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Here's the opening prologue of another story I wrote last year for a writing competition. It is called Skyfang: the Legend of Ayyad.
Prologue
It so came to pass that the Great Spirit Ainu spun out from the reaches of his mind the void that would form the basis of the universe. Also coming out of his mind at the same time were a host of lesser spirits that sang the chorus of creation, giving life to the void, to the galaxies and to the stars. These spirits were the Ainur and Ainu named them his children, and they resided by his side in the eternal filament, divorced from the void that was.
It so happened that an eon upon eon later, a group of Ainur became independent and developed their own minds. Ainu sought fit to let them have their own influence over the workings of the creation, and so set aside a small planet, a distant corner of a galaxy, as a centerpiece of the Ainur’s creation. Ainu allowed this large group of Ainur to take on their own appearance and personality, and so it happened that some Ainur responded to the male side of the Spirit of Ainu, whilst other Ainur responded to the female side.
These Ainur departed the eternal filament, and descended upon the lifeless world that was later named Terra Gaian or Mother Earth. They became the Gods of the Earth, half male, half female. The majority of these Gods were young and untested in their powers and s they became the Lesser Gods. Of the Ainur who had participated in the first stage of creation, seven had traveled to Terra Gaian.
The oldest was Atun, the benevolent and wise, the watcher of the void and the God of Destiny. Below him were Gaia, the Mother Goddess of the Earth, Palanthus, the Forger of the Earth, Aldar, Father of Living Things, and Isharia, the Goddess of Light. The youngest of the seven were Rudan, the Protector of the Earth, and Sion, the Messenger of the Gods. Together, these seven Gods worked, as one to build and shape the primeval world that was Terra Gaian.
Mountains were lifted up, seas and oceans were filled, trees were grown and beasts of the earth were given life. But the final act of creation was one that was specifically ordered by Ainu. He came to them and directed them to give life to sentient creatures that were the embodiment of themselves. Aldar created the Eldar to dwell in forests that he had made, Palanthus made the Dwarves out of the clay that he had used to shape mountains, Gaia gave life to the Asurin to look after the glades that she had planted, and Isharia called forth the Anoren to dwell under her Light.
And at last, Ainu instructed the two youngest Ainur, Rudan and Sion, to create the Humans, the race that would ultimately inherit the world. And then the races were all made, and for a time they lived and dwelt as one with nature, their minds not yet awakened to the mysteries of life. Finally the Ainur were allowed to create home for themselves and so upon another planet deep in the void, they shaped an enormous mountain and they called it Aerel’thiel, the Mountain of Spirit. Then the Ainur dwelt upon this planet and they too named it Aerel’thiel.
In order to guide the races His children had made once they were awakened, Ainur sent another Ainur from the eternal filament to dwell upon Aerel’thiel. The Ainur was called Janus and he was a God that had a very developed sense of balance. He soon saw that the original Ainur were neglecting the well being of the Lesser Ainur and in discussing with them, he arrived at a solution and approached Ainu with it. Ainu agreed and so realm of air that once surrounded Terra Gaian was put aside and made into an abode for the Lesser Ainur. Janus was given overall leadership over the Lesser Ainur and Ainu proclaimed him to the be judger of souls for once the sentient races awakened, they were to dwell with him in heaven.
And so the last act of Creation, from the spinning of the void, to the establishment of Heaven, was complete, and for many eras after that, the Ainur and the races on Terra Gaian dwelt in peace. But some time later, a new presence arose that would threaten the stability of the Universe. The Ainur Zigard, the favored son of Ainu and the one who had always stood by his side whilst the other Ainur descended down to the Earth, saw that the Universe they had helped to create lacked something. Moreover, it pained Zigard to see that the Ainur who had been lower than him, and who did not partake in the first acts of Creation, were allowed bodies and souls to dwell upon a planet that they called their own.
Zigard pleaded to Ainu that he be allowed a portion of the planet, or at least a separate realm to himself, for the sacrifices he had to make when he chose to stay by His Master’s side. Ainu was loath to let go of his favored son, but in the end he gave Zigard dominion over the space between the stars, and a measure of His power to shape the events of the Universe. Zigard found the separation from Ainu too hard to bear at first, for he had dwelt at His Master’s side the longest, but in time he got used to being at one with the void and discovered the vast powers at his disposal.
But even the humble Zigard could not help to share a part in the shaping of Terra Gaian, and during the eon before the races were awake, he appeared on the surface of Aerel’thiel for the first time, taking on the guise of a handsome but mysterious man. He tried to come to a peaceful agreement with the seven Elder Ainur but they refused his friendship, for the Ainur were too busy directing the events of past, present and future. Zigard turned his attention to the Lesser Ainur and among them he found four willing disciples. Khorne, the God of War, Nurgle, the God of Preservation, Tzeentich, the God of Knowledge, and Slaanesh, the God of Beauty. These four Gods soon became Zigard’s servants.
Zigard returned to then descended down onto Terra Gaian, and finally beheld what was lacking in the Creation. He perceived that everything was like a perfect cycle, of life moving forever in a circle, never moving forward and never advancing. It was at this moment that Zigard broke away from Ainu’s intended Purpose forever, for he knew that the only way the races would ever awaken was if an element of randomness, of chaos was introduced into the Universe. He reckoned that because the Universe was perfect in the beginning, there was no need for it to advance, and so Zigard set out to make the Universe imperfect so that there would be a constant need to advance.
He traveled back to Aerel’thiel and delivered an ultimatum. The Greater Ainur must either serve him as his disciples or he would unleash the ultimate horror upon the Universe. The Ainur refused and so Zigard called upon his mastery of the void and tore it apart. The filament that was holding the void together, aerel flooded into the Universe and at that instant the Universe split into a thousand upon a thousand different Universes. Satisfied with this act of destruction, Zigard retreated to the outer cosmos along with his four disciples.
The seven Greater Ainur, horrified by this splintering of the Universe, resolved to destroy Zigard for his heinous act, but Ainu forbid them, for Zigard’s betrayal raised a fundamental concern for Creation itself. The fundamental question was whether the Universe and the void could live on their own, forever changing, forever adapting to circumstances without the guidance of the Ainur. And thus the Ainur were forced to concede, but they forever cursed Zigard’s name and named him Zarkon, the Great Betrayer, and vowed to oppose him no matter what cost.
It so happened that at this moment, the first of the races started to awaken on Terra Gaian. The Eldar, the Asurin, the Dwarves, and the Anoren all started to become conscious of their surroundings. The Gods of the four races, Aldar, Gaia, Palanthus and Isharia, gave them their instructions and bid them to migrate to the Land of the Sun, Tryhrinia. The continent was divided into four separate sections. The Eldar lived amongst the woodlands and the shallows, the Asurin the glades and the forests. The dwarves migrated to the mountains whilst the Anoren traveled to the empty plains.
Perhaps an age after the races migrated to their homelands, the Great Betrayer, Zarkon, through his disciples, made a move to persuade a great number of the sentient peoples to turn from the Light. The Anoren, being boisterous and warlike, were vulnerable to the War God Khorne’s call for blood, and a number of them broke away and became the Ithilen, and whereas the Anoren were the children of the Light, the Ithilen were children of the Dark. The Asurin, being a race that thirsted for knowledge, were easily swayed by Tzeentich, the Master of Fates and a fair number turned from Sorcery to the Dark Arts.
The Dwarves, being a race that thrived on the tearing down of living things, succumbed to the whisperings of Nurgle, God of Decay and a large number degenerated into gnomes, trolls and other hideous creatures. The Eldar, being wise and fair but lovers of beauty, suffered the most tragic of falls, for they were seduced by the Lord of Pleasure, Slaanesh. Nearly half of the Eldar turned from the Light and embraced the shadow, and so they became the Druchii, the Dark Elves. The remaining Eldar were thus divided into the Sindar, the High Elves and the Silva, the Wood Elves.
War soon broke out amongst the races just as war nearly broke out amongst the Gods only this time, neither Ainu nor the Ainur could do anything to stop it. The Anoren proved stronger against the Ithilen, the Dwarves drove away the gnomes and trolls, and the Asurin fought the dark magi to a standstill. But the Sindar and the Silva, neither one used to war, were soon crushed underneath the newfound power and strength of the Druchii. One by the one, the once beautiful kingdoms of the Sindar, the shining light of all sentient races, fell to the Druchii onslaught and within two hundred years of the schism, the Druchii had calved out an empire covering one quarter of the continent.
The acts performed by the Druchii during this reign of terror were unspeakable, for Slaanesh the Lord of Pleasure had converted them well, and they fully embraced the utmost limits of his depravity. But there was still one kingdom that stood alone in defiance of the Druchii. The hidden kingdom of Ayyad, nestled in the middle of the Periamblam Mountains, held out for another one hundred years, defended by a set of impregnable walls no army could penetrate. But despite this, the situation of the Sindar was still dire, for the line of Kings withered as the battles against the Druchii wore on.
During that dark time, a resistance movement grew, out of the small group of people from all four races, united in the struggle against the shadow. One of the resistance’s most important goals was to keep the Kingdom of Ayyad strong and standing against the Druchii, and it accomplished it by secret transports from the Anoren and the Asurin. But the time would come when the King of Ayyad would have no male heir, and so the line would die out. Yet there was still hope, for a prophecy proclaimed during that time spoke of a savior that would rise up from the Anoren, and end the war against the shadow once and for all…
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