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In the beginning was the void, black nothingness. In the void, minds gradually condensed out of nothingness and became aware of themselves. This was the birth of the gods. The greatest of them was Cthon. As it grew, Cthon became aware of the void, and feared it, and the other entities that lurked within it. It created a solid form to contain itself and protect it from the beings in the void. And thus Dran was created. As it created Dran, Cthon split the physical world form the Spirit World, making itself a thing of the physical and thus mostly cut off from the Spirit World. As Cthon created Dran, the effort and concentration was so great, and it had never created a world before, that it also accidentally gave form and independence to a host of its own thoughts and fears and feelings. These were the first living things and the first spirits, born in darkness and cold, living in darkness and cold, worshipping Cthon as the slaves of and food to Cthon's true children - a race of giant black centipedal darkness-dwelling things to whom worship of Cthon was intrinsic.
Eternities passed.
The creatures living on Dran grew and changed. And as the creatures changed, proto-humans rose up in the darkness. Most worshipped Cthon, as was proper, but a few, misguided or evil, wished for something more than the dark and the cold, even if they had no idea what it might be.
Their prayers flew out from Dran, in the void, and in their foolishness they attracted other god-entities from the void - Urshanis and Skirion.
They saw the things that Cthon had created and were impressed, and fascinated, especially by the fact that it contained things that prayed to them, even without knowing them.
Cthon, in its shell, saw their coming but thought itself safe from them. And it was. They could not harm it in its shell, and nor did they want to. But they could help the things who had cried out to them.
They worked their will, and took all the proto-humans on board a great sail-less ship of gold and turquoise (the colours of the sun and sea), carried by a sea current from the south, crewed by powerful spirits or perhaps the gods themselves to protect them from what they were about to do.
They worked their will again, and the surface of Cthon's shell changed below them. Thanks to Urshanis, oceans flowed into the low places. Thanks to them both, plants spread across the land and seas, and after the plants, animals. Then Skirion made the sun and the stars and positioned them in the sky to bring light and warmth to the new life they had created, with stars at night to remind people that Skirion, and the sun, were always there. Mischievously, Urshanis threw some moving stars up into the sky, too, and made the tides, so that change and uncertainty happened even in the sky and the sea.
And so the life made by Cthon came out of the darkness into the light of the first day. Many of Cthon's creatures withered and died in the light and warmth of the sun, and for this, even more than for the light and life Urshanis and Skirion had brought to Dran, Cthon raged. In his rage, he changed Dran so that the other gods could not approach it, leaving them to affect events only at a distance, through their agents. But Cthon, trapped in its shell, also required agents to act among the living things of Dran.
But some of Cthon's life flourished in the new world. As the great ship of the gods sailed the proto-humans, progenitors of the various races of man, saw the places they preferred and were put ashore there, to start the various lines of the human race. They spread out from their landing places across the new light world with joy and wonder.
However, some, even so, hated the new world as an affront to Cthon and the old ways, continuing to worship it as their fellows turned to the new gods. Other of Cthon's creatures - spiders, cats and rats - became the common animals of the world while still others, a very few, became the monsters which lurk in the wild and hidden places of Dran.
But the proto-humans grew and changed, and in changing into true humans expanded their spiritual side, growing greatly in spiritual strength until they unknowingly called two new gods in from the void - the gods of the Spirit World, Jadan and Janthys, the Moon-Twins. They were welcomed by Urshanis and Skirion, though not by Cthon. They made the moons of Dran as signs of their coming and power (though Urshanis did slip in their effects on the tides, and the way they cause eclipses) and took their place in the pantheon of Dran.
And so humans grew to power on Dran, worshipping all of its five gods in their various ways.
And still Cthon raged and hungered for vengeance against the upstart gods
As humans arrived and multiplied the millipede-creatures were driven off into the corners of the land, and eventually Cthon's influence (and that of the dark things) was confined to the far north-west of the world.
Humans initially avoided that land, but as the dark things waned in power and numbers, humans moved in. The area still had a reputation for evil, and was home to a number of evil kingdoms and principalities who periodically rose up against their neighbours and were crushed. Then the Undying Lord came, and the fortunes of the region changed dramatically
There is an alternative, heretical version of this myth that says that all the gods other than Cthon are actually the most powerful of the fragments of Cthon that were given independent existence when Cthon created Dran, and which gained power almost to Cthon's level from the worship of humanity, first just the prayers of the proto-humans, which gave power to Urshanis and Skirion, then the prayers and strong spirits of the first true humans, who raised up the Moon-Twins.
These are divided between the (formerly) five very powerful gods. Although they exist the gods are largely non-interventionist. They consist of:
The other four gods are much more human-like, and much younger than Cthon.
Urshanis and Skirion are known as the Lifegivers, as they are considered responsible (by those who do not worship Cthon), for the origin of life on Dran, as a combination of the vitality of the Sun and the unpredictability of Urshanis.
Different nations worshipped different combinations of the five gods. Now the Empire imposes worship of Cthon alone onto all. Because of this there are secret worshippers of all the other deities all over the Empire, with priest holes, secret temples and secret priests everywhere, all of whom are hunted by the Empire.
In addition to the gods there are large numbers of minor spirits, including ghosts and poltergeists.
There are five planets in the skies of Dran. These are:
Some of the major constellations in the skies of Dran are as follows:
It is 16896 years since the Accession of the Undying Lord, which marks year 0, the start of the Imperial calendar. The Empire's calendar does not have any months (as they are a Moon-based system), just numbered days, exactly 380 of them to a year.
The Imperial year starts on Accession Day, when the Undying Lord gained his power from Cthon, which is also the midwinter solstice and the major festival of the year. Many sacrifices are made to Cthon on this day and gifts given to it from its worshippers, with the richer the person, the more lavish the gifts expected.
There are legends of sea-serpents and island-sized turtles which sleep so long they grow island vegetation on their shells, and sink when sailors light fires on their backs. There are also legends of 'Ghost Islands' which only appear under the full Moons in various places, such as the Lunar Empire, the Thousand Islands and so on.
Long ago, there was a paladin of the Moon-Twins. Their greatest Paladin. But she grew old, as all do. However, she saw that there was still so much left to do, and as her life neared its end, she prayed to the Moon-Twins for a way for her to continue their work forever, even after her death. The Moon-Twins heard her plea and looked upon it with favour. They came to her in dreams and told her that they could give her what she wished, but it would be a hard way. Very hard, and take her from their arms, forever, to do their work.
She would be their champion, their hero in the world, born over and over again back out of the Spirit World to live in the worst of the world and fight, and die, to save it. Moving through the Spirit World, the Moon-Twins regime, but never a part of it, awaiting rebirth into blood, and pain, and evil, to fight their fight.
Nearly, she doubted, but her faith held her heart on course. She only hesitated briefly before agreeing to do her deities bidding.
But the paladin had a love, a handsome prince, a scholar, mage and artist whose family the paladin had saved many years before. They loved each other, but although his love for her was without parallel in his heart, her love for him was second to her love for her deities.
He had dreamed that, after death, they would be together forever in the arms of the Moon-Twins. When she told him of the boon the Moon-Twins had granted he was devastated, and ran from her, sobbing. He prayed to the Moon-Twins, asking only, "Why?"
"Because it is her will, and ours," they replied, whispering into his spirit. "But there may be a way to be with her forever. But it will be a hard way, very hard, and it will take you from our arms, forever."
He would be born alongside his love, into blood and pain and evil, down through all of time, until her work was done, reborn over and over, meeting and loving over and over.
He hesitated not at all before agreeing to their boon.
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Copyright © Tony Jones, 2007.
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