Whither Canthon
It is unknown how the globe as we now know it came to be, but one myth that has gained popularity in recent years i will include here.
The peopleโs whom i have travelled among consider the world to be inhabited by various spirits of people and things which came before us, though i have yet to see any such evidence written in the bones of the earth. My own senses can be easily fooled by various herbs and smokes which i have imbibed in at various time.
In any case, this myth seems to be the closest related to the view of the world as it is from both ground level and from the air, looking out from the wings of airborne craft and animal transport.
-- Report by Augustus de Marquis
The Emergence of Canthon:
An eon ago, the darkness existed as a form of its own. Things unseen and unseeable writhed and cavorted within.
One instant there was nothing, and the next an enormous thunderclap broke apart the morass, Revealed in the new space sat a lump of rock-clay. Something had been created, but it was without form, or function. The cataclysm broke the cloudy masses hold, the edges fleeing from the new form.
As it receded, those beings which had been passing nearby were revealed, and caught as a thought. emerging from pure thought, they began to form complex shapes as they were drawn towards the shapeless mass in the void.
They glowed from within, containing unknowably powerful energies, throwing light onto the surface of the moldable ball before them. They congregated around the surface, joined by more and more beings revealed by the retreating edge of roiling possibilites.
The first of them touched the surface, and dived deep within, shedding some of its energy into the material around. Once the dam was broken, others joined in, mixing their energies with the raw material, and with the energies of the other around them.
Cavorting like eels in the reef, they shaped the shapeless rock-clay into a lumpy ball with their antics. Eventually, ages passed, and those who were bored drifted away to find other places to discover and play with.
Those who remained began to ossify, their energies slowing as their patterns solidified into new materials. Rock and earth began to coat the outer surface of the world, the energies dimming until the beginnings of life began to emerge.ย
First, the animals in the water, the simplest beings, harnessed the energies of the deepest seas, and brought life out of the cracks in the earth.
Then they emerged from the surface of the seas, where a nearby sun showed them there was more than the deep dark.
Land animals began to live near the edges of the water, eventually joined by larger and faster animals who lived only on land.
Then, the Wunbi began to arrive. Living among the animals and birds, our ancestors began to understand the ebb and flow of the seasons and with it the energies around them.
Reading the spiritual energies coming from the earth, and contained within the animals and plants, they learned of what could and couldnโt be eaten.
What could and couldnโt be grown and harvested.
Their shamans learnt to predict things from the movement of the wind and clouds, and looked for advice from the environment around them.
Our ancestors began to spread across the land, some staying behind, maintaining the ancestral sites, while others looked for new experiences.
Now, the Wunbi live in the forests, and the mountains, and the plains. Others have made their homes on the very seas themselves, travelling where wind and sea take them.
We make our lives from the plains, and the earth provides, as long as we listen to the portents and omens which have kept the world in bounty for so long.
So listen, young ones, to the earth, the animals and the plants.
Listen well, and you will never be lost or hungry.
Let the ancestors teach you the ways of Caanti, so that you may live and prosper here.
-- Auntie Maiโtuun of the plains
