Author's Note
This is just a basic beginning to this story and I hope you all like it!
Forging
"Hey, buddy, wake up."
The small shape stirred.
"Yes, dad?"
"I can't be with you anymore. Take care of yourselves."
The presence was gone, emptiness remained, and the small shape watched as he faded away, he flowed across space itself as he moved over to his brother shape.
"Hey" he woke him "Dad's gone, our sisters already left before us, we're alone" His brother stirred "Then what do we do?" "We should get the others up, let's try to figure ourselves out."
They float around each other stirring two other beings like them, as they move around the stars and the skies bend around them they meet at their dad's favorite place, a small hunk of stone with another chunk of rock around it and one sphere of burning gas that it moved around.
The first being asks the others "So where do we go guys? What do we do without a dad or our sisters?"
The third image that awoke and asked the others "Before that, we need to know what we do with ourselves first. We never really were anything without dad."
"I know!" declared the fourth "We need something to call ourselves! Didn't dad call this thing something?" He gestured to the piece of rock
The four of them thought and thought with all of their cosmic might, and thus was birthed desire, as well as hope. The first awoken remembered, "He called it a planet, I think he called this one Terra."
"Terra? If this thing is so important to dad, and it's called Terra, then I'll be Erra!"
"How about just Eyr." suggested the first "It sounds better."
"Hmm, Eyr, I can do that!"
"Well, that's not fair!" complained the second sibling, If you can be the planet, then I'll be that pretty thing on it, you know with the lights! He called that Borealis! I'll be Boreas!"
"Well then what am I!" complained the third, they argued over who got the right to their father's names, and so was birthed Strife.
"How about just thinking one up?" Asked the first
"I guess I could, then what about you?"
The first one thought for a while, he pondered his sibling's desires to be like their father, but he knows he is gone, and so he now wished to be his own "How about we make one for each other?" He asked the third
After agreeing they broke from each other and traveled around the void, the first sibling traveled with Boreas, and the third sibling traveled with Eyr. The first and Boreas saw the stars of the galaxies and spoke with each other. The third and Eyr played about the infinite expanse, destroying stars and these "planets" their father had made.
And thus was born joy, as well as naiveness
When they met again, the first and Boreas presented their name "You can be Arcturius, I hope you like it!"
The third did like it, but he hadn't thought much about his sibling's name, he watched one of the stars implode in on itself, he imagined what that might... be like for him. "Ma- Maar." he said, You will be Maar."
Maar thought he could work with that, it was simple, but that is what he wanted at this point. The four brothers, Maar, Boreas, Eyr, and Arcturius, traveled back to their father's terra.
"Now we can play!" Said Eyr, he raced forward and circled the terra making its wind blow fast, it's cold northern winds covering it entirely, making the planet a ball of ice. "Oh no! I froze it!" He quickly grabbed at the winds from the south and desperately pushed them over the planet as he had the north accidentally, returning it to its former state.
"Haha! You broke it!" Laughed Arcturius Boreas piped in on behalf of his brother "No he didn't! Well, he fixed it afterward at least. Why don't you try doing something then!"
Arcturius puffed out his form and went to move the gas ball that resided with the rock closer to it. It felt... warm... and right, so he assumed the planet would as well. As he did, the blue on the world receded, and Brown appeared on the terra. He moved it back a bit more, and the Brown began to turn green.
The two of them began to mess around like this for a while, and Boreas joined in, though mainly to fix the other two's mistakes. Maar sat to the side, he looked at the green on the planet closer and began to notice it seemed to do things by itself, without them doing anything. He pondered this and decided to try something. He dove down and grabbed a mound of the brown, followed by some of the green, and he stuck them together in the first way that came to mind, he laughed as the silly thing took form.
So was birthed humor.
But then he began to feel something, something that felt, like everything, like... feeling. The feeling of the thing he had made. As he embraced this new physicality, he exhaled, and this force took hold in the model, and it began to move. Maar fled into the skies as the being began to move, albeit primitively. He saw it walk and he was enamored. He flew it to a mountain near an indent that had been formed in one of Arcturius' games to try to keep it from his brothers for a while longer, a stop of blue called Rumare. He enjoyed the thing, but it was mindless and seemed to care not much for the world, but Maar still valued it and decided to give it a name, a Griffon, he decided it should be called and so he called the place he had put it Griffonstone.
"Hey, whatcha got there?" Eyr floated by and noticed what Maar was playing with he laughed at it but was intrigued by the floppy creature. "Ooh! That looks cool, let me try!" Maar was shocked as Eyr made a similar one, but this one was mismade, and soon after having alertness breathed into it, it fell over dead.
And so death and sadness was made into the world
Eyr was sad, he had made this thing, and it left him, he then promised to prevent others from dying, as well as gifting the Griffons with the ability to make more of themselves. Eyr, god of life and birth. And so he began to make many more, more carefully mimicking the one Maar had crafted.
After this Arcturius noticed them and decided to join in, made a few himself and gave them his gift, hunting, as the Griffons began to consume the things that had been created by the brother's father.
Boreas, wishing to impress his siblings created the concept of value, giving this gift to the nonliving things of the world, he blessed gold and silver most of all amongst the materials. He saw this as providing the Griffons something to care about, but they lacked the conscious the brothers did. And thus prosperity was brought into the world.
As they gave the Griffons these gifts, the Griffons began to do things that were unsavory. As his Brothers were off crushing another star, Maar noticed one of the Griffons impale another with its beak given to it by Arcturius. Maar was shocked. He uttered a cry of deafening proportion, and so was born true grief over a real loss. His brothers were similarly sad, but he began to think of how he could stop this. Eyr let the Griffons further value each other, Arcturius weakened the beaks of the Griffons and made them appreciate their own lives more highly and Boreas made the idea of the tribe to bind many of the Griffons together, but Maar believed it was not enough.
"Me and my brothers would never do this to each other!" He thought. And then he had an idea, he took some of his being, his very soul and makeup and washed the world in it.
The magic took the form of a great storm, and the wind overtook the world. As the Griffon's awoke with a new awareness. For just a moment three of the Griffons looked skyward and glimpsed part of Maar's form. The one signal this enigmatic figure gave them was "Archon." And so these three began to spread what they had seen, and many Griffons believed them. And so Maar looked down on them, these Griffons now singing various names, whatever they decided to call him, and he got that creeping feeling again, that feeling of Physicality, a feeling of power. "Yeah, I think I like this"
And so Desire was brought into the world.
The Griffons began to listen to the words of these archons. The Archons spoke, and they attended faithfully. They had questions about what made their generation so suddenly more sensible than those Griffons who had come before them. They did not understand everything, but they began to try to create. They went to caves and started to live in them and build out of mud and sticks. Maar looked down with amazement. He was shocked at what the Griffons were now capable of, and he sincerely hoped that they wouldn't fight or kill one another anymore.
To Maar they merely saw him and wished to know what he was. But to them, he began to become everything. The Archons began to invent creeds to follow to appease this great shape in the sky. And maar started to look at how the Griffons were behaving, and they were worshipping him, which he didn't understand that well. They followed the rules and restrictions on themselves and in a society with the other Griffon "believers".
Then as he was in awe of his creations, his brothers came along. Maar thought back to how their gifts had previously caused the Griffons to rage and kill against one another, and he tried to hide them. He conjured a tremendous and powerful storm over the mountains to conceal the Griffons, and it succeeded. His brothers did not see the Griffons in the caves, who were now building alters to their "god".
As Maar pulled back the storm, he saw what he had done. No longer were the mountains of soft slopes and terrace lands. Now they were of sharp cliffs and jagged rock. Griffons lay dead, and he caused it with his floods and lightning. He felt something for the first time. It was not just the sadness he had felt at the death of the First Griffon. It was an intense rage. At himself for being so careless, but also at his brothers, for if they had not killed the first Griffon, he would not have had to shield these from them.
But he knew now he had to check on them. He moved down to the terra and saw the Griffons were rebuilding. But now something had grown each of the three holy men were now speaking to the people about fear. And that they had somehow failed him. Maar was distraught for he knew it was his brothers who had done this, but he couldn't bring himself to risk their safety again. But the messages of fear only grew. The first holy man said, "We must find those who failed him and bring them to his great Justice!". The second one parried back, "This was a test of our strength! We must recover Together and rebuild!" The third added on, "We must find ways to Defend ourselves! We can not be at the mercy of any force but the great god!"
When these Holy men spoke the Griffons listened, and they attended well. Griffons who had not been at prayer that day were brought before the first Archon and sentenced to exile. The second archon directed the Griffons to build more magnificent temples and more extravagant rituals for their god. The third Archon lead the Griffons to do something Maar was shocked at, he lead them to make long sticks, to which they made heads onto, modeled after their beaks. They armed some Griffons with these who then went out and good food with them — slaughtering the animal's of their Father's terra to feed themselves. But some were given these "weapons" solely to have them. The third Archon stated they had these to protect against those who would resist their god. Maar was surprised. But he did not stop them, after all, they were building a new society modeled after him.
But all this time he begins to feel more control over the Terra then his brothers could exert. While before Eyr had to fly around the planet to cause its great freeze and unfreeze, Maar began to shift the winds with almost no effort. So he could provide the Griffons with the conditions they needed to thrive. And they began to organize further. And Maar was thrilled, for they did it all in his name. Why would he dislike that? And so he made his plans to one day reveal himself to the Griffons once again, to show his thanks, and to lead them forward.
Though Maar's optimal situation was not fated to be, for he could only keep the Griffons hidden for so long. One day as Maar watched the building of a new temple, he noticed this one had a long stick, one that went higher than the others before, and this Boreas saw. He flew over and spoke to Maar, "Hey Maar, what are you doing?" Maar was scared; he still feared his brothers influence over the Griffons and that they may once more cause them pain, but he knew he couldn't hide them any longer.
"Look Boreas," he said, "They are building things as father did!" Boreas was enamored as Maar was
"Wow! That's cool! But... why do they seem to be talking about you?" Maar replied without thinking "Well because I created them!"
Boreas was taken aback by this "No; I mean why they are talking."
Maar didn't know what to do. He had forgotten that his brothers had not known he had Given his children sentience and thought. He stuttered but could think of nothing "I gave them part of the gift father must have passed onto us. They must have seen me and now look at me as we looked at father."
Boreas was shocked. He saw the Griffons being played with by only his brother when they belonged to all of them. "You have to share!" exclaimed Boreas angrily. In his rage, he slammed down upon the Terra, and it shook with tremendous force. Maar summoned all of his strength and pushed his brother back, off of the Terra and stopping the shaking. Maar was shocked, and Boreas was furious "Hey! Why did you do that to me! I'm gonna tell dad on you!"
Maar shook, he tried to hold himself back but failed, he turned to the terra and then back to Boreas "Father is gone! We must take care of this place! And all you did was harm it; you hurt the Griffons!" Boreas snapped back "Well you were the one who made them know what hurt is!" Maar was taken aback by this, and he hadn't thought that he could have caused the feeling of hurt. He felt the creeping pain of the Griffons on his soul for the first time now. He felt mother's mourning sons, daughters remembering fathers. And he felt shame, shame for any pain he may have caused these creations of his.
By this point, Eyr and Arcturus were here as well. They tried to talk the brothers down but Boreas was furious, and Maar felt broken. Boreas began to tease Maar for the destruction he had caused. Saying it meant nothing as they would make more. Maar started to feel rage, rage that he hadn't protected the Griffons enough, and resentment that his Brother didn't care for his creation.
To make a point Boreas grabbed a bit of earth from Terra and made a Griffon in his hands. When it awoke, it had the same ability as the others, the part of Maar the Griffons had gifted to them. It was shocked and afraid when it awoke. And it screamed out and scared Boreas who threw it towards the terra in surprise. Maar moved to save it, but it fell into a wooded land north of the mountain. Maar in his rage cursed the place and his brother for doing something so careless as to harm his creations. Maar at this point was livid, Boreas put down the incident as a mistake, but Maar had had enough. Eyr spoke up now "Come on Maar. It wasn't that big of a deal. I can make a ton of those again! Plus they make more of themselves nowadays." Arcturius added on "Plus they are going to all die eventually, can't you see that these aren't the same Griffons we made at first?"
This comment made Maar confused, but then he looked upon the surface and noticed that these Griffons were not the ones he had made. Even the three great holy men were different. And there were more holy men with them as well. He was shocked; he noticed now that as every moment went by more of them fell ill and perished. From something that had been passed on to them with the gift of reason, "true life", as the only truth of life is its end, death. Maar couldn't bother to hear his brothers anymore. Their words meant nothing to him at this point. He knew he had to help the Griffons. Free them from the shackles of death. And let them see him. Their protector. Their maker. Their God.
"I am going down to them!" Maar declared. "I will tell them how to live as father did to us! And they won't die carelessly anymore!" Maar channeled everything he had within himself and began to descend towards the Terra. His form began to become more and more Griffon. Wings sprouted, a beak began to protrude from his face and claws formed on legs. But Boreas was fast, he chased after Maar and pushed him off course. "You aren't going to mess with them anymore! They don't need father's gifts!" Boreas lurched and tossed Maar far away from the mountain of the Griffons. When Maar saw where he would land the vast blue of the terra bellow him, he used all of his might and summoned an enormous amount of land from beneath the sea, and another great mountain far away from where he needed to be. Then he flew, as fast as light itself he hurtled towards the Griffon mountain. But his brothers had already arrived.
And they had decided they didn't want to play with him anymore.
