As it's Friday, I thought it would be fun to post up something on the mythology of Ede, the world where The Copper Promise and its sequels take place. This piece concerns Y'Gria and Y'Ruen, two of the gods who are trapped inside the Citadel at the beginning of the series – two gods who go on to cause the Black Feather Three all manner of difficulties. This extract originally appeared on my Patreon. (If you have no clue what I'm on about, you can grab The Copper Promise here)
In the beginning, when Ede was unnamed, and the dirt of the world was cool and black, a great storm crawled across the sky, throwing down rain and sharp, quick bolts of lightning. In one place, the dirt was especially rich in Edeian – the magic of stones and salt – and where the rain and lightning fell a shoot began to grow, tiny and green. It was the first thing to grow on Ede, and when it blossomed, Y’Gria the Mother crawled out from between its petals. She was tiny, no larger than a bee, but she felt immediately that she knew what her purpose was. When the storm clouds cleared and the sun came out, she waited for the dirt to grow warm and with it she began to form the continents, the lands and the mountains and the cliffs. These she did quickly, for they were not alive and therefore did not have her heart, but with each new thing she grew a little larger; she was the size of an acorn, a mouse, then an apple.
By the time the lands of Ede had risen above the new oceans, Y’Gria was as tall as a lamb and filled with new determination. Now she sat down with the finest clay and began to make the living things of Ede, every small creature, every large. Every thing that breathed, that had a heartbeat, that slept under the moon or sun, was made by her clever fingers that day, and as each one blinked into life, she sang to it.
Now, she grew. She grew as tall as a house, as tall as the tallest trees. Birds flew from her fingertips, horses ran through the grass, beetles slipped down through the gorse bushes, cats went their secret ways, wolves went to the cold places, bears lumbered to the swifter waters, fish darted into the darkness, bees warmed the air, goats took their strange wisdom to the paddock, bats eased their way into the night. Y’Gria was as tall as a mountain, and her heart was full.
There was still one last thing she wanted to make. Y’Gria took herself off to where the earth was finest, where the magic of the stone-and-salt was strongest, and there she began to make a new creature, one that walked on two legs and carried the knowledge of Words in its heart. She pressed into the creature guile and ambition, songs and curiosity, and above all, the need to create.
When it was done however, and she looked down at her work, she was suddenly filled with hate and disgust for the creature, and taking up her fists – now the size of mountains – she smashed the new animal back into the dirt. When it was done, the earth underneath split open and a great dragon crawled forth. From the first act of destruction, Y’Ruen was born.
[Written underneath in a different hand] A world creation myth from the eastern region of the Summer Isles. It’s interesting that supposedly Y’Gria was responsible for the creation of all living things, when our own experiences with the god suggest that she was both fallible, and not even necessarily immortal. [the initials AF have been signed underneath the note]
[Written underneath in a different hand] Nothing but a massive pain in the arse when we met her. [‘Wydrin’ is roughly scrawled underneath]