THE DARKWINDS |
The winds predominating the skies of the world of Aér'aí'chán, mentioned in the elven myth of the Cárpa'dosía and scientifically described for the first time by the Santharian astronomer Cournan.
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Picture description: One of the many Darkwinds circling around the world of Aér'aí'chán. Image drawn by Artimidor. |
According to the elven myth
the High Goddess and Dreamer of the world, Avá
the Beautiful, ordered all Wind (the
Thoughts which sprang from Her Dream and which were spread in the universe) to
gather at Her celestial home in the Beginning of Time.
There She selected those winds which were closest to Her Dream and gave them
direction in order to bring harmony to the
Elements. These winds were called the Gods by the
Children of Avá. However, there were other winds too in Her Dream, winds the
High Goddess couldn't understand at first when She began to dream. These winds
were all corrupt and chaotic and when they saw that they weren't selected by the
Dreamer for the great tasks of forming the world of
Aér'aí'chán they withdrew and hid far off. But these Darkwinds became
minions of Coór and when the Gods had
finished their work and their essence was contained in all things living, the
Darkwinds returned in order to bring destruction upon the world. However, the
power of the Gods within Aér'aí'chán resisted their ambitions and thus the
Darkwinds engulfed the world, circling around the lands chaotically since the
Beginning of Time in the everlasting struggle to conquer it with their dark
essence.
In the Cárpa'dosía various different Darkwinds are mentioned and it is likely
that they are innumerable. Their being is very uncertain and chaotic.
Nevertheless the elven myth hints at a certain amount of main Darkwinds which
are roaming the Aér'aí'chanían skies. It may sound rather strange but the
famous astronomer Cournan, who wanted to find a thoroughly scientific explanation for the
movements of the stars, indeed confirmed the content of the passages of the
elven myth mentioning the Darkwinds. Cournan observed "mysterious, more or
less regular movements of stars. The stars are following a weird, chaotical but
to a certain degree somehow regular, yea, even symmetrical scheme"
("About the Movement of the Stars", Vol. III, p. 23, published in 1041 b.S.).
Cournan connected the sixteen most brightest stars to the main wind
directions (N, NNE, NE, NEE, E etc.), and this way unconsciously also related his
theories to elven mythology. One of the final results of his researches was the
setup of the Cournanian Calendar,which
was introduced to the Erpheronians
after his death. Later on other astronomers, like the famous Movi Farseer,
described the movements of the Darkwinds in greater details. He called them
"paradoxically intertwining, but not contradictory", a statement,
which is still subject of discussion at the University of New-Santhala, not
only among the astronomers, but also among the greatest philosophers of the
realm. On the other hand Santharian astronomers observe and take it
for more or less granted that the main Darkwinds continually circle around the
world of Aér'aí'chán from all possible directions. They mainly flow from each
of the 16 main directions, making the night sky drastically different from day
to day, or from month to month.
As has already been mentioned the elven myth only hints at the existence of a
certain amount of main Darkwinds, but explicitly names only a few.
It is also written there that the seemingly chaotic turns of the Darkwinds are
part of a greater order and constitute cosmological harmony. They flow above and
below Aér'aí'chán, along the edge of the encircling Etherial
Void, in the area in between what is real and what is unreal, thus
accounting for the great beauty and luminescence of the Star
Constellations they chase. Because of
the fact that elven mythology is related strongly to ethics and aesthetics, the
mentioned Darkwinds in the Cárpa'dosía
also bear the names of malices, of
deeds guiding away from the path of Avá and Her supreme beauty which is
reflected in the world. The names of the missing malices for the main Darkwinds
not mentioned in the Cárpa'dosía were later on given by elven sages. The
Auratic Winds, those winds which had not become gods and lived within all
things existing from the Beginning of Time, on the other hand were given the names of virtues.
Information provided by
Artimidor
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