The Primordial Pyre and the Birth of the Phoenix

First, a summary of the previous chapters ('The Before All Before') that deal with the matters before Time began:

• A) Before Time - ’Before all Befores’
  • The Paramount Chief and the Waters
  • The Reflection of Umvelinqangi within the Shadowed Abysm
  • The Umoiar and the Kraal of Heaven
  • The Guilds and their Chiefs
    • Kalunga & Anansi, Imana & Khanya, Gaunab ( and Watamaraka), Mantis, Gõr, Khanyab, Kalathe-ntaombi, Olapa, Djobela [...]
  • The Hallow and the Golden Stool of Mdali.
  • The Procession and the Trance Dance
  • The Wayward Drummer
  • The Rebellion in the Heavenly Kraal
  • The Trial of the Discordant
  • The leader of the rebellion, Gaunab, is named anew, called Erebuzu.
  • The Silken Chord of Binding ('The Tether of Anansi')
  • The Sundering of Si'ne
  • The Straining of the Banished (the Brotherhood of Gauwasi)
  • The Bells in the Deep
  • The Sending-forth of Khanyab and Kalathe (Ben and Zoe)
  • The Wyrm Watamaraka
  • The Awakening and impregnation of Watamaraka by the Cacophony
  • The Laying of the Amaa by Watamaraka (Ngu-kli-ushu, the Cosmic Egg)
  • The First Inyoka ('The First Dragons')
  • The Great Chord of Umvelinqangi
  • The Combat of the Volving Serpents ('The Twinned Serpent')
  • The Black Stone and Emerald Crystal: Headstones of Gaunab and Khanyab-Watamaraka
  • The second impregnation of Watamaraka by Gaunab. The growing Brood within Watamaraka's Belly
  • The Rescue of Kalathe and the dissolution of her Veils.
  • Watamaraka is coiled about the bulging Amaa, and Gaunab-Erebuzu is coiled over his mate. The paired serpents hang in the Abyss of Nammu, far below the Kraal of Heaven, from where Umvelinqangi looks on.

... and thus the tale continues ...

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The Pyre and the First Wars of the World

( A Summary of Events )

• B: The Pyre - Creation of the Cycles of Time
  • Initially dark, scaled and hideously cracked upon it's outer surface, the Egg of Amaa has been rubbed smooth by the belly of Watamaraka. It has the looks of a rough silver pearl.
  • Watamaraka squeezes the shell of Amaa overmuch in the mating combat with Gaunab-Erebuz, damaging and weakening it.
  • Within the belly of Watamaraka grows a clutch of eggs from her impregnation by Erebuz. This, her second brood, are a terrible litter, of which the three souless elemental demons Nganyamba (the Water-Lord or Master of Water) and Kouteign Koorou (the first draconic Earth-Gnome) and Burumatara-Azhamata (the first Fire-Salamander, the flaming Bull Dragon) are chief. Also part of this clutch of eggs is Watamaraka-Omoroca (the first Undine who is named the Mother of All Demons, echo of Si'ne). All of this brood of the Elder Watamaraka-Si'ne were at first mindless, until harnessed by another power or tainted by the resonance or essences of the falling headstones.
  • Dance of the Flameseeds. The sizzling of the Ylem.
  • First Waking of Phoenix, the embryonic Firebird within the cosmic egg, the Root-soul of the World.
  • The Pyre :: Eruption of the great Cosmic Egg - The Shattering of Amaa
  • Watamaraka-Sin is slain, blasted apart by the first heats of the Pyre and shredded by the shattering eggshell. The dragon Erebuzu's body remains dotard as the coiled vessel containing the world: the Great Calabash. In this form it is named Aido-hwedo the Elder, and Blind Dragon, and it's poisons ever dribble forth into the nascent realm.
  • The smaller eggs grew still within Watamaraka as she burst asunder, and these are released into the wheeling spaces of the newly-formed cosmos. Some of these eggs hatch due to the initial violence, whilest others remain intact, falling likewise into the fiery vessel of the World. These beings within their eggs are protected by their shells for a time. The last to erupt (sans egg) from the shattered body of Watamaraka is Aido-hwedo II, the Rainbow-Serpent, also known as Watamaraka-anyava (an avatar of Phoenix) neither male or female, who would later be tamed by Nin-hawah-numa to build and carve the mountains of the earth.
  • The Fall of the Darkstar and the Greenstone. The headstones of Gaunab and Watamaraka, freed from the skulls of the Volving Serpents, tumble inward towards the new-billowing Flameseeds that ignited violently within Amaa at it's shattering.
  • Chaos is first shaken into life and motion. The dancing Flameseeds roil in the frothy vortex of the Ylem
  • Phoenix grows rapidly, and at the borders of the world, Lady Night manifests in response to it's light and heat, but is at first stunned or unconscious.
  • Battle of Heat and Cold - Phoenix finds food and grows, glowing ever hotter and brighter.
  • The flameseeds hatch the first children of Phoenix.
  • Formations of cosmos from fire and ice, a great war is walled by the coils of Time.
  • Phoenix begins to take definite shape, seated regally within the hearth of Muspell. It's wings spread across the cosmos.
  • Night awakens due to the intrusions of Phoenix and aided by the essence of Gaunab. In her fright, she gives birth to the Children of the Night: "Darkness" (Erebuz) , "Death", "Doom", and "Sleep". So too are thereby born the Sisters of the Loom, known as the Weavers or the Fates. These are Kalathe, Tombi and Efa the Crone. Kalathe is barren however, for part of her essence dwells with the Emerald Stone of Khanyab. Lastly there is Nemesis (The Black Queen, a ghastly spider-shaped dragon). These great Old Ones of the Unseen Realm are joined by the shadowfleets, great dark bat-like forms that beat their way through the emptiness at the edge of the world.
  • Birth and combat of the first urudraknar, the fire-dragons of Phoenix against the Children of Night and their shadowfleets of darkness and cold.
  • The fire-dragons turn on their own, and only the largest and smallest survive
  • Dissipation and cooling. Great ashes. New burstings. First coalescings of the Phoenix into the World Tree.
  • The great combat of the elements forms the Ash of the Pyre, which provides purchase for the grasping roots of Phoenix.
  • Formation of the foundations of the celestial temples, orbiting the great hearths
  • Birth of Nin-havah-numa (Mother Earth, or Ma, also known as Ki) from the Ashes of the Combat. Some say she is Anima incarnate, mind-child of Umvelinqangi. She is beautiful, long-legged, ebony-skinned, lithe of arm, with four shapely breasts that heave in time with her divine breath, and from her oval head flows long curling hair of platinum.

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"Those days were indeed faraway days. Those nights were indeed faraway nights. Those years were indeed faraway years. The storm roared, the lights flashed. In the sacred area of Nimbru (Nibru, Nippur), the storm roared... the lights flashed. Heaven talked with Earth, and Earth talked with Heaven."

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The Primordial World

• C: The Primaeval Ages ('Titans' and 'Gods') (formation of Cosmos and Earth)
  • The cosmos and the earth begin to take proper shape, moulded by the will of 'Ninhavanu-ma', Mother Earth
  • Nin-hawah-Numa builds and shapes the Celestial Temples upon their waywardly drifting foundations. She works to steady their movements, designing great loops for them to traverse. Many of these she makes with small pieces of the shattered eggshell of Amaa.
  • The Heavenly Watchers ('Stars') are assigned their stations
  • The World Tree completes it's coalescing from the body of Phoenix and it's great light fades
  • In her galactic travelling, Nin-hawah-numa discovers the Rainbow Serpent, Aido-hwedo the Lesser, and names it Watamaraka-anyava, but she is disappointed to discover it has no will of it's own and cannot entertain her. She does find she can command it wherein it has a semblance of life.
  • Formation of Aarde (the Earth) by Nin-hawah-numa (Ma) and Aido-hwedo the Rainbow Serpent. She rides securely seated upon his great tongue, and sheltered by his mighty upper jaw as though it were a parasol. Together they travel the world, the giant serpent carving the rough forms of the primaeval land. All the world is filled with the thick murmuring mists of Mummu that glow here and there when the currents clash.
  • The unconscious relationship of Heaven and Earth (the first Dur-An-Ki or Holy Grail)
  • "Thus Nammu's birth of these two solid elements (Earth and Sky), which formed the ceiling and the floor of the world, forced all to live in complete darkness." - the realm of Nimbru
  • The Great Umoiar descend into the earth and work to shape it, doing so without bodily form, and by the strength of their will and thought. They are followed by countless lesser Umoiar of their guilds - but to each who descend it appears as though they toil alone, ignorant of the others interacting with them. They are brought into the world by traversing the eye socket of the Blind Dragon, where Umvelinqangi caused the first observation temple to be built. The stargazers speak of this temple and it's gateway as the Eye of Draco.
  • ... the descending chiefs are Kalunga (underworld, judgement. division, indexing, dissolution), Imana (airs and sound, lore, oral law, Kingdom and righteousness), Khanya (divine light, aether, sight, reception, Queen-ship), Gu (matter, crafts, smithy,trades), Gõr/Tore (forces, the masculine), and others, but excluding Ngai (waters/science/magics), Khanyab-Heha (song,sound/light,spectrum,trickster,romantic) and Olapa (motherhood), Resh-ki (maidenhood), nor yet the vegetation gods)...
  • The World Tree gives heavenly fruit, additional Celestial Temples
  • The Lachmu (or Lahmu), said to be the males of the Undines, water-daemons of Watamaraka, awaken due to the gentle mists beginning to form amongst the boughs of the World Tree, and descend to follow in the train of Nin-hawah-numa, glowing like pale red comets.
  • The headstone of Gaunab, split in two pieces - a smaller and a larger - after long travels, finally falls to the Earth. The larger piece falls first on the land, impacting near the summit of a tall mountain in the north-east. The terrible impact causes the entire foundations of the earth to shift, and the mountain of the fallen stone now rests in the furthest north, wherefrom great aurora spring up into the airs, glowing with a dark purple light. At this landing of the larger piece, the spirit of Gaunab-Erebuzu gains influence over large parts of earth. Many lesser Umoiar become confused and begin to follow his urgings, disturbing the toil of the other Gods who are striving to shape the world to their own liking.
  • Precambrian [pre-chamber] (encompassing 4.5 bya --> 570 mya)
  • The forces of Gaunab pummel the earth, rejoicing in Violence. Any attempt at stabilizing parts of the realm he pelts with fiery stones.
  • The incandescent fire-dragons of Phoenix descend upon the earth and revel in the heat and clammy violence. Some of them fall prey to Gaunab's influence and turn to malice.
  • Hot, steaming, forbidding landscape - primitive crust - before the underworld could form, or the world of the air be inhabited
  • The egg containing Burumatara drifts closer to the earth.
  • Hadean (4600−3900 million years ago)
  • Crustal building, underground chambers/caverns/volcanic belts
  • Gaunab tires of his first assaults. The fire-dragons mostly leave the earth to find other fruits of the World Tree to play upon. Some of the largest instead find or burrow molten underground caves of the earth to sleep in. A number of these will occasionally rampage at Gaunab's whispered suggestions, but they do not yet bow to him.
  • Imana with his great breath clears regions of the earth of the fogs and smokes that veil it's form.
  • Gu the Craftsman wanders the surface of the earth observing it's materials and their interactions.
  • The dust-filled winds of Imana, stirred up by his singing and chanting, slowly form fluted mountain passes and great and shapely spires of rock as the ages wear onward.
  • Gu builds new hills and mountains, and his quarrying creates new valleys.
  • The spirit of Kalunga travels seeking underground realms for his earthly abode, and cleaving the earth with his scythe, delves many great caverns and tunnels during his journeys.
  • The great light and piercing heat of the eyes of Khanya are able to melt the rock and drive great rivers of molten steel across the landscape. She collects the glowing aethers and creates fires that are placed in braziers made by Gu, and these are hoisted into the heavens to provide spotlights on the building projects of the gods.
  • Kalunga having opened the way to the nether regions, Gu travels the underworld, finding all the secrets of the making of the realm. He shapes great caverns and designs many dark temples and dwellings for the creatures of the earth. They remained long empty, but Gnomes and Dwarrows of the latter days would come to greatly praise these works of the mighty Cthons.
  • The ancient voices of the Gods are heard rejoicing in the whipping winds of Imana that hurl themselves across the earth, and the grit therin grinds down and slowly smooths peaks of the jagged young mountains.
  • Great eons pass, and the world takes shape.
  • Ma, oldest of the Great Ones upon the earth, weeps in her loneliness, not perceiving the work of the other newly-come Umoiar as anything but reactions to her own toils. Her long weeping creates the rivers and seas.
  • The great fires that still remain of the early time clash against the new flux of water upon the Earth, and great steams and hissing sounds fill the air. New coastal formations come to be.
  • The smaller piece of Gaunab's headstone, the blazing pyramidion, falls into the sea some time later, after the waters of Ma had filled all the great basins and valleys.
  • The first true rains fall, and the Lachmu are able to gently descend to earth. The early soils are stirred up - red mud runs across parched and blasted land and the ancient clays begin to form.
  • ... Time grows older ...
  • Within his egg, Kouteign-Koorou ('Kur', 'Nidho-kur') falls to the earth, landing in a newly-formed lake, and he is washed into the underground chasms known as Abzu or Apsu and by some the Cave of Traitors. He hatches when his egg impacts a sharp rock in an underground stream, and is funneled into a large crystal cavern with a lake of clear water where he comes to rest. It must be here told that Abysm, the Spirit of Fresh Water had came to dwell far beneath the Earth, and was later mistakenly named KR (Kur) after it awakened this first dragon from the sky that had found it's watery lair under the Mound. It's name Nidho-kur meaning 'The Striking Malice', this wyrm ever hungers, and chews at the root of the world, and would come to be the bane of the Tree of Life. This because by happenstance, Kur's cavern lurked beneath that place above which Nin-hawah-numah would lay down to sleep after her labours in a distant time still to come]
  • Meanwhile Burumatara, the Bull-serpent, is dormant, circling the Earth above the Sky, hidden amongst orbiting debris - but his egg has a small crack, and could hatch at any time.
  • The second and smaller piece of Gaunab's headstone (the pyramidion) is eventually found in the depths of the ocean and is swallowed by the sea-serpent Nganyamba, who becomes a vassel of Gaunab. Nganyamba grows so large that his coils shape the ocean beds, and fully submerged, he surrounds the lands completely. In various myths, Nganyamba and Koeteign-Koorou are sometimes confused, and the title Master of Water given to one or the other.
  • The origin of the legends of Djobela (a title of Nin-hawah-numa), Qamata (or Tsui-Goab, names Austlanders give to Imana) and their separate battles with the colossal Nganyamba at the far corners of the earth in order to stabilize dry land. This leads to the planting of the Four Watchers (spoken of as stone giants, towers, or divine 'trees' of some alien description), and it is told also of the gigantic mysterious creatures associated with them (that like Nganyamba and the others, hatched from Wataramaka the Elder as she was slain). These powerful beings came later to dwell within or guard the Watch-towers: the Azur Dragon of the rising sun, Vermilyon the Flame of the Austlands, the so-called 'Snow Jaguar' of the setting sun, and the Black Tortoise (the "Black Warrior" or "Black Rock") of the Furthest North (though there are contradictions in tales of the latter as it pertains to Gaunab-Erebuzu).
  • As the Earth settled, and Nin-hawah-numa had more time to take her ease, she often gazed at the sky and saw the face of Phoenix looking down at her through the mists of the upper regions, and perceived his great pinions stretching feintly accross the heavens. She began then to take note of the constant whisperings of Umvelinqangi upon the subtle airs.

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Heaven and Earth

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• Archean (3900−2500 million years ago) - Arrival of the Tree of Life (Age of the Trees)
  • The Great Spirit speaks to Nin-hawah-numah of her coming Mate.
  • Ma's impatience
  • In a remote location, and without the knowledge of Nin-hawah-numah, there came to be the arrival of the Tree of Life upon the Earth (Yggdrasil-on-Earth, Meru). Some sages say this Great Father is an avatar of Ishvara, the Paramount Himself, birthed from Phoenix. Many named him An in later ages, and great Kings took his name.
  • Far in the south, the Tree of Life (An or On and also titled Great O and Lord T and Father L) begat to the flesh his first son Ngai (named Ya, or Ea, and later Ang, Ing, Enakai-hnúm, or Ænqiphontus, chief of waters, crafts, magic and sciences). Ngai is tall and strong, his head long and his face handsome and wise. His braided hair is black at the roots and turns amber-red at the ends, and his dark curly beard with pale ginger-gold tips quickly grows to a great length.
  • At the same time the Tree of Life bore Olapa (later titled 'Handmaiden of Ma', and also named Asaseya, Kina, and Sæthït) who became the first wife of Ngai. She is short and pretty, having a dainty waist and wide curving hips. Her two heaving breasts were the delight of the eye of Ngai, and her own large moist grey eyes radiated the light of her love. These two the Father Tree begat upon the Outer Waters of Nammu (*) by the divine intervention of Umvelinqangi-mDali, and some Sanusis speak of them as the Firstborn of Anima. These divine children, Ngai and Olapa were twins, eldest of the Ur-Umoiar that would come to be known as Those Who Annunciate, and were unique in not being delivered upon Nin-hawah-numah.
  • Some time later, Resh-ki, or Rydagal or Rosigrala, and also known as Anket (who is said to be 'deformed' in some versions of the tale) is also born to Nammu, a younger sibling of Olapa and Ngai. This new child has bright red hair and striking green eyes, and her infancy was long - she was slow to grow to adulthood.
  • Ngai begins work on the the finessing of coastlines and riverways, and he explores many caverns. He measures many things and learns great magic. Resh-ki he leaves in the care of Olapa, who orders their first small homestead in a cave near a deep pool.
  • Leaving his three firstborn children, the Tree of Life wanders the earth, for it is at first mobile, moving like a giant leafy octopus upon it's roots. It travels great distances.
  • The Tree of Life chases Ma, when it discovers her bathing, and is smitten. The great fright of Nin-hawah-numa at the sight of her terrible sire, long-destined.
  • Moon-throwing incident
    • (the world lurches so that the black stone is now just south and west of uttermost north, change in the aurora - blue joins the original dark and lurid purple)
  • Sacred marriage of Ma and the Tree of Life
  • Khanya-Heha descends to the new realm (as incorporeal Eros, some say), and Ma accepts the Tree of Life as her partner
  • Mated with Nin-hawah-Numa, the Tree sows many seeds across the earth, and the world begins to turn green
  • Birth of early Earth life from Ma (parthenogenic) .
  • Strange new alchemical substances, and microscopic algae and bacteria sprout and fall from the organs of Father An the Tree and Nin-hawah-numa. The earth blooms with tiny worms and microcopic flowers so small the mortal eye could not discern them.
  • The first eight tiny rooted plants are formed by Ngai, who dwells far away, but who soon notices the greening of the world around him. He does this deed by distilling the primitive cultures of the Tree of Life with his own seed. Some say Resh-ki aided him in this, and by this many ochre-coloured organisms came to be.
  • Nin-hawah-Numa, still mounted upon the Great Father Tree, gives painful birth to numberless hordes of great creatures such as the many-armed Hagutongrys, and the one-eyed Kiiglyphs. Only later would the Great Umoiar and their entourage be born to the flesh.
  • Age of incomprehensible 'monsters' and colossal cthonic entities. Unrestrained mixing of bodily forms, strange hybrids. Primitive life experiments on itself.
  • Strange constructions, new landforms. The monsters continue to form and reform the landscape above and below the earth. Plant life, including dangerous carnivorous varieties spread across the world. Great woods of tall trees cover large countries.
  • Nganyamba thrashes in the seas, and giant waves, thundering waterfalls and jostling rapids continue to erode and sculpt the land. As trees age and die they petrify, become great hills of rock, and these rocks break down into sand, which forms the beaches upon the shores of the seas. White sands and grassy hills slowly replace mud flats and dunes of slag. The world becomes beautiful, but remains wild and untamed.
  • Leaving their first protected enclave and it's homely cave, Ngai, Olapa and Resh-ki travel the world, at first together, and then (for a time) going their separate ways. Resh-ki is still rather young, but Father An had assured Ngai that she would be capable. Many fierce creatures shrunk from her. Olapa explored the beaches, while elsewhere Ngai swam in the deep bays of the sea and explored new caverns. Far away Resh-ki climbed tall hills and walked naked through the dark forests.
  • The disembodied Ur-Umoiar, still ignorant of the presence of their peers, rest from their labours, their spirits slowing their activity until they are in an almost timeless trance. The world continues to be shaped and changed by the lives of the countless animals, beasts, demons and abominations that stalk the land and seas and fly through the air.
  • All this time, Nin-hawah-numa is mated to the Tree of Life, Father On, who has fixed himself to the ground at the center of the earth. The pair shiver with pleasures.
  • ... Ages pass...
  • Many kinds of ancient creature dwindle and go extinct, the larger ones falling first, many becoming great mountains and other strange and colossal landforms.
  • Mighty disturbances of the seas cause great erosions, and storms chew away at the highest mountains.
  • ... Ages pass...
  • The powers of the unveiled Great Umoiar (who existed as yet, but for Ngai, Olapa and Resh-ki only as free wills incorporeal) fades almost to nothing, their energies spent.
  • There is a great earthquake, as Ma and the Tree of Life exalt.
  • Thus, after long ages the Ur-Umoiar, finally incarnate (become flesh) in small groups or alone over some period of time, being born to Ma after her impregnation by the Tree of Life. In this form they are remembered in the mythologies of Men as the 'Titans' or the 'Elder Gods'.
    • ... these are Imana, Kalunga, Khanya, Gu, Gõr/Tore, Djobela [as follows] ...
  • The Tree of Life names the wide land Ymr and the hallows of their dwelling he dubs Nimbru (that some call Nibru, Nybru or Nippur, and confuse with the ancient cities in the later time of the Shimmer that remember the original).
  • Ma dismounts the Tree of Life, who wanders away to the north after wishing her well and saying his goodbyes. Nin-hawah-numa remains with her children in Nimbru.
  • So it was that due to the mating of An and his Woman of Ash, that Nin-havah-numah gives birth to Imana the Phantom, Únkülúnkülú, Chief of Word and Breath, their eldest, and thus the airs of the world eventually became suitable for the lungs of many new and gentler kinds of breathing creatures.
  • Not much later, siblings for Imana are born, including his beloved Khanya-Sudh (also known as Mellit/Millet', and who is named the South Wind and the Glow of the Austwind)
    • [ atmosphere production further underway, trade-winds begun, stable climates]
  • The trees of the world grow ever larger and more vigorous. Great fungal mounds and towering mushrooms live in their shade. Great marshes form.
  • Imana mates with Khanya-Sudh, and thus is born the Moonchild, to brighten the darkness of the Earth. Some say the Moonchild is male, Lord Shin (or Syen/Shyan/Svenn), dubbed Sheen and Arébãti, and others rather that she was female, Lady Ynan (otherwise known as Mawu). One group of Sanusi's insists that Imana and Khanya gave birth at first to twins, male and female: the Children of the Moon - one glowing white and with fixed expression and other ebony-dark and enigmatic. Though it was rarely seen for the primordial mists and fogs of the world, the joyful pearly orb that flew above them at that time pressed closer to the earth, and thus is was that the tides of the seas come to be.
  • Like the little roughly-formed realm of Earth, the entirety of the Great Calabash is eventually filled with organic life (the Phoenix having settled into matter). Vanabra, the Great Vine, has by now grown upon and about many of the branches of the World Tree that is the umbral body of Phoenix.

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"The second period of the world's history may be termed the past of active creativity. It is the time when the sons of Burr or Borr [Br, Ybr, Uber, Upior, Viper, Hyborua/Hyberborea], those beings Grímnismál 41 calls "the joyous gods" (blíð regin), made heaven and earth out of the body parts of the primeval giant Ymir. These are of giant descent on the mother's side but represent a new genetic stock in the patriline."

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The First Village

• Proterozoic (2500−570 million years ago)
  • Gõr the Thunderer is born to Nin-hawah-numa in Nimbru.
  • And not much later, Gu also is born to Ma.
  • In this time, iron is slowly deposited in the Earth.
  • Resh-ki finds her way to the land of Ymr, and meets the first few young children of Father Tree and Nin-hawah-Numa. They are awed by her green eyes and red hair. They pity her deformity, but treat her kindly. They can see she is an youthful Umoiar like them, but seems different.
  • The embodied Umoiar spread out across the land and discover it anew.
  • They learn their natural talents, and how to wield their unfamiliar limbs and senses - how to walk, climb, and swim, and to love. In time they have children themselves, who aid them in their labours, but the Sanusis cannot tell us for sure whether they hatch from eggs as the earliest elves did in later times (this being the prevailing opinion), or are instead delivered as infants. Regardless, the vast majority of this race were born to Nin-hawah-numa herself, and no mother in history has ever experienced a labour quite like hers in delivering them. Her grandchildren were ultimately few in number, even though the population of the land of Ymr grew to vast assembly.
  • Gor reaches boyhood.
  • Nin-hawah-numa (who is called 'Mother Mountain' for she sat upon the lap of Father Tree) gives birth to Lady Reed, who is also named Grael, and Ynhlanga. The Reed-maiden would later become the Queen of Gynn and mother of the Great Lady of Ymr, Ra'ntaombi.
  • Resh-ki is deflowered by a charming youth named Nugi, after some months of childhood dalliance. Nugi was well known for having tamed one the Bulltoads that dwelled amongst the roots of Father Tree before he left the Village. Nugi, proving trustworthy and capable, would later aid Ngai in building many canals for the irrigation of the first farms.
  • Gu shows aptitude for invention, and builds many tall structures out of sticks.
  • Ngai arrives on the outskirts of Nimbru and befriends some of it's first few inhabitants. They are confused to discover a living Umoiar older than they, for Ngai had a great beard, and they were as yet in their youth, and they find his grey eyes curious, for their own were bright blue. The relation of Ngai and young Resh-ki is made clear. Together they create many new contrivances and develop the ancient crafts. Only later do Ngai and Resh-ki travel to visit Ma at the heart of Nimbru. At first they remain somewhat aloof, coming and going as they please, visiting various folk of their choosing and not yet venturing to the throne of Nin-hawah-numa, who is ever curious to hear the stories of them. Ngai is spoken of as 'the Wizard'.
  • Some time later, Gu has reached manhood, and his arms are strongly muscled by the labours of his youth.
  • Pioneering earthworks and the first experimental constructions by young Gu and his crew. Gu performs his first works of alchemy and metallurgy.
  • Ngai designs and builds the first small boat. At first he travels on the rivers, and later navigates and maps the netherworld streams of the Abzu and parts of Kur. Ngai's excursions are detected by watchers of Gaunab.
  • Olapa returns to Ngai during one of his occasional visits to the outskirts of Nimbru, and later goes by herself to the village center. There she is welcomed by Nin-hawah-numa. Imana finds her beautiful, but he dissembles his feelings, and his love for Khanya was not lessened. Ngai remains an enigma to many of the villagers of Nimbru for he never stays long, and later will appear again out of the hills.
  • Resh-ki, remaining with Nin-hawah-numa and Olapa, finally grows as she matures to adult-hood. She is tall and lithe, unlike her older sister Olapa. Some versions of the tale say that the maiden Resh-ki recovered from her youthful ailment, and was become beautiful, and many princes of the Umoiar desired her.
  • Resh-ki is fascinated by the Moon children, and spends time with Lady Ynan in her infancy. Little Ynan is given the friend-name Mawu by Resh-ki, for the soft cooing sounds she makes. Mawu's brother Shin is a noisy baby, always frowning, and ever thirsty for milk, and thus Olapa becomes his wet nurse in times of need - for the breasts of Khanya and Nin-hawah-numa have many mouths to feed as the Village of the Reed waxes.
  • Ngai builds a stronger boat and risks a journey upon the wine-dark waves of the Angry Sea near Mount Gaug in order to test his craft.
  • Gõr grows to be a strong youth with a fighting spirit. He is the Storm God of the Gnomes, who according to some appears at times in the form of an elephant, or rides upon Indlovu, grandfather of elephants when he visits mortal men. Gõr is associated with lightning (but more often with thunder), rain, and male fertility. He is the consummate wrestler and has a booming voice. He is great friends with Imana, but is less erudite, and quick to dispense with formalities. Like many of the Umoiar, he is known by many names, foremost of which are Tore, Thora, Tilo, Lesa ("rain"), and also Shango.
  • Gor makes the first drum from a fallen bough of Father Tree, and it is named Heart.
  • The great pregnant belly of Nin-Hawah-Numa grows smaller and the labour pains the less, and ever more of the Ur-Umoiar, the Children of the Tree, the ancient Men of the Reed, are delivered into the world.
  • Gor becomes friends with Ngai, and calls him Múrungu. More drums are made.
  • Many smaller more specialized monstrous creatures exist by this time, some of bordering on humanoid form, but all are feral and beastly. Many forms of chimaera. Gõr delights in wrestling with these fearful animosities, and he defeats ever larger trophies as he grows towards manhood.
  • For a while, the onslaught slackens, and there are seasons of piece, but this does not last.
  • In time the influence of Gaunab again stirs up many of these terrible beings, in numbers greater than before. They hunt and battle the Umoiar.
  • Gu develops mighty defensive constructions for the main dwelling places of the Umoiar, but the art of making these does not spread widely throughout the lands at first.
  • Imana and Ngai order the construction of hidden bastions that are quickly constructed, away from the Village, as refuges of last resort.
  • Stirrings of monsters nigh the dwellings of the children of Nin-hawah-numa. The drumming of Heart is heard across the plains, calling the warriors to fight.
  • The frightful and ancient Wars of Monsters - Gõr rejoices in battle.
  • Nganyamba stirs, for he dreams darkly by the influence of Gaunab, and the seas rage. Gõr with the aid of Ngai sets out to hunt the great sea-serpent, but they are foiled, not realizing how large and powerful it has become. They return emptyhanded, barely escaping with their lives.
  • Some say that Maha, Princess Vrasha-ntu, is born to Nin-hawah-numa at this time, but there is confusion here, for in many tales Nin-hawah-numa herself is named Maha, and was also titled Vrash in the early days of her Village rule. Legends from the Austlands in later times spoke also of a goddess named Ntu (Nt, Nth, Nit) who is said to be the Kemian protectress or mother of the Bhantir. Some say this Ntu is Vrasha-ntu, and was perhaps born of Ma (named Urash), but others insist that Ntu is 'uncreated' or 'self-created', and this is very particularly a description of Nin-hawah-numa. The Sanusis remind us that Ma took on many titles, and these shifted as her consortship moved from An the Father Tree to Ngai (and perhaps other Umoiar) in later ages.
  • Lady Reed, a little girl at this time, is kept in Olapa's care when Nin-hawah-numa is performing Village duties.
  • Imana is banished to Kur for transgression of ritual order (it's exact nature is unclear), but Khanya-Sudh follows. Some say rather that Imana went willingly in order to seek the Sacred Well of Wisdom and gave one of his eyes for access to it's deepest secrets. During their time in the underworld, Kalunga is conceived to them. He is also known as Aita, or Eita, and Aedi, the Lord of Shade.
  • Nin-hawah-numa is greatly fearful for Imana, and the land experiences it's first winter.
  • Resh-ki takes the Children of the Moon into her care, and she dwells now in the household of Ma.
  • Lady Reed reaches maidenhood.
  • Kalunga reaches manhood while still within the Netherworld, but he is master of it even at his infancy. The dangerous creatures of the underworld flee from him and he protects Imana and his wife.
  • While Imana is underground, Ngai arrives in the dwelling place of Nin-hawah-numa and her Titan children at Nimbru, and he is made known to all. He takes the title "Lord Earth", but some of those that were there begrudge this. He gives Ma the name Djobela, whilest Olapa names her Titania.
  • Ngai speaks long with Nin-hawah-numah in private. Ma entitles Lord Ngai Múrungu, the name Gor had given to him.
  • Some time passes, and the great family learns how to live in harmony together, though there is some concern for the length of time that Imana and his bride have been away. Resh-ki becomes great friends with all the children of Nin-hawah-numa, and ever keeps watch over Lady Ynan, the Moonchild, daughter of Imana and Khanya. Ngai himself provides the early schooling of Shin. Ngai is given the name Uncle by the youth of his new tribe.
  • There is angst amongst the Umoiar, for Imana and Khanya do not return from Kur.
  • The forces of Kur, at the prompting of Gaunab abducts the goddess Resh-ki, and drags her down to the Netherworld. It is said a great thunderstorm shook the heavens when the messengers brought this news to Ma, and the next winter was yet more dire.
  • Ngai sets out in his strongest boat to attack the Kur and avenge the abduction of Resh-ki and to seek for Imana and his bride. Gõr is willing to go, but Ngai seeing his youthful fear, urges him to stay, and that such adventures must wait for his adulthood. Ngai knows only powerful magic will be strong enough to defend against Kur.
  • The Kur defends itself using a storm of hailstones of all sizes and by attacking Ngai with a vortex of the waters beneath the boat.
    • The first account discovered never tells who the winner is, but from the outcome it can be assumed that Ngai is the victor
  • As it turns out, Kalunga had rescued Resh-ki from Kur but desired her as wife, and she was being kept in Kalunga's newly-delved netherworld realm of Asamando.
  • Ngai finds Imana and Khanya during his return from the quest of Resh-ki, and brings them back to Nimbru. After they had rested, and Imana and Khanya could get re-aquainted, and properly meet Ngai, the heads of the tribe discuss what to do about Resh-ki.
  • Ngai earns the epithet 'Lord of the Abyss' after his exploits with Kur, and some give him the name Ngai-hnúm. Imana, being greatly changed by his underworld travails, is named Únkülúnkülú, 'the old old one', or 'oldest of the old'. He is now less hasty with his words, and slow to smile. His wife Khanya has a flush of grey hair on her temples, unusual for her early years, but her wide eyes burn like flame, and no guilt or subterfuge was invisible to her countenance. The couples' reunion with the Moonchildren was very glad. A generous feast is held in thanksgiving for the safety of all concerned, and the entire village was invited. All noted the palour of Imana Únkülúnkülú and his wife from their long stay in the netherworld, and would have feared for their health, were it not for their new stature and bearing. Both seemed to have grown taller, and were most imposing to look upon. All were eager to hear about the dangers of Kur that they had faced, and of the nature of Kalunga's abode beneath the earth.
  • The agreement of Resh-ki's wedding to Kalunga. She will be Kalunga's wife but return at times to the upper world. Olapa wept in the knowledge that she and her younger sister would dwell now apart.
• Paleozoic (570−245 million years ago)
  • ... long believed by geologists to mark the beginning of life
  • A single southern landmass
  • North America, Siberia, northern Europe, western Asia, and China had not yet joined the southern landmass. North America a lowland that was periodically flooded by the ocean
  • The trees of the age are giants, reaching to the heights of the hills.
  • All kinds of animals, great and small inhabit the land and seas. Monster hunting is the primary occupation of the strong and brave. Most of the abominations are eliminated, or hide deep in the earth. Kalunga dwells in safe areas of the netherworld, cleared of monsters and well guarded, and his new wife Resh-ki visits her siblings in the land of Ymr.
  • The children of the Ur-Umoiar grow into a great people and spread over the land. The people live as nomads, building no cities or permanent abodes. The first generations are of gigantic size, but with each generation they diminish. Most are still born of Nin-hawah-numa, and considered children of Father Tree, great An.
  • In this time, Maha, the Princess Vrasha-ntu becomes a woman. She and Lady Reed are both very wise and beautiful, and many of the male Umoiar pay them homage and bring them gifts.
  • With the blessing of Olapa, Ngai takes Lady Reed as consort, and their daughter is Ra'ntaombi (Ra'ntombi), the 'Great Woman' or 'Great Queen', who was to be the mother of Leesha, Prince of the Sun.
  • ... Time passes ...
  • Some of the sons of Ngai-Múrungu, delivered into the world by Olapa, have grown to adulthood, and a few of them have had children of their own. More sons and daughters follow.
  • Great feast remembering Father Tree.
  • The dwellings of Asamando are delved mightily and deep, and the Netherlords of Kalunga rule the realm beneath the earth. It is said that Kalunga cannot concieve, and thus with his assent Resh-ki takes a consort to provide an heir to the underworld kingdom. Of Kalunga's barrenness, the sages tell us that his true wife was Anansi, the Spiderwoman, Great Grandmother, and she remained with Umvelinqangi in the Heavely Kraal, and thus his children are instead his judgements that steer Fate.
  • Winters grow less severe.
  • Olapa and Ngai birth additions to their litter. Amongst these is Meru-tak (or Meru-taqqa) who would become very great. Some say rather that Meru-tak was sired upon Nin-hawah-numa herself by Ngai, for though Ma greatly missed Father Tree and pined for him, none knew yet where he walked, and thus in time Nin-hawah-numa desired the lap and embrace of a new mate. Olapa and Nin-hawah-Numa walked arm-in-arm together with Ngai for many years. In the same year as the birth of Meru-tak, Ra'ntombi attains maidenhood.
  • ... Time turns ...
  • Lord Shin is in this time hailed as the Moon Prince, and his sister Ynan is Moon Princess. A portion of Ymr eventually becomes their fiefdom, beneath the overlordship of Imana, Ngai and Nin-hawah-numa.
  • The tribes have found many caves roundabout, and these are very suitable dwellings, for the skies are clear, and the sun burns hot. Many distant lands have regions turned to desert. Aided by the arts of Gu and Ngai, many new tunnels are dug that connect the most important of the cave-homes. None of these underground regencies could yet begin to compare to the great netherworld of Asamando, however.
  • Leesha the Sun-child (also known as Sums or Sumish, and Leesha-Uthu, Prince of the Sun) - first-born of beautiful twins - is delivered and handed to Lord Shin by his weary consort. The majority say that he is born of the eldest daughter of Ngai, Ra'ntombi (the 'Great Lady'), and his wet-nurses were Resh-ki and Lady Reed.
  • Moments later, the twin of Leesha is born. She is named Story, and Princess Ynan-naha. Her wet-nurse was Lady Reed, and sometimes Nin-hawah-numa herself. This famous princess is also known as Tally or Tale, and later, as a grown woman, she would come to beguile Ngai, and gaining access to many secrets of the Emerald Stone, would grow to be powerful and greatly renowned. She was known also as Cauldruna by the one who loved her most.
  • The Kingdom of Lord Shin and Lady Ynan. Brother and sister rule as a platonic couple in the east of Ob. Ra'ntombi remains as Shin's consort within the royal entourage.
  • Birth of Lilu-ta, the Lady of the Lilt, to Queen Ynan. Most histories relate that a son of Imana was the sire, but she dwells in the Kingdom of the Moon, fostered by Lord Shin. Her wet nurse in the summer season was Resh-ki, while in the winter Olapa's breast was her pillow. In ages still to come, she would be the prime consort of the first mortal regent, but that tale is regretful to the Ur-Umoiar.
  • Twins, a daughter and a son, are born to Imana upon Nin-hawah-numa (though some few say they were children of Ngai and Olapa Asaseya, and others tell they were born much earlier, children of An, Father Tree). Regardless, the daughters' name is Bea, or Bia (also Bav, sometimes spelled Bau) and was known too as Bhaetyla and Rhae or Rhaeiou, and she would become a strong chieftainess, and much later would become sister-wife of the famous (or infamous) Lord Gyrrsu, otherwise known as Urtha and Krantz the Great Satyr. Meanwhile, the son of these new twins is Thanu (Tanu-Koyos), and was known as the River Lord, and the Angry Tree, for his oft-tempestous and stormy moods. He became friends with Gor, for each was a worthy foil for the other. Thanu was always doubting and questioning intentions, and thus he is called Curious, and also Pols. His consort was the Lady Fibb.
  • Further growth of plants, moth-birds, animals and eventually hairy, spiny or scaled social humanoids with primitive minds. They exhibit no tool use or speech. Many of them live in caves, fearing the landwyrms of the forest and the gatyrush and mushu-dragons of the swamps.
  • Legends of Tsui-Goab, Ga-Gorib and the Pit. Lord Shin, the Moonchild Arébãti, is instrumental in vanquishing Ga-Gorib. Legends speak of this demon as a gigantic toad-like troll.
  • Kur stirs beneath the mound of crystals. Earthquakes. Abysm is wakened to activity.
  • The clamour of the growing hordes of the underworld, demons born of Watamaraka-Omoroca and Nidh-Kur. Incursions upon Asamando. Abysm is angered by the disturbances. The forces of Omoroca, exploiting the fear of Kur, and led by an ambitious little known Ur-Umoiar named Kng, or Qung, attack the first Village.
  • The threat of the Deep Netherworld. Watamaraka-Omoroca, an elder child of Si'ne, has discovered the fallen Emerald Headstone of Khanyab in a secret chamber of the earth. She does not fear the boiling inky oils of it's protective covering, these being indeed the congealed spirit of her own mother, Watamaraka the Elder, mate of Gauna-Erebuz himself. It is said that Omoroca empowered Kng with it's essence, and gives him leadership of her chthonic forces. She summons many demons of brutal monsters of the deeps.
  • Ngai's offensives are insufficient to deter the dark forces of the Netherworld, and his son comes to his aid, for Imana had taught him the spells of the blasting winds. Imana and his plumed storm serpents - these having the great wings of birds and crowns of feathers - protect the dwellings of his people.
  • Leesha the Sunchild, with the aid of Khanya-Sudh, destroy many demons with blasts of great light. After the battles, Leesha would be gifted the Scepter of the Lion, crafted by Gu himself, and this was handed to him by Gor-Shango, and he was named King of the Sun by the people.
  • The slaying of Watamaraka-Omoroca by Meru-tak (Mverutaq, Mwrtaq, Mbærōdaḵ), the son of Ngai and Nin-hawah-numa, with the aid of the forces of Imana. Her colossal body lying in tatters upon the earth becomes a new mountain range. Some say rather that Meru-tak successfully routed her forces and drove her away, but she, escaping the devastation of the battle dwells in hiding in the far east or perhaps in the Austlands of Diab. Regardless, Meru-tak earned the highest honours for this deed, and his name was remembered still in the time of the Tower at Shimmer long after his disappearance. The Sanusis remind us however, that without the powers of Imana (named Father Tsui-Goab after the battle), he would have stood little chance alone against that mighty Dracæna.
  • The punishment and sacrifice of Qung who had fought for Omoroca. His son, Qa'yngu, a young friend of Ngai, is spared however, for he did not rebel like his father, and he showed great bravery defending the first Village. Some of his important descendants later travel east, and others south. Qa'yngu rules over the forest of Bwindi, lands that much later would be known as Kongo.
  • After the battle, with the aid of Kalunga's folk, a search was carried out for the Emerald Stone held by Omoroca, but it is not found.
  • End of the Paleozoic: all continents had come together to form Pangaea
    • see the myth of Pangu (at Cosmic Egg) [ @ Phoenix ]]

Age of the Colossal Trees

• Mesozoic (245 mya to 66 mya). “Age of the Dinosaurs”
  • The landwyrms and skydragons arise, new Phoenix impulse reflects in new forms of fleshy life.
  • The population of the great Umoiar is thinned out, and they dwell in secluded regions of the earth in relatively small but impressive walled villages and forts. Much of the land is wild. The variety of life-forms is much less than in earlier times, and the beasts and monsters are less exotic. However, the greatest trees of the world have grown into colossal features of the landscape, some of them beginning to overtop the larger mountains.
  • Ngai is known to many as Lord Enkai in this era of the Realm, and he is Chief N'nsiku, the Master of the Craft.
  • Nonösh, a beautiful little girl, is born to Enaki and Olapa. She was greatly fascinated by the animals and fish and flying creatures of the land and marshes.
  • Time passes. The days of the first mighty walled cities of the Ur-Umoiar. The most impressive of these, in the far east, are ruled by the children of Qing, the enobled sons of Qa-yngu, himself the son of the legendary Kng (infamous for his role in the War of Omoroca), but the vast majority of the population centers about the land of Ob (or Ub) in the nearer north. The great bastion of Ngai and Imana is Ur-Ob, a city of stone high in the mountains anciently formed of the fallen boughs of the great tree that was named Albr and Alliph before it was toppled by Imana (for it's age was very great, and it's strength waning, and leaving it standing would endanger any burgeoning cities built beneath it). In these days, expeditions to the southern lands cross the forests of Bwindi and the realms of Kongwr lead to the foundings of the first cities of Diab.
  • The Great Landwyrms: the Thunder Lizards, and the Alutsar, and later the Raptures and the Torasaur spread across the world.
  • Later the smaller dragon species have developed into the first true birds.
  • Princess Ynan, now known as the Great Queen, the Calqal of Ymr, discovers and tames the first grylag (goose), and later she and her brother Shin, walking beside a river, befriend a great hoop (a large swan) that was followed by a gaggle of uvi birds. Regular visits to the riverside, and some tempting with treats, eventually convinced the stunning winged creature to follow them back to their mansion and it's gardens, and there it remained a feature for many years. This swan hatched the first clutch of swans that were known widely by the Ur-Umoiar.
  • In what seemed a short space of years to the Children of the Reed, the air was filled with the piping and singing of birds of all kinds, and ever Nonösh, daughter of Ngai and Olapa-kina, was foremost in learning their ways and giving them names. For this she became known as Okynidha, for she sought most the birds of the rivers and shoreline for her studies. In ages to come she would travel to Diab with Nin-hawah-numa and there gained to all the wisdom of the birds of the Southlands.
  • Much time passes. Further developments of the great cities of the elder children of Father An, but this is not without violence between different tribes and factions for all the usual reasons. The oral history of the Sanusis tell that a subtle (perhaps unconscious) feud or power struggle begins to foment between the children of Imana and those of Ngai at this time.
  • It is said that late in this era, Gu began experimenting with strange and sometimes dangerous energies found within substances of the earth, requiring lore deeper than many had on hand at the time, and he mixed many different kinds of alchemical fuels, and began the early development of the ancient engines - the beginnings of the first machines that perform complicated manual labour without hands. But these initial primitive forays were cut short.
  • New schemes and corruptions of Gaunab. Burumatara-Azhamata is hatched from his egg and falls to the earth. Many of the great trees fall. Horrifying disasters. Magical catastrophe and poisonous fires. Smokes and dust. Climate shift. Only a few winged dragon species remain, along with the robust shortlegged landwyrms. All other wyrms not become birds or serpents fade from the lands. Primitive ancestors of the Naga dwell beneath the earth. It is said that Burumatara travelled westward and disappeared.
  • In these mass extinctions the biome is remade and only the largest of the great trees survive, spread out sparsely over the continents, monstrous sentinels watching over the changing world. Two of the greatest trees are Ashyr the famous Cedar of the east and Adamastor in the southlands of Diab.

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The years wheel onward.

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• Cenozoic (“Age of Recent Life” or “Age of Mammals”)

  • encompasses the last 66 million years of the earth's history

  • The trunks and boughs of many of the fallen trees lay torn upon the earth, and in time became new hills and mountains. If it were not for the few remaining giant trees still standing as evidence, only the eyes of the very wise might recognize these new mountains and their true origins. Many larger animal forms die out, and their carcasses become new strangely-shaped hills. Gigantic birds flock in the air, such as the Wroc of Iadin that feast upon the whales of the sea.
  • The Children of the Reed, the Ur-Umoiar, diminish further, and the pending disaster of their likely extinction works to re-invigorate them. Nin-hawah-numa travels with them, her belly almost shrunk to it's original proportions. She births the last numbered amongst the original race, much smaller in stature than the first, and is almost spent. New journeys. Children are born to children, but slowly. Gu begins a great earthworks, quarrying and mining in the lands south-west of Ob, but north of the Sharlands and the Realm of Bwindi. In later ages these deeps and hand-delved valleys would fill with the rains of the sky and become the Middle Sea of our own mortal days, but not before mighty building work was done with the raw materials that Gu extracted from his great labour.
  • Ngai-hnúm and the discovery of the Mountain Goats. Ngai finds the first of these creatures near the base of a massive tree. They run from him as he makes to get closer to them, and lead him on a perilous trail upon the great knees of the tree. There Ngai finds the Ashar-luhi, men of Saggar, who know of the long-horned creatures Ngai had seen, and that the beasts are named 'Goats' whose milk is good to drink, if one has no wife with child. They know the name of Enakai-Hnúm, that speaks of a great god, and they are glad to have met him. On subsequent visits to this great tree, Ngai would befriend the strong agile beasts with the horns, and some of them followed him, and returned with him to Ymr, where they became great boons to the tribes.
  • The Medicine Men of Ashyr, the Ashar-luhi (or Asluhhi), who dwell at the foot of the Great Cedar. These perform exorcisms and incantations against illness, and are sought out by Kings for their aid in times of trouble. Ngai is involved in their researches (and some would say that he was a distant ancestor of a founding member). Later this group had a refuge to the west in the land of Shar, where there were deep wells (these in the keeping of Princess Ishara, that is Ish-harah the Serpent Lady, a precocious daughter of Imana), while another was found in Azera, the distant north-east of Ymr (whose ancient Lords moved in time to the northland realm, Norbhigga, that is western-most Ubyria). The wives of the Men of Ashyr (particularly those in the land of Shar) were fine potters, crafting vessels for the ingredients of their husband's trade. Ngai noted some useful innovations these women had achieved in their craft, and thereby Ngai is associated with the potters' wheel, for he brought these arts back to Nimbru.
  • Ma travels south to the hidden refuges of Diab with a small contingent and is not seen for a millenia. The main group meanwhile, meet the Kaula birds (talking, two-headed) who lead them to the Emerald Stone near the Ndo-Lamba river nigh to the forests of Bwindi. It was a chief of the medicine men of Ashyr travelling with Gu's workers who first discovered the strange birds. He feared they were new abominations of some sort, or some devilry of Gaunab. Following their trail with a number of helpers, he came upon a marsh wherein was a pool of black tar that fizzed and bubbled without heat. One of the chief's aides slipped and fell into the tar, and immediately began changing shape into the most twisted and horrible forms as he tried to clamber out of the pool. He eventually boiled away into a fine black mist as the rest of the group fled. Later, Ngai and Imana were notified, and came to investigate as soon as they were able. With their combined knowledge, the tar was isolated and sucked up and sealed into magical gourds. At the bottom of the pond was a large emerald crystal, brilliant green. After ensuring the discovery was properly washed clean with the clear waters of the Apse of Ngai, it was taken to a secure fortress in the north-west of Ob, and there it was probed for it's secrets. Long and hard was this task, and only the finest minds of the Ur-Umoiar were able to understand even it's simplest elements.
  • Khanyab-Heha is born to the flesh upon it's discovery (though his parentage is not clear), and with the Great Chaos of the primordial world receding - as the Times settle into place - it came to pass that at the borders of the world, Kalathe-ntaombe stirs from her fitful slumber and begins her dance, and the sowing of her silks. It is said that when this occurred, the Fire of Tale-Telling in the Heavenly Kraal crackled and sizzled, and gave off wheeling sparks. And thus it was that the Weavers of Ayanmó could take up their appointed task, ensuring that the tale in it's later stages goes forward according to plan. They set out then for the Realm of Aarde far below, descending upon the dank webs of the dragonspider Nemesis, to take up their secret office beneath the roots of the Tree of Life who rested in a veiled land unknown even to Nin-hawah-numa.

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The Forgotten Civilization

• Years of the Torch-Cities
  • Beginning 39,866 B.C. The Beginning of the Age of the Torches.
  • Great migrations
  • The main families of the Ur-Umoiar move to the center of the Earth, the Eye of the World.
  • Wielding the knowledge in the Emerald Stone, these great founders and their children build a mighty civilization that lasts for millennia (parts of which remain as the ruined cyclopian foundations of 'The Forgotten Ones').
  • At the Navel, the Tribe of the Ur-Umoiar build their Holy City, and it's name was Invur-Elu and it's citadal was Anshar. It slowly grows to encompass many smaller cities about it, and in time the singular central district stretched until it covered all the lands from what is now Gibraltar and the western Saharah across the world to Black Sea and down to the source of the Nile. Small homesteaders travel much further and found little kingdoms all across the world. The city was vast not because it needed to contain millions upon millions of inhabitants (though there were many) but because the Umoiar revelled in the building, and the planning and the measuring and observing. They constructed wide avenues for their pleasure, great canals and towering palaces. There was enough housing that one could cast his eye across the plazas, pick any window or door and thereby find a home for as long a stay as one desired. Many ancient Templates found in the Emerald Stone were tested and built with great success.
  • The great Lords of the Earth centered at the Eye of the World, the masters of Invur-Elu, lead by Imana, Ngai and Gu begin the design and construction of two towering colony academies, one in the far north (Hubur/Hybir I/Sippur) in what is now Siberia, and the other in the south (Eridu I) in Abzu-Diab. These for the enrichment of the distant homesteads and as magical research centers founded upon understanding and harnessing the knowledge within the deepest parts of the Emerald Stone. A secret bastion they build also, high on a mountain at the edge of the north. It is named Mount Lel, and fountains of deep water gush out from near it's summit. There Imana was wont to go with Khanya when they tired of the bustle at the Eye of the World and the Court of the Navel.
  • The old works of Gu with regard to power sources and alchemical energies he took up again, and aided by the results of the Stone-masters - the information extracted by the research projects of Ngai and Imana - he attained mastery of many possibilities. In the years following this, the civilization of Invur-Elu was remade and spectacular technological achievements were a regular and celebrated occurance. A new sort of temple was soon found near every major population center - large spheres or domes or ziggurats that hummed with eldritch power, and the countless lamps and beacons illuminating the great cities at night were a sight to behold.
  • The extreme east and west of the World remain largely unexplored and filled with dreadful challenges, being the home of many of the refuge abominations and monsters of the previous ages. The southlands of Bwindi and Diab remain wilder, though they are heavily exploited for gold and platium and gems. Emerald veins are found there and translations of subsets of the information within the Emerald Stone are made upon great tablets of deep green.
  • ... Much time passes...
  • Much urban development is centered in the north of the world, known as Ubyria, and the center of power drifts in this direction. The beginning of the fading of the powers at the Eye of the World, where political confusion reigns. The research colonies of Diab in the deep south scorn the rush and hubbub of high civilization, and centralized communication breaks down.
  • Kalunga travels far to the west, seeking to expand his underworld realms. He discovers the land of Mer with towering peaks and great plains. It's far north and south are frozen wastes, but it's central region a place of enchanted islands and magical forests.
  • In the first lands of Ubyria (it's capital now named Shimmer for it's golden lights), there are now many great city municipalities with temples and towers that stretch to the sky. Some of these, and particularly the original outposts of Hubber (known then as Huber-Anshar) and Diab (Shim-Kishar), were taller than the largest mountains of the Earth of today. Nonetheless these were small constructions next to the Great Trees of that ancient era, which by that time had grown to colossal size, and towered over and cast deep shadows upon the mountains below, their gigantic trunks of rocky bark reared up into the mists of the skies, and only very occasionally was their strange foliage seen in the starry heaven. The greatest trees were deemed sacred and left to themselves, while the smaller of the giants were colonized by the Umoiar and became great tree cities. Spectacular gems were found in the earth amongst their roots.
  • Secret expeditions to the western lands found by Kalunga beyond the deep and narrow sea of Tal.
  • Some say that it was at this time that Watamaraka-Omoroca took on the form of the Umoiar and comes to the northern Academy Bastion of Hubbur. In her disguise she rises to high station, and is known as Mother Hubbur, and Tehomt. Other versions of this account tell that Wataramaka-Omoroca was Nin-hawah-numa returned from the land of Diab in the south, after founding the city of Amak-Habaret.
  • ... Ages pass ...
  • Ubyrian Empire of the Shimmer grows to encompass vast oceanic regions of the south-east, and many great agricultural centers with spectacular canal systems of immeasurable complexity arise. The art of temple design and construction here reaches great heights.
  • ... Ages pass ...
  • The civilization of Ubyria grows to it's peak, but there are new rifts in the leadership of Invur-El, and stirrings of abominations on the borders and deep underground. Many of the Mountain-cities on the outskirts are abandoned or nearly so, and begin eroding. Later they would be unrecognizable as intelligent constructions.
  • Great wars against the forces of Gaunab, whose agents have weaseled their way into the Society of the Ur-Umoiar, but are now revealed. The most terrible battles of the Age. The Great Trees are felled in cataclysm, shattering the Mountain-cities below. Burumatara rampages, small fiery eggs in their thousands fall from the sky, pelting the whole of the north. The Academy of Hubbur is badly damaged. From the eggs the children of Burumatara burst into flame and the land becomes an inferno. Meanwhile, Nganyamba rages in the seas, and his tail smashes many coastal cities as it breaches the waves. Some say Nidho-kur emerged from beneath the earth for a time and himself did great damage to that primordial Empire, first to bear the name of Shimmer. The trees that Nidho-kur gnawed and felled in the nearer south caused that land to be named Hoggr, and all that region was made waste.
  • Regrouping and conservatism of the remaining Umoiar.
  • ... time passes...
  • As the Umoiar of this latter era settle into earthly life, they become one by one ever more forgetful and their spirits wane, eventually falling into unconscious activity of animal and beast. Large portions of the central city of the Eye of the World is smashed to rubble. Most of the once-great Children of the Reed perish, leaving their headstones as relics to their scattered descendants. Eventually only a small contingent of advanced civilization remains, cloistered and utterly decadent.
  • Za-Ha-Rrellel the Tyrant, and the scouring of the headstones of the forefolk, the creation of the Tokoloshe and the final collapse of Great Ubyria. The toppling and devouring of the bastions of Hubbur and Diab. Long and violent stormwinds. Nganyamba's great body heaves part of itself onto the land for the first and last time until the end of the world. Only Nin-hawah-numa, and Odwa and Amaërava of Kalagaer are known to have survived the disaster. The Ur-Umoiar, the children of Father Tree were no more, but their scattered bones can still be seen yet, for many remain as key elements of the stone henges erected later by primitive mortal men that survive down to our own days. It is not known what happened to the eldest of the Great Umoiar such as Ngai, Kalunga, Imana and the rest. They are thought slain or to have flown. Much of the north is by Ma renamed Tartarus ('thrown down'), the Tortured Land [and becomes icy cold?]. Amaërava and Odwa travel north to the mouth of the Kongo River in it's youth.
  • The wreckage of the great forest-earth erodes and crumbles, leaving it much as it appears today, but for isolated spots where the enchantment of the old still lingers. Queen Ma wanders the earth alone, having sent Amaërava and Odwa on a mission to the forest of Bwindi. Amaërava is particularly unwilling.

---

The Hatching of the Elves

• Years of the Family Trees and the Birth of the Elves

  • From: 24,562 BC --> 14,474 BC

  • The broken world has had much time to heal. New plant life cover the lands, and what remains of the mountainous regions have been much worn by erosion, the sharpest peaks blunted. There are lakes, forests and plains, but not all is paradise however, for parts of the world are blasted wastes and deserts, or frozen tundra, flat and featureless.
  • Nin-hawah-numa seeks for a suitable place to begin anew, where she hopes to hatch her last efforts to ensure Phoenix walks the earth into the future. She is almost exhausted.
  • Nin-hawah-numa pre-names her younger children, as yet unborn, with names echoing the divided powers of the Heavenly Kraal. She leaves clues for them to discover their names once they hatch.
  • Ma goes to sleep far away in a great rift valley. Her body petrifies into a mountain range, and the bowl-lands of the first Edun are protected by her great knees.
  • ...Thousands of years pass...
  • A Great Tree has sprouted from the belly of Mount Nin-hawah-numa and grown to giant size. The mountain of her body is hardly recognizable as that of the goddess. Great forests grow around the mountain of Ma. Very much later, this realm is remembered as the Crown Lands.
  • Between the knees of the Treemount of Ma, a natural garden for Mankind.
  • Arising of Man (Elves of the 'pre-Adamic' era)
  • The M'Moatia, the first elves, hatch in the deeps of time (see Succession-I). They are all females, needing no food or drink, and give birth parthenogenically by laying eggs. They are chalk white, bald, and most have six fingers upon their hands. Their eyes are large and dark and glisten like labradorite gems. Their long and shapely heads hold minds sharp of wit and fine senses. They have short fangs and sharp claws on their fingers, and their bodies subtly transmit, magnify and bend light. Upon hatching they are small, only a little larger than the mortal infants of men, but the largest of them are perhaps 9 feet tall when grown.
  • The first group to hatch do so alone somewhere within the deep cave of the Tree-Mount, their eggs being distributed in various places within the vast chamber that looks out onto Paradise. Each elf hatches when a dragon discovers and makes the elven egg the tentpole of the nest for it's own clutch. The first few elves to hatch are able to teleport instantly and at will over short distances.
  • The elves befriend the dragon families they hatch into, becoming the first dragon riders in early youth. Their ability of instant translation (teleportation) aids them in this, for they are able to dodge any attacks that unruly dragons make - eventually the dragons learn that it is useless to assail the fairies. They elves do not yet speak with tongues (though they love to chant and sing in random syllables). They develop language only much later when they chance upon other elves that hatched some time before them and return to their cave of birth after exploring the world.
  • Much time passes, development of early Fairy society centered on Mount Ma...
  • The Naive Age - the Dream-time
  • Slowly tribes of elves take shape as the first gathering grows apace. They are still naive, as children.
  • The first mothers of the elves are concerned to find that their daughters never quite inherit the entirely of their abilities, and after some generations, require the licking of sweat from their bodies for sustenance (this they begin to do instinctively).
  • The elves begin to discover their names, using the clues planted by Nin-hawah-numa before she lay down to sleep and became one with the land. The nature of these clues is an enigma, for even the Fairies of today do not speak of it - if any know the truth of the matter, they do not say.
  • The name of the first elf to hatch is not known, and the legends of the Fairies themselves simply tell of Ælf. There are three major threads of thought in regard to this. One camp of sages say that the first elf was of the Angkarim, from whom sprung the families of Anka and Anga (and from these came the Akarim and folk of Aga), while another group say rather than the first elf was Queen Amba, whose daughter Ambaraiha eclipsed her fame and gave rise to the Amarim, and the peoples of Aba and Apa. Another minority says that the House of Asha was first to emerge from Mount Nin-hawah-numa. There is no terrible feud over this distinction in the latest days, but in earlier times there was some haughtiness and tension over this issue when arguments arose and certain elves required a justification. Nonetheless, the folk of the Ambarim, the House of Amba (from whence the Amarim and Abar/Apar) have long been considered the leading great house with the longest memory of elvenheart.
  • Time passes, and small cliques of elves begin to form around their elders. The elves play, rejoincing in the varied beauties of the land and of their kin. They discover ever more of the finer points of their minds and bodies, and begin to differentiate themselves by their unique talents and primal and unconcious magical abilities.
  • Discovery of the Emerald Stone (but it is not understood). Rumour of it's finding begins to spread.
  • At this, the Queens of the Elven tribes sense an Omen - and to many it is as if they dimly remember things they did not experience.
  • Soon thereafter, the first males are hatched to egg-laying Elf Queens, and other maidens of the tribe bleed for the first time.
  • Great debates, consternation. Some say that one 'Gaunab' has cast a spell on them, but none understand what is meant. They are not sure what to do with the males who obviously cannot lay eggs.
  • It is said by some that Ngai and Olapa appear to the young society of the Elves and instruct them at this time. Much later Resh-ki would also appear and join them.
  • The Apocrypha of the Grail-Skull.
  • The formation of the first Seelie and Unseelie Court (though these were not the original names of these groups - indeed there was no name for them at first). This occurs quietly and is at first unnoticed by Ngai or Olapa, and most of the community of fairies remain ignorant, being themselves Seelie.
  • A council meeting debates the issue of the male elves. Ngai and Olapa guide the sensitive discussion as gently as they can. They are fearful of the repercussions of this new division in the fairy clans. In an attempt to avoid early troubles, Ngai decides to announce a new game that the elves will play - and his intention by this is simply to divide the maidens from the boy-children for a short time. The elves do not behave as the Ur-Umoiar did with regards to mating and offspring, and he is not sure what to expect. He needs time to ponder the teachings he will be obliged to administer.
  • After a count of moons, the elves reveal their discovery of the Emerald Stone to Ngai and Olapa. Ngai is at first shocked, but quickly understands some of the reticence displayed by the young fae that had come to his attention. He worries that the fairies will keep secrets from him and thereby endanger themselves.
  • Decoding of the Emerald Stone: Ngai aids the elves in interpreting their discovery, but does not rush the task, knowing that it's secrets will make them wise before their years and dim the magic of their naivety, and make them hasty. Furthermore, he and Olapa realize they must make time to draft proper plans for the reproductive education of the changing elven society, for the community seemed not be handling this new fact of life as intuitively as they had many others. The latest developments were unexpected, and the uncertainty and fear of the Elf matriarchs and their daughters was plain. Nonetheless, as yet none of the male elves had reached the age of urges.
  • Gor is found to be alive, and joins Ngai and the elves. He arrives from the north-east riding a massive mammoth, taller than many trees, who is named Indlovu. He joins the group at Mount Ma. Ngai is grateful for his later guardianship of the growing community, for Gor is willing to accompany them on journeys that Ngai would prefer the fairies not to be making alone. Gor and the dragon riders become fast friends, though Gor prefers to ride upon Indlovu the Mammoth, whose legs like tree-trunks and giant strides allow Gor (mostly) to keep up with the flyers. Gor dubs the dragonriders his Valkyr ('great maidens', 'brave/lordly girls'). Many elf maidens are smitten by the mighty and handsome newcome Ur-Umoiar but remain shy, for he is very large and imposing and his voice is loud.
  • The fairies further explore the surrounding lands, and some of the dragon riders go on great journeys, though Ndlovu cannot carry Gor on the longest of these. Some of the travellers are witness to sights that Ngai and Gor later suspect to be recent works of Kalunga, who may yet live.
  • Some of the elves begin to grow hair on their heads - at first the finest filaments of silvery gold. Some amongst them argue that this is due to the Emerald Stone. Ngai is not sure of the answer but notes the change. He suspects the eldest male elves might be reaching the time of the flowering of passions, and Olapa tells him that indeed she sees that the Runarin, the maidens-who-have-bled, sometimes have a certain look in their eyes when the boy-children are about them.
  • A tremendous Wroc flies over the realm of Mount Ma. Many are frightened, but Ngai assures them that elves have nothing to fear from the giant bird. It disappears into a storm cloud.
  • Gor develops a simple combat training regimen for the fiercer fairies, as a way to shed their excess energies but also as a defense against possible futures. Ngai is glad that one among the Chiefs can focus on the boy-children, for Ngai has many cares.
  • First attempt at a Lunar calendar developed by Ngai and the Atarim. It turns out to be unsuitable.
  • Some time later, Imana appears from the east and finds Ngai and the Elves. The meeting is glad, but Imana is concerned about the Green Stone and demands Ngai be yet stricter still with what he allows the Fairies to read from it.
  • Great feast of the Reunion of the Few.
  • Discussions about seeking for Kalunga.
  • Slowly the Fairy civilization is shaped under the observation of Imana and Ngai. Olapa works as midwife. Gor as big brother. New language developments. Artistic breakthroughs.
  • ... Time passes ...
  • Ancient Matriarchy, Oracle Priestesses and Sacred Queens rule
  • Elves begin to be hatched with the beginnings of hair on their heads. The folk of Ara are red headed, and the Agarim have grey hair. The tresses of the folk of Aya tends to dark auburn. That of the Abarim and Aparim is sometimes gold and sometimes dark. The fairies delight in this new development. At the same time some of them begin to hear the thoughts of others - this occurring mostly amongst the Atarim, Afarim, and the folk of Asha.
  • Age of Speech (First Age). The First People grow to a large population. Many tribes form their own subcultures, and spread to cover a wide land, but Mount Ma remains the focus and a necessary repeated pilrimage. The first fairy language develops into a beautiful monolith in which Ngai sees echoes of the Green Stone. Only the very beginnings of tribal differentiation with regards to speech.
  • The merry times of the Elves as they enjoy their mastery of the world. They encounter challenges, monsters and storms, and even the first troubles caused by Gaunab (of whom they did not know, but for dark hints they had heard from Ngai).
  • A new phenomenon afflicts the tribes of the fairies: certain elf maidens who have bled seem not to conceive eggs, no matter how long they wait. Some get deep into adulthood and are mourning their apparent barrenness. Meanwhile the eldest of the boy-children (who developed much more slowly than the females) could be seen to pine for certain maidens. This caused telepathic disturbances that the Ur-Umoiar chiefs could not perceive or understand. Nonetheless, Ngai and Olapa realize that their education needs to become more explicit.
  • ... some time passes...
  • Resh-ki appears as an ambassador of Kalunga, whose abode is now in the west, beneath the mountains near the shores of the sea of Tal - the realm of Asamando having greatly expanded. Ngai is overjoyed. Resh-ki will stay awhile, and later return messages to Kalunga.
  • Ngai and the other Ur-Umoiar spend many hours scheming of means to handle the inevitable growth of complexity of the fairy society.
  • Selection and training of Responsibles. The Green Stone is consulted for it's Templates of Love, for the Chiefs of Mount Ma know that sensitive teachings will be needed shortly. Resh-ki advises upon schools for the Fairy maidens, but Imana and Ngai quarrel over who will have the responsibility for the general teachings of the boy-children.
  • Gu is discovered in the south. He works alone, smithying strange trinkets, dispairing that he is sole survivor of all the Ur-Umoiar. His leg is smashed, a victim of the combat against the monsters of Gaunab. He cannot at first be convinced to follow the fairies back to Mount Ma, for he fears they are his drunken illusions, or figments of Gaunab come to trick him. The elves returning after this expedition, do not describe Gu suffiently, and Ngai does not realize the truth of his identity. Nonetheless, a mark is made on the Great Map.
  • Second attempt at a Lunar Calendar. Resh-ki aids them in this, developing Mnemonics for her own students to learn it, and these Mnemonics come to further influence the fairy language.
  • Resh-ki returns to Kalunga, but will visit Mount Ma again later.
  • By this time, through the tutelage of Ngai, Olapa and Resh-ki, the first elves have conceived and hatched children by the coupling of male and female. Ngai and Olapa work hard to subtly foment a strong code of etiquette amongst the fairy families, but their fears of unruly and violent behaviours - as had oft beset the ancient Ur-Umoiar of the Children of the Reed - were largely unfounded, and the bliss of the young courting fairies was a delight to them. Imana had disagreed with some of Resh-ki's teaching and example, however
  • ... more time passes...
  • Very slowly, the elves begin to notice anew the fading of their natural talents as the generations are born - many never learn to translate (teleport) and others find themselves sluggish at times and know not why, but the thoughts of a few have become powerful and inscrutible. A subtle telepathy has worked it's way through the Fairy society, though few realize it at first.
  • The first writings of the elves. Ngai aids the Akar, the Chiefs of the Akarim, in their first crude attempts at creating an alphabet using the House Sigils of the fairies.
  • ... additional time passes ...
  • The fairies belonging to the Unseelie Court begin to be noticed and singled out for their powers that do not wane like the others. Many are curious and resentment begins to sprout.
  • Resh-ki returns from Asamando, and a great spring is remembered by the elves in that time. Kalunga sends many wealthy gifts, but cannot join them, for he fears there are movements by Gaunab underground.
  • A summer and winter passes...
  • Fewer and fewer eggs are laid, and ever more Fairies are brought into the world as crying infants that would never have survived hatching in a dragon's nest. The new generations of elves have less poise and wisdom. Some wonder about the Unseelie Court and their youngest children for these still glow as their Elders do, and have not become opaque like most of the newborns of the wider population, some of which are born with only five fingers on each hand, and their claws are weak and break easily. Rumour spreads that Resh-ki knows something about the Unseelie.
  • Some fairies set out towards the distant home of Gu, but Imana find out and has them brought back - he is wary of bringing a troubled creature back to the land of the elves.
  • Some of the smaller and distant fairy tribes, in a time of mysterious troubles, and having at that time no access to the wisdom of Ngai, begin eating from the fruits of the land, for their own sweat and saliva no longer nourishes them, and they become desperate. Soon their vision becomes less acute than that of their parents, and this particularly at night, and in time their ears become shorter and rounder, and they develop earlobes. The first fairies that ate of the fruits are afflicted with a strange wasting illness. They do not die, but suffer from a bottomless feeling in their bellies. They become meloncholy and do not play and sport with their kin. It takes some time that this is noticed or understood by the Chiefs of Mount Ma.
  • So too, at this time, across the greater fairy society, jealousies arise between the younger elves over their chosen mates, and there is quarrelling between the elf-boys over the maidens, whom they begin to outnumber. The first recorded violence of elf against elf.
  • Ngai and Gor set out for the home of Gu, in order to investigate the strange news about the 'destitute God' from the earlier adventure of the dragonriders.
  • The timing was most unfortunate, for at this time the elves of the outskirts were assailed by first incursion of Shivuverre, the terrible monster, while they were away. Others say rather that the fairies encountered Burumatara at this time, and many were slain. Either way, it was the first grisly death that many of them witnessed, and the scar of the memory cut deep into collective mind of the elven folk. Imana frightened the monstrous creature away with a sudden dust-storm and a whirlwind, but it was too late, and great injury had been done.
  • Some fairies leave the Mountain of Ma and travel eastward (some of these, returning later from a different direction, speak of a pit containing the petrified carcass of a colossal monster that they had found. There was a relic there, that spoke to them of the vanquishing of the beast Ga-gorib, and that they must flee that place. Imana impressed upon the elves that indeed they must stay clear of the Pit of Ga-Gorib, for he knows of this monster - but he says no more at that time). Others groups, more adventurous, also leave Mount Ma and head north, but the latter never return.
  • Ngai and Gor find the small rustic smithy of Gu, who recognizes his old friends and smiles, but for his ruined leg he cannot easily rise to embrace them. The three spend a bittersweet evening discussing the old days. Gu decides to remain where he is for a while - for he has the help of a small troop of strange beings, the Gnomes and the Salamanders. The Umoiar did not know it at the time, but these were the ancient renegade offspring of Burumatara and Nidh-kur (who might be said to be their gods, the elder elementals), and these had become over the generations quite humble and sociable creatures, with none of the malice and little of the mischievousness of the ancient demons. They did not have the wit of Umoiar or Elves or even the mortal men of later times, but they were capable of many tasks and played with subtle magics. They had long memories but secreted a sadness due to an in-perceived lack.
  • Gor and Ngai return to Mount Nin-hawah-numa, that some elves now call Ninhavan.
  • ... Time passes ...
  • A significant portion of the fairies no longer sport noticable fangs, but for those of the older noble families and the scattered groups of the Unseelie Court, who have been libelled for their increasingly suspicious aloofness and keep out of the spotlight.
  • Marimba of Amak-Habaret (Ambaraiha?), her wars and song ('The Wreath') [vs. Burumatara and his old guard?]
  • Mantis appears to Ngai and Imana
  • Ngai takes to wife an Elven consort, a good friend of Olapa, and High Priestess of the House of Ana. This is the first pairing of an Ur-Umoiar and an Elf.
  • Shift to male-lead society (at least in external matters)
  • The Unseelie take on the name for the first time, they form the first official Covens, but make no show of it.
  • Gu returns to stay near Mount Ma.
  • By this time the flesh of the elves that now and then eat from the fruits and grains of the earth has begun to vary in hue. Of these few, the Aparim become subtly tan, the Agarim turn green, the folk of Aka and Ada are shades of pale brown. This happens very slowly, and is only noticed after a few generations go by.
  • The Salamanders and Gnomes of Gu gradually become part of fairy society. They are quickened by the elves, and rapidly progress in their discipline and intelligence.
  • First unified kingdoms of the Elves in the Crown Lands
  • The Anar rule initially, Gaunab plots from the outskirts.
  • Kalunga and Resh-ki visit Mount Ninhava. Kalunga remains veiled in black, for he must not be seen by the living. The underworld couple in their full finery awe the fairies.
  • The wooing of Ngai by an High Elf Queen, a daughter of Imana. The stealing of some of the green tablets.
  • Some of the lonelier elves take salamanders and gnomes for wives and husbands. The children of these partnerships are curious - a minority become degenerate (and this causes strife within the greater society), but many others display strange new magical abilities that quickly become valued by the elves at large. These pairings accelerate the shift in the hue of the skin of the elves, who become either more red, or pale gold, or darken towards umber. The Salamanders married into the tribe of the Afarim and some others, and these elves began to master fire magic, while the Gnomes that joined the elves contributed greatly to the earth-lore of the Agarim, Akarim and the folk of Anga. Indeed very much later these elves were often referred to as Gnomes themselves, and it became an informal moniker for a number of the families descended from Angka.
  • Stirrings of KR/Kur/Kurgu (but he is only to arise later). Gaunab begins abducting elves on the outskirts of fairy society.
  • Temptations of Imana (some say rather of his son).
  • Injury of the Tree of Life [perhaps this requires An take on a new form? Re-appearance in New Shimmer much later]
  • Discovery of the Black Stone
  • The Awakening of the First People :: Remembered in some tales as the Amar-ir (though others give this name to the great civilization of the long-dead Ur-Umoiar), a remote and primitive clan of the fairies discover the fallen pyramidion of Gaunab in a great lake-filled sinkhole, where a very large tree of strangely stunted proportions and inky flowers has sprouted. A strange and slightly rank smell drifted in and out of the depths. This sinkhole, unbenownst to all who visit it, is actually the monstrous mouth of the sea-serpent Nganyamba who dreams deeply. His great head had lain hidden, submerged in an ancient bay, as he rested after his mighty strainings during the terrible battle and tumult with the Great Umoiar long ago. This bay had filled with mud, and the sea had drained, and his monstrous head and neck had remained quiescent near the surface of the newly formed dry land that came to be deposited there - silt from great rivers. A long tremor of the earth had caused a cave-in of the softer soil, and the cave of his mouth was revealed.
  • Those who visit the newly-discovered pyramidion (that sat, unbenownst to all, en-shadowed upon an island rock that was the tongue of slumbering Nganyamba) began to have curious dreams wherein strange unseen mentors instructed them. New kinds of perception and the abilities of prophecy come to the students of the stone. This appears to increase as they begin to grow hair on their heads. However, the majority of people who stay nearby in order to learn from the small black artifact are rendered barren. These came later to deeply understand the possibilities of the loss of heritage, but being held in thrall by their new knowledge, they found the first Apkallu school. By these they intend to spread their teachings out into the world instead of bringing people to it's dangerous and deadly source, but first they vow to master their new lore and power)
  • Not much later, the chiefs of the students of the stone dream of a future where the sinkhole cave collapses, and they realize their danger in shock and awe. They understand suddenly the nature of the cave mouth they meditate within. They are brave however, and mastering themselves, make plans to document as much of the details of the stone as possible before Nganyamba might awaken and move.

[...]

• 1: Age of Or (the "Golden Age"/"First Age") 14,474 BC to 9,573 BC

[...]

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Dramatis Personae (List)

• Umvelinqangi Paramount, Lord of All Things. Chief of the Heavenly Kraal
  • mDali, Ishvara, A., The Paramount Chief
• Anima, The Waters of Nammu (summation of the Reflection)
  • The Sleeping Water, the Murmur, the Mindchild.
• The Shadow (of Umvelinqangi upon the Waters)
  • The Hidden Thing(s), the Veil, the Terrible Thoughts, the source of 'Evil'
• Gaunab (The Wayward Drummer, Lord of Time, the Dark Heart)
  • Erebuzu, Gaunab-erebuz, Ungalokwelitshe, Darkness of the World, the Great Doom
  • his headstone is called 'the Darkstar'
• Anansi (The Spiderwoman, Great Grandmother, Mistress of Fate, Ayanmo-matar)
  • 'Mother' and Leader of the Weavers of Ayanmo, the Sisters of the Loom
  • Spinner of the Silken Cord of the Banished ('The Tether of Anansi')
• Kalunga (Asamando, Lord of Shade, Great Judge, He Who Divides the Portions)
  • Eita, Aita, Aede, Elder Chieftain
  • The Underworld Lord, Keeper of the Dead
  • husband and soulmate of Heavenly Anansi; wedded to Resh-ki within the World
• Imana (Lord of the Airs of the Heavens, Sky-Regent, Mountain King)
  • Tsui-Goab, Qamata, Unkulunkulu, The Phantom, Regent of Umvelinqangi, 'First Son'
• Mantis (the Herald of Ishvara the Paramount, the Unspeaking Speaker)
  • Kaggen, sometimes Cagn (though the latter might be confusion with another figure)
• Khanya (Lady Light, Eyes of Imana, Sky-Mother, 'Lady Luck', Secret Word)
  • wife and soulmate of Imana
  • known as Khanya-sudh when born to the flesh, Mellit, Millit, 'The Nurse'
  • epithets include 'South Wind', and Glow of the Austwind
• Khanyab (the Prince of Song, Chief of the Choir, son of Imana and Khanya)
  • Heha, Khanyab-Heha, 'Ben'
  • The Song-Master (to some 'the conductor', but this, others say, is heresy).
  • his headstone is 'the Greenstone', the Emerald Crystal or Emerald Tablet, the 'Book of Razil'
• Gõr (Storm God and Wrestler, Chief of the Impi)
  • the leading Drummer opposed to Gaunab
  • Shango, Tore, Thora, Tilo, Lesa ('rain')
• Gu (the Great Craftsman)
  • Maker of the Brazier of the Fire of Tale-Telling
  • also named Unavallr
• Kalathe-ntaombi (Youngest of the Weavers of Ayanmo, daughter of Anansi)
  • Kalathe, nTaombi, the Spinner, the Fey Dancer, 'Zoe'
• Tombi (of the Weavers, middle daughter of Anansi)
  • the Measurer, the Looper
• Efa the Crone (eldest daughter of Anansi)
  • Severer of Ayanmo, She-of-the-many-eyes
• Watamaraka, Si'ne (the Bosheth, the First Abomination, torn from Gaunab)
  • Watamaraka the Elder, 'Eurynome'
• Amaa, the Cosmic Egg (Ngu-kli-ushu), the World Pearl
• ...
• Phoenix (Cosmic Firebird, the Root Soul, the Spirit)
  • Heruwer, Phanes, The Eagle, The Dragon, Montura, Horus the Elder, Ophion the Elder, Child of the World
  • becomes the World Tree, 'Yggdrasil', 'Meru'
• Lady Night (born at the edges of the universe)
  • Stirred into being by the birth of Phoenix
• Chaos (the Empty Space, initial Void, or Roiling Vapours)
  • spoken of by some as a being or sentience, but others say simply represents the movement of Phoenix
• Darkness (Erebuz, first child of Lady Night)
  • Gaunab has harnessed it
• Sleep (born of Lady Night, one of the Children of Night)
• Death (spawn of Lady Night, one of the Children of Night)
  • Kalunga of Asamando commands Death
• Doom (Lord of Quests, one of the Children of Night)
  • said to be the Power that bequeaths trials and purposes upon souls, or the collective manifestation at the moment one's path of life is made clear.
• Ananke (Lady Necessity, one of the Children of Night)
  • said by some to be an avatar of Anansi the Spiderwoman, but others say Anansi does not manifest as an avatar, and Ananke is rather a personification of the result of Anansi's final weave. Certain sages speak of Ananke as the Woman at the Crossroads, who forces ones' decision upon a certain path - an enforcer of Fate. Yet others speak of her as the goddess of the 'default decision' or the result of inaction.
• Burumatara-Azhamata (Azhamata, the Bulldragon, the Elder Salamander)
  • The Fire Salamander, The Infernal Demon
  • Father of the Salamanders
• Nganyamba (Yormnganda, the Elder Sea Serpent)
  • The Dragon of the Sea, the Leviathan
  • his body, submerged within the Ocean, surrounds the lands.
• Kouteign-Koorou (Nidho-kir, Kur, the Elder Gnome)
  • The Ancient Gnome-Dragon; The-One-Who-Gnaws, "Behemoth"
  • Father of the Gnomes and the spirits of the earth elements
• Watamaraka-Omoroca (first Undine, 'Mother of all Demons')
  • Omoroca, a twin of Nganyamba, some say, "Lilith the Elder"
  • Tehomt, Tyamatha, Thalash, Thalassah
  • the Elder Undine, mother of the water spirits
• Nemesis (the Dragonspider of Lady Night)
  • known as the Match-maker, and She-who-brings-my-enemy.
  • hatched second last of Watamaraka-Si'ne's second brood
• Watamaraka-anyava (Rainbow Serpent)
  • Aido-hwedo the Lesser, Aido-hwedo II, 'Mawu-lisa' in some tales
  • dubbed 'The Great River Serpent' by the tribes of the Mountain Vales.
  • .. and also called 'The Wyrm of Grandmother's Glade' due to one famous legend
  • harnessed by Nin-hawah-numa to shape the Earth
  • last to hatch from Watamaraka-Si'ne
• Shadowfleets (Great Bats of Shadow)
  • spawn of Lady Night, guardians of the edge and end.
• Urudraknar, the Fire-dragons of Phoenix
  • the first children of Phoenix, battled the Shadowfleets
• Lachmu (the Lahmu/Lahmw, red mists, celestial clay)
  • enigmatic: some speak of them as rudimentary beings, others as comets or mists, and yet others as something to do with digging and (watery) soils.
• Vanabra (Vaname, the Great Vine)
  • the great vine that drapes the World Tree, some say it is sentient, or an aspect or consort of Phoenix.
• ... ... ...
• Father Tree, the Tree of Life, Great An (or On), also Anwe/Anwe
  • avatar of Phoenix (and thus Umvelinqangi) upon the Earth
  • father of the Ur-Umoiar (the 'Titans' or Elder Gods)
• Nin-hawah-Numa ('Ma', Mother Earth, Great Mother, first wife of Father Tree)
  • Mami, Maha, Ki, Ge, Vrasha, Djobela, Lady Horusaga, born of the Ash of the Pyre
  • Mother of the Ur-Umoiar (the 'Titans' or Elder Gods); 'Sybelle' the Elder
  • Mother Mountain, Bride of Heaven, Lady of the Elder Tree
  • The title 'Vrasha'/'Vrash'/'Urash' seems to imply the power of 'Uraeus' the Cobra or Cypher. This label is given to others below also.
• Ngai (Lord of the Craft, Great Prince, Murungu, Enakai-hnúm, Ænqiphontus)
  • Chief of Waters, Enakai, Enkai, Ang, Ing, Mulungu, Mulungwe, The Great Sun
• Olapa (Asãséya, Ti, Rhadaha, Sæthït, sister-wife and soulmate of Ngai)
  • also known as Moon, or First-Moon, and Elder Queen of the Moon, Lady Lún/Luna
  • and so too Dame Queen, and the Great Dam and Dame Bright-Noon, and Galanona
  • her Moon associations, and so too Ngai's solar associations are only generalized in terms of male-female aspects combined with the ancientness of the figures - it is rather the Moonchildren and Leesha the Sunchild who are more properly the presiding deities of these planetary domains, being viewed clearly as 'moon gods' and 'sun god'. In the same fashion, Imana is sometimes given solar iconography, but this merely an element demonstrating the 'heavenly' aspect of sky and airs.
• Resh-ki (younger sibling of Olapa and Ngai)
  • Reshqi, or Rydagal or Rosigrala; also known as Anket and Núb-dhúsha, and Phyriéšefn
  • famous for her red hair and green eyes
  • was later wedded to Kalunga, and became the Queen of his underworld kingdom.
• Nugi (a youngster of Nin-Hawah-Numa's first village)
  • first partner (childhood romance) of Resh-ki
• Lady Reed (Grael, the Lady of the Reed; Ynhlanga, Pure Reed)
  • Princess Purity, The Syllable, Ndjikhuja
  • daughter of Ma Nin-hawah-Numa and Father Tree
  • first Great Daughter after Khanya-sudh
  • first consort of Ngai and Olapa, remained long a virgin.
  • she is the Queen of Gynn, mother of Ra'ntaombi the Great Lady.
• Maha, the Princess Vrasha-ntu (Queen Uras, Urasha, Vrahsa)
  • also known as Nth, or Ntu [Nit or Nt], Queen Covra, Sky-Viper
  • born of Ma and Father Tree
  • some tales say she is merely an echo of Nin-hawah-numa, or as Nut represents Nammu as Antu(m). Others say this character represents Nin-hawah-numa in a certain light, a certain state, or as ritually entitled in some fashion. However. most legends speak of her as one of the first great daughters of Ma after Khanya. Her tales present a bias towards the celestial as opposed to the earthly nature of Nin-hawah-numa as Mother Earth.
• Ra'nTaombi (the 'Great Lady', daughter of Ngai and Lady Reed)
  • also known as Gull, Gala or Gal, the Bright Woman, Nicula, and Zhiru the Soulflame
  • birthed Leesha-Uthu the Sunchild, who represented the first blending of the bloodlines of Imana and Ngai
• Princess Ynan (Lady Ynan, Mawu, Moonchild, Lady Moonchild)
  • first daughter of Imana and Khanya-Sudh
• Prince Shin (Lord Shin, Moonchild, Lord Moonchild, Arébãti)
  • Syen, Shyan, Svenn. Suen, '(The) Sheen'
  • first son of Imana and Khanya-Sudh, twin of Princess Ynan
• Leesha (the Sunchild, Leesha-uthu, Prince of the Sun)
  • also named Sums, and Sümish, and Tixo
  • later the King of the Sun and wielder of the Scepter of the Lion
  • twin brother of Story, otherwise known as Ynan-naha
  • Lady Reed and Resh-ki were his primary wet-nurses, with help from Nin-hawahnuma
  • instrumental in the battle against Watamarka-Omoroca and the forces of Kng.
• Story (the Princess Ynan-naha, Ynan's daughter, twin of Leesha-uthu)
  • also named Tally or Tale, and Cauldruna.
  • Her wet-nurses were Lady Reed and Nin-hawah-numa. A very famous princess who came to great power and commanded armies.
• Lady Bea (Bia, Boa, Bav, Bau, Bhaetyla and Rhae or Rhaeiou)
  • debated parentage (presume Ma and Father Tree), very ancient regardless
  • some say she is mother of Nubis, and named Boa-vanabrae, and associated with hounds.
  • spouse of Urtha, that is Kranz the Great Satyr, usurper and tyrant
  • some say she mother of Zuv (Zu the Blackbird; Ana-zhu the Crow)
• Meru-tak (Meru-taqqa, Mverutaq, Mwrtaq, Mbærōdaḵ)
  • a great son of Ngai and Olapa, slayer of Omoroca, later gained Imana-ship
  • worshipped much later in the civilizations founded upon the second Shimmer.
• Nonösh (Nonš, Nunshee, Nan-achae, Nyn-ashae, Nun-sidhe)
  • daughter of Ngai and Olapa, a devotee of animals and birds, particularly of river, shoreline and ocean. Became known as Okyanidha of Nina. Also named Ness and Nessi. She was Lama to the children of the families of Princess Ynan and Prince Shin in her youth, and learned some of the healing arts later in life
• Princess Ishara (Ish-harah the Serpent Lady)
  • daughter of Imana Tsui-Goab, but cleaved to the family of Ngai and adopted many of their ways. Keeper of the wells of the Sharlands
• ... [ ... ] ...