The Dominions

The Dominions

At different times, among different peoples, there have been different beliefs as to what order the next four Avesri hatched in, which of them was older. Also, some people at some times have not known of all of them, only telling of the ones they that they knew or remembered stories about. Regardless, the next four Avesri were as different from each other as they were from Sha'nin and Arfiel, each having a particular talent for or Dominion over a different sort of magic. They were: Je'ron the EarthBird, Avesri of the land and that which grows upon it; Sh-low the SkyBird, Avesri of the air and weather; Awn-laa the WaterBird, Avesri of both saltwater and freshwater places and that which lives in them; and Rawn the FireBird, Avesri of the sun and stars and all that which creates heat or burning. In spite of different legends among different peoples not all agreeing as to what order these four hatched in, what is consistent among them all is that the Avesri of Earth and Sky were believed to be the elder two, and the Avesri of Water and Fire the younger two.

Each of these four Avesri took a different quadrant of the world for a home, and these quadrants were also referred to as being part of the Dominion of each. The homeland of Je'ron the EarthBird was the quadrant of Bennuma with the most extensive land masses, the biggest fields and forests, and also large and mysterious swamplands on on side near steep, rough mountains. On the other side of the mountains and swamplands was the quadrant where Rawn the FireBird made his home. It was the fourth of the planet with the next greatest amount of land, but not all in one mass, and also containing many bodies of water more distinctive than in Je'ron's lands. The largest desert could be found in this place, as well as the largest active volcano, but also shining, silent, higher mountain peaks and bitter lakes below sea level. High steppes and tundras, glaciers, savannas and rainforests. This was the land with the most contrasts, the most extremes. Opposite it, on the other side of the EarthBird's Dominion, was the Dominion of Awn-laa, the WaterBird. Oceans separated what land there was from the land in Je'ron's home, and from the land on the other side of it, which was that of the SkyBird, Sh-low. In Awn-laa's Dominion, the land did have some large masses, but also many smaller islands, both in chains and lone. There were many lakes everywhere of all sizes, and the larger land masses had their seas and bays. The largest inland sea could of course be found here, as well as the largest stretches of open ocean. The single largest ares of open ocean actually crossed over into the quadrant of the world under the SkyBird's Dominion. The lands of the SkyBird Sh-low were mostly in one body, but of irregular shape. The largest, widest area of it was mostly flat, the coastlines tended to be wide flat sandbars, some of the other places had many high plateaus, and everywhere else were high, bleak mountains, the highest in the world in some places, but not the most rough or jagged. The fastest winds anywhere were found in this quadrant.

There had already been plants and animals on Bennuma before the Avesri hatched, but none that were known to be sentient. It's possible that they may have all been at least a little bit magical, but none particularly so, or there may have been a wide range of magic ability among the forms of life on the planet, or perhaps none were magical at all to begin with. But it is certain that the Avesri encountered no sentient beings aside from each other when they came into the world. After the Avesri, however... some species, races, or varieties of living things began to gain intelligence. As they did, the Avesri began to guide them and watch over them more closely. But the closer the more intelligent of living things grew to achieving true sentience, the further other matters progressed which would put an end to many of the Avesri's direct dealings with them.

It is of note, however, that of the beings gaining intelligence at that time and progressing towards sentience, although they may have been different types of species in different Dominions of the world, they did not seem to be progressing faster or appearing in greater abundance or variety in any particular Dominion.

The Tale of the Watcher

The Tale of the Watcher

(or Parable of the Estate)

There is a tale as old as any of the sentient races of Bennuma, usually told as a parable or morality tale, sometimes as a fable of sorts; it has been translated into every possible manner of speech or writing and passed around in innumerable variations. Sometimes the number of principal characters in the tale are more, sometimes less; some versions are very short and simple while others are more complex and involved, including variations which have amounted to lengthy novelizations based around the basic ideas of the story yet vastly different from each other and barely recognizable as being part of the general collection of stories built upon the same moral from the same basic tale. In its earliest versions to have been recorded in writing, there were five principal characters, and the tale was somewhat simple, as was the moral. Sometimes it was called “the Tale of the Five Siblings.” It could be told something like this:

There once was a grand estate, with grounds and gardens both extensive and beautiful. Five siblings inherited it together, and since it was so large, they decided that each would look after and maintain a different part of the gardens and grounds. The eldest of the five took it upon himself to maintain the wall around the estate and guard the gates and build a watchtower from which he could look out over all the countryside surrounding the estate in order to guard against thieves or anyone else who might come to harm his siblings or any living thing within the walls, or who would damage any part of the estate.

The other four siblings divided the grounds fairly and each set about maintaining the part of the gardens and grounds which each one was best suited to care for based on the particular talents of each. They were all very skilled, but each in a different way.

As time went on, the two youngest of the five siblings began to each claim that their differences made the one superior to the other. They developed a bitter rivalry, and in their efforts to prove themselves each one better than the other, they became willing to not only harm each other, but also to sabotage or destroy parts of each other’s assigned part of the gardens and grounds of the estate.

The eldest sibling was so busy watching the surrounding countryside and trying to finish building his watchtower, that he neglected to notice what was going on inside the estate itself. Meanwhile, the other siblings were dragged into the conflict--first one, and then the other. One who had been the most peaceful of all the siblings had his part of the gardens repeatedly crossed by the two who were rivals, and their efforts to damage each other’s parts of the grounds began to spill over into the the garden area watched over by the peaceful sibling. Moreover, they often came upon each other in crossing that area, and would fight and hurt anything--living or not--that got in their way. When their pacifist brother tried to get them to see the damage they were causing and to stop fighting, they turned on him and he was hurt as well. Their fierce rivalry had become a war on each other, and the more their brother tried to get them to stop fighting, the more they fought, until he was killed for getting between them.

The other sibling with a part of the grounds to care for was the next eldest after the one building the watchtower. She had noticed what was going on, but her part of the grounds was on the other side of the estate and less affected by the fighting. She was deeply concerned, yet for quite some time had been undecided as to what to do. She did not try to involve the eldest brother because he seemed too absorbed in his tasks, and as though he was more distant, almost an outsider now. But when her younger, pacifist brother was killed, she decided to take action and end the conflict herself by whatever means she could, no matter how extreme.

She knew the strength of her siblings who were fighting, and had seen them only get stronger while they fought. Even if she might be able to be as strong as one or the other of them, she certainly could not expect to overpower them both. And the incident with the pacifist brother had convinced her that the two siblings who were fighting would not listen to anyone trying to persuade them to stop fighting, no matter the circumstances.

So, instead she planned a trap for them. She deliberately weakened parts of the manor house and dug below the foundations in certain places, then strategically caused deliberate damage to places in the grounds that would cause her two warring siblings to follow the paths of damage to see where they led. When her siblings got to where she wanted them to be, of course they began fighting each other again, causing further damage to the part of the manor house they had been led to. And, while they were thus distracting each other, the older sister set off her trap by causing part of the foundation to collapse underneath them, which was followed by a large part of the rest of the structure crashing down around and on top of them.

All three of those siblings died there, since the sister who had created and set off the trap had been too far inside the foundations of the building to be able to get out when it came down. But she had expected that, and it was a price she was willing to pay in order to stop all of the destruction that her siblings had been causing to the estate grounds, gardens, and all the living things in it.

Such a disaster was so large that the eldest brother could not fail to notice it, in spite of how absorbed he’d been in his tasks that had kept him looking away from the estate. When he investigated and learned what had happened, he mourned for a very long time. And, ever after that, as he worked hard to repair what he could on the estate, and to care for the living things there, he never forgot that danger and disaster can come from within as easily as from without.

Arfiel

Arfiel

The first of Sha’nin’s siblings to hatch after her was her brother, Arfiel. She sensed his presence, sought him out, helped him learn everything she could. Many things he learned on his own just as she had, and although they have much in common where strength in magical ability is concerned, they found that he differs in size, shape, and color, and his special talents are vastly different. His is the Dominion of Life Energy, all which moves and grows and lives. Not to manipulate it for petty amusements or to constantly interfere in the trifling matters of the everyday lives of individual beings, but to be aware of all Life Energy, of all Life and all lives in a way that no other being could be capable of; to watch them all dance in and out and around each other, and truly see when anything might be simultaneously amiss in a large number of lives all together. To sense when significant changes occur, whether on a large scale or a small one.

Though he can be harsh on occasion like almost any Avesri, Arfiel has a great capacity for compassion and empathy - and in spite of having spent many long ages looking away from the world, when he has looked back upon Bennuma he has often been more likely to go among its inhabitants, show himself, and talk to them, than most other Avesri. Notably, it cannot be said that any Avesri have gone among the inhabitants of Bennuma in their true form, more than he. Many animal species feel a kinship with him, and he is generally more approachable to the peoples of the world.

For his dwelling, Arfiel chose the other moon of Bennuma, the one with life on it, the one with growing things: the Green Moon, Erland. Erland that is also called the WatchMoon because of Arfiel having chosen it for a residence; for it is said that in the first ages of the world, before the various races of peoples and creatures came to be the way that we know them to be now, Arfiel had misgivings about the safety of the world and he watched for danger, concerned that our world of Bennuma might be threatened from without. In a way, this was true; and in another way, it was not. He was right to be concerned, but he did not know what to look for. Yet he sensed something that no other did, and because of it he took up watching from the Green Moon, looking outward and waiting for sign of some danger that he could take action against.

The Knight's Courser

The Knight’s Courser

There was once a good, solid, and true ship called the Knight’s Courser, manned by one of the most skilled and steadfast crews ever known on the seas and captained by a fair and honest man who had the fortune (good fortune or misfortune, depending on the day, as he saw it) of having his wife for First Mate. We say he was fair and honest, but truth be told this ship’s Captain wasn’t impartial. He was extremely prejudiced in favor of believing his wife was the fairest and smartest of women, that his crew was the best to be found, and that his ship the fastest and strongest ever heard of. Notwithstanding, he did fairly treat everyone he did business with and never went back on a promise. Even if it meant putting his ship, his crew, and his wife at risk in order to sail through storms and deliver trade goods or passengers on time. He always believed they could come through safely even where other ships wouldn’t  dare. Some called it bravery, others named it hubris.

It happened upon a time of fitful seasonal storms, that the Knight’s Courser put into port just ahead of one of the larger storms of those days with a load of trade goods. While the crew was hurriedly unloading the cargo and looking forward to an evening inside the local taverns listening to the wind and rain beat on the buildings from the outside, a Traveler approached the Captain along with an old Dockmaster who had long been friends with the Captain and his wife. No one knows anymore exactly what words passed between the Dockmaster, the Captain, his wife the First Mate, and the Traveler, nor even is it remembered why it should have been of particular concern to the Dockmaster that this specific Traveler reach the intended destination as soon as possible… but it will ever be remembered that in spite of the fact that the Traveler was offering extra payment to hire the ship to go back out with a large storm coming in, what really mattered was that the Captain owed the Dockmaster a solemn favor and was not going to turn him down when asked. Aside from which, he had every confidence in his ship and crew, and it was a sure bet no other ship would do it for any reason whatsoever.

Promising his crew a hearty adventure with extra leave and pay once they arrived at the next destination, the Captain cancelled all leave at that port, and any of them who were too afraid to ship out with the rest of the crew could consider themselves available to sign on to another ship at their earliest convenience. Not a one of them stayed behind.

A few other travelers dared to buy passage on the Knight’s Courser for this voyage, dire though the predictions were of many in the port. Whatever their individual reasons, they all set out in the face of the storm coming in, and made their way towards their destination – sometimes quite slowly, sometimes driven incredibly swift by the gales – though not always directly towards their destination; many course corrections were required almost constantly. The First Mate had brought on a few new crewmembers before they had set out, and though the Captain had not had time to get to know them personally, he knew that one was an additional Navigator hired specifically to guide them through a particular strait shortly before their destination. This Navigator was also very experienced in actually piloting ships through that strait; an important thing since it happened to be one that the Knight’s Courser and her crew hadn’t sailed through but one time only and in ideal conditions. The First Mate and her husband the Captain could not be certain the seas there would not still be stormy when they reached the strait, but they were determined to sail through it without delaying, and so she had hired the most experienced person she could find for the task.

The storm seemed to chase them all the way along the voyage, sometimes with something of a supernatural knack for going against the usual patterns of the ocean in those parts, and as they neared their destination it became more chill and biting, even when it was not more fierce.

One dark evening when they had just spent the day fighting against the roughest gales of the voyage thus far, the winds and waves calmed a little – though they were still fussily choppy in fitful spurts, almost as though there was a wind they couldn’t feel that kept beating down the waves they could see and the winds they could feel, the storm trying but failing to whip itself back up into an insane fury – but a wind higher up in the sky coasted down from the North and brought with it flurries of snow. Unseasonal, that, though not entirely unheard of that time of year. But not usually quite so far South or quite as much as they were seeing. Odd, and yet…

The Captain didn’t have time to finish considering it. The Second Mate (who was their chief Navigator and quite good with charts and star-maps) had been viewing the stars with some difficulty through the cloudcover the past few hours, but suddenly warned the Captain that they had somehow been driven faster towards the upcoming strait than expected. Instead of coming to it in the morning, they would be reaching it… uncomfortably soon, if he had read the signs aright.

“Well, blast it all and the depths take you if you don’t go fetch that specialist Navigator sharpish!” the Captain bellowed above a shrill whistling wind that nibbled his ears numb, suddenly realizing that curse might turn literal if things didn’t go well. If any ship could make this voyage intact under these conditions, it’d be his sure enough; but even he had realized by now that the cards seemed stacked against them and no matter how well he thought he knew the game, he still didn’t know if he was going to draw the winning card. And he had bet everything on this hand. Everything.

“Here I am, Captain.” a voice said coolly from behind his shoulder. He turned to see a youngish woman, perhaps slightly taller than average height, with raven-black hair and a piercing gaze. She was close enough to tap him on the shoulder, and he thought she might have if he hadn’t heard her. She saluted him languidly.

“You’re the Navigator who’s going to pilot the ship through the strait?” the Captain asked, just slightly uncertain over the surreal way she’d been right behind him as soon as the Second Mate had gone away.

“I most certainly am, Sir.” she said with utmost confidence. And for whatever reason, she added: “I’ve been looking at the stars and other signs, Sir. There’s no time to waste, we’re just about there.”

Taking that as an explanation for her sudden appearance, the Captain offered her the wheel while asking, “What’s your name, girl?”

“Shayrin, Sir.” and that was the last thing he ever heard her say.

He didn’t dare bother her while she was piloting the ship; she looked terribly focused and that piercing gaze of hers ranged over the sky, the sea, what rocks could be seen in the water, and (the Captain imagined) even ones he couldn’t see. He left the steering to her but watched closely and shouted commands to the crew to adjust  this or that with the sails, seeing the navigator nod approvingly each time. Once in awhile, if he didn’t anticipate quickly enough, she began to gesture with one hand a little, but he quickly picked up what she meant and passed the directions on to the crew. She seemed so absorbed in her task that words would be somehow a greater additional effort than movement. He wondered if she was really as young as she looked; she seemed as experienced and at home guiding a ship as any old sailor he’d ever seen. At one moment – and he felt silly for thinking it – he thought she seemed as old as the sea itself, almost a part of it.

The sea was choppy, but not as bad as he knew it could have been; the sky was dark and overcast, but somehow enough stars seemed to peek through for Shayrin to be certain of their exact position merely by glancing at them. The air around them was speckled with snowflakes and it was the dead of night, but somehow she seemed to see enough of the ocean beside and beneath them to keep her bearings and guide the ship safely. The Captain would have sworn that it was impossible if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes; or, rather, because he had seen the conditions with his own eyes he knew how impossible it should have been, and ever afterwards he swore that was the one trip his ship and crew should never have survived, in spite of all the boasting he usually made about them otherwise.

When they were just about through, the snow was clearing up and so was the sky overhead, but the sea was still choppy and looked about to get rougher. But there was a winking light just visible on the horizon that had to be from the port they were headed for, from a lighthouse the Captain knew lay at the end of a direct clear path from the strait. The Navigator pointed to make sure the Captain had seen it, and gave him the wheel. She looked exhausted after hours staying focused on keeping the wheel precisely aligned where she needed it to be, always changing the position as the sea kept changing around them and the rough waters had seemed to be trying to fight them every inch of the way through the strait with the winds unpredictable or contrary all throughout.

The Captain gave her a pat on the back for a job well done, vowing to pay her double whatever his wife had hired her for – but although the young woman looked exhausted, her eyes still were sharp like nails to pierce a person’s very soul, and she looked back at him as if she didn’t even know who he was. Or, perhaps it was a look as though she didn’t care; nothing personal, she was just too tired.

Not long after Shayrin walked away from him down one side of the ship, his wife approached from the other. She chastised him for not waking her for the watch she was supposed to have taken over from him. She had woken up at one point and helped the crew in various ways, but then had heard disturbing news, gone belowdecks to check the truth of it, and then come straight to where the Captain was, at the wheel.

He pointed out to her the light from the lighthouse at the port, and hugged her close. “How we ever got through that-”

“How did we get through that?” She asked, gesturing back towards the strait. “Were you at the wheel this whole time? I could hardly see anything…”

“The Navigator you hired-”

She interrupted her husband again. “Is belowdecks in the crew’s quarters. I just heard he’s been terribly sick the past two days and would hardly respond when anyone tries to rouse him. I just checked for myself.”

“He? Then who was here with me? Didn’t you hire a girl named Shayrin?”

“No, I-”

She fell silent as a dark shadow fell over the ship. Towards their destination port was a lighter sky behind the horizon, and already the sky above them (now free of clouds) was no longer black. But a dark shadow spread out like a smooth and nearly-flat cloud, seeming to have come from just behind the ship and passing overhead towards the port. The trailing edge of it was like an exceptionally fine mist that was dissipating rapidly, and the leading edge had a form like the head and leading edges of the wings of a bird. A very large and very, very dark bird. Dark like the shadows of the black voids of space between stars at night.

It seemed to grow lighter as it headed in the direction of the port – no, not lighter, merely… more transparent, like it was fading away. As the husband and wife – Captain and First Mate – watched, the last part they could see of it was that leading edge shaped like the front of a bird’s head and wings. Impossibly large, but getting smaller - farther away - so very quickly even as it also seemed to fade away.

As it turned out, the Second Mate had heard there was a Navigator up with the Captain piloting the ship, soon after he’d left there – and so he’d stopped looking and gone on to help the rest of the crew with their tasks controlling the sails, and had never heard of the hired Navigator being still sick belowdecks until some of the crew had time to actually stand around and talk.

And as for the passengers… they all vowed that was the last time they’d book passage on a ship that was sailing out into a storm. Except for the Traveler who had wanted to hire the ship in the first place. Those telling the story afterwards never mentioned anything about that one making any such vow. But it is said that passenger commented two things upon hearing the full story from the Captain, as the Captain regaled everyone with it (along with ample praise of his fine crew) during the last leg of the journey.

The first was said within everyone’s hearing, in a wry tone: “Are you sure she didn’t say her name was ‘Shannon’, Captain?”

The second came later, for the Captain’s ears alone, after an apology for having been the cause of putting he, his wife, and his ship and crew into such danger. The Traveler seemed to have sincerely not expected the voyage to become so dangerous. At any rate, the apology was followed up by a recommendation to never take such an awful risk again. “After all,” the Traveler said, “ though you may have the best ship and the best crew, it’s not every day that you can count on Death itself to cheat Death for you.”

It should be noted that the Captain’s story never mentions any other details about that Traveler; apparently he was requested to leave further details out, presumably because of the specific nature of the Traveler’s business and urgent reasons for traveling at that time. Also of note is that the Captain never fully understood his own story; he and his people were largely ignorant of Sha’nin at the time and it was only later that the story became known as being one about her, with the full import becoming clearer.

Like all Avesri, the motives and actions of Sha’nin may be higher or more complex than most common folk will ever know or understand; yet if any of the Avesri could be said to be more unfathomable than the others, it could well be the IbinBird. Being the Avesri of change, of possibility, potential, and yet also of shadow and every dark empty void… could one ever expect such a being to remain still or to hold to only one course of action or only one motive for very long? Both her plans and her reasons for them might well change as often, or –  dare one suggest – more often, than the face of her moon.

Sha'nin

Sha’nin

It is said that the first of the birds to hatch was Sha’nin, the bird whose Dominion is of the forces of change, that which is also called Ib’in. Ib’in which is more than mere transience, being that which both is not and yet could be. It is both change and possibility, and sometimes… emptiness, even darkness or shadow. Without it there could be nothing, and yet if it were everything, there would be nothing else. The Bird of Ib’in came to be in a new-formed world with a sun and two moons, the land and water, plants, animals, and the eggs of her siblings – though it is said they were in different places and hatched some time after. The Avesri did not create the world, but were sent to guard it.

Yet there was no one to teach Sha’nin, and she knew of no other beginning than her hatching. Much time would pass before her eldest brother would hatch. She taught herself language, or language taught itself to her. She didn’t yet understand her powers, but she could feel that she had them. She explored the world as flight also taught itself to her. Magic taught her to sense its presence. Magic was everywhere, and it was good; beautiful and so alive.

The ShadowBird Sha’nin chose for her dwelling the darker of Bennuma’s two moons; the gray moon Ionoth which is also called the Steel Moon, for its appearance like a lump of darkly tarnished steel which hadn’t quite been forged into a perfect sphere but had myriad random irregularities over its surface, the higher points of which shine silvery when hit by the light of the sun. Ionoth which can never be charted because the surface is always different. Oh, it never seems to change while anyone is looking at it, not really; but by the time one side rotates around and spins back to face the world, it will be different in some way, however slight – or sometimes entirely. Thus, making sketches of that moon has fallen far more soundly into the artist’s realm than the domains of naturalists or historians. Though some astrologers claim that certain patterns do have meaning, after all. Some peoples are more likely to believe this than others.

Those people who are called the Ibinri have long believed that Ionoth is where the souls of the dead go after they leave this world, that Sha’nin watches over them and assigns them to tasks in the afterlife. A long-standing tradition even claims that she is the one who gathers up and guides the dead to that afterlife. In more recent times, many other peoples have begun to pick this up and believe it as well; indeed, in many places some people had traditions of the Steel Moon (or of the moons in general) being the place of the afterlife even before they ever knew of Sha’nin, so it is not far off from what some believed already. Many other people have had beliefs that everything was created out of the forces of Ib’in and that when people die, their souls return to it. In this they are also – in their own way – not far off from the beliefs of the Ibinri.

Whether Sha’nin watches over the spirits of the dead or not, whether the Avesri are primarily spirit beings or not, it is certain that they either have or can take tangible forms and pass among mortal beings, at least for a time. Listen to a tale of one such occurrence:

The Avesri

Legends of Bennuma

(as might be told by Hadimer, in the time of the IceGem)

The Avesri

Everyone knows of the Avesri. Well, everyone knows at least something of them. Oh, some people worship them as gods, many imagine them to be spirits, some say they are pure magic given solid form; but pretty much everyone thinks of them as being the protectors of this world of ours. The Guardian Birds of Bennuma. Those of them which still exist, that is.

Some people believe there are more Avesri than are known to us; some believe there never have been more than the ones which exist now, that the ones no longer with us are nothing more than legends of fancy. But the Avesri do exist, and legends of them abound. Long ago, not all peoples knew all of these legends, but times have changed and the peoples communicate more freely with each other. Still, some may know of more legends than others.