Creation Myth

Me Lumin Popularii, "The People's Light," is an anthology of scripture separated into 16 books believed to convey the will of the astrals and the Creator. Collectively, the scriptures serve to support the Astralian faith structure of both major sects (Creator and Auroran). The first book of the People's Light is Mi Tabulis Adaras, or "the World Stone," and consists of ten chapters that describe a single god (the Creator) making the astrals, the world, and mortal creatures as the world's caretakers.

¹Before life, there was the eternal Abyss. Before Solace, there was the Drift. But so there was the Creator, who had always been and will always be. ²From the darkess of the Abyss, He cast countless lights to the heavens and hung them like lanterns to give warmth and starlight. Among the brightest were Leo that brought the day, and Argo and Daela, bringers of the night. ³With his workshop lit, the Creator brought forth a stone and carved it to shape the world. ⁴But the stone was hard and cold, and without color, so He conjured a painter's tool that would fashion the world into a bountiful masterpiece. ⁵The strokes of His brush painted the rivers and the valleys, the snow-crowned mountains, and vast oceans. ⁶Yet, not satisfied, He planted the brush into the new soil he had made and so the first tree sprouted and blossomed with the seeds of life and divinity.

—Mi Tabulis Adaras, Chapter 1, Verses 1-6

The emphasis in verse 1 ("...and will always be.") highlights one of the crucial differences between Creator and Auroran publications of The People's Light. These four words are not found in the Auroran editions of the text, as they would stand directly counter to Auroran belief that the Creator is either dead or simply no longer present.
Following Chapter 1, Verse 6, the World Stone continues on to describe the Creator making "wild spirits", which he then "breathes" into clay forms of animals. This is the supposed genesis of Adarus' varied, non-sapient fauna.
With Verse 12, the Creator makes the Astrals first and then the chimeras second:

¹²With the world now turning in the Abyss, the Creator beckoned life in His image, thus He made the first of the tempered spirits. ¹³He gave them each a piece of Himself and measure of His divine power, and called them Astrals, the Vigilant Ones. ¹⁴Legion they were, and the mightiest of the Creator's wing-ed children numbered twelve and one; and the thirteenth was greater and more beloved than his brothers and sisters. ¹⁵But the Astrals were too unlike the wild spirits that came first, and their power was too great for the world to contain, so the Creator made for them a realm of comfort and light, where they would reside with Him and watch as He finished creation. He called this heaven Solace, and there Leo's light forever shines eternal. ¹⁶Though, the Creator was not content to leave Adarus as it was, and so He borrowed from the flesh of the wild spirits that came first and made clay dolls for the second of the tempered spirits. ¹⁷When awakened with the breath of life, the dolls were able to borrow from the divine magic that resonated across the world from the seeds of the first tree, a gift which they used to help the Creator finish the world.
¹⁸When the Creator rested and observed all that He and His children had accomplished, He was satisfied and chose to retire to Solace. ¹⁹However, He bestowed unto the Astrals a singular charge to protect all that He and His children had brought into existence. ²⁰And so, the Astrals watched over the world from Solace as faithful guardians.

—Mi Tabulis Adaras, Chapter 1, Verses 12-20

Ahriman and the Origin of Evil

The remaining chapters of the World Stone, focus primarily on Ahriman, who was the thirteenth Astral described as the "mightiest of the Creator's wing-ed children" in Chapter 1, Verse 14. Below is a brief summary of the story recorded by a priest of the Astralian Church's Ostia Biblia in Arcana, c. 830 BA.

There came a time after the Creator chose to rest that one of the astrals, Ahriman, grew tired of watching his Father's masterpiece and yearned to breathe his own life into existence. He desired a force of nature incomparable to any other, one smarter and stronger than the beasts of the earth, wiser than the birds of the skies, and nimbler than the fish of the seas.
Ahriman's skill was second to none among his celestial kin. He used his gifts to create a new being; but he had not the power to create life from nothing, as his Father had done. And so, Ahriman borrowed both flesh and spirit from the chimeras to create a new race of similar mind and body, but lacked the animality and savagry of the wild spirits within them. Thus, a purer being, mankind, was born into the world.
When the Creator learned of Ahriman's doing, He said unto him, "You are truly the greatest of my astrals, and mankind is worthy of the gift of life; but their pride and zeal may be their undoing. Take heed, my blessed son, you and your brothers and sisters will need to temper them many times if you are to protect the world." Turning to all of the astrals, the Creator then said, "Behold, this world is complete. It shall see no new form of life. You are the sentinels, not artisans or masons."
But Ahriman was not content with only observing. He wanted to guide and teach men how to be greater than mere animals. He wanted them to be free and stand equal to his Father's beloved chimeras. But the Creator forbade him from interfering any further. Ahriman protested, his brothers and sisters tried to persuade him with reason to obey their Father, but the proud astral refused his role as a sentinel.
Angry and heartbroken, the Creator cast Ahriman down to the world, saying to him, "If you desire freedom so strongly, then I shall grant it to you! Be the chaos you wish to sow; and know that when your kin thwart your every effort to tarnish the world with your destructive spirit, the fault is all your own."

—A Study of the Destructive Spirit

Father Jiroles Talio, Ostia Biblia

Ahriman is often portrayed as something of an antagonistic force that actively works against mankind—an irony that respected Church historians and theologians wrestle with, considering their own mythos holds Ahriman as the father of mankind, not the Creator. However, in sermons to the faithful at large, the Church sidesteps this debate in the public by pontificating that the story of Ahriman is a warning of the folly of prideful ambition and that it was, in fact, necessary for the astral to be punished for man to be aware of its vulnerable nature to wrong-doing. He is also used as a scapegoat for temptations that lead to sin, and blamed for countless atrocities from natural disasters to acts of war.
Scholars of both Creator and Auroran faiths have tried to reason that Ahriman is only evil because Chapter 1, Verse 13 of the creation story describes the Creator as giving "a piece of Himself" to each of the astrals. Modern tenants of both sects teach that each astral is in charge of a "domain" or "virtue," so it is posited that their respective virtues are pieces of the Creator. Taking the theory further, religious scholars suggest that Ahriman's virtue must have been justice, but his domain was corrupted in his defiance of the Creator's will, thus leading to a lack of justice and fairness in the world.
The Church teaches today that, since being cast from Solace, Ahriman's contempt for the Creator and all of Adarus is described as a "cancerous malice that corrupts the minds of men and chimeras alike." This corruption is known as despair when hope is lost, and malice when the mind is tempted by the fallen astral's "destructive spirit." Church leadership particularly emphasizes this doctrine when it comes to chimera enslavement, teaching that it was they who were the first to fall to Ahriman's corruption and nearly destroyed the world.