When the planets had been set in their motion, Atestalume called all the Æteslae together to hold council. They came all to him, and he gave to them this charge, “My brothers and sisters, this world: the seas, land, and all the stars beyond, Umare has placed in our care. Look therefore to the tasks you have been given. Tend the Earth, guard its inhabitants, and teach them to sing the song of Umare. For he taught us to sing it first that we might spread it throughout all creation and grow further what he has begun.” And all present swore to be faithful to Umare and honour Atestalume, whom Umare had appointed to rule them.
Each of them set to the tasks they had been given. As they work, they sang each their own harmony which they learned from Umare, and the stars where they dwelt altered their dances in response to the new sound. Arwevina was found the most glorious of the singers, and his star and tower shone brightest among them all save only those of Atestalume and Nyeva his queen. When he came to earth, the creatures flocked to the sound of his voice, and he taught them to sing more beautifully the song of Umare. He took great pride in his work. His greatest pride was in teaching the men to sing, for he saw in them a reflection of Umare himself that he could find in no other being. Umare had created Andron and Geva, his wife, to be the first of all mankind. Through them the world would be filled, and they would be the tenders and keepers of the Earth. Umare had set them high on a hill overlooking the world he had made, and here they had been given the best of all that grew on the earth. This Umare gave for their own pleasure, but also that they might have set before them an example of how to order the rest of the world. Arwevina trained them to sing more beautifully, and took pride in his own cleverness in teaching. However, this pride was his downfall. As he taught the men to sing, he found that they did not repeat only what he sang, but that they added to it according to their own hearts and minds. He, not wishing to seem lesser than they, tried to do the same, but found that he had neither the skill nor ear to sing his own thoughts as they sang theirs.
Upon realizing his own inability, he grew angry, and he begrudged man his gift in song. And he thought it a great waste that man should have a gift greater than the Dosciumae and he who was a lord of heaven. Boldly, he went to Umare and asked him to teach him to sing as the men sang. But Umare would not. He smiled and said, “Look through the all I have made. There is no other that compares to you. You are the most beautiful of all singers in heaven or earth. It is through your skill and your instruction that the songs of man will be strengthened so that they may further order the world I began. For this I made them, and it is their task to labour to order and complete the world. Help them and delight in their work in which you also play a part with honour. Be content in your task, but do not begrudge another his work. For each if given tasks in accordance with his strengths.”
But Arwevina replied, “As you say, I sing most wonderfully, but why then do you give to your smallest creature the power to create and destroy? If I too could but do the same, I would build the Earth into a yet more glorious place than they can conceive. I was with you first in the beginning and know your mind. Teach me also to sing as they sing.”
Umare answered, “Yes, you were near me in the beginning, but you were not there at the first, and you do not know all of my thoughts. To each I reveal only the part that is proper for him to know. Take delight in what you have been given, for your work is great, but do not seek to take from another his glory.”
In anger Arwevina departed and shut himself in his tower. There he sat long and his anger festered and grew. In envy and hatred, he determined to order his own song. Taking the song of Umare, he separated it out, each note in equal temperament. The song which it produced was harsh and crude and unlike the theme of Umare. He called his servants to him and taught them to sing his new song. As they joined together in song, the light which shone from the tower of Atestalume vanished, and all became dark. The singers stopped in alarm, but the song they had sung still continued to echo beneath their feet. Suddenly, great chasms were rent in the ground, and fire began to leap forth from the deep places.
From the palace of Atestalume, where he sat on his throne surveying the cosmos, he watched the light of Arwevina vanish and emerge again, a fire brand in the heavens, and he pondered the meaning of this sudden change. He called to him Tethie and discharged him to find out the cause of this disruption in the heavens.
When the servants of Arwevina saw the destruction they had made, they trembled with fear at the judgement Umare would surely send upon them and began to cry out one to another. But Arwevina himself called above them, “Peace brethren, and hear my words! What wisdom do you find in Umare? Has he not disregarded us? Look what he misery has come to us by his folly. Were we not made to sing most glorious of all created beings, we Dosciumae, who are as gods among men? Of what worth is man? He is small and his frame is weak. We were made to rule I say, and this we shall do! Let us go down into the Earth now and take up the mantel that is our right. Let us serve no more in heaven, but rule below in our own right! Will you follow me?”
All those who heard him gave a cry of assent. They set at once to work, for they knew it would not be long before Atestalume would send one to investigate the matter. They gathered together what they could from the remnants of their star. Then they in one great host descended to Earth and hid themselves on it’s eastern edge. Here they began to lay plans for a great fortress. They called its name Garnarthar, and they built it using the evil sorcery of their new song. The fortified its walls with stones taken from their ruined fortress in heaven. As they built, the land about began to wither and clouds gathered in the sky. And thus it came to pass that Arwevina rebelled against Umare, and ever after sought to thwart his plans and impose his own will upon the Earth.
Pt.1: How All Came To Be From Song
Pt.2: Of the Æteslae
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