The Shape of Rain

by Michael B. Koep

  Deserts appeared on the earth. There was great famine and plague. Amid all the chaos, Endale agreed to marry Unlifso.

  Mellithion in the meantime watched Unlifso bewitch his beloved Endale and her children, and it enraged him to the point of helplessness, for he could do nothing as a god—he did not know how to become an Ithea. From the sky he watched forests burn, smoke rise from cities, waters blacken from poisons, and he knew Endale would not survive if Unlifso’s godlike powers on the earth were not stopped.

  Mellithion cried out to mighty Thi for aid through what the Itonalya call the Tengstre.10 He pleaded with the One to make him mortal so that he could defend his beloved.

  When Thi learned that its Law was being broken, it granted Endale’s guardian Mellithion his wish, and more. Mellithion dropped to the earth as rain—he then rose up as an immortal man. The first Itonalya.

  Mellithion’s coming to earth is told with a series of songs that examine the pain of immortality, the love he has for Endale and her children, and the fear of oblivion.

  At length, Mellithion challenges Unlifso to a duel for the control of the city and the hand of Endale. In response to the challenge, Unlifso, sends one hundred of his most dangerous knights to kill Mellithion. They fail. Mellithion fills a horse drawn cart with their heads and rides them to Unlifso’s door. The next day the two meet before the people of the city.

  Before the fight, Mellithion tells a story to the audience about how they have been deceived by a god and how Unlifso had corrupted their hearts and minds as well as the lands and waters where they must continue to live. Unlifso then dies at the hand of the first Itonalya.

  Endale, as if waking from out of a trance, returns to the arms of Mellithion. The two mend the wounds Unlifso had inflicted, and they live blissfully together for many years. Eventually, the mortal body of Endale dies of old age leaving Mellithion alone on the earth.

  Unlifso bridged back to the realm of the gods. He sent messages to the Siblings and the Oläthion about how he managed to become a part of Endale’s story. He then showed them how they, too, could go and join with Thi’s coveted jewel. From that point on, Endale’s lands filled with countless gods.

  Thi, enraged, pulled Unlifso close to its side and burned him with its light and fire as punishment. To Mellithion, Thi sent aid. Over the long years, Itonalya dropped down into Endale with the rain and together they built a city called Wyn Avuqua and they remained loyal to Thi’s charge.

  v.

  OF SHIVTIRIS THE KILLER

  Unlifso had now provided the Oläthion a kind of key to Endale’s door. Gods came in droves; and through her children, Endale’s education continued.

  Shivtiris was the darkest and most mysterious of all of Endale’s nearest siblings. Other human myths would borrow elements of the Itonalya’s Shivtiris and rename her Hades, Set and Lucifer (among others). Immortals would later name Shivtiris the Cymachkena, their version of the devil.

  Using Unlifso’s enthusiasm and powerful skill of communication along with Agyar’s weapons of fire, Shivtiris taught the children of Endale suffering through the horrors of war, famine, plague and abject fear. The god’s tale in the Lay of Melea is long and written in simple, almost child like couplets. The singsong rhythm juxtaposed to the bloody and graphic suffering of Endale’s children is both chilling and beautiful. Her name, Shivtiris, means house of fear, and it is indicative of what she wanted Endale to become, as well as what she believed to be the greatest and most telling element of the human story: suffering.

  The story in brief:

  Unlike other gods, Shivtiris had some sense that she was not of the earth. She knew that within her a godlike power brooded.11 She presented herself to the leaders of mortals as a sorcerer and lit within them a fear of scarcity, jealousy and pride. It was not long before bloody wars, starvation and sickness ravaged the body of Endale. But worse, Shivtiris’ influence led the Ithea to create the chaos of war and illness in their own hearts and minds which prevented them from finding peace. Mellithion sent his Orathom Wis to settle disputes, teach patience and to care for the sick. Ultimately, Mellithion forced Shivtiris out of her Queenship and killed her mortal body. Some time later, Shivtiris bridged again, this time as a man called Cyaenth who bred the same pestilence as before. Again Mellithion hunted and killed the god. It was said that Shivtiris would never relent and would continue to return until Endale was dead.

  The moral of Shivtiris’ story for the Itonalya suggests that hardship and chaos will forever tangle themselves in the affairs of the earth, whether through the work of the Cymachkena or humankind alone.

  Perhaps the most exciting part of Shivtiris’ story for both the Ithea and the Itonalya is how Loche Newirth and his cast of mythical characters have now defeated the enemy of Endale once and for all. At the end of New Earth War The Itonalya, George Eversman, son of Yafarra Queen of Wyn Avuqua took the head of the immortal Shivtiris on earth, Nicholas Cythe—and thus, cast the god into oblivion forever. The Newirth Mythology has now put an end to the Devil’s reign of terror over humankind.

  vi.

  OF CERVALSO THE SEEKER

  When the god Cervalso12 (his name meaning both the promise of truth and lies) crossed into Endale he did not bring great calamity or cataclysm. He did not appear as a warlord or a seer or an Unlifsian disciple. Rather, Cervalso came into the company of the Ithea as a simple man seeking the answers to questions never before asked. He prodded humankind to think about death. He opened dialogue concerning the meaning of one’s existence and it if there was any reason for it. He even questioned the existence of gods. Cervalso sought peace, and he openly confronted those Ithea that practiced the destructive lessons of Agyar and Unlifso. But he did this through diplomatic and philosophical methods.

  When Mellithion discovered that Cervalso was a god, and came to send him back across the gulf, Cervalso could not understand why anyone would want to murder him. He was frightened and asked Mellithion to spare his life. For Mellithion, the request opposed his sacred charge, but something about Cervalso and his gifts of peace and thoughtful insight to the children of Endale stayed his hand. Mellithion told Cervalso that if he harmed the earth or the Ithea he would return and kill him.

  Cervalso then built a school and he gathered students to study the stars, math, poetry, history and philosophy. Mellithion and the Orathom Wis kept watch upon Cervalso and his doings, and over time found that exceptions could be made to those gods whose deeds were virtuous to the children of Endale.

  In the Lay of Melea, Cervalso taught Mellithion wisdom, mercy and foresight. Cervalso’s teachings provided the Itonalya the power to grant a Godrethion grace upon Endale for their good works.13

  vii.

  OF RESSCA THE MAGICIAN

  As recorded in the Toele, the god Ressca was said to have fallen out of the sky and was caught by the splayed, finger like branches of the tallest tree in Wyn Avuqua. He was a boy of fourteen years. Elders from each of the Wyn Avuquain households surrounded the tree intent on killing the trespassing Godrethion, but the fantastic manner of the god’s entrance into Endale as well as his ill luck in terms of a place for a god to land caused the Elders to pause in wonder. The Minister of Wings proposed that the young Godrethion should be kept alive and questioned so that they may learn whether he was sent by Thi as some sort of omen. The Elders agreed.

  Ressca was taken into the House of Wings, where he lived among his sworn enemies—but he knew only their kindness and curiosity.

  Ressca quickly became of great interest to the entire city for it was rumored that the god’s presence was a signal of the end of their slavery, and that the long burden (the guardianship of Endale and Ithea) would soon be over. Soon the reward of afterlife to immortals would be granted and the Itonalya would be free.

  But this was not so. However, there was a lesson to be learned from this god from the sky.14

  When Lord Mellithion returned to the city and was told that a god was living within the walls, he was eager to m
eet him. The Lay of Melea tells of Mellithion’s appraisal of Ressca over nearly a hundred or more extremely complex verses. In short, young Ressca was described as possessing characteristics from each of Dellithion’s Court that came before him. He had the command and size of Chalshaf, the thoughtful patience of Ashto, the quick temper and fire of Agyar, the enthusiasm and attractiveness of Unlifso, the thoughtful philosophies of Cervalso, and lastly, the dark melancholy of Shivtiris. But with all of these attributes, Ressca carried with him a great sense of humor and profound sadness, and the two emotions would often flow through him shifting from one to the other, just as the weather would change from sun to rain. In his darkest moments he found laughter. In deep contemplation he was quick to point out the meaninglessness of it all with great jibes and jokes. If he was filled with joy and wonder one moment, then tears would rise and he would sob deeply. Ressca seemed to have a firm hold on the power of living in the present moment, and other times he would lament the oncoming shadow of death that would end the sensations, emotions and experiences of his delicate and brief existence on earth.

  The Itonalya named him the Magician not because he practiced sorcery or magic as we might understand it, rather, it was how he conjured the potency of human emotions within the city’s populace that got him the title; for his power was, to the immortals, magic. Ressca’s presence among them stirred a zeal and lust for life within them.

  Mellithion spent each day of that year with Ressca, trying to decipher Thi’s reason for sending the boy, if there was one at all. When the leaves began to fall and the chill of winter blew down from the North, Ressca became ill. All the Wyn Avuquain crafts of healing did nothing to improve Ressca’s health. During his final days, Mellithion explained to Ressca the nature of their relationship; how Ressca was a god living in a city of immortals, and the immortals were charged with eliminating gods upon earth; how Ressca fell from the sky; how Ressca’s passionate influence had changed the insight of the Itonalya; how he would be missed. In answer to these issues Ressca started to laugh and said he did not believe any of his wild tales save one. He did agree that he was different from all the people he had met in the city. When Mellithion asked how, Ressca told him that he felt as if he alone was the only one with hope. The young god then died.

  Mellithion took the lesson from Ressca out into the world of Endale’s children, the Ithea, and he exhibited great emotion, and a passion for living for the rest of his days. Ressca’s magic was the delivery of hope to Endale.

  The House of Shartiris adopted and wrote the Resscian principles. In the years that followed, Itonalya would celebrate Ressca’s lessons and his life by gathering around the very tree that snatched him out of the sky (the tree they named the Hope Tree) and there beneath its great boughs they would share poetry and songs of great sorrow and joy. To this day, when the winter ends and spring begins, Itonalya, where ever they are in the world, will gather around the tallest tree they can find and celebrate Yaressca (Elliqui: the shape of hope within the spirit).

  viii.

  OF FENOR THE LOVER AND MELLITHION’S RETURN TO THE SKY

  The lessons of the god Fenor dominate nearly one-third of the Lay of Melea’s conclusion, and they examine the beauty, power and tragedy of Itonalya perceptions on romantic love. The tale itself is broken into five parts.

  The first deals with Mellithion’s centuries-long loneliness, his reflections on life’s meaning and his unrequited love for Endale. Since the moment he looked upon Endale from his place in the sky, Mellithion loved her, and his desire never wavered even as he walked the earth as the Wyn Avuquain king of immortals. He pleaded each night for her to come to him—to rise from out of the soil and become flesh and blood, or Godrethion, or mortal or immortal—it did not matter to him. She did not, or could not answer. Over uncounted centuries Mellithion remained alone and did not take a wife, nor did he love another. A series of songs describe these long years and the mechanisms by which he coped as he sought to find peace as a solitary being. However, the verses are rapt in a delicate uncertainty and a hopeful yearning for something more than self discovery and self reliance. The section’s themes seem astonishingly ahead of their time. They provide a remarkable view into the immortal state of mind, and they explore the importance of an individual’s emotional, psychological and social well-being as the highest and most noble of aims.15

  The point of view moves to the god Fenor in the second part. It tells of Fenor’s bridging to the earth, and her desire to find and win the love of Mellithion in order to stop the Itonalya from killing Godrethion on earth. Unlike others of her kind, Fenor had the gift of self knowledge, for even as a mortal woman, she knew of her divine origin. She also knew, as did all the Oläthion, Mellithion’s greatest want and deepest desire: Endale. Therefore, Fenor, (Elliqui: peace), bridged as she imagined Endale would appear: a beautiful maiden with hair the color of soil and eyes as green as young shoots of leaves. Her hoped-for outcome, of course, would be to dazzle the immortal guardian and through him create a kind of peace which would enable other gods to cross into the mortal realm, unfettered by the Old Law. Several verses tell of her perilous journey to Wyn Avuqua from across the great sea, to her arrival and the small cottage she built for herself an arrow’s shot from the walls of the great city.

  One day, when Mellithion was walking beside the lake, Fenor presented herself to him. Mellithion, entranced by her beauty, ignored that she was Godrethion and the intense Rathinalya, and asked her name and how she came across the sea. She replied, “I came for thee, for I heard you calling,”16 She then told him her name was Endale and that their time together had come. The end of part two details Mellithion’s joy, his overwhelming devotion and how his long suffering becomes nothing more than a fleeting memory. It also tells of how Fenor reciprocates his love and shrewdly manipulates his manner and character away from his sworn duty and identity. She even presents a kind of antidote to the effects of Rathinalya in the form of a fermented grain drink called Anqua,17 so that he, too, could feel as a god does on earth.

  In the third part, the point of view shifts back to Mellithion and how he is fooled. He blissfully accepts the hand he has pined for his entire existence. He is drunk from both drink and love. The two meet in secret for the laws of Wyn Avuqua would forbid their union.

  Slowly, Fenor (as Endale) convinces the guardian that quarter should be given to bridging Godrethion. Eventually, she influences Mellithion to pronounce that the long burden of the Itonalya is over because Thi has sent Endale to the king’s side. The Wyn Avuquain Templar argued the contrary. They claimed that while the Rathinalya existed there could be no peace.

  Interestingly, the voice of the true Endale makes its entrance in this third section. Interspersed throughout are verses that describe some dramatic environmental event. For example, prior to the telling of Mellithion’s bliss, there are terrible storms. While he is drunk, there are floods. During his nights with Fenor, the poetry depicts powerful winds that topple and uproot trees. With each of Fenor’s manipulative pursuits, the earth responds with anger and violence.

  But Mellithion is blind to all but Fenor’s affections and does not recognize Endale’s jealousy nor her fury at Fenor’s deceptive devices. Over the course of a year (or “A blink of the Eye of Thi,” as the Itonalya say)18, great numbers of Godrethion bleed into the world. For the immortals, the torture of Rathinalya seems ever present. Still Mellithion sips at his goblet of Anqua and rejoices in the arms of his beloved Endale.

  On a morning in mid summer, a lightening storm sets the forest on fire. The flames quickly ignite the surrounding hills. Before dusk, the sky is blood red, choking with ash and smoke. Mellithion rushes to fetch his Endale from her stone cottage and bring her into the safety of the city, but when he arrives, she is not there. Her unwonted absence troubles him. He calls her name. He searches the cottage for her. He waits fearfully beside the door, watching the world burn. Turning back inside he searches for something that would point to her whereabouts—a
sign, a note, a clue. In moments he finds a bundle of letters wrapped in cloth. In moments his heart breaks. The letters are a passionate correspondence between two lovers. His lady’s hand he recognizes. The other hand he does not. In moments, his faith and love is scorched and burned to ash.

  With the letters of her betrayal in hand he goes out to stand beneath the scorched sky. There, he hears the wailing cries of the true Endale: thunder. She laments. Her booming, oppressive, terrifying bellows clatters across the lake. He sees her fingertips as bolts of lightening slashing wounds in the land and sky. He watches her rage overhead.

  He is suddenly aware of her—aware of what he had missed all along. Endale, the earth, tried to show him, but he could not know. His aberration and faults are now woefully apparent and grief lays hold of his heart. He turns back to the stone cottage, enters inside and cries out, “Endale! Endale! Why won’t you come?” He falls to his knees and weeps as the forest fire devours the surrounding fields—the cottage—his body.