Chapter two : Pondering

The book I purchased in Freeport told me nothing of what happened for much of the rest of the first epoch. It took many years of following rumors of rumors and clues to learn more. I had heard for years of a barbaric people from the frozen lands, who denied the power of our Lords of Heaven and worshiped only one god. It took me years of looking for mentions of the Nameless One before I realized that their “one god” and the Nameless One are the same. I still laugh that it took me so long.
After learning from a fur trader who often journeyed in the frozen wastes that these barbarians call their god “He Who Will Not Be Named” or other such permutations of “Nameless One,” I immediately journeyed to the wastes. My travails there will be the subject of a different book, I am sure, but for now know that the truth was not easy to discover. After several brushes with death, I managed to befriend the Vola, or wise man, of one of the great tribes. Ulfhedin, as he was called, was an exacting taskmaster, and in return for the knowledge I sought I cleaned his house, chopped his firewood, cooked his dinner, and performed many other household chores.
It was worth every moment. By night, Ulfhedin and I would sit out on the tundra by a fire, and he would tell me the stories of the Nameless One that he had learned from his master, and his master had learned from his master’s master, as far back as the beginning of memory. From Ulfhedin I learned the truth of the creation of our world, the birth of the gods we worship, and the terrible secret of Kador, the evil lord of fire, exiled by the gods. “Before Wolf had his howl and Snow had her cold.” that is how Ulfhedin began every night’s lesson. That is how I will begin this one. Before Wolf had his howl and Snow had her cold, the Nameless One created Himself.
Surrounded by the void, in which He was the only interruption, He grew restless. He spent eons pondering His existence. How had He created Himself? How had He spoken His name before He was born? These riddles gave Him food for thought but eventually, He grew weary of pondering. He decided that He needed something to occupy His time, so He began to create. At first, He made a tremendous palace in the void. Crafted of light and sound, the palace filled the void with a great glow and swelling music. In this palace, the Nameless One made himself a throne; He crafted this lofty seat from the void itself. There, in the center of the palace of sound and light, sat the Nameless One on His throne of silence and dark. He reflected on His work for eons more.
He decided that it was not enough to create with light and sound, or even darkness and silence. To truly explore His power, He must create something entirely new. He began to work without rest in the small, hidden rooms of His palace. He strove to create, to imagine forces beyond His comprehension. He created tools of light and sound to forge new existences out of darkness, to smelt light and silence. His labors were fruitless.
As He journeyed back to His throne, He was struck with inspiration. He had created Himself by speaking His name. He understood in that moment that to create, He need only form sound to speak words: names. With that, He spoke four great words of power. The speaking of those words alone took days, if days were measurable. After the speaking, four new forces lay before Him: Fire, the power of life, or rather raw power itself; Earth, the power of solidity, in attitude and function; Air, the power of movement, in thought and form; and Water, the power of change, within and without. With these four tools, the Nameless One knew that He could create anything He imagined. He left the palace, went out into the void, and looked about Him.
The emptiness was still all-encompassing, but He began to see an image of what would be. He saw a world covered with life, a crystal sphere contained in a greater sphere that was held up by four pillars of power. He would watch this world, and see it grow and change. And He knew this image was truth.