy all other Creations. Terra too bustled with life: monkeys and elephants and tigers and many other thing crawled about Terra. Skeinir, having seen the effects of Lavietain, decided to let his Terran counterpart reproduce, but tempered their abilities severely. Thus came Dragons, the only sentient beings before the humanoid races. These creatures were the first to worship Skeinir and detest Neit. In the space between Terra and Hævin, He put birds. He saw that they were all good. There was evening and morning a fifth day.
On the sixth day, Skeinir felt the need to be praised, and this was only partially appeased by the Dragons of the day before. So he created the sentient beings, namely elves; humans; and the small races: dwarves, hobbits, and halflings. Skeinir gave them dominion over all the creatures, other than Lavietain and the Dragons. He gave the races the plants to eat. There was evening and morning a sixth day.
On the seventh day, Skeinir blessed all that He had created in the last week. Then He kicked back and relaxed. Neit, on the other hand, did not. Her jealousy of her twin brother grew more intense as the Creation progressed. She vowed to destroy all of it, or at the very least corrupt it enough that he would have to do so. To this end, she created of herself the Spirit of the Night. The two of them became companions, of a sort. All evil can trace its roots back to the two of them. They set upon Tammarst, and defiled some of the more malleable portions of his races. The elves who entered her service went underground, and were from then on unseen above ground during the day. They were known alternately as Dark Elves, Drow, or merely Gray Elves. The Dwurfolk who sided with Neit receded similarly into the farthest depths of Tammarst. Human who became subservient to Neit remained above ground, but joined the Gray Order of Neit. Their creed was that Neit was the rightful ruler of the Universe; that she had been wronged by her brother, Skeinir; and therefore they worked to destroy all of that which was not suited to Neit.
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I did. At the end of freshman year, while I still hadn't figured out exactly what the religious system of Tamarst would be... it's now rather a bit different than that:
In the beginning, there were a plethora of Gods living in Tamarst; they reigned over Good and Evil, Land, Air, and Water, the Forests, the Storms, the Mountains, and so on. Together, these as yet unnamed and unnumbered Gods created Tamarst, and peopled it with all the extant races. Some territorial spats ensued between the Gods over their chosen facets of Nature. Each God had his or her own favorite race, and favorite people within that race, and they began to teach their protégées. Thus knowledge was born among the mortals.
The races interacted with each other, and knowledge spread. Fact piled upon fact and skill upon skill, until other arts and sciences were discovered and pursued to their logical ends--the Gods had set in motion scientific evolution. Most research, however, was used to further warfare and spellcraft. The races fell to battle for many centuries, each race calling out for the aid and protection of its patron deity. More secrets were given, and weapons were forged as stone gave way to bronze gave way to steel. The races grew powerful in the terrible arts of battle.
Ages passed like this, with greater weapons of war and more dire spells created to claim the lives of more foes more quickly.
Until a Son of Rithmar joined forces with a Daughter of Silene.
A mortal man and an elven maid, both fell sorcerers in their own rights, came together to unify Tamarst. Under their rule. Leading their respective tribes and clans to victory after victory, Elves and Men soon passed into the rule of the Godless. For Skeinir and Neit did not call upon the Gods for aid. They did not abase themselves in marble temples to curry favor with the Eternals. Instead, they denied them, and razed such temples as fell into their clutches. After many years of the most terrible warfare yet to mar the earth of Tamarst, the races had fallen. But the Son of Rithmar was not finished. Nor was Silene's Daughter.
They turned their jealous eyes upon the very Gods.
The Sorcerer-Generals unleashed their most powerful dread magics upon the world as they vied with the immeasurable power of the Gods. Things were created such as the world should never have witnessed, and horrors occurred whose scars still cut deep into Tamarst. People were transformed into weapons, sacrificing sentience to become the ultimate fighters. Assassins were trained to hide until they could no longer be seen even if they so wished it. Weapons were forged that possessed and wielded their user. Those few still allowed loyalty to the Gods, having escaped the submission spells of the Forsaken, clashed with the hideous creations of Skeinir and Neit.
The war was long and bloody, and Tamarst mourned as her tides flowed out, crimson with the blood of the slain.
When the dust of the fallen mountains settled, Tamarst was changed, its original geography dulled and twisted. The Eternals had been Bound in ritual, and Banished from their Creation. Skeinir and Neit had wrested the secret of immortality from their fallen foes before they cast them forth into the void beyond all that Is.
And the Rithmar's Son joined the Daughter of Silene in ascending the symbolic throne of the Eternals. Having achieved their goals, they released their followers--now worshippers--from the compulsion spells and allowed them to resume normal lives. At least, as normal as could be had in a world that lay upon the brink of death. The races cried out to the new Gods for help, and the new Gods responded, healing Tamarst and rebuilding civilization to a shadow of its former self--science was minimal, as magic was deemed less dangerous. Forging steel and basic siegecraft were all the warriors were taught of War. Mages were well taught, but now they learned under the tutelage of the newly founded Order of the Rose, Skeinir's Sword upon Tamarst. Those few followers of the Old Gods were few and far between, and were neglected, left to their memories of the Old World and the Old Gods. Only they kept alive, by oral tradition, the stories of the vanished deities usurped by once mortals.
Once they had rebuilt the world according to their designs, the new Gods began to recede from it, to fade from the memories of their thralls. To counteract this, Skeinir and Neit decided to hold a Crusade, a Holy War against the evils of Neit, who styled herself as a dark and mysterious Goddess of Shadow. Neit agreed with this plan, with one condition: that she be set loose upon Tamarst every several thousand years, and that a 'Chosen Champion of the Light' would be elected by Skeinir to reimprison her, either aiding or being aided by (depending on the strength of the Champion) the reborn Blood Mage, whose birth heralded a new Turning (cycle of Neit's release).
In the khes game of these false Gods, Skeinir begins the cycle. The ill-fated babe has been born under the lofty canopy of Laurelinea, and in response, Neit stirs from her prison in the mountains of Tamarst’s Teeth. A young dragon, the unwitting catalyst of Neit’s escape, is chosen to be the Champion of the Light. Thus the obscure words of prophets long dead begin to fall into place in an unnaturally warm winter. It is really too bad that Draskireis refuses to be merely the pawn of prophecy.
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both are versions... I don't even know if there will be a prologue anymore. When I get there, I'll find out. =P
This second one was more simply to work out the theology of Tamarst than anything else... Cuz the Gods are gonna be driving the plot, both those true to the name and those usurpers to it.
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