Heydenhearth

"The priests tell us that there were four worlds pulled from the Ura, the darkness unshaped. Nobody seems to know where they are now, but there were definitely four. Some great figure, a lone (or is it lonely?) god, thought that one of us wasn't enough. No, much better to repeat the same mistake three more times. In this world, Heydenhearth, the world you can touch and see, the real world, we have an earth and a sky. We see the stars sometimes at night, maybe the Glimmers or a Sandship that sailed too far...and that's about it. No one has ever seen the other worlds the priests speak of, which is pretty suspicious since they've been talking about them for a long time. Anyway, according to the old stories this planet was ruled by the Twins, once upon a time. Sons of that lone god, one was set to rule the earth and its people, to maintain peace and prosperity. The other got the less favored job of dragging our world safely through the heavens, all the way to the Cradle of Creation. Cold and alone, blazing a trail through the deep, silent blackness. With only his father's stars to guide him on the Journey. Oddly enough, it was the brother ruling happily down below that decided to abandon the plan, kill us all, and nearly caused the Apocalypse. There was a massive battle between the brothers...we stopped moving through the stars, the land was broken and torn asunder. Seas were spilled and entire mountains thrown about. It was a baptism of terror as the sky turned red with the brothers' blood. Supposedly, we lost half the population. But that was a long time ago...hardly matters now, does it? Here's the annoying part. After all the terrific destruction and trouble, there was no victory. The Twins were locked away in eternal combat, and we were left to our own devices...in a world that looked far different then it did before. With no gods, no Journey...just the business of living (our own version of eternal combat, isn't it?)   The priests would have ended the story differently. They would have told us there was still hope, that the Journey never ended, that the Lone God might return to find us someday and fix this mess. But they can't, since all the priests were put to the sword a century ago, back when the Aeternum came to power. You don't know your history, do you? Or maybe you're just not a Creationist. I get it. My mother came from the Spinelands, worshiped the First Children. She baptized me with the White Dust, while my father gave me the dip in the Pool of Sorrows, so I'm either getting into both heavens or I'm getting into none of them.   But you are interested in the stories of this land, aren't you? I'm not a priest, but I can tell you all about the Twins, the Cradle, the Bloody Wheel, what little we know of the Lone God...and I can make it fun while we're at it. Just you buy me a drink so my throat doesn't dry up...and if you catch me lying, well, you can take it up with me when next we meet at Journey's End."