Legends of Belariath

History

The spirits of nature have had a place in the lore of Belariath for as long as words have been spoken, their presence in the world intrinsic with the presence of life itself. Their place in the great histories is rarely a prominent one, little to no mention of them in the scholarly accounts of ages past, their influence in world affairs as vital and as overlooked as that of the air.

Their history thus resides not in musty old tomes but in the hearts, souls, tales and songs of folk common and uncommon alike. There is hardly a race or culture in all the world that looks upon their presence as anything but a welcome boon; a glimpse of them a sign of luck, to capture one a charm of immeasurable worth, to be loved by one a blessing from the heart of the world itself.

Wars have been ended by words they have whispered, massacres averted by the press of their lips. Though their role is at times a mischievous one, and occasionally they meddle in affairs and lives in ways that might even seem destructive were they noticed, most all that they do tends to promote life and peace in the grand scheme of things.

Nymphs Origin

a story or their origins as submitted by windira

Soft footsteps were swallowed by the vast emptiness. Barren earth met the eye from horizon to horizon, broken only by the sun burning down from the sky. Behind green stalks struggled upwards, desperate for the warmth the sun offered, breaking through the packed earth where feet had just departed. Life's first foothold was growing.

Gaea new that she couldn't tend the earth by herself, not with all of the birds and the trees, the insects and the grass, the intimate attention that life demanded when it was just developing, while at the same time defend her territory from the other fledgling Deities that were calling this place home. With this knowledge she sacrificed a piece of herself, combining it with each of the elements, part sky, part rock, part ocean, part river, each combined to give her child the knowledge and the power to tend to budding life.

Centuries passed, Gaea's child grew, and with her growth life spread from that barren field to the corners of the island, then to the next, and the next, to the vast continents, to the bottom of the ocean and the highest reaches of the sky. Gaea's child, let us call her Nym for now, took great delight in her work, the first bird hatching in her hands, taking flight to join the trees, the first mouse, scampering into its home, the first deer, bounding across the first meadows that she also had also nurtured from their inception. Centuires passed, and the world grew.

Nym rarely saw her Mother, Gaea had other things to take care of, though she watched her child grow, and the life that she brought into the world with pride. Gaea could not spend to much time watching as she sought to safeguard the budding life from those forces that sought only the destruction, the barren earth that had once graced the planet. Gaea, along with the help of the other Deities of this earth managed to keep those forces at bay, their fledgling world spared from the wholesale attacks of these shadow forces.

Slowly, the shadow forces were pushed back, weakened, beaten. It was during the last battle, when it was thought they were finally wiped out that the most damage was done, Gaea was tainted. None of those that survived noticed the taint, and so it went undetected as Gaea brought it back with her to her grove in the developing world. Tired from the struggle, Gaea entered a deep sleep to recover, and the taint grew inside of her. Several creatures came to visit Gaea during this time, and the taint infected them as well, spreading further and further.

It was years before the first sign of the taint was seen, one of those tainted creatures killing another, tearing the other apart for no other reason but to hear its screams, but it was just a first sign. More and more it spread, death outside of that needed for life was seen. Then the first tree was destroyed, for no reason save to watch it fall. Nym raised her head in confusion, that prick of pain felt near her heart, but it faded quickly and she didn't pay it any mind. But again and again it occurred, more and more often, till a steady pain grew in her chest, and Gaea's child went looking for her mother to explain what caused this horrible new sensation.

When she approached the grove she was baffled, Huge swathes of earth lay burned, carcasses left uneaten were scattered everywhere, death, disease, infection were heavy on the wind. She couldn't even get close. It was then that Gaea's voice pierced the air, the pain, the suffering of the Goddess unlike anything Nym had ever felt before, and she knew now what that twisting, tearing sensation in her chest was, the pain that needed to be cleansed.

But this was not the same as her previous work, the taint was part of the forest, of the creatures now, to cleanse was to purge, and these were the same creatures that she had brought into this world, that she had nurtured and raised, taught and cared for, how was she to cleanse them? She started with the earth, tearing into it she separated the grove from the rest of the land, feeling as if she was cutting open her own chest, great rifts were formed around the tainted grove. As the rifts formed, the ocean and the rivers crashed in, and even there the taint threatened to spread, seeping into the life the inhabited it. With a painful cry Nym twisted the water, faster and faster, a whirlpool that surrounded the grove, tearing apart anything that tried to escape, and everything that lived within the water. The taint tried to take flight, birds taking to wing to escape the grove, and Nym twisted the air as well, until it joined the water below in an impassable barrier, the birds crushed on the tainted shore.

Nym continued her trek inwards, the twisted trees reaching out for her, the scattered corpses starting to twitch, coming back to some parody of life as they tried to bring down Gaea's child, Gaea's avatar. Nym was forced backwards, to the edge of the island that she had made, forced to seek a different route inwards, but each time she was forced back by the trees and creatures that had been tainted by the old enemy. Nym did not know what to do, her mother was in the middle of the twisted landscape, her tormented cries filling her ears, and there was no way for her to help.

Finally Nym broke, with tears streaming down her face she called to the seeds deep within the earth. The creatures continued forward, their claws and branches reaching for her flesh, pressing against her smooth skin, dragging her downwards. The earth erupted, new life poured forth, twisting around the tainted carcasses, surrounding them, crushing them as they drug them down to the earth. Moss and fungus sprouted across the twisted trees, eating away at their tainted bark, as other trees reached upwards, gripping their own brethren, struggling with them, pulling them downwards, attempting to break their trunks, to drag them downwards as well. It was a scene the world had not seen, and never would see again, trees twisting against trees, battling for dominance, the growth of life, powered by Nym, against the taint of corruption, the shadow trying to destroy the world.

The fight raged for days on the island, encompassed in the storm that separated it from the rest of the world, leaving it barren once again, save for Nym, the pain of the recent events weighing down on her, and her mother tormented by that lingering taint. Nym was forced to bear witness for years on that desolate island, watching as her mother struggled against that corruption, unable to help, but unable to leave lest it spread again, the pain twisting inside of her. Finally Gaea awoke purged to the Barren landscape all around her, to the twisting of nature that sectioned off her grove, the center of life, to the rest of the world, and confusion and anger filled her as she looked down at her daughter, the one who was supposed to bring life to this earth.

Nym looked upwards, seeing that anger, that disappointment in those eyes and she could hold on any more. The winds abated, the sees quieted, and Nym collapsed at her mother's feet, the pain consuming her. Gaea looked into her daughter's heart, into her mind, and saw what had transpired, and looked upon the desolate landscape in a new light. "Sleep child…" she said softly, touching Nym on the forehead, watching as her daughter's eyes closed, then holding her stroking her hair, she took it away. Gaea gave back what she had taken from the world all those centuries before, each part of Nym split away with the stroke of her hand through her hair. The earth slow sunk away from her, into the barren earth, infusing it with life once again, the ocean, and the lakes and rivers flowing away, joining the water that had raged around the island, sparking new life into it once more, the air breathing upwards, taking to the sky like a bird of the wing, and finally the last of Nym twisted into the soil, life surging forward from the island once more, up into the awaiting sky.

Alone once again, Gaea rose, her steps light on the soft grass that sprang up underfoot, a tear rolling down her face, when a soft voice spoke, "Why are you crying?" Surprised, Gaea turned, finding…Nym? No…Nym didn't have that color of hair, or those eyes, and the curve of her face was different. Gaea blinked again in surprise as the girl stepped forward, her hand pulling from the tree that she had apparently come from, wide curious eyes peering at the Goddess. Then another stepped up to the first, flesh the color of the earth, obsidian eyes taking in the Goddess, though no words were spoken, her hand resting softly on her sisters shoulder. Bubbling laughter sounded behind Gaea, and she turned to find two others, clearly sisters of the first two coming up from the water's edge, one with soft blue skin glistening like the lake in the morning, the other as green as the foam on the ocean's waves.

Peals of laughter erupted from above, as the last dropped from the sky, standing upside down above Gaea, looking down as Gaea looked up, "Things always get better!" she said, before with a soft laugh she turned to the others, "Come on Sis! We got things to do!" and giggling softly they turned away from their mother to continue their work.