Children
Amongst us all, we stand. Cradled in Sunlight, swaddled in Cosmos, blessed in holy waters, sanctified in wisdom and foresight. From song we were born, from gentle light we were bathed, from nourishing waters we grew, from creation we flourished.
A song of four parts divine, a magic etched into our souls. A symphony of love we excelled. A Quartet we were to join. The Quartet was to be our home, is our home.
Weavess of song and night, a Great Mother to bring us the world. By her song, we learned to speak, by her song we were born. A womb of possibility, she birthed us a world by which we would know not the full splendor. A tree to be grown in vast canopies to expand an ever growing forest, one among many, but nothing without the one.
A caregiver of warmth and comfort, a Warmth divine. Taught by our Great Mother, a Family of two. We learned to see, we learned to grow. A listless wandering of childhood, carefree in our endevors. Free to choose, free to interpret, free to love and grow. Our families grew with each nurturing hand, they everpresent. Reveling along with us.
A stoic master of patience, The Long Suffering Father. Gentle guiding hands to direct us down our paths the Mothers wished us to follow. The stern explanation, the kind eyes and the rare smile were our Family of three. If the Island could gather the stones that crossed its shores, we could grow into the skins we wore. He was waves and sea, the shore and stone, the Patient Father always watching with distant gaze.
The teacher, our dear Mother of mind. From dusty tomes found on shelves born of eternity, did we truly learn what we were. Only by looking back at the lessons from our Family of Four, did the symphony they taught us hold the meaning seen in hindsight. Relics, no, our Quartet are the Sacred Family, the ones to create, the ones for us to follow. Our beacons in darkest night. For we are the Children of the gods.
-The opening Sermon for the Faith of the QuartetQualifications
The only qualification one needs to have is be related to The Quartet. While bloodlines mix, while new peoples are born as time marches forward, their hereditary lineage all comes back to these four roots. All peoples are Children, all races are Children. The shared blood of the gods is manifested in the Divine Spark innately born into all peoples.
Benefits
All Children enjoy the direct protection of the gods, nearly all living beings share a personal relationship with their creator. Depending on what species the Child is, the focus is different. Each of the Quartet held dominion over various aspects of creation and their abilities to do so.
- Vilorlith created the Brownies, and thus she is a Brownie herself in spirit. Often taking her own vision of herself as one of the Children, she was by and large the most social out of all the Quartet. She was the one to breathe matter into existence, and with her voice, she sang and formed the material world by which the other gods created from. All her children benefited from an unfathomable ability to manipulate reality, beings of music and sound, wind and sky.
- Syn created light where there was none. VIlorlith may have created the materials to use, but she did not experiment with it to the degree Syn did. She compressed the universe and ignited the stars, granting it warmth and the ability to see itself for what it was. Faeries with wings of divine fire. All her Children are beings of light and fire, peerless in their ability to endure.
- Kyln created the waters with the tears he shed at the sound of the song her heard from the Great Mother. With this, he created vast seas by which life grew on countless worlds. Weaving together new form after new form, he was the one to bring joy and laughter into the still forming universe. He stood tall among the Quartet, Giants strode the seas never having sunken. All his children have mastery over cycles and water, any and all things that repeat over time they can freely intervene.
- Queen of the Fae known to so precious few as Alnya, she was always the one to bring order to it all. The bringer of balance and equilibrium, the teacher to guide wandering thoughts. The Fae were immensely adaptable, effortlessly learning the lessons of the others. They absorbed the knowledge of this world and created marvels that mystified even the gods themselves.
Grounds for Removal/Dismissal
As a matter of discourse, it should be said that this current rise in thought only exists in The Elsewhere. As in times before the creation of this plane of existence, before the Shadows won what they so earnestly fought for, before the Fall, there was no notion of never being a Child. It was a birth-given status, by no one's right was there a situation to take it away.
At least, not until the Shadows spread their darkness. Not until the Children were changed, not until their faiths, memories and divinity was taken from them. Not until their blood was so changed by the Shadows' corruption did this notion arise. For to many, only those that survived are now Children. Only those living in the Elsewhere would claim this title.
However, while this notion spread and rooted deep into the thoughts and minds of the Elsewhere, it was all called into question when a visitor to the Elsewhere changed the perspective. Gjorn Fourth king of Dwarves is, for all intents and purposes, so far removed from his original Fae heritage that it was rendered myth and legend on the Great Tree. Fae was a meaningly term to those on the Tree, a storybook word meant to delight children in fables and fiction.
During his first Branch Walk to the Elsewhere, he was attacked by Anlyth, First Son of Syn and ultimately saved by the Queen of the Fae. Where she addressed him as "My Child." She recognized that while the Shadows had corrupted her Children whom she was forced to leave behind, she still recognized her connection to him as valid.
This has raised dedate among the Children, are all the survivors still Children? Despite thier corruption, despite all they went through, are the races of The Great Tree still in the eyes of the gods the same thing as those in The Elsewhere? Physical differences aside, the Shadows were never able to create like the Quartet could, they could only change.
They may look different; they may speak distant variations of the same languge, they may not know their own legitimate history, but the Queen. The Queen of the Fae, one of the Quartet, acknowledges a Shadow Touched Child as one of her own.
Great Tree Origins: The End Song
Coming soon, I promise, editting is taking a bit!
Type
Religious, Special
Form of Address
My Child
Source of Authority
Granted by the Four gods of the Quartet at birth, all Children are offspring of these four.
Length of Term
Eternal
Related Organizations
From Nightmares and Dreams
Kin by Thereasonwhy
by Thereasonwhy
I find it beautiful that despite all the corruption that has come over them, the fallen, surviving children are still seen as children. Perhaps to the displeasure of the originally surviving children, but that is often the case. And I think it's great that you painted it yourself. unfortunately, I'm far less talented ^^’
World Ember Articles
I'm glad you liked it! This is a theme I've been toying with for a while, an allegory for a few different things. I've always liked the idea that the gods, the real creators of a world would never turn their faces away from what they've created. Even in the circumstances that are in the world, The Queen still sees her Children for what they are, not what the world has made of them. I'm glad you like the art too! I've had to reteach myself quite a bit...