First Children
The makers and protectors
The most volatile and ambiguous of the deities of Namyria, the First Children are the offspring of the Primordial Deities, and have existed, in some form or another, since before creation. Their powers rule over many aspects of reality, such as light, darkness, plants, animals, etc. One of their most unique properties, however, is their sensitivity to the perceptions and worship of mortals, ranging from the granting of greater power in direct relation to the amount of worshipers, to the point of having several aspects each, depending on the era and identity the mortals have adjudicated to the deity.
They exist since before creation, and are, in fact, the creators of the Inner Planes and the Medium Planes, the latter of which where they currently rest, watching the world of mortals from their thrones.
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History
Birth
Little is known about the birth of the First Children, other than the fact that they are the offspring of the Primordial Deities. It is theorized that their natures relate in some form or another to their parents. This theory is reinforced, for example, by the children of Lunaris reining over aspects of darkness or death, or the children of Solaris things such as light and life.
Genealogy of the First Children
The Primordials and their Children
This table lists the parent-child relationships of the Primordial Deities and the First Children.
| Naminus | Aetherius | |
|---|---|---|
| Solaris | The Road & The Blossom | The Voice & The Light |
| Lunaris | The Storm & The Steed | The Shadow & The Star |
Creation & the Age of Dawn
[...] What a great power, then, is creation. To make something that was not there before out of something different, to orchestrate change. It is a blessing, the power to change things, and to create new ones.
Near 20.000 B.X, when the Primordial Deities imprisoned their leader, Naminus, within The Void, the First Children rushed in to further cement the Timewheel's imprisonment. Together, they created the four elemental divisions of the Medium Planes, and used the pure forces contained within to create a material prison for Naminus, now known as the material plane Namyria, and starting the Age of Dawn.
New and strange creations emerged as the four elements and the primal arcane forces combined into different materials, formed continents, seas and flows of weather, and, once the Cycle of Life And Death rained its energies on these new creations, lifeforms. The First Children watched these entities spark into being, almost by accident, and then watched them.
They witnessed growth, struggle, help, squabbles, construction, war, love and murder. They walked alongside these mortal creations, which had limited spans of life, who could cease to be, and yet could create new life, just as the First Children themselves had been created. This combination of the divinity of creating existence and the mortality of their limited time fascinated the deities. For five thousand years they would guide mortals, who began worshiping them, honoring them with rites or gifts. The divines rewarded and blessed those who would perform acts in their name, and punished those who would offend them, or threaten the balance of the Cycle of Life And Death. The consistent worship of any of the First Children directly resulted in them gaining more power over certain aspects of reality, reaching further and performing greater divine acts. This led the deities to actively pursue and fight over the pursuit of more faithful to worship them. Some of these fights escalated to active combat, but never lead to any clear victors.
These aspects are mostly comprised of natural concepts, such as light and darkness, or plants and animals. There are clear divisions between them, with each coming from different combinations of Primordial Deities as their parents. They are, however, normally classified depending on their mother, Solaris or Lunaris. If seen through such an axis, one can see that each presents something similar to a reflection of the other:
Aspects of the Age of Dawn
- The Light and The Shadow are self explainatory.
- The Blossom and The Steed reflect the dichotomy between flora and fauna.
- The Voice and The Storm represent the range between the calm and the wrath of nature.
- The Road and The Star reflect the land and the sky, the material and the aetherial.
The First Stirring & the Age of Heroes
[...] They saw the land had split in three, and in the night, the divine had abandoned them. They were now the children, given an entire world for themselves, watched over by their makers.
Circa 15.000 B.X., after five thousand years of living side by side with the First Children, mortals were struck by a terrible catastrophe, known as the First Stirring. During this cataclysm, Naminus, who was buried beneath Namyria began to thrash in his sleep, and in doing so, nearly destroyed the realm. His nigh-awakening was probably due to the close proximity and fights of the First Children on the land, so, to fix this, they retreated to the Medium Planes, away from the prison of the Timewheel and eachother.
The beginning of the time known as the Age of Heroes found mortals without their divine company, which sent the world into great religious, cultural and social disarray. Wars were fought over the new geographic limits, empires rose and fell, and nearly five hundred years passed. Eventually, everything returned to normal, save for one thing: religion. The chaotic moments after the cataclysm found those begging for the aid of their divine masters answered with little else than silence, as the First Children wanted to minimize their effect on the land. Cults nearly dissolved, holy scriptures went missing and after half a millennium the chaos had all but the longest living races entirely forget the identities of the creators of Namyria. Once the chaos subsided, however, the younger races found themselves in need of worshiping something greater once more. All they had was verbal stories and myths, deformed by generations of different perceptions and cultures, as well as new stories focused on mortal individuals rather than divine myths. These stories focused on great heroes, frightful creatures, or mundane people, concepts that were now closer to them than their gods.
This gave way to a never before seen phenomenon. While some amongst the elder races still worshiped the First Children as they had been when the world was created, the new churches and cults that formed around these mortal-divine fused perceptions of them brought forth something bizarre: the Aspects of the Age of Heroes. These were new faces for the old gods, aspects based on professions or mortals. These new facets were the same deities, yet still not the same. Still identifying as the same children of the Primordial Deities, yet different in personality, agenda and even domains of control.
Conflicting as it may seem, these new aspects of the First Children coexist with their original counterparts, as if they were different personalities of the same entity, with both sides still identifying as the same divine being. Once more, if classified by heritage, a clear line can be seen:
- The Light and The Shadow became The Soldier and The Beast, now creating a conflict between the civilized world and the wild one.
- The Blossom and The Steed were now The Mother and The Hunter, now opposed by being the bringers of life and death.
- The Voice and The Storm turned into The Sage and The Sailor, separating the cautious scholar from the adventurous sea explorer, safety and courage.
- The Road and The Storm entwined into a more complex relationship of The Merchant and The Wizard, separating those who lived from the trade and dealt with the material and those who would practice the arcane and the aetherial.
Aspects of the Age of Heroes
The Age of Darkness & the Age of Light
Suffer not the darkness to endure! Shine a bright light, and lead the way for your brothers and sisters, lest they be blinded by mist and shadow!
After the Dark King Xarros' century-long oppression, the Age of Darkness, ended with his sudden disappearance, the kings of the Briador Forests created a new cult, the Church of the Light. This organization sought to deter anyone from worshiping the gods of the night, like Xarros did, and thus prevent the birth of another one just like him. Their determination to amend the errors of their previous king marked the beginning of the Age of Light.
They elevated the children of Solaris in all their aspects into the protectors of the realm, while the children of Lunaris became chastised and the perceptions of them twisted to grim and hideous ideals. They fully accepted all the facets the First Children had, and posed that they were but slaves to greater, truer identities. Their claim was that each deity had not two, but three faces, and that their true, ruling identities had been hidden from mortals. It was these new faces that, once more, through the worship of mortals, brought forth a change, a new spark in the First Children. This one created a third wave of aspects for the divines: the Aspects of the Age of Light. For them, the changes were more specific and intentional, to vilify the Lunar gods:
- The Soldier became The Protector, a champion of justice who protects the world against The Beast's new form, The Monster, a vile creature of darkness that corrupts the innocent and wishes only pain and misery.
- The Mother became The Healer, she who can undo the damage caused by The Devourer, once The Hunter, a force of evil which seeks only to destroy and devour.
- The Sage became The Artisan, maker of new wonders for the world, where there were none before, and was threatened by The Sailor's new visage, The Thief, greedy and selfish, liable to steal all those creations.
- The Wizard was dubbed The Fool, for chasing after forbidden knowledge without regard for the calamities it might bring upon them or those around, and who could only be guided by The Ruler, once The Merchant, with their strict laws and swift justice.
Once their cult was established, an opposing organization, known as the Church of the Night arose, accusing the former of tarnishing the image of the blessed children of the heroic Lunaris, saviour of the continent of Lanest during the First Stirring. They preach that the children of the Moon are senselessly vilified, and that they protect us, giving us a cloak under which to hide from the true villains, the children of the sun, who want to blind people into wanton worship with their burning light.
Aspects of the Age of Light
Champions of the Light
Dwellers of the Night
Modern Day Worship
There are four Primordial Deities, twenty four First Children and seventeen Anaetherials. All but maybe two have their own symbols, texts, sacred rites, places of worship and clothing habits. Their influence can be seen in the banners, architecture and clothing of almost every damn nation of the realm. If I had known this career involved so much ███████ reading, I'd have stayed working in my father's smithy.All Aspect Correlations
Aspects of the First Children
A table displaying the correlations between each First Child and their different aspects throughout the Age of Dawn, the Age of Heroes and the Age of Light.
| Aspect of the Age of Dawn | Aspect of the Age of Heroes | Aspect of the Age of Light |
|---|---|---|
All three aspects of a First Child can be considered as separate and disconnected entities with individual wills and agendas, and at the same time, seen as the same individual, born of the same mother and father, only different. In modern times, all eight First Children and their three aspects each receive worship in some form or another.
The older races, like dragons and some elven communities, still worship the aspects of the Age of Dawn, as they have done since the deities still walked on Namyria. Since individuals of these races are so longevous, the worship of these first aspects was able to be passed on without much issue from generation to generation, in some cases even by ancient individuals who had witnessed the First Children in their youth.
The aspects of the Age of Heroes will find their most common following in the younger races, as it was their civilizations that gave birth to these new facets, and their heroes who shaped both their civilizations and their perceptions of the divines. Some cultures worship both these aspects as well as the ones of the Age of Dawn, in acceptance that both are real and powerful groups, and that one does not collide with the other.
For the Church of the Light, all 24 aspects are real and coexistent, however their worship is less universal, like the previous two pantheons saw it. Instead, they worship the children of Solaris and demonize the children of Lunaris. For the Church of the Night, this is backwards, with the lunar deities set as the saviours and the solars as the villains.
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