From the Void: Chapter 1

Introduction: An origin myth is a story that tells how the universe, earth, and life was created. They usually say that a god or multiple gods created all life.  Origin myths also tell why people do the things that they do.  For example, the creation story in the Bible tells that God created light, earth, animals, plants, and people.  Because Eve ate the forbidden fruit offered to her by the serpent, sin was released into the world. This is just one example of an origin myth, but it shows that all creation stories share most of the same basic ideas. My origin myth is a made up origin story, but it shares many of the same concepts as other real origin myths.

 

 

In the beginning, there was nothing and there was everything. This was called the void.   From the void all things were born.

 

First came the goddess Elanora bringing song. With her came the fish and water, then the mighty stags with light cradled in their antlers and earth beneath their hooves.                   From these materials, Elanora created Falkreir, the world.

 

Second from the void came Slange, brother of Elanora and a trickster. With him came the scavengers, bearing darkness. Slange tricked Elanora into sharing her light; causing night to come upon Falkreir. Elanora was annoyed at her brother’s trick. To punish him, she threw many small hard rocks into his lair, so that their light might shine in his eyes when he was sleeping. Slange mocked her for this, saying that such small lights would be no trouble at all. In disgust, Elanora found the biggest stone she could throw and hurled in into the darkness.                                                                                                                Thus the stars and moon were placed in the heavens to illuminate the darkness.

 

 Unfortunately, Slange once more looked for a way to trick his sister. He sent his scavengers to dig him tunnels that he may live in. All of the extra dirt was piled into untidy mounds miles high. He made it look as if he had simply dug holes to cause destruction. Elanora cried out at what her brother had done to her beautiful world. She banished him to live in the ruined land that he had created, not knowing that is exactly what Slange had wanted her to do. Elanora retreated to the top of the mounts, claiming them as her own.                                                                                                                                 Thus the mountains and valleys were created.

 

By now, Elanora and Slange were becoming bitter enemies. Slange would play his tricks and Elanora had no choice but to give in. Their ongoing fights caused the earth to tremble and shake. The tunnels and holes of Slange grew deeper and wider while the mounts of Elanora grew taller.

            Falkreir was being torn in half.

 

For the third time, the void produced life. From the void came the twin goddesses Momiji and Botan with the sacred flame.                                                                                                 Botan stopped the fighting between her older brother and sister while Momiji used the flame to created life on Falkreir. The first thing created Falkreir were the trees. The trees cleaned the air and made it fresh.

Next, Momiji created all the winged creatures, from the smallest butterfly to the majestic eagles. She also created the small flowers and plants, and all the other insects.

 

 

Then Momiji the creator made all of the four-legged animals, including wolves, bears, horses and the great cats. These animals were created to make sure that the gods and goddesses would stop fighting.

 

However, the animals were not content. The cats argued that he wolves were always taking their territory, while the wolves grumbled that they had more children than the cats and it was only fair that they have more land. The horses complained about the grass on their side of the river being brown and dry while the bears had the sweet green grass - and the bears didn’t even eat grass!   

            Savage fighting soon broke out among the creatures.

 

So Momiji went to see Botan, the peacemaker, and begged her for her assistance.  “Sister Botan is there nothing you can do?” she pleaded. “Many of the animals already lie wounded; you must do something to end their quarrels!”

 

But Botan was already exhausted from settling the fights between Elanora and Slange and replied to her angrily. “Sister Momiji, you have created these troublesome creatures, deal with them yourself!”

 

So Momiji sadly left her sister alone and tried to fix the problems herself. But she was not the peacemaker her sister was, and only succeeded in making the fights grow fiercer.

Once again, she walked up to her sister and begged for her help. Then she tried asking Elanora, and even went down to Slange’s tunnels to ask him. All refused.

 

By now, the bitter fighting between the animal clans had grown into wars that stretched across all of Falkreir. The noise of the battles echoed off of the mountains, making a terrible noise that kept all of the goddesses restless and uneasy.