i. Verse
They who crossed the neither tirelessly,
now is the Heart of the universe.
They who control all from within.

Fulfilling deep-seated dreams of life,
The Heart is where inner feelings originate.
That love is inside this very planet,
where the outside is the body of the world,
internal to the core is this very Heart.

It holds the earth in unison.
Love is embodied in the sphere.

This Heart is the heart of the world,
always dancing at the nub.
Love can do no wrong, therefore,
Love fulfills the Heart.

Thy Sacred Heart,
Who art Infinite Love,
Grant us Understanding,
and your endless piety.
Corchorum!

 

ii. Text
As both the Second and First Born began to flourish and Corchorum saw that the world was filling with vibrant life, it made the decision to enter the world's core. Everything came from this creator, known as the Dreamer. It's Consciousness created Dreams from all possibilities and illusions. It awoke to create the shell that is Cor'terrae, the planet as it's body is the physical properties of matter. It then placed its spiritual consciousness at the center of the planet. To become the Heart that dances in the nub to keep the world spinning. Corchorum echoed one last thing before it settled, it gave one law that was large enough to contain all lesser laws and considered the ground on which we walk. The law of love. 'Love and be loved in return.'

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"For I am one with all my children, and I am everything there is. I am the physical and spiritual realities and all I ask is that love spread across this universe of my creation."

             

              Section X.
With the departure of the Creator, the embittered Lord of Fire, Nau'ar, who had been unable to return to Alasse Cir with the loss of powers waited in hiding for the one who had played such a ruse upon him. For in the creation of the Universe, the Divine of Chaos had tricked Nau'ar into throwing his fire deep into the Void where it became the Sun. Unsuspecting Jhes'Khasti, Spirit of Trickery and Luck was ambushed by Nau'ar in these years and taken from the Laughing Fox was his left eye to forever scar the beautiful and 'Fickle Fortune' for the power and deed done which Nau'ar would never forgive. The ensuing duel was only halted by the Lady of Justice and the Lord of War who took up Jhes'Khasti into the heavens. There the Divine of Trickery instead of healing the wound upon his form, kept it so all would know what Nau'ar had done.

 

             Section XI.
An Ellearn body is found desecrated; contaminated with rot and illness and deposited in jagged pieces in the river within the Ieldun cave system, which fed water to everything within it. So it is that Lake Danau is poisoned. With skin of bark, ears of leaves, and hair of vines, the Ellearn were created from the ancestor trees to be near trees themselves. Humanoids in form, the first of a kind, were plant-like in nature. Their consciousness was awakened, and their souls were created from stardust. They soaked up the sun and drank from the waters of the river and lake and thusly began to perish with its defilement. For the Firstborn were not created with such immunities.

Cries went up as thousands died but those who called out to the Gods were struck down. For those who had planned the plague did not want the Divines, who were not omnipotent, to know who had done the deed. So they butchered those who gave up cries to the Divine, those they believed would tell the truth, murdering the most faithful, only caring for their own skin. Those Ellearn who perished from illness or murder were enveloped by the cave around them, and those bodies of the dead took root, planted by the cave's earth, and would become true trees.

For you see The Ellearn were created as fully functioning hermaphrodites, able to self-produce children like all plant-life in which they were based. Yet, in a moving, sentient species this spelled disaster. Procreation without love or sex was devastating as it produced supremely self-centered beings who treated each other with utmost indifference if not animosity.

The Divinity of Water Al'shae Oaris came to the caves. In great wrath, Al'shae Oaris demanded to know the cause of the catastrophe which the Ellearn could only answer in part for they did not know who had defiled the river, only how the deed had been done. Sila Vor Lady of the Stars pleaded for her people and Naik'Lea, Lady of Compassion beside Sila Vor spoke that the Ellearn had been punished enough by the death toll and that Al'Shae must purify the lake and rivers or all of their creations would die and they would all be failures in the Creator's eyes. Al'Shae Oaris moved by the words of his brethren would purify the lake and rivers only once he was promised that the Ellearn would be punished for the poison.

Shyr'Vaero Divine of War and Vengeance walked among the eldest trees. He could not feel as acute the suffering of others as Naik'lea could, but he could instead feel the rage, and the trees bristled and fumed at the fate of their children. Shyr'Vaero opened himself to the forest and he followed the trees, and soon the sound of fighting was heard by him. Still, the Ellearn fought amongst themselves to hide their shame and Shyr'Vaero would summon his blade of bone before jumping into the fray. Finishing the fight, Shyr'Vaero looked upon the destruction and the deaths with fury growing stronger in his breast. He let forth a howl of his rage and battle lust through the Ieldun caves where the beasts and the trees fell silent to his roar. He would take with him far away the survivors of that battle, hiding them. Upon a chain of islands to the boiling north the Spirit of War, Vengeance, and Battle gave them a new home and made them his own. To forget the disturbing days these Anak Detska, 'First Children' took the name Eerbloe, 'First Bloom' in 22,978 Concieo and would begin anew.

The Ellearn who were defenseless and slowly dying, both physically and emotionally begged the Goddesses, Sila Vor, Queen of the Stars, and Tin Du'hil, Lady of the Moon, to help them as there was no cure in sight. Together the Ladies of the Night created a countermeasure to the illness, this however was no cure. The mushroom when eaten could keep the effects dormant for a time until more was obtained. Away these Anak Detska were whisked by Tin Du'hil to an island to the east where the continued consumption of the 'Muriew' had to be sustained or these mortal Ellearn would waste away from disease and sickness. For beneath the moon's rays grew the Muriew in glades hidden from the sun by Sila Vor who gave this island an extended night and shortened day.

Those who began the awful work and continued it still by the slaughtering of their brethren would be exiled to another cave system far to the north. These caves however were different, as they hardly had skylights. The Ellearn were left in this darkness to survive in this unknown environment or to die. These Ellearn would become three separate groups: the Silvelksh 'Goblins,' the Kuchael 'Ashen Ellearn' and the Abanisuael 'Ebony Ellearn.' The rest of the Ellearn were banished from the only place they had ever known, the Ieldun caves, the Gods deposited them in the plateaus of the same mountain range. Having been taken up and away, they were separated from their Ancestors, the Elder Trees. They were too separated, no longer being both sexes in one. In exchange, Ellearn could switch between the sexes at will. This was a bid to ascertain the co-dependence of the Ellearn species, as being a fully functioning race of intersex people they had little concern beyond themselves.

The Ellearn were also given empathy for all intelligent peoples and species. Having such a thing forced on them drove some to complete insanity, and others to complete apathy toward all living creatures. The Ellearn were not afraid to twist nature in whatever form they had need of, in such a manner as tree and rock shaping as they could not feel them. They found it difficult to learn how to tune out and control this innate empathy, growing too, for a length of time; hate the Gods for a punishment they saw as far outweighing their crime. But the separation of the sexes, instilling within them a great empathy for all living things and an immunity to poisons and diseases was done in hopes that no such catastrophe would happen again to the Dreamer's First Born children.

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             Section XII.
Those Ellearn who had been sickened, called the Muriew had learned to live with the illness in their veins as it steadily decreased their lifespan. On their island in the east, they ate the mushrooms of the moon filled glades and these gave them a mortal's lifespan. Due to the illness, their birthrate had been cut in half and most babies died at birth. The first plague-born child that survived was seen as a miracle and a sign that they could live on as a people even with the illness. This child would be made King of the Murieael (Moon Ellearn).

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             Section XIII.
The Spirit of Storms, Reinn Anon, could see that there was still much to be done upon Cor'terrae and the Divines were tiring in their attempt to create and form everything on the planet. So he took of himself his Mana, essence, spark and life and created first six High Guardians; Grapheal, Wirual, Eirdandril, Tardrael, Zarol, Tie'iel. They would come to be called Arch-angels. Reinn Anon after creating these six for himself took up once again his Mana and mixed it with the Mana of the other Divines to create for them their own High Guardians. For each Divine he created three High Guardians except for Na'aur, Spirit of Fire, and the Sun. His power was the Sun itself and he could not reach it from Cor'terrae. It is also through this act that it was found by the Gods that Reinn Anon Spirit of Holy Light and Nanqa Spirit of Darkness could not create between them High Guardians. Their Mana could not be mixed, for they were true opposites. This disturbed the other Divines; and Reinn Anon began to look upon Nanqa with distrust and suspicion.

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             Section  XIV.
Nau'ar had been tricked by the Spirit of Luck, Jhes'Khasti, losing the essence of his power deep in the Void of Space, having used it to create the Sun to warm the planet and help it grow. Because of this he could not have his own High Guardians. Nanqa learning this told the Divine of Fire, who lived on the mortal planes, that he would bring back a spark of the others power. So into the Void the Spirit of Darkness trod with no fear, and many centuries it took for him to return, but he returned with the prize, in his hands he held the flames of the sun, burning himself for his brother, so Na'aur he could have his own High Guardians. Quickly Nau'ar took Nanqa, who was in great pain, to Reinn Anon and the Spirit of Storms and Guardians created for Nau'ar two High Guardians, one of flame and one of the Sunrise. They would become to be called Fusixin, Phoenixes. Tin'Duhil, Spirit of the Moon brought one of her High Guardians to Nau'ar and she offered him the female, so then Nau'ar had three High Guardians, like the others. Thosial, Arch Angel of Flame, Mue'Voriel, Arch Angel of SunRise, and Mue'Pyriel, Arch Angel of SunSet.

 

             Section XV.
He'ar Namin, Divine of Knowledge would take up residence in their own Outerplane called Saape Morum along with their archangels. Here they would record history, apart from the other Divines, always watching, always writing. They would come to be called the 'Historian.' He'ar Namin who lacked gender and sex did not ask the Dreamer's creations for temples only that they learn and never stop learning. They do not involve them self in the affairs of man or Ellearn, always neutral. It is from He'ar Namin that the first letters are given to mankind and the Ellearn who create their first and different alphabets.

 

             Section XVI.
Humans travel south from the Dirian plains in need of new lands for the animals they have domesticated. Through the mountain pass into the southern wilderness. Man in exploration divided themselves, by color, by language, by the Gods they put on high. But violence was avoided as populations were small and with The development of the throwing spear, together with ambush hunting techniques, violence between groups was very costly. Groups of Man moved far apart from each other to alleviate the need for resources. Still, tribal warfare began as the Ukomu (mankind) fractured into many different groups, needing land and natural resources.

 

             Section  XVII.
The Ellearn who were banished from their caverns now live in the valleys and forests above those same caverns. They began to spread out far through the lands they would come to call the Melimidisiel. Initially wandering hunter gathers, the Ellearn would find themselves driven back into the Mellimdisiel by sedentary human people. Lacking domesticated animals or the wheel, they were unable to win against the humans in combat. Groups of Ellearn flee back into the mountains. It is these Ellearn who gain the upper hand, taught by their fellows how to train the domesticated yaks as mounts. Ridden into battle, the beasts fill their enemies with fear from the sheer size of the animals. With this, they gain an upper hand and humans do not try to enter the Mellimdisiel again for many years...

 

             Section  XVIII.
But with battle came many more deaths, deaths before their time, and at Nanqa's behest Reinn Anon took the essence of those who died in honor to create more Guardians. Lesser Guardians, for these, were not beings made entirely of Reinn Anon's Mana. These souls of man and Ellearn were bent and shaped so that they could be housed in the form of a Guardian. Those humans who died an honorable death were taken up to become Telemnar, Angels, and those otherwise clean entered the Halls of Awakening to be reborn. But still, there remained those on the Material plane as many ghosts, unable to reconcile their violent deaths, filled with rage and despair. Reinn Anon refused those who were trapped on the Material plane, he could do nothing for them, for they were unworthy of Paradise and Sjel Nn'harma could not judge them if they were not in the Halls of Awakening. These crushed shades would fight Ashriel when the High Guardian tried to take them, so a Vil'or, the Spirit of Music Rina'Lin played her violin for them so they would fall into a trance and follow her to the Halls of Awakening.

 

              Section  XVIV.
Nanqa defied The Eternal One in asking why the humans should suffer mortality and the Ellearn do not. They deserved immortality as well or at the very least they deserved immediate access to the afterlife. The Spirit of Darkness and Honor is impatient with constant assurances of his brethren and being told that they must all trust the Dreamer's plan. This was despite the pain and suffering of life and death. Angered Nanqa criticized Corchorum. Nanqa accused their parent and the other Spirits of lacking vision and benevolence, and that he would find a way to help these souls in need as no one else seemed to care.

 

But The Spirit of Suffering did care and she came to Nanqa on the Material plane to abate Nanqa's rage. They tried through dreams to find a way to help these languishing dead. In such a dream did she see a solution. The Vil'or, Naik'lea told him that he must prepare the lost souls and that they must be forgiven by not only Reinn Anon, Lord of Alasse Cir but by themselves before they could move on. Determined the young, unshakeable Nanqa creates his own Outerplane in good faith below the Material plane of Cor'terrae called Kazcas. This would become the planet's mantle and what people would call Hell. A place where people who had in life not earned their entrance to Paradise or could not go on to the Halls to be reborn would be purified through discipline and love until they understood the joy of creation and were ready for either Paradise or Rebirth.

 

             Section  XX.
Nanqa required assistance in the punishing and purging of the souls that entered Hell, to which he created his own servants, the Hen'ei that would come to be called Demons. From his Mana, his essence he created seven Devils, Lords of Hell, and he embodied within each of them, one of the cornerstones of mortal sin, the reasons that mankind could not go onto Paradise or be reborn. Those things a person could not forgive themselves for. These were the Devils: Lust; Kowa'Yoku,  Pride; Jijo'yuta, Envy; Suretoru, Greed; Kiyoku,  Gluttony; Kadoa'hin, Wrath; Karikura'iru and Sloth; Eimis'sui. The Divine of Darkness spoke silk in the ears of Reinn's Archangels. Filled with resentment of Reinn Anon he whispered 'Come to me.' Nanqa voiced his intentions, 'Use your powers to punish man so they can come to peace'. They were the first to Fall from Grace, their bodies twisting in agony and wings turning ebony as they descended into Hell. They became Zelamanara,  'Banish'ed', the Arch Angels of Nanqa: Eirdandri, The Accursed, Tardraes, The Absolute, Amuburiel, The Slave, and Marthei, The Watcher.

 

             Section  XXI.
Still seething with envy Nanqa watched the Spirits be revered, loved, and respected by the First and Second Born whereas they were being taught to fear and malign him. The Spirit of Darkness moved to his own Outer plane, as Alasse Cir was becoming uncomfortable, the light all the stronger and Reinn Anon more judgmental. Creating Demons and watching them grow Nanqa wanted more, he wanted people that would be his own like the other spirits had the First and Second Born. He told his people to go above, the Material plane, and bring back First Born so he could transform them, akin to what Reinn Anon had done to the dead to create Angels. Ellearn were dragged, panicked into Hell. Watching them Nanqa realized twisting them while they still lived would not be easy, for even though the minds of the First Born were weaker then the minds of men, they being alive would prove a challenge. Their were many failures before the demons perfected their craft of distortion, and for time unknown, Elllearn who did not belong within that Outer plane was pushed to the brink. Those whose minds did not shatter from the abuse, remaining intact, became something more, bloody spirits let back onto the surface world where they possessed mankind transforming them into vampires. A disease born of the blood of half-crazed Ellearn.

 

             Section  XXII.
The Hen'ei whilst they stole away the First Born from the Mellimel'disiel grew curious, intrigued by those that lived on the Material Plane, and the Devils watched the humans they tried to change through punishment and told the Demons to go to the surface. Learn of the first and second born they were told, and tell us about them so we can understand and be better disciplinarians for it. Demons who could, disguise themselves as the surface dwellers and moved among them learning, sharing, and fighting with and beside them. With the birth of Hen'ei Paelil, Half Demons, Half Humans, and the manipulations of fearful minds and weeping hearts, Reinn Anon stood tall in the room of white marble thrones in the Alba Turris.

 

'Enough!' The Spirit of Light proclaimed, his voice of thunder and great winds, 'Our Father's peoples have been hurt enough by the lies and manipulations of Nanqa.' Calling on He'ar Namin, all of the Spirits save Nau'ar and Nanqa sat upon their marble tall backed thrones, a world of white surrounding their many different forms. He'ar Namin stood from it's throne and spoke in the voice of both, the song of a woman and the huskiness of a man, saying that the council of the Divines would have to decide Nanqa's fate. Reinn Anon with a gauntleted fist to his heart told the Spirits there was no more fitting end for The Spirit of Darkness but the void, an expanse of nothing, left to the Darkness he seemed to so dearly love.

 

             Section  XXIII.
So Reinn Anon told his brothers and sisters what Nanqa had done. Starting with openly defying the Dreamers, their Father's, plans. Twisting Reinn's Archangels and many of the Ellearn into darkness and blood. It was not difficult to gain the understanding and judgment of most of the Divines. However, Naiklea, Lady of Suffering and Compassion had worked beside Nanqa and seen why he had defied Corchorum, the Dreamer. She would leave the council without making a decision, asking for time to think about Nanqa's fate. She sat at her Lacus Lacrimis, (A Lake of Tears) uncertain. Years would pass and Reinn Anon finally came to her, and would headstrongly explain himself once again.

 

Determined to make her understand Nanqa's many wrongs he asked her about the Ellearn who had been twisted in mind and soul and how much suffering they had gone through because of Nanqa's experiments. Reminded of their overwhelming pain and anguish, Naik'lea's tears fell harder into the lake. What Nanqa had done was awful but... She pleaded for more time and Reinn Anon gave it leaving her, saying as he left that both Hell and Nanqa's Demons created great fear and suffering for mankind who often did not believe themselves worthy of Paradise. Watching his back as he walked away Naik'lea sobbed into her hands as she agreed that the suffering Nanqa had created was ample reason to exile him. Knowing she was the deciding vote.

 

            Section XXIV

i. Verse

 "You have been Banished!"

"Brother!"

This cannot be happening to me
It's all wrong, just a dream.
What have I done?

Murderer they say,
Endless wrath, belligerence,
Unforgivable sins.

Into the darkened sky,
The blackest void is in my mind.
The eternal night I must survive.
Is this the end of me?

I am ascending now,
Leaving all I know behind.
Seething and spiteful,
All will shudder at my name.

Void drowned and smiling,
I'm the fear in your hearts.
There is no way home,
in my darkness all alone.

I am the ebony in-between,
I am nothingness itself.
I will never be the same,
Existence is emptiness.

Eat away the madness,
in the everlasting blackness.
If this is my destiny,
to be banished in exile,
I wish only to be forgiven.

There is no hope,
no way out of this,
I've vanished.

ii. Text
The Gods convened upon their white thrones and the vote was unanimous. The Thirteen Divines who cast a vote in Paradise agreed to the banishment of their brethren to the darkness. Nanqa unknowing of what was to come, was summoned to the Alba Turris (White Towers.) The Spirit bewildered looked to each face, animated, attempting in vain to make them see, to explain what had been done and the why of it. Naik'Lea, Lady of Sorrow buried her face into her hands as she wept all the harder, as he was met with stone faces from the other Spirits. Even those Nanqa had helped, whom he had befriended, turned from him, and at last, he beseeched Reinn Anon, with a cry of betrayal as the young spirit began to weep.

'Brother! ' he called in vain.

With this judgment, He'ar Namin chained Nanqa so that he could not fight the unjust decree. He struggled against the restraints but with the impassive faces of his siblings, he knew he was lost. Nanqa allowed himself to be hauled away by He'ar Namin deep into the darkness that Nanqa did not fear. For the Void was where he had been created, the substance within him.

But Nanqa thinks of his children and creations. What would they do without him? Would they survive? Could they? Mind spinning at the implications the Spirit was turned at last so he could look in He'ar Namin's eyes with his orange ones.

'I will return,' The Lord of Darkness promised.

But He'ar Namin shook its head, and spoke the conditions of his release, 'Not until the day Nanqa, that you are forgiven.'

At that time only could Nanqa return to the world he had helped mould and shape beneath the Eternal One. The day Nanqa was forgiven and given welcome could he return to Cor'terrae,' and so he would remain, where the stars did not reach, and the planets were far in sight. The nothingness of black, no sound, no sight, and eternity of emptiness; the fate of The Bringer of Darkness.

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Thus ended the Era of Awakening.

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All Original names and references to the story they are from are Copyright of Nathanial Davidson.