The Game Commences

So Pickle had done a right number of Sa and Fa alright. Back and forth they went for thousands, tens of thousands of years with over ten great human empires rising and falling during the course of it all. The fifth empire was the biggest and conquored all of the other worlds in creation, putting the Sopensen, Abysmal, Simsaur, Middle Folk and all others under their heel.

Needless to say Pickle's siblings were not happy. They began to complain, but quietly at first, respectfully. Fa didn't listen so much but Sa listened patiently to their cries and began to work up a destiny for their children as well. And for a while that worked, but Pickle was wiley and it was humans that kept coming out on top. It was Pickle's era after all and he had right of way. He was the one that had the power, that was what had worked for the others, and now he had his day in the sun.

And what a long day it was, but eventually even gods get tired of their games. By now, all of the prophesies had been fulfilled, and the old ones didn't really work any more. So many heroes and dark lords had risen and fallen that it just bored Fa and Sa, though Pickle tried many times to get them to rediscover their interest, it couldn't hold forever.

So eventually they decided they were going to put the game away, that prophesy and destiny wouldn't apply any more and that they'd retire for a while and let things run themselves. And Sa and Fa's other children grinned with anticipation. Oh there was going to be payback alright. A whole lot of payback.

And so the final wrap up of prophesy and destiny began, with Fa and Sa wanting to tie everything together in one great big bow with a nice ending. There was only one slight complication to their plans.

It is very very hard to kill a god. The Hila Monster was still out there, not quite dead, lingering around creation like a leech that sucked life rather than gave it. And she meant to destroy all of creation. And she had idea how to do it too.

But Ob wasn't dead either. And he had watched with great sadness at the games his mother and father played. He tried to stop them, but he was so weak, they couldn't hear. No he only had just enough power to give humanity a tiny chance at free will. A long shot in the dark at best.

And so begins our story.

Sa and Fa Come to an Agreement

Sa would write prophesy and Fa would carry it out. Whereas Fa would set what everyone's destiny was meant to be and Sa would carry it out. They were happy and beamed with joy at the prospect at working together yet occasionally confounding each other.

Pickle was merely content that a third great and mighty human empire came and went, lasting several thousand years. Fa and Sa had taken a while to come to their decision whilst more time was passing for humanity. This empire was more glorious than all the rest, having learned some of the secrets of magic from the Simsaur and some of the secrets of science from the Abysmal, though the world collapsed yet again.

And there was darkness in the land.

Sa and Fa get to work

And so a group of heroes arose and put together the first empire. It took a lot of work but they built it to span across three continents. They built roads and buildings and all kinds of neat things. But then there came a prophesy about a child overthrowing the king and restoring the just rule of the people. But neither Fa nor Sa knew whether the prophesy was true. They realized that the rules that they had set up for this thing.

Pickle scratched his head and realized that this was going to be a problem, especially when the First Heroes went nuts and started killing each other to keep the child from being born. Soon enough, they were all dead, and neither Sa nor Fa knew whether or not they should enforce the prophesy.

Pickle suggested that they make a special bloodline the recipients of the true prophesies. He thought that maybe Sa could make the prophesies and Fa could carry them out. Sa wasn't sure what she was supposed to be doing with Destiny whilst all of this was going on, and so they realized that somehow Fa had to decide something about destiny.

While they were trying to figure out what to do, the First Empire fell down around their ears.

A Gift to Fa and Sa

I have decided to go with the Folklore format. I think my principle inspiration for this came from North American Indian mythology which has the feel for what I’m looking for at this point. And so without further adieu…I will start.

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Pickle was a clever fellow. He looked around at his six brothers and sisters and saw that all good things must come to an end. He didn’t want that, and he couldn’t stop it, then he figured he’d make his time last as long as he possible could. So the first thing he did when he popped into the world was sit down and think.

He thought and thought and an entire Turning took place before he finally decided what to do. The mountains had worn a little, and the Sopensen had shifted. They’d long since left the Green world behind, spreading out into their own little tribes, occasionally fighting amongst themselves. That left the whole world wide open for whatever Pickle intended to do.

So Pickle made people. They weren’t as smart as the Abysmal, or as powerful as the Simsaur, or as evil as the Bleyoki or as good as the Sopensen or as humble as the Middle folk. They just were. They were all different from each other, and they began to build villages and make the world their own.

But Pickle was smart, he was. And he knew that as long as things were interesting, Fa and Sa were going to sit up and take notice. So instead of giving his people some kind of power like the others had, he tried to make things interesting for Sa and Fa. He created two ways of looking at the world, trying to make people important.

To Sa he gave the keys to Destiny. She could see all of the things that all of the people were doing at the same time, and by tweaking things just a little, she could make things happen. Occasionally bits and pieces of what Destiny was supposed to be spilled out so people could se it, and if everything happened the way it was supposed to, amazing things happened.

To Fa he gave the keys to Prophesy. He could mainly watch what people were doing from way up high, but he also had a Focus. That Focus could do whatever it took to make a Prophesy come true, but the thing was, that no one except Fa really knew what that Prophesy meant, which meant that it was entertaining to Fa just to see how people would fall all over themselves trying to figure it out.

Pickle gave them both out at the same time, and boy was he right! Fa and Sa took to the game like nothing else that they had seen before. They started caring about People more than they ever had before. Oh, they’d never been callous, but they had let the world take its course. Now they were trying to shape it, and make things happen. But when Destiny and Prophesy started conflicting, weird things started to happen.

Sa and Fa had a mighty fight, arguing like they never had before. But the fight wasn’t all bad, because it was the first fight they’d ever had, and they realized how much they loved each other. So they made a deal. Sa wielded Destiny during the day, and Fa wielded Prophesy during the night. That way they were both happy. And they loved each other more than ever. And they loved Pickle more than any of his other siblings because of it.

And boy did he make his brothers and sisters jealous! But that is another story.

The Seventh Age

I shall be taking a different approach to outlining this era. This isn't like the Iliad or the Odyssey where I want the feel of mythology or epic poetry, but rather the feel of ancient eras and forgotten lore...more like legend (which might seem arbitrary but it doesn't to me.) The key is recording this in a way that I feel captures the idea of what I'm trying to do, with the rise and fall of empires, and the trickiness of the seventh patron of humans, Pickle.

More details to come.

Battle of the Sixth Age

And the Sixth Age did rise the SåpeSønner
Scions of Såpe.
He saw that which had come before
And made the SåpeSønner to renew the world
Fair creatures
Prismatic Hair
Prismatic Irises
Prismatic Skin
All the colors
All the gifts they possessed
The magic of the Simsaur
The science of the Abysmal
The spirit of the Gods
The patience of the Middle Folk
And the might of Bleyok.
They built their cities
On music and crystal
Light and Air
Glorious and Honorable
They slowly began to rebuild the world
To Cleans it of that which had stained it
But the seeds of evil were deep
Planted, so long ago.
There was a great war
In which the SåpeSønner
Led the remaining races against the scions
of Bleyok
Ravenous they were
And mighty and hairy and disgusting
And smelly
They multiplied like rabbits
But each time the mighty SåpeSønner
threw them down.
For a thousand years
The seeds of Bleyok unleashed upon the earth
Stealing the gifts of the SåpeSønner
And turning them dire
But the SåpeSønner triumphed
And at last the world was cleansed of their evil.
And the SåpeSønner looked to the heavens
And went to the other worlds in mighty ships
That sailed the stars.
Leaving almost all of the SåpeSønner.
And time passed.
And they grew to be an idle race
Caught forever in the past
Demanding honorifics from the other races
That they had so gloriously saved
And at first it was given
But as the years passed, they chafed in annoyance
And the Simsaur, and the Abysmal and the Middle Folk
All retreated and hid from the SåpeSønner.
And the Gods howled on the Desert World
Imprisoned there where they could do no more harm.
And the SåpeSønner began to die off
One by one
Until there were only a few left
There was the occasional renewal
A brief flurry of glory and hope
But by the end of the sixth age
The world was ready for something new.

Darkness of the Fifth Age

And Bleyok came to Power
And the Four before him wept
For in their slumbering power
They saw darkness
And Sa and Fa recalled the echoes of Hil
And very nearly destroyed the world
But their loneliness was great
And their perspective wide
And they knew that this too would pass.

And on the first turning of the fifth age
War plagued the land once again
The beaver folk hid
The Abysmal retreated
The Simsaur were nearly driven to extinction
The gods snuffed out one by one
All life was nearly made extinct
And only when Bleyok
Saw that all his toys
Would go away
Should he slay them all
Did he stay his hand

And on the second turning
He took the free will
Of every living thing
Forcing them into acts
Of dire depravity
Whilst their imprisoned minds
Were forced to watch and live and live again
For six hundred hundred years
The world itself cried out in pain
Until only madness ruled.

And on the third turning
Bleyok saw that his time
Was drawing to an end
And he sneered with fury
And frustration
Leaving darkened seeds
Of evil scattered about the land
Corrupting all he could corrupt
Blighting the sky itself
In his final act of fury
He unleashed an attack
Upon Sa and Fa
Only to be locked in a cage.
Sa and Fa
Has seen this coming
Far in advance.
There would not be another Hil.