The Coming of the Gods

Much of the lore of the Fallen Gods has been lost but some survives in the way of folk tales and the memories of the old, though the meaning of the former is often veiled in mystery, and the details of the latter are difficult to verify. These things though are certain: Two sons awoke, one a moment before the other. They looked around and saw that the world in which they had awakened was a welcoming place, a good place and provided with all things that were necessary. They were greeted by a woman who was their mother, and grandmother, and daughter and she welcomed them to a place of rest and sanctuary where all was as it should be. She was The Lady of Sanctuary and all green and growing things were made by her, and she placed the warmth of life into all living things. She created all the lands and races of mankind too as lesser than her two sons, but more numerous. Her oldest son was set in authority over them to serve as a father in judgement and in directing them to what is good and away from what is ill. He became The High Father and his laws brought order and peace.


The younger son was content with his brother's rule but not content to settle. He journeyed far from the pleasant realms at the heart of the Lady's creation and found the edges of the world beyond which the darkness was like a living thing. There he met a cloaked stranger who was like and yet unlike the races of man. Questioning the stranger the brother was told that all things, even the creation of the The Lady of Sanctuary have borders and limits and reach their end eventually. This grieved the younger brother for his elder's sake, for he knew the love that his brother had for his mother's creation. That it should be bounded and with an end would break his brother's heart. He questioned the stranger deeply who whispered in return that the darkness was ungoverned but not ungovernable, and though it would certainly come to all that lived in time, it need not be dreaded if properly commanded.


The younger brother took the burden upon himself and asked the whispering stranger how it could be done. Seven secrets he was told and seven quests he performed in secret until he was able to pass beyond the edges of his mother's creation and into the darkness. It would still come - to each individual and to all of creation - in time but now time was known and the younger brother remained within the darkness to make its nature just and fair. He took for himself the title The Lord of Sand for all things come to dust when ground beneath the millstones of time.


There was peace for an age, and the The Lady of Sanctuary would spend some time in the halls of her eldest son, and some with her youngest and she learned from the younger his compassion for those living beings who feared the approach of time and the great darkness. She had pity though for his sake and in his darkness created a shadow of the living world where those could come who had passed from life into darkness and though he himself could not enter it, he swore to lead those favoured among the living to the new land when time came for them.


There was peace for yet another age and then the stranger who had taught the secrets to the The Lord of Sand came into his dark realm and kneeled before him and beseeched him to pay heed. The creation of The Lady of Sanctuary was in peril from a source greater and older and deeper than time. Casting back her hood the stranger revealed that the The Lady of Sanctuary was sister to the stranger and must be warned but could not go to the The Lady of Sanctuary for they had quarrelled and the stranger would not be heard.


The Lord of Sand came to the border of the darkness and called for his brother The High Father who came to him and on either side of the border they spoke and heard. The High Father resolved to discover the truth of this threat and he journeyed from sea to desert, from peak to depths and everywhere he went he heard a dark word spoken, and felt the touch of doom upon his heart. In the deepest place he could reach he saw beyond and beneath the creation of The Lady of Sanctuary and he saw the monstrous life that grew there hating what was above.


He returned to The Lady of Sanctuary and warned her of the horrors beneath her creation and beseeched her for a way to protect the living from this peril. She wept and journeyed into a place her sons knew not, and when she returned many seasons later she was in the company of a new child, clad in iron and fierce to behold.


This was the brother of the brothers, The Iron Face and he stood guard against the foulness beneath the world and taught his ways to mankind. Some learned only from his prowess and they became warlike. Some learned from his wisdom and became great.

This is the short tale of the gods and the order of their birth. One only is not named here, but that is the one who taught secrets and warned of perils yet to come, speaking in whispers only and in quiet places, and that one is The Whisper