The First People of the World

When the world was young, when the Ice and the Great Snows still held the earth, before speech had been born, we wandered endlessly until we found this place. It was a good place, a land with thick forests, with mighty streams, with godly mountains, and much game to feed our hungry bellies. And so we settled the land.

We were the first ones here, and for a long time, the only ones. This was a time when there was no word for killing, no word for evil, and the hearts of everyone were gentle and pure. And then we invented a wonderful thing, we called it the First Speech, for we were the Vadi, the First People of the world.

But then the Ice and the Great Snows returned, as did the endless winter our forefathers suffered. We pleaded to Father Sun, who had withdrawn his warmth from us, to drive away the Ice and the Great Snows once more. And then Father Sun showed mercy unto us, and once again he drove out the Ice and the Great Snows and banished them to the Kilmay Rī. But from the Black Mountains beyond a new people came. They did not speak the First Speech, for they were not the First People. These were a people whose hearts bore great evil. They called themselves the Peshpega'a, and when we first met them, they hurled great stones and sharp sticks at us. We had never seen these things before, but we gave them a name, we called them "weapons". And so the Earth began to fill with evil.

They pushed us out of our lands and took our foods and our waters from us. We used to worship the trees, but now they cut them all down and they made great gashes across the land. We fled deeper into the forests, but they were greedy, and so they cut down more trees, and they took away more land, and they took many of our lives as well.

Father Sun saw us and took pity on us, and so he sent another people, they called themselves the Ín Duári. The Peshpega'a forgot about us, and they went north to fight the Ín Duári. Sometimes the battle would go to the Ín Duári, other times to the Peshpega'a. And so it went on like this for a thousand cycles.

When we met the Ín Duári, they showed us how to hammer the rock and heat it so its blood would flow. They showed us how to trap the rock's blood and make it cool till it hardened. They showed us how to hammer the cooled blood and shape it. This is how we learned to make metal, and this is how we learned how to make tools and weapons.

But once again, the Black Mountains sent another people, they came across the Great Waters and landed on the coast. They started marching north, whereupon they discovered us, and they decided to make war against us. We resisted as best we could, but their weapons were mightier, and so we fled to the north and the west, towards the Kilmay Rī where Father Sun had banished the Ice and the Great Snows. We hid amongst the rocks and on the cliffs. We watched a great war break out in the land beneath us. The new people, who called themselves the Corrádi, were many in number, and had weapons mightier than we had ever seen. After driving us out, they attacked the Peshpega'a and subdued them, and they went north and found the Ín Duári, and they cut them down in great numbers.

And this is how the Corrádi Empire began. They became quite numerous in number, and so they built many great cities, all gilt with gold and bejewelled with fine gemstones. They continued to kill many Peshpega'a and many Ín Duári, and then they turned towards the mountains where we hid and found us. They killed many of the First People and made slaves of all the rest, just like they did to the Peshpega'a and the Ín Duári. Life became for our people very dark.

The Corrádi Empire reigned for thousands of cycles. And all this time they kept us in our cages like dogs so that we could serve them, to dig up their gemstones to adorn themselves, to hew boulders for their great buildings, to cook their food, to carry them on our shoulders, and to serve as their entertainment.

And then they came. They came in great numbers, on great beasts that ran like lightning. They burned and pillaged everything, and because of them, great Corráda fell.

This is how the new people, the ones who call themselves the Minhast, came to rule the land.