甲辰 002: 處暑 [Throughout September]

[singlemilletgrain]

♪ Ti o o beh lok ho
Ah gung nag gia di tau beh gut o ♪

1: Seeds [Early September]
In a conical hat and durable overalls, she checks her setup, knots the ropes attaching the plow one last time, and gives her docile oxen an affectionate pat between the horns.

"He Sheng. Xiao Man. Let's do a good job today."

As she guides her oxen through the underground fields of Vault, she gazes upwards at the jagged, rocky ceiling of the Vault settlement and briefly contemplates with a faint frown. There was no way that the plants in these fields were getting all the sunlight they needed to grow properly. But she had ideas. For now, she could just be thankful she wouldn't get too sweaty.

Supremely self-unconscious, it isn't long in the day before she is comfortable enough to start idly singing, her clear and vibrant voice ringing out through the vast fields even as she works.

♪ Gut ah gut gut ah gut
gut diu ji bui suan liu go ♪
♪ yi ya he to jin jia cu bi

2: Light [Mid September]
Some weirdos are on 50 foot tall scaffolding doing something to the ceiling of the Vault. Below, two oxen meander around in circles, occasionally lowing in faint concern. The plowed and sown fields are growing miraculously quickly. September was the wrong month to sow wheat altogether, and yet an acre of rapidly growing buds are sprouting up as far as the eye can see.

Currently, Shu is clinging to the roof of the cavern in an enormously precarious situation, her tail wrapped around the scaffolding to keep her secure as she drills something into the rock. A young man near her is holding some blueprints and a whole heap of strange looking materials.

"The real problem is the unpredictability. Our efforts will go to waste if the equipment is damaged by a stray blast. If only we could find a way to protect the above-ground harvesting system... Ah! Tch, I dropped it. Well, let's take a break. Thank you for your time today."

The man gives a curt nod before descending the ladder while Shu sits cross-legged on her giant scaffold in the middle of a field and muses.

3: Harvest [Late September]
There is no possible way this field could already be yielding dividends. And yet it is, and Shu is patiently, single-handedly cutting down her crops that reach higher than her head, still hum-singing her song. The oxen now are familiar sights around Vault as Shu takes a ride on one whenever she needs to get anywhere particularly distant with groceries or other deliveries. They don't help, but they are cute, which is emotional help. This matters significantly more.

Anyone who approaches will be met with a beckoning hand or a distant call, depending on how far away they are.

"Hello! You are the help I advertised for?"

Regardless of the answer, a burlap sack and a sickle are thrust into their hands, because it is clear Shu is not listening. "Start here with me, and I'll show you what to do."

Ti o o, o o... ♪

Comments

[singlemilletgrain]

Having recovered from her initial surprise, Shu has returned to harvesting the wheat, though her work is a little bit slower than before.

"We have some time before all the grain is collected. If you please, I would be interested in hearing that story."

[spacetogrow]

Ilphyl nodded. "I've heard the story from a few different sides, so you'll be getting the version I think makes the most sense."

"The first elf, and leader of the elven deities, is Corellon Larethian. We don't know what plane he came from, or how he was born. He's said to be fluid in form, but always graceful. I tend to use 'he' out of habit, but surface elves are just as likely call him 'she' or 'they'. He and the leader of the orc gods, Gruumsh, really hated each other, and it's said the rest of the elf gods were created when Gruumsh spilled Corellon's blood."

"If you ask the orcs why the two gods hate each other, they say that it was because Corellon and some of the other gods, tricked Gruumsh out of letting his people settle in the forests, or the mountains, or the hills or the plains, leaving only the badlands. Or else they just say that the two are opposites, so of course they'd hate each other. It's so long ago, no one can be sure."

Ilphyl works as they speak, considering where it would be best to pause for questions and commentary.

[singlemilletgrain]

Orcs... Not a word she had heard before. From context, this was likely another 'race' of humans that populated the world Ilphyl come from.

"That's a bit melancholic." She comments softly as she works. "For two peoples to be pit against each other due to these old legends. Have relations improved over time?"

Terra had many problems, but race wars were generally not one of them.

"Corellon Larethian created all the elves, then?"

[spacetogrow]

"Not as much as they should. People pushed to the edges often have to do a lot of unpleasant things to survive, which isn't good for good neighbors. Last year, some friends and I got attacked by orc bandits, and once we got them to surrender, we found out they mostly wanted food and things to sell for food. A friend of mine is nobility, and she helped get them set up with food for the winter, and the supplies for farming, and I offered to teach them if they needed it."

Ilphyl is very proud of that.

"But, yeah. Corellon created both the other elf gods and the first elves. Originally, they... we were all capable of changing shape, and so you had people and gods called to the sea, or the forests, or whatever. Corellon fell for one of the other gods, Araushnee, and he started spending more time as a male sun elf to go with her preference to be a female dark elf. They had twin children, Vhaeraun and Eilistraee, and a younger one, Vandria Gilmadrith."

Ilphyl does make a warding gesture at Araushnee's name. This is another world, and the god doesn't use that name any more, but they don't want to draw her attention.

"This is where the stories split, depending on whose followers you ask. Everyone agrees that Araushnee turned against Corellon, because she wanted something different for elves than he did, but it depends on whether you think it was a good thing. But she was the one who had elves take fixed forms, and when it was clear Corellon didn't agree with her about what they wanted for us, she also planned to help Gruumsh kill Corellon so she could be the chief god of the elves. Vhaeraun was willing to help her, and she tricked Eilistraee into playing a part."

[singlemilletgrain]

These are certainly some bloodthirsty creation stories. Shu considers - the nations of Terra had sanitized many of the old legends nowadays, but even in the past, there was nothing quite so... spiteful. The Feranmuts of old were rulers of the land and treated the Ancient peoples with apathy and disregard, but it was with the impersonal nature of a natural disaster. There was no malice or negative emotion involved. They were simply embodiments of the land who couldn't be bothered to care what happened to those who walked upon them.

This was more dramatic -- in some ways, a more human story.

"It does not feel as if patricide could be viewed in a very positive light. But what did they disagree over so dramatically that she would plot to kill him in such a manner?"

That strange gesture Ilphyl had made. She does not recognize it, of course, but there is a sense, from the furtiveness or the quick reflexive nature of the motion that it carries a negative connotation with it.

[spacetogrow]

"What they wanted for elves," Ilphyl said. "Being carefree, adaptable beings who traveled the planes was what Corellon wanted for us. Araushnee wanted us to be great rulers of civilizations, which meant being the sort of beings that were fixed in form. And, probably, because people with fixed forms need things. If you need to get and keep things like food and water, you think more about what you need to do that," Ilphyl noted. "Even the nobles here are worried someone will try to take away what they have, even if it seems impossible."

Ilphyl sighed. "What the elves chose can't be undone, even for those who later thought better of it. When it was found out that Araushnee tried to kill Corellon, she and Vhaeraun were exiled and she changed her name. She still considered the dark elves 'hers', which affected a lot of our history. It's also why Eilistraee voluntarily exiled herself. Because she knew we'd need her as a counterbalance."

Ilphyl actually sounds reverent for the last sentence.

[singlemilletgrain]

It is somewhat difficult to follow these names and stories. Shu works silently for a moment or two as she allows this information to trickle through her mind, thinking through the implications before choosing to comment.

"It sounds as if she wanted power."

Her tone lacks judgment, but even the phrasing seems vulgar, in some manner. It is not something she approves of personally.

"Power for her people as well. Perhaps it was a good intention, in some ways, but the means to accomplish it were ill-advised. The goddess Eye-is-tray... It sounds as if you are more fond of her."

[spacetogrow]

Ilphly nodded. "I grew up in a place run by the priestesses of... She who was once Araushnee." Again, Ilphyl avoiding speaking her name, and acting superstitious. "It was... well, the Empire has a lot in common with it."

"When I left and came to the surface, I first spent most of my time with non-elves. My mentor tracked down a community that followed Eilistraee, so I could find a place with dark elves who had a community that was better than the one I grew up in."

[singlemilletgrain]

"...The desire for power is often identified with the desire for power over others."

Shu murmurs in sympathy as she slices through a few more rows of wheat.

"Inevitably, it leads to destruction. I cannot think of a case where that is not so. I am sorry to hear that was the life you lived."

She does not need to understand the names and the exact stories to understand this parallel.

"This other goddess -- what was she known for?"

[spacetogrow]

"Eilistraae or the one I'm not naming?" Ilphyl asked.

[singlemilletgrain]

"The first name," she says, trying not to butcher it further. "The one you like."

[spacetogrow]

"Eilistraee is a god of hunting, song and dance, and the light of the moon," Ilphyl said. "She's not the only god of the hunt, and she's not the moon god, or even the god other elves associate with the moon, but plenty of gods are worshiped only by certain cultures. But a god of the hunt can be a patron to druids, like me, as well as clerics, even if it's not common."

Ilphyl is also pretty shy about organized religion in general.

[singlemilletgrain]

"That seems altogether more pleasant."

She remarks in an approving manner.

"And a druid -- you mentioned something like that back in the mines. You are a sort of acolyte of the wild? That is why you can take on the shapes of the creatures of the wild?"

[spacetogrow]

"Right. Clerics are between people and gods, but druids are between people and nature, even if our magic is from gods."

[singlemilletgrain]

"Is it ignorant," she ponders, making her way further through the fields, "if I ask you what your understanding of 'magic' is? Magic in the world I come from is something limited essentially to the elves. Their source of power is poorly understood by the rest of us Terrans, but it certainly is not a god of any sort."

[spacetogrow]

Ilphyl nodded. "We're taught that the first god of magic created the Weave, which lets people use magic. Wizards learn to manipulate the Weave. Some creatures, and people, like sorcerers, can do it on instincts. Elves have a bit of that. Clerics and druids... the god creates the spell, and puts it in our mind when we pray."

Which was comforting, knowing that even in this world, Ilphyl had a thread of connection to their home. The explanation also missed bards, and warlocks, and probably other things.

"You're not an elf, though."

[singlemilletgrain]

"No."

She looks up with a faint smile.

"I am a Lung." Strictly not correct, but that was how her physical form presented. "The difficulty is that there are no gods in our world. Not in the way you describe. Some cultures have legends and stories that bear similarities, but they are simply stories. Most extraordinary power stems from a substance called Originium. But the elves have a power that is more pure than Originium. They say it is granted by the great elder trees they call their home."

She pauses.

"It is Originium, actually, that is destroying the elves."

[spacetogrow]

"Why?" Ilphyl asked. "Do people know?"

[singlemilletgrain]

"Yes."

She nods slowly, not making eye contact with Ilphyl.

"...Originium is a plague upon our land. We do not know where it came from or its purposes. We only know that it appeared one day after a Calamity and has spread across our entire world. It is extraordinarily powerful, high in energy yield, and the source of abilities beyond human imagination. Drawing upon Originium, powerful arts users can control time and space itself."

A pause as she turns her head down.

"Without fail, those who tap into Originium also contract Oripathy, an incurable disease. Those Infected turn slowly to dust. Merely breathing in Originium is enough to cause infection. And of course... its mere presence on Terra has contaminated our earth and land to such a degree that the elves can no longer survive. They must stay far, far away from any source of Originium. At this point, that is essentially the entire world."

[spacetogrow]

Look, that definitely sounded like something a druid should be trying to contain. Even if some people would accept the price for power, the fact that people weren't getting a choice, and it was killing elves was enough for Ilphyl.

"Can it be contained?"

[singlemilletgrain]

She shakes her head.

"Impossible. It is all over the world and more of it is generated with each new Calamity. At this point, the Terrans use it as their main energy source, dangerous as it is. Even if we had left it completely alone, the Calamities would have spread it far and wide."

That recurring word Calamity seems to have a specific meaning to her which isn't entirely shared by common parlance.

[spacetogrow]

Ilphyl nodded. "I was assuming the elves would have to compromise, if other people rely on having powers, even if it was dangerous. But if it's being made by natural disasters..?"

They assume that's what a calamity is.

[singlemilletgrain]

"I am not so sure Calamities are natural."

This was another great mystery of their world that has gone unexplained.

"But yes. There is nothing much we can do to improve the situation. One of my current colleagues - her name is Muelsyse. She hopes to find a solution for elves to continue living on in Terra."

Her previous solution had involved going into outer space, but that hadn't panned out.

"In the meantime, the organization I ally with is researching means of treating Oripathy. Perhaps those treatments will help the elves as well."

[spacetogrow]

"Maybe we can use the portal here. It's a better use than using it to kidnap people."

[singlemilletgrain]

Shu does not understand at first.

"To -- to bring all the elves of my world here?"

She stares for a brief moment.

"That is intriguing." A new elven homeland. "It does not seem a feasible plan at the moment, though. And I would not want Oripathy to start spreading throughout this world, either."