The Tropsinion: A Quatrian Creation Myth
Play on, O Tropsi; sing of the Great Achene,
the Samara descending, drifting, alighting.
A hollow she found, within stolid Acho —
a place full of life from the previous world.
When the fires of Wormwood which had destroyed the Third Space finally cooled and the Ruler of the Waters allowed the seas to subside, ACHO lifted his head above the ocean.
Pitted and scarred from the barrage of the Second Time of Unnaming, ACHO abode in silence for timeless times, preparing the way and building the foundation for the coming Space.
The Waters and Sky were one, cloudless, the entrance of the Hypogeum a cave above ACHO.
Then, eons after the Second Time of Unnaming, behold! The Hypogeum opened! Buckwheat Woman sang to Anthuor that The People were restless, that the time had come to find the Next Space.
Anthuor bowed, and Matarax descended from Anthuor's antlers. Matarax stood in the Exit Place, circling down, circling again, creating the ladder, going down into the sky of the Fourth Place, the Sky below the Ground.
Great ANTHUOR came forth!
ANTHUOR, a Stag and a Tree and a Map, stood at the entrance of the Hypogeum and saw that ACHO had prepared a foundation, and that the foundation was good.
ANTHUOR stepped forth onto ACHO's back, the back of the Older Brother, leaving behind a single hoof-print.
With a deep inhalation, ANTHUOR took in a breath of the Living Power, the VIMNA, from within the depths of the Hypogeum.
With a great exhalation, ANTHUOR sang the Melody of AMAK, sending AMAK into the Fourth Space, and the steam from ANTHUOR's breath became the clouds.
Thus was the Fourth Space named, and it was called QUATRIA.
Pleased, ANTHUOR returned to the Hypogeum, to prepare his People and ready the way for their emergence.
Alone remained ACHO, the hoof-print of ANTHUOR on ACHO's back filling with water during the centuries of storms and drying like parchment during the thousand-year droughts.
Upon a time, from the cloud-filled skies, a Great Rain fell, carrying with it the Animalcules and Seeds and Spores from unknown places, carried by the current of ANTHUOR's Melody.
The hoof-print of ANTHUOR became a nest of MOSSES, and as the waves crashed over the back of ACHO, it became a house for LICHEN, and the Mosses and Lichen dwelt together with the animalcules and the seeds and the spores, ACHO willingly gave of itself to help establish this foundation, and thus did SOIL appear within the hoof-print of ANTHUOR.
Filled with VIMNA, the hoof-print of ANTHUOR became the House of Plenty.
Soon after the establishment of SOIL, the drifting seeds of flowering plants settled there. The children of ASTERA, Spirit of the wind-borne star-flowers, descended and grew, thrusting their roots deep into ACHO and loosening the bonds of stone.
Other Spirits and their families followed: CRUCIFER, SOLANARATH, EYTHERON, ATHORNUS, RUMEXIA, and the soil grew as they established their home.
The Soil lived, and breathed, and the whole host of entities and their amak grew and thrived and the Way was Made for the People of ANTHUOR.
With a mighty roar, the Hypogeum opened, and ANTHUOR stepped forth. Setting his hoof once again onto the back of ACHO, the Older Brother,
ANTHUOR sang out, pleased at the new land, now readied for the People of the Third World.
Calling out to Buckwheat Woman, ANTHUOR cleared the path, and the People descended the Tunnel of MATARAX into the Fourth Space, the Land of QUATRIA.
