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In the beginning there was nothingness. From that abyss
arose a single thought. And that thought was UL.
Ul waited in nothingness for time untold, until he thought
of the concept of Maiden and Wife. And so the Universe came
to be, with it's own Purpose behind it. As Wife follows
Maiden, Mother soon followed Wife and children came forth.
So were the six gods born.
Belar, sometimes called the 'God of Bears'; strong, brave
and playful. Soun, the onetime god of life and growth, now
only the god of ruin and eternal sorrow. Aldur, the god of
knowledge. Mousse, the god of serpents and swamps. Kuno, god
of lions and honour. Nabiki, known as the goddess of wealth
and widely acknowledged lady of greed. Then there was Happosai.
Once the most beautiful of the gods, vain and haughty. Happosai,
eldest of the children, god of dragons.
For a time the gods lived in a universe devoid of life, they
wandered amongst the stars alone. After a time they met on
their favored planet and held conference. From this conference
all things came, from lowliest insect and the most base of
monsters, to the wonder that is man. Each of the gods took a
turn creating 'till they came at last to man, that which was
similar to themselves and all gave equally their blessings.
After man, all were satisfied. Man was then split into
six tribes and each god took unto themselves one to lead save
Aldur who held himself aloof. Instead of a tribe, Aldur
took but a few individuals favored to him as his disciples.
These few he taught the ways of sorcery and self-defense, and
they were set apart from the rest of man in that they did not
grow old. And so these men watched over the tribes of man
for centuries until the War of the Gods.
Over the centuries Happosai had become perverted and
thought himself First in all creation, even over his father.
Thinking thus he did strike his brother and steal an object
of Power known as The Orb of Aldur. All the gods rose up
against this, for never before had any of them taken arms
against another, and lashed out against their brother and
his people. And with the gods came their people, and thus
began the first war. Happosai and his people were pushed
ever back until, in desperation, he raised up the Orb and
called forth it's power. The whole earth trembled and
cried out in it's pain, and these cries drove many creatures
insane. Those we now call 'monsters'. The ground in front
of the armies rent, the seas rushed in as the continent
was sundered.
The Orb angered at being used such struck out against
Happosai and withered his body until his appearance was
as twisted as his heart. It then hardened itself to
all further use, anything trying to bend the Orb to
their will became not.
Such is the ancient history of the gods my children.
I can tell you no more for night draws nearer and I am
tired.
~A storyteller to the children of Rablec's Farm
The Ranmariad
Book 1 Chapter 0 by Neplusultra
These characters belong to me, they belong
to the Eddings and Takahashi.
Gen wandered the road heading deeper into the great
swamp wishing he had never left the side of that old
farmer. But then he really had needed to leave before
the old man found out that his purse was missing.
Still it was a shame that the old man had been going
north toward Tol Honneth. It left him no other choice
than to go south...and Gen hated bugs. And snakes.
The people of the last village had been kind enough
he supposed. Well, that is until they'd found him...
um...helping that sweet little thing. What was her
name...Clarissa, Arissa? No matter, he'd had to leave
rather quickly that time too. Maybe he could head back
north out of these swamps in a few days, though he
wasn't exactly sure how to get back to the village.
The swamp had absolutely wretched roads, they were
more like game trails to be exact.
Gen muttered to himself as he randomly took branching
paths heading deeper and deeper into the swamp for
hours on end.
Finally he pushed through some vines blocking the
path and stumbled into a clearing with several freshwater
springs. "Thank the Gods, fresh water!" he cried,
rushing toward the nearest, and promptly tripped over
a loose rock and fell in.
()()()
The demon-bear that was Gen lay down at the base of
a tree and moaned plaintively. Or at least he tried
to, a truly disturbing noise came out of his mouth.
He was hungry. He hadn't eaten anything good in weeks.
Nothing but bark and reeds and such. He'd passed some
towns that had some truly delicious smells wafting about.
But for some reason the villagers would scream and drive
him out with sticks and sometimes worse.
He was tired. Walking for days did that to people.
Especially people who weren't sleeping well. He just
couldn't sleep on his back as comfortably as he used to.
Most of all, he was cold. He wasn't quite sure, but
that might have had something to do with the blizzard.
All the fur he had wasn't doing much to help out either.
He moaned again.
Off to the right he heard a scraping sound, sort of
line stone on stone, and saw a little bit of light
through the snow. Then nothing more for a few minutes.
"Well, are you going to come in or not?" said a voice
over near the light. "I'm not going to hurt you.
Come on in." A pause, "Unless you enjoy the idea of
freezing to death."
Gen walked toward the light, which was coming
from a door at the base of a large stone tower.
Whoever had spoken was nowhere in sight. Walking
inside he was in a small room with nothing but
a stairway and a few torches... there didn't
even appear to be a door. Slightly spooked
Gen had made his ponderous way up to the
first landing when a voice drifted down
the stairs to him. "There's a warm bath for
you just over there. Go, wash off the ice
and then dry yourself...I won't stand the
smell of wet panda in my study."
Genma blinked...sure enough there was a
large pool of steaming water and several
sheets of cloth sharing the floor with
him. He blinked again...what was a panda?
Shrugging he hit his chin on the floor and
growled. Submersing himself in the water
stung, but oh it was so good to be warm again.
He raised a paw to scratch at his head and,
and "Praise the Gods the curse is gone!"
Surely his host must be a powerful wizard.
Drying himself off he wrapped up in the
cloth and went up into what was apparently
the study and his jaw dropped.
"Well, I see you are back to normal.
I don't suppose you still have my purse
though do you?" It was the farmer Gen
had caught a ride with and robbed.
"Sit down at the table, I've made dinner
for you." He waved his had vaguely
towards a corner near a fireplace where
there was now a table and several dishes
laid out. "Oh do stop gapeing. Sit.
Eat. We'll talk later."
And so Gens training began.
()()()
Well, I'm doing a rewrite. I didn't
like the way it was before, and frankly
I like this better. I mean come on
there were parts bordering on plagiarism
before. As soon as this is posted
on my page all the rest is officially gone.
Chapter 1 is following later tonight
and it won't be over two years before
I write again. Sorry about it yeah.
Didn't mean to, but I just...well,
couldn't write. I do believe I've
lost my prereaders, so if anyone
would like to volunteer please let
me know. I'd like it if my prereaders
were willing to actually comment on
the story with their thoughts on parts,
I promise to listen. I might not
change my mind, but I do promise to
listen. Though if all you would like
to do is correct spelling and grammar
that's ok too. Lord knows I need that.
v 1.0
Draft : 1/20/2001
Released : 1/24/2001
Revision : -
Final : -
Sir Olin 'Neplusultra' Petty
www.neplusultra.org