Cosmogony

VII: Heaven’s War with Taiyo and His Marriage to Eleenian

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© Daniel S. Wall, October 4, 2026.

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This is Chapter 8 of the most authoritative account of creation contained in the Stone Philosophic. A full table of contents can be found here.

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One day Eleenian woke to a great clamor. Wondering if her father had returned from one of his many trips to distant places, she stepped outside to find her brother Taiyo grappling with another man high in the sky. Entangled in his enemies fighting chain, Taiyo struck at his foe with his sword, drawing blood not once, nor twice, but three times and Taiyo bore many wounds himself as he prepared to deliver a killing blow against his foe. A great storm raged in the sky about them, and Eleenian saw bolts of lightning strike her brother even as sheets of rain choked and blinded him.

Eleenian cried, “Taiyo, stay your hand!”

Taiyo shouted down to her from way up in the clouds “Why do you meddle, my sister? Should you not aid me in war against this stranger?”

“My brother, you do not fly,” she replied.

At this, Taiyo held his hand.

And still Heaven smote Taiyo with all his might.

“Stranger!” Eleenian called out once more, “Why do you make war upon my brother?”

Heaven looked down to see Eleenian and held his own hand for a brief moment; “In truth, I do not know. I had only come to see the sun as he set it in the sky. Your brother pounced upon me, sword in hand, angry that I would steal a moment of its beauty.”

“Oh dear brother, you must learn to share” Eleenian paused a moment and continued, “Stranger, it is not the sun’s virtue that my brother seeks to protect, but my own. If you will but stay your own hand, I will be your bride, and neither you nor my brother shall have cause to vanquish the other.”

And thus it was done.[1]

***

[1] Of course the rivalry between Taiyo and Heaven continues to this day, their conflicts being the cause of many great storms and terrible winds. Each wars against the other through the kingdoms falling under his dominion. It is commonly supposed that each stops short of killing the other out of respect to Eleenian, but as the Inuli sage, Eserea, has pointed out, there is absolutely no evidence for this supposition. It may well be that both Taiyo and Heaven actually mean to slay one another, and that their plans are thwarted only by the continual efforts of Eleenian herself as she is always working to make peace between them.

 

VII: A Conspiracy of Creation

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© Daniel S. Wall, October 4, 2026.

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This is Chapter 7 of the most authoritative account of creation contained in the Stone Philosophic. A full table of contents can be found here.

***

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Deep within his cave, Gnea Sharn grew jealous of those living under the sun. To no-one he spoke words of anger and resentment.

And no-one answered, “Do you not wish a place in the sun for yourself?”

“Yes,” snarled Gnea.

“Place a stone under the moonlight and it will be done.”

Hval Maluk grew bitter in the north, jealous of his beautiful new siblings at play in warmer waters under the sun.

And he too heard a voice; “Do you not wish to be known to your siblings?”

And the beast howled his assent.

“Spit upon a rock and it will be done.”

Zhidastra too sat alone seething with rage at the very sight of lives well-lived in pleasant places.

“Would you have their children know of yours?”

And the great monstrosity nodded.

“Throw a piece of ice into the distance and it will be done.”

Each of the abominations carried out its appointed task. Climbing to the surface, Gnea Sharn placed the oldest of stones from his cave under the moonlight in the cold lands of the north. Turning to see the rock for himself, Hval Maluk spat upon it, and his saliva soon froze into a block of ice. And then Zhidastra took the rock encased in ice and threw it with all his might.

Born thus of malice and magic, the great comet Hoklan soared up into the distance, but before it could clear the skies, three small shards broke apart from it and fell to the earth.

Seeing the first shard fall to the earth amid the filth of the wastelands, the great tortoise, Ayomichi, tried to catch it. Ayomichi was not quick enough, and the shard fell to the ground, becoming the Goblin King, Bit Nuluk. Born in the knowledge that he and his own would never be welcome among men, Bit Nuluk soon set about the creation of his armies, siring goblin and hobgoblin alike. In time, he would also create the kobalds, carefully instilling in each of his children knowledge of war and impressing upon them a way of life filled with that which they know best.

Seeing the second shard fall toward the mountains Ayomichi climbed as best he could in the hope that he could safely catch the falling piece of rock, but alas the great turtle could not manage the ascent. The shard fell into the mountains and became the Omus Thal, Lord of Giants. Omus looked out upon the world and saw no-one he might call a friend. Retiring to a great cavern, he set about crafting a world to his own liking. In time, he would sire all the kindreds of giants, none of whom would show kindness to man. Omus taught them all to keep to themselves.[1]

Seeing the third shard falling toward the sea, Ayomichi swam quickly to its destination, only to be struck soundly upon his back with a force the likes of which he had never seen. Ayomichi swam to shore and rested along the beach and nursed his wounds. Off his back stepped a full grown man of great nobility and profound courage. He thanked the great turtle and flew up into the sky whereupon he created a great and beautiful storm.[2]

The great comet Hoklan returns every hundredth year to bear witness to the creation of the lesser abominations, and of Heaven himself. Ayomichi’s shell still bears the scar left by the falling of heaven.

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[1] Some scholars have questioned the accuracy of this passage. Sea Giants, for example, get along well with humans and all the fair kindreds of the world, and benign individuals have even been found among the kindreds of Fore Giants and Frost Giants. Attempts have been made to explain this contradiction, but none have proven successful. In view of this, some scholars have suggested that one shouldn’t trust any giants, not even those who trade with men or craft items of use to all. Still, the greatest scholars of the Library Philosophic have been known to wink at the passage, and to suggest that some words are best taken in half measures.

[2] The final stage of this chapter has been the subject of some debate, both as to the intended outcome and effect of Ayomichi’s intervention. In the end, the plan produced two lesser abominations whereas most would suppose it was intended to produce three. The Tierzen have long held that Svezedira himself was to be the third creature formed of the falling shards. Still others have suggested that some still greater beast was to have appeared when the third shard fell to the earth. Among the Hobgoblins, it is often suggested that no such terrible plan was ever in the offing. Indeed, the great Hobgoblin sage Venik Kull held that Heaven appeared, just as he was intended to, just as the Goblin King and just as the God of Giants did. Each of these gods, so Venik maintains, is exactly what it was intended to become. The elves of course regard this as preposterous.

VI: The Wrongening

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© Daniel S. Wall, October 4, 2026.

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This is Chapter 6 of the most authoritative account of creation contained in the Stone Philosophic. A full table of contents can be found here.

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When Mirona next found herself with child, she sent for Eleenian to aid in the birth of her child. She sent word through Hare, but Hare couldn’t find Eleenian, so he asked Raven to take wing and search for her from up high in the skies. Exhausted, Raven returned to ground and asked Coyote to try the desert, but Coyote soon became distracted with a small bird. In the end, he returned with feathers in his mouth and a small cricket in his paws. The cricket tried singing for the Goddess, but this only took away her dreams and filled her with fear. When Raven returned at last to Mirona, he brought only clay. Hare tried to fashion the clay into a baby, but he succeeded only in making a rattle. This too irritated Mirona, and thus her mind became winter. At the first signs of quickening in her womb, Mirona felt strife within her. In the evening, she heard wolves howling in the night, and foxes could be seen hunting about in the morning. By midday, bears and wildcats wandered about Mirona’s home.

Mirona did not give birth to one child, this time; She gave birth to three. Only two of them survived. Effinthistle, Goddess of the Elves made her appearance first, followed soon after by Ogath, Lord of the Orc hordes. It is said that the two of them, brother and sister, smiled upon each other for a brief moment before the birth of their youngest brother.[1] Who he was, and what kindred should have been born with him, nobody will ever know. That child and all its domain was lost to the world in the stillness of its birth, as was any hope of peace between its siblings. To this day, each blames the other for the death of their youngest sibling, and their words soon gave way to blows, and Mirona wept for an age.[2][3]

Ogath called his hordes into being and Effinthistle sang the trees into being along with the elves and so many of their kindred. but Ogath brought fire to kiss the branches of her sylvan fortress. Effinthistle sang the fire back upon the orc hordes, even as Ogath cut down the greatest trees and scorched their seeds.

Exhausted, Mirona finally stopped weeping long enough to beg her youngest children for peace. Neither listened to her.

Hearing a sound just beyond his sight, Ogath chased it all the way into the wastelands whereupon Coyote finally dropped his rattle and slipped away. Seeing her brother with his back turned, Effinthistle readied a great arrow, but Raven threw sparks into the skies and the elven goddess soon turned her attention to the wondrous new stars. For his own part, Hare taught all the gentle creatures of the earth how to hide and to run, and thus to survive the presence of new creatures with which they now had to share the world.

And finally, there was peace.

When winter finally gave rise to spring, Mirona gave her blessings to all the new creatures of the world.

Rabbit Sage took note of all of this from his home upon the moon.

Nobody ever learned where Eleenian had been, but her apologies were met with forgiveness and love.[4]

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[1] A minor sect among the Łigen holds that the stillborn child of Mirona was neither male nor female, being neither or both. They maintain its legacy is carried in their own kindred, and in the lives of all who escape the logic of two genders. Most Łigen deny this of course, and few outside their circles doubt that the stillborn child was anything but a male, or that its nature was lost in the stillness of its birth.

[2] Few scholars would doubt that the death of the stillborn child was the work of the orc lord. Still, the wretched creatures of the Stone Philosophic put the cause of his death on Effinthistle. The greatest crime in all of history, so their shamans will tell you, was in fact carried out by the fairest of kindreds, and blamed on the children of the wastelands. True evil, so the orcs and goblins will tell us, lies not in their own filthy homes, but deep in the most beautiful forests of the world.

[3] It is of course a forgone conclusion that many of the worlds creatures did not survive this long winter. One can of course find the bones of great creatures buried deep in the soil  of the Stone Philosophic. What they were and how they lived, we will never know.

[4] The Preisthood of Eleenian commonly suggests that Eleenian was lost in prayer throughout this chapter or the creation narratives. What it would mean for a goddess to pray is of course an interesting question, one asked of Eleenian perhaps more than most deities. Indeed, few of the other gods have ever been thought to pray, but Eleenian is often supposed to engage in prayer, or something like it. Critics of the cult of Eleenian are prone to suggest that the prayers of Eleenian are actually some truly malevolent form of magic. They will commonly point to her prolonged absence during this fretful chapter of creation for evidence of this supposition.

IV: The Coming of Mirona

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© Daniel S. Wall, September 17, 2026.

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This is Chapter 4 of the most authoritative account of creation contained in the Stone Philosophic. A full table of contents can be found here.

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Once again, the great dragon heard a voice, but this time it was different, its tone soft and warm. “You are doing it wrong, my love,” said the voice, and Hetht turned to see the goddess Mirona, standing in all the glory of her first spring. “You must not give birth to your own progeny.”

“Are you a man,” asked Hetht.

“No, darling.” She laughed.

And thus the two were wed.[1]

In the early days of their union, Mirona proved a blessing to all the world. It was her smile that produced the flowers and the trees. It was her caress that gave birth to the deer and the rabbit. It is through the love of Mirona that all the gentle creatures known to men and elves first came into being.

But Mirona’s love waned, and in time she grew cold. Snow covered the land, and the green grasses withered. The world grew dark and Hetht himself found far corners in which to pass the days well away from the newfound cruelty of his wife. At this Mirona grew still more angry.

“Am I to give birth alone?” She cried.

No-one answered.

“Does no-one love me?”

And no-one answered

“Very well then,” Mirona embraced her despair and the night grew colder. “I will bear a child with which to keep myself company.”

A voice from her womb shouted, “Let me not be born on this day.”

“Will you not keep company with your mother?”

But the voice in her womb called out, “Let me not be born in this darkness!”

“All the world betrays me,” muttered the Goddess of Nature, and she slept in sorrow. And the world slept in sorrow with her.

When she woke, so did a single blade of grass. When Mirona stretched and opened her eyes, the flowers once again bloomed. And when she smiled, the trees once again covered themselves in leaves.

And she prepared herself for birth.

***

[1] The true origins of Mirona have been the source of considerable discord within the scholarly commentary, as one can find no credible account of her own origin. What she too created by Hetht? The implications are disturbing enough, but to most the prospect seems quite implausible. Few would doubt that Mirona is coequal to Hetht, and so her origins cannot subordinate her in such a manner. So, the question arises, just where did she come from?

If one puts this question to the High Priestess of Mirona, she will almost certainly tell you that Mirona was already present in the nothingness, and that she too is responsible for her own creation. Some would add that, she too is responsible for the creation of the world. Hetht may have spun the Stone Philosophic, but it Mirona who nurtured that movement into growth. A small sect within Mirona’s church also maintains that it was she who fastened Hetht’s claw to a corner of his afterbirth in the first instance. An even smaller sect within the cult of Mirona maintains that it was she who gave birth to Hetht, a claim universally rejected by all credible sources on the topic.

The principle objection to Mirona’s own self-creation lies in the absence of any reference to her until  the first mention of footprints, but as the arch mage, Sea Amar, once wrote; it is not surprising that men would be slow to recognize the contributions of a woman. This, she tells us, is exactly the point of the footprints, a clear indication of the blindness that Hetht and his priests to the presence to the significance of a woman.

Sea Amar is of course far too harsh!

III: Birth of the Abominations

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© Daniel S. Wall, September 17, 2026.

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This is Chapter 3 of the most authoritative account of creation contained in the Stone Philosophic. A full table of contents can be found here.

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Before laying down once again, Hetht spoke to the voice in his head; “Will you not allow me some rest?”

“I will let you sleep” came his reply. And this time the old dragon slept soundly, awakening to find a mysterious set of footprints leading off to the south, and a fly buzzing about his face.

“Who made these?”

“I do not know,” said the fly, “But I think it was a man.”

Hetht did not know the meaning of “Man.” So, he decided to make another that he might look upon the next in order to know more about the first, but the fly needled him.

“How will you make the second if you do not know the first?”

Hetht paused.

“Perhaps you may find a man in the east, said the fly.” But Hetht found no-one to the east. “Is it possible that she waits for you in the north?” But in the north there was no-one to be found. “Try the west!” said the fly, and once again the great dragon found no-one. The fly made one last suggestion; “Perhaps, you should look to the south.”

When he arrived in the south, Hetht found three great aberrations had taken form in the middle of the world. First, he beheld the great troll, Gnea Sharn. Next came the terrible beast, Hval Maluk, and finally he came upon the abomination, Zhidastra. Each rose out of the soil to greet its father, but Hetht grew angry and chased them all away. Hval Maluk swam to the north and Zhidastra ran to the south. For his own part, Gnea Sharn hid in a cave not far from his place of origin.

Seeing that the fly (now grown to a swarm) had deceived him, Hetht swatted at it with his tail, but the swarm disappeared through a hole in the ground. Still angry, Hetht breathed deep into the hole in the ground, igniting the depths below. Four times, did Hetht  scorch the underworld, and four times he then listened to the sound of the flames below, and four times he also heard the buzzing of insects.

Regaining his composure, the great dragon pronounced his judgment; the swarm would henceforth be safe so long as it remained underground. Upon the surface, his life and that of his descendants would be taken at will. So did the dragon speak, and so it was. To this day, Mezizra rules the underworld, and insects may be slain without guilt wherever they are found.

Cosmogony

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The best account of creation can be found in the Library Philosophic, complete with commentaries from a number of credible sources. Below is a list of the individual chapters in this story along with a brief summary of its content.

I: Out of Nothing. Being an account of the creation of The Stone Philosophic by the God, Hetht.

II: Creation of the Waters and the Wastelands. Being an account of the creation of the oceans, the wastelands, and of the gods, Ayomichi and The Shark King.

III: Birth of the Abominations. Being an account of the quest to find a man along with the accidental creation of the gods, Gnea Sharn, Hval Maluk, and Zhidastra. The story ends with Mezizra banished to the depths and the lighting of the fires below.

IV: The coming of Mirona. Being an account of the appearance of Mirona, the first marriage, the creation of herbivores, and the origin of the seasons.

V: The Origin of the sun and the Moon, Being an account of the birth of Bivishta, Eleenian, Iñacha, Kotoya, Lady Spider, Osun, and Taiyo.

VI: The Wrongening. Being an account of the appearance of the tricksters, Coyote, Hare, and Raven as well as the birth of Ogath Skull-Gritter and Effenthistle Shirdisk’neen. Also, this passage contains the first mention of Rabbit Sage.

VII: A Conspiracy of Creation: being an account of the origin of Bit Nuluk and the goblin kindreds, as well as Omus Thal, and Heaven by means of deception.

VIII: Heaven’s War with Taiyo and His Marriage to Eleenian. Being an account of the war between Heaven and Taiyo and the marriage of Heaven to Eleenian.

I: Out of Nothing

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© Daniel S. Wall, September 15, 2026.

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This is Chapter 1 of the most authoritative account of creation contained in the Stone Philosophic. A full table of contents can be found here.

***

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In the beginning there was nothing, not even Hetht, a fact which displeased him to no end. And so the great dragon brought himself into existence. There is little reason to believe that he meant to create the rest of the world, but of course accidents do happen, and something else soon followed the self-creation of Hetht. All things in this world have their origins in this something else, the afterbirth of the first Dragon.[1]

No sooner had he brought himself into this world than the great dragon flew to the east, but his claw caught a corner of his afterbirth and stretched it right along beneath him. For eight days and untold miles the great dragon flew to the east. Finding nothing of interest, he turned to the South, still dragging a corner of his afterbirth along with him. Sixteen days did the great dragon fly to the south, but he found nothing to keep him occupied. So, Hetht turned and flew west for thirty two days before changing course. Finally, Hetht flew to the North for sixty four days, the formless mass still caught in his claw. [2]

Wondering at the effort it now took to fly, Hetht looked beneath his feet and finally saw the great stretch of ill-formed mass now grown large and spinning slowly beneath him. Tired of dragging so much weight along with him, Hetht finally shook the mass from his claw, yawned a bot and stretched his wings one after another, until he resolved to shed the feeling of exhaustion that had come over him. So, Hetht laid down upon the center of the mass beneath. His sleep was fitful, and Hetht tossed and turned for ages, kicking up mountains and digging out great impressions in the mass below his body.

Thus did the world begin to take its present shape, even as it slowly hardened beneath of the fitful dragon sleeping on top of it.

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[1] The dvergr sage, Horst Gverdigen, objects to this passage, arguing that the world could not possibly be the afterbirth of a dragon as of course any real dragon would have issued from an egg. Gverdigen does not object to the notion that this world is secondary to the self-creation of Hetht, but he does reject the specific notion that the world began as a sort of placenta.

The hrega sorceresss, Tiannon Shigire, has provided what most consider to be best answer to this argument when she noted 3 things, 1) that Horst Gverdigen is known to have disappeared fully a hundred years before one might expect a Dvergr to die of old age, and no-one alive today can rule out divine retribution, 2) it is in fact an article of faith among the priesthood of Hetht that he is the sole dragon to have been born rather than hatched, and 3) the next phase of creation is far easier to reconcile with the qualities of soft and malleable placenta than those of a hard and brittle egg,

The Cult of the Broken Shell has long argued that Hetht was indeed hatched and this world has an entirely different origin, but this is best regarded as a minor heresy of little concern to serious scholarship.

[2] A wise man would note that the direction of movement in the first stage of creation matches that of benign winds and whirlpools. This is not a coincidence. All right-thinking winds and currents follow the pattern of creation by turning from east toward the south. Following the pattern later established by Mizizra, a corrupt wind reveals its nature by turning from east to north.

The pattern of movement described herein is of course the basis for the common terms used to describe the direction of spinning movement. Those turning from east to south are commonly said to be turning creatively whereas those turning from east to north are said to be spinning destructively.