Creation Myth of the Rotteskelig

All things began as a great seed, the Kryskasi. The Kryskasi sprouted and the whole of our world blossomed forth from it. The great tree, Rostakykas, reached up into the sky, its roots forming the skeleton of our world and the land we walk upon. At the center of Rostakykas lived the Matron, the first god. The Matron walked the land and from it she drew the first life, the trees created in Rostakykas' image came first, followed by all the other plants of the world. Imbued with the essence of creation they covered all of Regulus in a lush jungle. At first the Matron rejoiced in her works and came to know each branch and each leaf as her own but in time she wished for another being like herself to share her world with. She returned to Kryskasi and from its trunk she drew forth the first of her children and shaped him in her image. She named the first child Ystkustik and blessed him with powerful vision so that he might observe her great world in breadth and in depth. She continued on this way shaping six more children in her image and giving each a different gift so that they might come to appreciate the fullness of the world she had made for them.
For a time it was good and the Matron and her children lived in harmony among the eternal trees of the jungle garden. But there came to be conflict among her children as they began to argue about whose gifts were the greatest and which of them were the most beloved by their creator. No words or reassurance from the Matron could quell this rising discord and soon her children fell upon each other in fierce conflict. The youngest of the siblings, Arrotoi, gifted with infinite compassion, was the first to perish. Overcome with grief, the Matron secluded herself within the center of Kryskasi and would speak no more to her offspring. At first the other siblings, confronted with the first death the world had ever known, were shocked by this new experience and sought to return to their peaceful existence but without the guidance of their creator or the soothing presence of their lost sister whose empathic voice had often cooled their rivalries, this would not come to be. Soon only three of them remained, Ystkustik, Skadyder, and Nezjin. Skadyder and Nezjin formed an alliance to defeat their eldest brother and after many years of battle Ystkustik was defeated and near dead. Before the final blow could be struck, Ystkustik climbed into the highest boughs of the great tree and disappeared. The younger brothers searched desperately, climbing as high and as quickly as they could but the first born could not be found.
Now Skadyder and Nezjin claimed the whole of the world as their own and declared that they were the most gifted and therefore beloved of the Matron's children. They sought their creator out in her isolation deep in the center of Kryskasi and informed her of their victory and revelation but she would not speak to them. In their anger and their madness the scorned children slew their creator. She made no effort to stop them and remained silent even as her blood covered the ground of her chamber. Nezjin, seeing this opportunity to gain even greater power than his brother leapt upon her body and greedily consumed her life blood seeking to take her strength for his own. Skadyder, whose gift was to remain unheard and unseen, fled into the jungle hoping that he could remain hidden from his omnipotent brother. Nezjin stalked the land, annihilating huge swathes of the jungle garden overcome with rage and desire. But even as the Matron lay dead her power over the world was not yet broken and the same blood that had given Nezjin his ascendance began to churn and boil within him. Nezjin screamed and thrashed as the curse overcame him, the blood flowing from his eyes and body setting all it touched to flame. Soon the whole of the jungle garden was engulfed and destroyed. With no were else to turn Skadyder retreated into the Matron's chamber within Kryskasi to escape the apocalypse outside.
From high above Ystkustik watched as the world he had know was destroyed and all he had know was taken by death. He began to weep. With her final act of power over the world and her creations, the Matron showed mercy and Ystkustik's tears flowed like rivers then and sent great roilling waves down the trunk of Kryskasi that flooded the land and dowsed the flames that had consumed it. The burning blood of the Matron sunk into the ground leaving behind huge mountains of churned dirt that would become our volcanoes. The tears of Ystkustik gathered in the lowest places and became our great oceans, rivers, and lakes. From the ashes of the jungle garden seedlings began to sprout, nourished by the waters and from the decaying corpse of Nezjin new life began to form. Instead of a few great creations with amazing powers this time the creatures of a lesser order, a part of the land and jungles they would live with. And from the chamber of the Matron would emerge her final creation, the Rotteskelig, like her first children created in her image but this time as part of her world instead of rulers over it. Skadyder would disguise himself as one of these people and slip away into their world to cause mischief and grief among them as they came to populate the whole of the new world. Ystkustik remains high among the branches of Kryskasi still lamenting the loss he suffered and nourishing the land with rains of his tears, though they come less and less often now than they did at first. The way to Kryskasi has been lost but legends tell of a time when Skadyder will again find it and ascend it once more on his quest to slay his brother and dominate all life in the world.