Painting by Colours – An Origin Story for the World of Rathe

How was the world that Rathe is on created you ask? That’s an interesting story that very few know. Sit down, Children and let Yorick tell you a story as old as time itself. 

In the beginning there were no gods or aesir, no old ones, no shadow or light. Whatever they might grow into later on, in the beginning, all that existed were colors, more specifically Yellow, Purple, Red, Green, Blue, White, and Black

Yet these colors had power, and they were alive in their own way. They moved and permeated through the void, and they soon discovered that where two colors met, creation sprang forth. This creation was untempered and misshapen, land with no tie to gravity that quickly fell apart or drifted into the void, creatures not worthy of life or name that either died or were born sleeping drifting in darkness.

Yet this created the spark of possibility for the colors, as they found when more of them mixed together the creations were somehow more complete, more perfect. And so yellow sent out a question to its fellows, and they answered and joined into a grand melding from whence came all life and creation.

Although they decided on the melding, many of them were uncertain how to proceed. Red was the first to think of the machinery of creation, and he guided his fellows to create molten cores of fire that would light up the sky, and with the help of yellow and white they called forth the sun, and other stars to fill a sky without end. Black then joined in and said that to fill a void between stars and suns, space was needed, so that flowed in to fill the gaps. This void cooled the molten fire and brought forth earth and planets and soon the other colors found they had a canvass on which to spill forth their own creativity.

Blue came next and filled the natural cracks and dips in each worth with oceans and water so deep the other colours did not wish to enter lest they be dyed blue as well. This was the first moment of division in creation, as the colours looked at what blue had done and wondered if they should also do this. White got especially jealous and stole some of the ocean for herself, freezing it and creating huge sways of ocean that would never melt and always be hers. 

That did not make them pause, once the oceans filled and water was there, green found she could use the water to make plants grow and filled the world with life. This made the other colours jealous and they began mixing with green to make their own plants, in every colour imaginable. 

Then green, white and yellow came together to experiment with what could be done, and should be done, and so was the land of Aria made. A playground for these three colours to blend and meld, in a constantly shifting area sealed off from the rest of the world for the safety of both. 

After seeing the power of plants to grow and thrive, the colours were pleased, and decided the world should be filled with life. They began on land and made plants and animals to cover the world, and then looked towards the ocean and thought that it was far too empty. Blue was not pleased because they liked how empty and pure the ocean was, but they were soon persuaded on one condition: they would work with every colour to make the inhabitants of their ocean, but they would decide what the final form was. 

So each colour went to blue in turn, and the ocean was filled with wondrous creatures of such range and size that they dwarf the variety seen on land. However, of the creatures that black, purple and blue worked on together, none were seen. Only these two had designed creatures that blue deemed worthy of the deepest parts of the ocean, the parts the other colours fared to tread, and so the first true secrets were born into the world.

After this each of the colours began to carve out their own places to mirror the deepest ocean, and in doing so they began to gain more personality than they previously had. The act of saying ‘I like this, and I dislike that’ led them to a sense of self they had previously lacked. 

Blue rested content in its deep ocean, and ignored the other colours when they tried to discuss further creation. This led green to build a deep jungle where the largest predators stalked, and other colours fled from their teeth and claws.

Yellow made a land filled with things of its colour as it liked them best, flat fields full of wheat, where the sun (which yellow prized above all of its creations) would shine down and make the land bright.

In contrast, to light, purple turned to shadow, building small enclaves of darkness amidst the light and a separate shadow world that mirrored the light but was defined by its absence. 

Red built his deep volcanoes and created the first dragons, which then led the other colours to rush to make dragons of their own. 

White remained the most social of all of them, and spurned the creation of one stronghold separate from its fellows. Instead it took the highest places in every area, as well as part of the ocean for itself and ensured that wherever its fellows went she would be part of them. Even going so far as to declare a part of the year hers, and to say that their lands would wear its colours for a season every year, where it was possible. 

As much as Yellow stood in contrast to Purple, Black stood in contrast to White. White was happy to remain close to its fellows, but Black retreated, abandoning the brightness of the world under the sun that yellow, white and red had created. It fled to the void, and began gathering up all the misshapen experiments that had sprung half-formed from the aberrant experimentation of its kin. These it treasured in the darkness between worlds, and black’s kin would only hear from it one last time. 

It was through this process of creation that each of the colours truly gained sentience, and also began to realise the elements they liked to wield to build or destroy, but it was not the end of their creation. 

An idea was born from yellow. They had a lot of animals and creatures but she still felt there was some potential for creation that was missing from the world. All the colours had grown personalities, likes and dislikes at this point, and yellow found the absence of creatures that could reason like them to be a huge flaw. So it put out the call to its fellows, to make one last creation, and surprisingly they all answered. Each likely had their own motivation, some wished to be worshipped, some wished not to be left out if everyone else was being involved, and from this final melding came the thinking races of the world, in all their shapes and forms.

Each colour became a god then, as it imbued the traits it liked the most into a portion of what was made, blue making merfolk, yellow making orderly humans, green creating brutes to mirror the beasts she loved. The colours liked the flexibility of humanity best, with almost every colour taking a share of humans for themselves before working on other creatures as well. Though an important note for the children reading this, the gods liked humanity for its flexibility, but they love the creatures they made with their creativity as much if not more, for those creatures mirror them in name.

Green liked this act of creation of sentient creatures so much, she made even more alone, and so the first ancients were born, massive moving creatures of rock and stone that would shape the very land. Others soon followed, as all the colours were jealous of the size of the creations she had made, and so ancients of fire, air, ice, earth, lightning, light water, arcane and void were also created.

However, these were created away from the fledgling sentient races that they had made, the ancients were placed to roam on the continent of Rathe, while the humans, and other intelligent species (that did not inhabit the sky or ocean) were placed on the continent on the far side of the planet.

Each of the colours then took their people to a part of that continent and there was piece for a time, but each moment of creation, invention or building by one of the races created jealousy in the other colours who wondered why their people had not done it first. Soon the land degenerated into war, as colour fought colour, and their peoples bled into the land and sea.

After a hundred years of conflict, the world, and the land was almost destroyed when yellow and red came into direct conflict, upon realising this they declared peace and brought their fellows to negotiate. It was during this discussion that the colours realised that while there might always be conflict, their power was too great, and if they fought then all they had created would be at risk.

So they made their humans abandon the now ruined continent that they had made, and sent them to the only place they had available, the continent of Rathe. Then they left their children though some like yellow (or Sol as she had become known over the years) maintained a closer relationship with her followers, but still at an agreed distance.

These races then settled Rathe, befriended the ancients where possible, and fought them where not. As to where the Old Ones and the Aesir came from I’ll leave to your imagination, as a good story teller does not tell everything they know. And as to the great war between ancients, old ones and the races of Rathe ended, well that is a matter for history and not bards so ask your teachers about that.