Life and Humanity

So, children, as we have now learned, devastation and sacrifice made the Earth, Sun and Moon. Following this, there was peace and ease for the gods for many years. The pantheons each moved to their own portions of the Earth, though they did not separate too far from each other. After a time, the gods became bored sitting upon the barren Earth. They began to entertain themselves with acts of creation, and, soon, the Earth was transformed with the creation of plants and animals. The planet became a lush paradise, populated by many living creatures that the gods delighted in observing and interacting with. For a time, all was well upon this new Eden.

Then, after many years, Ra's Sun began to act...strange. For many years now, the Sun had given off its light and energy in steady, constant waves. But now, the Sun began to pulse ever so slightly. The gods thought little of this new development until, one day, the Sun gave off an exceptional pulse of energy that bathed the Earth.

Life on the Earth's surface was devastated.

In an instant, much was burned away and what little life was left soon starved. The gods were heartbroken at the destruction of their creations and, as one, they wept. Their tears ran from their faces to the low places in the Earth and formed the seas and oceans. So great was their sorrow that they did not cease crying until the majority of the Earth was covered in their tears.

With heavy hearts, the gods finally accepted their loss and went about crafting their favorite creations from scratch on what little land remained. But, as they did so, they were surprised to find that something was still alive. None of the gods recognized the creatures and none claimed to have created them.

It was Prometheus, one of Helios's pantheon, gifted with uncommon wisdom and reasoning, who was first to figure out where the creatures had come from. When the flare from the Sun had hit the Earth, most of the energy was expended in burning away the life. But, as Prometheus discovered, some of the energy was absorbed into the Earth itself. The energy had ignited the core of the Earth, and, at the points were the land met the oceans and seas of the gods' tears, new forms of life had been created.

Where water and Earth met below the waves, fish emerged, uniquely adapted to living in this new environment. But, from the points where water met the shore of the Earth, a unique, more complex being came to life. This was the first of humanity.

The gods marveled at this new creation. It was unlike anything they had created before. It looked...like them. Prometheus theorized that the energy from the Sun and the crust of the Earth had come together with the water of their own tears to form these powerful beings who shared the same form as them.

With delight, the gods began to play and experiment with this new creation. And here, children, is a point where I could tell you a million other stories that arise from this period. But, I'm afraid that we do not have much time, so I will save all but one for another day. You now know of the creation of life and humanity, but the one story that I must tell you today involves how humanity was nearly lost.

I will tell you the story of Fire and the Flood.

Author's Note:

I began to realize that, despite how happy I was with the ending of the Moon story, I felt that the story being told by this storybook was just not quite finished. After all, didn't I promise on the home page to discuss life and humanity? In the end, a nagging sense of incompletion drove me back to my keyboard for another caffeine-fueled writing binge (Though thankfully not at 3 in the morning this time). This story of the origins of life and humanity was not super inspired by one particular myth or another. Much like my Chaos story , it is based more on scientific theory or pseudo-scientific ideas than ancient mythology. The core of the Earth and creation of life in the oceans were probably two of the main concepts that I wanted to address while still working the concepts into the overall narrative that I have constructed so far. I hope you enjoyed the way I did so! The only new god who is really mentioned in this story is Prometheus, but I plan on talking more about him in a later story, so I'll save my synopsis of him until that Author's Note. In the end, this story really ended being another sort of introduction for a short section. I hope that you'll take the time to read the next two stories as well! Thanks for reading!

Photo Credits:

Solar Flare

Bibliography:

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