Creation Myth (Grellism)

According to the ancient mythology of the Befores, the world (Galwyndor) began as a giant primordial stone which was called Grellis, which was wise beyond compare. After many thousands of eons, the stone became restless and began gnawing upon itself until the wold was created from a piece that had broken off. When the piece broke off, Grellis cried out in pain, which created the air. Grellis then wept, which created the seas. The primordial stone contemplated this event, eventually concluding to make the best of the situation, and there conspired to create things which could benefit from his misery: he then made a great etherwood tree to enjoy the earth, an espitris to enjoy the air, the flidfish to enjoy the sea. At first Grellis was content, but something was still missing, so the stone created the first Inar, known as the Elder Inar, to enjoy the ability to contemplate. A piece of his spirit went into each of these things.

The Gods

Grellis was quite satisfied with his creations until he realized that they each were soon wrought with the same loneliness and restlessness he had experienced. It was then that he created the gods: Drend of stone and earth, Orend of air, and Helirend of water. He made the gods wardens of each of their realms, and instructed them to fill their realms with as many creatures as they wanted, which they did. As a gift to Grellis, they each also created the sun (Drend), the moon (Orend), and the stars (Helirend).

Over time, Grellis created other gods as needs arose, leaving them to their own devices to maintain their collective creations. When the last of the gods was created, Grellis went to sleep to rest, leaving the gods in charge. While he slept, Helirend became enraged when one of Orend's creations ate one of his, and thus began the first altercation among the gods, who have been fighting, negotiating, tricking, plotting, conspiring, and making peace with each other ever since. It is said that when Grellis awakes from his slumber, the gods will return the world to peace and prosperity.

The Races

Once turmoil amongst the gods began, the three brothers became jealous of the Inar, because they were superior to all of their creations, having sentience. They each, in turn, created a new sentient race, and each sought to make theirs better than the Inar in some way.

• Drend, god of stone and earth, created the dwarfs to be heartier than the Inar.
• Orend, god of air, created the humans from the lungs of the Inar to be more adaptable than Inar. Of all the races, humans were the only ones to be made from the Inar, which is why they could interbreed with them.
• Helirend, god of water, created the merfolk, which could rule the seas as the others ruled the land.

After these races came into being, they were quite happy with their creations. However, other gods decided to try their hand at this, and three more races were created.

• Iriel, goddess of fire and light, created the attawa.
• Huctis, god of fortitude, created the jrel.
• Kleya, goddess of protection, created the giants to protect nature from the destruction of the other races.

Although these new races were intended to have other traits that the Inar did not, they still did not have the spirit of Grellis within them, which gave the Inar a distinct advantage over the other races. The Inar possessed a higher measure of power, as more of the essence of the omnicrux ran through their veins. They could wield and manipulate magical energy -- the spirit of Grellis, known to them as the omnicrux. Ultimately it was Skulf, the god of chaos, who convinced his mother Sherriva to teach the other races the hidden secrets of wielding and manipulating the omnicrux, which was within them, but to a smaller degree. This brought favor from the race-creator gods, who had always been envious of the Inar.

The final race, the Cauthrians, which were mixed elves and humans, were created through interbreeding of their own accord. As a result, the Cauthrians had a higher degree of omnicrux, but not as much as the Inar. This is why the Cauthrians died off along with the Inar during the Great Purge.

Non-Grellis Created Gods

While there are unions among the gods under this system, and many of the deities are children of other deities, these were all created by Grellis and gifted to the gods as he saw fit. The gods were at first unable to create new gods, and their unions were simply by choice, until M'ranin beget her offspring of the Dark Seven. After M'ranin and her seven offspring were banished, the gods learned to beget new offspring, but vowed never to make them in the manner of the mortals, as M'ranin had done.

See Also

• List of Deities