So it was that in the beginning the Great Ones ruled. Theirs was the realm of the pure, of perfect ideals, and they floated in the void and were the void. Timeless, the Great Ones co-existed in pace until the great war. It is said that each of the Great Ones grew jealous, and each sought to usurp the other until, as one, they rose up in bloody battle. For seconds or for eons they clashed, and their battles spanned across the stars. In the end Rem the Sire perished in an effort to protect his brethren, and thus we call him Rem the Slain. The body of the Slain One became the earth, and so was this place made. His blood became the oceans, his bones the land. And from his body arose his children. From his hands, Bromra; He of beasts and the hunt. From his sex, Lataleh; She of the harvest and life. From his crown, Somrahn; He of the sky and the heavens and all they contained. And from his slowing heart, the nameless and faceless one; it of death, and of the end of all things.
So the Great Ones left alone the earth, for it was the providence of Rem the Slain and his children, the Gods Themselves.
They set out to fill the earth that was their sire's body.
Lataleh kissed the earth and brought from it life. The ground flourished with trees and plant, and to each she gave a name and a purpose. From the clay of the earth, Bromra crafted animals to inhabit the world. Lataleh breathed life into them, and they covered the land. Bromra gave to each a role to fill, a way to thrive, and taught to each what it was to live.
Above them, Somrahn forged the sun, the moon, and the clouds, and these he seeded to grant rain and snow and light upon the earth below. He declared to never interact with his brethren, and he would provide his blessings to those below him.
And the nameless one, he without a face, lurked on the edge of things, and did not participate as the earth was made. When it was done, he said, What is this, that there is no one to appreciate out handiwork? So together the children of the Sire made the Elf, so that they might look in wonder upon all that had been made. Lataleh gave them love and life; Bromra gave them the skill of his hands; Somrahn gave them wisdom and thought. And to them the nameless one gave them death. For, as he said, if they are endless as we are, they shall be as us, and they shall never appreciate the gifts we have given them. So he gave his gifts to all that had been wrought, to elf and animal and plant and stone and sky and thought.
In time the other races came into being. From the moon came the vampire, and they worshiped her above the four who had been born of the Slain One. From the sun came man, and they were the youngest and proudest of the races. They did not acknowledge the old gods, and in time they created their own idols to worship. Though the sun and moon were in the domain of Somrahn, he turned his eye away from them, creations of his that had given rise to alien things. Though the others blamed Somrahn, in the end it was not, really, his fault, and nothing was done as man and vampire spread across the earth. The gods removed themselves; let the creatures war with each other as they may.
So it was.
Now, Lataleh never forgave the nameless one for his impudence and transgressions. The faceless one stole from Lataleh; its gifts a purposeful rebuke to her; blatant theivary. When came the time that Lataleh went beneath the earth to restore life to those that had died, winter came, and so the faceless one reigned. The cycle continued, with each year Lataleh weeping for her children who would die, and then raising them once again as the faceless one unmade her work, year after year.
So it was.
In time Lataleh confronted the faceless one and said to it, Because of you I shall never be happy. Because of you my children live in fear with the knowledge that one day they will die. And the faceless one said, They should not fear the end of things.
Stay out of my realm, Lataleh said, but it could not be so, for the faceless one had brought death to the world.
However, the faceless one felt for his sister, she who had come from the Slain One, and said, I shall grant you one thing, one deathless thing that I shall never visit. I shall never end its life and never bear its soul away to the comfort of its brethren in the time-after-life. It shall be yours to nourish and care for all the days of its life, and the days of its life shall be endless. I warn you though, that even if it should beg for death, I will not grant it that. It shall live outside of my grace and realm, and it will be yours utterly.
To this Lataleh agreed, and so the two gods lay together and conceived a child which Lataleh birthed. Yet from her womb came not anything that looked like elf or god, but a seed. Lataleh took the seed to the most fertile ground she could find and planted it there, and every day she nourished the seed until it sprouted, and year by year it grew taller and stronger until it was a tree, the mightiest tree that Lataleh or indeed the world had ever seen. Its trunk was wide, its branches thick and many, its leaves the green of emeralds, its flowers more beautiful than any other, their perfume wonderful and wild. Even in the depths of winter the tree retained its leaves, but its branches did not break beneath the weight of snow and the leaves stayed green despite the cold. Yet for all this the tree produced no seeds. It would have no offspring. Lataleh mourned this, but true to his word the faceless one did not come near the tree that was its child as he had promised.
So the deathless tree lingered throughout time. Many an elf has sought the tree, for it is said that its flowers scent can make any fall in love, and a taste of its bark will cure any ill, and that a drop of its sap will give eternal youth. Many have looked, and none have found it, for Lataleh hid her deathless child well.
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