Some might see me as a writer, but in all honesty I’m an explorer.  I don’t make this stuff up, I find it by wandering the universe looking for lost civilizations.  I recently stumbled across an interesting planet called Atum.  I’ve been reading through scrolls I’ve found in the long-dead and decayed cities there, and thought I’d share some of what I’ve found about this society with you.

This first one is the beginning of their creation legend.  I’ll post the rest as I translate it.

“Legend tells us the great seas of Abzu boiled for an eternity before the Great Cooling. And when the Great Cooling ended, the planet Atum was born. She lived in Abzu’s warm seas, among the other planets who formed there, until she had gathered enough mass to survive by herself out in the big, dark, lonely universe. And one day amidst the years of eternity and she found herself hurled out of the warm seas and into the frigid expanses of space.

Freezing, and desperate to reclaim the warmth she knew in Abzu’s womb, Atum set out to find a sun to warm herself. The first sun she encountered was much too large, and it scorched her skin. This created deserts on her surface.

The second sun she encountered was much too small, and she was wracked with earthquakes as she shivered from the cold.  Occasionally she still shudders at the memory.

She continued on, determined to find her sun, until she happened upon a small but most magnificent star. It wasn’t too large, and it wasn’t too small, but mostly it was warm, just the right amount of warm to thaw her skin and keep her comfortable.

She lived contentedly orbiting this glowing ball for many a millennium until one day, a smaller planet approached her sun, wanting to warm himself in the sun’s rays. For a day, they conversed, talking of their travels and the suns they had encountered. They spoke of their warm mother Abzu and their longing to return to her seas. But this new sun was much smaller than she, and the very next day, the irresistible pull of that sun sucked him into its corona and consumed him.

Atum mourned for a week, lonely.  Amid this mourning, she realized that she had spent a millennium with only herself for conversation (suns tend to be rather aloof). Atum thought and thought. She tried discussing her dilemma with the sun, but to no avail; the sun had no interest. She woke up one morning and said to herself, “If the sun will not speak to me, then I will create my own companionship”.

First, she created the Dragons. They turned out strong and proud, and intelligent. They were also exceedingly greedy. After a few millennia, she tired of the Dragons, for they had passion for nothing but gold and precious stones and paid no heed to her, but to dig into her surface with their claws in search of treasures. But no matter how much they hurt her, they were her first creations, her first love, “I cannot kill my children, but I must not allow them to destroy my skin. They will live forever, but I will make it virtually impossible for them to reproduce.” From that day forth, the Dragons would never lay more than two eggs in their lifetime, keeping their population small, and making them fierce protectors of their offspring (at least until they’re grown…)”