“I have my God and you have yours, and as they strove one against the other beforetimes, so will it always be; but now there is a new battleground with new battlechiefs. I will go to my appointed place and you will go to yours, and from thence, as leaders of the fray, we shall wage a never ceasing war. Such is fated and must be, but who will win the fair prize of Earth for their king? We shall not strive with clubs and lances, the hurling stone and flying dart, but with more subtle weaponry. This thing is not our choice, we are but playthings of fate. That you and I should head the fray is not because of our qualities but because we were where we were, when we were. Now we are but two precarious points of life in a hostile wilderness, but what might we be in a hundred generations?”
Dadam said, “These things I know too, for my eyes have always been opened. I too have looked out into an endless plain without any horizon, but I shall lead those who have grown strong through seeking and striving, while those in your ranks will be weakened through indulgence in the fleshpots and pleasure places of Earth. We are the disinherited but not the disowned, we have the seeds of victory within us. You and yours were never more than you are, sons of the easy path, followers of the downhill road”.
Then, when these things had been spoken, Lewid died and Dadam and those with him burnt his body. Dadam and those with him wandered the wasteland for many days, then turned southward towards the mountain. Then it happened that one day Dadam was seated apart, in solitude among rocks, with chin on chest, and a hunter of the Ubalites came upon him from behind. The hunter slung a smooth stone as the man turned, and it struck out his eye. Then the Ubalite slew him by smashing in his head with a stone.
The hunter was the son of Ankadur, son of Enanari, king of the Ubalites, by Urkelah, daughter of the Chaisites. This is known because those who were with Dadam came out of the barren places and learned the ways of builders, becoming great among the Ubalites and raising cities along the rivers. Among them was Enkilgal who built Keridor, which stands between the two great rivers, and Netar and Baletsheramam who taught men the ways of writing, setting the letters upon a pillar in Herak.
CHAPTER SEVEN
HERTHEW - SON OF THE FIRSTFATHER
The Book of Beginnings tells us all things began with Varkelfa, therein called Awenkelifa, from whom flows gwinin, the energizer which stabilizes all things so they maintain their proper form, and awen which responds to the moulding desires. This is well enough, but men concern themselves more with the beginnings of their race, and ours is rooted in Herthew the Sunfaced, son of the Firstfather.
While Herthew was still young he was expelled from the lushlands where he was born, and he journeyed across the hasrshlands in the company and keeping of wise Habaris. After many days they came to Krowkasis, cradleland of our race, land of mountains and rivers, which is beside Ardis, and they encamped there in a valley. With them were retainers and flocks.
Herthew grew to manhood there and always Habaris was at his side, instructing him in all the things he should know. He taught Herthew the Nine essential disciplines of Imain, and the secrets of the three sacred vessels. Herthew learned that there was a place of gloom, where the air was foul and malodorous breezes carried
pestilence and poisonous particles. This was the source of all maladies and ailments and of the things which cause putrefaction and decay. This place had been closed off from Earth, for it existed in another realm beyond the ken of mortals; but it had been brought into attunement with Earth when a forbidden act was accomplished. Thus the bodies of mortals became susceptible to influences from the baleful place.
To this and similar parts of the Otherworld the wicked would be drawn when they passed through the grim gates of death. But Habaris taught a different conception of wickedness, one where lack of effort, indolence and indifference to duty and obligations, the taking of the easy path, were just as wrong as actual deeds of wickedness. He taught that men reach the true goal of life by transmuting lustlove into truelove. That true victory is gained only over the defeated bodies of their vanquished passions and baser selves. These and many other things were taught by Habaris, but many of his teachings displeased the people of Krowkasis who were then as they were before Herthew’s forefather was led away. So Habaris concealed many things from them and taught, by simple tales, things within their understanding. He taught them the mysteries concerning the wheel of the years and divided the year into a Summer half and a Winter half, with a great year circle of fifty-two years, a hundred and four of which was the circle of the Destroyer. He gave them the Laws of Weal and Woe and established the folkfeasts of harvest-tide and seeding-tide. He taught them the ritual of Ulisidui.
But Habaris instructed Herthew in the ways of the Otherworld. He taught him concerning the three rays from the central invisible sun, which manifest all things, upholding them in stability of form. Also concerning the Oversoul which filled everything in creation, as the Soulself filled the mortal body. This Soulself, he declared, would develop from mortal sensitivity and feeling transmuted into divine sensitivity and feeling, through suppression of the baser instincts within mortals. It was strengthened by development of feelings of love between man and woman and between these and their kindred; by the appreciation of beauty and devotion to duty; by the development of all qualities that pertain to humans and not to animals.
Herthew learned that the Soulself is quickened by soul substances outflowing from the Godhead. That the strong soul is transformed and moulded to the soul’s desire, but the weak soul is not its own master, it is flabby, unstable and is pulled into a state of distortion by its own vices. In the afterlife there is unbounded joy for the entry of a noble soul, it will glow with splendour and stand out proudly. The mean soul of the wicked is dull-hued, twisted and drab, and, being drawn towards its own compatible state, it shrinks into the dark places. When Herthew had barely crossed the threshold of manhood, black-bearded spearmen began to ravish the borders of Krowkasis, and Idalvar, king of that country, called his fighting men together and when word came to Herthew he prepared to depart. But Habaris bid him stay awhile, for he was unprepared for battle. Then Habaris prepared a strange fire with stones, unlike any fire seen before, and when it burnt low he plucked out that which is called ‘child of the green flame’ and he beat it out so it became a blade. This he fitted to a horned handgrip and when it was edged and blooded gave it to Herthew, saying, “Behold, Dislana the Bitterbiter, faithful servant of he who strikes hard and true”. Then he made a shield of wicker covered with ox-hide and a cap of hide which came down over the face and neck. So equipped Herthew went to the encampment of Idalvar, taking eight fighting men with him.
In those days men fought with hand-thrown spears and clubs, with flung stones and sticks sharpened by fire and weighted, but they did not close in the battle clash. So when Idalvar saw the battleblade of Herthew, he wondered and it passed his understanding; but when he saw Herthew close on the battleline and the foeman fall before him, he was amazed.
No man about the king could understand the making of such weapons, offspring of fire and stone, but Habaris made others and Herthew became the king’s right hand man and the first hero of the Noble Race. The king offered Herthew his daughter’s hand in marriage, but Herthew declined saying, “The days of my manhood are not yet fulfilled”.
When the war-filled days had passed, Herthew withdrew to the place where Habaris made the bright battleblade, and already he had taught the mysteries of their making to others, sealing their mouths with magic. But Herthew was less concerned with the weaponry of war than with the mysteries of life and the battles of the Spirit beset by mortality. So while his workmen drew bright blades from the thunderstones, Habaris taught Herthew and his battlebrothers, and these were the things they learned from his mouth.