First Book of the Orchids

This is the Prima Liber Florae, or First Book of the Orchids. Long ago your Baron commissioned me to write a great work detailing the History of the World and the Victory of Treesia in the recent War. After much study of the ancient lore, I have finished the first Book, which deals with the Creation of the World. Without further ado, I give you the Tale of the Creation and the Fall:

The First Book Of The Orchids Prima Liber Florae

First came the sea on the shore of the world
Then came the Mother of All
Then Mandorallen, with standard unfurled
Then Ilass, who fell in the Fall
Last came the Orchids that sealed the world's fate
Long 'ere the first isle e'er rose
That seal the Great Book when they touch and they mate
And bring all of our tales to a close

These words are carved upon the empty Cave
That marks the tomb of Utas. When he died
'Twas said that these (in every letter true)
Were the prophetic words the vanquished cried
Sent by some higher fate (I dare not guess
What voice can speak to gods in their last hour
In pain's despite, and force from bloody mouths
A verse, suffused with an oracular power.)
Whate'er it was, it guessed aright, and we
Children of gods, and keepers of the lore
Still gather 'round the words upon the Rock
To hear of wondrous deeds that came before
Our times, and of the battles of the gods
The loves and longings of the souls celestial
The iron fates that bind them in their grasps

And also bear upon our sphere terrestrial. For, at the hour of that approaching doom
The world, the sun, the moon, and every star
In all the heav'ns as black as tigers' eyes
Not only shall not be, but never were.
The gems of Lukt, the ivory gates of D'nar
Yea, e'en the towers of Ennabruk sublime
Shall be swept up from off the muddy banks
And join the course of that swift current, Time.

But why do I precede myself, and speak
Of gloomy things still covered by a mist
The sun is rising o'er the Llachean moor?
And with its upper disc, at last has kissed
The rosy cheeks of dawn above the sea
And on the shore stand sea-birds, you, and me.

It signals to begin my tale, and chides
Lest evening should arrive before I'm done
The things I have to tell concern us all
Even Rianna, driver of the sun.
And would it not be rude to start a yarn
Holding a goddess as an honored guest
And drag it on until she must be gone
Denying her the knowledge of the rest?
So let me start my tale at her ascent
Like her, my story rises from the sea
A sea was the beginning of the world
Seekst thou the knowledge? Listen then to me!

In the beginning, void and without form Lay a great sea as black as death or night It stretched unto infinity and past No island, spit, or sandbar lay in sight Sight, did I say? There were no men to see Nor was there light for vision, if there were Nor even sound, save only sounds of waves Which high upon the surface break and stir No waves of water, these, which out of Time Arose, performing some primordial dance But waves of possibility, or hope The crests and troughs of liquid, formless chance. Greater than space itself, with mighty force Holding them up, and when at last they break Bubbles of Magic, Life, Spirit form And whole worlds are created in their wake Souls and lives coalesce, and break, and fall And finally, return into the All.

I now will speak of the unbounded souls Bound up in one such bubble; they were two The Universe, a seed from which the world The stars, and all their many peoples grew And Paragon, the mother of the soul Progenitor of noble thoughts, and queen Of the cloaked shadow realm, where man's ideas Lurk 'til illumed with astral light, and seen The two stared into one another's eyes In ways that none but they have ever known Strange things passed 'twixt the two, and ere they rose The Paragon remained, and she alone Yet vitalized with that material seed Which gives a form to the imagination Thus, after pangs of labor, she gave birth To four Great Gods, the Tetrarchs of Creation.

I sing of Tineon first, Forger of the Flames His mind aflame, his soul consumed with light Even the Sun he made to nurse the world Is scarcely a reflection of his might His eyes gaze from its disc, and he beholds The golden lavas burn the crust above The lightning of the dark and thunderous storms The ardor of the comets as they move

I sing of Gaother, Walker on Winds Whose footsteps cause the thunder, and whose eyes' Reflections form the bright and wondrous arch Which after rainstorms often fills the skies She welcomes in the spring with her soft breath And at its end is overcome with grief Her teardrops trickle down and feed the flowers And, in their softness, heal the parched leaf

I sing of Salio, Carver of the Caves Who, all alone, and at the world's dark heart Sits at a massive workshop carving gems And never halts or falters at his art Huge piles of diamonds stand on either side And from his mighty forge, volcanoes plume Coughing out rubies sculpted in the depths Of his cthonic, unforgiving gloom.

I sing of Uisceor, Stirrer of the Seas With hair of seaweed, and a beard of reefs Easily angered; when his mood is dark Great waves assault the beaches with his griefs But when he sleeps, the waves are low and calm And gently break against the sandy shore As they have done for ages in his care And (but for fate) would do for ages more

These four were firstly formed, and 'ere they lost The aura of Creation's radiant glow They peered into the void, and turned their eyes Unto the gray and shapeless lands below And o'er the barren plains of rock they peered And talked among themselves for ages long Beneath the starless sky until, at last Their souls composed the bright Creation-Song:

Barren lands, burst into bloom! Streams, arise and flow! Let plains the forms of mounts assume That tower o'er vales below! Let the dark and shining seas Take on their basins deep! And let the pleasant western breeze Awake the soil from sleep! Come! O scorching deserts dry! Come! O swampy fen! Hearken to our melody In every way you can!

And even as they sung it, it was so The undistinguished and yet formless land Paused as transfixèd by the Irdian lays And matter lifeless heeded their command First Tineon, eldest of the Irdian gods Placed lakes of liquid fire as a bed For Salio's sheet of rock, Uisceor next Placed o'er the pits an ocean overhead And lastly, like a blanket, Gaother Covered it with an atmosphere of air

These Irdia, the Beauty-Spirits forged The land into its shapes, and, when complete They once again returned into the Void To view their works, and mighty mother meet There Paragon her children's shapes beheld And smiled upon primaeval Earth and Heaven And on what was to come, and after thought That lasted eons, this response was given:

"Irdia, I commend thy pains The solid rock, the liquid rains The raging fire, the whirling air Created by your thorough care The tasks that were assigned to you You faultlessly have carried through But other tasks remain ahead To give a soul to matter dead To add a spirit that surpasses Mere lumps of empty space, and masses Behold! I soon will bring to be The Faldia, Sprites of Destiny To turn the world that you've begot Into the setting for a plot Which so transcends all other plays Its memory will endure always"

Thus Paragon, and Tineon replied Trying (although in vain) his grief to hide

"What? Would you say that all I've done The boiling lava, shining sun Was all in vain? Our wondrous lands Will all be stolen from our hands? We gods, who forge the art eter Who make winds blow, and comets burn Will not so readily surrender Our perfect works to babes still tender These Faldia, whate'er they be Will have to prove their worth to me Else, by the world's unfathomed heart I'll never give away my art."

Thus Tineon spoke, the Forger of the Fire And Paragon spoke thus, to soothe his ire:

"'Beauty is truth', and yet it's true Some beauties are unknown to you Just as a song can never be Complete without its harmony So Earth, however fair, cannot Remain a scene without a plot Lest vale and mount, and sea and shore Remain unchanged forever more The truth in beauty's rise and fall New beauty is, transcending all And yet, to speak these words, I find Is painting pictures for the blind And thus this vow I give to thee Wait, but doubt not, for you will see."

With such a promise, Tineon was appeased And all his siblings followed in his lead But Paragon was not yet done, and these New orders to her children she decreed:

"The rule of sea, fire, land, and air Requires vigilance and care But in the days that fast draw near New tasks and burdens will appear Therefore, I give to you the spell To summon demons out of Hell To bind them to your cause and free Yourselves, to serve those yet to be"

She spoke, and mighty lore she did impart To summon creatures from another plane Monsters, with twisted shapes and burning eyes And gibbering cries, to drive a man insane But these the Irdia were, the Souls Divine Who quiet an ancient evil like a child So, fearlessly, they split the Wall of Earth And jointly, they restrained the fearsome wild Beasts, that inhabited the other side And tamed and shaped chaotic astral flow Until they formed from energetic flux Their servants nine, which I shall name below:

Bladhm, who wields the burning fiery sword Eradicating all that is abhorred By Tineon, her bright and wondrous Lord

Craindoigh, whose fire subdues and reshapes stone Who spins the Potter's Wheel, and who, alone Calls metalwork and granaries his own

Leaigh, who fixes stars within their spheres Who sets what hour the shimm'ring moon appears And constant, turns the millstone of the years

Dobharcufile, who ties the various strings In harps, that they may tell of wondrous things And lend a spell divine to him who sings

Folcador, who abjures the grain to rise When Sirius rises in the summer skies And weeps when apple falls or orchard dies

Lochrin, who guides the little barks that sail O'er seas so wide and bleak that all words fail And keep them safe from serpent and from whale

Caranna, ancient tender of the oak (Many a man on moonless night awoke To see her dancing in her silver cloak) Aincoim, whose shelter is invoked by all The birds that fly and little bugs that crawl In murky swamp, wide plain, or forest tall

Runda, who takes the iron from the earth And bronze, and steel; and, having brought it forth Forges it into armaments of worth

Ulcharam, who the fiery sun restrains And makes the quiet night involve the plains For he who hope of mischief entertains

Seicha, the Formless, who commands the chaos The random gusts of motion that dismay us And ceilings of the clouds, that overlay us

And last, Rianna, driver of the sun Who sets the course th' eternal chariots run And holds the heart of mighty Tineon

These were the Irbegdia, called from afar To execute the heavenly design To clarify all things that yet were vague And all things still unfinished to refine Creation was complete; the whole of Earth The summit of perfection seemed to climb But ah! 'Twas only so to gather height For the first Cataract on the river Time

For lo! The heavens shook! What had been built So flawlessly now seemed to threat a fall Contractions for the birth of some new god Or gods, fantastic, to outdo it all First on the world there fell a rain of blood (Or rather ichor, for the primal All Preparing for a birth was shedding gore And like a meteor fell the godly caul) The refuse took on forms: the primal beasts Which stalked the Earth until by heroes slain The fiends collapsed to primal power and Fled downward, freeing Tirlar from their stain

Demoreth, with a human shape An onyx sword, a hooded cape Debeleth, with uncertain wings Together patched from sundry things Demeboran, the wise but cruel Wearing the form of a headless ghoul Demeb, the stirrer of the main Whose howling drives a man insane Deder, who haunts the unmarked tomb And tells a man his day of doom And many others, just as rotten Were on that fateful day begotten

But when the final horror from the sky Descended wroth, the heaving heaven stilled The sun stopped in its course; the aether whole With chords of songs empyrean were filled And from the sky, before the Irdias' sight A train of gods appeared, enchased in light!

First Aeon, the Timelord and Father appeared And then came the Mother of All And then there came Utas, foredoomed to be speared By Ilass, who fell in the Fall Poor Ilass and Utas, their destinies bound By the as yet unborn orchid flower Yea, the two would come first, but as Fortune unwound All the world would be thrall to their power!

But such things did not occupy the gods Who viewed their newfound siblings with delight Nor all the monsters, born from dark abodes Who saw, and balked, and fled into the night At last, the Irdia all the message knew Of Paragon: the Faldia were real They were the world; the Irdia knew Thought But they, the infant Faldia, could feel Aeon, the first among them, made his home In Calaspir, that dark and rocky plane That lacked of light; yet, he pronounced it good There did he settle; there did he remain Laguna entered Ennabruk in joy And there, with the Irdia, made her abode And every day, to view the rising Sun On Tineon's chariot through the sky she rode. Utas and Ilass made their homes on Earth The former, at the river Elwynn's source The latter, in the moors of Rulak, where The Desern River ran its swampy course

Then passed a Silver Age, 'neath Faldian sway The lazy years went by; so went the sun The various gods in their abodes lent light Celestial to the world they had begun Order endured, as strong and high as oak Beneath Laguna, Mother of us all The Faldia lived; the ancient Irdia 'neath The one who makes the Sun-Disc rise and fall The races multiplied - the King begat Unto Rianna fair a shining race He called the children Stars, and threw them high Into the heavenly dome, and fixed them into place Mother Laguna, from a seed unknown Had children five, beneath that ancient sky Celen, Anira, Onton, Annor, Osik Would form the race of mortals, doomed to die.

Onton and Osik begat mortal Men The first of the races to come Annor, the hunter, and Anira then Made Animals, brutish and dumb Annor and Osik the Cynian race Who at present rule Llacheu begot And Onton and Celen (or so the myth says) Made Microns, who time has forgot Onton with Anira, lover of horses Engendered the Centaurs of Breigh And thus are the races, 'til Time, in its courses As prophecied, sweeps them away.

In those bright times, when life and gods were new The fivefold race in godly Ennabruk dwelled But now, (Alas!) I must relate the fall When they (as well as hope) will be expelled. I now must speak of how it all began The Fall, the war divine, the End foretold And how the Orchids burst into the scene And broke the peaceful Silver Age of Old

Now Paragon, the Mother of the Gods Calls them together, as she had before Irdia, Faldia, Micron, Man and Beast Are summoned to the Crystal Throne once more To hear her speak, and thus reveal her plan In voice that shook the spheres, she thus began:

"O children, hear what Fate, which rules us all Has in its awful majesty decreed A set of twins within my womb now grows Engendered by the Universe's seed One will be Elwynn named; as white as snow Will be her skin; as white as cloud her hair And from her birth, she shall embody all That's right and just, and wonderful, and fair. Her brother by the name of Lest shall go And be her opposite in every way Around his flag will hosts of darkness march And all the Beasts that in the Void hold sway. The two shall fight, yet (wondrous are the fates And many and strange the paths on which they move) While their hosts war, their hearts will be at peace While their hosts hate, their hearts will be in love The Paradox, at the very heart of Time! The Fatal Flaw within the plans of Fate! The Darkness, in the very Light of Life! The Knot that joins together Love and Hate! And in the middle of the Final War When everything by Chaos is undone The Book will Close; another Book will Rise With stranger Plot, when Two at last make One

O, children! Let these twins forever dwell On diametric corners of the Earth Lest ANDAN, the Destroyer of the World Their strange, forbidden Union give birth"

Thus Paragon, upon her Crystal Throne The future told - then, from the world retreating She vanished from the sight to lands unknown And left the gods together at the meeting First Tineon, the eldest of the lot Lord of the Lands of Fire, began to plot:

"The Goddess on the Crystal Throne Foretold a power above our own The seas and lands we made may soon Be toppled to eternal ruin And end the Art which we began We must refine our Mother's plan I call for two to volunteer To take these twins, and keep them clear"

Ilass and Utas, by their stars compelled Then make the fatal choice, and volunteer The others all agree, and end debate And think the heavens from their danger clear O Utas! Ilass! O alas the day! That you desired such dreadful things to bear! For fate shall see one dead; the other damned 'Ere the book ends, and closes the affair

All passes just as it was doomed to pass And when the fated day arrives at last Two twins, one white, the other black as coal Are from the Empress of the Eons cast One to her tower the dreadful Ilass takes The boy, called Lest; his skin is black like pitch The other, Elwynn, is by Utas brought Unto his river fortress from afar

Our story now will split. Here I relate The tale of Elwynn, and of Utas' fate

When Utas first was born, he walked the world From Tapfer to Alteria and back In a wide circle. Every vale he knew Through every mount and glade he traced a track Numerous wonders did the god behold To dwarf even godly Ennabruk's high towers The heights of Mount Augustus, bright with snows And Tapfer's rolling hills, with golden flowers But the two springs that in the Shirian hills Birth streams of crystal from their secret source Beneath the living rock, which later join And form a lazy river's rolling course Utas above all other lands adored And built his castle there, among the woods High on a hill between the brooks it stands Commands the valleys, and avoids the floods Araxion it was called; it towered high Carved from a mighty monolith of granite With but a single mighty open door Fringed by a marble arch that overran it There he brought Elwynn; there his sister grew To love the river, and the woods it raised And every day she frolicked in the streams Or viewed the towering redwood trees, amazed Or reveled in the sun's restoring heat Or gazed upon the stars and lunar sliver At one with all of Nature's ways and haunts 'Til Utas after Elwynn named his river When Elwynn walked the land, the darkest storm Would dissipate into a welcome breeze When in Araxion she dwelt or slept All spite would fly, and every fear release When Demoreth, or Demoran drew near Their faces paled; their legs would turn and flee All vengeance, hatred, and debate would turn To friendship, love, and unanimity Utas beheld his sister's gifts with pride And when at last her seventh birthday came He promised trips to Ennabruk sublime To meet her parents, and exalt her name

Thus Elwynn, fair as gems and white as snow And now, to Lest, the other twin, we go

Ilass, the Fallen Witch, was fairer once And had indeed a seat among the High Her hair was black as moonless, starless nights Her nails were blood-red, though unstained with dye Her skin was white and pale; her voice was soft Her legs were tall; but wondrous were her eyes Above all else; two never-closing doors Into the Void beyond the upper skies She made her home within the swampy woods That marked the Desern's course - the Land of Grass The realm was called, and it was filled with plants To e'en the woods of Goldshire surpass Great flowers, larger than a human hand Blossomed on bushes green with leaves like fans Huge oaks, to dwarf e'en Ennabruk's high towers Huge beeches, far past any work of man's The trees together wove a branching roof That tinged the light of Tineon with green Giving an eerie ambience to the realm And forms of shadows many and strange were seen Hewn from an ancient oak that grew no more Was Galavalas, Ilass's mighty hold Right in the middle of a wood it stood A grayish-brown amidst the green and gold And here the young boy Lest his childhood spends Among the oaks, the chestnuts, and the beeches And wanders by Ilass's forests in the nights While during the day, she spells and legends teaches Once, during his nightly walks, unknown to him Ilass awoke, and followed through the door And watched her brother; there, she stood aghast While a young sapling from its roots he tore Cracked it in two - his smile showed his joy At desecration - then he took an axe And to the stream-bed marched the little boy He came upon a nest, and knocked it down Laughed, as the little chicks fell in the stream A fawn he found, and smote it on the head His eyes still shining with a horrid gleam Then Ilass called him, and her mind was wroth To see such vile sins against the Right Her brother came, but did not drop his axe And there, he tried his sister, too, to smite But Ilass spoke a Word of Power; he froze And still in her command, was marched down low Into Galavalas's very roots The dungeons, where the brave may fear to go And there he sat, and ever cursed the gods And all they made, and Ilass was forlorn But better attempt the Whirling Flame to stop The fiery geyser, from Mount Yaanek born In polar climes, than there, with love or threats Attempt to reason with the raging Lest For there he cursed the Gods and all their works And with revenge alone, his mind obsessed And Ilass wept to see her ward and care In this condition, so she turned, distraught To Aeon, who knew cures for every woe Thus Lest, in chains, to Ennabruk was brought

They set out for that many-towered heaven On the same day Lest reached the age of seven

Their ship of solid ebony was carved The towering sails were laced with threaded gold Early one winter morning they embarked With Lest, in chains, imprisoned in the hold Ilass sat by his side during nights and storms 'Til late one night, his threats and curses ceased His sister then rejoiced, and vainly thought His awful madness (and her fears) released Lest feigned a sickness; Ilass by his side Tended him, and forgot his evil ways Through all the journey through the Gaeos Strait She never left his side, for seven days Then Lest began to speak of many things Of Natural Science, and of Love and Hate Philosophy, and Ethics, Truth, and Lies The two for days engaged in their debate For days they talked, and ever Lest increased The evil and the boldness of his lies But Ilass found she could not turn away Her brother held her, with his yellow eyes There, in the Strait that feeds the Central Sea Through will and weakness Lest possessed the mind Of his poor sister - with his glowing eyes He showed and brought to pass what Fate designed He spoke seducing maxims, seeming-fair That cloaked and covered up a villainous core To turn from light the minds of all who hear Erasing all the love they knew before:

When times are tough, to keep your word Refusing gain, is quite absurd A Friend is one who you can use The Friendship of the Weak refuse Those souls that peace and comfort seek Renounce war but since they are weak Life's Beauty, an idea abstruse Is foolish - we the wise love Use Love is a Sin, and only Lust The Gods and Men are naught but Dust Look not into the sterile past No creed or hope or realm can last To love thyself is foolish pride For you are Dust, and naught beside Seek not for Knowledge, lest it be A Fact with which you don't agree Evil is Earth, and all things in it Our paltry lives last but a minute From Truth and Beauty turn aside Eschew as evil Self and Pride

All this Lest said, 'til hypnotized at last Ilass released him from the heavy chains And thus they spoke of plans, and schemes, and plots To overthrow the Faldian powers' reigns

In Ennabruk, the towered town on high The gods were waiting for the chance to see Fair Elwynn, who had promised to arrive And meet with her extended family Laguna, Aeon, and the Irdian gods Received her in a many-pillared hall And in the midst was Paragon's crystal throne Where sat the Empress, looking over all Each pillar of the clearest quartz was hewn And clearest glass were every wall and door The sky, with stars by night and clouds by day Reflected in the mirror upon the floor Lofty above the Earth the chamber stood So those who dwelt their might their works behold Their backs unto this vista were the thrones Of all the gods; inlaid with pearl and gold

Now Utas entered, through the Western door And little Elwynn hung upon his hand Her dress of silver filament was sewn Her hair was knotted with a silver band And even Leaigh, molder of the moon Bowed in admittance of superior art And all the Irdia wondered and amazed Yea, e'en Ulcharam, with his icy heart But from the Eastern door, old Ilass came And by her hand the awful Lest she led Into the mighty Chamber of the Gods He barely looked, and sneering, turned and said:

I am the Chosen, the Child of Fate I am here your dominion to end With Fire, with Darkness, with Anger and Hate Your Thrones and your Chamber to rend I am the Nightfall, and I will prevail As surely as Dusk follows Day Surrender! Your might is predestined to fail If you use it to force me away!

Then Ilass shot a line of Whirling Fire Into the center, at the Crystal Throne Like Meteors from Perseus it struck The rock began to vibrate and to moan The gods their danger then at last beheld And mighty fireballs from their fingers blazed But though they melted Roof and Thrones and Floor There Lest and Ilass stood, unharmed, unfazed Utas a silver javelin threw And right around the world it flew And from the back, at lightning speed It struck Lest's leg - he paid no heed. Aeon, though far advanced in years In his two hands picked up two spears And threw them at his rivals two They picked up speed, their path was true Transformed to comets in the air They missed Lest's head (but singed his hair) Then Ilass summoned from the deep Where many ancient creatures sleep A serpent - when its head it reared Its crest the cloudy covering cleared And unto Ennabruk reached in rage But with a strength belying age Aeon a mighty axe updrew And there the awful dragon slew Now, from all corners of the sky A cloud of bats was seen to fly And turned to black its azure blue To Ennabruk with rage they flew But Utas, with his strength restored A mighty drove of hawks conjured I need not tell of every ploy Tried by the gods, and little boy Suffice to say that sea and air And earth and fire all were there And all in awful war employed Until the world was near destroyed The world all scorched, and neither side Had conquered all, or turned the tide When through a cloud of fire and dust and light Both Good and Evil caught each other's sight

And there, by their doom and their future compelled Through the light and the dust and the fire Both Elwynn and Lest one another beheld And their hearts were consumed with desire And forsaking the battle, they turned and they ran To the center to meet find another Thus the world would have ended before it began Had the two not been stopped by their brother

For Utas, through the fire and light and dust The frantic meeting of the two espied Remembering the prophecy at last He flames and monsters and his death defied Into the midst of all the war he ran Snatched Elwynn, just ere Lest could do the same He tried to flee, but tripped upon the Throne And fell upon the crystal, hurt and lame Elwynn escaped, but Aeon, just in time Grabbed her, and spirited to far away The land of Calaspir, his ancient home Another plane, which this one underlay Then Lest was struck with rage; his eyes of fire Turned unto where the fallen Utas lay But good Laguna, Mother of Us All Ran in between, and blocked the child's way But Lest was burning with an inner flame He raised his hand, and thrusting at the sky He lightning called; the Whirling Fire came And struck the Mother Goddess in the eye Her eye burst into flame. Then, driven mad By grief and shock, but most of all by pain She blindly ran at Lest-the little god Just stepped aside, and viewed her with disdain "Seek Calaspir!" cried Utas. "Mother, fly! You cannot fight! Get to another plane! My death will buy you time! Escape! Go! Fly! My death must come! Let it not be in vain!" And through the haze of shock and grief and pain Some remnant of Laguna's mind took heed And in a flash, she left our Time and Space And fled to Aeon in her dire need Now only Lest and Utas there remained The others having died, or flown, or fled Lest viewed his fallen rival with a smile Raised high his sword, but paused a while, and said: