Chapter seven:Corpus Infernus and the three laws

The war between the young gods was over, with only Morwyn left alive. With Mormekar, Death, at her side, she took up her three reborn siblings and descended to the Nameless One’s castle in the ocean. There they raised them, while Urian, Rontra, and Shalimyr once more nurtured Eliwyn. While the three children grew, Morwyn and Mormekar wed and begat a child named Maal, called Firstborn, for he was the first god born of a womb. Meanwhile, Mormekar used the Flame of Rebirth to give new life to the souls of all the div who had died in the war of the gods. There was not yet any method to judge them, so they were all reborn.
While the child-gods grew, Morwyn wished to know what caused her siblings to fight their vicious war. She traversed the div nations, which grew once more across the sundered remains of the land. They squabbled for territory. Even div who had not fought for the gods waged wars with one another, seemingly consumed by an instinct for violence.
Morwyn called those div who had been given powers by the gods. With the aid of Mormekar, Rontra, Urian, and Shalimyr, she raised these div beyond mortality and taught them secret songs known only to the gods, and even the ancient names of the gods, uttered only between themselves. The ascended div were thus made the Celestial Host, angels and choirs of hallowed beings, servants of the gods.
Chief among them were the seven Archangels and their master, the Archangel Iblis. Morwyn set him to the task of dividing the Celestial Host into three great choirs. He did so, and there in the watery palace they sang the songs of the first days. With the host in place, Morwyn called upon the cleverest of the celestials, who had once been div given power by Zheenkeef, to help her discover the cause of the madness that led to war and death.
By the time Terak, Tinel, and Zheenkeef were at last fully grown, Morwyn had discovered the source of the madness that had eaten at them. She had discovered Shachté’s taint, and given it the name Corpus Infernus. On the eve of her discovery she summoned Mormekar, Maal, Tinel, Zheenkeef, and Terak to the foot of Eliwyn. There she spoke to all the gods, including Urian, Shalimyr, and Rontra. This, the second play of the Cycle says:

MORWYN: I am now both the eldest sister and the

mother of this family, and you will attend me. Your war

has torn our mother, the earth, asunder. Your war has

dried our father, the seas. Your war has caused our once

gentle nurse, the air, to be filled with raging winds and

storms. But you cannot be blamed. I call a meeting of the

gods to set down laws.

TINEL: Of course I am not to be blamed, sister-mother.

It was Terak that began the affair. And so, I gladly lend my

hand to your laws, which I am sure will end in Terak’s exile.

TERAK: I’ll squeeze your head like a pimple!

TINEL: You see? My brother is too violent for his own

good. Cast him from the Great Sphere, and watch as he

floats away, away, into the vast emptiness.

TERAK: I’ll make you eat your spleen!

MORWYN: Enough! We have been corrupted. None of

you are to blame for your actions. You have lost the understanding that we live to create, not destroy.

ZHEENKEEF : Yet I live to destroy.

MORWYN: You do not, sister.

ZHEENKEEF: I know. I was being scary.

MORWYN: Will you please listen to me? There is a

black wickedness that suffuses everything. I call it the

Corpus Infernus. It is responsible for your madness.

SHALIMYR: Your siblings are not mad, Morwyn,

only playful.

MORWYN: Nay, they are mad. They should not kill

each other. I will prove what I say. I have clothed the

Body of Evil in chains, and cast it forth. Behold!

A Phantasm appears: an iron gate.

At the point in the play, the troupe’s illusionist creates an image of Hell, where Morwyn intended to imprison the Corpus Infernus. Morwyn showed her siblings, her son, and her parents how to cast the Corpus Infernus out of themselves. Then they cast it out of Eliwyn and her fruits, the Celestial Host, and the div roaming the world. Once exiled, it transformed into hundreds of horrible, deformed beasts. The gods named these creatures “demons,” and the strongest of them, which are likened to the shadows and exact opposites of creation and all that is good, were called the qlippoth. There were some qlippoth that were made up of the darkness taken from within the gods themselves, and some of these beings exist today as the demon princes. To keep the world safe from their evil, the gods sealed these creatures in Hell, or so they thought. This done, the gods’ corruption ceased to grow.
Zheenkeef became no madder. Her rebirth had cured her of the impulses that caused her to burn herself to death in the age before, but left unchecked she might have renewed her madness. Maal had hardly been affected at all by Shachté by the time Morwyn discovered its undoing, and remained sure-hearted as ever. With Corpus Infernus imprisoned, Morwyn decreed three laws. She and her son, Maal, had spent the years of his youth discussing these laws; now, in the hour of his adulthood and the banishment of the degrading force into Hell, the time was ripe to bring the laws to bear. First, she decreed that the gods would never openly war amongst themselves.
That is to say, the gods would never physically fight one another again. Tinel and Terak immediately began to plot how to use the div to best one another. Second, Morwyn declared that the gods would use their power and strength to guide the div and the other beings now growing in Eliwyn’s fruits. The div would be given dominion over the Earth, and guidance from the gods. To this, Zheenkeef objected. “Why should we concern ourselves with these least and most boring of things?” she asked. Morwyn explained that the div and the others were their weaker kin, also born of the tree. It was their duty to protect their kin.
Third, Morwyn proclaimed that no one god would ever have absolute sway over all. As the eldest, it would fall on Morwyn to make many basic decisions for the gods, and to lead in times of strife. But all living gods would need to congregate at the foot of Eliwyn and agree, to create any new law that would fundamentally alter the order of the gods. The gods now had a structured order. However, all was not yet resolved. Confident that among themselves there would never again be such carnage, Morwyn knew that there was still a greater threat. Kador, utterly consumed by Corpus Infernus, still sat in the palace of the sky. Though he was quiet now, he would surely rise.