The Herald from the Far Beyond/Ancient Story
The Ancient Story
Cast of Characters:
Yonbastará: Ancient god-island
Ot: Ancient living god
Morlo: Ancient god-sea
Care: Semi-Ancient god-island, female
Wild: Semi-Ancient god-island, male
So it Begins,
The Golduhn islands were once one big island called Yonbastará. During this ancient time, the people worshiped the land in exchange for the product of its soil, food. In addition to the god-land, a living god named Ot arrived who freely roamed the island. Ot was whole, neither male or female and not morally charged. It wandered the island asking food offerings from Yonbastará’s people in exchange for fortunes or favour. The worshippers always agreed, would feed the living god, and receive blessings and whatever they asked for.
During one harvest, the island refused to give up its bounty unless the worshippers satisfied a very special condition. The people cried out to Yonbastará to tell them what it wanted so they may appease it and receive their much needed food. The island replied by saying it was tired of Ot wandering around, taking food from the people and not acknowledging Yonbastará’s territorial dominance. The island said that it is not right or fair for this god to wander without respect or permission and interfere with Yonbastará’s worshippers for its own sustenance. Yonbastará demanded the people to make Ot give an offering to the island and ask permission to pass through it.
The people found Ot, who was eating melons near the sea, and told it what the island had said. Ot laughed and replied that it was not right for the island to make demands and judge what was fair between the deities, but since Ot did not really care, it replied that it would make worship to Yonbastará if the island gave the god a small piece of land in the middle of the island to turn into its home. Ot said it was looking for a place to settle down and thought that one particular spot was just perfect.
The people returned to Yonbastará and told it that Ot would make worship in exchange for a piece of land to turn into its home. The island was insulted at first, but then went silent in thought. After a few days, the hungry people heard Yonbastará speak to Ot. The two divine beings, the god-land and the living god, made a deal which stated that Ot could take ownership of a small piece of land in the middle of the island if it would make an offering in worship to Yonbastará and recognize the island’s supremacy over the whole island.
The deal was sealed by the joining of two pieces of rope, one red and one blue. The two made their deal over the knot in the middle. After that, Ot gathered the best of goods it could find, fruits, vegetables, animals and humans, and sacrificed all of them in a huge holocaust to Yonbastará. Once the fire consumed everything, Ot began to fence off its piece of land in the middle of the island, assuming it now belonged to it. When the fire ended, the island began to shake terribly and all of the people ran in many directions. They could not escape the incredible quaking of Yonbastará. The people cried to the god-land to ask what was wrong. Ot could not ignore the earthquake and asked the island the same question the people had. Giving no reply, Yonbastará shook even harder and did so for six straight days. The people lost all sense of balance and collapsed to the ground, and Ot became very annoyed because its fence fell apart from the violent shaking.
Then, suddenly, without warning, the middle of the island began to sink into the sea as the land split in two. All of the land given to Ot crumbled into the sea with Ot on it. The living god shouted out questions and curses as it sunk deep. Yonbastará had split into two islands, erasing the land given to Ot by sinking it to the depths of the sea. When the terrible tremors finally ended, and the people were able to stand again, they asked what reason Yonbastará split. The islands replied that it never wanted Ot to make its home on the island, only to worship the land. Yonbastará confessed that it thought Ot an inferior god pretending to be of a higher class, but the island knew better than to be fooled by a liar, so it cheated the cheater first. The people bowed to their god and continued to worship, forgetting all about Ot and the incident.
The people were now divided on two islands, wondering what would become of their once united tribe. As time went on and distance caused differences between both islands, the people on the bigger island began to suspect their island to be a fickle selfish god. They began to make offerings less and less until they stopped worshipping Yonbastará altogether.
When the people entirely stopped worshipping, the smaller island asked how it was that they were able to eat and live without the food the land provided. The answer was that they were fed by the god in the small channel between the islands, which was full of fish and required nothing in return.
Yonbastará was furious and sought to confront the usurper in the little channel, although, since the people on the bigger island no longer worshipped Yonbastará, the god-land could only assume supremacy over the smaller island and was a bit nervous. Yonbastará decided to beg the god-sea to find out who had taken over the worship of the people on the bigger island. The god-sea, Morlo, told Yonbastará that it had not been kind to another deity in the past and did not deserve help. Yonbastará remembered Ot and what happened earlier, and realized that the fish had multiplied to extraordinary numbers in the very spot where Ot’s home would have been.
Cautiously, the island approached the channel and announced itself. From the depths of the sea Ot rose to meet Yonbastará for the second time. This time, Ot was a marvelously gigantic size, glowing and ultra-powerful. Yonbastará asked how it could be so and Ot said that it made its home on the land given by Yonbastará and that its home turned into a submersed village for all of the roaming gods which grew into a city which turned into a heaven (a god-kingdom) making Ot a very powerful god. Yonbastará asked why Ot took the island’s worshippers away and why it would not share any of the wealth with it. Ot replied that it would have shared with Yonbastará if its home was still a part of the island, but since it was under the sea the division was between Ot and Morlo. Yonbastará, Ot said, had acted greedily and became weaker when it split in two. The consequence to that was what was occurring now. Yonbastará became very embarrassed and guilty, and swore that it would make recompense with Ot. Yonbastará said that if Ot would share with the island it would give Ot the entire bigger island as its home, ownership over the whole thing. Ot said that the island was not worth what Ot would be giving Yonbastará, and that the little island would have to give more, not to mention that Yonbastará had swore on a knot of two colours and betrayed Ot the last time they made a deal. Yonbastará promised that it would not cheat Ot again. Ot said that if Yonbastará tried to cheat Ot again, Ot would confiscate the smaller island as well, leaving Yonbastará with no form. Yonbastará swore that it would give Ot the bigger island in exchange for a share of the wealth from the heaven in the centre piece of the sunken-island. Ot smiled, but just before it agreed, Ot then asked Yonbastará to give Ot the island first to prove trust. Yonbastará agreed and promised. After they swore on the same knot as earlier Yonbastará tried to change over control of the bigger island but failed. The island tried again but failed a second time. After the third attempt, Yonbastará yelled in frustration and wondered what was wrong. Ot began to laugh at Yonbastará who was very angry. Yonbastará demanded to know what was wrong, and why it had no power over the big island to give it to Ot. Ot answered that ever since the people on the big island ceased worshipping Yonbastará the god-land had no dominance over the big island, and that since that was true, Yonbastará was unable to pay Ot what was agreed upon, and since that was true, Yonbastará had to make good on the promise to give Ot the smaller island. Yonbastará complained and tried to argue its way out of it, but the knot was witness, and Morlo was as well. The people of the bigger island already worshipped Ot and so the island belonged to it anyway.
By the craftiness of Ot, Yonbastará was left without form. Angrily cursing and jealously plotting against Ot from the mists of indefinable, Yonbastará watched as the islands prospered along with the heaven in the little channel – much better than when it was overlord of the islands.
Since Ot had acquired a great territory of influence, it decided to produce two children and divide part of its domain for them. The first child it made was the female Care, the beautiful falcon-woman. To her Ot allotted the bigger island. She was given the qualities of patience, unity, compassion and was charged with supervision over the emotions. The second child, but not the lesser, was the male Wild, a frightening alligator-man. To him Ot allotted the smaller island. He was given the qualities of ambition, domination, disregard and was responsible for bringing war to the people.
Ot and Morlo returned to the god-kingdom between the islands and went into semi-retirement, leaving Care and Wild as the two highest classed gods in the region. None, however, expected the perpetual plots of Yonbastará to disrupt their reigns to regain what the once god-land owned.
As the sands of time drifted, the people set up cults to each demi-god: the islands of Care and Wild. Some who continued the traditions of the older generation remained worshippers of Ot or Morlo, and even some still refused to cease their worship of Yonbastará. The last group of people are the ground forces for the once god-land to harass and challenge the children of Ot. As time furthered still, some of Yonbastará’s tricks succeeded. One such heinous act was to convince the people that the names of their gods were not Care or Wild, but Atel and Pono. Worse still, the devious unformed-god convinced the people that the two gods were not the two islands but six divine birds spread out across the world. This confused and deceived the poor people of the Golduhn Islands, and led them astray from their true gods.
