(The banu is a book named for the god of the universe, and it is the most holy book of the old mythology. It consists of stories, thoughts from scholars, and prayers. This page will be updated as more is written.)
The banu is the book most holy, the word of the great deities themselves, the most truthful history of our people.
It is a reflection on our beliefs, a story of magic.
kubassa so
be’barita
sise
In the beginning…
The universe was whole and logical. Forces of everything and nothing lived together. God’s were everywhere, and yet there were only two all encompassing forces- the universe, banu, and the antiverse, bi, and In celebration of the order, the gods sculpted the earth. On the earth they put animals, parts of themselves, happy and logical creatures. But one god, a part of bi, was not happy. He felt jealous of the new creatures. So he created a tortured creature on the earth. He did it in mockery of the other gods.
When banu found out that bi’, had done this, he was furious. The order and logic of the universe had split, and the earth was no longer perfect. So, banu put bi’ in an eternal sleep, and hid him in the sky. Then, knowing he could not destroy the humans altogether, since they were created by a god, he split himself into multiple deities to protect the humans when they needed it.
ti’lohi’ 1:1
ti’lohibasise
The prayer of creation is a prayer that is done annually, at ti’loberobabanu. It is done by just one member of each family, and led by the top mages. It is meant to bring people back to the time the universe was made, and how banu split itself and lost the beautiful logic for the sake of the humans. It helps humans of rita understand their tortured state.
“You split for us. You changed for us. You killed your beautiful logic for us. Please do not leave us. Please help us, in our tortured state.”
This is a group prayer. A group gets on the floor in a line, and a wave is passed thru each body, in a row. The wave starts at the back.
lu’nbapa’datuje 1:1
si’sebul
Humans are the most illogical and tortured creature- that is a fact. We must accept that we are easily misled, devoted to unimportant things, obsessed with unnecessary violence, and unable to comprehend the meaning of the universe.
We must also understand the we are curious and creative, and capable of our own magic, all gifts from the deities. We are capable of love, which is the ultimate happiness.
We must understand that illogical does not mean evil. It does not mean unhappy, though it often leads to it. But we will never be above animals, who we must understand to be pieces of deities.
An understanding of the facts of the universe should be the goal of all humans, since it is something we are not born with. If we do not understand these facts, we will be misled and lost. Our journey will become rocky, and when we are at crossroads, we will most always go the wrong way. We can only be fulfilled by understanding human limitation, not trying to surpass it.
Trust the gods and trust the animals, for they are the way to a clear journey.
be’sise banuss tujebassi'gbanusse
The deities split from banu and made their own path, becoming separate personalities. The deities were:
tujejjago: the goddess that controls extreme emotions, like anger, fear, love, or embarrassment. Prayed to for guidance.
be’: the goddess of creation and creativity, mankind's greatest strength and worst weakness.
hi’: the god of magic. He gave humans magic, and split rita eventually.
rilabe: the god of circles and time.
kiko: the godess of dogs. Dogs were put on earth to protect man.
bejam: the god of darkness and night, the most peaceful time.
tujebassi'g: the god of animals. He gave the animals and nature magic and taught them the magic tongue.
These gods ruled over the humans and animals of earth. Eventually most humans started to think they were above animals, and used their magic, a gift from the gods, to show it. hi’ was devastated and, knowing he could not destroy earth, tried something else. He gathered all the ku’, the magical energy, and used it to build a new land above the earth. Doing this made most humans forget about before and start anew. One man, however, did not. A mage, known as rita, tried to gather the humans for years. He did not think they were above the animals and creatures of the earth, and never forgot the ways of the gods and the right path of magic. As a reward, rilabe, in a dream, charged him with leading the first wave of humans, the last good humans, to the magical land. He woke up and gathered his scholars, the last people he trusted, and prayed, the first Great Prayer.
And Rita was born, and everything with it, from pure ku’.
And out came species and animals and objects that were always really there, but never revealed. And the gods were once again happy, though there would never be pure ssi’g, or beautiful logic.
hi'babatujejjagobasise
banu had banned love and marriage among his deities, thinking it to be too human, and too distracting from their duties.
But among the deities, love was never forgotten. They were made to protect humans, and had gained human traits and emotion, had lost a piece of their ssi’g.
One day, kiko, the goddess of dogs and friendliness walked thru a jjagossahi’, a holy spot. She had just created the dog, an animal to protect and love human beings, and she was resting. In the corner of a tree she saw tujebebassi’g, protector of animals and nature. They had met before, but never alone.
She walked over and said hello. She found that he was incredibly friendly and loved animals as much as she did. They talked for a while, but they both had other work to do and went off.
Kiko continued to do her duties as the protector of dogs, but something kept pulling her back to that same jjagossahi’. Eventually she made it to the same spot as before, and she once again saw tujebassi’g, She felt a rush of excitement. She forgot about her duties, and her role as a goddess, and stayed in that spot, admiring tujebassi’g. Time went by. Eventually she remembered her work and, embarrassed, went off.
For weeks, she went on with her work, but tujebassi’g was still on her mind, and she made trips to the jjagossahi’. A deity had never fallen in love or married before- that was an act for humans, and in her mind, it was too distracting for a deity to do. Eventually, she went to her friend tujejjago, goddess of love and emotion, for help.
She told him she loved tujebassi’g, and wanted to be with him, but she was scared of what banu wouuld think.
tujejjago listened to her story, and knew it would be a challenge to put them together. However, tujejjago felt sympathy for kiko, and they decided on a plan.
A week later, tujebassi’g was in the jjagossahi’ once again, walking and admiring the nature, when a small puppy came up to him, panting. tujebassi’g saw that the puppy was dragging a broken leg and he felt sorrow for the dog. He picked the dog up and carried it to his him in the forest, where he healed it’s leg. Since the dog was so friendly, he decided to keep it as a pet. He set it down and went to bed.
When the sun rose, tujebassi’g woke and looked for the dog he had found, but it was not there. He went outside and was happy, yet confused, to find the goddess kiko, bathing in a lake and waiting for him. She immediately explained.
And so it went for fifty years: kiko would be companion to her lover in dog form during the day to not let the other deities notice her beside tujebassi’g, and live with him throughout the night. They were careful not to let any mark of their love behind: no children, no gifts.
Until the day that tujebassi’g, still in love with kiko, could not stand this arrangement anymore. He went with kiko to banu to plead with him. They promised they would not get distracted from their work, and to never argue with eachother, and banu saw how happy they were and sympathized. So he allowed them to be together and marry, and allowed all deities to do the same.
The two lovers married in the forest where they first saw eachother.
kiko and tujebassi’g had several children together, to help them rule over nature and animals.
ssuro- god and protector of flowers and wheat
siru- goddess of insects
pa’- goddess of trees, seasons
pe’- god of fruit
lu’n- goddess of rivers, waterfalls, oceans
lu’nbapa’datuje 1:2
ssasabul
banu understood love to be an act of humans, a simple distraction, a worthless thing. It was kiko and tujebassi’g, with support from tujejjago, who showed him otherwise. For both humans and gods, love is the ultimate happiness. For creatures with ordinarly no fulfillment in our lives, love can provide it.
In the beginning, there were two clear forces: banu and bi’. The opposite of eachother, the creators of everything. But we know understand there to be a third, less clear and yet the most important. Love is the only thing that has the power to fulfill humans, bring gods together, and change people the way it does. Love is the supports on a bridge, the one truth we are born with. tujejjago, therefore, is the most powerful god, not for her physical power but for her control of the most powerful force in the universe.
tujebassi'gbanuso
The lift on the ban on love spawned a new breed of deities.
The adventurous travel god ti’lobero fell for beautiful pa’, goddess of the seasons. He stopped her while pa’ was walking down a road. They became friends, and fell in love. Theirs was the second marriage of deities, and the second one in a forest, starting a tradition.They had three children:
mi’- the god of truth, debate, and crossroads. Prayed to before big decisions are made, or you are stuck.
bebass- the goddess of snow
kubass- the god of fire, heat, the sun, summer
bebass, the goddess of snow, and lu’n, the goddess of water, met at a family gathering and fell in love. They married on a beach on jjagomi’, disguised as humans. They married and had just two children:
re’- the god of rain
kike’- the goddess of islands and water creatures
ti’lohi’ 1:2
ti’lohi’bahi'babatujejjago
This prayer is done primarily before weddings. It is to the goddess tujejjago, with respect to the children of the original lovers.
“tujejjago, let this love fulfill me. Help me never stray away from it. Help me be always happy with my lover. Let my love be true, a rope between me and my lover. Guide me on my new journey.”
The words must be said while bowing three times in front of a flower or fruit.
ritabengi
After the first wave of people in the land that came to be called rita, the land slowly developed. A culture was developed that was unique to rita.
Scholars quested to understand magic, in the typical human form. Cities and villages were built to house the people.
After rita, the founder, passed into the heavens, there was a lack of power. rita was meant to be the home of magic, and the land of good people, understanding and the gods. However, the humans on rita became greedy once again. They forgot the most important values of understanding, love, trust, and faith, and quested to take over the land and gain wealth. Scholars had lower influence, and mages were seen as wasting their time. Wars, which were before looked down on, broke out around the land. Walls were built, blocking whole communities off.
Instead of being a united community, the whole land broke into civil war. People claimed new land and refused to let others in. Several people declared themselves the heirs of rita, of which he had none.
hi’ looked down and thought of himself as a failure. But mi’, the god of truth and decisions, came to his aid and they realized together that rita needed leadership. They would need someone on the outside. They got a leader from earth.
pusso
On earth, the first plane, life had gone on as it had before, though without the direct help from the gods. On a small kingdom, in an island to the east, prince pusso the great ruled, as his father was ill and unfit to make decisions. His people were happy. He led them with the great values.
But he was not fulfilled. He saw the tragedies of earth and was desperate to leave it.
hi’ and mi’ saw this man and thought he was perfect. They came to him in a dream and explained their forgotten history. They told him his duty. They told him the true gods would be with him the whole time. pusso awoke and knew what he must do.
pusso climbed to the top of his tower. He told his people gathered below the promise of a new land, a land without tragedy. He looked up to the stars and prayed, the second Great Prayer. and he and his people disappeared into the night.
lu’nbapa’datuje 1:3
si’sebul
The deities knew now that rita was not a perfect land. The road to a perfect land is good leadership. Even the most perfect people, without good leadership. can forget their ways and turn greedy at any moment.
Perfection is a long ladder. It takes time and energy to climb it, and almost nothing to fall.
A land with humans on it may rot, and the only way to stop it is to understand that possibility. Every new generation has that capacity- good teaching and good choices helps, but bad leadership can let it go to nothing.
pusso ti’losise
prince pusso and his followers found themselves in a castle, surrounded by gifts: a table, glazed with a metal they didn’t recognize, the best food, prepared by po’le, the greatest chef, three large dogs, and a fully furnished castle. It seemed to be daytime. Curious, they explored. The architecture they didn’t recognize, but pusso immediately felt at home with. The castle was full with beautiful rooms.
pusso felt as if he had returned to a childhood home. Everything there felt so right.
They spoke to eachother, in the tongue of their small homeland.
pusso chose three of his smartest friends as his advisors, ten of his bravest to be his warriors, in case of danger, and the rest to spread out in the land.
pusso and his followers were in a town, which they named after the prince. The people built houses as they had done in their homeland on earth, but kept the castle as it was, on the far edge of the town. For years the stayed their.
But there came a time when there was no room left in the town, and they had to explore. So pusso declared that the people must explore the rest of the land, which they were uncertain of. And he declared that Hoch, their bravest adventurer on earth, must lead the exploration.
So Hoch and his crew set off to find new lands.
bengi
After exploring for miles, with carriages and tents following, Hoch came across a desert land. On that land, buried in the sand, were arrowheads, stained with blood, and pieces of swords in a design