[World Building] The Story of Creation: As told by the Elders

I have always been interested in world building. I find it incredibly exciting to think up and flesh out aspects of a world. I normally don't get too far on one world, instead I mostly think of random pieces that I don't really tie together. This year I'm trying to do more creative writing, so I figured that writing down some of my ideas could help me tie some ideas together.

Recently I sat down with one of my friends for coffee and we got to talking. We eventually landed on the topic of creation myths, and began brainstorming ideas for a creation myth from a fictional world. One thing led to another and I decided to write something up for what we discussed.

I haven't really done any creative writing since high school, so I'm a little rusty and trying to improve my writing. If you have some pointers, or links to good articles then please leave a comment.

I did a quick sketch of what a map of the world would look like as well. There isn't much detail, just three colours to represent:

Dark blue => Deep Water
Light Blue => Shallow water
Green => Land

Dual continents.png

Image drawn by me on my iPad Pro.

THE MYTH

In the beginning there was only Nif, the great mother. When she became pregnant with twins she decided to create a world for them to live in. Nif collected as much of her energy as she could spare and formed it into a ball, which would be the beating heart of her world. She covered it in dirt and water to contain and protect it. Nif then constructed a large, flat boat out of dirt taken from the sea floor so she had somewhere to walk.

Nif walked across the boat creating all manner of life. She wandered and from her footsteps sprouted plants of all sizes; grass to be something soft to walk and rest on, edible plants to provide food to eat, and giant trees that towered into the sky to provide shade on hot days. She wandered along the shore and dipped her hand in the water, creating fish and other aquatic animals. She wandered and came across a large river, which she followed to its source.

The river began at the foot of a large mountain range, Nif decided to sit there and rest. As she rested she modelled animals using stone from the mountains. One by one she modelled an animal and imbued the stone with some of her energy to give it life. She modelled song birds, and she modelled hunting birds. She modelled deer, and she modelled hogs. She modelled wolves, and she modelled panthers. She modelled animals until she used stone from the entire mountain behind her.

When she finished she gathered all of her newly created animals and told them about the twins she was about to bring into the world. She asked the animals to watch over her children while she rested, gave birth to a daughter and a son, and floated off into the stars to recover her lost energy.

The animals kept their word and raised the twins. They kept the twins safe, and even taught the twins how their mother had created all the animals so that the twins could make partners. Once they were adults the twins split the land in two so they could each explore the world with their families.

It had been many years since the boat was first created from the sea floor, and the force of separating it echoed down to where the ground had been thinned. Over the years as the twins sailed, the power in the core began to wear away at the dirt surrounding it until it began leaking out.

The fish became worried and afraid of the energy leak, and rushed to warn the twins. When each twin heard of the leak, they thought of everything they could do with the energy and sailed as fast as they could towards the leak. As each twin came close to the leak they saw the other and knew they had to get there first. The twins rushed their boats as fast as they could directly into each other, each trying to cover the area and keep the power for themselves.

As the boats ground together, pieces broke off and floated into the ocean creating many small islands around the world. Some of the animals were stuck on the pieces that broke away, isolating them from the rest of the world.

The commotion worried the animals so much that they asked the fastest of the hunting birds to go and ask for help from Nif. The bird flew up and up an up, until it came across the goddess slumbering among the stars. The bird screeched until the goddess awoke, and told her about the animals fear. Upon hearing of the trouble in the world, Nif rushed down to the world. Seeing the destruction her children had caused enraged Nif.

She turned the remaining dirt along the ocean floor into tough, unbreakable stone that the energy would not wear away. To stop her children from further destroying her creation she created more dirt directly over the leak to plug it. Then she raised the land up until the boats were grounded, and pulled the boats apart along with the land. This new land from under the water became as an extension of the boats, all one unmoving land mass.

With her remaining energy Nif grabbed her children and took them away from the world, leaving the world for the animals. In her rage Nif acted so quickly she never learned of her children's families who were left to make their own way in the new world. Over generations the powers of the twins were slowly forgotten, and eventually lost to all.