Chapter 39
Solis stopped after his introductory statement. He was interrupted by the sound of Luna giggling from behind him. He turned and raised his eyebrows as if to dare her to question his storytelling method. She raised her hands, waving them slightly as if to concede his expertise.
He turned back to the group with renewed confidence, "As I was saying, this is quite possibly the most important story I could ever tell you. It is a great honor among our people to be the one to tell it. Now, let me ponder this...," he moved a hand to his chin as he thought, "I suppose I will start at the beginning as all stories should.
It is said that the beginning of all worlds originated with the wolf spirit. His name has always been known to our people as Omnes Lupi. In his wisdom, he chose to create one place before all others. This place would act as a protective and guiding force to all worlds. His first creation was this realm around you, Vellstone. He formed it using the eight elements present in the existence of all things. However, this world was different than all others because he entwined spirit energy throughout the elements, it flowed from his own essence into every part of this world. This energy would allow its inhabitants to be set apart from the inhabitants of other lands.
The realm itself is of course purposeless without a people to carry out the function Omnes Lupi desired. He chose to create a people which would resemble him more than any other. This would empower them to guide other peoples in building peaceful civilizations. He birthed the Primis for this task. The great wolf spirit took a small piece of himself and formed this very building, the Primitia Locus, and this portal you see before you. The individual spirits of the Primis are created from this portal and are born in this room. Since we emerge from his spirit, we are like him. We are born in the form of wolves, but we eventually gain the ability to transform our bodies into this more practical human form. Naturally, this means we can transform back into our spirit form at any given time. Our nature is that of companionship and loyalty just as the one who created our world. Our society functions like one singular pack of wolves. We do not have separate families as humans do. We are all loyal to one another and to our Tempestas.
We are born with individual spirits, but we have always emerged from the portal in pairs. From the beginning of our lives, we have a strong connection with another spirit. Our people refer to this bond as the 'Life Socis Bond'. It is somewhat similar to marriage on Atlas, but there is never a ceremony, and it begins at birth. I was born next to Luna and she next to me. She is my Life Socis, and I am hers. All of these things are possible because of the Primitia Locus.
Shortly after he created this building, Omnes Lupi added three significant details to Vellstone. The first and the second are related, one cannot exist without the other. They are the Tempestas and the Great Storm. He placed the Great Storm in the sky to guide the weather and natural systems of Vellstone. He placed the Tempestas among our people to guide us and keep us true to our purpose. He is chosen at birth by the Great Storm. The storm indwells one wolf cub every generation and places him in the lineage of the Fulgural. That is, it instills the nature of lightning into him. This leads me to the third addition which we have labeled; The Order of the Elementals. Along with the birth of the Tempestas comes the birth of his elite guard or warriors. These are the Elementals who are empowered by the other seven elements. Their calling is to serve the Tempestas and protect our people. Every generation this process is began anew. We are not the first of the Elementals, and we will not be the last. In our case, all eight of us were born at once, but it does not always happen this way. An Elemental is born when the corresponding Elemental dies. No one knows what tragedy caused all of our predecessors to perish simultaneously. All we know is that they disappeared, along with the previous Tempestas and never returned. We appeared together a short time after they left so the conclusion was obvious.
On account of this phenomenon, the eight of us have always been together. We were born together so we decided to be a family; brothers and sisters, all of us. We lived together through our childhood. I am sure that you have realized that two of us are missing. That is a conversation for another time.
It is, of course, a matter of grave seriousness when the Tempestas is lost, but our people had no choice but to wait. They had to wait for our leader, Lux, to come of age and begin his Iura. The reason for this is that the chosen Fulgural cannot become Tempestas until he completes his Iura and undergoes the ceremony. Now that he has, we believe that he will learn all the secrets held by every preceding Tempestas. This will happen tomorrow morning at his inauguration when he communes with the Great Storm. Now, perhaps, you can understand everyone's reaction to seeing him. It made our people very anxious when he chose a seemingly impossible Iura, but he is quite stubborn when his mind is set so there was no changing his decision.
After the beginnings of the Primis, Omnes Lupi continued on to form the worlds. There are fifteen worlds in existence among which Atlas is one. All fifteen of these worlds are accessible from Vellstone. However, it is not one of them. As Lux was explaining earlier, this realm exists outside physical reality and so it is near all worlds, yet it is not a world in its own right. Our role was to guide other peoples through their struggles and calamities. We were not successful.
The great failure of the Primis has been our own self-interest. We turned inward and allowed a darkness to rise in other lands. The roles of the Tempestas, Elementals, and Elders were meant to avoid this outcome, but somehow it happened all the same. I do not possess the boldness to speak ill of our ancestors, but the dire reality we face speaks for itself. All we can say of the situation is that the current fate of our people is not in line with their purpose. The darkness has been allowed to spread. We do not have an explanation for this darkness in our written history, we do not know its origins. We have only witnessed its reach and influence. It is a corrupting force, and we, ourselves, are to blame for allowing it to run free. We were told as much from the one who calls himself 'The Alpha'. However, he is part of this darkness, and at this moment, he is the greatest threat we have encountered. It is the responsibility of our people to end his reign of cruelty. That is why we have brought all of you here." Solis stopped and looked around at the group, "Are there any questions?"