Enchirydion
The Book
The Enchirydion is the biblical document of Visctheria, recording the writings, teachings, and lives of the Gods in a readable format. Printings of the book are vastly distributed across the globe, and it contains the earliest recorded history of the world, all the way from creation to the start of the Age of Eva. Originating from the religious city of Caldarash in Carlatha, it was written in 750 BD by Icauria Soldenmarch. Each chapter of the Enchirydion covers a different part of the Visctherian creation myth.
Chapters
Creation
At the beginning, there was balance. There was darkness and stars that brought light, there was matter and nothingness, and there was undying life above it all. Things grew and burned randomly, sparks of light flickered to life and went out just as quickly. A careful balance of creation and destruction, life and death, scattered throughout the universe. At the beginning, there was Udis.
Udis, one of the first Beings, visited one of these lumps of matter, and saw possibility. They began to shape the hunk of rock into a world that could be lived on, and saw fit to bring life to the globe. The creation of the world took almost a thousand years, the Astorian spending an age carefully crafting the world, and its gods.
Birth
Udis created their children, the Gods of Visctheria, each with their strengths and weaknesses. First was Lothar, God of the earth. He morphed the floating rocks and dust into a world that could host life. Next was Ilotl, who covered the world in deep waters. Thadum was third, and wrapped the world in a blanket of clouds and colors. Next was Athos, who brought light and warmth to the sky. Thus became the world, and the first life on it.
In time, the Gods saw fit to try their hand at creation. Lothar built several clay figures, crafting the beginnings of the great races that walk the world today. First there were the Celestials, beings of great power and strength. Next, the Bestials, modeled after the great beasts of legend. The Humanoids came next, created to find the great treasures of the earth. The Giantoids drifted to their mountains and lived as a quiet race, but there are some smaller ones who resided there that prefer to cause mischief and chaos. The world was soon covered in life after Athos gifted a small Spark to those little clay figures.
As life grew and spread, Udis saw that the races shivered in the darkness, and created for them Brodea and Adtia, Goddesses of the moon and sun. The light from the heavenly bodies provided warmth and light, enough for the races to harness this power and begin to grow food and reproduce. Udis gifted them Love and Peace in the form of Eva and Antar.
Imbalance
Once Udis had created the Gods, they saw that there was an imbalance in the world, and no deities to pray to when bad things happened. So they created the Unfavorable Gods, and called their first children the Favorable.
As Udis watched the mortals rage and battle, they first created Festher and Zaohr of Hatred and War. To try and distract them from fighting each other, they also created Ninana, Queen of Monsters. Maghena of Ash was created to snuff Athos's fires, and Thegyn's storms churned the seas of Ilotl, killing countless sailors who braved the once-tame waters. Ureus of the dark did his best to strangle the light and warmth of Adtia, and Esbius of the stars outshone Brodea as she went through her phases. Adia became the void to swallow Thadum.
History
Finally there was balance. But the Gods began to grow powerful, and they began to fight amongst themselves. The first age, the Age of Udis, began, marking a thousand years of war between the Gods, and much suffering on Visctheria as magic marred the landscape, splitting the Great Continent into many.
When the Gods saw what they had done, they swore a temporary peace, and the First Peace began along with the Age of Ilotl, as the seas expanded and filled the space between the now shattered land.
The Peace lasted for three thousand years, through the Age of Athos - when the mortals were gifted fire by the God, allowing for leaps forward in magic and technology - and the Age of Thadum - when the mortals first took to the skies like birds, gifted the power of flight in their magic ability by the sky deity.
Watch and pray as our siblings turn the world against us, dear sister, for there will be none left to keep our teachings at the end of days. We will fade from existence and memory, and there will be no mourners at our graves.
Titans
The careful peace began to fracture in the Age of Lothar, as the mortals began to shape the earth and build structures like never seen before. The Gods began to realize their creations were reaching new heights, and began to plot their destruction. So Udis created the Titans, to battle the Gods and keep them busy. They created Adona, Dophine, Enir, Phorysus, Qiznia, Urus, Vumir, Xilios, and Zolra, each specially made to combat one realm of power of each of the Gods, including Udis.
Broken
The Titans battled the Gods back, away from the world they had so carefully influenced. The Gods were torn apart in an event knows as the Shattering, their fragments broken into small Shards, fragments of power in their chosen realms. The largest pieces of their essences were locked away into Trees of Power that were scattered around the globe. These Trees hold the core of the Gods’ power, allowing them to keep existing and answer prayers, but with almost no control over the existing world.
Age of Mortals
While the Gods were creations, careful and crafted with every intention, the Titans were rushed, desperate, an effort to create in the face of destruction. They did not obey the teachings of their creator, and even sought to distribute their own teachings among the mortals on Visctheria, now broken and bruised. Many clans - that would become countries - stayed faithful to the Gods, but some bent to the will of the Titans, calling them Gods in their own right.
As the Titans grew in power, the Gods faded, and the Age of Eva, the time of mortals, began.
Icaruia bound the Enchirydion in the skin of her faithful horse at the end of her travels, so the nicer copies of the book are often bound in horse leather.
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