#creation myth

   “Before there was light or love, sound or sin, there was the void; Endless, incomprehensible, and alone. Through countless eons, the Void was always everything and nothing. Its only purpose was Gaia. In the centre of nothing, encompassing everything, there lay a seed of infinite potential. The void knew not what it stood vigil over, only that it had a duty to uphold. Billions of years passed, and nothing changed, the void remained empty save for Gaia. Even though love and hate did not yet exist, the void found itself sorrowful and despairing in its loneliness. Until a time when deep within its heart of singularity something changed, its despair and loneliness shifted into the first feeling of sadness and longing. With those first emotions came a tear, a single dew drop of the cosmos itself, everything the void is or ever could be solidified into a flow of consciousness. That consciousness fed the seed at the centre of everything, and with its hunger sated, the seed finally sprouted. It shed its skin of magnificent white.. tearing into thousands of tiny pieces that became the stars to fill the void, the 3 largest of the pieces became the constellations the people would come to know as Hadron, the morning bow, Celeste, the night's light, and the southern watchmen. Within the seed burst forth a radiant form that seemed to encompass the entire void, her skin as black as the void she now inhabits, hair like the flare of a sun, eyes that burned with all her infinite potential, and a flowing gown made of all the stars, nebulae, and cosmic clouds that her progeny are destined to create. She knows not her name, purpose, or destiny, all she knows is the void one could call father and her dreams of the fields of Elysian.

 It was over millennia of watching its purpose breathe life into the stars that the vast void grew pleased and, through the whispers of the solar winds, implanted within the great lady of the cosmos the first sparks of ambition. And it was then that with a whisk of her hand, the vines of time grew. Ever-growing flora that brought about the beginnings of the great expansion. Their home grew, but alongside it, the passage of time affected her dearest creations in an unfathomable way. The years passed and the stars, unlike before, withered, crumpled into themselves. Their grandiose deaths brought her ambition to find a way to save the things she took such meticulous care of since her birth.  

It was found that her attempts were futile. She tried to mold together the remains of the other stars, and continuously failed to create the life she had once seen, to light the fire of the great lights of her world. Just as her father, the darkness and emptiness of her home left her with an emptiness inside of her being she hadn’t ever felt. As she held the lifeless husks of the stars she tried to revive, her body curled around them to protect them better than she ever could when they were alive.

In her mind, she dreams of them and of a world unlike her own, one that isn’t lifeless and dark… She saw visions of things unlike anything she ever had, creatures roaming around a world with fauna and flora so beautiful that a single tear fell from her eyes and onto one of the husks. 

        From within something awoke, and a faint glow emanated from within. She, with her eyes closed, had not noticed the light, but over time the light grew brighter, and it was only when, similar to her seed, the husks broke, shattered, and large grey chunks of matter spread throughout the cosmos, and in their stead lay four figures in her large hands. One was made of pure light and had eyes as searing as the sun itself, his name is Wouktujosa. The God of the Sun. The man encapsulated within a star, who brought about the life of the sun people. Beside him lay a woman, her hair as green as the Vines of Time, small flowers grew and bloomed on her pale green skin, and within was the resting place of the very first beating heart. Her gentleness and beauty earned her the name Fhuyiya. The Goddess of the Earth and Life itself. Alongside her lay another male, one with rock as his skin, eyes as deep as the ocean, and clouds that act as his cover; he was given the name Taakegosa, the god of Earth, and the last figure, a woman with skin white as snow and face gentle and soft, her name would be Koerandin. 

        After each awoke from their deep slumber, they were met with the stagnant darkness in which their mother had been stuck for billions of years. It was in that very darkness they imagined the same visions and world that filled the dreams of their mother. With that, deep within them their purposes bloomed. As thanks to their great mother and father, they built a great altar from a piece of their souls, upon a planet the great sister of life made especially for their show of devotion. The name of this planet: Karthea. 

Such a beauty it was, with the aid of the tiny minions of the goddess of Life brought about. Together they created the fauna that stretched across the vast planet. Flowers that only bloomed when underneath the water, vines and shrubs that glowed in the darkness of their world. Trees that reached high into the sky, and that harbored creatures that thrived in the cover of darkness. They were small, at first, tiny little amoebas that thrived off of the sap of the trees, but it wasn’t long before these small creatures grew to become grand creatures of the sky and land. 

But these beautiful creatures could not survive without water, and it was Taakegosa who made the vast oceans on the surface of the altar to sustain the holy creatures. But along with the water, he brought about the first winds, and the first storms. But his storms, despite their destruction, nourished the land; with the dead creatures that lit it, the plants continued to grow, and more animals in turn were born. It was here that Koerandin resided alongside her sister and all the animals.

Koerandin was not the most formidable, nor the most ambitious, she had not a single clue what she wanted nor what to do. She was the only one that hadn’t found her purpose. She could feel it within her mother's vision; it was within her reach, but just as she reached her hand out, she was whisked away back into the darkness. Ever since the altar had been created, she wandered, without a purpose, without a semblance of an idea of what time held in store for her. But through her travels of the world her sister built with her own hands and observing the creations of her brothers and sister, she found that there was a balance.

It was only the year that her dear brother Wouktujosa had betrayed them that everything seemed to change. Koerandin, while on her walks throughout the illuminated forests that she noticed from the horizon, an orange light that blazed blindingly so, and the heat from the great blazing ball of fire wilted the beautiful fauna that hadn’t yet experienced such a light.

It was as if in a blink of an eye their altar had shifted, a once serene place now left with only wilted flowers and fragile creatures in her wake. 

It was only after she had left Karthea to converse with the great mother that she and her siblings discovered the true meaning of the sudden appearance of the large object that decimated their altar. She explained that their dear brother Wouktujosa, had betrayed them all by bringing about monstrosities he was never supposed to. The stars had birthed them, and they were destined to remain dark thereafter, but their brother had revived them, and in turn destroyed millions of years of work and nurturing of a holy ground for their parents.

To say all the children and mother alike were furious was an understatement of immense proportions. Except for all but one, Koerandin. Within her, she could feel the pang of something odd, she could not quite place it, the way they listened so easily. Yes, his fire did kill the animals they had all cared for, but just as easily as the scale is tipped, it can be recentered. It did not seem as though the trio cared, only focused on coming up with a way to punish the man for his transgressions. 

Koerandin rushed to her brother's side before anyone else could get to him, riding her great celestial deer, made of what she called dreamdust. It glittered throughout the cosmos, unmissable even to her brother's shielded eyes. As her companion halted to a stop, she looked down upon her brother, evident concern on her face, but alongside it accompanied eyes filled with hurt and confusion.

“Dear brother, what is the meaning of this? Betrayal, I hear mother mutter of… Is this true?” She spoke with a softness that nearly made it impossible to tell what emotions –and what storm– lay within her. 

“Dear sister, I commit not the betrayal mother speaks of. I only wished to bring light to this world. The vision long ago, there was light, I only wished to please mother, to bring about her a gift, to show her my devotion to this world,” he winced at the way her eyes hardened, but deep within his light showed her true feelings. She had been upset, but within, she held a heart and mind that allowed her to feel more than any of them ever could. With this glimpse, he knew what he had to do…

“Please, dear sister, take these,” he muttered as he placed hundreds of small seeds in her hand, “ plant these upon the altar, allow them to grow, and I will nurture them with my light, and you shall give them the rest in the night. Together, we must work, promise me, sister?” It was then that the others arrived. After much bickering and negotiations, the punishment of Woutkjosa was decided. He would be banished into the very star he created first, the one for Karthea, and for all eternity until the great altar was destroyed would he be set free. 

And so, he was banished to the star, and from then on would be known as the god of the great sun. At least, in Koerandin’s memory anyway. 

After their brother was banished to the sun, they were all left without a part of them. Just as much as one complemented the other, it left them all empty when even one was missing. They continued to nurture the altar, Taakegosa learning to create the very first atmosphere of the planet to protect the life they had built from the ground up for a second time. And Fhuyiya, had learned to improve her animals, not only did she produce flora that was beautiful and aidful to those who ate them, but she created the first inklings of poison to allow the planets to survive and created the very first creature to hunt her creatures and allow them a chance to survive alongside every other creature. 

But Koerandin, she was the same as she had been, continuously wandering day and night, watching her siblings create such beautiful things while she was stuck, still lost in her own mind and heart with what she was meant for. 

It was one day during a rough storm that from her dress made of silk the seeds slipped out, some red as the sun and the others a pale-white. She attempted to catch them, she had promised her brother to do it together, to watch over them together… But with the great winds she was unable to grab ahold of them, and they scattered about Karthea resting in the moist or dry soils across Karthea, and from them bloomed the first moon and sun people.

The great sun people, followers of the Great Sun God Wouktujosa, revered him for his light that he brought. Despite the fact that not much life was active during the daylight but despite that, and the land that they inhabited, Fhuyiya still graced them with the crops they needed, and the animals with enough food and water to always drink. And although Taakegosa could be cruel with his treatment, his creations and weather created the beautiful mountains and climates of the Earth for all creatures to thrive within.

And then there were the Moon people, who followed none other than the great Goddess of the Moon, Koerandin. Once the seeds had spread, she, out of sadness at breaking her promise, banished herself to the other side of Karthea. She promised to stay until the very day that her dearest brother was set free from his prison, she would watch other people each night and ensure their safety and comfort. With the aid of her Dreamdust deer, Varisusa, she aids the people in their slumber and will, for eternity, continue to watch over all creatures along with her brothers and sisters…”

With that, the Great Shaman closes her dusty old book and looks up at the children. She chuckles as they look at her, astonished. They chat amongst themselves and share their own ideas. As the Great Shaman looked around at each of the faces of the children gathered from all over, a smile on her face as she ushers them out of her hut. She wished them a peaceful slumber, but as she stepped outside, lit incense in hand, she looked into the twinkling night sky and up to the shining moon. She saw a cluster of comets rain down and race through the sky. She silently bowed her head in reverence, holding the lit incense into the sky; she muttered in prayer,