My Hero!

The first of Aliteria’s Gods to enter through the Oculus, or so claim the elves, was Lo’Ani. She stepped upon the plane, saw lifeless grey and decided to weep. Her tears brought forth the flowers, her hair swept across the black abyss and brought with it the sky. Her plane was perfect, as was she, before the others saw what she had done and decided they wanted Lo’Ani’s creation for their own greedy selves.

Deciding to protect her Garden from her siblings, Lo’Ani gifted all of her flora with a sort of sentience. Roots that entangle those who trespass, guardian flowers that devour interlopers whole and sweet fruits that could put one of her siblings’ creatures to sleep for a number of years for even daring to eat when Lo’Ani had not granted them rights to.

It was a paradise and Lo’Ani reveled in its beauty, for like her, it was perfect. One day, whilst singing to her beloved plants, Lo’Ani’s voice attracted some strange, white-faced creatures. Having not made these things, nor having any desire to sully herself with touching such uncharacteristic and boring oddities, Lo’Ani ignored the pale-faced beings and continued to sing.

For years, she ignored the creatures, shooing them away when they were found underfoot, or otherwise paying them no heed. Not until one of them sang along side her voice did Lo’ani even register that the creatures had been changing.

By merely being in the presence of the Goddess, the pale-faced, deformed creatures were uplifted, changed, made to be like that which they sought to follow. To imitate their Goddess’ skin, they painted themselves in the sap of her flowers, They stuck leaves to their heads to simulate the perfect lobes of Lo’Ani. Small petals of her vibrant flowers were pasted to their scale in an attempt to copy their Goddess’ beautiful hair.

So disgusted with the creatures was Lo’Ani that she set off to find out who had abandoned the horrid little imitators into her domain, but she came across two of her sisters talking while she traveled through the roots beneath their feet.

Que’Lan and Sermali spoke to one another while they prepared for a banquet of the Gods. The most intriguing of the topics was that of the pale-face creatures and how they had each found these diminutive beings in their realms.

Que’Lan spoke of how she remade the creatures into beings far more suited to her liking while Sermali talked about how she took pity on the pale-faced creatures and granted them wings to not have to endure the hardships of walking.

Lo’Ani was prepared to interrupt and scoff at her sisters’ choices, but the two then began to speak about her realm and its beauty – of the amazing plants and the beautiful waterways – of the birds that sang such sweet symphonies and of the vibrant petals that could be seen from anywhere.

So swollen with pride was Lo’Ani that she feared the roots she was listening through would burst through the ground – but her pride quickly washed away as the two began to wonder what Lo’Ani would have done with her pale-faced creatures. How she must have made them into beautiful idols to herself and the two agreed to both go and sneak a peek upon Lo’Ani’s realm.

In haste, Lo’Ani retreated back to her domain. She immediately set forth to find her pale-faced creatures. It did not take long for her to track them down – the miserable-looking little creatures were offering her fruits of their harvest while they sang to her.

With a loving smile, Lo’Ani took her followers into her bosom and caressed them to her perfect breasts – and with that motion, she remade them, the golden hue they had painted on themselves sank into their exteriors while the petals that adorned their heads dug into their scalps. The leaves that had been so lovingly adhered to their heads with mud took flesh and the elves were born.

Lo’Ani looked over her creations and while they looked beautiful to one another, to Lo’Ani, she could see every flaw within them that she had not fixed due to her haste. As she began to prepare to fix her pale-faced deformities, Que’Lan and Sermali arrived to find her surrounded by the worshiping, naked elves.

The two other Goddesses commented on the beauty of the small creatures and how they resembled Lo’Ani, to which Lo’Ani humbly accepted their praise. The three sisters talked for a short while as Lo’Ani continued to try and hide her creatures’ flaws. With Que’Lan and Sermali none the wiser, the two left and Lo’Ani turned to her worshipers and tried to remake them – more perfect than before.

For days and days she tried to remake her worshipers into the perfection that she was and time and time again she failed. So distraught did Lo’Ani become that she began to doubt her own beauty – perhaps she was flawed like her little creatures.

For every one of Lo’Ani’s followers she made into her image, something was off. For every little physical clone she developed, she saw another flaw.

It wasn’t until she came across a recently remade creature who was unhappy with their appearance.

“My Goddess.” The creature called as Lo’Ani ceased remaking the essence weave of another of her children.

“Why do you trouble yourself with us so?” It asked as Lo’Ani finished another failed semblance.

“I need you to be perfect, like me.” Lo’Ani stated as she once again saw the flaw in her design brought to light.

“But, my Goddess. We are not you. We cannot be perfect. We are the flaw.” Said the creature with Lo’Ani’s own voice.

Lo’Ani ceased her work and thought about the little creature’s words. She looked upon the small thing and gazed upon what she had done to it. She had twisted what it had once been into a beautiful, horrifying new thing.

“You speak true.” Lo’Ani stated as she twisted her fingers about the small creature and undid her changes, reverting the small creature back into its pale-faced state.

The creature tried to speak, but found no facility for it, but Lo’Ani understood its plight. The creature still wished to be like her, but wanted to save the Goddess the burden of the process.

With precision, the Goddess instilled the knowledge of Essence Weaving within her follower. The pale-faced creature forced hard and slowly began to remold itself. It took in the light of the Oculus into its flesh, it absorbed the colour of the petals into its scalp and it reshaped its own physical body to be more akin to the Goddess it so desired to imitate.

Lo’Ani looked upon the first of the Elves and while she could see the flaws, she was proud. She had not created such a flawed creature, but had given it the tools it needed to improve itself and to strive for perfection – to strive to be like Lo’Ani herself.

Over time, the creature taught the others who had been undone and the Elves were born. Every one of them tried to remake themselves into a perfect follower of Lo’Ani, knowing that the Goddess would find them flawed, but that the Goddess was proud to know that her followers were constantly working towards the unattainable goal of imitating their Goddess.