Every kingdom has its beginning. Every legend has its first telling. Here begins the oldest story in the world of Keeper of the Gate.
Our world is built on three pillars: Mother, Father, Brother—Amaya, Istvan, and Vella.
The Three rode between stars on the back of the Great Dragon, fleeing chaos and death in the Elder World where a jealous god had proclaimed that he and only he should be worshiped. They journeyed to a place between stars and rested on a glassy chunk of rock. Worn out from the long flight and injured, their dragon died. The Brother shaped our world from its bones and cosmic dust—mountains and valleys, funnels and vents of the ocean floor, hills, beaches, and plains. The Father molded all that lives from his own essence. The Mother’s kiss brought them to life. To some, she gave souls: elves and dwarves, humans and those chosen to be their companions.
Love, peace, harmony.
The Three performed the Sacred Rite on a bed of greenest clover, and the world grew fertile as did the Mother. The Bright Lady was born. Over the course of a thousand years, Daughter followed Daughter, but every Daughter sprang from the Father’s seed, for he was the God of Life, and the Brother once was the God of Death. Death envied Life.
Love became hate. Peace, war. Harmony, dissonance.
One terrible day, the Brother attacked the Father with foul spells of the dark. Vella ensorcelled his sister-wife and brought her to Mount Kalna, where yet another dragon waited. He meant to take her away to a beautiful but dead world, where he could have Amaya to himself. Jealous of how she loved Istvan, of how her heart had expanded to love their Daughters, he tried to persuade her. She loved him, but would not go with him and leave her husband, her children, nor would she take from them the youngest of the Daughters, still within her womb.
They fought. Amaya killed Vella. That is true, but what are gods? Mostly spirits who can take on flesh at will, souls—greater by far than your soul or mine. His spirit went beyond death into undeath, animating a vessel made of bone and flesh. Driven into insanity by rage and hunger, he attacked Amaya and tore into her to feast on her blood. She died.
But even in death, the Mother gave life.
All hail the Neverborn, our beloved Lady of Dreams.