Cielara's Mirror

Summary

In a time when the world was new and the Gods still freely walked the earth, Cielara and her husband Gelion are the first to build their thrones in the sky and in the earth. Cielara strings the stars together in streams of light that flow across the sky, echoing the pattern of the rivers that sweep across the surface of the ground. Gelion raises his mountains into peaks that reach upwards towards the heavens, each zenith placed perfectly beneath a star or moon in the sky. With each rearrangement of the earth and sky, the Gods become more comfortable, but they also grow further apart, as Cielara ascends higher and Gelion sinks lower. It is not until they both have fully situated themselves in their new thrones that they realize that they cannot even hear each other from across the cosmos any longer. Unaccustomed to having any separation, they begin to retract back towards each other, but even the Gods cannot deny when they have found their true callings and must accept the directions of fate. While they knew they must be separated while upon their thrones, Cielara and Gelion found a new way to speak to one another. Gelion requested a sacrifice from one of his sons, his largest volcano to the north. By agreeing to give up the might and power that his father had given him, he could create a perfect reflection for his mother's face, so that his parents could see one another and communicate through signs instead of words. The son agrees, and Gelion promises that although he would never be as powerful as his southern brothers, this northern son's inner fire will never cool, until the ends of time when Chaos retook Creation. Lake Eskion, his new younger sister, would never freeze, and his animal servants would defend him from any threats. With the creation of Eskion, Cielara and Gelion will always be together until the end of the world.

Historical Basis

The actual volcano that this story is based around is known as the Resting Precipice, and is not nearly as well recognized as his "younger sister" Lake Eskion. The volcano is believed to have erupted somewhere around 7,500 years ago, although record keeping that predates the Caesium Empire is spotty at best and sources for this date have been proven inaccurate in other regards. It is factual that the eruption of the Resting Precipice created the remarkable Lake Eskion, and its location over geothermal vents keeps the lake warm year round, unlike every other large body of water on the Montius continent. The placement of the hills around the lake also protects it against the wind and elements, giving it a famous glassy surface that reflects back the moon and stars when it is clear enough at night. Whether or not the Resting Precipice is an actual son of Gelion has not been determined, as Gelion's clerics have never been able to communicate with him clearly enough in his dormant state to gain an accurate account of his creation, and volcanoes in the South have never mentioned a vanished Northern brother.

Spread

This myth is located mainly around the Montius continent, mostly being told among the aasimar clans. This story has made its way a bit further south thanks to clerics of Gelion as well as arcane researchers from Cafeld. There is intense debate surrounding the idea that the Gods can be prevented from communicating due to something as physical as the concept of space and distance. The poetic imagery seem to indicate that this myth was mainly perpetrated by bards and storytellers before being written down, so the details are taken with a grain of salt outside of Montius. Some devotees in Montius and northern Cafeld are full believers, and even go so far as to say that the Resting Precipice is the actual Throne of Gelion, now dormant as Gelion is behind the Astral Sea. This theory is mostly rejected in southern religious circles.