The Love of the Moroïs

"How could the Moroïs give each other children if they are both women?!"
--a common counterargument for this myth

Summary

At the beginning of time, there was only chaos. Among that chaos were two beings, Essir and Mitna. They came together by chance and wandered the cosmos together, taking solace in each other's company. As the eons passed, the two fell in love and decided to make something from the chaos around them. Each took a part of the cosmos and crafted it into a favored concept, splitting the responsibility for their creation evenly between each other. Thus the world was created. But, they decided the world was still empty. They needed children. Essir and Mitna made love in an eclipse and combined their essences. They separated to let the essences quicken in their wombs, then came together again during the next eclipse to give birth to the races of the world.

Historical Basis

It is actually a combination of two disparate belief systems coming together and melding over time. One belief system praised a modest pantheon, while the other was more of a philosophy focused on balancing one's life to achieve some sort of enlightenment. Over the course of about a thousand years, the pantheon was pared down and the concepts of the philosophy were applied to the remaining gods until the Moroïs were/was born.

Spread

This myth is known to maybe half of all Moroïsians, but only a fraction of them actually believe it. Most Moroïsians consider the two gods to be sisters and only sisters. Only a small sect believes the gods to be lovers and adheres to this myth.

Variations & Mutation

This creation myth is, itself, a variation of the standard Moroïs creation myth. Some (usually men) insist that Mitna was and is actually male. A small handful of believers have conceded to this, but caveat that at some point Mitna became a woman instead.

Cultural Reception

Outside of that small sect, this myth is considered, at worst, horrid blasphemy and, at best, inappropriate and wrong, because it is believed to promote incest.

In Art

Drawings or paintings of the Essir and Mitna show the two entwined with one another, normally in a romantic fashion. Sometimes, though, they are depicted nude and, presumably, having sex. Others show them passing the races down to the world by the shaded light of an eclipse. Some people make images of eclipses (in drawings or paintings or as charms or statues) with the dark and light lines of the sun and moon weaved together to differentiate them from the ordinary eclipse images used by the rest of the Moroïsians. Songs and poems speak of the love the gods hold for one another. Believers often compare themselves and the object of their affection to Essir and Mitna.

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