OF THE ELDER RACES

The Firstborn were comprised of the breathtaking Duinuogwuin; the extraordinary A’qavish-qerach; the remarkable Sephi; the shining Kwoth; the brilliant Gree; the modest Sharu; the valiant Mu-Ab; the advanced Q’rel; the magnificent Alashan; the solemn Ahra Naffi; the humble Kalai; the astonishing Killik; the awe-inspiring Tempestro; the patient Neti; the spiritual Aing-Tii; the wise Sunesi; the graceful Oswaft; the elegant Zendar; the vigorous Cathar; the energetic Sholam; the thoughtful Pelgrin; the compassionate Pa Tho; the gentle Asmerukii; the adventurous Kharubdian; the creative Xaxax; the scholarly Eellayin; the spirited Osserians; the sagacious Krevaaki; the innovative El’gusclar-fal’M?rtilspí; the peace-loving Caamasi; the inquiring Siniteen; the reverent Asogian; the visionary Hysalrian; the shrewd Dur Sabon; the crafty Celegian; the joyful Javan; the portentous Arrak; the ardent Arbran; the scopic Sicmoo; the faithful Xaczhick; the serene Tchuukthai; the daring Demmeonite; the boundless UrSkek; the brilliant Muun; the enlightened Zeffonian; the adamant Eruthros; the trustworthy Talortai; the glorious Urey’la; the sensible Sumrian; the discreet K’kybak; the cerebral Pan-preneur; the mysterial Dranconian; the intrepid Altrusian; the perceptive Pulrista; the noble Filar; the inspiring Gaoul; the soulful Ka’aa; the amiable Kumumgah, the idiosyncratic Mloki, the beneficent Tor-Ohnahmi, and others besides—eighty in all who made up the Elder Races, hale and wise, as the Celestials passed on to them wisdom, justice, power and love, and worlds in which to thrive.10

The Celestials taught their offspring all they knew for the preparation of worlds for the new lifeforms to come. To aid in the development and expansion of the galaxy, the A’qavish-qerach, later known as the Lucent and Arachnitects, fashioned the Titans. But the raising of arabesque conurbations and magniloquent cities required no slaves nor yoke of hardship even, for the Precursors had such gifts then, leaving them free to focus on the art and architecture that suited their individual tastes.

Propaedeutics began for the Precursors, and the galaxy soon came to be filled with a multifarious assemblage of beings who were as beloved children to the Firstborn and scions to the Celestials.

Simian, felid, feliform, canid, caniform, mustelid, ursid, viverrid, avian, saurian, ungulate, and humanoid forms came to be, along with a mélange of ichthyoids, arthropods, and botanical races, to name but a few. Besides those based on alreadyexisting shapes, new forms were invented that had never before been seen, inhabitants designed for the most inhospitable of worlds.

The Precursors took great delight in the anthropomorphic lagomorph, capra, rodent, and marmot races. And some were fashioned with an additional hortative purpose, such as the Bilar, whose overmind not only ensured peace amongst them but demonstrated to the galaxy the greater value of community.

The First Ones partook with one another the knowledge and gifts they each had, and thus they taught their hale offspring across the cosmic spectrum. The Gree were the first to give to the nascent galaxy portals that allowed the growing races to travel beyond their homes to any world of their choosing for the purpose of communion and the apportioning of knowledge, wisdom, crafts, goods, flora, and fauna, some of which became ubiquitous in variegated forms. As the Kwa and others followed, so did all begin to know their kindred amongst the stars, forging a galactic nexus of affinity and interdependence.

Food and resources grew in abundance on each world specific to the requirements and pleasure of each race, and with their shared expertise there was no end to the variety that could be brought forth. Love reigned supreme amongst the generations, for whom it was a somnolent Vernal Splendour, a golden age of elation, exploration, and peace in which dreams became reality. And all at this time paid reverence to their progenitors, the Celestials, and to the Father of Lights, the Prime Shaper of all.

OF WUTZEK

Of the four architects of Skyriver, Wutzek had been the most aggrieved by the actions of his treacherous cognates on the Dawn World. And of the Humans, he felt unwavering contempt, for they so readily fell prey to their deceptions. So he sought to fashion beings who would never falter but who would use their power to wisely direct the inhabitants of this new dimension.

Wutzek knew he should have informed Lluxos and the others of his intent, but a thought occurred to him that perhaps they would reject his idea—But why should that be? he wondered. He was every bit as sage as they, was he not? He needed no permission. Best to simply do what needed to be done. They would thank him later. Yet with this idea that he was doing something in secret came a rush of fractious and conflicting feelings—arrogance, resentment, frustration, and detachment—emotions that he had not experienced before and did not particularly care for, and the sounds of dissonance were awakened in him. In his bitterness and resentment, the eldritch song of discordance that had remained hidden within him so deep that he did not even know it was there now came pouring out into those entities which he brought into being.

Nebulous as swirls and splashes of color were his four offspring, alive with great untapped power, beautiful beyond imagining, and unique; but born as they were out?of Wutzek’s conflicting states, each took on some part of his disharmony and so required the others to remain in fragile balance. Thus, he named each after that which impelled their creation, and in so doing were they awoken.

The first was named Tilotny, which in the tongue of the Celestials meant speech, art, and pride. The second was called Horliss-Horliss, a derivation of one who is outside, timeless, and emancipating. The third was Cold Danda Sine, which denoted fiery dynamism and spirited passion as epitomized by the mystery and excitement of massless energy. Last but not least was Splendid Ap, a name belonging to the diagnostic principles of time, motion, and space.

Now that they’d been birthed, Wutzek felt a terrible pang of remorse. Whereas the Firstborn had been celebrated upon their nascency, these were born in secret, veiled in shadow, and they were not as the Firstborn but were more akin to the Celestials.

When Lluxos, Marutz, and Xurz arrived in Wutzek’s presence, having felt the potency of his creation, Wutzek plaintively confessed all he’d done. “I fear that due to my anger and pride, I have given shape to beings unnatural, and from this terrible mistake, a shadow will cover the suns of our universe so that the very thing which I sought to prevent will come to pass.” Beset by grief, he added, “If this is the case, then I should unmake my progeny and forestall this calamity.”

Lluxos responded, “Do not be as hasty in destruction as you were in creation.”

In shame, Wutzek looked to his offspring, only to discover that they were no longer there. In horror, he scanned the universe but could not find them. “Now matters are worse! How can they have disappeared? Have my very thoughts unmade them?”

“Although he does not fully understand his unique gift,” intoned Marutz, seeking intently beyond the ovum of their dimension, “the one you call Splendid Ap has taken his siblings beyond time into the In-Between world from which he has opened a window. There, they risk leaving a future imprint of themselves.”

“Tractable though this dimension of ours may be, this cannot be done without consequence,” Wutzek emphasized.

“Indeed, it cannot,” Xurz agreed, “for they have now inextricably interacted in grave matters, imprinting upon peoples and places that have not yet come to be so that when the continuum catches up to this event, as it now must, it will split, forcing into being a second universe, an echo of our own.”

“For this reason did we put measures in place,” noted Lluxos grimly. “Nevertheless, this is unforeseen and unfortunate, as this second dimension will unfold in its own fashion and require great attention.”

“We are hardly the only Celestials in the universe,” Marutz replied. “We will put out the call for others to provide aid.”

“We have seen what comes of those realms that are governed by those who did not create them,” Lluxos reminded her.

“Powerful we may be, but to divide ourselves between two such realms would be to benefit neither,” she noted.

“Let us consider the options,” Xurz said, “suitable to this Echo Dimension.”

Lluxos lifted his hand. “As we speak, Splendid Ap has recognized his error and more carefully anchored himself and his siblings to a point that will shortly arrive. There, they will remain until the time-stream organically catches up to them, though for them it will seem as if barely a moment has passed. You will see your offspring then.” Lluxos had been given the gift of farsight and could see a potential glimpse at that time, but he did not tell Wutzek what he saw, for it was a grievous sight.

“Also, they have given themselves interesting forms,” Marutz stated, as she projected their images before them. Tilotny had garbed herself in the most striking of sapient forms, female, Elven, alluring and unyielding as the sea. Horliss-Horliss represents himself as formless mass, surrealistic and dreamlike. Cold Danda Sine is embodied as an arresting black orb with a face akin to burning lava flows upon an impenetrable penumbra. Splendid Ap is represented by abstraction, having shaped himself as a pyramidal strobiloid in the flux of change.

Wutzek contemplated this. “They were intended to embody love, justice, power, and wisdom, but they emerged flawed so that if even one is absent, they will be out of balance, and from them will come instead egotism, frustration, madness, and apathy.”

“This event is rife with ominous portent and reverberations of other times and places,” stated Xurz. “Inexperienced as they are and bereft of love and guidance, there is much harm they might do.”

“Should we not implore the Supreme Maker to will this terrible thing away?” Wutzek inquired despondently.

“You know the answer to this already,” replied Marutz. “It is not the will of the One to force any to choose love, peace, justice, and wisdom, lest those things not exist but only the domination of mindless servitude.”

“Thus is the gift of freedom higher still,” Xurz added, “and the greatest response— to find the sacredness in all living things… even when they are flawed.”

“Broken they may be,” Marutz noted, “but none are born without conscience. “We will go forth to speak with them.”

“They will have little love for us after the hateful and foolish words I spoke,” Wutzek contemplated, “and struggle to know light from darkness…” He was yet stricken, knowing his progeny would be the cause of great heartache and tribulation. “I did not think wisely or well when I did this, and I do not know how I will bear it.”

Lluxos turned to him, shining his light upon Wutzek’s adumbrated globules. “Take heart! The Father of Lights had warned us that evil would seek to enter our realm. I am not certain if these offspring are connected to that vision, but we knew aforetime that an era of evil would arise in which many things would come about and be tested; in this way will it demonstrated for all time that love and compassion are the path to light and life; and apathy and hate, the roads to darkness and death. And whosoever follows the shadow walks the path of ruination.”

“I did not imagine the shadow would come out of me!”

“It does not originate with you,” Xurz assured him. “You but played its refrain.”

“Would that we might eradicate all darkness with our light,” Wutzek intoned.

Marutz spread out her polychromic rays. “One day… For now, all things serve a purpose, though our adversaries pervert them. Within darkness lies anger, fear, and the tegument of light; but without anger, there could not be the indignation of justice; without fear, there would not be the avoidance of danger; without the umbra of night, there could not be rejuvenation and rest, nor healing and contemplation. This is why the light waxes and wanes… but we were made to walk in the light.”

“As for you, Wutzek,” concluded Lluxos, “you are a beloved and blazing star. Though I sense great trials lay before you, you will yet bring forth offspring again, howbeit, the parturition will occur differently than before.”

Xurz extended his refulgent beam towards Wutzek. “Though war will supplant love as king, with death and grief his offspring, it will not be to end all life, but the wakening of protectors. Put aside your shame and grief, for one of your own has returned to seek you out.”

There was much that was spoken between Horliss-Horliss and Wutzek at this time.

In the Grand Convocation of the Celestials that followed, the brilliance of Lluxos and his companions shone brighter than before as they opened themselves in euphonious accordance with a received vision that was henceforth known as the Prophecy of the Restoration. It was recorded and preserved in the writings of the Ancient Order of the Whills, coming down through the ages in the much-abbreviated form called the Prophecy of the Chosen One. In the original form, it read:

And in the times of greatest despair,

Born of the fire, born of the air,

There shall arise the saviors,

Born of the earth, born of waters,

Defenders of the blameless ones,

And he shall be the Son of Suns,

And she the Daughter of the Stars,

To break the fetters, chains, and bars,

Not soldiers’ swords nor wizards’ spell,

Nor kings or queens or hosts of Hell,

Will thwart the Children of the Light,

Champion and Companions Knight,

So evening turns to golden morn,

As ice dissolves when spring’s reborn,

Let joy rise up from grief and woe,

From evil’s death, new life will grow,

And all who loved will be re-made,

Whether great or small, beast or babe,

The end of death and pain and rage,

As once it was in the Dawn Age….

10 Eighty Elder Races are known to have been, though there was some confusion in later times as to exactly who some of these were, with three races later identified as partly-incarnate Valdilar.