Castles and Crusades: The History of Aihrde

Necron 99 · Post July 25th, 2022, 3:07 pm

I've spent some time reading the Codex of Aihrde, starting with the full history of the world. Like most history books, this portion of the book appears to be a bit dense, there is a LOT of info and backstory to the creation of the world. In all honestly though, it's actually a fun read so far. Anyhoo, I decided to do a small project here on the forum, while reading through this section. This will be a breakdown, akin to Cliffs Notes on the subject. It's a bit easier to read and digest in this format, especially for anyone who hasn't taken the time to do a deep dive into the lore.

FIRST ORATION - THE DAYS BEFORE DAYS

THE RIVER OF ERDE

The Void around the All Father stood empty.
The All Father with his first thought cast light into the Void.
With his second thought, he sent out wind upon the Void; the wind carried his thoughts out into the Void as rivers and streams.
These rivers and streams were of chaos and unordered, given no direction.
The All Father creates a Shadow of himself.
This Shadow, Toth, is set to govern the direction and order of the rivers and streams from the All Father's thoughts.
Toth is the first in the line of the great order of beings known as the Val Eahrakun.
All rivers and streams from the All Father's thoughts would eventually end in a deep pool at the feet of the Shadow, where Toth would consume time itself.
All things that are and ever were must end, the end of time, the end of days; this is known as the Gonfod.
From the beginning known as the Vesk, the Vessel of the All Father's thought, through the Ea-Iul, the First Wind, to the Endless Pools, this is the Arc of Time, called by the Dwarves, The River of Erde.

SUBSTANCE UPON THE VOID

The All Father perceives the Dragon, a creature not of himself and realizes he is not alone in the Void.
The Dragon thrashes in chaos, attempting to unmake the emptiness by talon and fang.
The All Father seeing the form of the Dragon, creates a form for himself, one both beautiful and terrible, with hands to grasp and feet upon which to stand.
He creates tools and builds a forge and an anvil upon the Void and finally a bench to sit his works.
The All Father begins creating substance from the iron of his will, giving form to his dreams and imagination.
His words fly into the Void, these become known as the Alenerde-ut-Pilt, the Language of Creation.
The All Father begins crafting many beings, those like the Shadow, belonging to the Val Eahrakun.
The greatest of the Val Eahrakun created were Corthain, Mordius, and Ornduhl, created of the same thought, though Corthain was the older.
Corthain came of the All Father’s love of creation and, thus, the greatest.
Mordius came of his desires and possessed his strength.
Ornduhl came of his hidden thought and was thus driven by selfishness and nothing could contain him.
The All Father is given the name 'Erde' meaning "father", by his creation Corthain.
Ornduhl, angry that Erde casts off his creations, in pursuit of crafting others, pulls burning embers from the Void.
Creating a beam of light from the embers, Ornduhl smites the All Father's heel, the beam shatters, casting red light upon the Void and forever into the eyes of Ornduhl.
In later time, this burning, red light becomes perceived by men as hate.
Ornduhl keeping some of the red light for himself and retreating to the darkness, tosses the rest of the shards into the Void.
One of the other creatures created by the All Father pursues the light and devours it, becoming the Mirror of Ornduhl.
The All Father continues crafting from the substance of his being, shaping and forming from his thoughts.

Necron 99 · Post July 25th, 2022, 3:07 pm

OF DARKNESS

After the passage of some time, the All Father paused in his creation and slept.
From the All Father's sleeping mind and dreams, out crept a Darkness into the Void.
Born of the All Father's mind, the Darkness knew order but captured Ornduhl's rage in the Void, binding with it and becoming a merciless evil, cold and black.
At this chill, the All Father awoke. The Darkness came to the All Fathers, but he felt the cold and saw the evil in it and pulled the warmth from the fire of his soul, setting it about him.
The other creations feared the Darkness, for its creation was unsought. Forming a great host, they drove the Darkness far into the Great Empty where is could not see the light creation's forge.
For many ages the Darkness lay hidden, until summoned by one into the world of dwarf and man.
This was known as the first war of the gods.

OF THE MAELSTROM

After time and ages passed, the All Father paused in his crafting, seeing his creations floating in the Void without purpose and thought as to what next, he might affect.
His gaze fell again to the Dragon, spinning and thrashing about the Void, and he drifted towards her.
Where her claws and fangs tore the fabric of the Void, doors, portals, and rifts were born unto other places beyond the Empty, this became known as the Maelstrom.
Through her chaos, she sought to fill the Void around her with her own madness, wild energies, and elements.
As the All Father studied the Dragon and settled upon her chaos, the word of her came to his mind, Inzaa.
From the chaos of the Maelstrom, the All Father then created substance, ordering fire, water, earth, air, and energies to be used as he needed.
These ordered realms were collectively called the Firmament by later scholars.
Using the Language of Creation and substance from the Firmament, the All Father created the world.
Over the edge of the world spilled the substance of creation into the Maelstrom of Inzaa. The Dragon marveled at it, for she knew nothing of the All Father above the world.
Surrounding herself with the heat of fire, the rush of wind, the cold hard earth, and the liquid blanket of water, Inzaa began to form and mold.
Inzaa created a world of her own making and it floated up until it lay upon and bound to the underside of the world of Erde's making.
Erde and his creations settled upon the world.
Many of the Val Eahrakun wandered across the land, taking up refuge in caves and crevices, or riding the air, or vanishing into the depths of the water as their wants dictated.
The Val Eahrakun listened to the All Father as he spoke the Language of Creation and though none could master the language, they all learned pieces of it and the echo it carried in all they did in after ages, so that they too could mold the earth in ways beyond the design of the All Father
But the world was dark, so Erde sought to create light by which the beauty of his creation: the rivers, the mountains, the skies, could be seen.

Necron 99 · Post July 25th, 2022, 3:45 pm

OF THE SUN AND MOON

Pulling a rib from his chest, Erde tore it into silver threads which he fashioned into a curtain and hung in the heavens above the world. The light of the curtain shown upon the world.
Unknown to Erde, in his haste he also tore out a piece of his heart bound to the rib, which gave life to the curtain and so he gave it life as he had to so many others of his creation.
He named the Maiden Ea-Raena, that is the “beauty of youth” in the Vulgate, who the dwarves called Dunareu, though in after days she was called Mailahm, the Maiden of Night.
Erde marveled at the light, but as the Arc of Time passed, he soon thought it too soft and asked the Maiden to brighten the heavens.
She pulled and gathered to her the many strands, forming them into a ball of silvery light, though she did not collected all of the strands; some of these remnants can still be seen in places of the far north and south of the world.
Erde bathed in the light upon the world for some time, but his desire for a greater light persisted.
In his lust for light, Erde cast then himself upon the darkness with an explosion, creating a ball of fire that bore the life of him.
So it was that that Ea-Vette, which is “fire of youth” in the Vulgate, and who the dwarves called Haydareu, that in after days was called Mailuhm, the Maiden of Light, came to her life.
So great was Ea-Vette's light, Erde called to Ea-Raena to calm her, so she did, making her take a shape similar to her own.
Ever after the All Father called them Sisters.

HOW THE SEASONS CAME TO BE

Erde, pleased, spent much time atop the mountains of the world, enjoying the light of his creations.
As the Arc of Time passed, Erde became warm, his arms red from the light of the Sisters and soon he yearned for the cool of dark and the soft, gentle rays of Ea-Raena alone.
The All Father sat and thought as he watched the two play about the heavens above, from their rivalry he laughed.
He gave to each their own steeds and chariot, the heavens theirs in which to race; Erde promising the winner command of the heavens.
So, the Sisters raced over the world, laughing and goading, but never catching one another.
Ea-Vette proved the faster for her power was hot within her and she tore through the heavens. She loved more to hang near the earth and at times the flame of her cart scorched the ground, leaving deep furrows in the earth. At other times the cart turned the waters to steam and great geysers rose into the air.
All the while Ea-Raena took a higher road for she loved the lofty skies and to see the whole world unfolding beneath her. She moved more deliberately, with more caution and less speed. And her light was cool about her so that when she passed through the geyser of steam it turned again to water and fell to the earth far below.
And so the sister’s race ebbed, and flowed, and the skies filled with great winds that buffeted one the other, and thence with clouds born
aloft by the wild flight of the chariot. At times one or the other vanished from the skies for long periods and it rained or snowed; at other
times it waxed hot and the air became heavy and dry.
Once in a great while, one of the Sisters gained on the other and the winds changed violently and weather suddenly.
But after a great while their race became a journey and an order came to the world. In this way the seasons came to be.

Ancalagon · Post July 26th, 2022, 1:46 am

Good stuff! Keep it comin'...