"Of Humans and Elves, Creation Legend" by Ben Cameron

Creation Myth

      Chaos ruled.

      Out of the anarchy came the Ancients.  Five creatures of power, elemental forces in their purest form.  Together, they created the known world and to it, each contributed their own strengths and weaknesses: the intrinsic power of nature, the boiling seas, the awesome fury of the storm, and the immobility of the mountains, and then living life.

      Kohl, Goddess of Earth, carved the land.  From her came the strength and wisdom for both nature and mankind.  As she carved, though, tears of sorrow flowed down and filled the gullies, valleys and oceans, for she foresaw and knew the troubles her world would face.

      To Pyrrha’s whim cavorted tongues of fire, dancing and growing in the dangerous winds of his breath.  Passionate and unpredictable, both beautiful and terrifyingly potent, an impossible allure to behold.  The God of Fire’s very being is reflected in the emotions of human and elfkind: love, hatred, jealously, envy and adoration.

      From Acacias’ patient dedication sprang the fauna and flora, manifestations of her youthful joy and purity.  Her innocence lives on in the leaping deer, the diving kite and contented babes.  Yet there are inevitably those who seek to corrupt, to pervert this innocence, bending it to their own ends and there are always those susceptible to their perversions.

      Uthero, Goddess of Life.  She spent eons sculpting and perfecting her creations: the races.  Yet, for all the countless millennia, Uthero’s pride in her abilities crept into all of those she made.  She was their Pandora’s box, into her receptacles, her creations she let Pyrrha’s emotions pour.  When she, and they, realised the mistake, there was nothing more the Ancients could do, life was doomed to live with their blunder.

      In the beginning, there was chaos, and thus, must chaos remain.  Durga.  More element and power than being, the God Of Chaos was and is both essential and hated, a necessary evil.  Some argue he was the first, some that he does not even exist, for it is an ugly truth to believe the world is innately bound to chaos, but this does not and could not reduce his colossal, though unwieldy, power.

      And yet everything must fade in time, and the Ancients knew only too well that their influence was limited.  Thus, they offered the elves a proposal: immortality.  In return, they were to be the protectors; guardians of all the Ancients had created.  The elves, though, must never interfere with those outside their realm unless in dire circumstances.  When needed, fate would give rise to one competent and capable of leading the elves to sustain peace in the land.

      In this, though, Durga was not consulted, and the other four Ancients forever incurred his wrath for their indiscretion.

      Some believe there was another Ancient, a sixth in the circle.  One whose face and name were never known.  One known only as the Protector.  Most say He is the God of the Firmaments, for certainly His face is hooded so well it is as dark as the night sky.  Others believe Him to have ruled over the Ancients.  According to legend, His power was so phenomenal that He still walks the lands today though the other Ancients have long since fallen into unconscious sleep.

      The elves found that their immortality came not without a price.  Although already reclusive, their exclusion from others isolated them further, until they became a highly cultured and intelligent, but not diverse, race.  They eventually separated further, splitting into small clans that roamed their lands together, congregating only at important times of the year.  In due time, they found out why outside interaction was forbidden.  For Uthero’s creations had gained as much from her gifted hands as from her personality.  The humans were jealous and arrogant.  Over the ages, as the elves occasionally intervened to prevent certain disaster, the humans resented and lusted after the elves’ longevity and affinity for the magiks for it ran weak in their blood.

      Eventually, during the Border Feuds of the 3^rd Era, the elves often found themselves under attack, albeit covertly, from their allies as often as from their enemies.  Although they saw the Feuds to an end, the elves never forgave the covetous humans and a deep-rooted hatred, long ago foretold by the Goddess Kohl, has since developed between the two races.

      As promised, fate delivered exactly what was needed, but fate is a whimsical thing, and does not always deliver in the expected package.