Common to all the mountain peoples, from Invernell to
Vernier, is a common spirituality that permeates their daily life and how they
think. In Zephyr’s Flight, it’s best told by the Oracle of the Seers as part of
a common oral history that long predates their slavery in the Imperium. This
history includes dragons even though until recently, dragons were considered mythical.
Of special interest are the Worm of the World and the three
Nembs, who we call fates:
Jurdi: Goddess of what once was (the past).
Jerdani: Goddess of what is coming to be (the here
and now).
Jeluuk: Goddess of what is yet to come (the
future).
Here’s the
complete cosmology
Pantheon
of the Mountain Clans
Name Position in the Pantheon
Olim
King of
the gods; god of war and protector of the vulnerable.
Fairma
Queen of
the gods; goddess of fertility and the harvest.
Yemilgan
Fallen
brother of Olim.
Warhome
Heaven for
the bravest warriors, ruled by Olim.
Folkshome
Heaven for
the virtuous, ruled by Fairma.
Evanfall
Fairma’s hall in
Folkshome.
Valkyr
Winged
goddess who guides fallen warriors to heaven.
Nembs
The three
fates:
Jurdi: Goddess
of what once was (the past).
Jerdani: Goddess
of what is coming to be (the here and now).
Jeluuk: Goddess
of what is yet to come (the future).
Einerkel
Fallen
warriors who wait in Warhome
for the Final Battle.
Ullir
God of
winter and archery.
The Worm of the World
The Worm that
devours Juro, builds its features, and turns rock into soil.
Olim and his
twin brother, Yemilgan, were
born of the sun (Helios) and the stars that floated free in the heavens. Elein
and Fures, children of the largest moon, Lon, created more gods and goddesses
who chose Fairma as their queen. The marriage of Olim and Fairma united day with night and peace with war into one whole.
To
order the universe and keep a watchful eye on their children, Helios and Lon
created time with the cycles of the sun, the moons, and the seasons. Because
the future is a consequence of the past, they also bore the three Nembs—past, present, and future.
Olim made Juro to play on, and from it
spontaneously arose The Worm of the World, whose back plates make the Spine and the Archipelago that dives into
the Ocean of Daggers. At Fairma’s
touch, the Worm bore the dragons, beginning with Aeterna (love) and Munte (virtue), who tamed their father. Olim has no power over the dragons, who live in
a state of grace with Juro and the gods—elementals at one with the rocks and
the sky, and, like them, cannot lie.
Out
of jealousy of Fairma’s love
for Olim, Yemilgan froze the Worm and brought the Darkness
that devastated Juro. But Olim
exiled Yemilgan before he
destroyed the dragons.
Fairma loves the dragons and sent them to lift the
Darkness and tame the lands. From the fertile soil, other creatures arose, and
humans last of all. Seeing how smart dragons and humans were, Fairma gave them free will so that over time, they
might learn from their mistakes and live virtuous lives.
After
all life was created, Aeterna and Munte lay down to die, leaving their children to
prosper. Fairma will resurrect Aeterna if the Darkness returns, and Aeterna will choose her mate and birth the new
generation of dragons.
Dragons
live at peace with all creatures except humans, because humans strive to rule.
At Yemilgan’s whisperings, the
Speaker arose from the humans. The Speaker lied to the dragons and used them to
enslave humans and bring the Chaos. Dragons have free will, and when the
Speaker set some dragons on their brothers reluctant to join him, the dragons
realized what they had become and killed the Speaker and his minions. But not
before human culture was devastated.
To
prevent the Speaker from rising again, Fairma took
from humans the ability to understand and speak to the dragons. But humans are
clever, and a Speaker may rise again.
With
Juro in balance, humans survived the Chaos, and after the Wandering, the Imperium
was formed. Humans now prosper alongside the dragons. But the Nembs warn that the Darkness and the Chaos can return
if humans forget the paths of virtue and instead heed the whisperings of Yemilgan.
As a final note, some other interesting fantasy titles can be found here and here.
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