First Hymnic of the Goddess, Mere's copy, (Annotated by her grandmother)
At the dawn of time, there was only the Earth, and plants, and gods.
The plants were Wild and grew in the Earth, while the gods were Folk and were masters of it.
But one day something changed, a god had accidentally fallen asleep with his mouth on a plant, and he had swallowed it in his dreamless slumber.
When he had awoken, the god had realized that he was in fact a goddess and had been made slightly Wild by consuming the plant.
She gave birth and her children became the first animals.
We call this first goddess the Earth Mother, for she would become the first mother of us all. (A title which is actually quite odd when you think about it, as the earth apparently coexisted with the goddess at the dawn of time, I suspect that it came from the ancient human religion originally)
But there were still other gods in the world, and they ruthlessly mocked the Earth Mother for becoming lesser by consuming that which grew in the Earth.
And at the height of their childish cruelty, they began eating the first animals in front of her, believing that the essence of godliness in their prey would be enough to save themselves from becoming similarly debased.
They were wrong.
The other gods, in their playful mocking of the Earth Mother had consumed much more Wild than the single bite that she did.
Before even half of her children had been devoured, the Earth Mother was the only true goddess who still had her full power.
And she had learned from her own and her Folk's mistakes, she would never again fill herself with Wild things with more than a single bite, lest she be reduced to an animal.(She later goes back on this promise without any consequences, and it never gets addressed in the original hymnic verses. Modern theologians theorize that by that point she had adapted enough of her prey that her core had been insulated from wild influences as elven cores are)
And for a time, this was how the world stayed.
But soon enough the Earth Mother became discontent with the quality of her children. They moved and had mastery over plants, but they did not have mastery over the Earth itself.
They were not Folk and did not truly understand that they should love and be grateful to their Mother rather than fear her. (Here we have the first example typical ancient misconceptions about the natural world that were plentiful before science. In case my probable descendants are unaware, animals do indeed love their mothers and offspring. Or at least, they make a convincing show of it)
The Earth Mother yearned as all mothers do, for the love of her children.
So one day, she decided to rectify it.
If partaking in concentrated Wild meals caused Folk to become more Wild and beget animals, then surely devouring nearly pure Folk would would beget children who could love her as Folk do.
So she approached the god of dreams as he lay slumbering, fat and happy and completely unaware of the Earth Mother's intent.
And with one great swallow, she had devoured him, and he became one with her without ever waking up.
From this, the Earth Mother gained power that could not be physically expressed on the Earth.
She gained not only dreams, but philosophy and memory.
She remembered and understood that she had killed and felt grief for her now dead brother who had previously been Good, she understood the growing Evil of her other still living siblings and felt sick at what they had become. (Which implies that up until this point, she tolerated all the other gods because she couldn't remember that they were evil, except for this guy, somewhat randomly. Why only him? Never addressed, he's only referenced as being eaten)
But more than anything, she felt a fullness inside herself that she had only felt once before, and she gave birth to the first Folk who were not gods.
These were the humans.
Folk who bred like animals do but were masters of the world as goddess were.
They smell and taste as animals do but are born with souls full of Good rather than Wild. (And they feel amazing in the sack, if you can find one who'll agree to try it. You'd think wood elves would be better for that being more than twice as long and thick, but no, if they hadn't come before us I'd have thought humans were made to be specifically to be gifted to us)
They are clever but lacking magic, are easily swayed by Wild influences to become Evil without protection.
They are our oldest, weakest true siblings and must be cherished as such.
Seeing the humans brought joy to the Earth Mother, for in them she saw her gentle brother, alive once more.
They were masters over the Earth, plants, and animals.
They could dream and love her as children ought.
The Earth Mother forgot her woes and doted on her youngest children in utter happiness.
But the other gods saw her simple joy and grew jealous.
Evil though they were, they understood love and wanted lesser Folk to love them the way humans loved the Earth Mother.
Some of these gods simply stole away the Earth Mother's children, tricking them into loving the Evil gods instead of the Earth Mother.
While others would not be satisfied with the Earth Mother's children of Goodness and decided to create their own.
These gods fell upon their siblings and devoured them, causing the bloated Evil gods to become goddesses and give birth to more kinds of Folk.
They begat goblins, dwarves, and even more wicked children still.
The Earth Mother wept, for humans were powerless against these younger children who with magic held mastery over all they surveyed but the gods.
She knew that humans would all be devoured if nothing was done.
So the Earth Mother went to the other evil gods who had previously stolen her children, falsely believing that her siblings loved her children as much as she did.
But they refused, the love from humans was simply a passing interest for the Evil gods.
They cared not for the humans' eventual extinction and would simply steal goblins and dwarves to replace what was lost.
The Earth Mother was horrified, and finally came to terms with what must be done.
Though she regretted the act, after devouring the dream god, she was twice as strong as any god who had not devoured another.
She set upon the weakest of these goddess and swallowed them before they knew they should defend themselves or run away.
Unlike the dream god, these Evil gods were fully aware of their impending demise and sought to escape.
They struggled to free themselves and brought the Earth Mother great pleasure, which she deemed was only fair for the grief that they had wrought against Goodness.
Soon the struggles of the weakest Evil gods subsided, and the Earth Mother was filled with even more power and life than any time before.
She gave birth and begat the first elves.
These were the wood elves, twice as tall as humans but colored in the same woodlike tones on their skin.
Like the evil Folk begat by evil gods, they held mastery over all things but the gods. But unique to elves was that they bred as gods do, and only lay with other folk to make merry.
Better still, elves had mastery over both magic and dreams, and could devour Wild and Evil things and not be made Wild or Evil.
The Earth Mother saw these most beautiful of her children and bade them to protect and watch over and guide the humans, as the gods who they came from should have done in the first place.
As it was the wood elves who first kept and protected humans, it was wood elves who first laid with humans and enjoyed their flavors in joyous friendship.
The Earth Mother told them of houses and baths, of city walls and farms, of weapon smithing and baking bread.
She told the wood elves of all these things knowing that the humans they protected would have to be insulated from Wild things as much as the elves were able.
She told the wood elves of these things that they may stave off the Wildness that had been planted in the hearts of humans after being stolen by the Evil gods.
But her work was not done.
The Earth Mother was no fool and had the strength and wisdom of many gods at once.
She saw the pattern forming before it had come to fruition and sought to eliminate her enemies before they could escalate once more.
So she began to hunt and devour even more gods, all across the elven continent.
Those who had wronged her, those who had mocked her, those who helped her not.
The Earth Mother gave them no warning and allowed none to escape and tell the others.
She did not give them a chance to understand what had changed before she was upon them.
She only stopped when the elven continent was empty of gods save for herself.
And there the Earth Mother rested, in the jungles of the South, where the sun is always at its lowest and the air at its warmest, and in her respite she birthed the dark elves.
These were the dark elves, twice again as tall as their wood elf sisters, and dark in skin tone though much more vibrant with skins in every color as gods themselves were.
As the dark elves were born from both ambush and complacent prey, they too are prone to simple desires to laze in comfort and to strike foes without warning. (They're also nudists. So the lazing about verse here might be a reference to how much they hate having to be out and about in places that require them to clothe themselves)
It was the dark elves who first married with humans, promising the pleasure of their forms and entwining their souls into one with a single friend whom they loved above all others.
It was the dark elves who first devoured goblins and dwarves whole and alive, consuming and purifying their Evil souls as well as their Wild forms. (Goblins have an unfortunate tendency to piss themselves in your mouth, which leaves a foul aftertaste. You won't regret eating them alive for what they do for your core, but I recommend keeping a supply a cocoa handy if you're expecting to find goblins)
The Earth Mother had little time to spare, but bade her newest children to cherish her smaller children and to devour only those Evil Folk who would harm Goodness.
Though the dark elves do not remember our shared Mother as fondly as other elves do, they have upheld their duty in between seeking pleasures and must be as cherished as any other Good Folk. (A polite way of saying that dark elves are atheists and only practice reverence of their flesh-and-blood mothers)
But there was still yet more gods in the world to threaten her children, and the Earth Mother is nothing if not a wrathful defender of her offspring.
Next she went to the longest, and widest, and deepest river of the world, known as the ocean. (The second unfortunate case of the ancients not really knowing how the natural world worked. “Ocean” is itself a human word with human roots, that ancient elves didn't have anything closer than “river” implies that they had not strayed far from Mt. Mother by the time the Hymnics were compiled into written word, but that humans were wide-spead)
The depths of which teemed with all manner of Wild and Evil things. Gods and animals and mers and sirens and far more wicked things, they writhed in the deep and devoured one another with Wild abandon, growing bigger all the while. (This is the only mention of “sirens” that survived their extinction, but “mers” were folk with fins who could breathe water like air. They had a penchant for drowning human sailors apparently)
The waters would never be safe for elves and humans for as long as the goddess of the ocean still lived.
So the Earth Mother drank the ocean in great quaffs, swallowing entire lakes at once.
For she had devoured the gods of an entire continent, and even in the ocean, there was no other god who could hope to match her in power.
Only when the waters were drained away into her gullet did she rest easy, and she allowed herself to enjoy the struggles of all the Evil in all the ocean of the world. (The Goddess was doubtlessly titanic in scale at this point, assuming size means anything at all to a god)
She fell into a deep slumber and only awoke when the Evils had faded away into her being and left only Wild things.
And with her mission completed, the Earth Mother rebirthed the ocean and all the fishes within it.
And much to the Earth Mother's delight the last things to be birthed into the new ocean were elves.
These were the river elves.
They were twice as tall as dark elves and had anointed skin that helped them to swim at great speed. (It also means that they're fun to bed, assuming you're fine with having to wash all the bedding the next day)
As they had been borne of endless feasting creatures who were in turn feasted on all at once, they were fond of food and filling themselves much more than the average elf.
The river elves were the first to enjoy filling their mouths and delighting their tongues with a human friend's flavor. (The original verse did not specify that the humans being suckled were friends, that part came later as elves began questioning why they should ask permission from a friend when they had a perfectly bad captured human bandit whose opinion they didn't care for)
And they were the first to enjoy filling their nethers and delighting their souls with the presence of a human friend's form. (I don't recommend forcing a bad human into yourself like this. There's technically nothing wrong with it in the eyes of the Goddess as long as you definitely eat them afterward to purify their souls, but you never know when the little bastards have hidden a knife up their ass or something and they could do you some real harm while you're unable to grab and pull them out)
The Earth Mother welcomed her newest children into the world and bade them to enjoy themselves and to provide for their smaller siblings. (Incidentally, the best restaurants that cater to high elves are always owned by pious river elves. They make sure you leave with a full belly at minimum cost)
For river elves were the best suited to reap the new ocean's bounty and had little to fear from even the greatest of Wild predators.
Finally, the Earth Mother's task was nearly complete.
She had devoured and remade all the gods of the elven continent and the great river into beautiful elven children.
Even if all the remaining gods had been wise enough to join forces to oppose her, they would not be able to save themselves.
Their fates had been sealed and the Earth Mother allowed herself to enjoy the hunt and their pitiful struggles as each one tried to resist her clutches alone.
When at last the final Evil god slid down her throat, the Earth Mother went home to surround herself with all her children and their love for her.
On the peak of the tallest mountain, far above the clouds, the Earth Mother used her now unlimited power to fashion herself a grand palace. (There's still some marble pillars up there, but nothing else is left of whatever it looked like before. Scholars are pretty sure it was discovered and looted by the dwarves back when they took the capitol region and held it for a decade in the 4th great war)
And she invited all the queens and all the chieftains of each of her children's tribes on the elven continent.
She told those Folk gathered there of the orcish continent and the many tasty Evil things that lived there.
And she declared that she had eaten the gods of Evil for her children, and that it was the birthright of elves to feast on the Evil Folk who yet lived.(Must have been awkward for the human chieftains who were invited, since they were presumably of some renown. No birthrights, no grand destinies; just relax, be good, and be tasty)
The Earth Mother then declared that she would slumber until the world had been purified by feast.
The Earth Mother promised that when the world was pure once more, that she would return to the Earth to rule the Good Folk eternally in utopia.
It was there that she birthed one last time and begat the high elves.
These were the high elves.
Our people, the last and the greatest in stature.
Destined to protect and rule over all others with a gentle hand in the Earth Mother's stead.
All high elves are equal by the Earth Mother's decree, we are her living Will on Earth and we hold mastery over all but the Mother of us all.
No high elf may rule over another and no lesser elf may claim dominion over us.
Under our righteous and holy rule, none of our Mother's children shall ever fear the Motherless again.
It is our solemn duty to ensure that the world created by the Earth Mother's love for us be purified in totality and never again be tainted by Evil.
Or so the story goes anyway. Our superiority. equality, and right to rule was self-evident and widely acknowledged by elves everywhere, with or without a proclamation by the Goddess at the summit Mt. Mother. The exact story however varied in particulars from tribe to tribe, only the dark elves and us high elves had any consistent interpretation of those ancient events. We had the story that I had just finished rereading, and the dark elves largely rejected the notion of a Goddess or goddess at all. Rather they retold it as though each of the gods in the story were actually whole tribes of Folk, and that this was the story of how our ancestors gorged themselves on the plentiful old Evils of the world before modern times. It was a neat idea, though it failed to explain where evil came from like the high elf story did.
I was getting away from myself. I was only rereading my book of scripture in first place to see if our honored ancestors had any unique insight as to Markus' problem. He was clearly stressed out about something, but he was being very tightlipped about it. He was the sort of person to throw himself into his work to get his mind off whatever was bothering him. Normally an admirable trait, but right now there just wasn't any need and ignoring the root problem was just going to get him sick or something.
Unfortunately, there weren't very many verses that addressed humans, as the ancients had generally assumed that such tiny things had no business venturing out from the safety of the cities. I guess using your breasts as a pocket hadn't been invented back then. Which was strange now that I thought about it. From what we'd discovered since we first started eating all these bandits, devoured folk go straight to the bosom and thighs. The look on our adorably oblivious alchemist's face when he first noticed it happening was hilarious. But as busty as the four of us now were, the ancients would have had more Evil folk to eat on a much more regular basis and would likely be even more top heavy than Elya was. Breast-holding human friends was just another case of the daughter surpassing the mother, I suppose.
Back to my scripture studies, most entries I found had nothing to do with how or what humans thought of things. Not even of their idea of the relationship between our folks. The closest I'd found so far was the story of Ast, which was more about not keeping an evil human around to taste whenever you wanted just because none of your friends would consent to being licked or sucked on. Lest the evil human corrupt your friends into mistakenly sympathizing with their completely deserved plight and becoming evil themselves. That wasn't really applicable though, because Markus didn't share more than a weird look with any one of them. Additionally, unlike Walu in the story, Markus actually gets off on the idea of getting tongue-fucked by someone who just swallowed a handful of his folk moments before.
His apparent trust and bravery at willingly climbing into the mouths of what he now knew to be his natural predators was one of the many things that made me admire the little human. That couldn't be the minor decision he tried to play it off as, considering how he still had to be talked into not denying his true feelings by hiding behind his equally admirable work ethic and his silly human ideas of 'dignity'. I wasn't sure how much of Markus' seed I needed to swallow before it equaled a whole Markus in my core, but I was happy to accept his donations for as long as he was happy to continue making them. There was no such thing as 'too brave' or 'too smart' for the daughter of a high elf. Not that I intended to birth one any time soon.
Still though. He was starting to worry me. It was clear that he needed to talk about something but none of us could figure out how to get him to open up. Indeed, it was generally easier to get a folk to vent about their problems when they were already willing. We were high elves, not being able to protect him from whatever it was that was bothering our tiny friend felt like a spiritual failure.
“So how did it go?” Aure questioned Elya on the matter, as she was the one watching his back while he gathered stinging nettles. One of the more unpleasant reagents he regularly used, if I recalled correctly. Completely nonmagical, so magic worked to suppress its effects on Markus, but we weren't so lucky. Thankfully he could clean himself off of the residue and he'd be safe to play with by midday.
“No good. He visibly panicked for a split second when he thought I wasn't looking, but when I asked about it he denied that anything had happened. Then he started another batch of frost resistance potions. Frost resistance! It'll be a whole season before Sunsrest even starts, the man just doesn't know the meaning of 'good enough' I swear. Whatever's bothering Markus didn't stop him from ogling me though. You sure it can't wait until we can get a mind wizard to take a look at him?”
Aure huffed in annoyance. “If it's an issue that requires the use of mind magic, we need to know about it immediately, and if it's not-”
“Right, that's just a bad look for the Guild's top squad of high elves. Fuck though, it's hard enough socializing my sister. I don't know anything about how humans tick for something like this. What about you Mere? The ancestors have any wisdom for us?”
I shrugged. “Nothing we don't already know. Humans are tiny and weak, the Goddess loves them, it's our job to keep them from turning wild because being wild makes them bad. The usual, you know.”
“Nothing? I could have recited that from my time in academy. Your grandmother's comments didn't have any juicy tidbits?”
Um. “River elves are fun to bed and have the best restaurants. Dark elves are nudists and get grumpy when they have to wear clothes. And humans are so perfect for fucking that if they weren't made before us all she would have thought they were made specifically to please elves carnally.”
That started a round of giggling. It almost lightened the mood. Then Elya posed an interesting question. “What if- What if we're overthinking this?” We all looked at her at that, it was plain as day that Markus had a serious issue that needed fixing. “Not that there's nothing wrong just- He's a human, the whole thing with them is that they need elves to keep them in a good place mentally, aye? We've known that for thousands of years.”
“Aye, that is indeed the most embarrassing part of our current dilemma,” Aure drawled. “Do catch up Elya.”
“Not what I meant to get at. I mean, elves have been helping humans sort out their inner demons for thousands of years, and it's never failed before- there's never been a bandit who didn't live apart from elves, aye? Well what great wisdom did our ancestors see fit to record about humans that we make sure they stay safe and taken care of? That they need a firm but gentle hand when it comes to correcting their path and that the goddess likes it when show humans how much we appreciate them!”
None of us spoke at that proclamation, because as strange as it was, the pieces did line up. Except- “We're not-” Teale almost silenced herself at the attention she suddenly had. Poor girl. “You're not supposed to do that stuff to good humans unless you know they like it. It's bad.”
“True. But Markus hasn't given us any reason to believe that he doesn't like it, aye? And we know that he loves being tasted, but we still have to almost force him into doing that with us. Trust me, on some level, he's disappointed that we haven't taken our well-deserved liberties with him. And he'll be overjoyed to finally be put in his place liker he wants us to. Trust me, it'll work out fine.”
I voiced my objection. “ And if it doesn't?”
“Then I-” Elya's voice faltered a bit at the thought, before she continued with a much more serious and somber tone. “Then we can pay the mind healer out of my earnings and I'll make absolutely sure that he understands that this was all my idea.” … Well alright. Hopefully she's right, but if not- Well it wasn't like we had any better ideas.