Hârnview/1st Edition/8
With inevitable variations and prejudice, due to culture and location, the inhabitants of Harn generally share the following common set of metaph,;sical beliefs. The texts here presented are from the 'Libram of the Pantheon" which, in its original form, was compiled from earlier works by Nala-Uroh, a scholar who dwelt in Elkall-Anuz some 600 years ago.
"At the begining was a chaos wherein the layers of reality flowed and merged freely, one with another, and time held to no true path but ran often a new course, oftimes in several directions at once…"
At length, the Lib ram says, there arose what came to be called the "First Gods", who, while they were not gods in the sense we now use the term, were the first powers able to keep their "shapes" despite the chaos about them. They were the first "beings" able to resist the influence of change and are, therefore, sometimes known as the "Immutable Ones" or "Pure Ones". Not so much gods as "principles", they were never fully understood by mortals, and never worshipped, for how could one worship the flow of time, the ordering of the worlds or fate or chance?
"…And the First Gods made war upon each other for dominion of the 'All'. And some say that this [war] restored the chaos that had been and some say that the war and the chaos were one and the same, for time was not then as settled in its habits as now.… And the First [Gods] made the Lesser Gods [whose descendants are now worshiped on Harn] to wage battle for them, but these had less of the power to keep their shapes, and could be broken by force that even they did wield…"
The Libram says that it became apparent that the great primaeval chaos might return unless the conflict ended. Hence the First Ones made a pact and each,
"…stood upon a different part of the chaos and imposed their wills and forms upon it in such a way that some portions would be ruled by one alone, and others by several jointly in varying degree, and one place would be the domain of none of them , and one would be equally the kingdom of all.…"
Thus became possible, and actual, all worlds and universes, and the First Gods were content. See "Kelestia" [hx]. However, the lesser gods had the power of reproduction, and had created more of their kind, and because,
"…they were impure, and corruptible, and did lack the wisdom of their mothers and fathers… there were a myriad of myriads of them and they vied still, one with another, for dominion over all the worlds. And some dwelt in small parts of [single] worlds, and some cast [their] reflections across many worlds… and they made battle upon each other, singly, and in combination with others of their ill< for dominion. And although they were not as great as the First, yet they had the power to destroy the ordering of all… the First Ones did know that, even though they might be moved from where they stood, they could not be broken, and so [they] looked on with interest, 'though not with passion, knowing that if the lesser did destroy the All, it could yet be repaired by them [the First Gods]…"
At this point the Libram describes the millenia of war that followed; all possible things and beings were made and changed as Kelestia violently verged on the extinction of the sapient. With the conclusion of the description, the Libram begins to be written in a variant literary style that has caused some to conclude that more than one author was involved in the later chapters:
"…Therefore, know ye, o daughters and sons of man, that for so long as thy forebears have known aught of their souls and of their very flesh, so have they known of the pantheon. And know ye, o seeker after truth, that e'en so long as thy fathers and mothers have walked among things worldly, have the gods walked with them. And so shall they walk with thee also. Know ye, o thirster after enlightenment, that in other times, [all] the worlds were not so free of storm and trouble, and in a time so far remote that e'en the gods have but dim rememberance thereof, was, for Kelestia, for All that is, a birthing time, the Natal Wars.… And of that birthing, of the settlement of the First Ones into their places, came all the sentient creatures, came the gods, came men and the kindred folk, and came the beasts that hurit the night with swift eyes… And came the fowl, came divers beasts that cleave the sea and breach the heavens, and make their way by leg, by wing, by flapping fin about the world.… in that age was knowledge rightfully deemed the ultimate power and was sought and found, and devoured by all the sapient… and put to ever new divers uses… and man and god knew a myriad of many things and did take and give freely of what they did know…"
The Libram goes on to say that the free sharing of knowledge failed to bring consensus, and that unbrialed knowledge brought dissent, mistrust and violence. Mortals, called on their gods for aid against their fellows, and the gods answered and Kelestia again verge on the brink of oblivion. ~
"…and the worlds were torn, and man and beast and some e'en of the gods did perish, and Kelestia did tremble with the awesome nearness of the end of all things.… And so was made by the sundered pantheon, by the lesser gods who might perish, and enforced by them also, the Ke'lha-Hy-Var-Hyvrak [the Concordat of the Illimitable Tome [hx]]… and so was made the divine law that knowledge should be the gods' burden.… And so did they hide it in divers ways, saying that only such of the lesser [mortal] creatures as were able by their own cunning to discover of it were fit to have knowledge…." The Libram does not explain how any of this was done, but it does say that the gods chose Save-K'nor [hx) from among their number to maintain and guard the Var-Hyvrak, the Concordat [hx] , wherein was to be written the knowledge of god and man against a day, far in the future, when it would be needed. The Concordat also made laws to govern the ways in which the gods could intervene in the affairs of men; these are generally reckoned beyond the capacity of men to know, and this is an "explanation" for the oftimes inexplicable behaviour of the gods.
"…And so came to be the present age… wherein the thinking beings might seek wisdom to govern themselves, and the things they knew and might gain the right to what was lost.… But the division of man and god one against another exists yet. And too continues the struggle betwixt good and evil, but all will keep the Concordat for fear of' the cataclysm that might yet be… and the gods keep, for the most , their laws to preserve the balance.… And they choose vessels fit to hold the shadows of their'-.,_) divinity, and men call these vessels priests and their business religion, and their houses temples… To them [the gods] their due, Praise be…"
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