Post by Bricingwolf on Feb 28, 2015 6:49:36 GMT
In the center of all creation, both literally and metaphorically, stands the world tree, known in the Scandinavian Sagas as Yggdrasil. It connects all places, and holds all the worlds within it's branches and roots. By worlds, we mean distinct realities, or universes, each with it's own physical laws, it's own cosmography, it's own life.
First and oldest is the Ginnungagap, the Yawning and Endless Void. From this world woke the First Gods, whose existence is hunger and their "sister" Audhumla, the life giver. In Norse myth these are the great Giants, in Greek they are the Titans. The primordial beings against which the later gods struggle in the oldest myths.
Next came the second and third worlds, Muspel and Niflheim. Audhumla is said to have bridged the two worlds in order to make life possible in the other worlds.
In Niflheim existed the first ice, and in Muspel the first fire. Muspel eventually became home to Djinn, and dragons and many other beings of fire, while Niflheim became the world of death, containing Hel and Hades and many other "underworlds".
As the borders of these primordial worlds pushed against each other in the infinite cosmos, new beings came forth. Some were born of the First Gods and the Life Giver Audhumla, while others seemed to be born of the fundamental matter of Muspel and Niflheim, or of the clashing energy of the three worlds in the places known as Crossroads, when the walls between worlds are thin. These are the younger gods, and they craved creation, and worlds of their own.
Their creations were trifling things, and short lived, until The Wanderer found Midgard. An unknown world that seemed to have come into being as a result of Audhumla's tampering with the primordial worlds. An infinite world of dense, hot matter, creation was an easy thing here. The gods cooked elements into other elements in the cores of infinite stellar forges, and as these forges exploded outward, hurling an endless variety of diverse elements across the cosmos, the gods gathered in groups and learned a new thing. The creation of planets, and solar systems, and galaxies. In ecstatic fits of wonderment, these cosmic beings shapes world after world within the infinity of Midgard, including Earth, and Chevar.
It is believed by many of the oldest created beings that magic came into Midgard when Odin, wanderer and interloper, reached across the worlds, using his own being as a bridge between Midgard and Yggdrasil, the source and center of all things, sacrificing himself to himself on the tree of creation. In doing so, he seeded magic into all the worlds, gained knowledge of the underpinnings of the cosmos beyond that of even the First Gods, and nearly extinguished his own existence in the process.
As magic flooded out from Yggdrasil into all the worlds, the gods were able to create two other worlds, which are tied strongly to both Midgard and Yggdrasil. These worlds are Vanaheim, the world of spirits, and Asgard, world of the gods.
The younger gods were not the only beings interested in the creation of worlds, however. The names of the First Gods who created Jotunheim are lost, if they ever had names, but it is known that they also created the first mortals, the Jotuns.
Lastly, and most mysteriously, came The Otherworld. A world seemingly made of magic as much as of physical matter, "planets" withing Otherworld seem to have infinite geography, even as they exist within solar systems, crystal spheres and other normally quantifiable cosmological models. One can walk the world of in which dwell the Alfar, Svart Alfar, and the Fey, and never in a thousand years circumnavigate it, and yet one can travel only months and reach any destination in the world. Likewise, The Otherworld has "space", complete with stars and moons and asteroids and other planets, and intelligent serpents the size of suns.
Most perplexing is the fact that no one seems to know how this world came to be.
First and oldest is the Ginnungagap, the Yawning and Endless Void. From this world woke the First Gods, whose existence is hunger and their "sister" Audhumla, the life giver. In Norse myth these are the great Giants, in Greek they are the Titans. The primordial beings against which the later gods struggle in the oldest myths.
Next came the second and third worlds, Muspel and Niflheim. Audhumla is said to have bridged the two worlds in order to make life possible in the other worlds.
In Niflheim existed the first ice, and in Muspel the first fire. Muspel eventually became home to Djinn, and dragons and many other beings of fire, while Niflheim became the world of death, containing Hel and Hades and many other "underworlds".
As the borders of these primordial worlds pushed against each other in the infinite cosmos, new beings came forth. Some were born of the First Gods and the Life Giver Audhumla, while others seemed to be born of the fundamental matter of Muspel and Niflheim, or of the clashing energy of the three worlds in the places known as Crossroads, when the walls between worlds are thin. These are the younger gods, and they craved creation, and worlds of their own.
Their creations were trifling things, and short lived, until The Wanderer found Midgard. An unknown world that seemed to have come into being as a result of Audhumla's tampering with the primordial worlds. An infinite world of dense, hot matter, creation was an easy thing here. The gods cooked elements into other elements in the cores of infinite stellar forges, and as these forges exploded outward, hurling an endless variety of diverse elements across the cosmos, the gods gathered in groups and learned a new thing. The creation of planets, and solar systems, and galaxies. In ecstatic fits of wonderment, these cosmic beings shapes world after world within the infinity of Midgard, including Earth, and Chevar.
It is believed by many of the oldest created beings that magic came into Midgard when Odin, wanderer and interloper, reached across the worlds, using his own being as a bridge between Midgard and Yggdrasil, the source and center of all things, sacrificing himself to himself on the tree of creation. In doing so, he seeded magic into all the worlds, gained knowledge of the underpinnings of the cosmos beyond that of even the First Gods, and nearly extinguished his own existence in the process.
As magic flooded out from Yggdrasil into all the worlds, the gods were able to create two other worlds, which are tied strongly to both Midgard and Yggdrasil. These worlds are Vanaheim, the world of spirits, and Asgard, world of the gods.
The younger gods were not the only beings interested in the creation of worlds, however. The names of the First Gods who created Jotunheim are lost, if they ever had names, but it is known that they also created the first mortals, the Jotuns.
Lastly, and most mysteriously, came The Otherworld. A world seemingly made of magic as much as of physical matter, "planets" withing Otherworld seem to have infinite geography, even as they exist within solar systems, crystal spheres and other normally quantifiable cosmological models. One can walk the world of in which dwell the Alfar, Svart Alfar, and the Fey, and never in a thousand years circumnavigate it, and yet one can travel only months and reach any destination in the world. Likewise, The Otherworld has "space", complete with stars and moons and asteroids and other planets, and intelligent serpents the size of suns.
Most perplexing is the fact that no one seems to know how this world came to be.