The Creation of Inannak

Inannak means the land, the sea and the sky, and everything beyond and benath, even the planets and stars above and caverns below. Before Inannak, there was nothing. Then the darkness faded, and Inannak emerged. The stars opened in the sky as they do every cloudless evening. They shone upon the seas, which receded to reveal the land. The moons and the sun that measure our time were the last to appear.

Revelations of the Apostacy, Book of the Creation, Chapter 1.

The Apostacy claim the Apostate God revealed this this story to their elders long ago. In their story, Inannak had no creation, it just appeared. Soon after the emergence, beasts, plants and other living things appeared. For a long time, creatures would emerge from hidden places ready to populate the world. As each arrived, they would speak to the stars and other things of the sky, and to those who came before them, and arrange a place for themselves in it. After one million years of this, the world became lush and full of life.

Cycle of the Dragons

The last creatures to emerge upon Inannak were the dragons. When they arrived, they did not ask what their place was. They instead claimed dominion over all the creatures of Inannak.

The dragons of this time were even more powerful and than the dragons of today, and immortal. The story says that they were like gods themselves. These were the first thinking beings, apart from Innanak, to arrive. But there were no mortals yet, so their subjects were the animals and plants.

While their society was not without strife, they did not wage war. Violence only erupted in individual disputes. As today, dragons preferred to live by themselves. There were no cities, but they did build steadings to protect their livestock and possessions. The oldest ruins in the world are thought to be remnants of these steadings.

The dragons ruled for one hundred thousand years.

Cycle of the Titans

From among and beyond the stars came the primordial spirits. They did not interfere with the dragons’ claim of dominion, but hid in the stars and watched. Some among these beings begat children, who were immortal giants and monsters known as titans. They saw Inannak and thought it would be better to rule there than to hide in the sky.

The Dragon War

The titans made their claim on Inannak and fought the dragons who defended it for one thousand years. This became known as the Dragon War. The dragons saw the need for a great army, and created mortals to help in their fight. In the creation of mortals, the dragons touched mortality. Since that time, dragons are no longer immortal. Although they may live for thousands of years, they will still die, and must still have children.

But the masterwork of the dragons, the mortals, were their undoing. The titans knew how to control the mortals, and took them for their own armies. These armies of titans and mortals destroyed the original dragons, leaving only a few young offspring to survive in remote places.

The First Mortals

In a contradiction of the previous story, the Revelations describe the creation of the mortals in separate verses of this cycle. The titan Ithax, when he first arrived in Inannak, created a family of ten mortals out of ten boulders he found. They were rough models and they struggled to understand who and what they were and how to survive. In disgust, Ithax turned from them, leaving them to fend for themselves. But three dragons found them and taught them how to thrive in Inannak. It was these people that the dragons nurtured into their army.

These first mortals were known as the elder people. Although they had two legs, two arms and a face, they were not the same as any species on Inannak today.

Rule of the Titans

With the defeat of the dragons, the titans began their cruel rule over the creatures of Inannak. They used the mortals as both slaves and cattle. They built great citadels, some of whose ruins still remain, to rule over these mortals who lived in scattered settlements. The mortals lived in fear, but had no choice but to obey them. The titans created monsters to keep the mortals in their place, and these became their new army. It is said that when a mortal has a strange nightmare, it is a memory of this time.

The cycle of the titans lasted fifty thousand years.

Cycle of the Hebdomad

In the last millennia of the cycle of titans, a horrible prophecy was given to the titan Ithax. It was said that seven children would be born to him who would destroy the titans. Ithax sought out all his children and had each one put to death. But one among the children escaped before her execution, and rescued the other six. There followed a repeated series of escapes and recaptures. He finally attempted to kill them himself, but was tricked into killing seven deer instead. Still, he believed them dead.

While they hid, the hebdomad took the shape of mortals and lived among them. They watched their parents’ power and the plight of the mortals, and agreed that something should be done. Secretly, they gathered others among their generation into an army to overthrow their elders.

The God War

The god war lasted a thousand years, and devastated the world. When the Hebdomad defeated the titans, they banished Ithax and the most powerful of the foes back beyond the stars. The rest who survived were forced into servitude or imprisoned in remote places.

Rule of the Hebdomad

Thus began the age of the hebdomad, which is also the beginning of mortal civilization. Each of the seven gathered their favorites from among the mortals and gave them power over the other mortals. These became the first kings and emperors, and a false hope spread among the mortals that their time of fear was over. But the hebdomad instead took the place of their parents, keeping the world under their tight control. Mortals remained blinded to their captivity, as a singing bird in a cage, or an exotic beast in a menagerie. The time of the hebdomad would last ten thousand years until their destruction during the Mortal War.