The Creation Story
To welcome our new listeners to the world of Gunslinger’s Gateway, we would like to present the creation myth of Harena.
Every world has its birth. Sometimes it is sneezed into existence, and sometimes it’s carried on the back of a large turtle. Ours was born of friction.
This is the Creation Story of Harena.
by Allison Granat
performed by Julian Raab
A great being by the name of Omos the Wanderer was the father of Harena. It began as he sat on the rim of a star and rubbed his hands together in the cold cosmos. A ball of fire came into being; it was warm at first, but as it began to grow larger, the heat became too much. Alish was created and her rage hurt Omos, who began to weep from the pain of his mistake.
Tears fell from his face, crashing down onto the fireball. Hali was created and calmed her fiery sister. With a sigh of relief, Omos exhaled air onto the new world and created Coro.
Omos watched the three jostle around in his hands, arguing about which one was truly in control. Their arguments were always uneven and they could never land on a compromise. Omos decided to place the dust of the cosmos into the world, thus creating Thea. Even ground was created and the four sisters finally found a semblance of peace.
This warmed Omos’ heart, yet he felt his world was still incomplete - that his daughters needed more. Leaving the sisters to govern and create for themselves, Omos ventured out into the cosmos searching for the missing piece of his creation.
Years passed and the four daughters of Omos created vast oceans, towering mountains, raging volcanoes, and billowing clouds. It was peaceful, but lonely without their father’s presence. A millenia passed, and the four retreated into themselves leaving nature to run wild and free. Darkness laid heavy over the world.
When all seemed lost, Omos returned cheery for he had a gift for his daughters. His eyes beamed casting forth a blinding light. Light engulfed the world as Omos presented a small woman of brilliant rays. She stepped forth bringing life and light to the world.
Elior was Omos’ proudest creation and as she graced across her father and sisters’ world, animals and flowers grew. Leaves bound together and kissed were birds, rocks soaked in water were toads, and so on until Harena was full of energy and life.
The four were jealous of their new sister and how their father had taken time in crafting her into being. But as they watched on and as she came to them for advice, Elior began to bring her sisters together. Seeing peace being achieved, Omos went back to wander.
During this time, the five sisters lived in harmony. Elior, however, grew withdrawn after a while. Noticing their sister’s heavy heart, the others offered their ears as Elior wove the tale of her birth. The four were upset to hear that their beloved father had gone out and pillaged other worlds, taking the very best of each and bringing them together to create Elior.
As he sat at the edge of the cosmos, he looked at all the components he had obtained from his conquests and battles. None made sense, and in a fit of frustration he crushed them all in his hands. This ignited a spark in him, and in a blink, Light stood before him. She was weak and sad since in her she carried the burden of all that was lost in order for her to be.
With this knowledge, the sisters united to create a just and balanced life where everything coexisted perfectly as a penance for their father’s ways. They vowed to never let their father take control, destroy, or abandon another home ever again - starting with Harena. Darkness would never enter their world again.
Omos returned to his daughters after spanning the universe for gifts and noticed he could no longer enter his home. Harena was dense with forests and animals, steam filled the skies and volcanoes erupted freely. He felt that his daughters' powers would soon grow out of hand, as he saw happen on other worlds, and that they would collapse in on each other. Omos begged for the five to stop creating, otherwise it would mean their end. In order for light and life to exist, there must be a balance of darkness and destruction. The five scoffed at how cruel their father thought and argued that they would always live on.
To teach his daughters that sacrifices aren’t always evil, and how many he had to make for them to exist, he took a piece of his flesh and mixed it with dust from the cosmos. He breathed life into the first beings and placed them on Harena.
If the five could keep the beings alive without strife or struggle, Omos would wander back to the end of the cosmos and fall into the Great Beyond, leaving them to create and rule as they pleased. The deal was struck and the daughters nurtured all beings together. It wasn’t long until the burden of life grew too much for the five.
The stress drove a wedge between them as they began bickering over how to deal with famine, war, plagues, and sickness. They argued, bringing storms and earthquakes. Their own desires began to trump the life of the beings, and thus the first death came.
Elior was distraught and isolated herself in the sky, creating darkness. Creatures and monsters began to spill out of the earth, and the beings began to live in fear and misfortune. Some turned to their mothers, others to Omos, pleading for salvation from the evil and darkness.
As they chose sides, beings began to alter and take on traits of their chosen family. New races began to emerge and differences sparked fights. Omos began to worry for his flesh and the path they were on.
With a heavy heart, he descended to Harena with a mission to destroy each of his daughters so that the beings could live without fear of total extermination. His followers, Seers of the Last Dusk, rose up and together they fought the Five Sisters. Elior was banished to the sky for eternity and was forced to watch her sisters battle with their father. She was trapped and could not intervene.
It wasn’t long before Omos crushed each of his daughters in war, and turned them into small pebbles in which he placed in his shoes. He collapsed in woe at his actions, but the beings thanked him for his sacrifice. They devoted themselves to Omos and his teachings.
Omos left his people, wandering out into the wastes of his world. Two pebbles in each shoe to remind him of his mistakes and his loves; each step spent mending all that they had destroyed. He vowed to one day reunite the five sisters and his flesh in the Great Beyond, but first he had to wander and clear the path for them all. Omos left into the unknown hoping those he left behind this time would do better than his daughters.
