A New World Story

By the time the old man finally spoke, the fire between us had died down to barely glowing embers. He sat across the circle from me, a featureless silhouette crowned by stars, and began to intone his story in a raspy voice, nearly singing but not quite:

    "In the beginning, upon the lands, there was earth and there was forest. There was water and there were beasts.

    "Above the lands, there were stars. The stars traveled peacefully across the Heavens. The stars gazed down upon the quiet darkness of the lands and they were made happy by what they saw.

    "Now there was one star which grew jealous of the beautiful lands. He wished to descend from the heavens to the lands, that he might take possession of the lands for himself.

    "When the other stars learned of their brother's foolish intent, they ordered him to stop. 'Do not do this terrible thing! Do you not realize that if you go down to the lands, that you will bring fire and light from the heavens to the lands? The earth will melt beneath your feet! The forests will burn under your gaze! The waters will boil from your touch! The beasts will die from your heat! You will gain nothing if you go down to the lands. You will only destroy that which you wish to possess."

    "The Sunstar gave no heed to his brethren. He gathered his belongings into a bundle and tied them into a sack. Then he slung his sack over his shoulder and began to walk the long path down from the Heavens to the lands.

    "As the sunstar approached the lands, he grew larger and brighter than the other stars. His light illuminated the lands and his heat warmed them. In the brightness of this first day, the beasts of field and forest first saw the predators who walked among them. This made the beasts of field and forest afraid. The beasts of field and forest fled from their predators, and many escaped. The predators cursed the light and withdrew to the shadows of rock and forest to become the many beasts of the hunt, scheming for ways to ambush or overtake their prey.

    "Meanwhile, all the stars from the heavens gathered beneath the earth to discuss their renegade brother. 'What can we do to prevent him from destroying the lands in this fit of covetousness?' they asked each other.

    "A young star, renowned to this day for his boldness and for his brightness, spoke first. 'Let us forge a great chain from starlight itself, with which to bind our brother and tether him to the Heavens before he might reach the lands!' Many of the stars agreed with this plan and volunteered to carry it out. These stars gathered together beneath the earth to kindle a great forge from which they might fashion the enormous chain that their plan required. The heat from this forge rose up from under the earth, thrusting great volcanoes and mountains in a chain across the lands.

    "A very old star, famous for her patience and wisdom, spoke next. 'Let us weave great nets from starlight and cast them over the earth that they might shade the lands from the sunstar, and that they might rain down water that has boiled from the surface of the lands.' The remaining stars agreed with this plan, and they gathered together around the north and south poles of the Heavens to weave great clouds out of starlight and to cast them over the earth. The weaver stars worked so quickly that their hands stirred great winds, which blew across the lands from the north and from the south.

    "As they worked, the sunstar continued to draw closer to the lands. His heat seared vast deserts into the lands, where neither forest nor water nor beast could survive. The stars cast their nets of cloud upon the lands as fast as they could be woven, saving some part of the lands from fiery destruction through their cooling shade and soothing rain.

    "When the first stars had finished forging their great chain beneath the earth, they gathered in a multitude at the horizon to see the descending sunstar. They cast their chain with all their might, entangling his legs and causing him to topple upon his path. They then gave a great pull, diverting his descent into a circle through the lower Heavens and below the earth, only to reappear again upon the far horizon. When the sunstar descends below the earth, the great chain of starlight binding him can be seen across the center of the night sky, pulled along its course by the mightiest stars of the Heavens.

    "In this manner, all the stars saved the lands from destruction. But the sunstar raged at his siblings for preventing his descent upon the lands. 'How dare you bind me to prevent me from possessing the lands? How dare you hide my lands from my view with your nets of cloud? I will exact my vengeance upon the lands which you have denied to me!'"

    "The sunstar then pulled eighteen rocks from the bundle which he carried over his shoulder. He imbued the rocks with his heat and with his light and with his wrath. The sunstar then flung the stones with all of his might against the earth. The angry rocks rained from the heavens upon the lands, and where they fell the earth melted into boiling mud. From this mud emerged the first humans. The humans built their First Cities in the craters of earth from which they had arisen. At the center of each crater was a burning sunstone, which the humans installed upon pedestals and made into great monuments.

    "As the sunstar beheld the humans crawling forth from the boiling mud pits that his stones had created, he spoke to the newly made creatures. 'My children! You are to be my agents of vengeance upon the lands which have been denied to me! I command you to dig into the earth, extract the dross of the star forge from the mountains and fashion terrible weapons from it! I command you to level the forests and build great walls and fortresses from their timbers! I command you to divert the channels of the waters with dams and canals! I command you to prey upon the beasts of field and forest and to slaughter the beasts of hunt wherever they lurk! Despoil all that you touch so that the stars weep with rage at the futility of their efforts!'

By this point, I had grown quite upset at listening to the old man's story. "STOP!" I cried at his featureless silhouette. "Are you telling me that humanity is not here to improve the earth, or even protect it? That our sole purpose is to destroy the world and bring despair to the divine?"

My interruption was followed by another very long pause, as the stooped shadow seemed to look deeply into me. "It is in the nature of fathers to estrange their children," he said at last. "If this were not so, how would we find recruits such as yourself to bolster the ranks of our order? Humanity has been uniformly disappointing to all of the higher beings that have sought to enlist us as partisans to their cause."

I could feel my fists clenching around the hem of my tunic as I stared furiously at the calm dark shape before me. "So, you're telling me that disloyalty and incompetence have been humanity's only saving virtues?"

"I warned you that wisdom would come at a terrible price."