The Forming of Ythredir (yith-re-dir)

In the beginning, Enma, the Eternal One, waited in the dark. Narsaion, the great dragon of the sky-seas, came to her, challenging her for supremacy. She hurled motes of radiance at him, burning brightly, and where they struck him the scales fell from his hide and fell into the sea. This was the formation of the continents.
When Narsaion belched his fire into Enma’s sky, the fire congealed into a great light that was the sun. In addition to the fire from his throat, Narsaion birth from the fires in his belly, the sun’s faithful guardian and the king of the skies, Meliam.
When Meliam came forth, he looked upon Enma and her beauty and agelessness cooled the heat of his birth. They came together as one and are the endless circle of night and day, sun and moon. Life and afterlife.
Meliam and Enma looked down from their heavens and saw that the scales of the great Narsaion had formed into masses of land and that a two-faced spirit hovered upon them, collecting them and forging them together. They called out to the spirit, and the spirit responded: their name was Vanaya and Vaeros. In admiration for the two-faced spirit’s work, they granted heavenly power unto them. One of the faces would forge the lands and form the continent with her hands; the other would whisper to the magic beneath the new earth and it would become his very lifeblood. Vanaya fell in love with Meliam and Enma, and the three joined themselves together as a triad, thus linking the heavens, the earth, and eternity.
Vanaya carved a vein into the very heart of the new earth in order to link the physical world with the spiritual one so that Meliam and Enma would be connected to them. Vaeros pricked his finger and bled into the crevasse that Vanaya had made, pouring their magic and power into a flowing river afterward called the River of Voices. This is named for both of their spirits, who share a form. The River of Voices later comes to be called The Source by the creations.
Vanaya, who had inherited the earth, spread her hand across the formless mass and brought forth rich abundance and beauty to the land. Mountains rose from her touch, forests sprang from her whispers, and lakes and rivers bubbled from the sound of her laughter.
To help them in their creations, Vanaya and Vaeros shaped the nymph Hyseria from a broken shard of Narsaion’s scale. Hyseria looked upon the land, marveling at its beauty. When she touched the land, her feet formed and her body became tangible. Her first steps left the spirit of the nymph races upon the forests, hills, and rivers. Enma and Meliam, who wished to take part in this creation of Vanaya’s, reached down and bestowed the gift of seasons: there would be a period of darkness and cold upon the land, followed by a period of light and warmth. In between, Vaeros too added his own signature: a time of waxing that would bring the magic of new life into the land and restore resources within the soil. Vanaya agreed to this and tasked Hyseria with bringing forth the transition as the sun and moon cycled in the heavens. They charged her with the caretaking of the earth, and she birthed the first race upon the land: the nymphs of the forests and waters. They named the land they had formed Ythredir.
Hyseria gathered her delicate sprites together and spread them upon the face of Ythredir. Nimble and mischievous, the nymphs played in the stone and the clay and the earth until they had formed figures. They brought their playthings to Hyseria and she brought them to Vaeros. Vaeros, with the magic waters of the heavenly river, brought them to life.
From the sparkling rivers and soaring skies, the elves were born first. Then, from mountain stone, the dwarves came next. From the dark soil and pale ocean sands, the humans arose. From the red clay and green moss, the orcs took shape. From the hills, the gnomes first crawled.
Hyseria gave each creator the ability to bless what they had made.
Felonir, creator of the elves, blessed them with long life and peerless beauty. He gave them grace, cunning, and made them in the very image of the gods.
Chtonus, the dwarf-father, gave them dominion over the hardest places in the land. He gave them strength, loyalty, and durability to withstand the hardy terrain.
Marika, a young and mercurial sprite whose human playthings resembled too much Felonir’s mysteriously beautiful elven race, grew impassioned with envy. She granted the humans many descendants, many joys and whimsies, and crafted them of every color and shape she could; but instead of Felonir’s long-lived race, she granted them a short life despite their joy and vibrance.
In honor of the hills where he burrowed into the rich ground, Dormorn crafted the gnomes with quickness, intelligence, and craftiness to be able to outsmart the other races. The gnomes would also, like the dwarves, have a resiliency when living in the ground.
When Kulve shaped the green moss and red clay of the coasts and dry plains into his beloved orcs, he provided them a connection to the earth beyond that of the others. The orcs would be most unlike the other races, but would enjoy the bountiful fruits of the land no matter where they went.

To keep watch over the River of Voices and to protect those souls that journey to Enma, Vaeros used his magic to form a Guardian. The only legend that remains detailing the creature that guards the under-realm where the river flows mentions a caution against stepping stones. Some say that Vaeros’s Guardian is a stone giant that paces the River up and down and will crush any who do not belong, sending them straight to Narsaion’s lair. No giants have ever been seen above or below-ground, but even children may suspect the thundering steps of the River Guardian when the storm clouds rise and the lightning flashes in the sky.

Related People

• Enma
• Meliam
• Narsaion
• Vanaya/Vaeros