Nadarin's Narrative Part 1

Au: This is a little bit of a side story. As many of you may be aware, the history of the gods of the Realm have already been told in The Book of the Damned. http://omnibusofchiel.blogspot.com/

However, I decided to try and give at least part of the story of Nadarin. To give a little more insight into who he is. His role. His purpose. The following is Part 1 of his Narrative, told to Vallarrya. Chronologically, this tale is given to Rya sometime after the events of Once Forgotten. I wanted to give the full Narrative, but it turned out that I cannot do that yet, as many of the events in Part 2 have not come to pass in Once Forgotten yet.

Regardless, I hope you enjoy this first part of Nadarin's Tale. I reread The Book of the Damned in order to be sure I did not destroy what has already been established.
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The Tale of Alphairria
Recounted by Nadarin, recorded by Vallarrya

Just as Thyninairinn has its own past and history, so too does Alphairria. The only beings who know this tale would be my brethren and I.

I remember a time when Darkness was not such a tangible thing. I remember a time when it had no hold upon any of the realms. I remember a time, when Light was dominant. It was a time of joy and peace. It was a time when our Father shone upon us as your sun shines upon you.

I do not know what came before my creation, my birth. Perhaps my Mother and Father were the last of same ancient race of beings, or perhaps they simply always were. But I suppose that that does not matter in the line of things. They had spent countless eons fighting the Darkness on their own. They were happy, battling side by side. Over time, they began want helpers, others to join them in their battle. The Father created beings under him, and the Mother did the same. The beings they created were a simple race. Having no true shape of their own, they used the power given them to aid the Mother and Father to the best of their ability, but they were nothing but thralls. They blindly did as they were told, not questioning why; they had no other choice. For a time Mother and Father were pleased.

Once again, a time came when their servants, the Gondranols, were not enough. Mother and Father began wishing for others like them. Truly like them, and of their very essences. They came together, and I was born. I remember first opening my eyes to the world they had created. I lived in harmony with my Mother and my Father. They taught me much of what they could, and I began to explore my own divinity, since I was created from theirs. I was happy existing with them. Fighting alongside them. Together, we drove the Darkness completely from our world, Alphairria. Mother always seemed to whisper that name, a name that echoed the sound of a thousand waterfalls, yet with the peacefulness of soft chimes. But I was also lonely. So Mother and Father again came together, and from them came a six winged female. Mother whispered me her name: Sanshiyhatyarres-Alellendenarres-Finditeismicalleandeas-Nmamorandastolophloian. Her name was good. It suited her, just as my own name suited me. I could try to explain it to you, but I would never be able to fully get across the true meaning of names.

Sanshi, for that is what I dubbed her, was a good sister from the start. Again, all was at peace. Our Mother and Father kept the Darkness at bay, allowing us to just enjoy existing. We expanded the world that was our, filling it with plants and creatures we imagined. Mother and Father had already created beings to entertain us. A time came when Mother and Father again came together. All Alphairria rejoiced at the birth of another Child. Another male was born. There was a feast in his honor, for Garnahtan-Tharoin was born. You frown, dear child, and rightly so, for Garnahtan-Tharoin was renamed, but that will come in later.

Feasting was a gift that our Father gave us. Food and drink, a necessity for you, is nothing but a joy and pleasure to us. We eat and drink for the sake of fellowship, a time for us to be together and enjoy the company of our brethren and servants. Not long after, another Daughter was born. Ariadniattes-Sellophloytusmous-Rhetfeliosmosede-Kanerkesserenes, whose beauty was like that of our Mother. After her, came the rest of my brothers and sisters. Amari was the last to be born. We all started out as what you would call little children, yet we grew in what would be mere seconds to you.

The world that was ours, Alphairria, grew exponentially with the birth of each child. We roamed it freely, living in peace with one another. A Great Time passed, and I began to see what the others could not. Each of my brothers seemed to shine with light. Nine shone seemed to shine with the Light of our Mother, a brilliant silver glow, pure and untainted. Nine shone with the Light of our Father, a magnificent golden glow, emanating strength. Yet there was something that intrigued me. Ariadni. She seemed to shine with a Light of her own, though it was faint. The others could not see it, for she reflected the Light of our Mother, making it appear that she shone with silver. I began to ponder at this, for I had come to understand that everything created seemed to have a purpose. Which led me to me to ponder over myself. I spent great lengths of time observing my reflection in the pure waters of the lakes. Creatures of all sorts would accompany me, curious over what I was doing, but they had no real intelligence of their own. I gradually began to realize that, like Ariadni, I had a Light of my own that, with this realization, flared up brighter than the Light of the Father, which I had reflected. I did not know it then, but I was beginning to understand my role, my purpose. Yet nothing prepared me for what was to happen.

For countless eons, Alphairria prospered. A peace, unlike any that followed, dominated that time. My brethren and I laughed and lived in perfect harmony. We kept the world that our Mother and Father had bestowed on us, ensuring that all was well. And for the longest of times it was. Yet Darkness began to seep into our perfect world. Creatures were claimed by it, becoming twisted and deformed from our designs. And we fashioned for ourselves weapons, forged from the Pure Fires that burned within the Great Temple we called our Home. It was there that we communed with our Mother and Father, seeking their council on this disturbing event. I did not know why, but I frowned at the feel of my Father’s presence. There was a great wrong that I couldn’t place; none of my brethren felt it. Father declared that the Darkness had reared up and made a breach into our world. And for the first time, we declared war. We went out throughout Alphairria, and for the first time, the sacred ground was drenched in blood. Whole sections of our world were darkened, tainted.

We destroyed the deformed creatures, and managed to restore some of the former peace, but it was not the same. A great damage had been done. Peace, the true peace that had existed always, had been destroyed.

Over time, I began to feel a…dissention among my brethren. The Nine that shone with the Light of the Mother began to fall into disagreements with the Nine of the Father. I sensed within them the same strangeness I had sensed within the Father. It was not long before He approached me.

“You are troubled my Son. Why is this?” He asked of me. I could not help but frown at the way in which he called my “son”.

“There is dissention, Father. My brethren quarrel, and Ariadni and I are greatly troubled with trying to keep peace among them.” I answered. “Something is amiss. I fear that Darkness has begun to seep even farther into our world.”

“Perhaps it is merely the strong striving to rise to their potential.” He paused and turned to me. “You yourself have seen how Nine shine with your Mother’s Light , and Nine shine with Mine. But you, Nadarin, you are far more special than they. When you were born, the First, I rejoiced with all My existence, for you were born as Me.”

My frown deepened at his words. “You mean to destroy Alphairria!”

He gave a great laugh. “Destroy it? No, Nadarin, no. I do not intend to destroy it. I intend to remake it. Remake all of it into a new image. I have grown weary of all of this. Change is necessary.” He grew serious and grave. “Join me. As I said, you were born far greater than your brethren. We could rule over your brothers, over your sisters. Have complete dominion over everything.” I felt my heart break at his words, and I now recognized the stench that came from him. The stench of darkness. The illusion was lifted from my eyes, and for the first time, I truly saw him as he had become. A wound. An even greater Darkness. The Light that he had once shone with had been gone for eons.

He knew my answer before I ever said. It didn’t need to be said, but I saw some part of him, some residual piece of his original self, glow with pride. “I will not. Nor will I allow you to do this.”

His words fell as a mocking sound upon my ears. “So you choose to fight me. I would expect nothing else from you. But perhaps it is for the best.” He gave me a mocking smile that haunts me still. “After all, out of all your brethren, you are the one most liken to me.” And with that, he left me. That was the last time that we met under any pretense of peace.

It did not take me long to see what was happening. The Father was favoring his Nine. Gifting and bestowing them with his own power. The dissention grew into arguing. And the arguing turned to fighting. I watched as the world I loved fell apart. The sacred ground was drenched with the blood of Grondranols and the other races that The Mother and The Father, as well as us, had created to inhabit Alphairria.

Out of the Nine that turned away from our Mother, three were female: you know them as Truncarr, Llarth, and Zxypher. The Father bestowed on them new names. Names that he chose for them. Garnahtan-Tharoin became Gainahtharrinisidious, the one favored most by Father. The one Father chose to take my place.

For a time, I just watched, and that is, perhaps, what truly caused my separation from the rest of my brethren. And I wept. I wept for the destruction that had befallen my blessed my Home. I wept at the blood that flood in rivers. I wept as the three female M’rachtkenta bore the first Children of Children, creatures devoid of The Mother’s influence, apart from her nature. The first of the M’rachtkenten.

And then the greatest of all atrocities occurred. I fumed when I heard of what Gainahtharrinisidious had done. Ariadni was the one most like The Mother, and that only served to fuel the fire that raged within me. I entered the Great War, the War you mortals call so rightly call the Demon War. For that is what I saw them as, and I used my own power and named them such, going so far as to even name The Father a demon. Yet I will tell none that name. It is a horrific name. Terrible as it is soul shattering. A name known only to myself and The Mother.

The Demons were enraged with me. The other Nine were terrified. I fought my Demon brethren, venting my anger and rage upon them. They fled before me. In all of this, I had not seen any signs of The Father, and I knew that he was concocting something. It was not long before I found out what.

Demonkind, such as none we had ever before seen, appeared. Creatures so horrible, The Mother’s Children could not bear the sight of them. And I was left to fight them, but I was not alone. The Children my sister had borne, the Children of Ariadni, stood by me. Together, we fought off this new horror, until we were almost overrun from their vast numbers. However, my brethren, after regaining their strength from our Mother, joined us just as Alphairria was to be taken. We fought as one body. But The Father had over plans for me. He separated me from my brethren, cutting us off from each other. I had no choice but to let them fend for themselves.

Once again, I stood before The Father. He had come to me as he usually did, taking on the form of a winged man. His wings were stained black, and his stench rolled off him in waves. This was the form he always chose to take, and I was born into that image. Yet while his wings were the blackest of black, mine shone with the purest white. I unfurled them now, my own Light shining through them. We didn’t bother with words. Words failed here. Without hesitation, we clashed, beginning battle that lasted The Mother knows how long. I focused my entire being, every ounce of my existence into that one battle. For eons, we were locked in battle. His superior strength only stopped by my ingenuity. We both created; we both destroyed. I used every ounce of power I had, every ounce of my strength. I weakened him. Oh, I weakened him greatly. But even my strength was not great enough to destroy him.

It was then, at the very edge my own destruction, that The Mother intervened. Alphairria shook from the power of her efforts. From the beginning she had bided her time, waiting for the opportune moment, and creating her greatest creation. The Great Seal. I do not remember much, as weak as I was, but I remember a silver Light. The Divine Light of The Mother. It touched us all, scorching the Demons. I remember a rift opening and the Demons fled into it, vanishing from Alphairria. The Selemandairi were sent away as well, for they smelled of The Father’s stench, and were placed in their own Realm, Thyninairinn. And The Great Seal slammed into the weakened Father and threw him into a realm of his own, the name of which only The Mother knows.

Alphairria was changed. We quickly discovered that Mother had Sealed away part of it into Xophaltez, so great was the contamination. What remained was still pure, untouched by The Father’s stench. We went before our Mother, who now dwelled in a new Temple, as the Great Temple now resided in Xophaltez, to seek her guidance. I watched as she gave each of my brethren their tasks, and then I approached. I fell before her, my wings drooping. My Light was all but spent.

She smiled down upon me. “Why do you look so troubled, my Son?” Her voice and tone soothed the wounds that still seethed within me.

“I feel as though I’ve lost my way. I failed, Mother, I failed.” I wept. She dried my tears with her hands.

“Fail? Whatever do you mean? Without you, your brethren that remained true would have fallen into chaos. They may not understand you, but they will. A day will come when they will.”

I raised my head. “When? When will this come to pass? Where do I go from here? Evil cannot be destroyed as I once thought.”

Mother sighed and gave a sad smiled. “No. It cannot. However,” her smile turned to pride and joy, “you can fight it. At the beginning of Our Sorrow, you chose to fight, and I will honor your choice. Nadarin, you are different from the others, as is Ariadni. She will need your strength, but you must not rely on her until she is ready. And now, I bestow on you your task. You, my Son, are indeed the greatest of my children, and as such, you have great responsibility. You are to watch over the Realms. Alphairria, Thyninairinn, and Xophaltez. The Selemandairi n Thyninairinn will need you to watch over them. Your brethren will do their roles, but you must ensure that the Great Stench does not spread.”

I felt my eyes widen and I bowed my head. “I will do as you have said.” She dismissed me with a gentle push. My power had now recovered some, but it was nowhere near the strength I had before. Not yet. But I began using what I had the best I could. I created my own Realm. None of the others knew of it. At first. It was small, more like a…a room between the Realms. Within this room, I created three windows through which I could watch over everything. I found peace there; I found myself in my time of solitude.

I knew that I was too weak to perform this task on my own, and so, I went about creating a power to aid me. I used a great portion of my remaining power, but at last my task was done. I created my own Will. A Will to help keep back the Stench. I rested, then, for a long time. The Will I created began to evolve and grow on its own, sustaining itself on its own. I watched in curiosity as it banished the Darkness from a few of the Voids, causing Alphairria to grow once more. And then a very curious thing happened. Something that I had not expected. I had already shown my Will to Mother, and she shone with pride at all her Children. She named it the G’yckma. But now I returned to Mother and showed her this new development. The G’yckma had seeped into Thyninairinn and the creatures, modeled after our own, and even into the Selemandairi. They were greatly changed. Certain clans of Selemandairi took to different aspects of the G’yckma, causes changes. And thus the different races were born.

With the G’yckma firmly in place in Thyninairinn, I turned my attention to the other Realms. Within Xophaltez, the Demons had multiplied, building up their forces. They were a constant problem, always seeking a way to escape, despite the Seal in place. And there were loopholes. I figured it would not be long before they managed to enter Thyninairinn. Within Alphairria, I learned that Sanshi had borne Children of her own to Toulind. Helix was such a beautiful Child. I won’t deny that I had a special place reserved for her in my heart, yet I did not favor her. She would often visit me in my dimensional home and sit and watch me at work. She would tell me of the demons she had slain and how she had helped to purify any tainted grounds.

Then war came to Thyninairinn. Brother fought against brother and old wounds reopened as we were reminded of the Demon War. To make matters worse, Ariadni’s jealousy of Sanshi only grew over time. Ariadni was wounded deeply over what had been done to her. The Father’s stench still lingered about her, but it had been slowly fading. I had watched as the Selementaili arose: Selemandairi who were greatly attuned to my G’yckma. I now had to watch as, millennia later for them, they began to slaughter their own people. The rulers they once exalted, they now threw down. The Balance began to shift. I felt the strain and did everything I could, even with my limitations. I mourned that I was forced into this position. Had I my full strength, my full might, I could have prevented it all. I could have restored the Balance. But as it was, the Balance was fading fast.

The unthinkable happened. As the strain grew worse and worse, Ariadni’s jealousy finally flared up. For one horrible moment, she turned her back on our Mother. Her festering rage burned against Sanshi, and out of spite, Ariadni took Helix and opened a rift to Xophaltez. And shoved her threw. I heard her scream echo across the dimensions, ripple across the planes. I felt what little Balance remain shatter as the mortals activated their wretched Tower. My rage, all my control of it gone, boiled over. With a cry of agony and despair, I charged at her. I charged at my own sister. The sister, who like me, was set apart by our Mother. In a blind rage I struck at her, but it was not her scream that shattered my heart. I stood, utterly shaken, staring at the blood pooling around Amari. Dear, sweet, precious Amari who, even throughout the fighting, had refused to raise her hand against anyone. She had leaped between us, taking a blow not meant for her. The others were furious at me. Never fully understanding me, what I was, they had quickly saw me as a traitor. Ariadni was furious at me, but in her own rage she was not anger that I struck such an innocent being. No, she was furious that I dared to strike out at her.

I felt her power, and knew that she had learned who she was, what she was. And I was afraid. Not for myself. I have never feared for myself, but I feared for the Balance. There was only a thin cord of it left, weak and to the breaking point. And so I did the only thing I could. I looked all throughout Thyninairinn, searching for six of the purest mortals. It did not take me too long, but I was quickly running out of time. I quickly gifted each of them with one of the seven powers that made up my own power. With the seventh, Life, there was none yet born to wield it. Then I had but one thing left to do.

Once again, I drained myself of everything, only this time…this time I shattered my own divinity. Oh such pain! Such agony! I felt myself disperse into nothingness. ..