For not the first time, I’m writing the Cosmic Pool’s myth of creation.
Aka the exact moment that everything in that world comes to fruition, and the events that follow. This is what sets up the momentum of the rest of the stories to come.
We’re not going to talk about what was there before, or why the process of Creation started in the first place. Instead, we’re going to look at the oldest remaining version of the myth that we have access to today.
This version can be found in a tome known as: the Orisian Cosmic Hymn, dated around -232NE (New Existence). This is one of a few Pre-Rending1 sources we still have, and it’s value cannot be understated.
So what does this book say? Let’s take a look, from the very beginning, which starts like this:
“First — Nothing at all.
Just still Deepwaters
& Quiet
& Darkness.
From Height comes flying a great Bird, who has within her stomach a single ori (trans. "seed”).2
This Bird cannot find anywhere to rest as she is flying, and so she falls to the surface of the Deepwaters and drowns in Depth.3
Her body dissolves in the Deepwaters and becomes material that feeds ori, who sprouts from her remains and becomes Oris.
Light follows the Bird’s Path from Height, and begins Pushing into and filling up the Cosmic Pool with her brilliance and clarity. Quickly, this becomes too much for the world to handle, as balance is necessary for survival, and too much of anything becomes sickness.
Thus, a great Pulling comes from Depth to siphon excess Pushing energy back into Nothingness, which allows room for more Light to enter before being negated in turn.4
Existing between the Polarities, the tips of Oris’ branch nodes begin developing buds, which flower and grow into five spectacular and unique Divine-Fruit.5
From the first fruit to open comes the goddess Mirae, of the Water, who springs forth from sweet flesh split against the surface of Oris’ roots.
The impact of Mirae’s birth calls the second fruit to fall, from which leaps the god Lioel, of the Wind, before he even hits the ground.
Quick-spirited Lioel proceeds to pick the third fruit from Oris’ branch, which melts in his palm, revealing the goddess Elyon, of the Heat, just waking in the very center.
Mirae mirrors her brother, and picks the fourth fruit, who cracks apart, fragile egg-shell crumbling and turning to dust in her fingers. Inside her cupped hands: the god Byreus, of the Stone.
Four of five Divinities search for their remaining sibling amongst Oris’ branches, but no more fruit is to be found there. Instead, from a brown lump nestled at the base of the trunk, blooms the goddx Khoras, of the Soil, who takes their place as the final of the Primordial Elements.”6
Thus ends the Orisian Cosmic Hymn- but there are a few things still left to cover. After waking up and forming physically, the Major Divinities begin their work of organizing Creation.
At the base of Oris’ trunk becomes the land of Yuwen, the material plane.
Yuwen’s reflection across the surface of the Deepwaters (otherwise known as the Mirrored Horizon) and located amongst Oris’ root-network, becomes known as the Shadowlands, other side of the coin.
Each of the Major Divinities create three things in the beginning: the first member of their own species, and an area of Yuwen that they will start their people’s existence within, and an exoplanet that rules over them.
Mirae creates:
- the First-Spark of the Watertusk species
- the Yuwenic territory of Galmere Bog
- the exoplanet Mania → planet of reception
Lioel creates:
- the First-Spark of the Daemon species
- the Yuwenic territory of Old Grove
- the exoplanet Trion → planet of movement
Elyon creates:
- the First-Spark of the Shepherd species
- the Yuwenic territory of Northreach
- the exoplanet Iccaro → planet of inspiration
Byreus creates:
- the First-Spark of the Stonekin species
- the Yuwenic region of the Spine Mountain Range
- the exoplanet Anvilia → planet of stability
Khoras creates:
- the First-Spark of the Fae species
- the Yuwenic territory of Southern Eshusé
- the exoplanet Ebos → planet of growth
From there, each Diety takes the First-Spark of their created species to the land they claimed for their people, and thus begins an era of the timeline known as the Mythic Period, which is denoted using negative numbers counting up to 0 (the Rending) followed by the letters NE, or New Existence. (example: -232NE; -37NE; -149NE; etc.)
We’ll end here this time. Next, I’ll cover the first Divinity, Mirae, and her creations the Watertusks, as well as what they do during the Mythic period in more detail.
Thanks for reading!
Pre-Rending, or New Existence, happened before the Rending itself. This event is otherwise known as when the World Tree ORIS finally succumbs to the sickness plaguing him, splitting down the center of his trunk. Naturally, a lot of things change after this occurs, and thus a lot of pre-Rending information is lost to time.
A major aspect of the Cosmic Pool’s magic system relies on the concept of everything having a Name, a proper noun Name, spoken as if one was referring to an entity with it (which one is). Height (trans. “a great distance”) is an example of this, and so is Oris (“Tree”). Names always have the first letter capitalized.
Depth can be translated as “right in front of-” an implied viewer-self, or as simply “Here.” Because of this, some like to interpret this moment where the Bird drowns as happening concurrently, with all of us present to expereince it- right in front of our very eyes.
Light is a rough translation of the Yuwenic name “Teter,” which refers to one of the Polarities: the Pushing. This is the source of life in the Cosmic Pool, providing energy and creative life-force to those under her influence.
The Pulling force, otherwise known as “Ehiri,” is Teter’s opposite, and the second half of the two Polarities. Ehiri is an exercise in letting go, in darkness and the night time. These forces work in tandem to keep the balance of the Cosmic Pool in check.
The Divine-Fruit are otherwise known as the Primordial Elements, who blend together to make up all of the physical world of Creation. These five elements are as follows: Water, Wind, Heat, Stone, and Soil.
The land of Southern Eshusé, who consider Khoras their patron Diety, say that, although the Divinity’s fruit is not mentioned by name, that it does exist within the story, and that, actually, Khoras’ fruit was the first to ripen and fall from Oris’ branch, not Mirae. Many instead infer that the aptly named “brown lump” that the Diety does sprout from is the remains of Khoras’ fruit, which has decomposed in the time it takes their siblings to gain physical form.