In the world’s nascence, the boundaries between the material planes and the other planes of existence were in constant flux, and thus permeable, and so it was a lot easier for gods, demons, and fantastical beings to exert their will in the material plane. Because of this, the influence of the gods was entirely more obvious to the distant ancestors of the humans and dwarves and halflings. Nature was rife with the energy of the gods of nature, even more so than what druids can still feel in the ancient forests today. The sun shone brilliantly, providing more warmth and energy than us elves could ever imagine shining today. Everything was brought into an extreme version of itself, so the good was great and, as Arnendor found out, the bad was terrible.

If you didn’t know, young one, the moonshards used to be whole. I know it doesn’t seem like it now, you can look out at the sky and see the glittering moonshards that we pray to every night. But if you can believe it, those shards were once a single circle that lit up the night sky. And the god of the moon, Illuv, sat in their palace and guided the moon across the sky. Illuv loved their job, it was the perfect way to see all of the world at once, and even more so, it allowed them to bask in the sun god Pel’s brilliant rays. Illuv also knew that their job was important; they were to light up the skies at night and allow the people below to find their way in the darkness, as well as to control the tides to allow the fishermen to go out to sea. The moon was happy as could be, and everything was right with the world. However, the moon god wanted to do more. They had always looked up to the sun god and how brilliantly bright Pel’s light was, and Illuv saw how much the people of Arnendor loved Pel. So, in order to be more like Pel, Illuv went out and polished some of the moon’s surface. Then, when it was night, Illuv was able to shine almost as bright as the sun in the sky.

Now there was a great beast that took notice of this. The Darkness Between Stars, the Devourer, saw that the moon was shining so brightly and knew that Pel would not like that. The Darkness wanted to punish the moon for being so bright and erasing some of its domain. It knew that Pel would only lecture Illuv and everything would be resolved neatly. So The Darkness hatched a dark, dark plan. First, it decided to separate the stars even more than they were already separated, so that at night Arnendor’s sky would darken. Then, it went to the palace of Illuv and spoke to them, ‘Look, the night is darker than it was before. You have to make sure that there is enough light for the travelers in the darkness.’

Illuv, hearing this, set to work immediately. They went about polishing the surface of the moon so that it shone like metal. Then, when night was supposed to fall, the moon shone so brightly that it looked like Or’sur temporarily had another sun. Imagine that Typhus, never seeing darkness again, and living believing there are now three suns in the sky.

Pel was also in disbelief. This went against everything that had been set in motion in the beginning. Not only was Illuv stealing Pel’s job, Illuv was also causing grief on Arnendor. The people there no longer knew when to sleep and when to pray. So, Pel decided to punish Illuv, but didn’t know how. The Darkness came to Pel and said, ‘I have an idea of how to punish Illuv. Simply lower the amount of light you give Illuv, and I’ll do the rest.” And so it was, Pel lowered the amount of light that she gave to Illuv, and The Devourer’s plan for punishment became a reality. As the light on Illuv’s domain grew dimmer and dimmer, there appeared shadows on the moon that Illuv had never seen before. And in the recesses of those shadows, The Darkness was able to act. It set about growing rifts in those darkened shadows, causing the ground to split and separate. It created more and more cracks, and the space between these rifts grew wider and wider, causing the moon to shatter.

The moon was ripped apart due to the relentless forces pulling the moon piece by piece. Illuv was distraught, but could only watch as their domain was destroyed by The Darkness, who was, in turn, expanding its own domain.

Pel, when she saw how ruthless The Darkness was, had to intervene. Not only was this foolishness throwing Arnendor into chaos as they watched their moon be torn to pieces, but shards of the moon were also falling to Arnendor and causing destruction. So, Pel returned the light to the moon and banished The Devourer back into the void. She then went to Illuv and apologized for allowing herself to be tricked into punishing them so severely. As penance, Pel knit the moodshards together with magic, stretching a weave of energy between each piece, binding Illuv’s domain together. She also allowed them to return to their old job, as long as Illuv promised not to try and upset the balance of the world by doing more than they were assigned. With that, Illuv and Pel went down to earth to mend what their tussle had broken.

They first filled in the craters that had been caused by the errant moonshards falling to Arnendor. After that, they went about mending the forests and helping the nature gods gain back their strength and balance. In particular, they met with Luibheolaíocht, the god of botany. They discovered that one of the falling moonshards had struck his son in the head and shattered his antlers. Pel and Illuv took responsibility. Illuv fashioned his antlers from the moonshard that had fallen, shaping them into fractals so that two horns became four, and four sixteen, and so on. After that, Illuv and Pel split, setting off on their own to recover the intact moonshards that had fallen. Illuv soon met our ancestor, Quetzalcoatl, as he was hunting in the forests. Illuv saw that Quetzalcoatl was brimming with natural energy, and that he had an affinity to the moon since he often hunted at night. Therefore, Illuv came to him and handed him a moonshard. Illuv told him that as long as he prayed to the moon before his hunts, then we would be able to see at night like it was day, and he would be able to call on the moon’s powers to guide his arrow to strike true.

As you know, Quetzalcoatl was skeptical at first, but knew better than to completely ignore the wish of a god. So, he prayed to the moon before his next night hunt. He discovered that the god had honored his promise, and he was able to see as night like it was day. He was also able to shoot his bow and have the moonlight create a path that guided the arrow directly to his prey. When he came back, his friend informed him that his irises had turned silver and that at night his eyes shone with the light of the moon. So, Quetzalcoatl established this monastery, and we continue to honor Illuv even today. So remember Typhus, the moonshards are looking over you. Even in the deepest forest at the dead of night, you are not alone. Now go to sleep, your training starts in earnest tomorrow.

Written by Damani Sama-Borbon, June 2021