The Stories of the Gods and Spirits,

as recorded by Viri the Savant, a Brief Summary.

The Beginning

We humble ones gave our Gods their names, for they have never spoken their true names to anyone.

Adam Kadmon, or Adamkadmon - (however you choose to write His name) - know, o Man, that he is our Father. We are his flesh and his seed and his blood that walk upon this earth. He is the Primordial God, Father to All. Know then that we are all his children, in our various skins and genders and ages, for he names us all his.

Know His wife, Mamitu, Mother of the World. Hers is the breath that stirs us within these bodies to strive towards the heavens, and that scribes the paths we walk upon this world. For she is the Primordial Goddess, Mother of our Free Will and our Fate.

Know their three children, born from their union, filled with their power that this world should be born and flourish and live.

The first and First of their children is the one we call Gaia, the Mother of Nature and of the Gods that govern it. She raised the earth and blew on it, and there was sky and wind. She walked upon the earth, and in her shadow rose the trees and grass and animals, from which we draw our sustenance and life. .

Helel and Iblis were born in each other's clutches, their faces pressed so close to each other that they seemed to be one head with two bodies. Helel, the Sun, and Iblis, the Moon; from them flow the seasons and days, and the change of light and dark, heat and cold, old and new, across the lands, through cycles unending and unchanging.

And listen well, for I shall tell you about them all. About their deeds, about their children, about the deeds of their children and the deeds of their children's children.

We are feeble…

Inasmuch as our shape is as the shape of our gods, yet they are of their own shape, and we were formed in the mould that had first birthed them. And when we were young, unknowing, without light or sight, unable to tell our hands from our feet and our mothers from our fathers, we lived in the dark of ignorance. But came the first of the gods to us from on high, incandescent and burning, and we feared to look at him lest our eyes were blinded. But he spoke to us, and made us bear the light of knowledge with his golden voice:

"Do not fear, sons of the dust; I am HLL, sun-bringing, light-holding. Look upon me, and know the course of suns."

They looked upon him, and were amazed; but because they were not worthy, his name was burned from their minds, and they gave him the name Helel, which means Light-Bringing..

And the sun rose in the sky, and the people fell down in worship, and worshipped all that day; And the sun began to set, and the people cried out in fear to Helel, saying: "O Helel, son of Adamkadmon! Do not depart from us, lest we die!" Yet they feared to look at him, for he burned brighter than fire.

"Why do you fear to let me go, sons of the dust?" Helel asked them.

They answered him, saying: "We are of the dust, as you say, and our lives are as brief as breath. What shall become of us, O bright Sun, if you leave?"

But their entreaties received no answer, and Helel turned his face from them to drive the sun beneath the seas. And it was dark, and there was wailing of the people at the going of the light.

But Adamkadmon was not without mercy. A light fell upon the world from beyond the clouds, and it was silver where Helel was gold, and there was not the burning heat of the day. The men and women ceased to wail, and cast their eyes on the sky where she flew. And her beauty marked the men who saw her, and in each man's heart he desired her and forsook his wife and mother; and in each woman's heart she knew she would never be silver and despaired of the love of men.

"Do not fear; unshepherded lambs; I am IBS, moon-driving, silver-in-the-dark; and I will mark the nights for you, for Adamkadmon has loved you."

And the people fell down and worshipped her, and loved her; but the men who had once looked upon her would never get up again to eat or work or sleep, and died; thus they called her Iblis, which means Silver-Beauty, and they raised a monument there, which they called Ber-Timbul; for they said: "In this place the gods rose before us." And Iblis took pity on the people, and took a covenant at Ber-Timbul: never again would she reveal her true beauty to the sons of the dust, lest they sicken and die.

And the days were marked by Helel and the nights by Iblis, and the people walked on the earth and took freely of the fruits of the trees, the seeds of the fields, and the meat of the animals, and they marveled, saying:

"Who is it that planted, and does not reap; or seeds, and does not collect? For we live by the bounty of the harvest, from fields we did not plow and orchards we did not water."

She came from the trees and the fields and the rich valleys, in response to their prayer and thanksgiving; and she looked upon them, and loved them. Though they feared to look upon her lest she were as bright as Helel or as beautiful as Iblis, yet she courted their attention by her presence. And it came to pass that they saw her face, and named her Gaia, All-Mother, and those who had seen her were made kind.

And she said nothing, and went away after a time had passed, and they called it Subur, the Festival of the Harvest, in her honour.

They are those we call Primordial - Those that existed before humanity set a foot upon this world…

And we are Feeble.

For we assumed that our Gods could not feel as we did.

And we did not know the origins of the Gods (for we were unenlightened by knowledge, and in those days no man sought to speak with them, for fear); and the Gods came and went before men without bar or hold, and no man said to the Gods, "Who is your father?" or, "Who is your mother?"

For after they had brought forth Gaia, and Helel, and Iblis, Adamkadmon and Mamitu brought forth no more Gods to rule the world, but raised up for their children helpers and servants - those we call now the Primordial, and the manifold spirits that inhabit the world beside us.

Tiamat was born of a lock of hair of Adamkadmon, and He set her over the animals of the world; and Tiamat governed the animals in their ways and all their forms, whether they crept upon the land or flew in the sky or swam in the waters. And presently Tiamat revealed herself to men, and they called her Tiamat of the Two Hands, who gentles the sheep and cows for milk and meat, or who rouses the dread monsters that rip the lives from men. And Gaia raised for herself the Wind-Walkers, Aether and Shu, to guide the great winds that scour the worlds and bring us rain or snow or sleet or hail in their seasons. But their love caused them to cling together, and the winds ceased to blow, and the rains and snows did not come in their proper time. And Helel and Iblis spoke to them, saying:

"Daughters of Gaia, behold what you wreak upon your Mother's realm. For the cloudless skies cannot shield the trees from My light."

And:

"Wind-Spirits, though we grieve at separation, yet it but inflames our heart to each other; and duty is sweet."

And Aether and Shu were abashed at these words, and the winds flowed like water, running in their many paths for their hundred thousand meetings; and when men are caught in a strong crosswinds, then they say: "It is Aether and Shu."

And despite Their power, Adam and Mamitu did not only give birth to Primordials. Thus Nabu was born, who Knows and is Known - who visits the minds of men, and sows in them the seeds of impossibilities.

Yet the elements were not finished. The World was not yet Perfect.

There was battle pitched between Helel and Gaia, and the world trembled and the sky darkened. From the wounds of Gaia came Besi, and from the blood of Helel, Shaitan; and Besi and Shaitan loved each other as their own from the moments of their birth. And so the ash-fields are known as Di-Bakar, the Burned Lands, sacred to Besi and to Shaitan, where Helel and Gaia made their peace. And to Besi was given all things of the deeps of the earth, and to Shaitan the fires of the heavens.

The last of the Primordials, Noa and Raphael, were raised upon the coasts, guardians of the boundaries between the land and the waves. And they extended their reach, and at their bidding the waters fled and the earth raised where there was none before; thus they are called the Brothers of the Islands.

And when Adamkadmon and Mamitu saw the world and knew it, and they called it good; and they brought us forth, men and women to inhabit their world and to know them and worship them.

But we were feeble…

for Strife exists everywhere.

And Helel knew Iblis, and she was with child. And within Iblis was great pain, and she cried out. And Adamkadmon and Mamitu came to Iblis, and said: "Be strong and take heart, for two gods are within you; and they will be equal and not equal, and will gladden your eyes."

And the children were born, and from the time of their birth they spoke and walked, and they are the Self-Named Gods, whose names were not given them by men. The elder was Chronos, Time-Spinner, and he was pale and serious, and in his hands he built the history and future of man. The younger was Morpheus, Dream-Well, joyful and laughing, and he crushed as easily as he built.

And the sons of men asked Morpheus to attend them in their dreams, and in their waking hours prayed to Chronos, and there was harmony between the two. But it came to pass that Morpheus saw the waking world, and laughed to think of his joke, and put his dreams into the realm of Chronos; and in anger Chronos caused that the days ceased not, and there was unrest in the world. And in the battle He Who Sleeps Unwoken came to be, and the battle that followed was sealed outside of Time and Dream forever that it may not ever recur.

And Mamitu was sick and weary when the battle was done, and from her sweat and tears came Strife, and she walked upon the world and saw the men and women weeping for the War That Never Was, and she saw that they did not know why they wept.

And they looked upon her, and fell down on their faces, for they saw that she was a goddess. And they said unto her: "Have mercy on us, for we are ruined and in fear lest we be struck from the earth."

And she smiled with a false smile, and she offered them a false comfort, saying:

"I am Fortune, sent for the gladness of hearts and the comfort of spirits, for I have seen the weight on your souls. Be glad therefore, for near here there are rich fields to eat from and sweet springs to drink, and I shall lead you to them."

And she went to the other village, and saying the same, brought them out of their walls; and thus she brought war between the villages. .

But Mamitu saw the actions of Strife on the earth, and her face was darkened upon it, and she stretched out her hand and raised an impassable mountain between the villages, which to this day is Di-Balik, for they turned back from the mountains; and there was fire and thunder upon the earth. And Strife was raised up with the mountain before the face of Mamitu, and she raised her hand against her mother. Mamitu placed Strife within chains a thousand thousand depths within the earth, and sealed her away within many rooms, saying: "Never again will you lead astray the sons of dust, o daughter."

And Strife lies there still, shaking the world in her struggles, and her screams echo out through the depths of the world to stir men to violence and war and blood. Her true name was lost in time.

And there is Union!

In what Gods call Battle. In what Gods call Love. In what Gods call Friendship. In what Gods call Kinship.

For the world strives to Those who made it in all its aspects, and by their nature they make. In the meetings of the Gods there is great power, and in the meeting of power there is Union, where the power of the Gods raises up more godlings and spirits unto themselves.

The first of the Unions called forth Tiamat Two-Handed; the last of the Unions formed Strife; and since then the Gods have hidden themselves, lest their power devolve upon some unworthy soul. Yet the Primordials and lesser Gods, too, have their lesser Unions, as men have theirs; and thus the spirits are formed that swarm the world in their countless numbers.

[These next lines are written in a different hand from Viri's own, and appear to be rough transcriptions of a speech. Authorship unknown.]

And in service to Nabu I write and dedicate this book, and his authority shall be my mantle; call me no more Viri the Savant, for I am Seshat of the Books, the recorder of the world and the civilisations thereof, the Gods' scribe. Care you for this, for this is the last book I shall ever write for the eyes of men.

I have tasted the Nectar of Gods.