Fable Upon Olde Rings detailed a number of Pagan Birth of Life legends, with each varying slightly depending on the age and family. The Pagans, united as they were in their faith, history and way of life, were built from numerous families, each with their own twists on traditions and stories from olde.
Some families claimed that life began as the first tree to ever sprout from the barren wastes that were once the world, and from that single tree, all else grew. Rivers from flowing sap, birds and animals from fallen leaves, stone and soil from the bark, and finally, humans, when the first tree finally fell, man crawled from the rotting roots and settled into the bountiful world around them.
Other families alluded to the idea that Life was the first spirit who ever dared cross the Primordial Sea to settle upon the world. For beyond the Primordial Sea is both the beginning and end of being, where spirits are born. For ages, the spirits were content to remain across the sea from the waking world, where there was no pain or consequence to existing, but likewise, there was no joy and no reason for being. Life was the first spirit to cross the sea, where Life found a vast emptiness, devoid of all things. And from that great nothing, Life fashioned everything.
The oldest legend Fable Upon Olde Rings had heard however began with the Sun.
Seated high upon her celestial throne, the Sun wept for she was lonely, despite being the heart of her kingdom, her entourage dared not tread close for while she was beautiful beyond words, her beauty was death. Thus she wept, her tears falling through the night, scorching her closest companions, Mercury and Venus, striking Mars so viciously that he turned red with humiliation. Her further companions, Neptune, Uranus and Saturn all shied away from the monarch and Jupiter, the strongest of the ensemble, boldly stood between the Sun and his smaller siblings. And when his Queen's tears began to rain down upon him, Jupiter was wounded.
The Sun's tears did strike the world as well, however, they did not burn the world, for while small, the world had a loyal comparton in the Moon, and the Moon did so love the world and thus, as Jupiter had done, shielded the world from the Sun, allowing not but one single tear to fall to the world below.
That tear, that single drop of sunlight became the first incarnation of Life, daughter of the Sun, who, with her very conception, soothed the Sun's loneliness. For while they were far apart, the daughter of the Sun became a treasure for the celestial body, to watch and adore from the sky.
Garrett's fingers skimmed a bit ahead, he knew the story by heart, and while there was never a dull moment in Fable Upon Olde Rings' recollections, certain parts of the tale simply intrigued the thief more than the birth and rise of man, civilization. And, as all legends of Life passed down from generations forgotten, every tale of Life ended with the death of her child.
That and while still very much considered to be the mere mythos of a strange culture, much of Pagan lore was cemented in the history classes Keeper Varia had taught when Garrett was still in school.
There were many incarnations of Life between the death of her child and the supposed most recent avatar, their names lost to time, but the most popular version was that, with every incarnation, Life would teach man something new, a new skill or lesson. Save for the Life who survived just until the first Darkage.
Known as Conquest, Fable Upon Olde Rings detailed, respected as a general, strategist and defender by both her enemies and people, praised as the Goddess she was. Life took for herself the name Victoria and she, as all of her predecessors had, loved the Leviathan dearly.
The first Victoria burned along with the Eternal City to spare the world from ruin…
Keeper Wyrrnnr died long before Life would make a reappearance, and that had always left a hollow melancholy behind in Garrett's chest long after he would close the tome.
The most recent incarnation of Life had been birthed in a time of peace and chaos, as the newly awakened Primal ran wild and free without guidance, the Haven scrambling to shake off the long collected dust which had settled upon old duties.
The newest Life was neither conquest or triumph, she was merely a mother to both her people and the Primal, a guiding hand and a shoulder to cry on.
She, like Life before her, loved the lost child dearly.
The Leviathan, likewise, loved Life and her people, trusted Life and her people absolutely.
According to both Keeper Wyrrnnr and the overwhelming majority of texts detailing Pagan society within the Haven, The Pagans were given the Leviathan's blessing to tap into the veins of the Primordial Sea spread throughout the land. While the exact method to doing so was a closely guarded secret to the Pagans, it was abundantly clear that they used the Primordial Veins to fuel their witchcraft and magic.
Keeper Wyrrnnr suspected that the Pagans would have been given access to the Primordial Veins for the simple act of being the Leviathan's Kin, and Garrett was inclined to agree with the old Keeper. For every ten generations of Pagans born blessed with the grace of the Leviathan's favor from birth, only one outsider would draw the Leviathan's attention. Still, favored or not, the Pagans still celebrated and honored the Leviathan endlessly for their fortunes and adored him boundlessly…
Which was something that brought Garrett's fingers to pause upon the page.
Keeper Wyrrnnr's time with the Pagans detailed largely how the lack of the Primal completely threw the Pagan's way of life off kilter. How crops failed and sickness plagued the villages. And Garrett couldn't help but wonder if the Pagans had also learned their lesson from the first Darkages, or if they were once again struggling as so many seemed to be.
Because as soon as the Primal made itself a home within the young thief, it seemed that the fragile balance of the whole damn world shifted.
The Eternal City, the surrounding forests and rivers and ocean was plunged into darkness as the veins upon which the world rested became sickly as the Primordial Sea fell away.
Worse still, the two factions were not the only ones to feel the effects of the dry primordial tides.