Men and Dogs
When the celestials created the world, Niphonel in her blessed wisdom created Elves and all the animals, but it was Typhoneth who created man.
Men fought with animals, and killed them, not just for food like the lion and the wolf, but for pleasure. He took their skins for his fur, and their bones for his weapons as he had no claws of his own. Typhoneth gave him ships to ride on the flood, and Typhoneth gave him fire to cook and eat the animals he wished to eat. The elves had Niphonel's magic, but man had Typhoneth's determination and anger.
Niphonel was displeased at what man did, so she formed a great chasm, with man on one side, and the elves and animals on the other, and decreed that man was no longer one of them; he was something else, something outside of gentle nature. She made the chasm deep and wide, and made it widen further to ensure that the two would remain forever separate.
But at the last moment, Dog jumped across from the animals, to be with the man.
Spread
Almost universally known to barbarians and those with strong connections to ancient clans and ancient ways; the myth contains a reference to gentle elves, suggesting a post-second-elven-war origin when the only elves left were gentle woodland elves, not world-cracking, space warring moon elves. Clearly human in origin, also has a bit of a backhanded insult against elves as being even lower than dogs, and not really distinct from other animals, which is not how they self-characterize their culture at all - though they also wouldn't see themselves on the other side of the chasm with man, either; but their worldview is not so binary as human culture.
Variations & Mutation
Interestingly, in regional versions the identity of the gods is different. The god of nature is usually Niphonel, but it is sometimes a variety of deities giving humans their abilities more in accordance with their own portfolios - cleverness from Tarshiviel, loyalty from Bretranel, etc. And sometimes nature is simply Nature, the concept, not a specific deity, and Niphonel is on the side of man, helping him tame the wind and the river for power to turn grindstones for grain.
Cultural Reception
While Sun and Grey elves generally find it childish, Wood Elves enjoy the myth so much that they have in turn added their own chapters to the basic story, in which the dog who makes the leap is one of their pack, and has adventures along the way; but for them this is purely fictional entertainment, nothing deeper.
In Literature
Mentions of the particular fondness of dogs for humans are replete in literature, and the paradoxical association of Typhoneth with a leaping dog stems from this myth. It is better known among less urbanized people. both in rural communities as well as the various tribal groupings of humans, notably including even the Kaalengi in Caetica, which opens up the possibility that this myth is much older still, predating the celestials entirely. But it is preserved in religious writings of the Celestii Magni religion as it includes two of the major Nine, and indeed has as much to say about them than it does about dogs.
In Art
Among the many details in the stained glass windows of the Pancelestial Cathedral in the Imperial Capitol of Khazigur, one depicts Typhoneth as a tornado in a thunderstorm. A brown hunting dog is seen leaping over a small ditch in the foreground of that panel. This has in turn led to additional associations with Typhoneth and Niphonel in the personality of dogs, which can be both ferocious and gentle depending on the circumstances.
Date of First Recording
circa 10,000BCE
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