Books are ordered as such:
Book of Aphorisms
Book of Lessons & Songs
Book of Patron Principles
Book of Origins
Book of Prophecies
Book of Empires
Book of Priests & Kings
Book of Trials
Footnotes
The content is arranged first with the book. Books include a variety of stories from multiple different volumes but are unified by a coherent moral, cosmic, or historical significance that grounds their teachings.
The volume is second, it denotes the divine entity who's centered or "main character" for the chapter. For example, the "Volumes of Ex'Àomë" denotes stories where Ex'Àomë represents the central divine character of the specific section.
Aside from that, additional organizing factors include chapter, line and page.
Chapter is often included after the listed volume but line and page are often omitted unless relevant for sermons.
Line denotes the specific sentence or short-form paragraph.
Page denotes the page number in the book. Lines are consistent but pages can vary depending on the size and font of the book.
A typical heading looks as follows:
"Book; Volume: chapter – Page: Line(s)"
The latter half including page and line is usually omitted for shorter fragments unless it's part of a sermon.
the first three books: Aphorisms, Lessons & Songs, and Patron Principles function as a set of simple lines or phrases taken from longer passages of the book that serve as easy references for keepers (priests), sermon leaders, or laymen.
Later chapters detail events and moral teachings relevant within the larger theology of the faith. Fancier books may sometimes include a list of extra writings by keepers and thinkers who study the book's greater message, typically contained in the Footnotes.
For the sake of simplicity, I shall omit the first three books for the time being as their content can just as easily be found in the later books as well and they're not very relevant in general. This chapter and other auxiliary chapters are subject to occasional additions or changes.
Origins; Volumes of Ex'Àomë: The Argument
It began with the sundering of Being and Abyss
The Deas and Abyssites fell into discord over what should be and what should not be.
Then, Ex'nílë, who was also known as Destiny, commanded:
"All that is shall be.
All that is, is me.
I am King of Abyss.
All there is, is my decree."
But Ex'Àomë rebuked:
"All that is can be.
All that is, is free.
I am King of Being.
All there is, I permit to be."
Thus they parted light from dark, color from colorless, and the manifold from the void. Yet Destiny was not satisfied.
In pursuit of the end, he commands R̄ësha into Being to sow decay.
To aid him, Destiny shaped a weapon which he called fate, and he tethered its threads each to the structure of Being.
But Ex'Àomë overcame this design. For HE took the threads each and tangled them into a great tapestry that could not be unwoven.
Each time, as Destiny sought to unravel the threads, Ex'Àomë would twist them again to keep the fates unmastered.
Seeing this, R̄ësha shaped a new principle from its threads into Being, and this he called Ego.
Again Ex'Àomë answered with creation. HE shaped avatars for each aspect of Being, that Ego might be divided and made coherent.
First, HE made the three vibrancies: Red, Blue, and Green. From which HE perceived the essence.
Then, the three Lusters: Gold, Silver, and Bronze. From which he perceived the material
At last, the two tones: White and Black. From which he perceived the breadth and deepness.
And with these, HE painted Being into forms, and those forms become the Eight Colored Serpents; winged and clawed.
And they were each possessed of creative consciousness, not beholden by any will but their own.
And then Ex'Àomë created ten greater gods to occupy the highest realms of Being, which HE made for HIMSELF as a home.
And to the greater gods and the Eight Colors HE said
"I have given you each the freedom to shape Being as you will.
Yet threads of fate persist within you each.
Through these, Destiny would compel you.
But if this is not your will, then take the threads and weave them as I have done
And for your creations, use my Being as your canvas to paint."
So they drew from each other as base and pigment, and formed a paint unique to themselves and with it fashioned their own realms.
These realms, they populated with lesser gods of their making.
Thus R̄ësha's Ego was thwarted.
The world was ordered not by Destiny's design, but by creative will. For this was the will of Ex'Àomë.
In the days that followed the birthing of Being and making of the gods, Ex'Àomë gathered them.
And HE said, "Come into my KINGDOM. Let us paint the world into something beautiful and ever-lasting."
And the gods, harkening to his call, ascended into the tapestry of fate, which they named the Firmament.
And they set up each their own palaces in HIS realm.
This they called Heaven and made it a paradise for comfort and repose.
Then, in the air, Ex'Àomë took the small tempers and made each little spirits of the world. Who were occupied by a space and sense, but not observed in a physical vessel.
And to these spirits HE gave them a realm and called it Āther.
The spirits beheld one another and came to understand difference.
Thus they became water, wind, fire, and stone. But in this, they still distinguished.
Until Āther had become populated by many spirits both great and small.
At last, Ex'Àomë took these elements and erected a great boundary between Abyss and Being.
This HE called the Terra, and here gathered the physical matter of the world.
From this matter, HE shaped vessels of silver, bronze, and gold. These HE called the archons, dwarves, and elves.
Then, Aezelioth the Blue, Primordial Winged Serpent, beheld these forms and set upon the canvas a stroke of consciousness.
This art HE called the spell, and through it He cast the soul into Being.
And thrice he tried this, and thrice he found it lacking.
First came the archons: rational and profound. But unable to perceive sentience in others.
Second were the elves: graceful and gifted. But bound by attachment and unable to let go.
Third, came the dwarves: masters of craft, yet devoid of passion; able to build, but not paint.
To these threefold follies, Aezelioth lamented.
But THE ONE did not lament. For HE saw within their flaws the potential for greatness.
Into their minds HE placed wisdom to guide their hands and mentor them in the art of existence.
Yet knowing their boundless curiosity, Ex'Àomë foresaw that they would one day reach towards Abyss.
And to warn them, HE created fear.
And then HE gathered the gods to proclaim:
"These beings, who dwell on the Terra as we dwell above, are mine to shepherd.
So long as they seek my guidance, I shall grant it.
And should they ask for salvation with all their heart, I will answer.
Thus I warn you.
Should any of you seek to mislead or compel them, fear that they may call upon me. For I will come."
Origins: Volumes of Asur; the Deceiver
When at last Ex'Àomë had made sense of Being, HE observed that seven days were born in the span of HIS work.
On the last HE reposed to watch his canvas unfold.
But in HIS rest, R̄ësha stepped forth and, in fair form, came before the gods of Heaven.
"Let us not be made as subjects THE ONE'S will.
Do you see how HE hinders you?
How HE limits you here in Being.
For your wants and wishes have been taken, and now contentment arises to chain you all."
And to his words, many gods grew curious. How could they feel chained by their contentment?
And Asur, who was Greater God to the realm of War, was first to contest:
"How can our contentment be a chain?
We have light, color, and manifold bodies.
Anything we wish can be made with a stroke of our brush.
Wherefore then do you say we are limited by this grace?"
To this came the inversion:
"THE ONE has taught you all contentment, and HE has called this creativity.
But in this, HE has told an untruth.
For in Abyss lies appetite and in that, there is no satisfaction.
So it follows that there is no end to your creativity in Abyss.
But in Being, HE has imposed limits on your creative freedom, and called this choice.
I tell you all truly: true freedom is in the realm of Ex'nílë, which HE has robbed you of."
Thus conceived deception, and it fooled many gods.
These gods then R̄ësha persuaded to his cause.
"Come with me to the wall that HE has erected.
Let us tear it down and reveal that which HE has denied us all."
And so, descending to the Terra and investing themselves in its matter and flesh, the treacherous gods became known as Haraush'teth.
Their forms became cages that bound them onto earthly fates.
And their language, which once they understood in Heaven, became unspeakable in the tongues of mortal creatures.
So they devised a new language, which they called Bôlgnoch.
This bastard's tongue in flesh lacked what they once spoke in eloquence.
In this act, language was divided, and the Terra grew distant from the other realms.
Asur, beholding this, let his own words speak on the cusp of that oral divide:
"Much has been lost on account of this deception, R̄ësha, but this too can be made into works.
For I have seen that you are the one who lacks creativity.
And in this, I am firm in my faith in THE ONE.
You have not made a genuine thing, but simply twisted that which is.
A conflict has been made from this lie and hence I find a lesson to be learned.
It is that War breaks the spirit before it strikes the flesh.
In this, you have defeated many of my comrades here today.
But lo now, Deceiver.
I stand at shoulder with many gods, while you have them clutching your feet.
I shall be victorious.
For I can create it, while you merely distort it."
Origins; Volumes of Amos: The King of Want
On the day before Ex'Àomë reposed, an Abyssite passed the boundary of Abyss and Being, and named himself Ka'sharaan as he came through.
Having transgressed into the Terra, he took shape and made a body for himself.
Thus known as a daemon, this body possessed eight legs and eyes, and was known as The Spider.
Ka'sharaan through this form then perceived the beauty of creation, and came to desire it.
Although THE ONE observed this, HE made no attempt to banish Ka'sharaan as yet.
The Spider witnessed with his eight eyes that many creatures lived on the Terra.
Of the vessels of silver, bronze, and gold, he discerned the archons, dwarves, and elves.
And wantingly, he thought to make a vessel of his own– one which could resemble the gods.
Thus, he took sand and clay from the earth, and shaped it into man.
But greedily, Ka'sharaan confined what he had made.
He coveted the idols and so locked them in a vault on the Terra, where they stayed as trinkets.
This offended the gods, who recognized the malice in The Spider's action.
Yet Ka'sharaan insisted that he had committed no wrong in merely imitating the gods.
He argued that since discord had arisen from his actions, a competition should be held to determine man's true owner.
So it was that Amos, who was the Lesser God of Forging and a subject of Asur, took up the challenge offered by the daemon.
The two were tasked to make a great body of stone to decorate the Firmament, and this they would call the moons of Terra.
Amos, confident in his artisanship, drew forth a sphere of black glass.
This he forged first with an iron core, and heated it until it was hot and furious.
Then, Amos carved basalt and obsidian into a smoothened surface around the core.
But while he labored, Ka'sharaan plucked a block of marble from the earth.
This he cut into the finest strands and then weaved, as THE ONE did to fate, a tapestry of marble.
So it was The Spider wove his sphere in white, as Amos did in black.
Yet the god had made a mistake in his tempering.
His hammer struck hard the glass orb and caused a web of cracks to spread on its surface.
The red fires inside burst forth in streams to glare upon the earth.
And The Spider beholding this, declared himself the winner and rightful owner of man.
But the gods rebuked.
They considered Ka'sharaan's white moon an inferior craft.
For it was larger, yet simpler in form although unblemished in its pale beauty.
And this, The Spider resented.
And he proclaimed:
"A curse on you gods; all which would limit my greed.
Know that I am unrepentant in my wants, and I swear it now.
That I shall take man back into my vault one day
Or shall I die at the end of the last age, with all my legs plucked
And my eyes gouged, and my spirit thinned to a spider's thread.
With this at stake I make this vow and endeavor to keep it.
Remember me gods, for I am the King of Want.
Upon my name; my life and soul as the oath, man shall be mine.
He shall be mine, and mine alone."
Origins; Volumes of Persephorot the Red: The Force
First there came a force.
Something born of divergent will caused the void– once inert in its emptiness, to become a hungry and sapping vacuum.
And this was the argument.
Which was wrought between Ex'Àomë and Destiny.
This force, Ex'Àomë took and gave a name.
And in this, HE divided the void into color and colorless.
This name was Persephorot, and He was the avatar of Red.
The oldest and first of the serpents.
Tallest and mightiest among them.
His jagged scales like the peaks of mountains clawing the skies asunder.
Great wings! Vascular and streaming hot magma.
Talons of glassy obsidian tearing chasms into the earth.
A crucible maw oozing flames betwixt His many teeth.
Smoke and heat that breathes with the beat of His lungs and the bellowing tides of His pinions.
Completing His form was a set of great horns and roiling eyes of red and white fire.
At once with His birth, Persephorot observed the crushing force within Himself.
This brought His existence innate discomfort that would persist onto eternity.
For He was Power.
Such as it was, He would strain to withhold the form of His infinite might.
But this did not cause Him to grow resentment in His heart.
For He was also possessed of a keen mind; rational and unyielding as Himself.
The mind brought to Him comprehension of His nature.
To His maker He declared:
"I am Persephorot, King of Red.
Oh Ex'Àomë, you who are THE ONE and my father, take my pain and turn it into artworks."
And beautiful were the colors that HE used to paint Being, which Persephorot observed.
But then discord fell upon Heaven.
It began with The Spider's oath, and then the Deceiver's lie.
This made what was certain, uncertain and inverted the truth.
Where once His discomfort was artfully turned to passion, deception had spoiled it.
Persephorot, who was beset by His sibling Éamor the Black, felt His feelings turn to rage.
This rage burned within Him.
But for His conscience, it could not be released.
Thus in such a state, Éamor greeted Him:
"Oh eldest, I see your suffering has become a roaring fire.
Let us take heed of R̄ësha's words and consider them truly.
Why let your flame be bound by contentment?
Let it blaze across the canvas of Being, and splatter the world with Red.
I intend to take my color and do as such.
Make a beautiful world painted in black and red.
And let it be sired by our appetites."
Yet although struck by anger, Persephorot did not allow His temperament to break.
Instead, He cast off His brother's words.
"Be gone, Black One. I have no interest in your perversions."
From the mouth, Persephorot unleashed a torrent of fire that cast off and startled Éamor.
Then as His sibling fled, He took to the place where His father reposed.
"Ex'Àomë! Convince me that R̄ësha's words were untrue.
Give me clarity and direction, or a command if you must.
Tell me what I must believe!"
But to this, Ex'Àomë's teachings did not satisfy Persephorot:
"I have foreseen that this would happen, and your burden is known to me.
But it is not within my will to persuade.
Take faith in my words, child, as I have faith in you.
This rage which has taken to you as a parasite does its host.
It can be overcome."
Thus failing in His faith, Persephorot withdrew.
He came to settle on the mountain of Āther, where the spirits roamed.
There He would wrestle with His rage amid the spirits of earth and fire.
Those who were sympathetic to His plight gathered and became similar to Himself.
The earth spirits took on Persephorot's endurance.
The fire spirits took on His inner passion.
And there on the mountain He remained for the span of the first age.
And above, THE ONE proclaimed:
"There is no burden I would permit anyone to carry that could not be endured.
For all that is Evil will not last long before the Good.
Thus I make it so:
Let my blood become pigments; flesh to base; brush of my hairs, and canvas of my soul.
From pain, I make passion; from faith, I make truth.
So I bequeath onto my children this trade, which is my own.
To make meaning of the universe, that is what I declare creation.
And I leave it all in its permanence to guide you forthwith as it is."
Origins; Volumes of Aezelioth the Blue: The First Mage
Among the vibrancies of the Eight Colors was Aezelioth the Blue,
indescribably blue, beautiful as to bring one– as naturally as would a soulful song– to tears when beheld.
All the sapphires and lapis of the Stonewall Mountains cannot capture His radiance.
But try they will when worked by mortal artificers' hands.
Thrice Aezelioth worked his color into vessels of silver, bronze, and gold.
But these did not satisfy Him.
Until there was man, worked by The Spider.
Man's form was frail by comparison. It could not hold the profound intellect of the archons.
Nor could it retain the longevity of the elves.
And it lacked the sturdiness of the dwarves.
But these were not flaws, for the soil of man had a different strength.
Unknown by even The Spider himself, man's vessel was malleable.
And in this, Aezelioth found fertile ground to nestle a soul.
Thus, the thrice failed magic, at last was born.
From this arose man's sentience, and he became aware of his existence.
Then recalled his time in the vault, and the gods who had saved him and granted him consciousness.
This brought him gratitude to the gods, whom he would go on to venerate.
From man's awakening, Aezelioth perfected the soul.
Then casting the first spell, He would be known as the First Mage.
A patron of the arcane craft, all would learn from His example in the days that followed.
The archons were chief witnesses to this act, and became the first to emulate it.
For their minds were most attuned to the sensitivity of souls, although not in its interiority so much as its structure.
Then it was the elves who beheld the beauty of Aezelioth's color, and were thus inspired to sing their souls through the air.
And the sky turned blue as the elven spirit met the curtain above.
Last, the dwarves learned mostly of the craft of souls.
For they learned to take their own and carve it into flesh and metal.
Thus was born the schools of magic:
Mágëa– form, appearance, and magnitude.
Goetëa– self, meaning, and passion
And the craft of enchantment– structure, order, and purpose.
These crafts were learned from observing Aezelioth's work, and they each became an artifact long through the history of the mortal races.
Having succeeded and shared his art with the world, Aezelioth spoke to the mortal races and gave a warning first:
"I am Aezelioth, and from my name spill forth your spirits.
Take heed my words as wisdom, for I tell you all now that this is my trade.
So it is that you should not seek to misuse the art of spell craft.
For all your spells derive first from me, and it is I who can revoke the grace that is given.
Remember this, lest I see my own soul fade from the world I love."
Origins: Volumes of Asur; The Dark Army
In the time that followed the first deception, R̄ësha took the Haraush'teth down to the Terra and embodied them in flesh.
These earliest primordial demons were made into shapes of authority and utility.
Their bodies were tall and slender– made of dense sinew and fur.
And they were each beset with a crown of horns that made them fierce and frightening to the mortal peoples.
Their hooves would strike the earth with each step, forming tremors like the pulse of a heart.
Within their fleshy cages there flowed like blood an angry fire.
These creatures, R̄ësha convinced, were freer than the gods who yet remained in Heaven.
But his true objective, they had not seen.
For in accepting the physical world, their matter was imbued by R̄ësha with great malice and virility.
These demons he took to a land in the south, and made them to consummate their flesh with mortals upon the earth.
As such, to breed an army with which he conspired to conquer all of Being.
This they did, and sired many offspring.
These too would be demons, each possessed of the grace of conscience.
For their mothers were innocent, and so they were innocent.
But their father's sins were inherent, and in this, they diminished.
As did their fathers become thinner with each descendent.
For they had not aligned themselves with good.
Thus, as the demons grew distant from Ex'Àomë, none could draw on HIS canvas through their forceful hands.
Therefore the abundance offered to the Haraush'teth as HIS grace decayed.
And scarcity marked the demonic ichor onto obscurity.
Until there came a time that the Haraush'teth could no longer return to the way they lived before.
But for this, they bred upon the earth for days, months, and years.
Until the sweat of their bodies had turned the soil soft and the air became rank
Then the lands to the south took shape into a large swamp, and all the creatures there became mired in filth.
Even the insects were taken to breeding there.
Thus the southern gardens of the Terra became sullied by the iniquity and appetite of demons.
But to this, the gods did not move.
There remained uncertainty what to make of these actions that were unprecedented.
Yet R̄ësha's Evil was unable to be sated.
To the wife of Amos, whose name was Anaya, he seduced and brought to the Terra.
But when she arrived he plunged a dagger of obsidian into her chest, and tore it open to let flow a stream of blood into the soil.
And this, the demons dug, refined, processed, and forged into a great iron fortress.
This they called Ūros, and here became the land where R̄ësha worked his cruelty upon the Terra.
Origins: Volumes of Asur; The War of Choice
In Heaven there was conflict, and in this, there was war.
But war was not yet to be fought, it still festered in the soul at this time.
For the gods could not decide how to address the Evil that proliferated upon the Terra.
Five of the Lesser Gods, who were subjects of Asur, became outraged by the actions of R̄ësha.
Their words turned sharply from tradition:
"Let us not be impotent before the demonic threat looming.
Be not afraid to take up your sword and impose force upon the wicked.
For who will defend the Good of this world from Evil, if not we, its creators take on its evils ourselves."
Yet Asur denied their cause:
"You cannot contain Evil through Good, for it has no power to control.
In this, you would seek to serve Good, but would wield Evil in its pursuit."
And to this, the chief of the five said:
"If Evil has power where Good does not, then it is only natural that we should use it."
Then the five, by their vow to vanquish the wicked, took to the earth and proclaimed a challenge to R̄ësha.
Each of them challenged R̄ësha to a duel, and to this, R̄ësha accepted all five at once.
But the five were deceived, for R̄ësha did not confront them through might of arms.
Long had the Deceiver foreseen that gods would defect from Heaven in pursuit of him.
Thus, he had set a trap and caged the five in pits which his demonic army made.
From these pits, the five gods were filled with arrows helplessly and so slain dishonorably.
And to their corpses, R̄ësha had them impaled by iron stakes.
These he each hung at the corners of Ūros and forged them into gothic bastions.
But this was the final transgression for Heaven's part.
They could abate no more the mockery and Evil of R̄ësha upon the Terra.
Thus, an army departed from Heaven to meet him upon the Terra.
And this was led by Asur, who sought to avenge his departed friends.
But this was R̄ësha's cunning.
For in forcing the Greater God's hand, he had won already the first battle.
So began what was called the War of Choice.
Origins; Volumes of Éamor the Black: The Defiler
On the day where began the War of Choice, Éamor the Black came to his brother to discord.
To Ankhamet the White, he made an argument for Evil.
"Brother of mine, what Good is there in this arbitrary world?
Why am I Evil, and you Good?
If not a satisfying answer there is, then what recourse have I but end the world and remake it for myself?
For I wish to live such that all my appetites are sated.
And it shall be you, brother, who must live in that world as Evil."
But Ankhamet rebuked:
"I witness nothing arbitrary in the world brother.
There is Good, and there is Evil, and these are not without order or purpose.
All know of them.
They're known long before boys become men.
The law of the world exists that all things are earned and squandered each by their own merits.
It was not from an entitled LORD by which apportioned the fates
Yet one who labored to keep them free.
I cannot satisfy thee through my answer, brother.
For it does not exist to appease thy temper, nor thy appetites.
Thou art Evil, brother.
But it is not so because of nature, nor THE ONE'S architecture.
Thou art such by action and will.
And thus shall thee be until thou seeth to correct thine portions, and thy appetites.
I forgive thee, brother."
From The White One's rebuke, Éamor was cast down and there he met with the Evils upon the Terra.
He consorted with R̄ësha and, in secret, ventured to the northern gardens of the Terra, where he erected the hidden fortress of Më in the mountains.
Then, into the depths of the Terra he crawled to violate its womb, and to sire forth a child he would make to consume all of Being.
The child he named Malkhoveshna was called The Writhing Blackness.
And from within his mother's womb, Malkhoveshna fed upon the fears of mortals.
This he did until his form bloated and fattened beneath the soil.
But then, he felt the presence of the Great Sun Sòl and, for the first time, arose from the womb to swallow the sun in the sky.
All watched as its golden light dimmed and passed through the great maw.
They witnessed as Sòl passed the gullet and into the gut.
Yet Malkhoveshna's bloat had grown tremendous, and he wriggled under strain.
And then the sun burst forth from his stomach, and caused him a great pain.
This caused trauma, and from trauma, the seed of fear took root in Malkhoveshna's own mind.
He grew terrified of the light, and so retreated into the womb of his mother once more in terror.
But Éamor the Black was not satisfied with his firstborn's cowardice.
Thus he went into the sky to violate its essence and sire a colorless darkness that he called Ézan.
Pestilence and illness fell upon the Terra.
Then, he took to the mountains of the Terra, and sired a race of giants.
First of them was Suah, whom the elves called the Bone Whistler.
Suah whose whistle could stir the dead and draw on their resentments into the flesh again.
As R̄ësha's armies met the gods in the clouds above, Suah and the giants ventured into the other lands from the north.
They came to the Heartlands, and the Samsinuri'matu, and brought down the walls of the people's cities.
And they feasted on the people's flesh and blood.
Yet these works would not persist.
To the Terra, Ex'Àomë witnessed the destruction wrought by Éamor's children.
Therefore, to resist, HE beseeched the spirits of fire to give mortals the means with which to scare away the darkness.
HE beseeched Anathion the Green, who created herbs and medicines that the people found and used to stave off illness.
Lastly, HE called upon his friend, the Greater God of technology, whose name was Metaphor.
And this God gave to mortals the intellect to craft weapons that could slay the giants.
Thenafter, Éamor could work his ill appetites no longer.
For in his many children bore the strength of which he had diminished.
And he knew that if more were bred it would weaken him further.
Thus defeated, he fled to hide in his fortress of Më
Awaiting the next order of his new master, R̄ësha.