CHAPTER I
OF THE DREAM OF DREAMS
Also, this is not a biography on Secret7 If she trys to convince you, tell her she's wrong and then remain calm, i might not sue then
In the books of the ancients it is laid down: the Lore of the Great Mother, the One and All, and the Being and the Will of the Gods, the Lore of the World and her Eternal Becoming, of the Outbreak of the Great War and the steady work of the Elements therein, the Lore at last of all Things Living, of Elves, Dwarves, Humans, as well as of Orcs and their kind, of all those that have begun the works of the Celestials herewith and are destined to fullfil them hereafter. All this is written in the books of the ancients.
Let us therefore honor and guard those tales that were handed down by our fathers, handed down to our fathers by theirs in turn, let that which sires have entrusted to sons from time immemorial now sound anew. May those words be ones of edification or of bewilderment, of inspiration or even of dismay, may life arise from them, may life succumb to them - impartial hearing let us give our antique lay! Let us then hear the Dream of Avá so that it spells out the Truth, the only and eternal Truth. The Truth of Aér'ai'chán."
In the Beginning there was the Origin and the End. For when the Origin arose the End arose also, and when the End arose the Origin arose also, the Origin and the End. Both were in one and one was in both, Origin and End, End and Origin; there was, thus, the Origin in the End, the End in the Origin. There arose the Tide of Time through a turn of the Tide of Time, Time's Tide turning into Time, beyond Time, into Eternity. Thus dreamt Avá.
For it was Avá that the Axhái named her, those that first sprang from the Fullness and became what is now called the Elven Race. Avá they called her, Avá the Supreme, the One, Avá, the Unique One, Avá the Great Mother, the Giver of Life, Avá the Immortal One, She Who Bringeth Forth All Things, She Who Dreameth Forth All Things. And even when Creation was no longer in her infant years, when Avá had already abondoned her children to observe the earthly doings from a place far off in the firmament, even then the elves gave her affectionate names. These names were such as accorded with the modes of her being, such as they thought proper, such as according to their innermost belief would do justice to Avá and her works. Therefore they used to call her Avá the Compassionate, Avá the Just, Avá the Merciful and, beyond all this, Avá the Beautiful. The other Children of the Great Mother however, the Human Race, that of the Dwarves and that maligned ones, the Orcs, did not know their Creatress or would not know of Her. They mistrusted the Axhái and would not believe what they were told about the magnificent works of Avá. Thus it happened that the Axhái eventually came up with an altogether different nomenclature, one that was to reflect the hybris of the other earthlings which made them reject the First and Only One, nay, deny her very existence. Therefore the Mother of Creation also came to be called Avá the Forgotten One, Avá the Lost One, Avá the Unappreciated One and - eventually - Avá the Unreal. And even as this faulty brood presumed to disdain the womb it had sprung from, so it failed to perceive the grandeur and the glory of all that which the Mother had put at her Childrens' disposal, for them to take their portion of happiness therein and be filled with the desire to multiply. But it was Avá, the Unique One, it was her alone who had begun to dream the Dream of Time in Her World Beyond Time. She dreamt of Herself, forsooth, in the Dream of Time and Eternity alike, and so it came about that the first and the last Hour of Creation were knelled in that selfsame Dream.
For this has been handed down to us by the ancients; namely that Avá, the First and Only One, dreamt the Dream of Dreams, the Dream of Herself, the Dream of that selfsame who dreamt it, the Dream of the dreaming Avá. Every moment, so it is said, is filled with that Dream, for Her Dream is that moment which concealeth the fullness of Eternity. Therefore the One will dream her Dream forever and though this takes Her but a moment, Eternity is thus thrust on Creation for what the offspring of her Dream may behold of it is Eternity, Eternity and Time, Truth and Mirage, Essence and Accident, both in one and one in both. This however was the reason for Her dream to commence: Even though, to wit, the Thoughts of Avá were beautiful and harmonious beyond compare, unimaginably pure and uniquely benevolent, even though She was self-contained and at rest in Her spiritual freedom, there remained a thing which, though unable to mar the essence of Her being, She deemed it a taint to be removed: the Thought, that all Her splendour, Her kindness and Her purity, nay, even the very beauty of Her being, were not complete in themselves, that the sublime and the grand is in need of the lowly and diminuitive, that the incompareable requires that which it cannot be compared to. The Perfect One, in sum, decided to behold Her own perfection, the Unique One her Uniqueness. Avá desired to behold Herself.
"Who am I?", the First and Only One demanded of Herself. For in the beginning was an effort at self-inquiry, Avá's desire to know Herself, the effort first taken by the Great Mother and later renewed by the Children of Creation. And as Avá delved into Herself She laid down to sleep, Herself for to encounter in that sleep, creating images to match Her Thoughts and a plethora of imperfect things to fill a void that was perfect. Her soul being unfathomable, Her sleep was profound and fast and it plunged deep into the core of the Aeolía, the First Thoughts, deep in the essence of Avá.
Then, as She lay dreaming, She all of a sudden fancied to behold the myriads of Thoughts and Concepts that She nourished, no longer as mere representations of Her mind but as the manifest embodiments of will reflected in a mirror. It was a moment of supreme happiness for Avá and also a moment of heavenly amazement, for what the One was granted to behold was no longer Herself, was her double but not Herself, Thoughts that were the same as Her own, indeed, but still not the same. What She beheld in that Dream was another part of Herself, another part of Her Thougths, the Other of Avá. She dreamt of being at one with Herself and as She was dreaming of the One She beheld the Many from which the One had sprung, the Many which in Her Dream had given birth to Her, the One, the First and Only One. She dreamt of being that which She was and as She was dreaming of Being She beheld Becoming, the Becoming from which Being had arisen, from which that Dream had sprung that was to become real. The Dream was: Avá dreamt of being immortal and as She was dreaming of Immortality She beheld Mortality, Time which dismembers Being to create Becoming, discontinuing the Constant for the Accidential to have Access; yea, Avá was dreaming of Shape, of Shape per se, and what she beheld was the Essence of Shape, the Essence underlying Shape. She dreamt of the Essence of Her Concepts and what She beheld was their representations. She dreamt of Matter and what she beheld was Matter materialized. She dreamt of Avá and what she beheld was Esh-Avá: Esh-Avá the Other, Esh-Avá the Fake One, Esh Avá the Stranger, Esh-Avá the Universe. Later on the Axhái would come up with yet another set of quite different cognomina denoting the reflection of Avá, but so far the time was not ripe for that.
Avá too was not yet able to read the signs. On the contrary, she fell to marvelling at Herself by means of that Dream, indulging like an innocent girl in the contemplation of Her own aspect, wondrously reflecting from a mirror. Just as the little girl will smooth her shirt, turning this way and that with a mind to cutting an imposing figure in the mirror, so Avá, the Great Mother, was totally wrapped up in the contemplation of Her own image. But Avá, again resembles the girl who would behold in the mirror only that which She desired to behold, did not perceive the Truth concealed in her own image as She was much too infatuated with beauty thereof. Still it is said, that even back then Avá was for an instant startled from those raptures occasioned by the reflection of Her aspect when all of a sudden she caught a glimpse of the Eternal Truth. She grew alarmed and realized that the Dream was not identical with the one who dreamt it even though the Dream without the Dreamer is a mere Nothing, nay, the Void itself, a Thing beyond the Void even: the Nothingness that came before the Void. So it happened that while dreaming of Herself, Avá realized that in the course of that Dream She became Another. But when the Dream began Avá beheld but Herself and had no mind for the essence of Her vis-à-vis, for the essence of Her likeness, the Image of Avá. Thus dreamt Avá.
The Creation of Life.
As with all myths they are mingled with reality. This elven myth is no different. According to the books of the Cárpa'dosía the High elven Goddess Avá the Beautiful dreamed the Dream of the creation of the world and all its consequences. In her Dream She created the Gods: the Gods of Wind, Eyasha, Grothar and Nehtor; the Gods of Earth, Arvins, Queprur and Urtengor; the Gods of Water, Baveras, Jeyriall and Seyella; and finally the Gods of Fire, Armeros, Etherus and Foiros.
In the Beginning the Gods walked the land, loved and even tried to teach the Children of Avá, the races She had created, the elves, dwarves, humans and orcs. These races would all gather under the Eu'reóll, the Tree of Life, from where they sprang and worship the wonder of life. Then one night as they were worshiping tragedy struck.
A bolt of lightning struck the Tree of Life and it was almost burned in half. As the leaves fell representing souls of life some burned, others formed wings and flew away. Avá couldn't stand the thought of the Tree of Life being burnt and so She hid it from the eyes of Her Children, and She Herself left the world which was created while She dreamed. Shocked, Her Children dispersed all over the land. It was at this time that the Gods began to notice an important difference between themselves and the Children. The Children were given the freedom of choice to choose their destiny, and they were not.
Rise and Fall of Fá'áv'cál'âr. The first Children who worshipped Avá as well as Her other half, Coór, who had caused the Tree of Life to burst in flames, were the elves. It was after the burning of the Tree and the dispersing of the races that the elves in time built an empire, which should restore the bliss they all had enjoyed at the Beginning of Time. This empire was called Fá'áv'cál'âr and its capital Fá'áv'darím. Now, in the Beginning the Gods had known nothing of the emotions that the Children had but as they walked the land and had form they began to behave like the Children with all of the good and bad that was in them including being jealous of the Children.
Finally a high priestess named Kásh'áv'talylá turned the elves away from the other Gods and caused much more jealousy among them than they had ever felt before. Coór let his shadow descend upon the other Gods and anchored the desire in their essence that the Children of Avá, especially the elves, needed to be punished. Using Armeros, the God of War, to initiate hatred among the other races towards the elves they attacked the elves. But these attacks only strenghthened the resolve of the elves that they were right in their actions and beliefs.
Kásh'áv'talylá continued to preach against the Gods. Finally the Goddess of the Scythe, Queprur, still being in human form, decapitated her for her blasphemy as She saw it and along with the God of the Sun, Foiros, and the God of Lightning, Grothar, they destroyed the famed elven empire Fá'áv'cál'âr and its capital Fá'áv'dárim. The Gods had hoped that with their empire dead the elves and the other races would die off, to their dismay they did not. The essence of life, the love given by the High Goddess to her Children, seemed to prevail. The Gods then left the world following Avá's example but carrying with them the emotions of the children.
Queprur's Revenge. It was during this time that the goddess Queprur fell in love with the God of War, Armeros, but He rejected Her for the Jeyriall, with whom he had already produced the Titans in the Beginning of the creation of the world. This rejection caused even more fighting amongst the Gods with some siding with Queprur and others with Jeyriall. With nothing like a woman scorned Queprur turned her anger to the Children of Avá.
So She raised up a blood thirsty elf named Av'ásh'aelía or as the human race called Her: the "Bone Queen". She would later become the ruler of the Shadow Elves, a race of elves that worshipped Coór solely. She was given much power and cunning in battle and she assaulted the other races especially the orcs and the humans. The Gods had hoped this atrocity would rally the other races to destroy Avá's first Children but it didn't.
Some elves did not disperse and stayed and began to worship Coór. The souvereign over His worshippers was Saban. However after Saban and his wife were killed by an an orcish attach Coór brought Av'ásh'aelía back from the south, where she now resided, to rule his elven followers, the Shadow Elves.
The War of the Chosen. The fightings and jealousies amongst the Gods split them into three groups. The Wind gods seeing the folly of the other Gods, went their way and decided that they would not interfere with the fate of the Children of Avá anymore. Though there is a rumor that they did once during the Battle of the Winds but this is not confirmed in they myth. It was also reported that during this battle one, who was "chosen" (see below) by the God Etherus named Eckra the Cruel died.
Queprur, being the most respected among the other Gods, along with Etherus, Arvins and Foiros joined together to once more attempt to extinguish Avá's Children with their celestial powers. Jeyriall, the arc rival of Queprur, joined forces with Baveras, her lover Armeros and Urtengor to thwart them. During the Council of War it was decided that each one would chose, one for each God, anyone from among Avá's Children to do their bidding.
These "Chosen Ones" would be given special powers by the Gods themselves the humans call "magic". These people were called Archmages or Warlords. They trained others in the art of magic and soon they gathered huge armies consisting of the Children of Avá and they also created creatures of mass destruction, yes, even called upon creatures of other worlds and demons of hell itself. This war would later on be named "The War of the Chosen."
Those "Chosen" who were selected by Queprur and her allies wore black therefore they were called the "Black Mages". Those selected by Jeyriall and her allies wore white as they represented the opposite of the Black Mages and therefore were called the "White Mages". The Gods' motive unbeknownest to even their followers was to have all of Avá's Children destroy themselves and this time they almost succeeded except for one Goddess's intervention, which came from Seyella. the Goddes of Destiny.
Seyella knowing all things that must come to pass knew that this war had to be stopped. She chose a Child with an elf as his father and a human female as his mother to be Her instrument and to bring about the end of this foolish war. He was called Méhan'Melór in the elvish tongue, but his mother just called him Ethan. She died shortly after giving him birth. It was reported that she had been raped by Saban and because of his half-breed status was left to die.
Seyella had pity on him and chose him to be her special ward. He was given powers that exceeded those of all the other Chosen. Ethan created a tower joined with the world itself and named it Nalgsahg (which in the Dragon tongue is translated with "to be" or "to exist"). Dragon language is the most powerful language for magic and he was taught it by a rare Shapeshifting Dragon that Seyella had selected for his support. It is reported that this dragon has helped all of Seyella's wizards of Nalgsahg even to this day. Ethan named him Capher meaning "saw-faire" because he was helped by Seyella to see the future.
It is not recorded how Ethan stopped the war but his last battle was with an Archmage known as Ma'asherom the Red, the one chosen by the God Foiros. He was named this way because of his red beard, thirst for blood and being "touched" by the sun god.
By most accounts it seems that Ethan lost the battle. But Ma'asherom the Red was bereft of his magics after the fight that when he returned home in his temple at Colthoi his subjects revolted, and being powerless, was killed.
The many legends that surround this last battle is told by bards all over the world even to this day and they all differ considerably. One legend tells of a dragon taking Ethan off the battle field and carrying him away. Others tell of someone looking like Ethan walking into the Etherial Void never to be seen by mortal beings again. And even others tell of Ethan returning to his tower to fulfill his destiny to help an innocent youth, Eyrin Fontramonn, at defeating Saban Blackcloak the Móh'rónn - but this is another story."
Discord
Light Style