chapter 1

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mythos

Scholars disagree on Razarath’s creation. There is fierce debate whether Razarath created Siablan or not. Thus, the story of Siablan is divided into four distinct doctrines; taught in the different corners of the world. The story of early Siablan is both history and religion. All four doctrines agree on three things: Razarath created the Presalla and the four Gods, the Gods created the Deities and Crysalla, and the four Gods sealed Razarath away in Zarasi.

*The Ancient language of Razarath and their children, Ra’arria, has been lost to time. It is said that every word spoken was laced with power. Only its powerful runes remain, to be used in spellwork.

The Eastern Doctrine

East, the eldest, is known for upholding tradition and history. It should come as no surprise that East’s doctrine is both the closest to what their parent would say if they were here today, and the longest and most extensively documented. It is known as the Eastern Doctrine.

• In East’s version of the story; Razarath hatched from the earth the way all Crysalla do. Razarath then lived their life alone and afraid, always fleeing from the newest danger. As they grew, they came into incredible magical power, and realized they were unique on Siablan. With that realization, they became incredibly lonely, having no one to talk to; nor any words to speak with.
• Razarath traveled from Siablan to each of the 27 moons in succession, searching for life. They found some, but nothing complex, let alone sapient. From the moons, they traveled to each of the nine planets in Nasira’s system, and found them empty and inhospitable to life entirely. They returned to Siablan in disappointment.
• Back on Siablan, Razarath began to experiment with their own powers. After great failures, Razarath successfully brought crystals to life! Their methods are unknown, as to this day no God will share the secret of creating crystalline life. Razarath had created the Presalla, fashioned in their own image.
  • *It should be noted that Razarath called their children the Ra’thazi’i, as Presalla is a modern Sialli term that the Crysalla have chosen for them.
• The Presalla were incredibly powerful; though nothing close to Razarath themself. Razarath sent their children forth into the world, encouraging them to multiply. The Presalla did as they were intended; and so much more. Razarath made their home in the southern pole of Zarasi.
• The Presalla constructed kingdoms. They formed hierarchies; ancient lineages that passed down for generations. The Presalla invented incredible magical technological advancements; ones long lost to modern Crysalla. The Presalla invented an enchanted metal called Rah’vshi, capable of cutting through solid metal and even diamond, its smithing process lost to time. The Presalla flourished in Siablan’s harsh biomes, and Razarath was satisfied, for a time.
• Except the Presalla became unruly. As kingdoms rose; they conquered; and wars were fought across the globe. To Razarath’s incredible lifespan, it seemed as if their children had become corrupted overnight, although it had been millions of years.
• It was then that Razarath realized they needed to set order to their world; to construct emissaries of their will. They were powerful, but they were not omnipotent as some scholars will tell. Razarath created the four Gods, and imbued each with enormous elemental power. The Gods’ true names have now been lost to time, but in order of their creation, they would become known as East, West, North, and South, for those were the cardinal directions Razarath sent them in.
• And it worked, for a time. The Gods built their palaces, their cities, and conquered the Presalla kingdoms. Until the Presalla royalty, angry at having their crowns stripped from their heads, cast aside their blood feuds and united in rebellion against their new overlords.
• The wars between the Presalla and the Gods were bloody. Unable to control their own forces, the Gods created their own subjects, ones more magically powerful than the Presalla, the Rasa’ii, those who would come to be known as the Deities to the future inhabitants of Siablan.
• The Deities set forth to enact their Gods’ will. They harnessed the power of Siablan itself; forcing volcanoes to erupt, enormous storms to rage, earthquakes to tear the ground in two, and tsunamis to flood the cities. The Gods sat back and waited; confident in their victory; or participated themselves, tearing through Presalla ranks with deadly power.
• The Gods’ wars did not please Razarath. They had not authorized them to forge their own living creations; and were affronted that the Deities would do so, only to fight devastating wars in their own name. Razarath commanded them to stop, as more and more of the Presalla were slaughtered, their empires in ashes…
• The Gods say Razarath turned genocidal. They resolved to end all of them together, to eradicate every last one of them and start anew. What were millions of lives to a High God, that could create millions more of them at mere will?
• It’s said that when Razarath’s wrath became known, the sky went black, and the sun never rose until their defeat. Plants around the globe perished, and animals starved to death, and the Presalla were forced to consume one another to survive. This is known as the Dark Age, and it’s debated whether it lasted mere years or millennia. The Gods are so old that they’ve forgotten.
• As Razarath traveled the globe, death followed in their wake. The Gods grew fearful; knowing their days were numbered now that their immortal parent had tired of them. They united, and met Razarath in combat in the continent of Eyrikeris. The Gods were not strong enough to kill Razarath entirely, however they succeeded in severing their Soul Stone from their body and North sealed it in ice. Each God placed their own enchantment upon it, and the purple diamond was neutralized. The Gods then traveled to Zarasi and sealed their creator in an impregnable tomb, below their very fortress. East’s version claims they buried Razarath in Zarasi, to return them to the earth from which they spawned.
• With Razarath’s defeat, the sun rose once more. But the wake of the wars and Dark Age had left a permanent toll on the Presalla; forced to hunt one another in darkness for so long had turned them into mere animals, and they were unstable, volatile, and hostile. However, their numbers had dwindled to so little, they would never populate the globe again. The remaining beasts were hunted down by the Deities, driven away into Zarasi.
• The world was broken. Its once grand empires had fallen, its civilizations torn down. The Dark Age was the only known mass extinction to its surviving populace. The Gods had to rebuild, and they returned to their ruined corners of the world. A permanent storm now raged in the hot ocean west of Zarawari, which was entirely lifeless after the mass eruptions and drought, Eyrikeris had frozen over, Xianli’s mountains had broken apart, floating into the skies, and Vincai had been buried in the ashes of Vhagris.
• So the Gods rebuilt. They forged their own domains, creating their own children and setting them free. From their talons came the Crysalla as we know them today.

the western doctrine

West’s version of the story is notable for originating its various mythos, and harsher characterization of Razarath. It is known as the Western Doctrine.

• West was the first to posit that Razarath created Siablan itself, rather than the other way around. This version of events claims that Siablan, its moons, and the planets of the solar system come from stone growths from Razarath’s back itself. The waters of the world flow from their blood, and the magma heart their own molten mana.
• After Razarath created Siablan, they nurtured life as they saw fit. This was, of course, a world of monsters. Terrible, hulking beasts that hunted one another, enormous venomous serpents and arachnids, serpentine monsters that filled the seas and brought any to their watery grave.
• The Presalla were no different. Created not as companions, but slaves, they spread across the planet. The Presalla of the Western Doctrine are brutal, animalistic cannibals that hunted one another for sport and lacked any civilized society. They were magically unstable and volatile, and could level fields in their anger.
• Created in Razarath’s own image, the Presalla grew just as unruly. They rebelled against their totalitarian overlord, craving power and blood for themselves. They wished to feast on Razarath’s flesh, to absorb their mana and become gods of their world.
• Their grip upon their rule weakening, Razarath created the four Gods to enact their bidding. Exterminate their Presalla, they commanded, and you will rule as Gods in the new world. The Gods did as they were commanded, waging war against the masses. But the Gods were four, and the Presalla were millions. How could they hope to defeat such ruthless foes, when they outnumbered them so?
• And so, out of necessity, the Gods created their Deities. Loyal soldiers to fight Razarath’s war for them; and yet Razarath grew furious. Razarath roared that the Gods had overstepped, that they had tried to steal Razarath’s throne, and ushered in the Dark Age. Although the sky did turn black; the Western Doctrine posits that it was not Razarath’s own magic, but a result of their wrath nonetheless. As Siablan was borne of Razarath’s own body, its powers answered to their own emotions, and the supervolcanoes of Vhagris and Infieri erupted concurrently, setting off a chain reaction in the volcanic ring of Zarawari. The eruptions caused mass disasters worldwide; storms raged, earthquakes fractured the world in pieces, tsunamis flooded the lands, and most of all; the black ash of the eruptions amassed into thick clouds that blacked out the sky.
• The Dark Ages in West’s telling lasted a million years. They brought the planet to its heel. Razarath wanted total annihilation of all life on Siablan; to start anew not on this world, but another of the star system. The devastation and extinction was the same. Billions perished. Siablan came apart.
• The Gods had to end it. They had been afraid to challenge Razarath before, knowing they could not hope to best the creator of all in battle. They had to trick them. The story is the same, as it is in all of the doctrines, the Gods severed Razarath’s Soul Stone from their body and sealed it in the bowels of Zarasi. West’s version claims the Gods devoured Razarath’s physical body to absorb their divinity.
• The Gods labored hard to restore Siablan. They created the Crysalla to replace the dying Presalla, they built kingdoms and raised cities. From Razarath the world was born, but from the Gods the world was reborn anew.

the northern doctrine

North’s telling is the most religious. It’s distinct for its development and transformation of the Western Doctrine’s cosmology. It’s unknown whether North was simply meant to be a priest rather than a historian, or if they held some insight into the inner workings of the universe in their waters. It is known as the Northern Doctrine.

• In the Northern Doctrine, Razarath is unfathomably ancient, the sole creator of the universe itself. In the empty expanse of space, they severed their own body parts, piece by piece, and scattered them across the cosmos, where they would become the stars. Their limbs regenerated, of course, and they did it again, and they became the planets. And again, until they became the moons. Until the universe was full of worlds; and upon the most blessed of worlds, Razarath bled their blood onto their surfaces, bathing them in what would become the oceans.
• From the blood and body of Razarath, life began. And so Razarath traveled to each of their millions of planets, searching for that very life. It proved to only grow upon Siablan, and that is where Razarath turned their pale gaze. Under Razarath’s nurturing guidance, Siablan would become a thriving world, full of wild beasts of every size and shape.
• But Razarath wanted to test their power. From the crystals upon their back, they created the Presalla, enchanted beings to populate the planet. They did as all animals were wont to do; be fruitful and multiply. They spread across the whole planet, and built powerful kingdoms, and grand temples to their immortal God. The Presalla traveled the world, founded empires, waged war, and did it all in the name of their God.
• And Razarath was content. For a time. They fed upon their subjects’ loyal devotion. Until one fateful day, a Presalla came, preaching that they had seen the Truth, and that Razarath was no God. They peddled their lies; speaking of portals to other worlds, and of beings far, far, more powerful than Razarath. They claimed Razarath was only mortal, and that there is a single true God of all, and it was faceless.
• Despite these lies, the Preacher, as they’d come to be known, became more and more popular. They drew in crowds. They were hosted by emperors. And the Presalla believed them. More and more fell away from the Faith, and temples fell into disrepair, as new shrines grew to this Faceless God.
• At first, Razarath exercised restraint. I am simply too distant, too Other to them, they thought, and so they created the four Gods, to act as intermediaries between them and their errant children. The Gods spread to all four cardinal directions, displaying their elemental magic in droves, smiting the heathen worshippers in Razarath’s name, to prove their power. The Gods shook the earth, they purged the volcanoes, they raged storms, they flooded the lands, until all knew that Razarath was angry, and the one true God.
• But not all Presalla fell before them, repenting their foolish ways of being caught up in a charlatan’s lies. The Preacher only used these acts of the Gods as proof that Razarath was a cruel impersonator to the mantle, and that the Gods themselves were just as mortal as Razarath. They claimed the Gods could be killed, as could Razarath, and mounted their rebellion.
• The Gods were strong, but they could not stand against such a massive army. They created the Deities as their loyal soldiers, and imbued them each with elemental magics to overpower the Presalla. The Deities acted as they were commanded, waging war in the name of Razarath, Truth, and Justice, and Divine Will.
• But the Preacher was unnatural. From whatever dark powers they had delved into, they raised a second army of forbidden powers, that tore through the ranks of the Deities. The Gods wept as their children fell, and Razarath grew furious. Razarath resolved to end the world war; and to punish the Gods themselves for failing to do so.
• And thus the Dark Age began, lasting hundreds of thousands of years. It wasn’t only the sun, but every star in the universe that winked out. Even the beasts of the Preacher’s dark arts could not survive, and animals, plants, monsters, Presalla, and Deity alike fell by the droves. The Gods knew they had to end it. So they tried to bargain with Razarath, only to be denied. Razarath had disowned them; for they were failures, and thus no children of their own.
• The Gods knew they had to save their own children. With the pain of a parent watching their children slowly starve to death while they lived on, they plotted. They formulated a plan, and launched their attack. They severed Razarath’s Soul Stone from their body and sealed them in ice, entombing them in Zarasi forever, and will never share the secret of how they did it, in fear of their own subjects doing the same to them. North’s version claims they left Razarath’s physical body to rot, each taking their crystals for themselves.
• And so the Dark Ages ended, and the stars returned to the skies. The Gods rebuilt Siablan in their own images, and with it, new children. War machines weren’t needed anymore. They merely needed simple, loyal subjects. And so the Crysalla were born.
• Except North wasn’t satisfied with colonizing only the northern lands. The northern pole was the second smallest land in Siablan! From their own power, they created the Aquilla, to go forth and inhabit the waters. The Aquilla multiplied, until they inhabited all the waters of the world.
  • *It is notable in that this doctrine is the only one with mention to the Aquilla. It is otherwise accepted that they naturally evolved from the first Crysalla created by all the Gods. It is unknown if North is the true creator of them or not. The Aquilla themselves are divided, largely between the Northern and Southern hemispheres.. 
• But Razarath is a divine, immortal, omnipotent being. Razarath could not possibly be killed! It is whispered that they will escape one day; and no planet in the universe will be safe from their wrath.

the southern doctrine

South’s retelling is…well, musical. It’s mainly sung, in multiple, long ballads. It’s not a single story, but a series full of individual stories that are ever growing. The Southern Doctrine is a mix of hymns, ballads, and fictionalized stories about heroes in the beginning of history. It is unknown if any of these characters were truly real; especially since the stories seem to change in every edition. The Crysalla of Siablan deride the Southern Doctrine as fantasy mythos, written by a God and their children who would prefer to sing heroic songs than record any historical events.

• In South’s telling, Razarath is an otherworldly being entirely. They fell through their own plane of reality into our own, the plane where one goes when shifting. It is the only doctrine in which Razarath is not the only one of their kind. This tale favors an underdog story, in which Razarath was an outcast in their reality. They set forth to carve their own world, where they’d never be alone.
• Upon coming to our dimension, Razarath traversed the cosmos. Eventually, they set their sight upon Siablan, and made it their own. From their back they broke off crystals and imbued them with life, creating the Presalla. They sent their children forth into the world, and surrounded themself with doting subjects in Zarasi.
• The Presalla loved Razarath, as they had never been loved before. They built temples in their honor, monuments in their image, cities under their rule. Cities turned into kingdoms, and kingdoms into empires, all claiming to bear the blessing of Razarath. It is here that the story becomes tangential, following multiple Presallan monarchs of unknown validity, stories of love and war, conquest and betrayal. It is best to cut out the fat of these stories. The sole story arc is long enough as it is, when told in its entirety. South is not known for their brevity.
• Razarath had a world…but the Presalla were a problem. They had naturally unstable magic, and volatile personalities. A single mood swing could level a town. They grew tired of the petty wars Presalla fought over what Razarath believed were slights, and so they created the four Gods to govern. They sent their new children forth to the four corners of the world. The story here branches into four different volumes of the Gods’ individual travels and conquest. It notably introduces a paramour for North, who dies tragically, though this is likely a work of fiction. None of the Gods have ever taken a mortal lover in reputable history; and they consider one another siblings, so they have never had affairs with one another.
• That being said, all four tales spend a lengthy amount of time getting to the heart of the matter: the Presalla did not kneel to their new Gods easily. Around the world, they rebelled against the Gods’ rule, and the Gods found their own followers dwindling. The Gods then created the Deities, to fight their battles. The Deities brought upon natural disasters upon Siablan to smite their enemies, and the Presalla became emboldened in their crusades. The story branches further here, into multiple ballads about Deities. The most popularly sung is about a Deity called Tiiasi, who caused the Infieri itself to erupt. It is unknown if any of these Deities were real.
• Razarath was angry. Their plan to establish order upon their children was failing. They gave the Gods an ultimatum: that until they ended the wars, and brought peace upon the planet, they would drown the world in darkness. And so they did, and the Dark Age began. The Southern Doctrine has notably the shortest Dark Age; merely lasting 10,000 years. It’s rather ironic, considering its otherwise unnecessary and excessive length.
• The Dark Age did not bring peace upon the planet. It caused the mass extinction never before seen, and the story goes into various tragic laments about Presalla and Deities alike perishing in the everlasting night. The Gods were angered by Razarath’s retribution. They had only tried to do as they commanded, and now they were killing their children by the thousands! They reasoned that if they were to defeat Razarath, they would end the Dark Age, and so they came together and plotted.
• The story ends the same every time, with the Gods severing Razarath’s Soul Stone from their body and sealing it away in Zarasi. The Southern Doctrine claims Razarath’s mortal body was tossed into the Infieri itself.
• With the sun and stars returned, the Gods returned to their own domains, and created their own subjects, the Crysalla, to replace the dwindling population. There’s a lovely song about the creation of the Crysalla, part of which has become a rhyme for children.