Aranfoolcaytar

First came the People of the Living Stone
The Undying, the Master Craftsmen
The Crystal-Carvers, the Life-Shapers.

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It was a whisper in the void. A wind, a breeze, barely a zephyr, a murmur amongst the gods, a noise in the Silence, the Breath of the Living.

Whence did It come? For what else was there – in boundless emptiness, how could there be room for movement; in eternal silence, how could there be beginning or end?

It came from nowhere, but arrived somewhere. And one place was different from the other, setting boundaries to the emptiness, and there was Space. It was never before, but ever since, and there was a moment different from the last, and there was Time, and beginning and end. It split up the void into the cardinal Principles, and these dwelt in the void and preceded all else.

But where It came, It struck war into the world, for difference causes strife. And the Principles twisted their thought into solidness and hurled it through space, and there was Matter. And the Principles spun their soul into light, and there was Energy. And the universe was.
The Battle raged on, and the forces of the Principles grew ever more terrible till at last the whole world was an inferno of fire and storm. Chaos reigned, and the Principles battled until all their power was spent. Thus fell night on the Universe, and it grew dark and silent. But the silence was not that which had reigned before. It was not the silence of eternity, but the silence of resting. There would be dawn.
The Spirits of Creation dwelt in the world, and the world was they. Difference had sparked strife, but also awareness: They knew they existed, and they beheld themselves and contemplated their meaning. And they saw they were imperfect.

Chaos had shaped them, and they themselves had brought Chaos. And they named the Chaos Jel. But that was their flaw, for discord cannot exist by itself, and nor can it be eternal. Only through battle was it maintained, and when the powers were spent, the discord sank into stagnation. The Spirits of Creation, more than anything else, required Order, stability within the void. Structure was what would balance discord, and bring back eternity into a doomed world. There was structure in creation.

So in that first night, from the dark warmth of entropy and by the Spirits that Create, there was conceived a World: A bright star, orbited by a tiny sphere of water. There was spawned life in the seas, and beasts on the land. The world thrived and was ordered. The sphere was made to rotate, bringing night and day, and two moons rolled in their orbits around the world, bringing weeks, months and years.
Dawn came and shone upon the seas. And the gods looked on their work and called it Olm – the greatOcean. But they saw that it was not enough. Its order was a stagnant one - the cycles kept a balance, but they did not keep a dynamic balance, the beasts kept a dynamic, but they did not keep a stable dynamic. The highest order that would perfect the world and restore the Universe from Chaos had yet to come.And the gods pondered how to bring that order. For what could possibly pursue change without achieving discord; what could pursue stability without achieving stagnation?

Then Rehlko, mighty among the assembled gods (for with the naming of Olm, they took names upon themselves as well, that they might take physical form and converse as mortal creatures do), raised up his hand, and lo! Between his fingers took shape a flawless crystal, that cast rainbows from the early dawn sun.

And Rehlko spoke: "Thus order is contained within the simplest structures, through perfection, simplicity and structure. Only thus can we hope to keep our world ordered. Change must be eliminated, for in change lies chaos. There cannot be a change that decreases disorder, and there cannot be change that does not lead away from perfection. We must shape this world like a diamond, flawless, ordered and eternal."
And among the gods, there was great accord, for the gods had seen what horrors change - random and predicted change - could cause to a stable system. And some were proposing to begin at once, to purge Olm, their creation, of its life and rebuild the world in perfection: An eternal crystal, a silent monument to Creation and to Order.

And yet, there were some who argued. And Dahrnai, who was mightier yet than Rehlko, raised his hand also and behold! Between his fingers formed a small glowing worm, and the worm wriggled in his grip as it reflected the rays of the sun.

Then Dahrnai raised his voice and spoke thus: "Wise indeed do thy words seem, Rehlko, but consider: Were it not for change, we would not now exist! Hast thou not gazed into the utter past and the eternal future? Is it not change through which all our greatest advances have and will have been made? What of Olm – how could we have fashioned Order without fashioning change?

"Behold then that Order is within life. And it is a changing order, but ever an endless cycle: Through complexity and flaws, and the eternal striving for perfection, the Order is maintained and ever grows in scope. A self-structuring, a self-growing, a self-repairing Order. Crystals may be broken, but life, once planted, is impossible to erase completely."

And Rehlko replied, and said: "It seems stable, but what happens with this life thou speak'st of? Does it not ever evolve in quality and structure, becoming powerful even as ourselves? Will not this worm thou hast in thy hand grow aware of itself within a few ages if left alone? And truly, what then? For dost thou not see what terror lies within the life that knows itself - the ever continuing hunger for power, for instability?

"Truly, I say unto thee: If we let life continue as it has on Olm, then it will meet doom by its own hands. For through imperfection, life may grow dynamic, but through its striving for perfection, it will grow mad. There will be wars and battles, and that which you have ordered will be brought to fight against and amongst itself, and come to ruin through its own power: The Paradox of wisdom."

And Dahrnai called out: "Then is it not better to have stable order for a while, rather than a fragile, never evolving order for all of foreseeable time? Can we not intercede when this life uses force on itself?"
"Can we not build a better crystal when this one is broken, or does not satisfy us anymore?" Rehlko retorted.

And one amongst the gods, who rarely spoke but whose name was Orin, the Wise, though he counted little within their lot, raised his voice to intervene: "No indeed, we may not. We may not rebuild life, and we may not rebuild the crystal: We may not change this world once it is done, and indeed, we may not change it now, more than a single, last time. Thus we have determined that order might prevail. For behold: Chaos lieth within us, as doth Order! But if we are to be constantly amending a world to keep it safe, how then can the world be ordered? Will we not rather contaminate its order with our own chaos? Would it not be as if we had never wrought this world at all?

"Nay, to keep this world, we must leave it alone. Therein lieth the danger: If this world is instable or doomed, then it must fall, for our intercession cannot save it. The world must be capable of keeping itself in Order when we do not watch it."

And then Zaratis, the mightiest of the assembled gods, spoke, and the rest of the gods fell silent and ceased their arguing: For it was he who had conceived of Olm, and he who had shaped its life and cycles, and while they had shaped the world together, it was he who had done the most. When he spoke, it was not in the archaic fashion of the others, for he did not need to assume a cloak of veneration, to cloak his words in erudition so that he might appear wise.

And Zaratis spoke, and they listened to his words: "What way then remains to us? If life is doomed, and stone is not eternal, and we may not intercede to bring Olm back into its path should it leave it, then how can it ever be complete?

"I tell you, Rehlko, that indeed your flawless crystal is the only way to keep the world structured, and Dahrnai, life is the only thing that can keep it growing. Behold, therefore, that we must combine the two if we are to fashion a world that can eternally keep itself Ordered." And he raised both is hands, and behold: The air shaped itself in the form of a large crystal. But the crystal was not ordinary, for it was not translucent: It shone with an inner light, and the light pulsed as a heartbeat, and bright silver points, like stars, moved within the material so that it seemed the night sky itself was contained in the stone.

"I show you the Living Crystal, that which can structure itself and attain perfection: That which will evolve when it is imperfect, and repair itself when it is flawed, and remain stable no matter how close it comes to perfection.

"And you shall fashion a race of beings who shall be like this stone I have shown you. They shall be strong and unbending as the stone, but light as the airiest geode. They shall be nimble and quick as the glittering dust of diamond on the wind, but impervious as the roots of the world. Mighty in the ways of power and the mind, knowledge shall be their goal: For in the quest for power lies doom, but in the quest for knowledge lies wisdom. And of all things, they shall hold crystal and life in the highest value, and to them shall be granted the skill of crafting the crystal, and the art of shaping life to their desire. And they shall themselves be alive, but have the power to take the shape of a crystal when they would live no more. And you shall call them the People of the Living Crystal."

Thus Zaratis spoke, and thus it was done. And the People of Living Crystal populated the Earth, and kept it ordered, and the gods looked again upon the world they had fashioned, and at last they saw it was good. And thus they withdrew from these mortal confines, and have never again acted to influence it. For the gods were of Chaos, but from their Chaos came Order, and they resolved nevermore to bring discord upon the world.

But the People lived on, and their quest for Knowledge and Learning endures eternally. They use their powers to stabilize the world and bring it to higher order, and thus they are forever the pinnacle of Creation.

-- Tin'Taí, the Book of Crystal Song