First came mana, that ever bright truth.

Then came the Great Mothre who made me and you.

She Made her seven and blessed them,

and then her Seven made it even.

The historians have lost records of which came first, Mothre or Mana. Even the longest-lived of the Ami have also forgotten. Because Mothre was the first of sentient intelligent life on Athoren, every other thing came after Her.

Some say she was made when mana settled too long in a singular place and evolved, gaining intelligence and some kind of form.

Some others say Mothre opened the Velos dimensional gates and brought Mana into this world.

We do not know what came before Mothre, but we know what came after.

She Made her seven, with the most powerful mana given gift any being has ever possessed; the power of Creation.

First, She made Cassila, the ever luminescent one. Casilla was beautiful and brave, but soon she got lonely. The Great Mothre saw this and took a part of her essence one night, while she slept. With it, She made Sedti, the musician.

He brought music and sound to Athoren, and some say he also brought Love. For he and Cassila fell into a love so very true. They were the first Amare.

Then She Made the twins, Azul, the wise and Azar, the dancer. We, Historians, are not completely sure they were not one single being with two souls. All images ever recovered of them show no difference in their physical appearance.

Gareth was Made next, The Seducer, they called him. His words, they said, could Make anyone believe a lie. He was the most powerful Maker after The Great Mothre.

Gaya, The Pure, was Made next, fair and chaste, ever chased by The Seducer. We are not certain if he ever did catch her.

Finally Made, was Otme, The Unknown. He had no mana to speak of, the father of science and innovation. For right from when life was breathed into him, he began to tinker and create, with his bare hands, instruments with which he could use to best his mana endowed counterparts.

Then finally the Great Mothre gave them the blessing of Creation. She charged them to bring to life just one specie for each of them.

Casilla made the Draga, enormous, majestic beings whose mana essence evolved them into something far more intelligent than any of Mother's children could've ever imagined.

Sedti Made the Faeyr, graceful, ethereal beings of music, beauty, and life. Lumen, Lorn, Ros, and Iyron Faeyr. His creation grew into tribes and spawned empires and subspecies all on their own. Sedti was also the maker of Wilder Ones; beasts of the forests and seas too intelligent to be normal animals and not sentient enough to be an Ami, but possessing of Mana still.

Azul and Azr made the Arra and the Charron, two races almost the same, ever at war with one another as their makers were with each other. The Arra were beings of light, they were strongest in the sun. The Charron, on the other hand, were stronger when the sun was down, strongest when Azr's moon lit the night sky.

Gareth was the Maker of the Uru, shape shyfting creatures that were led by raw instinct and primal urges. Carefree and romantic like their Maker, the turned into beasts capable of such horrors.

Gaya, quiet, pious Gaya, Made the Erra. They tapped into veins of mana that we today still couldn't fully understand.

Otme had no Mana, so he couldn't Make. But he could build with his hands and he did so, then charged his Maker to breathe life into his creation. So even though Otme created the Umi, the Great Mothre gave them life. The Umi were fragile, and without mana, as Otme was. They were not as long-lived as the Dragul or the Faeyr, but they were the most fertile. And as time went by, the most populous.

Collectively the seven races came to be known as the Ami, those from the mother.

This is, as we know it, our earliest, most primordial of histories. We do not call these beings that came before gods, those came after. We have always referred to them as the Aeili. For they gave us life.

Soon, the mana of so many powerful beings on Athoren began to cause catastrophic events that threatened the existence of the creatures on the planet.

Negative energies began to collate at certain places. This collation of mana began to form another being. One of pure darkness and vile hunger. Methra. The exact opposite and antithesis of the Great Mothre in every way.

Alone in a strange place, she grew jealous of her sister's creation and sought to make her own, but she did not Make beautiful beings that blessed all that they touched.

No, she Made vile creatures that caused decay, and rot wherever they went. Famine, catastrophe, disease. She so wanted to be like her sister so she shunned her creation and tried to make more like her sister's children. But they were never quite right.

The other races rose up against her children, the Nazgul, and a long dark war was fought. The Nazgul were creatures of death, they thrived in it. They were made from it. For Methra couldn't make from nothing like her sister and had to depend on the dead from the other races.

The Nazgul rampaged and destroyed wherever they went. It was not easy to defeat Methra or her children. They almost couldn't, because these creatures couldn't die. It took the sacrifice of the Seven to send them back beyond the Velos gates and into a realm where they couldn't ever return.

The Immortal Essence of the Seven collated into the seven lunes of Athoren. And there they stayed, watching over us.

The velos gate was locked with thirteen keys scattered through out the universe. Because such a thing could never be destroyed. The Nazgul were locked away and wouldn't ever come through again, or so we'd thought.

AN EXCERPT FROM A DISSERTATION ON THE HISTORY OF ATHOREN BY SCHOLAR REDDING SMARROWTON