INTRODUCTION TO SANTHARIAN COSMOLOGY

I. AVÁ, THE DREAMER OF THE UNIVERSE

The Myth as related in the "Cárpa'dosía", Chapter I. "Avá" means in the elven language "the One"  as well as "the First" and "the Only".  According to the myths of the "Cárpa'dosía" which were written down by the Axhái (the elder elves) it was she who began her dream of reality, time and eternity. In her being there was all, so the Axhái named her Avá, the Good, Avá, the Just, and many other names, but over all: Avá, the Beautiful. She was complete, but to be aware of her completeness she began to dream of herself, and in her dream she viewed herself as Avá, the Complete. As she began her eternal slumber and the dream of herself she saw all the ideas of herself in an gigantic mirror in front of her, the emptyness that she was was filled with pictures and reflections of her ideas, for the ideas would have been naught without the reflections in her dream. So it happend, that as Avá dreamed of herself, she got to know the other of herself, Esh-Avá, the Other, Esh-Avá, the False, Esh-Avá, the Stranger, Esh-Avá, the Universe. (Further information see Chapter 1 of the "Cárpa'dosía": Of the Dream of Dreams)

The Role of Avá in Santharian History. Avá is not a goddess as the twelve gods the Santharians worship, in fact as the Mother of All she is the Mother of the Gods and therefore the Mother of all the creatures living on earth. Even the term "High Goddess" to express the function of Avá is somewhat wrong, as Avá is never refered to with this term. Note that only the elves are aware that the universe was indeed created by the Thoughts of Avá, her Dream. All other races, humans, dwarves and orcs alike don't recognize her existence and worship the gods only, who Avá created only to organize the chaos after the world's creation. Therefore Avá is also called the Forgotten and the Misjudged by the Axhái, to express the ignorance of the other races for her deeds.

One of the reasons for the ignorance of the "lower" races is the fact that Avá averted her eyes from her own Dream after she saw that the essence of her Dream was indeed evil and not as beautiful as she was (see Coór below), so that Avá cannot be experienced directly in the world but only through her representatives, the gods. The wisdom about Avá still exists in the elves, who concentrate on worshipping nature (and its essence, which represents Avá) and not on gods. But even the elves don't name the Mother of All by the term "Avá" (it is supposed that only the unknown writers of the "Cárpa'dosía" invented this "name" to express the myth), but refer to her as "She".

The most important quality of Avá is her beauty. The beauty of Avá determines elven ethics. As the other races worship the gods only, their ethics are based on the qualities of the different gods, but none of the gods can cope with the highest of all virtues, the beauty of Avá. Non-elven races tend to accept physical beauty as well as spiritual beauty as a matter of fact, as determined, whereas elves live to gain beauty in soul, in order to correspond to the beauty of Avá. So Avá has no religious importance at all, although her being determines the ethics of all Santharians thoroughly, even if this is not recognized by the races.

As has been mentioned, Avá realizes finally that the essence of her Dream is evil (as the material world she dreams of is her exact contrary she sees in the universal mirror). As she perceives this she thinks about awakening from her Eternal Dream, thus ending time and eternity alike, but as she has already interfered in her own dream by giving the essence of her spirit to the living creatures (their freedom to decide on their own) she cannot quit her Dream. So she leaves the world to itself and the freedom contained within to decide the world's destiny. The last sentences of the "Cárpa'dosía" represent the most cryptic perception of Avá: It's the thought of Avá, that she herself, as the essence of all, may be just a Dream, dreamed by another, but this other she doesn't know.

II. THE AÉR'ÁI'CHANÍA

The Myth as related in the "Cárpa'dosía", Chapter II. The Aér'ai'chanía means in the elven language the "First-of-All". As the First-of-All the Aér'ai'chanía are direct offsprings of the Thought of Avá, therefore being the absolut mirroring contrary of the Mother of All (who's spirit in essence). The Aér'ai'chanía represent matter in essence, yet more than that: being essence of the world itself.

According to the "Cárpa'dosía" Avá dreamed of herself and the picture she dreamed of showed Avá, but it showed Avá dreaming of her picture. Therefore the picture Avá viewed was one but it was two also, for it showed the relation of Avá to her mirror inside the mirror. This relation the Axhái, the elder elves, call the Xeuá, the Connecting, the Middle. And the Xeuá became the central nature's law: the High Law - the law that everything existing must be related to other things existing, declaring existence means relation (this is the reason too why Avá exists, as she's related to the world, although in fact her essence is prior to existence). The Xeuá, it is like a bridge, you can cross a bridge in two directions, from one shore to the other and the other way round, but you always remain on the same world. So the world is one as it is the dream of Avá and the world is two as the mirror shows two, Avá and the mirror she's viewing, and the world is finally four as there are two Xeuáia (plural of Xeuá), leading in two different directions between Avá and her picture. This is why the world is called Aér'ai'chán (the First-Of-All), but also Aér'ai'chanía as the First-of-All consists of four principles or two principles and their relations to each other in the different directions. These four High Principles the elves call só Avásh as the One, sá Mód as the Other of the One, sá Már as the Xeuá between the One and the Other and finally só Efér as the Xeuá between the Other and the One. The humans call the High Principles the Elements, and the Elements they call air (a wrong term for the Wind), Earth, Water and Fire.

Further Explanations on the High Principles. Wind, Earth, Water and Fire represent the basis to all Santharian life, development and - very important - Santharian magic. In the beginning these elements came into existence without any delay in time, they existed as Avá began her eternal existence on her free will to view herself in her dream. As has been told above, the elements are in fact one, but as Avá is one and peaceful existence in herself so the world she watches in the universal mirror is many and can only exist when the elements it consists of fight their eternal struggle against each other. This is the reason too why the elven word expressing the world ("o'krói") means in fact "everlasting war", but the fight cannot have a winner as it is the pulse of the universe. The fight was pure chaos in the beginning and was later organized by the the Thoughts of Avá or the High Winds (also called the Aviaría or the High Spirits), who later were named Gods (see Gods).

The Elements and the Races. Of course there is some sort of order of precedence concerning the elements, but only for the living beings, not for Avá herself. For example the Wind (or air as humans call it) is deemed to be nearest to the Thoughts of Avá, whereas the Earth represents decay as all things, which can be seen and not felt by heart, lead away from the ideas the Wind represents. At least this is the view of the elven race on the Elements as they are children of the Wind (see Races). The value of the single Elements is determined to which Element the certain race belongs to. Dwarves, for example, are related mostly to Earth, so it's obvious that this race is the most materialistic oriented race and that dwarves are very stubborn and won't change their opinions easily. The two other main races are situated between the elements of Wind and Earth, so their decisions are always influenced by their changing emotions between these extremes, but tending into a certain direction the specific race emerged from. So the humans represent the Element of Water (predominated by Wind, movement towards Earth) and the orcs the element of Fire (predominated by Earth, movement towards Wind, meaning the will to power).

III. THE AVIARÍA/THE GODS

The Myth as related in the "Cárpa'dosía", Chapter III. As the world was chaos in the beginning and not harmonic as Avá had anticipated her real image to be, she summoned the most powerful of the High Spirits, the predominating Winds, back to herself. Avá gave the Winds a picture of her Thought and in her Thought every of the Winds had assigned its own purpose, which in her Thought did not interfere in another Wind's designation. The Winds should set the world in order and make one of the many, but maintaining the many and the differences in the one. So the Winds were finally sent back into time to create the world of Aér'ai'chán out of the elements, and the later Children of Avá named these Winds the Gods and they worshipped the Gods as they were the reason for their beings.

Due to each element there are four types of gods, each Element got assigned three Gods:

Gods of Wind: Grothar (m.), the Weathergod, Nehtor (m.), the God of Healing and Eyasha (f.) the Goddess of Peace and Unity.

Gods of Earth: Queprur (f.), the Goddess of Death, Arvins (m.), the Hunting God and Urtengor (m.), the Forging God.

Gods of Water: Baveras (f.), the Goddess of the Sea, Jeyriall (f.), the Goddess of Harvest and Seyella (f.), the Goddess of Destiny.

Gods of Fire: Foiros (m.), the God of the Sun, Armeros (m.), the God of War and finally Etherus (m.), the God of Excess.

So the gods began their creation: Foiros created the Injera, the sun, and Urtengor united the Earths to a single world with the help of Eyasha and Nehtor and he lateron forged the mountains, so that the humble creatures would gain delight by looking at the whole creation from the mountain tops. Baveras made the sea and Seyella watched the gods with knowing eyes. Grothar took heed that the elements fought their fight at Aér'ai'chán for this fight constituted life on Earth, Water and Air and Armeros look at it and he smiled. Although the gods mostly satisfied the dream of harmony of Avá, there were two gods - Etherus and Queprur - whose intention was otherwise. Etherus was known among the gods of being the most unpredictable in his actions and as Urtengor was busy designing the landscape, Etherus made seas flooding lands and volcanos destroying territories Urtengor already had formed completely. Etherus and Queprur laughed as destruction was their greatest joy. It is even said that Etherus and Urtengor fought each other (this resulting in the gigantic Death Marches and Barren Lands on the later continent at the northwest of Aér'ai'chán) and that Avá herself had to calm them. Indeed this divine fight was not a battle to gain power or control of the other God, but both Gods did only their tasks assigned by the Mother of All (as for envy: the Gods would learn emotions from the races later, that's the reason too why they would begin to long for the freedom of the races and to love or to hate each other as the Avá's Children did). So according to the battle between the Gods the world of Aér'ai'chán was divided into many isles, but the main land Urtengor had created still remained as one and it was called Méra'thón ("Holy Ground").

As Urtengor and the other Gods had finished their designing of Aér'ai'chán, Jeyriall breathed life into the Earth and so plants, vines and flowers emerged (consisting of Earth, Water, Fire - meaning will - and Wind as the idea of its completeness every living being targets for). Finally Jeyriall made the birds, the fish and the animals, which could view the results of creation themselves, and Arvins, Armeros and Queprur instructed the newly formed beings in hunting and killing and Jeyriall revealed to them the secret of loving and giving birth in order to maintain the circle of life.

The Consequences of the Summoning of Avá. As Avá summoned the most powerful of the High Spirits, she neglected many other High Spirits, who had emerged from the thoughts of Avá. In fact what she did was interfering in her own Dream instead of only viewing it and her selection of a number of High Spirits meant that the Mother of All did an action which in her Thoughts only was destined for the image of herself only. As the summoned Spirits left Aér'ai'chán even more chaos reigned the world, but the true consequences of the Summoning of Avá should be revealed much later, at a time when the first Children of the Gods, who were inspired with the freedom of Avá, walked on earth. At this time the Gods became aware of the feelings and the emotions and their will to free decision the races possessed, but which lacked the Gods.  So the Gods began to envy the races and at the same time the neglected High Spirits began to envy the Gods, as they were only means for them to create the world but had no power at all on their own. These other High Spirits are known as the "Coór'enín" (meaning "the Many" or "those who are being dark") as most of them would deny Avá and change sides to Coór, the Dark God.

IV. THE TITANS

The Myth as related in the "Cárpa'dosía", Chapter IV. In the so called Great Year when all the other Gods made the skies, the stars, the mountains and the seas, Jeyriall and Armeros had to wait until they could begin their assigned tasks of giving life and war (in the meaning of fundamental contradictions) to the designed world. So together they withdrew to a beautiful green valley on an isle surrounded by high mountains Urtengor had made for their rest. As they were all alone with themselves the will to creation overwhelmed them and the Gods lay together, their love producing four children with devine qualities: Avásh'estár, the Titan of the Wind, Mód'estár, the Titan of Earth, Már'estár, the Titan of Water and finally Efér'estár, the Titan of Fire.

But as the four Titans awoke in the world of Aér'ai'chán and began to be aware of each other they joined the intentions of Etherus, the Treacherous as he was called lateron. Etherus told each of the Titans that he should seek to increase his power over the other Titans so that Avá would look with blessing upon him. And so a fierce battle of the Titans began adding more chaos to the world than Etherus himself was capable for. As Avá saw this she was grieved, but she knew also in her heart that the Titans were made out of love to the Mother of All and the creations she was responsible for and did not intend to destroy. She knew too that the destructive powers of Etherus and Queprur were part of her Toughts and so she decided to banish the Titans from the surface of Aér'ai'chán only, not to make them undone. Since this time the Titan of Earth is kept imprisoned deep down under the surface and the Titan of Wind is guarded high above in the skies by many of his brothers, the High Spirits. On the edges of the world the Titan of Fire and the Titan of Water reside, both having no other joy as to play with their elements (the Fire Sea to the southwest and the Adanic Sea to the northwest). The rage of the Titans to be imprisoned by the Mother of All can still be felt over the long centuries, resulting in earthquakes, ferocious storms, volcanic eruptions and floods.


The Importance of the Titans in Santharian Life. Thousands of years later the chaining of the Titans according to the intervention of Avá is nothing more but a myth to the people of Aér'ai'chán although it happens every now and then that adventurous men try to view one of the Titans in reality, but none of those ever returned. The world of Aér'ai'chán is very vast and so nobody ever managed this feat, but it is said that the Titans are immortal and that the pure sight of one the Titans could render the soul of every mortal being immortal.

Book 1 of the "Avaesthoría" ("The Shadows of Móh'rónn") is based mainly on the myth of the Titans. The elven Darklord tries to descend to the Titan of Earth to gain immortality and to become a Half-God (see Concept or the Works section/Avaesthoría for further details).

V. THE TREE OF LIFE

The Myth as related in the "Cárpa'dosía", Chapter V. Once again Avá looked upon the world and the deeds done by the Gods and once again Avá was pleased with the beauty she saw, but she still was not satified with it. Although she had given her Thought and Spirit to the Gods the creations of the Gods lacked Spirit as they couldn't give their Spirit to them. So it happened for the second time that Avá interfered in her Dream and thus she dreamed to give her Spirit and the freedom within her Spirit to the work accomplished of the Gods, so that the creatures would be able to view the world with their own thoughts and to become as delighted of the beauty of Aér'ai'chán as Avá herself would be. Thus the Rain of Life fell out of the Thought of Avá, down on Aér'ai'chán and it fell on the Elements and from the Elements there emerged the inspired creatures. And so the race emerging from the Wind would lateron be called the elves, the race of the Earth dwarves, the race of Water humans and finally the race of the Fire would be called the orcs.

The Elves. First the Rain of Life mingled with the Wind, producing the most delicate race which is said to be closest to the Thought of Avá herself. Even the apparitions of this first race cannot be always discerned from the Wind itself and therefore this race is believed to exist whether in time nor in space constantly. This race is seen very seldom and if so, elves only appear on certain times and on special places in the untouched nature. Worshipping Gods is nothing they are famous for: Although they worship them it is their highest knowledge that all the Gods emerged from Avá, the most beautiful. Everything they do is associated with nature and the need to maintain or to improve the beauty of nature. This is their way of worshipping Avá.

The Dwarves. The second race which was blessed by the Spirit of Avá emerged from the Earth. These beings are small, heavy, stout and strong and their spirit is as unmovable their bodies. As they are Children of the Earth their home is the mountain and they worship Urtengor as the shaper of Earth as their god. They are not very social except for members of their kind and are very fond of their possessions (especially of minerals like gold and diamonds) as well as of persons, so that quarrels and even wars are very likely if they feel misunderstood or disliked.

The Humans. The third race emerged from the mingling of the Spirit of Avá with the Element of Water. These beings are physically not very strong but their mind can be much keener than any weapon's sharpness. They worship all twelve Gods, but not Avá who they believe to be an elven mythological figure. Their greatest virtues and their greatests faults are their ambiguity (not representing special ideas but trying to cope with all at once) and their freedom to make decisions (which often are guided by irrational emotions leading to havoc). Humans are a very unpredictable race with very different ambitions and means to put them into reality.

The Orcs. The last race which gained spirit from the Thought of Avá emerged from the mingling of the Spirit with the Element of Fire. These beings are stronger than humans but they are not very sophisticated, in fact their minds are very limited. They worship only the Dark Gods (Coór and his minions). Orcs need leaders (no matter to which race they belong) telling them their tasks, which mostly consist of conquering territories and doing warfare. Orcs are very predictable and hate all the other races, but can be convinced easily to support a special cause by valueable gifts.

Every single life of the inspired beings is represented as a leaf by the Tree of Life, which grew in the center of Aér'ai'chán after the Rain of Life had ceased and he was called Eu'reoll ("She [who is] giving [life]"). He was huge as he reached deep into the sky and the leaves were golden, silver, adamant and many other colors and all the races - elves, dwarves, humans and orcs alike - gathered before the tree and worshipped it.

Further Developments of the Races. The races described in the "Cárpa'dosía" are just the initial four main races in the world of Aér'ai'chán. Of course these were not the only races emerging from the blessing spirit of Avá, but all those other races can all be derived from mixed elements, which gained Spirit from the Thought of Avá (e.g. goblins, trolls, halflings are still in question etc.). Note that the described elves are those, who lateron would be called the "light-elves" and that races developped and mingled with other races, so that elves became beings very humanlike, consisting of real flesh and blood. Of course light-elves still exist in Aér'ai'chán and Santharia, but of course they are rather rare. There are still stories to be written and reasons to find how the "dark-elves" can be derived or how certain dwarven or human tribes developped and how the orcs got organized.

VI. COÓR/ESH-AVÁ

The Myth as related in the "Cárpa'dosía", Chapter VI and VII. Life in Aér'ai'chán was peaceful for a very long time and the gathering of the races under the wonderous Tree of Life became an important rite, which was practised every tenth year. Thousands of tribes, which were spread accross the vast lands of Aér'ai'chán came back together and accumulated under the Tree, worshipping the wonder of life and the Avá, who had created it. But one night, when the races sat together under the Tree and were singing beautiful songs everything changed suddenly. This night would be called "Cárpi'coór" lateron, "the beginning (of) night". And indeed, this night should become the beginning of the Great Night, the Dawning of All.

Out of nowhere a sudden thunderstorm arose in the skies and a dark shadow came out of the night as if the shadow was the imbodied night itself. The seas flooded the lands and fires emerged from the earth, a terrible wind destroyed many things already established by the hard labour of the races. Lightnings shot out of the dark clouds and inflammed Eu'reoll, the Tree of Life. Thousands of leaves representing precious lives burned or were torn from their branches, fell to the ground, and as they sailed downwards the lives contained within tried to escape their fate, tried to fly away, far, far away. And indeed, many of the burning leaves shaped wings, but the souls of these creatures were lost. They were not bound to the cylce of the Tree of Life anymore and therefore these creatures became immortal, lateron they would be called fire-dragons. There evolved other kinds of dragons too, as many leaves dropped into the seas or at the earth, others were just torn away from their branches but the fire hadn't catched them. All these dragons would play very important roles in the myths to follow (still to design).

The peoples fled the burning Tree of Life in all directions, even leaving the land and sailing out to the seas to find peaceful isles. Earthquakes shattered the land and finally the four continents and many additional isles were shaped. One of the continents became Sarvonia, the southern part of Sarvonia should finally develop to the Santharian kingdom thousands of years later. All other continents are still unnamed, maps are going to follow sometime in the future. Just note that the location of the Tree of Life was originally situated at the later Thae'lón ("covered wood"), to the east of Voldar (see Maps section).

Indeed the Tree of Life was not destroyed, but it was burned to half as the upheaval ceased, but Avá was frightened as she was unaware what had happend at this hour. Terrified from the view of the burned Tree Avá hides the Tree of Life from the eyes of the races (although the Tree still remains on the same place it will only be visible for the light-elves in the future; by the way: the Tree of Life will play a very important role in part III of the Santharian trilogy!). She wants the Gods to give her answers, but the Gods had wandered the lands in human, dwarven, elven or orcish form during the Great Night and were unable to interfere in the catastrophe. The Gods answer that the upheaval could have only be initiated by Avá herself. Puzzled Avá looks out into the universe, sensing the unspeakable answer, but still not willing to accept it. Finally she shouts the ultimate question into the world: "Is it all me?" All she hears is her echo, but in her echo she feels a deep, terrific voice, the voice of Evil. And as she looks at the world again she recognizes in an apocalyptic vision that the face of the world is the face of a gigantic demon. Percepting that the world she's dreaming of indeed is the contrary picture of herself and not herself she realizes that her goodness can only be perceived through the evil and her beauty only through the ugly. Her only comfort lies in her Thoughts of freedom she gave to the races to decide between the main principles, good and evil.

Proud of her creations but nevertheless disappointed with the outcome of her Dream she thinks about waking up from the Dream, destroying everything she had accomplished. But she cannot. For there is one Thought in her heart she cannot cope with: The Thought that she cannot awake, because she's just the Dream of another. There's only one very vague hint indicated by Avá's last expressed Thought that this other might be her supposed creation itself...

The World after the Leaving of Avá and the Apparitions of Coór. As the Dreamer of the world, Avá the Mother of All, turned away from the world, Coór (or Esh-Avá, meaning the "False Avá") reigned over Aér'ai'chán. Coór was there from the beginning of time, as he was the All the Mother of All had created, but his manifestion happened the first time at the "Cárpi'coór", when the worshipping of life and beauty had reached its summit. Coór gathered the "Coór'enín" (meaning "the Many" or "those who are being dark") around Himself to support his intention of destroying the world. The Coór'enín were those High Spirits who had been neglected by Avá as she instructed the High Spirits to organize chaos (see the Aviaría, the Gods). Coór reigned from this time onward many years over the world of Aér'ai'chán and mainly the orcs worshipped the Coór'enín, the Dark Gods, and became devoted to his cause. Many wars followed on all continents and the fight between and good and evil shall last till the end of time, when the Dream of Avá begins and ends.

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