The Creation of the World As told by the Bards and Priests

n the beginning there was only the gods and the heavens, wherein they all lived. Of these gods Va, Nokton, and Ilotoli were the oldest and greatest, and each had begotten other gods which followed them.

Of the greater gods Nokton was most inclined towards jealousy and strife. Va, on the other hand, was the most beautiful and gracious of them, and Nokton hated her for this. Thus he sought to quarrel with her and to tempt her followers to his side.

This had gone for a long time when finally Va and Ilotoli had had enough and ultimately bade Nokton to cease, but still he refused. So Va and Ilotoli with their combined power banned Noktion and his followers into the deepest and darkest corner of the heavens. Ilotoli then bade his most inventive follower, Pantomos, to build a secure prison for them. So Pantomos took a stone from the sky and with it he created the earth which covered that dark hole, which was to be named the Underworld thereafter. But Nokton raged deep below with such ferocity that the earth trembled and even cracked in places. Pantomos, fearing Nokton would break out, squeezed out the water from his stone to fill the cracks and sinks in the earth. Still, Nokton's terrible shrieks could be heard even far above in the heavens, so Pantomos opened up the stone to let out the air so that it would howl and whistle when it blew across the earth and water and would drown out Nokton's screams. Finally, Nokton began slamming his fists into the earth from below, so that it bulged there and would burst open. Pantomos reacted quickly and and made sparks with the stone to set the places afire where Nokton was breaking through so that he would burn his hands and could not continue. Thus had Pantomos created the four elements, and the place wherein they lay he named Arthia, after the first element of creation.

Jhia, Va's daughter, saw what Pantomos had created, and thought that it, although functional, was a sore sight to the heavens and needed some improvement. Thus she decorated the lands with plants of all shapes and sizes. The seas and the air would not hold any plants so instead she filled them with creatures that would swim and fly. Then, when she saw how lively and full of grace they were she made creatures to fill the lands too.

When Va saw what Jhia had done she was very pleased. She rewarded Jhia by making her light in the sky second only to herself, so that she may take her own place when she herself was resting, and finally she imbued the greatest of Jhia's creatures with spirit and wisdom, so that they would worship her. These children were called the ancients and were the first people of the lands, and indeed they were wise and full of devout worship to Jhia.

All this had not gone unnoticed to the other gods, even to Nokton, who could hear what was going on through places where the earth was thin, and it made him very jealous for he was very vain and wanted to have his own people to worship him. So he whispered thoughts of jealousy to Pantomos and made him want to have his own people too, and he suggested Pantomos capture some of the ancients and hide them in the earth. So Pantomos did this and shaped his captives so that they could live better under the earth. These became the people of the earth, and were named dwarves, and they were taught by Pantomos to love the earth and how to forge and create things with it. Of these there came to be a group which lusted even greater than the others for the treasures of the earth and thus dug so deeply in search of such that they came within Nokton's grasp. Delighted that his plan had worked Nokton imprisoned the group and made them his own. With time they became as hideous and ugly as they were at heart until they bore no resemblance anymore to the other people of the earth, and thus were called orcs. Nokton then made these the means to his revenge on the other gods and send the orcs out to destroy the other peoples. The orcs came near to complete success with only the most resilient dwarves surviving and those of the ancients that had fled to the forests where Jhia could protect them best. Then Va intervened and had Aian teach the secret of magic to the remaining ancients, so that they and the dwarves could drive the orcs back. Va then, in order to end the envy among the other gods, took two of the plainest ones of the ancients and declared that these would found a fruitful people to inhabit the lands everywhere and that these people would be diverse in their choice of worship, so that all gods would have people that worshipped them. These people were named humans, and those of the ancients that had fled to the forests remained there and became the elves. But still some of the gods were not satisfied, for they wanted to have people that were also shaped to their own resemblance and liking. So Va created the Altar of Origin with a pool of nectar, that would give spirit and knowledge to any creature that came by and drank of it. Many gods then led their favorite creatures to the Altar and thus many races were created, but also were many founded by creatures that happened to find the place.