Ordering of the World

Before creation there was the Aeth, that which was will without being. The Aeth is that will which is unstoppable in all things, whose desires are law and manifest. The Aeth is beyond all things of existence; neither time nor matter hold sway over it, yet the Aeth holds complete mastery over both. Thus, when the Aeth’s will turned to creation, there was existence, for the Aeth alone was unhindered again by matter. The Aeth alone could devise existence from oblivion and the Aeth alone was of whole Good.
From the Aeth’s will the world emerged in tandem with the lifeless sky, but the world was barren. There was no life and the world was gray and without end. There was but one light: the light of the Aeth, which looked upon creation from a singular portal between itself and creation. Man knows this portal as the sun. In those days the Aeth looked entirely upon creation, thus it only knew daylight, for nightfall was not yet a rebellion devised. Indeed, this forlorn land housed naught but dead earth for a time.
Then from the Aeth’s will there arose the Old Gods, the shapers of the world. They awoke in the unending barrens in forms of their own choosing. The Old Gods were uncounted in number yet few. The Old Gods were unlike the Aeth: they were the first beings. They were wholly of body and thus with the destruction of their forms they would cease to be. Yet they had mastery over matter, but not time. They could shape the matter around them to their will and fashion things from that which already was. Thus, in great clans they spread out to the infinite corners of the world and began their great works. It was by their hand that the first mountains arose, and the great rivers were dug. It is said that by their hand they fashioned hills that reached the sun itself, and lakes so vast that no man could see their end. By the Old Gods’ hands the clouds were shaped, and the skies painted. Color came to be part of the world, though it was yet without life.
Yet the Old Gods did not know the Aeth, for the Aeth was beyond them as the Aeth was beyond the world. And because the Aeth was will without being, it did not speak to the Old Gods. Thus, a third order of being was created. Flying down from the sun came winged men and women, more beautiful and radiant than any who came before or would come since. For they were the angels, who were beings in of themselves yet had no wills of their own. They were manifestations of the Aeth’s own will and they knew this. The angels were unlike the Old Gods in other ways, for they could not change their forms by any means. However, they were the first to be able to exist without form altogether and could choose to be as a spirit instead if they willed, for they too were unhindered by matter. Chieftain of their kind was Maechyn, who came first to the Old Gods as a splendorous king. Here he declared his people as stewards of the Aeth, who were manifestations of the Aeth’s will. To treat with them was to treat with the Aeth, the source and master of all creation. For a time, there was bliss; the angels did not fashion things of their own but merely gave counsel when asked.

But not all of the Old Gods were content. For now they saw that there was a power above themselves and they would not suffer to be servants, though the Aeth never desired any servitude. They yearned instead to be masters in their own right, to rule above creations of their own. Yet they still distrusted the Aeth and the angels and feared that if these designs were to be discovered, they should be destroyed. Thus they devised a scheme to conceal their actions from the Aeth. They spent many ages laboring in their deepest workshops before the gods came to Maechyn, who was sought when the Aeth needed to be spoken to. Here they presented many beautiful things, chief among them the moon and innumerable stars, and gave the greatest of these stars to Maechyn. Yet they had no place to put these things of splendor for the world was nearly full. They sought to adorn the sky with these treasures, yet the Aeth they claimed was too unrelenting for such treasures to share the sky. Thereafter the Aeth would move for a time to matters indecipherable to any mind, that the Old Gods might put up their finest creations and decorate the lightless sky with beauty and light of their own.
Now the Old Gods believed they possessed secrecy from the Aeth and believed they had deceived the angels. They devoted the whole of their days and nights to the creation of living things now, things that they might be masters of from then on. First there were the trees and meadows, created first for they were in many ways simple. The gods planted these green things wherever they could and soon the whole of the world was covered in life of this lowest sort. Then came the beasts, the wild things who could move as their own yet were in many ways mindless. These were devised by many different Old Gods and so their forms were as varied as the gods themselves. The gods found that such mindless things as beasts and trees made for poor servants alone and so devised for them wills. Entire lands at a time would have wills of their own and these would thereafter be known as the fae. And the fae were then made for all places of the world: the streams, the skies, the plains. The fae were the land given being and will of a sort and they could do with it as they wished, though the gods found that the fae kept things as they were and did not devise new things for themselves. Then they looked upon the angels, and instead devised to make being alike to them but despite their efforts could only create little more than shades or mockeries in comparison. They taught these beings many of the things they knew. And though these beings, varied as the beasts in both mood and form, did not possess mastery of matter they learned well and became the first dwellers of the world. Across the world these peoples dwelled concealed under nightfall, fashioning homes for themselves. Though there was bloodletting in these days from both beasts and peoples, it was devised that this was still yet in a good order.
Then Maechyn approached the Old Gods and declared thus: “That which you sought to conceal has been known since the beginning. Yet fear not reprisal nor vengeance, for this is of the Aeth’s will. Bring your most beautiful creations forth into the light of day, that the Aeth may look upon them and bless them!” And in those days the gods became divided in feeling toward the Aeth. Those most kind and benevolent brought their creations into the day as best they could, and these creatures would find comfort beneath the sun. However though those kinder gods offered the day, not all creatures partook. Some had sought the joy of both the night and the day and so came to dwell in the twilight, the dusk and dawn. Yet there were many gods who were spiteful or altogether fearful of the Aeth and the angels and refused this offer. Thus many creatures would lurk forever in the night and hide from the sun. The gods would cleave the lands they deemed theirs from the rest of the world, such that none could reach them save for the most hidden of methods. None of the peoples in that ancient time passed dwelled wholly under the sun.

In an event unforeseen by any people or being in the world, one final creation came purely from the Aeth, purely from will. In great meadows at the center of the world when the sun was at its highest, mankind was born. Knowing the day as other peoples knew the night, they swiftly fashioned things for themselves and spread about the world. And the gods were afraid, for they knew not for what purpose mankind was devised. Mankind were not mighty servants, but it came to be that they had true wills of their own. Though the kinder peoples who already dwelled there taught mankind many things, they marveled that humanity devised many things for themselves as well, un-aided by any teacher it seemed. They tamed green and beast around them and alone seemed to alter the world alike to how gods did. Then came the greatest gift that mankind was forged with: alongside the angels, they were immortal. When their forms were destroyed, mankind was not obliterated. Indeed, it was apparent that mankind would dwell for as long as they wished in the world as spirits for their souls could not be marred by matter. Existence for them ended of their own choosing when those who decided to join the Aeth and ascend to the sun.
So despite the Old Gods’ mastery over mankind in all things, the gods envied them. This envy was felt by all, and though some sought to befriend mankind this feeling could not abate. The darkest of the gods then turned this envy into hatred and spread this hatred to all of the other gods. They sought first to hinder mankind and so they came to all the fae in the lands. By will and guile they turned many of the spirits of the world against mankind and these fae would become wights. Now sharing equal wrath to mankind, the wights would levy all manner of spite and mischief upon them. The land itself arose, for the first time, against the machinations of men. The wraiths themselves came with nightfall and assailed mankind with terrible forms of their own that no spear or arrow could pierce. And great storms of lightning and darkness would come about even in the day to further strike fear into mankind. Thus in all matters the wraiths would deny mankind where they could.
But mankind lived on, for they had with them a will from the Aeth and thus they were made to be clever and determined. Finding that mankind prevailed despite the rebellion of the wraiths, the gods then came to the peoples they crafted who were wiser than beasts. Here they sought to lead them to the first wars against mankind, that mankind should fall by the blades of those they shared the world with. But they found that many of those peoples were sundered from mankind and could not make war upon them even if they wanted to. And only a few had such desire to and needed to be forced to do this thing. Thus did strife break but there was no great war to threaten mankind that the gods hoped there should be. And mankind triumphed often, for those who came against them with true wills of malice were few. Yet there was still chaos.
With their schemes failing them, the Old Gods gathered to create their final, darkest work. They poured all of their masteries and malices to the bane of mankind, and thus they forged demons. These were the first and only of their creations which were without form. Unlike all other creatures, demons alone had singular purpose to bring strife and misery unto mankind. And hereafter they joined in the torment of humanity and of all the Old Gods’ creations proved to be the most terrifying of them all. Yet despite all forces of the world acting against them, mankind endured. And the Old Gods were furious. They came to mankind directly now, for the first time since they had earned this ire, and through their mastery of matter sought to master mankind in turn. Some gods where they willed, but others enslaved and ordered great fortresses and temples in their name, that mankind might worship them under great pain and suffering. Others yet kept mankind in perpetual fear, chasing them through the darkest woods where they would find no peace. In this darkest hour of mankind there was but one grace: through overhearing their godly masters, they learned of the Aeth and the angels. This hope gave them the strength to press on, for they learned that the gods feared angels.

And the angels acted, perceiving that the disorder of things was not in the Aeth’s will. Maechyn came to the Old Gods again, though this time he was clad in garbs of war. His great spear and armor were fashioned from the very stars given to him in better days and before the fiercest chieftains of the gods he gave them warning: to begone from the world forevermore for they would not be suffered to hinder mankind any longer, nor dominate them as they did now. But the gods, overcome with malice and hubris, refused. They gathered their greatest warriors and armed themselves with the world itself and against them was Maechyn alone. Thus began the Cad Dirini, the battle-shattering. The gods, lacking in honor, came against the angelic champion all at once but found that they could not best him. In Maechyn’s deeds was the Aeth’s will, that which was insurmountable. He slew all manner of god and demon that sought to hinder him with such terrible ease, and the gods grew desperate. They saw that with every thrust of Maechyn’s spear, the fabric of the very world was growing undone. Thus they tore apart the world, and used what pieces they could as arms and armor in renewed warfare against Maechyn. So the battle continued, that titanic affair of which all manner of creatures could do naught but hide in the deepest pits of the world. Yet one by one the gods were slain, the greatest warriors and lords of their number cast into the great fissures in the world that had opened. Those that were not slain hid and ceded their godhood to become more akin to the very creatures they created and lorded over. For this they were spared, but none others were. At twilight came the end of the Old Gods.
And to the surviving spirits and demons of the world that arrayed against him, Maechyn decreed thus: that never again should they trouble mankind nor interfere, save for mankind’s own willing invitation. But there was not peace yet, for the ravages of the war could not be undone. What little world that remained broke apart into fragments, as great fires pushed the shards of creation apart from one another. It would not be without the Aeth’s own will that this fury should subside.
When the chaos and the fire and the fury finally diminished after untold years of rage, the world became as it is now: tattered. Above the clouds did the shards now rest upon. Instead of great lakes of water there were now endless seas of clouds. Those cloven realms had, in part, become a part of the world again yet they too were tattered. And Maechyn saw this work and it was willed that the angels should no longer dwell in the world. Though they might again act to carry out the Aeth’s will, they should do so often without form that they may not hinder mankind. All but the most ancient of fae had forgotten these elder days, though a great few inherited a hatred of intruders all the same.
It is not known when mankind emerged from the deepest caves, but it is known that the greatest of these peoples were known as Ped’s Folk. From the peaks of Mount Oswud did they emerge, and look upon a land shattered, but green once more. Before his people, Ped spoke, “The Aeth has willed in our favor. Look here, upon the land I name Pedwar, for it was mine own eyes that set first upon it. This land was meant for us to settle upon, and so I hereafter give it to you, with only the name as my toll.” And the people, respecting this man, heeded him. They descended down from Mount Oswud, and rejoined the world. The land named Pedwar and the world about it Tir Skai.