Alteri origin myth

  Originally posted to the message boards by Trevor Rage.

This is the "myth" of creation for the Alteri people.

The Awakening and the Ascension of the Alteri
as recounted by Sace Viceii, Alterian Historian

In the beginning, the Great Mother, Larasha, roamed the darkness. She was as much in the void as a part of it; indeed, She was and is all that surrounds us to this very day. The Great Mother pushed through the darkness to create the earth we stand on. It was Her divine right to create that spawned everything from the air we breathe to the moons we watch in the sky each night.

Her hands took the earth as a dough and molded the deep, life-giving oceans as well as the towering mountains. It was Her endless devotion to life that brought forth lush forests and thriving rivers, fertile grasslands and barren deserts. And in this time of beginnings, the essence of Her being became trapped within the world of Haelrahv, which is the name She gave to what is known to be Her first and most magnificent creation.

Roused by Her work, lesser deities came forth from the void She had left behind. We call these Gods the Veiseva, and they moved about the newly formed world, in an ebb and flow of constant creation. From Her home in the heavens, the Great Mother watched without interfering as these new deities quarreled and created their own life on Haelrahv. The rift in the darkness was left forgotten as the Gods worked together to bring forth life and beauty to the fragile new world.

Among these gods were Veclav, who, tormented by a fear of unending darkness, chased a burning orb around our world each day, and Yaireiro, the beautiful goddess of the seas. Yaireiro spent her days in whimsical play, only giving life to the many creatures that live within the ocean when she found herself bored from loneliness. Her voice was flawless, and often her songs were carried on the wind high above our world, taunting Veclav as he ran his foolish race. In time, Yaireiro took to chiding him, singing tunes of relentless enchantment as she sought to draw Veclav away from his daily task. She promised to show him hidden marvels in a world submersed in the darkness he feared. Veclav soon grew wary of her teasing and smitten by her haunting beauty, left his heavenly pursuit to join her in the ocean's embrace.

But it was no sooner than Veclav's immortal body sank into the ocean with Yaireiro than the sun forgot to run its marathon around our world. And thus, the world was divided betwixt frozen light and dark for days unknown. Obscurity ruled over one half of Haelrahv, which quickly became a cold and lifeless place, breeding only the cruelest of creatures. But across the globe, the lands were tormented with unyielding heat, and the lush forests that once grew there became a bramble of thorny briars, unable to protect or bear any life of its own.

Deep below the surface of our world, Yaireiro guided Veclav through the watery paradise that she had fashioned, sharing with him the pleasures of the underwater sanctuary. Yaireiro and Veclav became one, and from their union came the Loshei: tall, lithe sisters of pale sea-glass skin and enigmatic beauty.

Far above the erstwhile lovers, a time of ubiquitous disorder pressed upon our world. The coldness that overtook the underbelly of Haelrahv awakened the fearsome God, Yeii, from his celestial corner of the universe. Yeii closed in on the newly forming world and, extinguishing the stagnated sun, swaddled the lands in terror and darkness. High above the tallest mountains, Yeii watched in a cloud of impenetrable nightfall as his demonic apparitions scoured the earth destroying the last of the creatures the Great Mother had brought to life.

The people of Haelrahv cried out as the lands sank into lifelessness and the oceans rose up above them. Countless are the heroes that fell in those days, as forests burned and villages perished. Yeii was a gruesome slave master, shackling the once fruitful world in destitution.

Veclav felt immediately the dying of the sun, and knowing he was not meant for the pelagic world, beseeched Yaireiro to join him in the heavens. Afraid to leave her oceanic refuge, Yaireiro hesitated. She remained in the protection of the water, tending to the Loshei as only she knew how.

Veclav, finding his once beautiful world veiled in shadow, became a molten effigy of anger. He challenged Yeii to fight him not in the shadow of night but basked in light. And in that moment, he shot through the ashen clouds like a blazing comet in the heavens aimed to destroy Yeii and his cloaked sycophants. The sun lit anew as Vaclev's wrath exploded across the sky and Yeii writhed in what we now call Sereshira, or the First Sunrise.

From her perch within the shallow waters of Lalcowei Bay, Yaireiro watched as Vaclev's form passed by the sun in a brilliant display of warm sunlight. It was then that she finally laid eyes on the hideous shadow of Yeii, lurking just out of her lover's reach. Yaireiro, fearful that he would not survive such a jaded battle, left her earthbound home, along with her young Loshei daughters, in a vain effort to thwart his efforts to banish Yeii from their world. As she rose up to meet her beloved, her fragile body was caught up in the rushing fire that encompassed Veclav's magnificent form, and in a whirlwind of mist and foam that blanketed the ocean, her body returned to the sea.

We have been told across our many generations that it was her very core that made the first Alteri woman, and the last of her heart that formed the first man. They joined together in the underwater world that had once been home to Veclav and Yaireiro, seeking protection within its confines.

Veclav rushed upon Yeii, now seething with hatred and groaning inwardly at his loss, and sped away towards that brilliant orb in the sky, only resting when they became one with the fires that burn eternally in the heavens. And there they remain to this very day, struggling within the fires of the golden sun, as Veclav keeps Yeii's ominous power at bay.

A rain of fire poured down upon our depraved world when the two Gods became one with the sun, cleansing Haelrahv of all Yeii's anomalies. Only the Great Mother's many tears would put an end to the raging fires that became the world of Haelrahv. In the end, soot and ash blanketed the world for centuries.

The Great Mother took pity on the tiny Loshei and cared for them as Her own while the world below Her home boiled and sank into a long slumber. Raising them as best She could, She whispered into their ears the words that would craft their lifes work. Then, when She believed they had learned all She could teach, She sent them each back into the world to tend to the seas that their mother had once cared for.

They were each given a gift from the Great Mother, and named after their gifts they were: Sala'Reilvo, Sala'Reixavi, Sala' Ros, Sala'Rexi, Sala'Reivaa, Sala'Rivei, Sala'Risheisasa, Sala'Rihi, and Sala'Rihoe, each a perfect personification of various talents.

The Loshei drifted back into the seas to tend to our people, granting them gifts of magic and invention.

A new civilization had been forged, with magnificent buildings and inventions hand-crafted by our earliest ancestors. And it was in this underwater paradise that the Alteri grew and became strong as far above them on the surface, the Great Mother crafted the world once more, with the help of her brethren, the Veiseva. Saddened by the loss of life across the planet, they created two more races to flourish in our world. The Jaddan, a strong, docile race, that became knows as gentle protectors of the earth, and the Eolai, magnificent creatures that cultivated the forests with their own hands.

Many moons passed as Haelrahv began anew. Eventually, the two eldest Loshei grew bitter towards one another, jealous of each other's following from the young Alterians. Sala'Reilvo and Sala'Reixavi split the underwater world in two, forcing our cawahel, our eldest family, to choose between them. The remaining Loshei feared the chasm that grew between their sisters, and forming a plan, set immediately to work.

It was their strong hope that by removing the clashing progenies, they would cease the distance between the two sisters. And so, each day, little by little, the remaining sisters worked to lift up their city through the endless miles of ocean until at long last, they reached the water's surface.

The world that we created ascended to the very surface of the ocean, until it rested as an island far above our old sub aqueous home. The seven youngest Loshei, spent from their efforts became glistening funnels of mist and ascended to the heavens, where they remain as the many stars we pay homage to each night.

Sala'Reilvo and Sala'Reixavi are said to have taken the last of the underwater Alteri and hidden them away deep within Yeici, the nest of the sea, our first home.

Emboldened by the gifts and bravery of our creators, we fashioned the altars that have stood upon Loshei Island for a millennium. It was only after that work was completed that we searched out new lands to explore and as a pilgrimage such as has never again been repeated, joined our brothers the Jadda and the Eolai in the Great Mother's blessed world.

And so has it remained, and so will it go on until the very end of our days.