Act 0 - The Legend of the First Man¶
Archival Copy, Kept by Amethyst Silver
Long ago, there was a great civilization in the first realm. It was started by the created beings from the created realm who learned how to pass through realmspace. Realmspace, at that time, was a dark, shapeless void with where the realms lie being mostly guesswork, and its existence and how to traverse it being a closely guarded secret. The created beings built a civilization in the first realm, energized by the raw, power-rich air there. They called this raw power "kna," or "unrefined energy." Generations passed and the method they used to pass through realmspace had been almost completely lost.
About seven generations in, the realm faced a famine like no other they had before. The soil bore no grain, nor did the kna in the air help at all. As it continued, the town's food supply dwindled, and people started to starve. One man, however, worked through the starvation, reading into the night by candlelight alone. One man who had no family of his own.
The man read of taking the kna and pulling it, gathering it and focusing it into an ability. Refining the kna into "kno," or "focused energy." The technique had almost completely been lost due to nobody deeming it necessary anymore. But the man read night and day, convinced that the kno abilities would be their solution.
After years of reading, experimenting, re-reading, and experimenting again, the man was able to open a rift to realmspace. The town, almost gone, started pouring all they had into helping the man, as he was their only hope. With their help, the man learned how to bind kno, navigate realmspace by feeling kna, and the three separate classes of kno.
After more months of experimentation, and with the two remaining peoples' help, the man learned that he could form kno into a line, bind it to the realm, and pull it through a rift. As the rift closes, you would think that it snapping shut would sever the line, but the kno of the line kept the rift open, microscopically. Just enough for the line and airborne kna to cross. The man would then run this line to another realm, through another rift, and bind the other side. This pulled the realms together and allowed fresh kna to spread through the realms from realmspace, albeit slowly. As the man weaved the realms together, realmspace itself began to take a more physical form. Very small sand and dust particles would pass through the rifts, and would settle in realmspace, pushed around by winds created by the flow of kna. Realmspace started to form a black desert.
After the man had finished weaving the realms together, he returned to his home town in the first realm. But there was nobody left. The crops just wouldn't grow, no matter what they tried. There were no animals in the realm to hunt, either. The man could no longer stay in the first realm, he had to find another home.
The man traveled through the realms he bound together, watching the weather, studying the plants, smelling the breeze, observing the animals, tasting the flowing water. He eventually settled on one singular realm. The realm he deemed to be the most worthy other than the created realm. He settled in the fourth realm, a realm with clean water, forests of trees, flourishing and familiar fauna, and usually calm skies. The man dug in, and built for himself a cabin on a hill.
Time did pass, and the man found that the ground took crops rather well. He had a much better first harvest than he ever did in the first realm. And when he wasn't tending to his crop, he enjoyed the scenery that the fourth realm provided. The rolling hills, wide, flowing fields, tall forests, and open ocean. And for a while, the man was satisfied.
But the man grew restless. He had knit together the realms to save his town, his people, but it was too late. He pulled the kno into his hands. He never truly had a family to call his own, and he had lost the very people he was trying to set free. Taking into his hands the ash of the fourth realm's trees to give kno form, he melded the kno into a being. He called the being "kni," meaning "Energy given shape."
(AMY NOTE: I transliterated "kni," and it literally means "energy thing." Prefix "kn" = energy, suffix "i" = physical object. So, when we refer to ourselves in knilang, we're literally calling ourselves "energy things." That is stupendously on the nose.)
The being had pitch-black skin and hair, with warmly glowing eyes. The man taught the kni how to pull kna, form kno, and create illusions. He taught the kni the importance of recording and preservation. The man had made for himself a kni son, using kno and ash alone. And for a while again, he was satisfied.
Years passed, and the man noticed that his firauftkni could not work the farm fast enough alone, or with his help. It was rare if they had food left over before the next harvest because the crop would rot before it could be harvested and preserved. So the man took kno and more ash into his hands, and created another kni son. The man, having practiced countless hours with kno, could create much more finely, and created the kni to look more like his peers had. The second kni son had light skin, brown hair, and the same warmly glowing eyes. He taught his sirauftkni how to pull kna and form kno, and to take the power of life into his hands to help it grow, heal, or form vines. And once the sirauftkni was old enough to help the first, they no longer had worries of crop spoiling in the field.
(AMY NOTE: "Firauftkni," "sirauftkni" and later "thirauftkni" are antiquated terms transliterated to "first descended kni," "second descended kni," and "third descended kni." Later translations of this text translate these to "first son," and so on.)
One day, a lone wolf laid hidden in the field, and attacked the firauftkni when the man wasn't looking. When the man heard his sons' shouts, he came running, with kno hardened into a sword. The man fended off the wolf, but the firauftkni's injuries were severe. With both him and his sirauftkni healing the firauftkni, he made a full recovery, but the man realized that he cannot defend his two sons from a hostile world alone. So again, he took kno and ash into his hands, and created another son. He created his thirauftkni with the ability to change his form, to blend in with any being he'd seen. To tell them apart, he gave this son bluish glowing eyes. He taught his thirauftkni how to pull kna and form kno, to fight and defend, and how to harden kno into a sword, a shield, or spears. The thirauftkni grew, and he took the lessons well. When he was old enough, he started accompanying the other two sons in the field as his father wished, fending off any dangers that may pose a threat.
Years passed, and the man became very ill. He would cough night and day, often with blood, and his temperature was higher than normal. The sirauftkni tried everything to help him, to lower his temperature and to heal his lungs, but it wouldn't help for long. The time came one night that the man gathered his sons.
Between coughs, the man taught his sons that through his and his peoples' research in using kno, he learned that everyone has a different form or signature to their kno. He taught them that the only pure kno signature was kno formed my humans hands, and that theirs were simple. He said that their signatures will become one of two types, dictate how they grow, and will be essential in creation of new kni, or to "alkni." Pure kno can alloy alone, and they would be able to alloy alone for some time, but at some point their kno signatures will be too impure and alloying will require two kni of different signature types. At the end of the lesson, the firauftkni and thirauftkni went to bed, but the sirauftkni stayed with the man, trying in vain to heal the man as he coughed blood again. The sirauftkni stayed by the man throughout the night. By daybreak, the man had passed away.
(AMY NOTE: "Alkni": "Al"(to combine) + "kn"(energy) + "i"(physical, an object, a person, thing), "Alkni" = To combine physical energy things. What we would call alloying today.)
When the firauftkni had learned of the news, he devoted his life to being the fourth realm's first history keeper. When the thirauftkni learned of the news, he became furious. He was convinced that the sirauftkni hadn't tried hard enough, despite the sirauftkni's defense. When the firauftkni tried to calm the thirauftkni, he pulled his kno sword on him, saying that he didn't even help. The firauftkni, knowing that even if he did try, his illusions wouldn't help, stepped back and allowed the thirauftkni to leave.
The firauftkni, in honor of his father, collected his father's writing and research, and assembled it into books and organized it by topic for future generations to read and learn from, and eventually had a large family. The sirauftkni, in honor of his father, took life into his hands, created villages with woven vines, kept livestock, and eventually had a large family.
The thirauftkni was never again heard of by the fir or sir.
(AMY NOTE: It's a chilling read, knowing what we know now...Would the man have created his third son if he knew what he'd become? It's really a shame the names have been lost to time. I swear, I should know at least the first son's name. It's on the tip of my tongue.)