Being the Creation of Atlin
And the Story of Helga and Uros
Before the World there was darkness. And when the darkness returns, the World will be no more.
What caused the World to be born from darkness is not known. But when Helga found the World during her long wanderings, she stayed and was entranced by it.
For Helga is the Sun and brings forth light - and life - to the World. Everywhere her light reaches, life comes forth. And in those places where only her faint reflections can reach, beings of darkness and hate rule.
When the first Men emerged into the World, they worshipped the Sun, for casting back darkness and bringing light to the World. But during the night they were afraid, for the lands were ruled by the creatures of night.
A war was fought, between the primitive first Men and the creatures of night. In her compassion for her creations, Helga brought her son - Uros - to the World, and with him Fire, the enemy of darkness.
Uros is the wellspring of reason. His light allows knowledge to grow, shared first as stories between Men, then written with charcoal upon cave walls and gradually onto papyrus. With fire, Men could grow civilizations, cultures, weapons, technologies… the tools for turning the tide of battle against the creatures of night.
But Helga did not count on Uros hatred for the World, of his desire to escape Atlin and rejoin her. Trapped among mortals, Uros and all of his creations demand constant attention, lest they escape their bounds and destroy all. It is said that Uros seeks the means to ignite Mount Ur-Akathi, setting loose its fires upon the World, and freeing Uros from his mortal prison.
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Of the other races, little is known. Perhaps the dwarves are children of Uros, clever and hand and mind. Perhaps the elves are children of Helga, drawing their strength for good or ill from nature.
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The sun can be both a bringer of good - light and healing - and bad - burning leaf and skin. Helga’s worshippers draw their inspiration from the sun, and its cycles and seasons. Her clerics seek to master healing and good deeds. They practice non-violence, except when attacked, and then their strength, like that of the sun, is radiant.
Like the sun, they believe in the importance of journeying, across the sky and land, to prove their devotion and capability. Young acolytes will venture into communities in need, into places of disaster and disease, war and oppression, in order to prove their mettle to the goddess’ priests and be welcomed into her High Temple, or Ellium, in Finsbury. She demands a leap of faith - ‘that no matter how dark, the sun will rise again’. Her temples are shrines to healing and to light, replete with mirrors, shiny surfaces, precious metals and crystalline stones.
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Fire can be both a tool and a scourge. It is both explosive, and unreliable except in skilled hands. The key to mastering fire is knowledge. Worshippers of Uros seek always to increase their understanding of the World and its nature in order to increase their mastery over it.
Uros is the god of war, of technology, of building and shaping.
The spirit of Uros is more likely to be found in iron forges and librairies than in temples. His places of worship are schools, which his followers have built throughout the land. His high priests are engineers, artists and swordsmen. He delights equally in the making and the unmaking.
Uros despises blind faith, demanding instead the constant testing of his followers in the furnace of reality. To gain entry into the Great School of Tellurgy in Finnsbury, journeymen must push beyond the current limits of knowledge, whether by adventuring into the unknowns, creating new tools and technologies, or mastering the skills of war or art, in all its forms.
The Great School is both a place of learning, a fortress, and a factory in which his disciples shape metals into cunning machines of war and industry. At the heart of the school is a vast forge, with a chimney reaching high into the sky, towards Helga, and its plume of smoke can be seen across the city.