The Illuminated Maiden

i.

"With the continent shattered into an archipelago, and the climate clumped into that of the tropics, all that once dwelled in the landmass had resolved to adapt.

He attempted to undo his deed, the Deva, known as Makapitan in Sriurvana, and so, out of his oneness, he sent forth beings known as the devatas in the tongue of old, in common speech as the diwatas, all of whom he designed to be female guardians.

Yet, how ungrateful were these diwatas that some of them rebelled? How furious was Makapitan that he created human beings to suppress the rebellion of the diwatas, forcing them to dwell in a different world, with only a few of them in the world of humans?

It was by Makapitan's deed that he ushered in the Age of Men, for he had made the mistake of gifting humans with ingenuity and the propensity to do evil. He made them mortal, thinking they would die out, but their lust allowed them to multiply; their intelligence allowed them to prosper.

Makapitan, of course, never considered the malevolent nature of man. The wars fought by man only pushed him to the brink of frustration and the diwatas, living peacefully in their own realms, refused to intervene in human conflict.

And so, Makapitan manifested himself into three avatars: Magwayan, she, the most powerful, the guardian of the underworld and the harbinger of death; Sugih, he, the richest, the avatar who provides prosperity to those who do good; and Bodhi, the wisest, who frees the good and the wise from the rebirth cycle, becoming the Illuminated Ones.

All men, from then on, endeavored to be free from the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. But perhaps it is impossible to suppress the wickedness of man. Only death, they say, will free man from the world's folly. But man will only be born again, and the fatal cycle goes on."

—The Scholarly Works of Raja Sri Amosin, Volume VI, 1106 UP