Once upon a time there was a God and Goddess. They thrilled in each others’ company and used the entire universe as a canvas for their imagination. Delighting in their ability to create, they painted everything into their universe until the layers and layers of paint became nonsense. The God saw this and realized the painting was nonsense and so he declared that the universe be wiped clean so that he could use his learned skills to do much better.
But the Goddess loved her world more than her husband, and the chaos of her painting infected her, so when God cleared the canvas of creation, the Goddess wept and scorned him, gathering up the threads of this place before God could clean it all, and hiding it away.
God offered her something new to salve her pain. To help order their wild creations, they should create two new Gods, and to do so he took two pebbles and placed them in the Goddess. Their Divine Children were also infected by the chaos, the female aspect being more tainted than the male, as she took after her mother, and he their father. Yet together they painted a perfect world upon the canvas where all made sense and all existed in harmony.
But the Goddess was not content with this. She was bitter that the others exalted in paradise while she stewed in regret and grief for her lost world. She whispered into the ears of her children of a promise land and offered to show them a better way. Her son rejected her notions and went to seek out his father, while her daughter – who was pregnant with the next generation of gods – went with her and gazed into the mad tangle. The pollution of her mind was too much for her to bear and she fled back into the world of perfection, tearing it and tainting it as she went.
The first God saw the destruction but instead of weeping he called them all together and he declared that one more universe would be created to house the creatures of paradise while it was being fixed. He also swore that for her meddling, the first Goddess would be banished to the edges of the cosmos where she soon set to playing with her hellish world. Finally, with the birth of the final Gods, for the first God swore there would be no further Gods, a third universe was made.
This universe was weak and hastily made as it was only meant to be a temporary measure. The third God, the Divine Son, had to march its borders to defend it from his mad Grandmother. He followed the instruction of the Father who was eldest and wisest of them now that the Grandfather was busy repairing paradise. The Mother, guilty over having broken paradise through her failure to trust the Grandfather, bowed her head to the Gods and became an nurturer to the third world, obeying the wise male Gods. The Daughter, having been made ‘innocent’ and ‘simple’ due to her exposure to the Grandmother’s perverse world.
For those who do not assist the Grandmother’s attempts to damage the true laws, there will be life ever-lasting in the paradise of Grandfather’s creation.
What is this creation myth based upon?
Well, the Sen Dalians’ view of the gentle Family twisted as they became more militaristic. As the might makes right philosophy began to take root, the physically strong took control in order to protect their families from the increasingly militaristic people around them, and in doing so, they also began to enshrine the violent soldier’s code. They required a religion that was more in line with justifying male superiority, feminine weakness, and discouraging dangerous emotions that might upset the status quo. They also needed something to explain why life was so harsh and to promise a reward for those who toiled.
They needed an evil figure and their vilified the Grandmother as her cults were the most tenacious amongst the people and her original practices revolved around medicine and teaching those of lesser station, which was the most dangerous to the status quo. This creation myth doesn’t justify cruelty to any other human being, however, simply that each person has their place and should be proud of their place. An ordered society is a healthy society.
History of the creation myth
The Sen Dalians embraced this creation myth over a thousand years ago though it has obviously changed somewhat over the years. When the tribes of the Realms began coalescing under warlord states, shortly before the Chelian aristocracy, Sen Dalian merchants brought their new religion to the continent. It was resisted at first, but after a successful invasion of the northern parts of the Realms by the Sen Dalians (that lasted about 70 years), the religion soon spread.Part 3 will be the Imperials Creation Myth ….
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