» Wed Sep 12, 2012 1:27 pm Today is the birthday of our beloved Hasphat, so this is my gift to him.
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This document came to me in a completely ridiculous and accidental manner. Some Khajiit left it on the secretary table in the Apothecary parlor and then quickly disappeared. The tattered scrap of paper has been totally covered with half-obliterated Aldmeri symbols (and even, in some places, raw Ehlnofex), without any header or annotations, which Grum gro-Ingan and I could barely decipher. Almost all of the text is in Aldmeris (which indicates its advanced age), but untranslatable phrases in a language close to the proto-Aldmeris come across, as well as individual words in Ehlnofex (which we were unable to translate correctly for obvious reasons - Ehlnofex is unstable language).
Here is the full text; you may form your own impression of its contents.
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"Lyrkhat-the-Corrupted"
"Imagine yourself two ancient Circular-Serpents. One of them was called Anurbis and the other was called Pyan-Do-Mai. They whirled in the [void? sea? sand?], seizing their own tails, because they were [hungry? blind? confused?]. The Current was not present yet, as we now know it. Then suddenly Circular-Serpents united (because they wanted to), and out of them crawled, whirling, Saroth-of-Deeps, a swimming serpent, and Ashada-of-Winds, a flying serpent, and yet they looked young. Following them Magash-the-Buildress crawled, the first of the Colorful-Serpents, and she was so bright that few could look at her. Then appeared many others (Daba and Stken and Taratar-the-Protector and Janak-the-Smart and Meshra and Kahtanti) and others (Aza and Baatha and Harsi-the-Hunter and Maoons-the-Destroyer and Jlyg and Erme-Asmora and ...[unreadable fragment]) and others, now unknown.
"And they began to whirl. Some of them were able to swim, and they whirled alongside the Deeps. Some of them were able to fly, and they whirled alongside the Winds. Lyrkhat was one of these serpents. But she was weak and she was able neither to swim nor to fly, and she did not know her way. And while the other serpents were whirling alongside the Deeps, or whirling alongside the Winds, she just spun around her axis. She spun, and suddenly looked at her reflection and saw that hers was in the shape of "I". And this was her first symbol, and she would never forget it.
"She desired to do something, as others did, and after some thinking she got an idea. Lyrkhat turned to the Colorful-Serpents, and she said: "Ae niran on ur-dela Hum naar vi aad," which means: "I give you the correct course of The Current, that is, time." And she continued: "But for this you have to make the Near-Shores, and also the One who would differ from the serpents, so he could walk on the Near-Shores, alongside The Current." And after these words she stopped, without telling the whole truth. She knew that The Current is deadly, but wanted to create.
"The Colorful-Serpents, and first of them Magash-the-buildress, set to work without knowing the trickery of Lyrkhat, and soon the Near-Shores were done, and they were beautiful and thus utterly dangerous, which the serpents did not yet know. Saroth-of-Deeps and Ashada-of-Winds had together begun the creation of One who would be different from serpents. The Colorful-Serpents gathered on the Near-Shores, and from their ranks crawled out, whirling, Saroth-of-Deeps, a swimming serpent, who looked old now, and he said: "AE-CHIM!"
"So The One was created. And he went up to the Near-Shores from beneath the sea, surrounded by the radiance that illuminated the heavens and the clouds and the waves and the Colorful-Serpents, which gathered around him. His skin was akin to medusae jelly, and his eyes were of the color of Day-Serpent in cloudless weather. He had neither tail nor forked tongue, but arms and legs. "Daeridoon isanzae ae moga ineri solon naar vi mer ai maor... mer ai maor... maormer," whispered he, and the heavens shuddered because of his whisper, and the radiance was gone, and streams of water poured from the sky, swallowing everything. For thirty-and-six spinnings of Phy-Nuas the serpents looked and looked at the First-of-Maor, and through all this eternity water fell from the sky.
"Then from their ranks crawled out, whirling, Ashada-of-Winds, a flying serpent, who looked old now. And he said mutely: "HUM!" and immediately the streams of water silenced and The Current stopped. And he said aloud: "OR-KAEN-HUM!" and the First-of-Maor realized that henceforth Orkn'um his name. And then The Current slowly began to move on, as we now know it.
"The water then became transparent, and suddenly serpents saw that The Current was devouring those serpents that crawled not so fast. Such was the curse of The Current, and Orkn'um was cursed so that he could only watch, how serpents deceased. And then Lyrkhat taught Orkn'um how to shift serpents in his semblance. The Former-Serpents became similar to him, obtaining medusae skin and Day-Serpent eyes, and they all were mer ai maor. But the Former-Serpents died anyway, only longer became their way to decease.
"And then Magash-the-buildress became very sad because she loved Lyrkhat, and her beloved had caused her pain. Therefore she left the other serpents, and abandoned the Near-Shores. She burrowed into the heavens, and there a hole appeared, known nowadays as Day-Serpent, out of which comes life and glim. And with her moved off the Lesser-Serpents, that nobody has counted, and nowadays their holes are called the Night-Doors.
"But Ashada-of-Winds realized that Lyrkhat knew it right from the start, and he understood that nothing could save the other serpents that were bound to the Near-Shores. And he was completely angered and ordered the First-of-Maor, his lower reflection, tо punish the trickster. Lyrkhat tried to redeem herself, but realized that they would not listen to her words. So she closed her eyes in resignation, and the First-of-Maor tore her coral briasts, pulled the Center-of-Will out of her body ("TRIN-MACH!"), and was going to eat it ("HUM-NUM-NUM!"). But Ashada-of-Winds understood that such potency was not to be possessed by the Former-Serpents and the Not-Serpents, and so he took away the Center-of-Will, rose high above the water and threw the Center to the Dark-Earth of the distant Tam-Rug-Ea (which was already separated from the Ak-Vir-Ea), because only there the Former-Serpents and the Not-Serpents could not reach it ("DWAY!").
"But punishment was not over. The coral body of Lyrkhat was torn into eight pieces. The First-of-Maor took out her eyes and turned them into Upper-Moons, which are the reflection of the Lower ones. The left, bloodied eye became the Eye-of-Malice, which gives strength to the ones-from-the-deeps and turns them into big-toothed-sharks. The right, dead eye, became the Eye-of-Umbrage, which mourns forever for the torn coral body of Lyrkhat, that is, deprived of the Center-of-Will. Two legs of Lyrkhat became the fertile lands of Yok-Ud-Ea ("HUM-DING!") and Oat-Mor-Ea ("IS-HUM-RAM-MOR!", and at this time it was the longest word that Ashada-of-Winds said, and in that is nothing strange), but they were cursed by The Current and doomed to death. Two hands of Lyrkhat become fertile archipelagos of Pyan-Do-Ea and Ines-Lo-Ea, but The Current cursed them too. The teeth of Lyrkhat were to be beautiful reefs, but The Current has made them sharp rocks. The lips of Lyrkhat were to be gentle waves washing the shores of our land, but The Current has made them deadly whirlpools.
"So this is how Lyrkhat became the victim of The Current (which she created by herself). And now we know how not to."
