A New Mythology--Oramon--Nomra and the Living Dark

   In the internal depths of Oramon, Nomra’s kingdom grew. Among her crystal forests and sculptured blocks of stone she grew new, strange plants for the dark spaces. Some of her new flowers gave light and some were made of living gemstones. She created also, great underground seas of water, molten gold, and milk.

   Before Denu and the wolves, and before she created her Night Light, she used Phiron’s fire to animate her first stone companion, Syn, who was cold and dead in aspect, but able to carve exquisite murals, statues, and hallways for Nomra’s expanding world. Phiron also helped her to make birds of sapphire and ruby that filled the halls with eerie music. She made, too, a steed of steel to carry her about her domain. It was named Sylo, and was like Phiron in form.

   Once, as Nomra rode Sylo to the edge of her demesne, she sought to form a new aviary for her birds. Phiron accompanied her, giving his light to reveal the dark that Nomra might form it as she pleased. But there was already someone there, asleep, as Neron and Nomra had slept in the shadow before light awoke them.

   Nomra drew back, startled and the dark swallowed the being up again before it could wake.

“What untold ancient one is this?” she wondered. “I have never seen the like.” Cautiously, she stepped forward again to reveal the being entirely.

   In her fear of new things, she subconsciously formed the dark as she revealed the new one, and in so doing, unintentionally disfigured the being.

   He opened his eyes and beheld Nomra.

   She was frightened by the terrifying aspect of the monster and turned her steed to flee.

   “Seem I strange unto thee?” he asked. “All is strange unto me. If I frighten you, let me veil myself.” And he took the darkness behind him and without Light, formed a covering for his many eyes and fluid limbs.

   “You create without Light,” Nomra marveled.

   “I have dreamed long and dreams are dark, their substance is real to me,” said the being. “The Dark is an insubstantial world, one of unending, unformed possibilities. The chaos of Night is not solid and can form and reform as it pleases.”

   “There is no need for such uncertainty,” Nomra said. “Let me show you the world of reality, of light and form and concrete beauty.”

   “I find true beauty in the abstract, yet you arouse my curiosity: show me these strange things you speak of,” the being said hungrily. 

   “What shall I call you, Strange One?" Nomra asked.

   "What wilt thou call me?”

   “Onys,” she said. “Of the Dark.”

    Onys nodded and approached Nomra. She led him into her kingdom and showed him the marvels thereof. Behind his veil of night, Onys’s eyes sparkled in delight.

   “These are indeed marvels,” said Onys. “I wonder what more marvelous things we could create in this half-light world of yours.”

   “Will you teach me how to create without Light?” Nomra asked.

   “It is not so much creation as suggestion,” Onys said. “To make things with Light is to bind the Dark. To weave Darkness is to teach it movement.”

   So together, Nomra and Onys made Urr, a great eye of living stone that could see far forward and far backward in time. They made also the Je, four winged maidens with long tongues like snakes.

Onys built a breathing throne of chaos in Nomra’s favorite crystal garden and from this blasphemous throne he perverted her creations.

   Onys unformed her jewel birds halfway, so that they were eternally changing shape, from one kind of bird to another and bats and other winged things that had no names. The breathing throne of chaos expanded to fill the crystal chamber and Onys let loose tendrils into other chambers. Eyes budded on the tendrils and soon he watched all that transpired in Nomra’s domain.

   At first Nomra did not mind the aberrant intrusion and expansion that filled her chambers with dreaded Darkness and seething malice. She was thrilled by the ever-changing, though horrifying madness of these new things. She did not mind that the unblinking tendril eyes of Onys watched her wherever she went and wept tears of blood when she bathed in the sea of milk.

   She did not even care that great hideous membranes grew between her stalactites and rained creeping things upon the stones.

   Phiron whispered to her, warning that Onys was a vile creature, that she should not let him conquer her domain. She did not listen. At first.

   She sought to form Darkness on her own, and shaped for herself the first true bats, but she could not bring them to life without the help of Onys. Frustrated, she sat beside the sea of molten gold, poisoned with the shifting chaos and sparkling eyes of Onys.

   “Nomra…” whispered Onys’s voice from a thousand hidden mouths. “Nomra…”

   Nomra stood and followed the hissing voices to where Onys waited on his throne of chaos.

   “Come to me, Nomra,” he said. “I desire you. Step into my throne and let me embrace you and enfold you in my murk.”

   Nomra held back as the Darkness seemed to tug at her. “I do not wish to,” Nomra said.

   “Do I not excite you?” enquired Onys. “Have you not thrilled at my intangible and ever inescapable pandemonium? Give yourself over to me, Nomra, let us be one in anarchy. Let the Dark change you as I have been changed, as you changed me, dear Nomra. Let me kiss you!”

   His tendrils of slime and membranes sought to pull her into his throne.

   Nomra screamed and pulled away as the churning mucus lapped at her feet and the sticky webs entangled her arms.

   “Phiron!” she cried. “Save me!”

   Phiron tried to reach her, but the Je intercepted him and herded him towards the edges of Light, where Darkness was supreme.

   “Do not touch me,” Nomra warned Onys, but he only laughed.

   “You cannot escape me,” said Onys.

   Nomra seized his webs of Dark that he sought to enwrap her in and used her new skill to reform them. They broke away from her and she fled from the throne into her chamber of sparkling flames. Onys sought to extinguish them with his eye-covered tentacles, but Nomra reformed the tendrils into solid things and with the faint flame-light, managed to freeze them into stone.

   Phiron had singed the Je and escaped from them. He rushed to aid Nomra and they solidified all of the Dark tendrils, tentacles, and creeping feelers and roots that extended from the throne. Then Nomra sealed up the throne in a cocoon of diamond. She left Phiron to blaze bight and keep the Darkness from emerging while she went to the surface to collect sunlight and fallen stars.

   When she returned to the sealed throne of chaos, she formed a cage of silver to contain her new Light. The first lamp, a dazzling Light, which she called Mihr, she hung outside the cocoon to ensure it remained sealed and kept Onys from emerging and bringing pandemonium to her demesne.

Then she and Phiron went through all the chambers and all the caverns and halls and froze the tendrils and closed the eyes and scrubbed the place clean of unformed Darkness. Syn chiseled away the solidified remains of Onys’s expansions and carted them off to a new pit, called Obis, that Nomra made for the purpose. She left Urr alone in its chamber, but sent Sylo to hunt down the Je, which she trapped in silver cages and hung above the gloom of Obis.

   With her new Underworld Light, Mihr, Nomra was at last able to give life to her shadow creatures. She brought her bats to life and sent them to slay all of her old birds that had been commandeered by Onys and then she formed new birds of diamonds and opals.

   She also made the wolves out of shadow and gave them life with the Light of Mihr.

   So Nomra won dominion over Shadow.

Nez and Onera

   Neron began to feel pangs of remorse for driving away Denu: Onera pined for him and their children had pleased Neron. Also the wives and husbands for the Children of Denu had not turned out so terrible. He had begun not to fear the creation of new beings, and hoped for their success, as of Nemrus and Ariaj whom he still favored.

   So Neron formed a new being with unique features and made him beautiful and named him Nez. Onera at first refused to keep company with Nez. Though he was wondrous to look upon and kind and full of mirth; she was still bitter that Denu had been driven away, and loyal to him, not knowing of his affair with Triona at the bottom of the sea.

   Nez was deeply in love with Onera. He longed to run her silky black hair between his fingers and kiss her reticent lips. He sought to win her heart, first with song, but his voice was not like Denu’s and she despised him for his attempts. So he sought to win her by playing artificially upon the instruments invented by her children. This, too, she despised.

   So he brought her bright things, flowers from the realm of Nemrus and colorful shells from the shores of Triona. He made the birds and animals caper for Onera, for the animals all loved Nez and his sweet disposition. Onera and animals had not smiled upon each other since that dark time when her soulless body had sucked the life from many creatures. So these displays did not please her. At last Nez asked Ner to help him impress Onera with words. But the florid constructions of poetic worship did not soften her disdain.

   Nez despaired of Onera ever loving him, but he could not stop loving her, for Neron had put it into him when he had created him. Ariaj, however, had watched him from the air, and her heart broke for him. She went in his behalf to Onera and begged her to have mercy on Nez.

   “Can you not see he is delightful,” said Ariaj. “He is perfect and adoring. Charm is in his every word. Look again, you will see what you have overlooked.”

   “I love another,” said Onera. “And my heart cannot be turned by all the pleasing things in the world, be they condensed artfully into one being by my vindictive father.”

   “You would hurt Nez on account of your father? On account of Denu?”

   “I will not betray Denu. Let Nez suffer. He is but another victim of Neron’s distrust.”

   “It cannot be easy for Neron,” said Ariaj. “He was alone at the first: alone with Nomra. How can he but distrust the new faces that spring into the world? He created Nez to please you. He is not born of spite or malevolence, but of mercy. He is trying to make it up to you.”

   “He should not have tried to take Denu from me,” said Onera, turning away.

   In the secret places of her heart, Ariaj was relieved. She loved Nez and now made her way to find him and distract him from his brooding.

   But Ner had found him first. Ner had taken the wine of Nerus and the perfume of Nom and concocted an elixir of befuddlement. He brought it to Nez and told him, “but let Onera drink of this, and she will be caused to love you fervently.”

   “How can that be?” asked Nez.

   “Ask not,” said Ner. “The miracle lessens with explanation. This is a gift for you, all I ask in return is that you may always smile kindly upon the Children of Denu.”

   “Always, good friend,” said Nez, taking the elixir and going in search of Onera. Onera had been collecting the fallen fruit of the golden apple trees and was weary and thirsty. Nez approached her with the drink and offered it.

   Onera was not pleased to see Nez, for his advances had become abrasive to her, but she grudgingly accepted his drink and swallowed it in a single gulp. Then the befuddlement took hold and she thought that Nez was Denu.

   “Denu!” she cried, throwing herself upon Nez in an ecstasy of tears. Nez was too startled and confused to be either delighted or questioning. “We must go, before Neron sees you!” said Onera, taking Nez’s hand and leading him down Amalteron to the sea. She called the sea beast and together they rode to Onerae, the island paradise. And Onera loved Nez, thinking he was Denu, and Nez could not help but be delighted and revel in euphoria, though he shivered with unease and horror when she called him by the wrong name.

   Ariaj searched in vain for Nez, not thinking to check long-abandoned Onerae, and she feared for him. But Ner told Neron what he had done, and Neron was delighted that Onera had at last accepted his gift of Nez.

   “I thank you, Ner,” said Neron, “for alleviating my daughter’s sorrow. You shall ever shine in my sight.”

   But before long, the elixir’s befuddling effects wore off and Onera saw that she had not been living on the island with her love, but with an impostor, with the accursed creation of mollification: poor Nez.

   “What have you done?” she screamed at Nez.

   “I have loved you,” said poor Nez.

   “You have deceived me: that is not love!”

   “I could not win your heart,” said Nez, “but Ner promised his elixir would turn it unto me. I did not mean to deceive you. I suspected all was not as it should be when you insisted upon calling me Denu, but in my weakness and delight, I did not question. Forgive me, I only ever wanted your love.”

   “You never had it, and you never shall,” said Onera. “Curse you! May no one ever bestow their love upon you, wretched thing.” And she called up the seamonster, the Nameless One and left Nez bereft upon the shore.

   Ariaj saw Onera alight upon the shore and went to her, for she saw that Onera was wroth.

   “What troubles you, dear one?” asked Ariaj.

   “That perfect and adoring creature you lauded has dealt wickedly with me,” Onera cried, fleeing into the forests below Amalteron. Ariaj immediately took to the air and flew to Onerae to look for Nez. She found him still on the beach, staring across the rippling waters over which Onera had fled.

He could not be cajoled into speaking, nor moving from that spot in the sand. As the tide drew nigh, Ariaj waxed frantic, lest he should be dragged away by the sea. She lifted him and he did not resist as she drew him up the island into the trees. She made for him there a shelter of boughs and every day brought him food from the mainland, but he would not eat and she was terrified that he would waste away.

   Meanwhile, Onera grew heavy with child and gave birth to twins, Eanez and Arathez. Onera had been determined to hate them and had prepared to hurl them from Amalteron upon their birth, but when she looked into their gentle golden eyes, she could not do it, for she loved them. She brought them to Neron for his blessing. Neron was delighted and gave them his favor and attention above the Children of Denu.

   Ariaj hastened to Onerae and told Nez of the birth of his children. He started from his trance and tried to leap to his feet, but he was too weak. He had become a skeleton; he was so light that Ariaj carried him back over the waters to Amalteron.

   Neron had bade the Children of Denu build a shelter for the new babes and Onera reclined within, nursing her twins. She refused at first to let Nez see them, but at last she relented and Nez marveled at his children. They were perfect and lovely to behold, far surpassing Nez and Onera, and even Denu in their beauty.

The Children of Denu

   Now that Neron believed Denu dead, he turned his bitter eye upon the Children of Denu. Onera loved them and so he did not raise his hand against them, but neither did he let any love fall upon them. He resented their presence upon the slopes of Amalteron and avoided them whenever he ascended or descended the mountain.

   Nu gathered her siblings together in the middle of Nomra’s orchard. “Brothers and Sisters,” she said, “our grandfather Neron despises us, but what have we done against him?”

   “Nothing,” replied Ner, the eldest. “Let us push him into the sea!”

   “Quiet,” said Nu. “We have done nothing against him, but neither have we done aught for him.”

   “We could help him trip,” suggested Ner, “and fall off the cliff. Our grandmother Nomra lured our mother to her death in like manner.”

   “Thou seek blood unwarranted,” said Nu. “We will use our talents and bring unto Neron delightful gifts by which he shall see our virtues.”

   With their eyes of Light, the Children of Denu took gold and silver apples from the orchard and in the Darkness of night, transformed them. Ner invented the first knife. Deru invented the first chalice. Ee made the first jewelry and Nom made perfume. Nerus created wine and Dena the first pastry. And Nu crafted the first musical instrument: the panpipes.

   The next morning, the Children of Denu brought their gifts to Neron upon the peak of Amalteron. Neron was much delighted with these wondrous gifts and his heart softened towards the artful gift bearers. Ever after, he would often pause in the orchard as he ascended or descended the mountain and visit with the adoring Children of Denu. He would entreat Dena to make him pastry and Nerus to brew wine and Nu would play her panpipes.

   At last Nu asked her mother to make a request of Neron.

   Onera came to Neron upon the peak of Amalteron and said, “Father, you see that my children are not a reproach. They have brought new and delightful things into your world. Now grant them a favor on my behalf: they are without partners and the friendship you know we all desire. Make for them companions.”

   Neron was reluctant, but the Children of Denu had won him with their adoration and so he did as Onera asked. Each Child of Denu was given a spouse in like form, only lacking the Eyes of Light and supreme beauty of Neron’s previous creations. However, the sons and daughters that they brought forth were just as beautiful as the Children of Denu and had inherited the Eyes of Light and the creative power of Denu.

   Ner was reluctant in his reverence of Neron and bitter that his wife was not created as beautiful as the earlier creations. “Neron has slighted us,” he told his siblings. “For Onera he made our father, but he does not love us as he loves Onera.” Deru, Nom, and Ee joined him in his displeasure.

   But Nerus and Nu both loved their companions and did not see them as being creations of lesser quality, though less pleasing to the eye. And while Dena found her partner undesirable, she was much too delighted in her own children to dwell upon him.

   “The Light does not smile upon us,” Ner said to his siblings. “Perhaps the Dark will.”

   “The Light is in us,” Nu disagreed, “we make of it what we will.”

   So Nu and Nerus did not go with the rest of their siblings to take gifts to Forgotten Nomra beneath the Earth in the core of Night, lit by her Light of Darkness, where strange creatures and Fires wound about the crystal pathways.

   Nomra greeted her grandchildren with interest. Although they approached her with trepidation, they were the first beings to seek her in many a year.

   “Welcome, children of Onera,” she said. “What brings you into the land of the dead? What has passed above?”

   “We have come to honor you,” Ner said. “You are the original Creator and Mother of us All.”

   “It is Neron who made the first life, who made your mother, Onera,” Nomra said coldly.

   “In your image,” said Ner. “You are deserving also of gifts. Neron is not the only ancestor to be honored. We have come far to give you our humble offerings.”

   And they laid out before her, their gifts, more splendid than those for Neron: silver swords, golden cups, strings of opals, sweet incense, and raisin cakes. Because Nerus and Nu did not accompany them, there was no wine and no musical instruments. But Ner had words to honor Nomra.

   Though Nomra knew they only sought favor, she could not help but be flattered that she had been sought out after so long and so she sent them back with crystals and glimpses of the Underworld and her Dark blessings.

   So each year, the Children of Denu made pilgrimages to the chasm, bringing gifts and praise to Nomra, Queen of the Dark. Meanwhile they openly worshipped Neron and their race grew as their children married and bore children and so on. Soon they were a strong people, and the poison on Ner seeped through the generations as he whispered in each of their ears, so that they all bore Neron ill will.

A New Mythology--Oramon--Triona's Abode

   Denu explored the vast seafloor, chasing fishes and playing with the eels. He found in the mysterious depths strange places that mirrored those above: forests of dancing fronds and living stones, great deserts of glittering sand, mountains and valleys. There was even a place like unto Amalteron: a beautiful peak whose cliff fell away, not to a glistening sea as above, but to a churning ocean of deep, impenetrable darkness. It was a place where Nomra’s creation met the Dark within Oramon, a place of unformed possibility.

   Denu called it Unamalteron. He would perch on the peak and stare down into the whirling void. His eyes were the Light of creation and they teased shapes from the Dark. The fancies of Denu were slicked from the abyss and given form and life. As Neron above on Amalteron, Denu was a craftsman. He made the Denites first, a spiny, many-legged contingent to guard his summit should Neron and Nemrus discover him there. They were terrible creatures with poison lances and champing mandibles.

   But the Denites were not skilled in conversation, and Denu grew lonely. He missed Onera, and as he gazed into the abyss below Unamalteron, his longing solidified and detached from the Dark. She was identical to Onera in every way but one: she had no eyes.

   Unonera instead looked into the future.

   “A Light will arise in the Night, and the Children of Denu will be chased from the Day to live in Darkness as a new Age begins,” were Unonera’s first words to Denu.

   Denu fled from Unamalteron and Unonera and wandered the seafloor until he came to the coral forests of Triona. He found her frolicking with the fishes and she bade him join her. So Denu sang songs in the deep for Triona’s dances and soon he had forgotten the horror of Unonera. When night came, their dances ended and they huddled in the dark reef until dawn. One of Triona’s rays had told her of the Denites and how they devoured eels and sea slugs and hunted the larger fish. She was afraid that they might come in the night and she begged Denu to stay with her. Denu promised that no strange creatures from the deep would harm her, but he stayed nonetheless.

   Each day they frolicked and danced and sang and Triona admired the eyes of Denu. One night she watched as the tendrils of a barnacle retreated into its rocky fortress.

   “What if we were to have a dwelling place like that?” Triona asked. “We could curl away when the night comes into a safe repository and await the dawn in peace.”

   “Better yet,” said Denu, “We could light this barnacle and dance the night away.”

   “But how shall we make such a dwelling?” asked Triona.

   The next day, Denu returned to Unamalteron, where the Denites devoured any passing creature and Unonera sat in stony silence. She heard him approach.

   “The Race of Nez will take your eyes,” she told him.

   “Eyeless thing,” said Denu, “do not speak to me of the future.”

   “Your children will be reviled forevermore,” Unonera said. Denu ripped out her tongue and cast it into from Unamalteron into Darkness, then he brought up creatures from the Dark: scaly creatures with empty eyes and skilled hands. Then he took them to the shore beside the mountain Neronimahnon and took fire from the volcano and set it in the creature’s empty eyes and he called them Trinites.

   He brought them to Triona and instructed them to build a beautiful dwelling.

   The palace formed by the Trinites from coral and spun pearl became the first house ever built. And the Trinites lit it at night with their flaming eyes. Triona called the house Denona, gift of Denu. Triona and Denu sang every day and danced every night and fell in love beneath the sea.

   Until Unonera came to Denona.

   The mute and sightless seer tried to warn Denu to flee, but he could not understand her warnings and locked her out of the palace, hoping Triona would not recognize the likeness of his former wife. But Unonera returned with the Denites to force him to leave Denona.

   Denu and Triona closed the gates and the Trinites defended the palace with fire.

   As they lay besieged, Nemrus had heard from his animals that Denu had been sighted on the slopes of Neronimahnon and had slipped back into the sea. Nemrus went and told it to Neron and Neron called Ariaj.

   “Find the sea monster that once we rode to Onerae,” Neron commanded. “Tell it to find Denu under the sea and kill him.”

   So Ariaj found the monster and sent it to slay Denu.

   Upon the seafloor, Denu mustered a force of Trinites and led them out to do battle with the Denites. The battle was fierce but at last the Denites turned to flee. Denu pursued them back to Unamalteron and faced Unonera. She drew for him pictures in the sand, telling of the sea monster. So Denu made a spear from the abyss and had Unonera stab him with it before the Trinites that had pursued the Denites with him.

   The Trinites returned to Triona with the news of his death, but the spear had not killed him and he transformed again into a dolphin and swam away, up towards the surface where he hid in the desert in the form of a dragon.

   The sea monster came to Denona and found Triona and the Trinites in mourning. The monster returned to Ariaj with the news of Denu's death.

   Beneath the sea, Triona laid a bed of eggs and from them hatched fourscore maidens like unto Triona, but with the heavenly voice of Denu, and they were called Syré, for they did not cease to sing, bringing joy and a balm to the broken heart of Triona.

A New Mythology--Oramon--Denu and the Wolves

   Neron and Onera made their abode on Onerae and repopulated it with creatures. They gave the island a spring that produced a cleansing water, to purify the memory of the horrors that had befallen the island. They called the spring Nyr for it was restorative.
   “Now let us make one like us,” said Onera. “Like me.”
   “Like you?” said Neron.
   “Yes, but new. I will sculpt his features and design for him a unique countenance and he shall be named Denu,” said Onera.
   So Neron created a man upon his wheel and Onera designed that he should be handsome and unique from all other creatures, though he bore the form of Neron and Onera and Nomra. Onera bade Ariaj give Denu eyes of Light, so Ariaj brought down stars from the sky and set them in the new man’s skull. Onera wished for Denu to have the voice of the birds, so Neron formed vocal chords like those of the birds but stronger and more magnificent and put them into the new man’s throat.
   “Now bid him rise,” said Onera.
   So Denu rose and his eyes were powerful and his voice was beautiful and Onera loved him. But Neron was not pleased. He did not like that Onera spent most of her time with the creature who bore their likeness.
   One day Nemrus came to Neron with the bloody corpse of a hart.
   “Something has come from the dark and slays my creatures,” said Nemrus. “A strange creature unlike the others you have formed.”
   “How can this be?” said Neron. “None of my creatures would kill another.”
   He knew not that Nomra had at last learned to form shadow creatures in the depths of the Darkness of earth. She had found forms there in the gloom, some she could awake with the fire of Phiron, who often accompanied her in the deep places she created. Others, she formed herself from the darkness of dreams, but they could not be awakened by any light brought into the shadows.
“I will make a new light,” said Nomra. “One for the dark.” She formed crystals into a globe and put into it fallen stars and brightness captured from the Light that shone by day. With this light she brought life to her dreams. Some of these dreams escaped through the cleft and came to the forests of Nemrus, where they destroyed his creatures.
   Neron sent Denu to find the killer, hoping to keep him away from Onera. But Onera followed Denu and together they searched for the killer. Onera knew only one other who had killed before and she was afraid of what this new creature meant.
   “Fear not,” said Denu, “no dark thing can harm you whilst I am with you.”
   “Nomra did not use dark things to kill me,” Onera replied.
   At last they found the killers, for there were many, and they feasted on one of Nemrus’s elk. Denu called to the killers in his magnificent voice and the killers were startled. They turned to run, but stopped, for the voice of Denu was enticing. They tried to answer him; they tried to repeat his strange and elegant call.
   “Feast no more upon the innocent,” Denu told the killers.
   The leader of the killers, the first-formed, replied, “It is our nature, our intrinsic purpose. We are Dark and must kill the Light.”
   “Light and Dark are both in all,” Denu said. “Light makes the Dark come to life.” And he settled his eyes upon them. These were eyes of Light, the power of creation, and the shadow killers became flesh and blood. The killers could now be killed. And Denu called them wolves. The wolves, fearing death, fled back to Nomra in her underworld. Eventually, they slunk back out at night to continue hunting. And Nemrus hunted them in the forest with the first bow and arrow.

   Denu secretly admired the wolves and sang to them at night and they answered. Neron heard these songs in the night and mistrusted Denu the more for it. He strictly forbade Onera from keeping company with him but she met him secretly in the deserts where abided the strange life Onera had designed. Denu sang her the first songs and with his voice and eyes of Light he could shape new sounds and realities.
   But Ariaj saw them there and told Neron.
Neron was wroth and went to find them in the desert, but Denu heard him coming and transformed himself and Onera into wolves. Neron could not find them, though he searched the whole of Oramon. Onera and Denu explored the desert and swamps in their new forms and settled awhile in the cold regions of mountains and lived like the wolves, even feasting upon the animals.
At last, Neron discovered what had been done to trick him, and with the aid of Nemrus, hunted them down from the mountains and across the plains toward the sea. Heavy with child, Onera was not fleet enough. They reached the shore of the sea with Neron and Nemrus close upon their trail.
   “Go on without me,” Onera told Denu. “My father will not harm me or the child, but I know not what his wrath may have kindled against you. It is almost time and I cannot swim thus.”
   So Denu dived into the sea, transforming into a dolphin, and vanished. Neron and Nemrus found Onera upon the sand, wracked with the pain of birth. As she brought forth seven children, she changed back into her old form.
   The seven children of Denu were like unto him, with starry eyes, but also bore the mark of the wolves, with fangs and claws and silky hair. They also bore resemblance to Onera, if only to her darker nature: the darkness of her shadow.
   Neron was horrified, but Onera loved them and named them Ner, Deru, Nom, Ee, Nerus, Nu, and Dena. She took them to Amalteron and raised them in the orchard of Nomra. Neron returned to Onera and Nemrus continued to hunt for Denu, but Denu hid in the sea with Triona, who liked to keep secrets.

A New Mythology--Oramon--The Lost Shadow

   Where Nomra’s tears fell upon the earth, there rose the Seroi, the spirits of grief. They were quiet and settled heavily upon the shoulders of the mourners. At last, the mourners drifted away as night fell, each leaving a tear. The tears glistened around the bier of Onera, sparkling in the night. Only Neron would not leave the funeral, he could not bear to leave Onera there in the dark. The Seroi clustered around him and at last he fell asleep beside the body of his daughter.

   Ariaj carried Nomra to Onerae and they alighted silently near the bier. Nomra came and rested her hand upon the forehead of her daughter.

   “I am sorry,” she said. There was no light save the tears in the night. “Rise.”

   Onera opened her eyes.

   Nomra looked into the eyes of her daughter. There was no light within them. Neron woke as the sun rose and saw his daughter standing before him. She had no shadow and her eyes were lifeless.

   “What is this?” Neron asked. “What have you done?”

   “I have tried!” Nomra replied. “And I have failed. There is more to a being than the body and I do not know whence that part has departed. But I swear I will find it, Neron.”

   “You cannot make me love you again,” Neron said.

   “So be it,” said Nomra. “But I will undo what I have done.”

   Ariaj transformed into a giant raven and carried Nomra away. Neron fled from Onerae and the soulless body of Onera and hid himself in a secret ash grove. The body of Onera stayed on the island and no creature dared go near it.

   “We will search the air for her missing spirit,” Nomra said to Ariaj. She sent Triona to search the seas. She sent Phiron to enquire of the Lights in the heavens. They could find nothing.

At last Nomra asked Nemrus, “Have you seen the spirit of your sister?”

   “I watch all the earth and the animals thereof,” said Nemrus. “Onera’s shade passed by me in the night, in the dark it slipped past, she is gone now.”

   “Whence did she depart?” Nomra begged.

   “To a place where Light can never shine,” Nemrus said. “Her shadow has gone down into the earth. She is within Oramon. Beneath the soil and stone in the heart of Darkness. From Darkness she was formed and to Darkness she has returned.”

   “But her body lives!” said Nomra. “I will find her shadow and reunite it with her body. Where did she enter the earth?”

   “I will show you, but you will have to go into the Dark alone, I will not accompany you.”

Nemrus took her to a cleft in the stone far to the north where the mountains glistened always with ice. The cleft was Dark and into the Dark, Nomra stepped. It was a familiar embrace, the embrace of untold time and unknown place. She had slept in the Dark before Time, before Place, before Light.

   “This is a place of shadow,” said Nomra. “How will I find a shadow amongst shadow?”

   “With Fire,” said Phiron. He had followed her and Nemrus to the cleft and come after Nomra into the Dark. His radiance bloomed bright in the shapelessness and Nomra used his luminance to form them a glittering path into the belly of the world.

   Down they went, and on, but no sign of Onera’s shade could they spy.

   “Onera!” Nomra called. “Forgive me for my jealousy. I have wronged you and your father. Come to me that I may make it right.”

   “Mother,” came a voice from the Dark. “I forgive you, but I cannot come back with you.”

   “Why not?” Nomra asked.

   “Because this is the place where future people will come when they die and it is terrible.”

   “Then come with me, leave this place, leave the Dark!”

   “I must stay and make it a pleasant place. A new place of wonder, like the world above, the one that you made.”

   “Come back to the surface,” Nomra begged. “No one need ever die and come to this place. Come back, your father is heartbroken.”

   “Neron…” Onera said. “And Nemrus, Triona, Ariaj and Phiron.”

   “I am here,” Phiron said.

Onera’s shade emerged from the Dark, into Phiron’s light. Tears were on her face. “I’ve missed you so much,” said Onera, trying to embrace Nomra and Phiron, but she could not touch them, for she was only a shade.

   “Let us return to the Light,” Nomra said. “Your body is there.”

   Nemrus was waiting at the mouth of Darkness.

   “Something is wrong,” Nemrus said. “The deer tell me of distress in the forests afar. We must haste to Onerae. But when they came to Onerae, the body of Onera was gone and all of the animals upon the island were dead.

   “The body without spirit does terrible things,” Nomra said. “For so I was when I slew Onera.”

The sea monster had carried Onera’s body to the mainland and now she laid waste a path of death into the forests. Nemrus, Nomra and Onera’s shade followed the trail of lifeless animals and found the body at the base of an ash tree, where it was about to drink the life from Neron.

   “I am empty and seek to fill myself but nothing satisfies,” said the body.

   “We have brought your soul back to you,” Nomra said. “Do not take Neron’s!”

   “I cannot go back in,” Onera cried, “my body has been defiled.”

   “You must,” Nomra said. “Or Neron will be destroyed.”

   So Onera clave unto her body again and let Neron go.

Onera took on a sadness that had not been before. Neron did his best to bring light back to her eyes, and created more beings and creatures for her.

   Nomra no longer favored Amalteron. She spent much of her time in the cleft, upon the crystal path she had made to find Onera, exploring the dark places within Oramon, forming silver caves and rooms of glowing stone. Here she could be alone in a cold place, in the Dark, away from the world and her loved ones. 

   She saw them occasionally when they met upon Amalteron and they would tell her of the new things they had made. But Nomra was silent about her own creations and the things she found sleeping in the Dark. Neron and Onera had forgiven her, but she had not forgiven herself.

A New Mythology--Oramon--The First Murder

   Neron no longer lingered on Amalteron where Nomra made her abode. All of his days were spent with Onera in the forests. In jealousy, Nomra reached out and cursed the shadows of the forest and thorns grew. Brambles and thistles, stinging nettles and poisonous plants of various natures were thus created.

   “What is this new plant?” Onera asked, reaching into the briar to touch the strange growth. The thorns ensnared her hand and lacerated her skin. Drops of her blood fell among the thorns roots. With care, Neron extracted Onera’s hand using a sharp rock and took her to Nemrus who knew where the balm grew. Nemrus treated her wounds and Neron led him back to the briar to curse it, but when they returned to the briar they saw that it was too beautiful to destroy. For Onera’s blood had made the briar bloom with lush roses. Thus bedecked, they could not bear to curse it and so it grew wild and thick throughout the forest near to Amalteron.

   Nomra’s jealousy grew. She rarely left her aviary upon the mountain, Triona, Phiron, and Ariaj were afraid of her and did not visit. Neron and Onera seemed to have forgotten her. Only Nemrus would come, and rarely, to ask the secrets of the plants.

   At last, Neron formed a brilliantly colored bird and sent it with a message to Nomra.

   “Sweet One, Creator and Mistress of Earth, join us today upon the shore. Your daughter would see you.”

   “She is not my daughter,” said Nomra. “Neron has made her on his own. She is his creation and he loves her more than me.”

   Nevertheless she went to the shore, for she still loved Neron and could not help but be charmed by the sweetness of Onera. It was no wonder that Neron should prefer her company to the brooding of Nomra and her birds.

   Nomra saw only that Onera was better than her, she saw not that Neron still loved Nomra above all. She returned to Amalteron bitter. She knew Onera could not resist any new thing.

   The mountain next to Amalteron was called Aleris and it was second only unto Amalteron in height and glory. Nomra planted an orchard upon the peak of Aleris, an orchard unlike any before it. The fruit of the trees was translucent and sparkled in the light, varying in hue from blue to purple. The trees grew long and twisted boughs of great delicacy. Their leaves were bright and sweet of scent, but the trees’ roots were weak.

   Nomra called to Ariaj and told her, “Go unto Neron and my daughter. Tell them I wish them to join me for a banquet here on Amalteron.” Ariaj sped away and Nomra smiled. Neron and Onera would pass over Aleris on their ascent. And if they did not, they would no doubt see the orchard as they left her banquet. As she prepared cakes for the meal, her being shivered at her hidden intentions and her shadow broke from her and fled down the mountain.

   Neron and Onera were delighted by the invitation and turned immediately towards Amalteron. They went up beside Aleris and when Onera spied the orchard she wished to go and see it.

   “It will not take long,” Onera said. “I have not seen these trees before. Mother must have planted them but recently.” So Neron and Onera came to the brow of Aleris.

   “What fruit is this?” Neron asked in awe, plucking a ripe blue orb. He tasted it. “Tis good!”

   “We should gather some to bring to Nomra’s banquet,” Onera said, taking a violet orb from a beautiful tree. Neron agreed, and began to gather the sweetest he could find. Onera wandered off through the orchard. The trees and fruit grew fairer the further she went and she took the loveliest fruits and cradled them in her skirts. At last she came to the edge of Aleris, where a cliff plunged down to the sea. She dropped her collected fruit, gasping in wonder, for here was the fairest of all the trees, with the most splendid fruit in all creation. It grew from the cliff and curved out in a fantastic swoop over the cliff, sparkling in the open air, its bark iridescent, its fruit marvelous reflective orbs of silver.

   Meanwhile, Nomra’s shadow hastened to the orchard, wailing in the tones of Darkness. It found Neron picking fruit in the midst of the orchard and startled him with its strange affectation.

   “What art thou?” he asked, hiding behind a tree. “I have never seen anything like you. A shadow alone.”

   “I am Nomra’s shadow,” said the shadow. “She has wicked designs in her heart. We must find Onera and leave this orchard at once!”

   “Why?” said Neron. “Nomra?”

   “She would harm your daughter!”

   “Harm?” Neron said, scarce able to understand.

   “Hurry!” begged the shadow, tugging on his arm. At last, Neron followed it through the orchard, confused and afraid.

   Onera walked out on the strong trunk of the tree, like a sturdy path, and reached for the silver fruit. She picked one and threw it back to the earth and stepped further out. She came to where the tree curved up and caught a low branch to pull herself up into the lush canopy.

   Onera found clusters of budding fruit and touched them. They ripened and grew for her, gleaming brighter than all the others. But the roots were weak.

   Neron and the shadow burst out of the trees, which seemed to cling to them and try to hold the back from the edge.

   “Onera!” cried Neron. “Come down!”

   “These fruit are sublime!” replied Onera.

   The tree shuddered and dipped. Onera screamed and Neron cried out. Roots snapped and tore from the cliff.

   “Onera! Come back!” Neron wailed as the tree dipped lower. Onera tried to climb down, but the tree shuddered harder and she slipped.

   “Ahhh!” she screamed as she fell. She caught a passing branch and jerked to a stop, dangling over the void. But the jerk dislodged the last roots.

The tree fell away.

   “Noooooo!” screamed Neron, throwing himself at the edge. The shadow caught him and he screamed over the precipice, calling for his falling daughter. “Ariaj!” he cried. But she had returned to Amalteron to tell Nomra that Neron and Onera were on their way and Nomra had detained her with a sleepy drink. “Triona!” he cried. Triona hurried to Aleris but too late.

   There were rocks at the base of Aleris. Onera struck the rocks and the tree struck her and Triona’s cushioning wave was too late. It washed over the rocks and cleansed them of the blood. It swept away the fatal tree and the cursed fruit. It lifted Onera’s body and gently bore it away on a bier of foam.

   Neron turned on the shadow and cursed it. “You vile spirit! This is your doing.” And he ran to Amalteron, to the arms of Nomra.

   But he found her arms cold and when he looked, he saw that she had no shadow.

   “Your warmth and your love have fled,” he said. “You have done this dire thing and our daughter is dead. You have killed her and with her, our love.”

   At that moment, her shadow clave unto her again and she was wrapped in remorse. But Neron left her and went to Onerae, where Triona had borne the body. Nomra realized the horror of her deed wept. Amalteron rumbled and erupted with grief and all living things avoided that place. All save for Ariaj, who though she had been used and tricked into aiding the horrid deception, still had pity upon Nomra and tried to comfort her.

   All of creation gathered at Onerae to mourn the death of Onera. Triona and the fishes of the sea, Phiron, and the reptiles, Nemrus and the furry creatures, Ariaj and the birds of the air.

Their wails ascended to Amalteron and Nomra vowed to right her wrong.

A New Mythology--Oramon--Birth of Nemrus

   “Shall we not make someone to appreciate the wonders you have made, father?” Onera asked Neron.

   “I have made you,” Neron said.

   “And I am alone,” said Onera. “Who shall play in the fields and swim in the sea with me?”

   “I will,” said Neron.

   Nomra watched.

   Nomra watched from the peak of Amalteron and Onera was always with Neron and Nomra was alone with the birds. Onera still desired Neron to make another being.

   “Make one for each of the elements,” she begged him. “Make one for earth, for fire, for sea, and for air that wherever I go there will be a companion for me.”

   This idea pleased Neron and at last he bowed to her wishes. First he made of water, Triona, half woman, half fish. Second he made of fire, Phiron, the salamander. Third he made of air, Ariaj, the swift, who was a shapeshifter and very beautiful. But he could not give life to the earth, which was Nomra’s.

   Neron approached her on her throne surrounded by birds. “Nomra, together we shall make this, our second child,” he said.

   “These beings are strange and terrifying,” Nomra said. “I do not wish to make another.”

   “Love you not Onera, your very likeness?” Neron asked.

   “Yes,” Nomra said. “She is sublime and sufficient. Triona is fickle, Phiron is brash, Ariaj is uncanny. Why create more?”

   Neron could not prevail upon her to help create a being from the earth. When he told Onera that he was unable to complete her request she was insistent. The four beings must be accomplished.

   “But I cannot give life to earth without Nomra, and she refuses to aid me,” Neron said.

   “I will speak to her,” Onera said. But Nomra hid from Onera and would not let her daughter see her.

   “She will prevail upon me,” Nomra said to herself. “For I cannot resist her.”

   “We will trick her then,” said Onera. “Form the creature as one of your animals that she loves.”

So Neron formed a hart of earth and brought it to Nomra.

   “This noble hart is dying,” Neron said, showing her the lifeless form. “Quicken him.”

Nomra was filled with pity for the beautiful creature, one of the first that Neron had formed for her from the Dark. “My power is in the earth and the growing things,’ she said. “You are the one to quicken this dying creature. Yours is the power of the living, moving things.”

   “It will not respond to me alone, perhaps together we can save it,” Neron said. They lay their hands upon the hart and it sprang up, its false hart-skin falling away to reveal the man shape with the hart’s head.

   “What is this?” Nomra demanded. But she knew what had happened and that she had been tricked. Amalteron rumbled and cracked with her anger. Onera whisked the new creature away to the Island Onerae and waited while Amalteron erupted. Onera named the earth creature, her brother, Nemrus, the first son.

   Thus was Nomra’s ire kindled against her daughter.

   Nemrus was not like his three sibling elementals. They were wild, tempestuous. Nemrus was quiet, solid, and temperate. But when his wrath was stirred, his anger burned and convulsed with all the power of his mother, and all the strength of the earth. He made his abode in the mountains and watched over the animals, a king and a judge.

A New Mythology--Oramon--The Creation

   In the beginning, there was a flickering light in the dark. The light awakened whom it revealed sleeping in the darkness. Nomra opened her eyes to a shapelessness. All was dark but the Light.  

   Nomra reached out and touched the light and droplets fell from her fingers, smaller lights were born. The small lights followed her as she roamed the dark. The Light revealed the shapeless matter of the Dark and Nomra delighted in trailing her hands through it, forming the darkness as the Light solidified it into concrete matter. She made mountains and valleys and many strange formations. But she grew bored with taking small lights from the Light and with forming the darkness into landscapes.

   At last the Light fell upon Neron, asleep, but the Light could not wake him. Nomra gazed upon him and was lonely. She spoke the first word and he awakened at her voice. Nomra and Neron were complete; they walked through the dawning and Nomra formed wonders for her love and he delighted in them.

   Her first gift was an ocean, which Neron called Nomra-A-Neh, because it was beautiful like Nomra. She created a mountain that made light in its belly and he called it Neronimahnon because he loved it so. She gave him trees and flowers, streams and lakes.

   Together, Nomra and Neron walked through the darkness, and the Light followed them, illuminating their joy. Their feet turned the void beneath them and their path led them in a circle and the Light circled the newly formed land.

   Nomra and Neron took the small lights and explored the darkness that lay above and below the path of Light. Nomra rounded the two ends of the land and Neron was charmed by the ball of matter and called in Oramon, for it was his favorite gift of all. And around Oramon all was dark but the Light that circled it.

   Neron took from the Dark above and with the smaller lights formed his first gift for Nomra. She called it horse and it was fleet and with it she could circle Oramon and see all she had created. Neron made more living creatures, for his skill and love were great.

   Nomra loved his creations, especially the winged creatures that made beautiful music for her.

   Nomra made a high mountain cliff that over looked her sparkling ocean and there she would sit, watching the birds wheel over the waves, waiting for them to land on her outstretched arms and sing their praises of her creation. She named the mountain cliff Amalteron for it was a place of glory.

To Be Continued!