Beginning

The Beginning

The following excerpt was found upon a few, stray pieces of paper left behind after the sacking of the Aelfruil College. Here follows the prologue to 'An Accurate History of Ivranar,' by Professor Aelin Vor Lumin, First of his Line, Royal Tomekeeper of the Fohrenvaeli and Head-Professor of the Aelfruil College.

-The Ilian Guild of Historical Keepings

Of the beginning

Before there was the World there was a great hall. Its name has been lost to the deeps of time, and perhaps only the Gods, their names be praised, know of it; yet still description exists, as the imaginations of elf, dwarf, man, and all the other sentient beings of our World will not run without the aid of visualization. Perhaps due to this, it took me some time to compile up reports on what I believe is the most accurate representation of the beginning of the World.

As I have before mentioned, before time there was a great hall, magnificent and ever-basking in the glowing light of the One Fire: that which, in the ancient times, cast its glow across all existence. The hall was built of strong wooden beams, brightly colored and polished so that they would reflect back the blurred shadows of all happenings within. The ceiling was high and vaulted, and it is said in the legend of the Elves that it disappeared into a heavy shadow above, out of which pierced the light of a million stars of all shades and shapes, so that the ceiling itself resembled that night sky we mortals look upon today, though more magnificent in its appearance.

The Men of the East tell of how the hall was supported by trees of gargantuan size which were wrought in the shapes of great pillars, their heights marked with balconies and windows that seemed of the trees themselves; their bows stretched up towards and disappearing into the shadows above; and their leaves broad and jagged, wrought of gold and silver and sparkling in the light of the One Fire. It is said that these were the homes of the Gods, those seven whose worship of is common in these days.

I sought long for description of the inside of these places, but the only such I could find was that of the monotheistic tribes in the far South, those savages that only believe in the light of the Sky Goddess and in no else. For them there was never any hall, and before the World the Sky Goddess lived within a massive tree such as the ones found in their jungles, and that tree was hollowed, and the inside carven into the most intricate and delightful designs of her fantasies, of that which she wished above all to create and to breathe into the gift of life.

Now apart from the beliefs of the Southrons, it is said that between the trees, out upon the floor of dark cobble, was the One Fire itself, and it was described to me as a monolithic hearth of a black brick, and as a flame of indeterminable color. Around this flame is where the tale of our World, Ivranar, truly begins. For it begins with two beings: Ivranar and Ruheil, brothers and enemies.

In most cultures there is telling of the One Fire, and tales of the two great beings which sat on either side of it. They were brothers, yes, yet were on the opposite side of the spectrum of appearances, so that no onlooker would be able to tell their kinship. One, Ivranar, is told to have the semblance of an old man, wise beyond all imagination, but old beyond time as well. His hair was white, a radiant white that pierced even the thickest of shadows, and it fell long and heavy down his strong back to lay in pools of his locks around him upon the floor. His face must have once been fair, yet then it was wrinkled and worn by eons of stress, and the only sign of life that it exhibited were the fierce flame of his eyes which burned as do the Suns. This was a man weary with the weight of years; and yet he clung to life, for his presence kept the balance within the hall, for he was Light, and his brother Dark.

Across the fire sat Ruheil, tall and brooding. No features of him were discernable, for he was the absence of Light, and he appeared as a silhouette of shadow, black beyond all blackness found within the World. With him was carried a presence of evil, and he was still young, as it is told his birth came much later than did Ivranar's. He was a being who hated beyond everything all that was, and he had vowed to destroy it and to bring about the eternal darkness of Vuundrol, of Nothing. Only the presence of his brother and his Light kept Ruheil from doing so, yet through the constant and relentless war of mind, so for all the time of eternity and beyond did those two giants sit across from one another, their minds clashing fiercely in the longest and most magnificent battle known to legend.