| Dawntime, The According to legends, the universe was created by the one God, Eshmaan. It was Eshmaan who appointed the dragons Camthaun and Rauthspai, gods of Light and Darkness, to rule the world of Galthea from the heavenly kingdom of Nirodha. At that time, Galthea was a blank slate, a rolling chaos of fire, storms, molten rock and turbulent seas. When Camthaun gave birth to four daughters, Anathelisk, Daeminda, Padhrosk and Teleimach, they breathed life and spirit into the world by creating the first elementals. To control fire, they created the Seqanna, to control air they created the Shakaru, to control the earth they created the Buku, and to control the waters they created the Naera. During this time, the daughters of Rauthspai and Camthaun also mated with the elementals and gave birth to lesser gods. From Teleimach and the Seqanna came Tiya, the Lord of War. From Daeminda and the Shakaru was born the Hanaanim, a race of giants. Anathelisk gave birth to Dewing, the Lord of Agriculture after mating with the Buku. And from a strange union with her own father, disguised as a Naera, Padhrosk gave birth to another race of giants, called the Dahakaanim. Over time, with the help of the lesser gods and the elementals, it was the four daughters of Camthaun and Rauthspai who shaped the world into what we know today, raising land from the oceans, fashioning plants and trees, creating the early creatures of Galthea. It is said that Camthaun was proud of her daughter's creations, and looked upon them fondly, but that Rauthspai believed that the workings of the Everlasting were folly, and that his daughters were not paying enough respect to him. In a rage, Rauthspai travelled from Nirodha to Galthea and attempted to destroy it, but was turned back by Daeminda. The next night, he returned while Daeminda was sleeping and drowned her in the Chisabic Sea. In the morning, when Teleimach discovered this, she told her mother and Camthaun, in a fit of uncontrollable grief, banished Rauthspai to a new realm, a void, which she called Dukkha, deep within the bowels of the world, never to set foot outside again. Daeminda's spirit was released and spread all over the Aethyr, and Daeminda in her death became the Empress of Dreams. Many generations passed, and Galthea became once more a peaceful place, with the help of the Hanaanim. Rauthspai, however, had not slept once in exile, his jealous mind swimming with thoughts of revenge. Slowly, he began to woo the Dahakaanim down to Dukkha, and with them he fashioned an army, and sent his hordes out from the caves of the earth into Galthea to destroy everything they saw. Tiya responded first by recruiting the Hanaanim, but the giants were too slow to be effective in protecting Galthea from Rauthspai's hordes, and the Everlasting, while powerful, were too few. In desperation, Anathelisk married one of the giants to a monkey, and they gave birth to the first humans. Anathelisk gave them spears and sent them to fight the hordes. The first battle was a success, and the hordes were defeated, but Rauthspai continued to create more monstrous creatures and sent them to scourge the world by marrying Dahakaanim to other creatures: cats, wolves, rats, goats, snow foxes and boars, creating a vast army to fight against the hordes. Both Rauthspai and the rest of the Everlasting's magic worked so well, that they realized one day that there were no more Hanaanim or Dahakaanim left to interbreed, and all that was left were the races created from their unions. During this time more Gods were born to both sides and joined in the fray. Rauthspai sent out one last horde to destroy Galthea, this time gifted with magical powers. In reponse, Teleimach took one thousand Mannish warriors and gave them the gift of magic to help them defeat it. Each warrior passed on their gift to a thousand other warriors and each of those passed it on to a thousand more, until, with Teleimach's gift on their side, they met the last horde at the Battle of Tears and destroyed it. Exhausted, Rauthspai finally fell to sleep, while the victorious Mannish warriors of Galthea built a series of huge gates in the places where the hordes had entered Galthea, and sealed them with magical locks, so as keep the hordes from returning. In time, Camthaun realized that the very presence of the Everlasting on Galthea upset the balance of the world, and threatened to wake Rauthspai, and called them up into Nirodha, offering a place for all those souls who had lived their lives in a just fashion to join her there; while other souls were to wait for judgement within the Aethyr, some to return to Galthea within new bodies, and others to join Rauthspai in eternal banishment. As centuries passed, the offspring of both the Dahakaanim and the Hanaanim began to flourish. Away from the direct influences of the gods who created them, they banded into groups of their own kindred and found lands to till and built new cities. And the magic of the Warlocks and Rauthspai's dark magic decreased in the blood of the new races by each passing generation. But the strongest and most righteous was always the Mannish, those children of the Hanaanim. |