Islander's Myth: Godly Reforms (Told By Bart The Tinkerer)
''Customers? Customers? I really don't wanna bother with customers for now, I have an appointment with the most talented, wonderful new gardener...''
''We're no customers! Not for now, at least.''
''Ahh, Ameena! I'm glad to see you've brought your friends...''
The orange beams of late sunlight fell through the windows of Bart's caravan/store, and illuminated the old man's pumpkin-like mask and his huge hat; Ameena finally realized that it was no sombrero, but a pioneers hat.
''Hi Bart! Great to see you again, you look a little washed out though...''
Ameena wondered how you could see if someone looked washed out when they were wearing a mask, but she DID notice the tinkerer seemed quite sleepy.
But Leafos was used to masks of course, maybe she would see such things too in a few years!
''I just awoke from a lovely nap, that's all, I didn't catch much sleep last night since I was having a conversation with some charming young lady...'' The Tinker winked at Ameena. ''I suppose you want to know the rest of the story, right?''
''Right'' Ameena agreed.
Bart's mask clouded. That was something even Ameena could see!
''You know, as much as I'd love to tell you all about the bloody fights of the Religious Revolution and the ferocious demons that terrorized our Island... I don't think you'd feel very comfortable aroun here again, I mean, you're new!
Also, wouldn't you be more interested in the reasons why people aroun here wear masks, and how Piñata Island got the actual name Piñata Island and such?''
''Ehm, sure!'' Ameena said. She was actually relieved.
She really didn't want to know what know which kinds of horrible things had taken place on the lovely island she was just starting to consider home!
''Let us flash forward to the moment in time in which Platia finally ruled the Village.
This must've been years after her first introduction with the Canda tribe. Platia's road to power had been a severe test, packed with blood, brute force and gore.
First thing Platia did - after the bloody war that had demanded so many innocent lifes - was re-occupying the Moon Temple. Eventhough she'd had a horrible time there, she couldn't help but feel a sort of attached to the place where she had spent more than ten years of her early life.
'From now on, this is going to be my sanctuary!' she had determined as soon as she'd taken her first step into the building. 'This place, where I used to worship evil without my awareness, where I have been living a lie, where the dream that Bulan would save me and my people never was far away...
Here will I be worshipped from now on - the good Goddess of the moon and nocturnal piñatas -, from here will I illuminate the darkness so that the truth can finally shine as supposed to and I will never, never ever wait for anything to salvate my people again, for I will be that salvator! This place will symbolize the foundations whereupon my reign will rest! It will show how I turned tragedy to triumph.'
Platia might've been a very undue speaker, but she sure was a woman of her word. It took her about three months to restaurate the temple and improve it with a huge telescope and other tools for her moon observatory; Platia was keen to know more about outer space. She thought that there might've been a reason that she and her Mallowolves felt melancholic whenever they looked at the nightsky, and she wanted to find out what this reason was exactly.
That mystery ever remained unsolved, but one of the scientists she had employed was the first on the Island to discover the red planet.
Not only did the temple get more advanced, the interiour changed dramatically too. All images of Bulan, Priestresses and life sacrifices were to be removed, and so were the small Bulan idols and Bulan-associated weapons.
Without all this decoration the temple of course looked a bit empty, so every Bulan-related item got replaced by something of Canda design quickly. Actually, loads of patterns we use nowadays on our clothes and buildings for instance, originate from an advanced piñata tribe... I've told you that the Candas wasn't the only one, right?
However, Platia didn't only change the looks and purpose of the temple, she completely transformed the Village and all farms and gardens surrounding it.
She began with building people better houses. At that time, the Canda wolves had better building techniques than the humans had, and the brick and clay houses we know rose from the ground in no-time.
In the meantime Platia held speeches and lectures about how the future looked bright again now that the Old Gods were out of the way. She insisted on education for everyone - despite the sore fact that the damned civilazation didn't have any teachers - and she kept repeating that they all had to forget about the ''dictators of the past'', who still were loved among the Villagers and to whom most of those treacherous beasts still were faithful.
''Now Bart, tell me. How come Platia's realm didn't have any teachers, but DID have astronomy scientists?'' That's what you're about to ask right? Hah! I might be old, but I still am sharp and very skillful when it comes to facial expressions.
The answer lies in Platia not being the only ''Reformalist'' - as they were called at the time, later they'd become ''New Gods'' or simply ''Gods''.
This God named Suelos - God of Soil and Fertility, successor of the evil Goddess Terah - is one that's been really important to our Village. He educated the local farmers in agriculture, and instead of the scarce harvests the people were used to, the fields were suddenly profusely filled with ripe pumpkins and corn cobs.
Now that the Villagers' stomachs were filled - which was an experience by itself for those creatures who'd never felt anything but hunger and pain - they started to, well, think. They payed attention to what Platia was saying, they started to really... try to take in her ideas, which was great of course!
Something that you'd expect to take generations only took Platia eight years. She gave a former enslaved people something they'd never had; dignity.
And not only dignity. Also culture, a brand new religion, hope and an alternitive way of life! A good way of life, a better way of life, something they'd never even been able to imagine because they were too damn dense when they were under the reign of those horrible Old Gods.
A remarkable change in culture were the masks.
The idea of introducing masks to normal people came from Suelos, who had been a humble farmer's son from a southern village before he became the God of soil we still know him as.
To him masks symbolized equality. He didn't believe in Gods being higher beings than mortals just because they had a certain power, especially not because he and his fellow Gods were hundred percent human, where the Old Gods were completely different creatures with completely different DNA.
Later, in the 1800s, wearing a mask became more of a formal thing. All those masked people on the streets for all those years had had effects on the people's thoughts on faces. Because seeing one's face now solely happened in the family circle, they began to see it as something private, something not everyone's business.
The great philosophers of the time came to the conclusion that faces were the reflection of one's soul, that they were very precious and valuable treasures. They often got compared to pearls; dazzlingly beautiful but to be kept hidden protected by the clam, which of course symbolized the mask.
Of course marriage played an important role in this too. Girls usually married at a considerably young age - about your age, Ameena - and the family highly pressured the young couples. Marriage had to be succesful, that was the key to a place in Piñata Island's society in the 19th century.
Therefore it was very important that the man didn't just choose a girl because of her looks. No, a spouse was to be chosen out of love or for political reasons. Looks are superficial and transient; the 1800s were all about strength and inner beauty.
The Gods - who were still around at that time, eventhough they were old and their bones had become brittle - embraced these ideas. People would choose their partners for the right reasons, which would lead to stronger marriages and more unity overall.
As in a manner of recognition, the Mask Ceremony was introduced, the ceremony that usually takes place after a baby is seven days old... I don't think you know this Ameena and you might find it interesting; when a woman has been pregnant for approximately eight months, a forecaster will be invited to the family's home. The curtains will be closed and candles will be lighted, and then the forecaster takes out her famous pendulum.
She will swing the pendulum in front of the mothers belly. Only the two parents are allowed to be in the room when she's doing that; if the couple has a few children already they'll be sent outside and so will other indwelling family members.
The psychic has to concentrate on the baby's soul, other mental signals would distract her. She has to uncover the gender of the unborn, and not only that, the parents of course demand a brief description of the baby's personality too! The mask had to be made quickly after all, Islanders are somewhat reluctant when it comes to taking their babies outside with their little face uncovered.
Personally, I think it's Moozipan crap. Hiring a psychic woman I mean. I Tinkered my mask myself at the age of eleven, before that I'd just wrap scarves around my face whenever I'd go outside!
Eventhough masks are quite a defining thing for Piñata Island, they are by no means as determinative as the piñatas.
The Goddess Jeimiña is the one who changed the Villagers' views on our paper friends. Jeimiña was born in a tiny village in the jungle, so unlike the Villagers she'd been surrounded by piñatas for as long as she could remember. She played with baby Tigermisus as soon as she was able to walk, she sang with Candaries and she climbed trees with Cinnamonkeys!
She had heart for all piñatas, but her favorite was the Parrybo. She would always carry one with her, either in a small cage or on her shoulder. The village she lived in was incredibly tolerant towards piñatas - there are several theories why, but I won't get into any tonight - and Jeimiña was the only New God that didn't discover her divine powers in battle or protest.
Jeimiña's world was completely different from that of the Villagers, they had relatively educated people. They weren't booksmart, but they'd studied the patterns and changes of nature.
One of those people was Iachawra, the local healer. In the small society where everyone knew each other, Jeimiña was the favorite of many many older inhabitants - she's said to've been the cutest thing ever, and as you can see on some very old depictions she grew up as a beautiful woman!
Anyhow, everyone was all over Jeimiña, but Iachawra had watched her extra closely. She had an eye for magical potential, and thát girl was promising! The way she interacted with piñatas was beyond bewildering, not to mention the way plants reacted on her presence!
Ever since the girl was born, the small garden before her parents' tent - Jeimiña's people lived in tents - had been overgrown by wild sunflowers and poppies... Everywhere she went and stayed for a little while, flowers and such popped up!
It wouldn't be long until the girl would be asked to provide the community certian services. Nothing big, nothing disturbing, nothing tough, but nevertheless odd! The girl was asked to bless trees, her people believed the tree would grow more fruits if she did, thus Jeimiña blessed her first monkeyenut tree at the tender age of six!
Ever since then Jeimiña was regarded as a Goddess by her own people. As soon as the news of the Religious Revolution reached her jungle village, she left home to fight on the sides of Platia, Suelos and all those other new faces.
She had never worshipped the Old Gods like most had - they didn't exist in her culture, her people would only worship mother nature and her human representatives - Jeimiña being one of them!
The Old Gods weren't considered Gods at all; to the jungle people they were evil spirits that deceived humans so that those would serve them. Demons, but smarter!
They probably were right.
A laughable thing is, Jeimiña didn't arrive in a major village until the revolition was over! News hardly ever reached her birthplace; even worldchanging changes took months or years to get to the jungle village.
I believe that the descendants of Jeimiña's family still live there, somewhere. They must have a lifestyle very similar to that they had back then!
But as soon as Jeimiña set a foot outside the rainforest she found a bigger wilderness... Everything was destroyed in the-bloody-war-I-can't-tell-you-kids-about-because-you-might-never-sleep-again...
Despite her marvel Jeimiña remained optimistic. It wouldn't be long or she'd be found by Suelos, the friendly God of fertility and soil.
Suelos told her everything about the situation, his plans to build up a civilazation, his allies and his belief that Jeimiña was something special. Jeimiña confirmed that fact by telling him her life history as tree-blesser.
Jeimiña stayed at Suelos' until the circumstances balanced out again. In the meanwhile, Jeimiña helped to re-build the village and she learned more about the people who lived there. She found them foully, not to mention what she thought of their disgust with piñatas...
'I feel what you're coming from' Suelos had told her one night, when they were laying on their backs, staring at the straw ceiling of Suelos' house, like they always did. Many people who tell the tale of Jeimiña say she had a love affair with Suelos, but I've never found concrete proof of this. It is certain though that they got along fairly well.
'I'm glad you do... But what can I do about it?' the Goddess had asked.
'Educate them.'
'Educate?' Jeimiña had never thought of this. It sounded logical though, if she told everyone how amazing and helpful piñatas were, they'd probably get a better treatment.
'Yes, educate. That's what I'm going to do at least. In a nearby village and its surrounding farms. Not about piñatas though, about soil. Agriculture.'
Two days later Suelos left Jeimiña and his fellow revolutionairies to help farmers from our Village with their plants. Jeimiña had devised a plan to get piñatas generally accepted.
In the middle of the night, she had sneaked out of the house and wandered to the edges of the jungle. She knew a Cinnamonkey family there, a young couple with a baby to die for. She had asked to mother if she could borrow it and when she explained her reasons the mother mokey just couldn't refuse.
She was more than willingly to help her species to get a better life and found Jeimiña more than reliable. Nothing could happen to her suckling when in Jeimiña's arms!
When the morning fell in, the young woman requested all villagers to head to the main square. Suelos had built it; therefore a huge statue of his adorned the centre.
You can still visit the square today if you kids want to; Mariposa Village is not that far away from ours.
Anyway, when all villagers had arrived, Jeimiña took Cusco out of her sling. Of course the Cinnamonkey had no name, but Jeimiña felt the villagers would be able to relate to it better if it had.
The villagers were shocked when they saw the baby monkey. Several gasps were heard and most people looked at the paper animal as if it was one of those despicible demons from Neragua.
Jeimiña had expected such reactions though. She just smiled and pulled the wide-eyed Cusco a little closer. The poor thing had never really seen humans, and now about hundred of them were glaring at him!
'This' she spoke in a calm, steady voice, as if she was having a speech on someone's wedding day instead of changing Piñata Island's history dramatically 'is Cusco. He is what we call a Cinnamonkey where I live.'
At that moment, Cusco, who was a natural entertainer and suddenly realized he had an audience, made the most adorable cooing sound ever.
Most people in the crowd were parents, and the sounds Cinnamonkey made instantly reminded them of their human babies. That was exactly what Jeimiña had aimed for, and the monkey became a grand succes... As much of a succes that even the name if the island... Later was changed from plain 'Island' to 'Piñata Island'... Yawwn...''
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''Well kids'' Bart mumbled as he rubbed his eyes. ''I think it's time for you to go home... It's getting dark already!
I wish I could've told you more about the Islands origin, but eh, you know.''
''You're becoming a tired old man, Bart'' Leafos joked. ''But I guess you're right about the dark... I don't want to sound like coward, but lately I've been feeling kind of... watched whenever I go outside after sundown. But it might have to do with that demon of a few weeks ago... Great Gods, Seedos, Ameena, I don't even know how you two can sleep at night! A possessed Dastardos had almost slaughtered you...''
''I've seen worse'' Seedos snorted.