Destiny (Volume I: Shur'tugalar)

Chapter Four Part XXIX (ED)

These next few parts are mainly fillers as the Five explain about the gods (who, in case you didn't noticed, are modeled after the Greek pantheon), but are still semi-important to know if you wanna be able to understand the little references made to them. However, if you really want to, you can skip ahead to XXXI.

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The mirror's image faded, and the surface swirled in the fog as the viewers sat in silence.

"So," Orrin said quietly. "The gods are real."

The five Riders nodded. Eragon closed his eyes, breathing deeply as the knowledge flooded into him. I knew all those people couldn't be wrong, he told Saphira.

Shifting, she turned her attention to him, snicking one large blue eye closed. It appears you were correct in this case. Expanding her thoughts to all, Saphira asked, Which god made dragons?

"Zeus," Nia answered. Smiling, she continued, "But though he was your creator, he is definitely not your master. All the gods and goddesses gave their people free will, and rarely intrude on our life."

"But they did this time," Nasuada spoke up. Her eyes were contemplative as she turned to her niece. "Why did they?"

"This is a dire situation." Leaning forward, Nicholas said, "You see, the gods' entities are split; they're divided across this world because their people are spread out across this world."

"The gods of today are not the beginning," Niaomi continued. "And neither is the world. In the very beginning, before the existence of everything, there was one being: Chronos, Father Time. From him, the vast void named Chaos was made, and from it, four beings were created: Gaia, deity of the earth; Tartarus, the primordial force used to confine dangers, and who eventually became the place in the underworld to which they were sent; Erebus, the personification of darkness; and Nyx, goddess of the night."

Nick jumped back in. "Now, Nyx and Erebus were consorts, and had three children together: Aether, the atmosphere; Hemera, the day; and Nemesis, spirit of divine retribution. Nyx also had many other children by herself; several of the important ones are Thanatos, Hypnos, and the Moirai - Death, Sleep, and the Fates. Going back to the first four, Tartarus was located underneath the earth in the underworld, and to create night and day, Nyx would go in as Hemera would leave, and then they'd swap."

"Gaia created her own consort, Uranus, also known as Father Sky," Rosaminda said. "She also made the ourea, the first nymphs ever created that represented the mountains, and Pontus, a sea god and also a consort of Gaia. With him, she bore several children: Nereus, the old man of the sea and a shapeshifter; Thaumas, the 'wonder' of the sea and all it's dark aspects; Phorcys, the god of the hidden dangers of the deep; Ceto, the consort of Phorcys and ruler of sea monsters; and Eurybia, the strong and minor sea goddess. And with Aether, she had Aergia, goddess of sloth and laziness."

Renata continued her sister's part. "Gaia and Pontus had the children of the sea, but her and Uranus's kids were of another sort. There are several divisions of their children: the Cyclopes, giants with only one eye, named Brontes ("thunderer"), Steropes ("lightning"), and Arges ("bright"); the Hecatonchires, giants with one-hundred hands and fifty heads, named Cottus, Briareos, and Gyges; and also the Titans - Oceanus, who was the deity of all bodies of water and sometimes considered to be the sea itself; Coeus, the axis on which the heavens revolve around and Titan of the north; Crius, the least individualized, but who held the title as Titan of the south; Hyperion, lord of light and Titan of the east; Iapetus, the Titan of the west who held domain over mortal life; Theia & Rhea, the sister Titanesses; Themis, she who ruled over divine law, order, and custom; the beautiful Titaness Phoebe and her lovely sister Tethys, an aquatic sea goddess; and the last child, Cronus, the most wily and terrible of them all."

"Oh, this is the exciting part," Nathan told them eagerly. "Now the other Titans all had kids that were the stars or moon or nymphs and what not, but Cronus was different. When his dad Uranus imprisoned his siblings the Cyclopes and Hecatonchires because they were ugly, well, Mother Earth didn't like that very much. So she made a sickle and gave it to Cronus, telling him to castrate his father and chop him to bits. So he does that, and Gaia uses Uranus's spilled blood that fell into the sea to generate several beings: the Erinyes, avengers of broken oaths; the Giants; and the Meliae, nymphs of the ash trees. And the...genetalia...of Uranus fell into the sea and became foam, and from it the Olympian goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite, came into being."

It was silent for a minute, and then Nia said, "That's the most exciting part? Really?"

Grinning, her brother replied, "Well, the big Titan war was pretty amazing as well, but Uranus being killed by his own son? And then his blood being used by his wife to make more kids? I mean, that is just - "

"Awful," Nasuada finished with a slightly horrified look on her face. "And this Cronus became the new ruler?"

"Yes," answered Niaomi. "Afterwards, his mom and Tartarus had Echidna, half woman and half snake nicknamed the mother of all monsters, and Typhon: consort to his sister, last of Gaia's sons, and deemed the most terrible of all monsters.

"Then came the golden age of the Titans, but Cronus knew it would end soon. Not only had he angered his mother by refusing to set her other children free, his downfall had also been prophesied. For before he had felled his father, Uranus had told him that he was doomed to be overthrown by one of his own children. So, whenever his wife Rhea gave birth, he would eat the child. The first five - Hestia, Hades, Demeter, Poseidon, & Hera - were swallowed whole in front of the terrified eyes of Rhea. When she found that she was pregnant with her next son, she hatched a plan to save him from Cronus."

"She went to Crete and sought out her mother Gaia for help," continued Rose. "When the boy was born, named Zeus, his grandmother cared for him while Rhea went back to Cronus. She gave him a rock swaddled in blankets, which he immediately ate without a second thought. Under Gaia's care, Zeus grew up healthy and strong, and finally went to Cronus and forced him to throw up his children. Since they were gods and goddesses, when they came out in reverse order, the five were fully grown and clothed. Then, as Gaia had wished since the beginning, Zeus set his uncles, the Cyclopes and Hecatonchires, and the Giants, who Cronus had also imprisoned, free at last. In return, the Cyclopes gave him thunder and lightning, which Gaia had kept hidden from her consort and son."

"And then," Nate said dramatically. "The war began: the Titans versus the Olympians. With the help of Gaia's children he'd set free, Zeus and his siblings overthrew Cronus, and then settled onto Mount Olympus, which had formed after the battle had ended and from which they take their group name: the Olympians."

"Since Zeus had freed them, he became the king," Nia said. "He ruled the sky, his brother Poseidon the sea, and his other brother Hades the underworld. Cronus had been sent to Tartarus, and the other Titans banished, their domains left to be claimed by the six Olympians. The three sisters each chose a place to rule over as well: Hestia became goddess of the hearth and home; Demeter, goddess of the harvest and the earth's fertility; and Hera, ruler of marriage and women, and the wife of Zeus, therefore queen of the gods."