ChroniclesChronicles
Chapter 1. Introduction
Allow me to introduce myself first. I am Algol, Chronicler of the Past,
Present and Future of the Land of Karchan. I have been chosen to chronicle
the amazing history of the Land of Karchan, or of the entire planet Kúri of
which the Land of Karchan occupies the mayor part. Now this history is quite
amazing, filled with strange creatures, powerful magic, and amazing stories.
This story is also the story of Good against Evil (and vice versa) like any
good story should be. Both Good and Evil are intrinsically endorsed with two
abilities. The first is to exist, and the second to multiply. Needless to
say, both don't get along very much and both try to reign over the other.
But, as Good will try to co-exist, Evil tries to overcome, annihilate,
terminate, and destroy totally. Other than that they mostly have the
same goals. 'How did it all begin?', you may ask yourself and a very good
question it would appear, and instructive too for most races nowadays on
Kúri have only a limited knowledge of the time before their first appearance
in the world and only the Elves remember some of that which was.
Perhaps you are wondering how I can write about the entire History when that History is still incomplete, and how I know all about History? Sometimes I do too. The fact is that I am Chronicler and Chairman of the Guild of Oracles. Besides the Present, I can see the Past and the Future, even more so than most people. That was one of the reasons why I, of all people, was chosen to Chronicle the infinite History of the Land of Karchan. But enough about me, let me begin with my story.
Chapter 3. Rakah and
Darkness
Despite the fact that Emotion, Reality, Awareness, Other, Thought,
Existence, Dreaming and Time had been
created, there was still Darkness. However, it is always dark in the beginning.
Don't misunderstand me. It's not like the darkness most beings currently
dwelling in the Land are used to. It is not the sort of darkness where there
comes no light forth, where the sun has gone under the far horizon for the
night time, and the stars become visible in the sky. This was Darkness
solely and alone because of the fact that there was nothing.
Worse yet, this Darkness had a mind, an evil mind, composed of all the nasty bits and pieces of all the yet created things, if one could call it evil. It wasn't just evil, it was just indisposed towards everything but itself. Not that is ever encountered anything but itself, oh no! The Darkness thought itself to have always been, and always would be, undisturbed by anything else. The evil mind of Darkness couldn't even grasp the concept of there being anything else but itself. Yet, suddenly, this time, the Darkness was in for a shock...
In this darkness the omnipotent being Rakah was created out of the good parts of Existence, Awareness and all the other entities to function as a counterpart to the Darkness. At first it was not much, alone in the Darkness a tiny pinpoint of light, surrounded in a halo, the one sole existing thing. It split the Darkness, it rendered it, it tore it to pieces with its unearthly light. The Darkness looked menacingly at the small pinpoint, growing more fearful and tense by the minute. Rakah, in the form of a small point, infuriated the Darkness even further, by moving randomly about with not a care in the world. Suddenly the Darkness reacted with violence, grew tall and big, surrounded the small point of light with its most dense darkness and tried to swallow it up, quench its light, extinguish it forever, so that the Darkness could go on to be, uninterrupted. But the Darkness dared not attack it head on, for it had a power which was unknown to it. The light grew, however. It grew in the form of a small cloud, with in the middle still that lightsource ever present. The cloud started slowly to expand and the lightsources in it became numerous. Slowly but inadvertently the Darkness was pushed aside, by the one thing, the only thing, that it hated, for indeed there was only one thing besides Darkness now, Light.
Henceforth I will call Rakah a she, but whether or not she was a she has never quite clearly come forward from the story. That part is assumed by the folklore of the people inhabiting this place, which of course isn't all their fault. If you ask me, Rakah slipped up on that part while creating them. Well, that's not all her fault, a lot of it they have to thank to themselves. But I must be getting back to my story.
Where was I? Ah, yes...
3.1 First Sense
Rakah, being newly born, however, didn't have any of the senses the people
nowadays have. She knew that she was there, that she existed, but she had no
way to check this assumption. She wished to be able to have a notion of
herself, feel her presence, and she created the First Sense, the Sense of
Touch. Now she was able to feel herself rubbing against her. She knew now
that she really felt good about herself. It immediately gave her a sense of
coordination, which was severely practical. She noticed that she could move
herself, twist herself into any shape she wished. During the first time
after she created the Sense of Touch she had a lot of fun and possibilities
changing and twisting her shape into all sorts of forms. It is even said
that all the shapes that have ever come into the world since then, had all
been a shape of Rakah in her practices with this Sense.
She could make herself very compact, and when she did change into a shape, immediately would the Darkness envelope her tiny self. Not attacking mind you, but abiding its time, for its time was sure to come.
The Darkness did try to win back some of the territory. For example when Rakah tried a very long stretch of herself just to see how far she could come and what it would be like. At that time, Darkness saw its chance and tried to push through Rakah right into the middle of that long stretch of herself. Rakah could feel the Darkness tugging and pushing slowly yet extremely strong and with all its strength in the middle of her, at that time, rather long body. The Darkness almost went through Rakah splitting herself into two separate parts that time. Before this could happen, though, Rakah sprang back into a large shape like a sharp spring and so prevented this story from an abrupt ending.
Rakah was a little more careful after that incident and she was henceforth more aware of the Darkness surrounding her then of old, yet still the Darkness managed to thwart her plans, as we will see.
3.2 Second Sense
So now Rakah was aware of herself and from this point onward, there was a
desire for creation, burning brightly within her. Rakah now could feel, but
she couldn't see what. Rakah looked about itself and saw nothing. Which
wasn't all that strange, seeing there was Darkness and everything, nobody
could see a thing. This was clearly not very good, and Rakah created for
itself the Second Sense, the Sense of Sight, in order to see what was going
on. Along with the Sense of Sight, Rakah created, without apparently knowing
about it, the things to see, white and black, colour, light and darkness.
Finally Rakah got a good look at herself. She seemed to be made of a
fleeting gas with all sorts of small floating dots of light in it. She could
see where she would float past herself, she could see the dim points of
light floating inside her. Finally she could see what it was all about.
3.3 Third Sense
Finally, she created the Third Sense, the Sense of Hearing. She didn't do
this out of sore need, not because she needed it or anything. It was just
incomplete. She could feel what was happening, and she could see what was
happening, but in order to bind these two together, to have a connection
between the seeing and feeling, she needed a third sense. And at the same
time she created sounds, without knowing it. She could hear herself,
floating by, roaring by at great speed, and gently stopping. She could hear
as well as see and feel the different points of light inside herself. For
the first time in her comparatively short existance she could hear herself
be. It was a small, thing, high sound, always in the distance and Rakah
couldn't exactly make out what it was. It was all around her, and, after
closer examination, inside her too. She could almost feel the tone, and from
this she became aware that life itself has a tone of its own, and each life
has a different one. This gave her great joy.
'Tis said that this is the first time that she wished there were other
beings around, so she could hear more tones, and perhaps these all together
might make something other than that monotonous tone. This, wise people of
Lore say, was the first time that Rakah had got the need to create
something. Although I don't know if this is true. (The Darkness ofcourse,
had no tone whatsowever)
3.4 Fourth and Fifth Sense
Finally, she got bored with all these senses. She could see from a distance,
she could hear from a distance, the only sense which was a little more
physical was the sense of feeling. She wanted more physical senses. So she
created the Fourth Sense, the Sense of Taste. Now she could taste the
darkness in front of her.
Finally, she created the Fifth Sense, the Sense of Smell. In order to supplement the Fourth Sense.
3.5 The Sixth Sense
Rumour has it, that she created one last sense. However, as the story goes,
Rakah didn't define this sense, and therefore it isn't quite clear what this
sense does. It appears that, as we see through history, people are born with
a sixth sense which differs from all the other senses and as it isn't
defined this Sense takes various shapes in every being. Whether or not every
being has a sixth sense is unclear, certain is that a lot of people have a
sixth sense, and often the person in question has strange abilities on which
other people look with an unfriendly eye, shunning the person in question.
Therefore a sixth sense isn't only a gift, it is also a burden to whomever
has it.
Rakah wanted to feel around,
So she created feeling.
And she felt being unbound,
And the First Sense gained its meaning.
Rakah was so very alone,
So she developed Sight,
To see what she was doing,
And the Second Sense was borne into the night.
Rakah wanted to hear,
So she made hearing,
And it was to her very dear
And the Third Sense went into being.
As encore Rakah created the last two
as final supplement to all unabated
The ability to smell she had to do
And the Forth Sense was created.
The power of taste only was left.
The last one of the five,
And she created it with zest,
And the Fifth Sense came to life.
'Tis said in lore,
That she made one more.
But that one is as yet unclear,
Even to the greatest seer.
And so this sad song ends,
For how it will continue, on us it all depends.
(Lay of the Five Senses)
Then she took from her body a single point of light, and threw it into the
darkness in front of her. Immediately something strange began happening to
the light, and under the influence of the thoughts of Rakah, it became
bigger. This dot grew really big. Not that it amounted to anything like the
shape of Rakah herself, but yet of a fair size. It was a sphere, totally
white and giving off so much light that even Rakah had some problems looking
into it. She looked at it, and she thought she had created the most
beautiful thing ever to Grace her eyes. Which wasn't all that strange,
seeing it was the only thing she created yet.
But quickly her interest waned. The white sphere, which we now as Yasa, the Consumer, was very dull. Nothing was happening, you just could look at it, or don't look at it. Rakah needed a new challenge, something that would evolve in time, Rakah sought something to divert her attention and took another of her tiny points of light in order to create a whole new concept. This point of light was a lot dimmer then the other one and it wasn't the idea of Rakah to make another Sun. She made it grow like the sun, but to only a small size. When it reached the size she wanted it to have she dimmed the light even further, and the heat she was feeling from it became less intense, and then suddenly a crust developed around the sphere. After much tinkering with it and yet not bringing in too much detail, she sent it on its way around the sun.
After that she created the land, brown soil, and the water to fill the bigger gaps of texture of the planet, and the sky, air, and clouds of vapour, to wrap itself around the planet. The land and the water in it's vastness didn't have much detail then, nor where there any living things and the entire planet looked alone, desolate and rather rough around the edges. In the making of planets, Rakah had only a dim idea of what the idea was, and she thought to create details later, however, this didn't happen because, without intention, she created something out of her own matter which would do it for her. After that creative process was over, out of her own matter, she created two shapeless forms. Then she took two points of light from herself and put each one in one of the shapeless forms. However, in one form she planted a fierce flowing point of light, piercing its tiny gas cloud thoroughly, while in the other one she put a smaller light, barely able to penetrate the gas cloud.
Then she created a small fireball, put in the two forms and send it slinging towards the planet. The fireball journeyed towards the planet, went through its thick atmosphere in one piece and crash-landed on a small clearing in the middle of the future Land of Karchan. The giant fireball came unto the clearing at a very high speed and crashed deeply into the soil, spilling out sand and earth in heaps all around it in amazing clouds. When the dustclouds lifted, a crater was visible. Not large, for it wasn't such a large comet, yet the extreme heat that the comet generated fused the earth together, making it glasslike. The inside of that crater was still comparatively hot, yet was losing much of its heat in the cold air.
Where the comet had hit the ground, the ground was smooth, brown, very hard, and solid all round. At the bottom of the crater, when the dustclouds were gone, could be seen two forms or shapes looking around and that was when things started getting wrong.
Darkness was still out there and watched Rakah create the sun and the planet with contempt, waiting for a chance to thwart the plans of Rakah without success, but now, at last, its time had come. The Darkness created for the first, last and only time something. Something evil, something dark, something containing nothing but the Darkness itself, in its most compact form, It was a shard, a Black Shard, a shard made of solid Darkness. Now Darkness waited until a good opportunity would arise for it, to try and destroy everything Rakah created. However, the Darkness always took the sly route, the route of obscurity, so nobody would suspect that the Darkness was behind it. And when Rakah was looking at the place on the planet where the two shapeless forms were put, the Darkness took its chance, and managed to get on the other side of the planet, the dark side. And quickly, before Rakah could interfere, the Darkness enveloped the planet for a few seconds and disappeared again. During those seconds the Shard was inserted into the least bright form by the Darkness, and the Darkness disappeared again without Rakah, and the two nameless shapes, knowing what had happened. But the Shard stuck in the form, throbbing like a bad evil heart, and could not be detected, ready to start its evil work, to change the shape and bring it over to the Darkness, so the Darkness would have a servant on the planet, ready to do its evil bidding.
Chapter 4. Karn and Zhanos
In a small clearing in the middle of the land, grass-grown and surrounded by
trees, the two shapeless forms were beginning to come to life, the small
points of light lighting up strongly with white light within them. They were
still gas-like and had no solid shape yet. In the beginning they were made
of the same matter as Rakah, but they discovered that that matter was
governable into any form or type they wanted, as indeed Rakah found out
herself. They were now also capable of forming themselves into any shape
they wanted. They both became very different shapes in all sizes and after
some experimenting, they tried to agree on the shape that they would assume
for most of the time. A shape that was agreeable to them both, and they
found out a shape, consisting of a large body, with four cylindrical shapes
coming out of it and a small sphere on top. After a while, and much shifting
of matter, they managed to make something out of themselves.
The two beings called themselves Karn and Zhanos, and they had, just as Rakah, the power to create and to destroy. They looked at the land and both thought it a desolate place. But while Zhanos liked it, Karn sought to improve it with things that would enliven it a bit. Zhanos was not at all pleased at this, as he liked the desolation and all and loathed changing it.
Karn wanted to create things and Zhanos wanted to undo them. At last Karn
could take it no longer, and formed some vocal cords. And then they
created, between themselves, the first fight.
'Why do you say that this
desolate place should remain the same?', spoke Karn for the first time,
with a high clear sound as the sound of a knife gently being stricken
against a crystal glass. Zhanos was shocked at the new development, also
formed some vocal chords, less adept then Karn but still functional.
'Because I like it the way it is, and I don't want you to meddle with it!', said Zhanos with a harsh and particularly unpleasant sound. Karn
sighed.
'But what do you want from me? I mean, look at this place, it is totally
clear that Rakah meant us to do something with it, in order to amuse her.'.
'I am telling you to leave it the way it is, it is nice and desolate, and I
like it!! If you start changing it again, I'll have to try and stop
you!'.
At this, Karn was shocked yet his brow darkened and his face stood
resolute, not bent on giving in into the whims of his brother.
'Well, then, maybe you should go ahead and try!', said Karn to Zhanos. And then
commences the very first fight, and one of the best, ever told in the
entire history of Karchan, it was also the last time that two beings of
such terrible powers came in contact with each other. The exact
choreography of the fight is not given here, as it reaches far above our
concepts of fighting. Some people say that they used their vast minds to
trick each other, and that the entire battle took place between them
without moving. And if that is what you want to believe, then go ahead
because I am not about to write anything down to try and mar this great
event with words that are totally inadequate.
Oh, well, where was I?
After a particularly long while of continuous battle, they stopped fighting.
Both in extremely good health and both unable to get the other one to yield.
Apparently, they both were made of the same stuff, and were completely equal
to each other. There was no difference between the two, except maybe in
their minds. And as they were exactly the same, they were an exact match for
each other. It was impossible for one to triumph over the other. But then
Rakah, seeing that the amusement had stopped and that there never would be a
conqueror, she choose between Karn and Zhanos. And she choose Karn. Karn and
Zhanos immediately were aware of the choice that was made by Rakah, and
Zhanos turned aside, his expression horribly changed in a mix of hatred
against Rakah and Karn, and surprise, and the knowledge of the fact that he
wasn't chosen. This bitter memory he cherished forever and from this point
on his hatred never diminished or increased, it was constant and eternal. He
walked away from the clearing that day and withdrew far away in the rocky
mountains in the South of the land, never to be seen for a long time. Then,
the night fell, and the sun disappeared over the horizon.
4.1 Sunrise
Karn and Zhanos were separated and the night approached, and darkness was
everywhere. Not the Darkness talked about in the above chapters, but this
was normal average peaceful darkness and Karn knew he had nothing to fear,
lay himself down on the grass and waited for the sun to come up again, but
after a quarter of an hour a very strange thing happened, Karn lost
consciousness. At last the Sun rose in the east, at first a small glint of
yellow was visible in the east. Then, a small portion of the Sun became
visible shooting rays of light all over Kúri. A few of these rays of light,
gently stroked the face of Karn, and he awoke, yawning, and saw a sunrise
for the very first time of his life. He was speechless and watched the Sun
ride into the sky, lighting every colour in the scenery around him more
perfect than he had remembered it the other day. He just sat there and
watched the Sun rising slowly into the sky, he watched the clouds in the sky
slowly turning nice white, he watched the stars disappear slowly into a
nice..
Chapter 5. Creation of the Gods
Karn and Zhanos were entirely alone on the face of the planet. They didn't
get along, as recounted in the previous chapter of this History and Zhanos
went away, bitter and angry, and travelled far into the mountains which
surrounded this desolate valley. Karn, after watching with a heavy hart
Zhanos disappear into the twilight, sat down onto the grass-covered ground
sighing. 'I want to develop this land, and when I'm through you'll never
recognise it.'. Karn spoke to himself, 'However, in my current form, I
cannot do much.'. So he made up his mind to divide his mind equally among
all the things to be done. And low and behold, before the eyes of Karn, the
thoughts of every aspect that was needed came to life, and they were formed
in the likeness of Karn. Karn, after realising what he had done, gave them
names.
And Gods to reign all over the world and shape it after the way he thought it was meant to be. All these Gods were named by the Elves, and their names are here given. What the original names of the Gods were, or whether they had names or not isn't known. Among these Gods were Atalaya, Goddess of Every Living Thing, guardian of all that lives and breathes upon Kúri, Manatoba, The Smith of the Gods, who could make anything for them, Mielikki, Queen under the Ocean, who was in charge of the ocean and is the guardian of all Ships, and Havens, and Ports, and see-faring people in general, Furchin, God of the Land, guardian over mountains, hills, valleys, and every other sort of landscape.
'I greet you all, my Gods. I have created you after my own image, so you can
do my bidding.', Karn spoke to them. Manatoba was the first to speak.
'And
what is you bidding, father?'.
Karn was a little taken aback, he never
considered himself a father, but he was now, at least in the eyes of his
children.
'My bidding is to you to develop the world you see around you as
you see fit. I have all the confidence in you I need, for you are of me, and
have the same ideas as I have, and therefor you will always do that which I
feel to be good.' The Gods nodded.
'I have to leave now, and leave
you.'
'Why must you leave?', Atalaya spoke with a clear and beautiful voice, 'Why
cannot you stay, and help us, guide us, give us advice as to what it is we
should do?'
'I have no advice to give you, all the ideas you have are
already shaped inside your minds, ideas I put there, and I wish of you to
make them come true in this world.' At this, Karn turned around and walked
away. When he was at a fair distance, he turned round once more, and said in
a clear voice :'Fear not, for you have nothing to fear. I will not be gone
far, and wherever you go, I will always be within hailing range.'
Karn left them and disappeared into the mountains, as Zhanos had done previously, and if, by any chance, you might see an old man, clad in rags, sitting beside the road, take care and don't act foolish. Atalaya, Manatoba, Mielikki and Furchin talked about what they were about to do, and it was agreed by all that Furchin, should take care of the making of a place for the Gods, where they could rest and live. And Furchin journeyed with the other Gods to the shore of the Great Ocean, and commanded the ocean floor to rise above the waves, and low and behold the ocean floor moved, and a great earthquake came. The ground shook with rage, and all looked at Furchin in awe of his power of creation. Below the waters a great brown shape appeared, rising steadily until it reached the surface of the ocean. Above the waters, the land rose, and rose, and a fairly big island became visible. Then Atalaya stepped forward, raised her hands, and a veil of illusion came down around the island, to keep it hidden from all creatures that had no business there. Next in line was Mielikki, Queen of Water, and he let the waves break upon the soil, creating by their compound impact a long beach on the south side of the Island, and dozens of fjords on the west-side. Manatoba pushed forward and laid on the island roads of pure white stones, shimmering in the sunlight. Then The Gods made their place there, build their own houses, which do not have their equal among the palaces of men and elves upon the earth. And after this great work was done, they rested for a while upon this Island, each in their own home.
In the middle of this Island, a mountain could be seen, and none of the Gods occupied it. And Manatoba called to the Gods, that he would make a meeting place there, for all the Gods. And he created a place, unrivalled among all the houses of the Gods, huge, and visible all over the Island. Their first real meeting was held there.
In the mean time...
In the meantime Zhanos was always working, far beneath the mountains. He had
heard and seen the things that were going on in the valley where Karn
resided. He had witnessed the creative process. And now there was only one
thing to do. He also created Gods, evil Gods, Gods to make the world a
living hell. And among these gods were Osnodon, Lord of the Underworld, to
this world, all beings go that die and he is the exact opposite of Atalaya
and to whatever creature Atalaya gave her gift of life, so Osnodon gave his
'gift' of death, except one, but that is another story. Dagorii, Lord of
Battle, probably the most warlike god ever to roam around the world, and
last but not least, Kulanin, God of Shapes, who had the power to change into
any form he wished, and his descendants have the same ability in more or
lesser degree, and throughout the history of the Land of Karchan, his deeds
have been evil, and destructive wherever he went, for it is said that Zhanos
himself trained him in the art of deception, the art of slander, and the art
of manipulating people in general.
Creation of Races
The Gods were working day and night in order to populate the Land of
Karchan, Manatoba would build the different races, using the powers of
Furchin and Mielikki as building blocks, Atalaya was to bring life to these
different beings and creatures.
The Three Books of Evil
As Zhanos grew mightier among his Gods, he wrote three books. Of these three
books, was explained the source of evil and how people could master it.
These three books were evil themselves, every creature that even came near
those books was able to feel their cold, aggressive, and evil nature. These
books were written by Zhanos in order to lead many good men, and other folk
into either doom or the grasp of the Dark Lord.
[books were lost, but a strange inscription written by some dude was left in
one of the books located in the public library of Pendulis]
The Book of Power
Among these books was the Book of Power, the most important book, and the
one that gave Zhanos the most trouble in writing. This book was essential in
order to be able to read/use/understand the other two volumes.
The Book of Wrath
Among these books was the Book of Wrath, this book was destined to be used
for the total unleashment of emotions like anger, agression, and other evil
thoughts, and would condemn a man to the same level as Zhanos, to be his
eternal servant in evil. The Book of Destruction The Book of Destruction is
a work, written by Zhanos, solely for the purpose to do as much damage as
possible, to annihilate, if possible, everything Karn had made.