Categories > Books > Silmarillion
The Book of Ae
0 reviewsHere it is: the guide book to the World Tree Multiverse. Explanations on the background and the larger scene. WARNING: There will be varying digrees of spoilers for the series. I won't give away th...
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Disclaimer: I'm borrowing most of this from Tolkien and the rest from Robert Jordan,Norse and Hindu cosmology, and inspired (kind of) by the Book of Genesis.
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Creation:
In the Beginning, there was nothing but the Void. Then, the Creator, who is called Eru and Iluvatar and other names, fashioned a wonderful Tree amid the nothingness, a Tree whose leaves held every star in the sky and whose roots clung to the back of a giant Turtle. He called the Tree Ae, The World That is, and the Turtle, Dor Fir-i-Guinar, The Land of the Dead that Live. From the tree's limbs hung nine worlds, similar but each unique. Together, they are Arda, The Mortal Worlds. In the tree's highest bows lived nine gods trusted to watch over Creation; these were the Valar, The Powers That Be, and the Creator made a place for them, called Valinor. Among the Tree's roots, on the turtle's back, the souls of the dead were gathered until it was time to return to the worlds in the next Age. This is why the Turtle was named Dor Fir-i-Guinar. For the Creator hung a great Wheel with seven spokes above the Tree, the Wheel of Time, and set it to spin a great Pattern using the all He had made as its threads, over countless millennia, and each spoke would represent one Age in the Pattern. In each Age, the souls of the dead would return from their resting place upon the Turtle's back and would be reborn, remembering little of their previous lives, but again taking part in the history of their world, until the Seventh Age, when all the worlds would end. What will happen then, no one knows, save perhaps the Valar. Then, the Creator stood back to watch His work unfold.
One of the gods, however, was not content with watching the Pattern unfold. The greatest gifts of power and knowledge had been gifted to him, and he desired to bring forth things new and unthought of, even by the Creator, and to be master of all things. Melkor, he called himself, He Who Arises in Might. Now, the Creator had made many other spirits, not mortal, who also resided in Valinor, serving the Valar; Maiar, they are called. Melkor gathered a great host of these spirits onto himself and, when he dreamed his force strong enough, assailed the Wheel, seeking to claim it for his own. But the other eight rose against him and beat him back, and they cast him out. But Melkor, whom the others named Morgoth-the Dark Enemy, promised he would return at the end of the Age, at the end of every Age, until all Ae was his.
The Creator then brought forth a new god to take Morgoth's place amongst those who stayed true and He promised the remaining gods that each time evil arose in any world, either from Morgoth or from the vices of mortal life, there would come forth heroes and a Champion, to combat it and restore the balance between law and chaos.
And so, for three Ages, the gods watched over the worlds, and saw the battle of Good and Evil rage. Now, Fourth Age Draws to a close, and Evil rises again in the worlds, as Morgoth prepares his next attack.
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Care to take a look?
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Creation:
In the Beginning, there was nothing but the Void. Then, the Creator, who is called Eru and Iluvatar and other names, fashioned a wonderful Tree amid the nothingness, a Tree whose leaves held every star in the sky and whose roots clung to the back of a giant Turtle. He called the Tree Ae, The World That is, and the Turtle, Dor Fir-i-Guinar, The Land of the Dead that Live. From the tree's limbs hung nine worlds, similar but each unique. Together, they are Arda, The Mortal Worlds. In the tree's highest bows lived nine gods trusted to watch over Creation; these were the Valar, The Powers That Be, and the Creator made a place for them, called Valinor. Among the Tree's roots, on the turtle's back, the souls of the dead were gathered until it was time to return to the worlds in the next Age. This is why the Turtle was named Dor Fir-i-Guinar. For the Creator hung a great Wheel with seven spokes above the Tree, the Wheel of Time, and set it to spin a great Pattern using the all He had made as its threads, over countless millennia, and each spoke would represent one Age in the Pattern. In each Age, the souls of the dead would return from their resting place upon the Turtle's back and would be reborn, remembering little of their previous lives, but again taking part in the history of their world, until the Seventh Age, when all the worlds would end. What will happen then, no one knows, save perhaps the Valar. Then, the Creator stood back to watch His work unfold.
One of the gods, however, was not content with watching the Pattern unfold. The greatest gifts of power and knowledge had been gifted to him, and he desired to bring forth things new and unthought of, even by the Creator, and to be master of all things. Melkor, he called himself, He Who Arises in Might. Now, the Creator had made many other spirits, not mortal, who also resided in Valinor, serving the Valar; Maiar, they are called. Melkor gathered a great host of these spirits onto himself and, when he dreamed his force strong enough, assailed the Wheel, seeking to claim it for his own. But the other eight rose against him and beat him back, and they cast him out. But Melkor, whom the others named Morgoth-the Dark Enemy, promised he would return at the end of the Age, at the end of every Age, until all Ae was his.
The Creator then brought forth a new god to take Morgoth's place amongst those who stayed true and He promised the remaining gods that each time evil arose in any world, either from Morgoth or from the vices of mortal life, there would come forth heroes and a Champion, to combat it and restore the balance between law and chaos.
And so, for three Ages, the gods watched over the worlds, and saw the battle of Good and Evil rage. Now, Fourth Age Draws to a close, and Evil rises again in the worlds, as Morgoth prepares his next attack.
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Care to take a look?
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