Metternia: The Creation of Life

I.

Before the world had been made ready for humankind
The Great Serpent descended from the outer heavens
to devour the flame of creation within the depths of the living earth.
And the number of her heads were three,
and they were hunger and war and chaos.

But the living earth brought forth three heroes
to defeat the three heads of the Great Serpent.
They were the Goddess, the Viridian Man and Umbrus.
And together they trapped the Serpent,
and crushed it into the ground, and cleaved it in three,
so that each of them received a third of the body.

The Goddess took the scales of the Great Serpent and said:
"With these I shall protect the living earth and all that is in it."
And she fashioned out of the skin of the Serpent an armor that she wore.

Umbrus took the fangs of the Great Serpent and said:
"With this venom I shall destroy the enemies of the living earth."
And he made a great tower out of the head of the Serpent and dwelled there.

The Viridian Man took the blood of the Great Serpent and said:
"With the life of this blood I shall create life onto the living earth."
And he mixed the blood of the Serpent with the living earth
and out of it he fashioned the plants that grow out of the ground
and the living creatures that move upon it
and the creatures of the air he made as well.

When all this was done, they took what remained of the body of the Great Serpent
and they sealed it in a coffin of stone and buried it deep.
But such was the nature of the Serpent that her spirit would not die,
but remained in the body in waiting, until the Day of Purging,
when the Goddess, the Viridian Man and Umbrus shall again join in arms
and slay her forever.

II.

When Umbrus returned to his tower,
he saw the living things the Viridian Man had made
and grew jealous of his creation.
So he said: "I shall make life to reign over all other life."
And he mixed the venom of the Great Serpent with the living earth,
but it did not bring forth new life.

So Umbrus waited until the Viridian Man went to rest,
and he stole the blood of the Serpent from him.
Then Umbrus mixed the blood with the living earth
that had the venom of the Serpent in it,
and made all the creatures with the gift of speech and reason,
who would reign over all other life on the living earth.

And the spirits of humanity and all the other races
were drawn into the bodies that Umbrus had made,
but they were confused, for they were made of three things,
the blood, the venom and the living earth,
so the words formed by their tongues were strange
and they did not know their place in the world.

When the Goddess came upon the newborn races,
and she saw their great confusion,
she became enraged with Umbrus,
and she called the Viridian Man to see what had been done.
Together the Goddess and the Viridian man taught the races,
but Umbrus did they forbade from teaching them
for his deed had caused enough evil.

-- Aeternicon, Book I, chapters I-II.