The Age of Wonder
The four gods were content with their shaping of the world for ages uncounted. But eventually they grew dissatisfied and called to Ilyasu, the One.
"Oh All-Mother, we are no longer satisfied with what we have done," they cried. "It is good, but there is nothing in the world of Avanielda that we can do anew. We desire to create as you have done."
The One contemplated this, and said: "You have done well. This world is truly a jewel, as you have named it. But the power to create beings with self-will is mine alone, and I cannot give it to another. Nonetheless, we can work together. You will shape, and I will give the spark of life."
Each of the gods contributed to the substance and essence of these new beings. Earth gave them a solid form. Water gave them flexibility and motion. Fire gave them warmth and passion. Air gave them speech and laughter. The One gave them the life-essence that only she wields; it is the soul-spark, which gives all beings created under her aegis their immortal souls and their freedom to act.
The Ilarin were neither men nor women, but were complete in themselves; and being immortal and indestructible, they had no need to replenish their numbers through reproduction. They were formed like us1, but they were as giants upon the world. The gods also took this form and lived among them.
At this time, seeing that her progeny were happy with their renewed purpose, Ilyasu withdrew into the infinite, where she contemplates all that is and all that might be. Some say that she has made worlds without number, and that at night, when Bretalie withdraws to be with Darnhuir in the underworld, we see the shining phlogiston of those worlds as stars in the sky.
The Age of Wonder begins
Thus the first people -- the Ilarin -- were made and the Age of Wonder began. Each god gathered followers, as the Ilarin soon sorted themselves according to the varying joys that they found in the different parts of their nature. Many lived with Tiloth on the earth and explored its hidden places. Others dwelt with Ilmarie in the waters, following the rivers and plumbing the ocean depths. Some followed the paths of Tilfarie's fire beneath the earth or upon it. And still others rode like birds upon the currents and clouds of Penion in the air. They were creative, and with the help of the gods made many wonderful things. Other things they conceived themselves and made of their own accord. Towers and dwellings they built, not because they needed shelter, but because they desired beauty. They channeled water and used fire to melt and recreate new objects. They built beautiful clear vessels to hold the light of the phlogiston and intensify it; these they placed throughout the world so that all was bathed in light. It was indeed an age of wonder, such as has never been seen in all the ages of the world since. All was well for a long age, until the gods began to quarrel.Dissension and war
Tilfarie had become jealous of Taroth and Ilmarie. Earth hid many things, and she desired to find and illuminate them, and melt whatever she could. The coolness of earth resisted fire, and when fire came to water, it was rudely quenched and repulsed with angry hissing. Slowly, Tilfarie's heart began to burn with a black hatred of Earth and Water. Tilfarie found Penion and whispered to him and to the Ilarin of the winds. Slowly, deceitfully, she convinced them of the wrongdoing of Taroth and Ilmarie in never letting him keep what his winds picked up. Penion forgot his necessary place in cycling the dust and the waters around the world, and became jealous. The Ilarin of fire and air began to loathe the parts of their nature that belonged to earth and water, and longed to be rid of them. Thus evil was first conceived in the dark void of Tilfarie's heart. The hosts of Tilfarie began to strive against their own nature. When her hate took root in their hearts, they began to fashion implements of destruction and war; at her urging they struck the first blows against their brethren, seeking to steal and destroy rather than to create and give. Ilmarie and Taroth exerted their power to protect what their people had built, but soon Tilfarie and Penion used all their power over their elements to help their people bring down the works of the other gods. Ilmarie raged at the destruction of her fountains and waterways, and Taroth found that he hated the phlogiston lamps that illuminated his hidden places. The gods fought alongside their hosts, and strove with one another in anger. The battle raged on, breaking all that the Ilarin had made, and even distorting the world itself. Hatred and darkness began to enter the hearts of all who fought.Lysseos heralds the end of an age
It was at this time that a new being entered the realm of Ilyasu's creation. He was given the name of Lysseos -- and he is the only being in all of creation who was neither made nor given a soul-spark by the One. It is not clear from whence Lysseos the Wanderer came.2 Even the gods do not know, and if Ilyasu knows, she has kept the knowledge to herself. But his coming was instantly perceived by all, for there was a brilliant flash of light that spread throughout all creation, outshining even the phlogiston, and was gone in an instant. Then a voice was heard, imploring in pain and anguish for a return to balance. Though the voice was faint, it pierced Creation and echoed even in the empty void. Ilyasu left her distant contemplation of the infinite and returned to discover its source. When the All-Mother saw what had been done to the world, she was angered and saddened. She saw the cold void that now existed at the center of Tilfarie's being, and how hatred had spread throughout the spirits she had animated. And in the liminal space between Chaos and Void, she perceived a spark. It was new, and she drew it into her thought to divine its purpose and its origin. Whether Ilyasu saw its origin, none can say. But she saw that the being had purpose, and while it was unlike the gods who were children of her thought, it was of a similar order. And she gave the new being a name: Lysseos, the Herald. Then Ilyasu the All-Mother spoke to her children. "You have betrayed my trust and run contrary to my purpose; you have broken the order I created. For this," she declared, "the order and powers of the gods and the Ilarin shall be forever altered. No longer will they be the sole inhabitants of the world, for I will raise others to walk upon it. They will be the immortal stewards of the world and the shepherds of all who dwell upon it -- but they shall remain formless and unseen." This was the awful declaration of Ilyasu. And then she stretched forth her creative power and changed the order of the world, and the Age of Wonder reached its end.Footnotes
1. Here the ancient text refers specifically to the people of Astarie. But as the Astarien were originally divided among many competing clans, and later intermarried with other branches of the Tilothrin species -- and as all three of our world's sentient species resemble one another in general form -- rather than arbitrarily say the Ilarin looked like any particular people, we have chosen to simply say the Ilarin looked like "us." 2. Some say Lysseos was born of the Void and drawn out by the void in Tilfarie's heart. Others say that he came from outside and is not a natural part of the world at all. Perhaps he had always existed in the same liminality from which Ilyasu came to be. We, the Scholasts of the Order of Verilius, opine that It is possible that existence was always meant to be not a unity, but a perpetual dance of dualities, a balance of complementary and opposing forces. Perhaps Lysseos (who is known variously as the Wanderer, the Herald, the Consort, and the Destroyer) is the balancing counterpart to Ilyasu -- for it seems that not even the gods can create from nothing, and in order to make any new thing, a previously existing state of matter must be destroyed to some degree.Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
