[

Humanitarian, the Sage of peace:

In ancient times, there was a lone savanna. It outstretched the vast land of our world like an ocean made out of dry, green grass. The trees, bushes and plants were few and far inbetween.

The savanna was as large as the entire capital cities of Ayrilia combined.

In the midst of all the land, there was one particular tree. It was standing meekly, as if hit by a lightning. Its bark was grayed out and some of the trees roots were protruding from the dry ground. All the signs were pointing to the tree dying. Then there was a creature. Nobody knew, where it came from; the creature had pearl-white skin adorning it’s body. Its brown hair that looked like fertile soil after a strong rain was running down its skeletal frame, falling behind its shoulders. The creature had a bipedal body structure that could not be found anywhere in this vast land. The only other creatures in sight were crawling or moving on their four limbs. At some point, nobody knows when, some of the creatures noticed her and they started to encircle her and the meager tree. The carnivorous beasts had seemingly forgotten their appetite; the herbivorous animals had apparently forgotten their fear. All had convened around this unusual pair of life. The creature took its first step towards the tree. Suddenly, the ground that the animals were standing on became muddy. Some of them almost sunk in for them to never return. Miraculously, as if helped by another force from above, they were able to escape their imminent demise and ran away from the mud, closer to the creature in the middle. The creature took another step: now the ground, which had just started to stop its stirring from earlier, started vibrating. The vibrations touched everyone near them to their very essence. Everything was shaking, even the animals and beasts outside this small circle felt the earth quaking. Many of them screamed. All but one group of creatures was in an uproar:

Every being inside the circle made of sand valiantly stood still and watched the spectacle in front of them. One of the animals, the one that is now known as a Craybird, screeched with a voice loud enough for everyone to hear: “Ga! YA!”

“Gaia”

This was later known to be the name of the Goddess, that created the miracle.

When hearing the name, everyone suddenly dropped to their knees and continued watching in silence.

Gaia took a third step forward:

The quaking intensified; the entire world seemed to have cast a spell on itself and deformed to create a single island of mud in its middle. First it was akin to a feeble speck of dirt on a large picture. Then the spot seemed to slowly grow. Out of the small speck of dirt, first became a slight pool of brown. The pool became a sea and the sea became a large area, comparable to its outer ring of land. Then something magical happened: Inside this pictureframe of green and brown, other colors started sprouting:

A beautiful yellow with the color of the nightly stars spread itself with the ferocity of a tidal wave: The desert was born.

A scorching red jumped from place to place, igniting areas around each spot it jumped to like a wildfire climbing from tree to tree: The volcanoes were born.

A lush green wandered through the landscape; sometimes large in area; sometimes only a small dot it would vary in size and intensity as it combined with the other colors to make the world more beautiful: Fauna was born.

A cooling blue followed, circled and permeated all colors like a cool embrace from a parent wanting to hold its body soothingly over them, protecting them from themselves and their brethren: Water was born.

But the spot in the middle still remained: Instead it shrank back to the size of a small speck of brown.

At this time, Gaia touched upon the rotten tree. Their appearance became shabbier:

their pearl-white skin lost its smoothness and dried out until it was thin and shabby; their frame became smaller and hunched like it was aging over thousands of years. Their beautiful hair, that had unknowingly elongated over the entire floor slowly started turning white and crumbling before finally dispersing into a small hue covering the entire canvas of the world.

Some of the hue absorbed the color yellow: It became the sandstorms plaguing the desert

Some of the hue absorbed the color red: It became the ashes surrounding the volcanoes.

Some of the hue absorbed the color green: It became the parasitic flora, feasting on the fauna; decaying it; creating fertile ground for new fauna to blossom.

Some of the hue absorbed the color blue: It became clouds and gave rain to the world. It became storms and gave wind, thunder and lightning to the world.

At the same time, the scorched tree in the middle became larger, was rejuvenated.

The bark got a slick black sheen, the branches got back their elasticity and strength. They pointed into the sky. The leaves surrounding the branches were filled in various colors mirroring the state of the world and the roots dug into the ground and got a steady hold of the earth. But it didn’t stop there. Suddenly the tree shrank!

The trunk of the tree slimmed down and lost in height. It was contracting into a hyperboloid, its branches contracting together into two thick chunks of wood, its bark was being peeled off from the body and relocated itself into something akin to a shrinking coat. The roots in the ground were contracting again. The earth protested furiously and cracks formed on the surface of the ground around the tree. The tree shrunk down to about half its original size and the roots and branches formed 4 limbs, while the body gained a new bipedal form, that was veiled by the bark, which had become a coat around the body. A man was born under the eyes of the creatures watching. The creatures didn’t clearly understand the meaning of what they had seen and averted their eyes at the decaying body of Gaia. Every single creature grouped around the corpse of something, that which was beyond their existence and they…

they consumed it.

They consumed the remains of Gaia and their bodies underwent a metamorphosis. The creatures, that had earlier moved on their four limbs had now stood up and were filled with robustness and profound beauty. However the biggest change had lain not in their bodies but their minds:

Through the sacrifice of Gaia they regained sentience and realized the sin of consuming their god. The creatures cried. They shed tears in unity for the being that had given them their bodies and minds against its free will. Their movements, their gestures and their shouts filled the landscape around them with an indescribable color, that was as transparent as air and as indecipherable as the nightly sky: Thus, sentient life was created.

In the midst of their cries the former rotten tree stood up and took a walk to the remaining leftovers from the corpse of Gaia. First the beings of sentience reacted with an instinctual behavior of guarding them with the expression of treasuring the remaining treasure as a sign of gratitude. That attitude however quickly changed, once they saw the deep gaze of the being walking towards them. They made way and lined up to the sides of the mysterious being’s walkway to the corpse.

The figure made quick steps in succession in order to get there as soon as possible, but nonetheless it still felt like an eternity. Finally it arrived and it stretched out its new hand and slid it inside the remaining husk in order to grab something from there and to carry it to the outside. The thing that emerged from the body was a ball of god, softly pulsating in the sun and giving the new creatures a batch of different emotions they felt for the first time.

The golden ball was nothing other than the heart of the godly being, that had created this miracle. After the being in the black cloak took the orb and held it high up into the air, another miracle occurred:

The ball of gold burst apart into millions of tiny fragments shining translucently in the colors of a rainbow and distributing themselves over the entire landscape. The entire world was soaked with a bunch of different radiating colors, which were constantly in motion; sometimes in large clusters and sometimes in a small fog: Thus the spirits and elementals had been created, which now permeate our world.

Our world was finally complete: This was the creation story of Gaia, the world we live in.

But the story doesn’t end here:

The cracks, that had formed through the transformation of the tree person widened and cut through the whole world. The world split into three large parts and into many small parts which all drifted apart inside the water. The being that was created from the tree took the creatures that had become sentient and placed them on the larger islands and gave them a last piece of wisdom.

He pointed at himself and made a sound

“Rakdal”

He pointed at the creatures and made a different sound

“Humane”

Then he pointed at the land, he was standing on, while explaining to the creatures around them through a sound:

He named each of the larger pieces of land accordingly

“Welkracht”, he named this continent after the symbol of strength and vitality, so that its people may never fall ill.

“Wellevend”, he named this continent after the meaning of life and prosperity, so that its people may never go hungry.

“Weldapper”, he named our continent after the meaning of courage and valor, so that our people may always strive to innovate themselves without fearing a failure.

The new people lamented that they were unable to reciprocate the passion and care, that the two beings have shown them. In order to never forget the sacrifice of Gaia, the fallen god, the people named their world Gaia, so that she may lie down as the mother of creation and represent their home.

In order to show respect to the mysterious tree, who named them and prayed for their future, they named themselves the humane and him Master Rakdal, the sage of the forest.

We don’t know how long it has been since then, but every generation, we find his traces to this day, spreading the word about our ancient history and propelling humankind forward.

It has become a custom for every noble and high ranking member of society to have heard this story, so they may never forget their roots and grow upright like old trees, extending their protective branches over the ones beneath them.

To this day, all over Gaia, it has become a custom for the higher ranking families to bear the name of a tree or a forest in their name as proof that they didn’t forget their story.

]

….

It took Haja three months to understand every word that had been written in this story. Some of them seemed sloppy or weird to him, who had barely learned how to read and write. But in terms of the contents and the morale behind the story, he was still very lacking. Once his master came back from his trip to take Haja with him, he asked him about the questions he had prepared over the last few months including the ones.

In response, Sir Raylon just smiled. Without hesitation he confiscated the notebook that Haja had compiled and told him

<<Those are some good questions. For now, you will just have to wait until you find the answers yourself.>>

Haja was confused. Then why did he write those questions in the first place.

But regardless of his confusion, the two of them started their departure and made way on his first journey outside the village of Chansa.

Haja belatedly got a hold of himself. This was not the time to be confused about writing down some questions. He was sure that he would get the answer to them at some point or the other.

For now there was only one emotion boiling inside him: the excitement to embark on his first big adventure!