Kai'us Creation Myth: Cosmology

This is Part 1 of a series that I'll be posting installments of once a week this month.
Hop over here for the introduction to all this.

Before we begin, I thought I'd give a brief explanation on Kai'us storytelling methods as these tales aren't going to be presented in way a Kai'us would be familiar with.  Storytelling in Kai'us society is a call-and-response, group participation type deal.  There's lots of back and forth that would be tiring to a non-Kai'us audience.  A big thing I'm leaving out is the vocab lesson: "And the male being called the female being, 'Wife'.  And the female being called the male being, 'Husband'.  And they called the two new beings 'Children'; the male they called 'Son', the female they called 'Daughter'." And so on.  Maybe someday I'll put together a version that's closer to the Kai'us style of storytelling, but this version will be easier for humans to read.

As with any Old Tales, a lot about the originating culture can be gleaned from how they believe their world was created, so though I'd love to fill in cultural backstory, I think I'll just let the story speak for itself.

*  *  *

The Kai'us Creation Myth: Part 1

Before there was anything, there existed nothing but The Void.  From The Void emerged two beings; one male, one female.  They could not see each other for all was still in darkness; nor could they communicate with one another as language had not yet come into being.  Despite this, each knew of the other's presence and they were intrigued by the other being they co-existed with.

For a very long time the two existed like this and they became increasingly interested in knowing more about the other.  Words filled the male's heart that he wished to express, but he had no way to arrange those words coherently.  The female was filled with song, but she too could not bring it forth in any way that had meaning.

An idea came upon the male, and using his own powers he formed thousands of small stones, one for each word that lived within him.  These he presented to the female as a gift.  Intrigued by the gift, she touched the stones each in turn and the music that lived within her filled each stone with light.  The lighting of the stones was her gift to him.  These stones became the stars and the two arranged them in a way that was pleasing to them.

In the soft light of the stars the First Two could at last behold each other and they fell deeply in love.  They joined together and the two became one.  In this union they return for a brief moment to the blissful nothingness of The Void.  The words of the male joined with the music of the female and language came into being from their joining. 

When the joined pair separated, two new beings emerged from The Void with them; another male and another female.  The First Two were thrilled with their new children and they taught them the language that had been created from their joining.

The four beings existed happily for a long time, but after a while the Husband and Wife wished again to experience the oneness of The Void and so they joined together again; and again another new male and another new female emerged with them.  This time poetry came into being, which the Parents taught to their four children and the six beings were all happy together.

Once last time The First Two joined together and another son and another daughter came into being.  Lastly came song which was also shared among all of them.  Now they were eight and the Husband and Wife were content.

Through the First Two, six new beings had come into existence as well as language, poetry and song.  Now they felt it was time for their children to express their own abilities and so they embarked on a great undertaking.

The Father formed a Great Disc of rock and soil.  From this act he became known as the God of Creation.  The Mother touched the Disc and it turned green, full of life and water.  This made her the Goddess of Life.

However the light of the stars was not enough to sustain the new world.  Seeing that the world needed both greater light and warmth, the Oldest Daughter formed a great ball of fire and held it over the world.  In doing so she became the Goddess of Fire and the ball of fire became known as the Sun.

Holding the sun in one place over the world however posed several problems: the parts directly under the sun became too hot and scorched while the parts farther away cooled too much and withered.  Plus it was very tiring for her to hold the sun up over the world.

He twin brother had great compassion for her plight and so he took a great deal of water from the world and placed it above it, resting it on the mountains at the edge of the world.  This formed the Sky, making him the God of Water.

Now his sister could place the ball of fire in the sky and float the sun across it, thus providing light and warmth to the whole world evenly.  When the sun reached the other side of the sky it was put out and the world could rest in the cool light of the stars until the Goddess of Fire lit it again the next day.

Now there was balance between Day and Night, but the God of Water had taken too much water from the world and it started to dry up.  If he returned too much of it though, the sky would surely collapse and all the work of his sister and himself would be undone.

Instead the God of Water watched over the world and when he found a part that was too dry, he would poke small holes in the sky, bringing rain to just that place.  In doing so he was able to keep just enough water in the world so that it could continue to grow and flourish.

Now the Goddess of Fire and the God of Water loved each other has purely and as deeply as two siblings can and the separation brought on by their duties caused their hearts to ache for each other.  The Goddess of Fire had to carefully watch the progress of the sun across the sky lest it wander too far in one direction or another, or go too fast or too slow.  And the God of Water had to be ever vigilant over the world below lest too little rain fall where it was needed.  Even at night they could not be together for though the Goddess of Fire did not need to tend the sun, her brother was busy delivering dew to the world to bring just a little more water even when he could not bring rain.

Their parents took pity on their oldest children and gave to them each cloaks made of clouds.  The Second Pair were ecstatic.  Whenever the God of Water brought rain to a part of the world, the brother and sister could cover the sky with their cloaks of clouds.  With the sun covered, the Goddess of Fire did not need to watch it as closely and she could spend some time with her beloved brother, no matter how brief that time may be.

The two could race their guwana (a type of beast of burden) across the sky.  The sound of their running feet was what created the sound of thunder.  When one sibling or the other reined in their beast, the impatient guwana would flick its tail, creating a streak of lightning.

And so the First Pair created the world and gave it life and the Second Pair created the means of sustaining it.

*  *  *

Come back next week for Part 2 to see what the Third and Fourth Pairs end up doing.