Friday, November 14, 2014

The creation myth of the Wannet Shapers

My Little Po-Mo vol. 2 is on sale. Check out the Books page for info!

Don't forget, Patreon backers can see The Near-Apocalypse of '09 and my Korra vlogs as I make them--everyone else has to wait until February and December, respectively!

A sacred story for one of the religions in the Dragons of Industry world. No idea if this will ever come up in the story itself--the only character I have so far who's likely to know it is Twill, and they're unlikely to tell it for reasons of their own.

Once there was All. All was everywhere and everything and the only thing, because All was all, and All was alone because there was nowhere and nothing else to be.

All had eyes and nothing to see, and a mouth and no one to speak to. All had a heart but nothing to think about, hands and nothing to Shape.

So All began to Shape themselves. They plucked out their eyes first, and made the Sun and the Moon and light to see by. Then they plucked out their lips and their tongue, and made the sky and the wind and the breath to speak with. They Shaped their bones into mountains and their blood into rivers, wove their hair into forests and stretched their skin as fields. The flesh All's hands pulled apart and Shaped and molded into the twelve thousand and twelve animals of sky and sea and soil.

At last All had made everything, and there was nothing left of All but hands. Now there were things to see but All had no more eyes, and things to feel, but All had no more heart, and things to talk about, but All had no more voice. All that was left of All were two great hands hanging over the world, stretching from end to end of the sky.

So All brought their hands together, and the two hands Shaped each other, pinching off pieces like clay, shaping them into little tiny Alls with eyes and voices and hearts and hands of their own. They could see the world and each other, speak to each other, think and Shape and dance and a thousand other things.

We are the Hands of All, the Shapers of the World and of each other. We are each All and each tiny.

Do not forget.

Do not fail to tell the mirror-story. There are many roads, but there is only one beginning and one end.*

*Note: It is traditional for Wannet stories to end with "Do not forget. Do not fail to tell the mirror-story." This and one other story are the only traditional tales which add the next sentence.

2 comments:

  1. May I just pitch in to say how much I love "Dragons Of Industry" as a title. It sounds like the name if a properly successful YA fantasy series.
    Stunning little faux-myth as well. If only all fantasy worlds had such strong thematic foundations as this one apparently does.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you muchly on both counts!

      You know, I honestly have no idea if this is a YA series or not? I mean, my first two main characters are in the right age range, but others aren't, so.

      On the other hand, near as I can tell the only difference between YA fantasy and fantasy for adults is that YA doesn't contain explicit sex and sells better. So yeah, sure, I'll go with that.

      Delete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.