The Tale of Sakhtamea

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Rheal was born in the chaos of the beginning when Void and Sphere were one, and with transmutive Fire Rheal made them separate one from the other. The shattered void She filled with spheres and the spheres He filled with lands and waters and airs.

Seeing that all that was had become 'this' separated from 'that', Rheal confined the transmutive Fire in The Blade Of Creation and buried it in the heart of Tenar and went forth to see what had been wrought.

However potent, being wrought of this and that, The Blade Of Creation was imperfect. From it the transmutive Fire seeped into the heart of Tenar and it awoke, the first of The Elnar, and birthed with it were Sakhtamea the first of the Elemental Dragons who are of The Elnar. As the transmutive Fire flowed from Tenar and touched the spheres near it, they birthed from the lands and the waters and the airs the many creatures and plants.

Sakhtamea flew from the heart of Tenar and beheld the life of the spheres. Smiling on all their varied creatures and plants, Sakhtamea was joyful and filled with a deep love for life. Taking The Blade Of Creation from the heart of Tenar, Sakhtamea flew great distances and with the transmutive Fire brought to life many stars, and thus to many other Elnar, elemental dragons, and spheres.

But Rheal had seen enough of this and that, and longed for a return to the solemn chaos when the Void and Sphere were one. Returning to Tenar, Rheal sought The Blade Of Creation to destroy the transmutive Fire and with it the differences between this and that, but found instead The Elnar and worlds in Sakhtamea's wake.

Filled with wrath, Rheal birthed the Immortal Dragons who are of The Void and sent them forth to slay Sakhtamea and return The Blade Of Creation. Destroying worlds and Elnar as they passed, the Immortal Dragons flew across vast spaces searching in vain for the wayward usurper and The Blade Of Creation.

On their journey, many of the Immortal Dragons beheld the beauty that Sakhtamea had wrought with the trasmutive Fire, and with the Elemental Dragons of these spheres became friends of the Elnar and of life. These are named the Anakhar, and they have joined their voice to the Chorus of Life.

Those Immortal Dragons who remained true to Rheal did not see beauty in the lives of the spheres or in the song of the stars, and continued to destroy all that they found. These and the Elemental Dragons who joined with them are the Khelakae, and their voices are not found in the Chorus but in the Void, from whence comes Linmirluin which is creation-without-sacrifice.

The Anakhar and the Khelakae waged terrible debates, and vast destruction was always in their wake, but at long last they grew weary of war and accepted that they were incapable of resolving their dispute.

The Anakhar beseeched Sakhtamea to join their cause, and Rheal joined the Khelakae. In the void and the worlds surrounding Tenar, they met and exchanged their oaths and vows, and great tremors moved through the vastness of all that was.

Tenar is our day star, and it was in our skies that Rheal and Sakhtamea at last embraced.

In our sky they fell, each grasping The Blade Of Creation to their breast. North of the Merrenen plains they fell, and in that place they struck the land with such force that The Blade Of Creation was split asunder and the combatants were made unaware.

The insensate body of Rheal fell beneath the land and is there still as the White Skies.

To the south and east where lies the Near Rising reaching to Tahav is the slumbering Sakhtamea.

The pit of Mordon is that place where The Blade Of Creation flashed hot and fractured, and where the transmutive Fire was released free and wild to the skies and formed the Aeolean Sea; the Breath of Dragons.

The Anakhar and Khelakae looked on with fear and dread, for they knew they could not awaken those who had brought them life, and Tenar would not.

Anakhar and Khelakae stood apart and considered. At that time, the great dragons found themselves equal each to the other in force as is this to that, and thus the debate calmed.

In that pause were birthed the Lkhan, the First Ones, to our world. As the great Immortal and Elemental Dragons watched, the Lkhan discovered the song of Tenar and heard the words of the Chorus of Life and the echoes from the Void.

Seeing this, the Khelakae and the Anakhar took their debate to the Lkhan. Each side giving its story as it would, and drawing together such armies as they might.

Some of the Lkhan joined the debate, some to Anakhar and some to Khelakae, but others remained with Tenar and refused to be of the war.

In their warring, the Lkhan worked terrible destruction and creation on the creatures and land, rising the Stone in the east and Agadir in the blistering cold of the north, and laying the distant lands of the Wellens beneath the sea. In Mordon they came upon the fragments of The Blade of Creation, and in the lands of the Merrennen they came upon the sleeping Rheal and Sakhtamea. From the fragments they forged The Great Blades and from The Great Blades the Rings, and from the sleeping they birthed the Annothar, that they may stand in two places at once.

With these great weapons they stood in war on all the worlds of Tenar and many worlds beyond, and when at last the Lkhan had all killed themselves they warred on still as spirits and gods in the lands of the dead.

The skies were filled with the Celebration of Jewels, and all the worlds of Tenarmenel were laid asunder by their passing.

This, then, is the legacy of our land to which we have fallen, the wandering homeless children of the stars. Those who will be called the Ranwaith brought us hense, and it is they who hold us here still.

Beneath the watching eyes of hateful and loving immortals, we wage a war even older than they, standing on the slumbering bodies of those who formed all things.

One day The Great Blades will be reformed into The Blade of Creation, and Rheal or Sakhtamea will rise.

On that day all that is will live in peace or die in chaos.