the Kiras Maldi and the Streams
The 12 Kiras Maldi were created by the Builders to provide structure to the planet and even distribution of energy across the globe for the purposes of construction. In the ancient tongue of the Builders, Kiras Maldi literally means “retain shape”, but in modern times the locations are simply referred to as foundation stones.
Since the Builders left the world, the Kiras Maldi have largely stood idle. They are used infrequently by the 5 Builders left behind and their children. The condition of each stone has deteriorated over time. Some no longer function as they should or at all.
Each of the Kiras Maldi has a name:
· Foundation
· Hammer
· Peak
· Thrush
· Wolf
· Blossom
· Heaven
· Anvil
· Basin
· Mammoth
· Mouse
· Thorn
Between each stone and its neighboring stone flow invisible streams of potent energy. This energy was used in antiquity by the Builders to form mountains and oceans. Each stream can only flow in one direction at a time. However, the streams have a coronary effect, which allows some of their energy to leak into the surrounding area. Since these streams have remained in a sort of standby mode for 10 millennia, enough energy has escaped to form a low-level field the world over.
Because several Kiras Maldi are now defunct or malfunctioning, not all streams are flowing. In particular, two of Basin’s streams are faltering and a third is not flowing at all. One stream flowing into Blossom is not being received properly and the node is now diffusing a field into the surrounding area that is completely toxic to life.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
A New Creation Myth - A New World
The Builders never fought a war with the elements. There was no need to; the Builders were given dominion by the Creator over them. The chaotic minds of the spirits of earth, water, and wind were immediately bent to the will of the Builders.
The Builders were fifty feet tall and terribly strong. They had the cooperation of the elements, their own strength, machines of their own design, all the time they could ever want and the Breath of the Creator. They set about turning the world to which they had arrived into a place of wonder and beauty.
Pools of magma were pressed deep into the earth, creating a hard molten core. Stagnant pools of water were channeled together into enormous basins to form great bodies of water. The air was shaped to move continuously, and fashioned into a deep blue sky.
Soon, the elements began working together independent of the Builders. The earth showed the water where to run to meet the great bodies of water. The wind plucked the water from the great bodies and scattered it across the earth to begin the process anew. The Builders witnessed what these elements had done and they praised them, naming the process the Great Water Cycle.
The most complex and beautiful creations were composed by the artisans: those Builders who used the Breath of the Creator to inject life into plants and animals.
For millenia, this was the way things went. The Builders slowly labored and created. The sun rose and fell. Children were born to the creators. There was no sickness, no death, no evil. Work was a joy.
The power of the Breath of the Creator proved to be the downfall of this wonderful age. One injunction was made against its use; no Builder was ever to use the Breath to create a being in its own image. A group of 5 Builders, the great-great grandchildren of the first Builders to come to this world, were the first to attempt to create beings like themselves. Their creation was a mockery.
They became known as the Miasma. As they were not blessed in their creation, they lived short, violent lives. They reproduced rapidly and destroyed some of what the Builders had created. They tainted everything perfect that the Builders had made by their touch. Plants withered, animals died, lush springs were fouled.
The Builders cried out to the Creator. They could not stand to live in the soured place that their world had become. The Creator responded kindly by taking them away from the land that had gone so wrong. Except for the 5.
The lot of the 5 Builders that created the Miasma was to stay and tend as best they could to the shattered remnant of the world. They were instructed that because the Miasma was their doing, that they must look after them and try to redeem them. The 5 were allowed to keep their power and immortality, but found it difficult to breed amongst themselves. So it was that the 5 had children with their own creations.
Those children of mixed heritage were about a tenth the size of their Builder parents. They lived longer, were taller and more intelligent, and had a greater capacity for righteousness than their Miasman parents. These children became the ancestors of what are called humans today.
Pure Miasmans and humans could not live well together. They fought with one another for many years. The humans eventually broke the will of the Miasmans to fight and drove them out of human lands.
Humans have long since chosen to forget that the Miasmans are their relatives. Nor do they remember several offshoots of their race that developed over the centuries after the Miasmans were scattered.
The dwarves identified strongly with the determination and work ethic of the Builders. They dug deep into the earth and there sequestered themselves from the rest of the world. They have been long since forgotten or become legend.
Elves were once humans that felt strongly linked to nature and its ephemeral qualities. They have since left for a far away wood and stream and never seen again. They too exist to the modern human only as a tale.
Pure Miasmans do not exist anymore on a large scale. They mostly killed one another, corrupted nature’s animals by breeding with them or corrupted human bloodlines to create races such as the orcs or goblins.
Without Miasman taint, the world began to recover. No Builder would ever want to come back, though. Those Builders that stayed are painfully aware of how wonderful the world once was and how miserable it is by comparison now. Over time, they managed to have a few children. Their number stands at 13 and has not grown in ten thousand years.
Some have given in to despair and hopelessness. These Builders are the gods that lead men to madness and destruction. Some plod ever forward, seeking to undo the mess they have made. These have become the gods of righteousness and hope. More of them fall somewhere in between, seeking their own purpose and no particular ideal.
The elements do not recognize the dominion of mortals.
The Builders were fifty feet tall and terribly strong. They had the cooperation of the elements, their own strength, machines of their own design, all the time they could ever want and the Breath of the Creator. They set about turning the world to which they had arrived into a place of wonder and beauty.
Pools of magma were pressed deep into the earth, creating a hard molten core. Stagnant pools of water were channeled together into enormous basins to form great bodies of water. The air was shaped to move continuously, and fashioned into a deep blue sky.
Soon, the elements began working together independent of the Builders. The earth showed the water where to run to meet the great bodies of water. The wind plucked the water from the great bodies and scattered it across the earth to begin the process anew. The Builders witnessed what these elements had done and they praised them, naming the process the Great Water Cycle.
The most complex and beautiful creations were composed by the artisans: those Builders who used the Breath of the Creator to inject life into plants and animals.
For millenia, this was the way things went. The Builders slowly labored and created. The sun rose and fell. Children were born to the creators. There was no sickness, no death, no evil. Work was a joy.
The power of the Breath of the Creator proved to be the downfall of this wonderful age. One injunction was made against its use; no Builder was ever to use the Breath to create a being in its own image. A group of 5 Builders, the great-great grandchildren of the first Builders to come to this world, were the first to attempt to create beings like themselves. Their creation was a mockery.
They became known as the Miasma. As they were not blessed in their creation, they lived short, violent lives. They reproduced rapidly and destroyed some of what the Builders had created. They tainted everything perfect that the Builders had made by their touch. Plants withered, animals died, lush springs were fouled.
The Builders cried out to the Creator. They could not stand to live in the soured place that their world had become. The Creator responded kindly by taking them away from the land that had gone so wrong. Except for the 5.
The lot of the 5 Builders that created the Miasma was to stay and tend as best they could to the shattered remnant of the world. They were instructed that because the Miasma was their doing, that they must look after them and try to redeem them. The 5 were allowed to keep their power and immortality, but found it difficult to breed amongst themselves. So it was that the 5 had children with their own creations.
Those children of mixed heritage were about a tenth the size of their Builder parents. They lived longer, were taller and more intelligent, and had a greater capacity for righteousness than their Miasman parents. These children became the ancestors of what are called humans today.
Pure Miasmans and humans could not live well together. They fought with one another for many years. The humans eventually broke the will of the Miasmans to fight and drove them out of human lands.
Humans have long since chosen to forget that the Miasmans are their relatives. Nor do they remember several offshoots of their race that developed over the centuries after the Miasmans were scattered.
The dwarves identified strongly with the determination and work ethic of the Builders. They dug deep into the earth and there sequestered themselves from the rest of the world. They have been long since forgotten or become legend.
Elves were once humans that felt strongly linked to nature and its ephemeral qualities. They have since left for a far away wood and stream and never seen again. They too exist to the modern human only as a tale.
Pure Miasmans do not exist anymore on a large scale. They mostly killed one another, corrupted nature’s animals by breeding with them or corrupted human bloodlines to create races such as the orcs or goblins.
Without Miasman taint, the world began to recover. No Builder would ever want to come back, though. Those Builders that stayed are painfully aware of how wonderful the world once was and how miserable it is by comparison now. Over time, they managed to have a few children. Their number stands at 13 and has not grown in ten thousand years.
Some have given in to despair and hopelessness. These Builders are the gods that lead men to madness and destruction. Some plod ever forward, seeking to undo the mess they have made. These have become the gods of righteousness and hope. More of them fall somewhere in between, seeking their own purpose and no particular ideal.
The elements do not recognize the dominion of mortals.
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