[Recollection Log No. 16: Of Light and Darkness Archive Class: Excerpt from the publication
“A Survey of Myths and Folktales of Inamorata, Volume I” by Kura Zineth
FOREWORD
Dear reader, before you turn these pages, please indulge me with a few pleasantries. Among the many tales I have gathered in this survey, there is one tale that I have grown fond of. It is perhaps the oldest story in Inamorata, known to both the living and the damned.
Truth be told, the moon of Inamorata has a shared history with the planetary system it orbits: the Amaran. I believe this tale could have been of Amaranthine origine, but for once, let us pretend that Inamorata’s creativity had been left unsullied by its wretched predecessor. Let me tell you the tale of Kuromega, Devourer of Heaven, the Beast with Scarlet Fangs, the Beast that Devoured the Light. In the original folktale, the universe was a realm of endless light.
The stars of heaven burned so bright that we humans could not even sleep! Reader, could you imagine not sleeping for more than 2 days at a time? Well, according to this tale, our ancestors had not been sleeping since they were born! An impenetrible light exposed their every sorrow, every guilt, and every shame. And so what did the ancient humans do to resolve this dilemma? Do you think human ingenuity would come to save the day? Why not craft some form of shade to simulate darkness? Surely, it would have been so easy? The humans, at first, tried to come up with simple solutions. They buried into the ground, into those darkest realms light could not penetrate.
Foolishly, these actions offended Isame of a Thousand Eyes, the Lightbearer Goddess with a thousand flaming eyes. The vengeful ISAME set fire to the humans that dared stray from the light. And so, in desperation and with hatred in their hearts, the surviving humans prayed to the Dark Ones. They prayed not for comfort, but for wild darkness to devour the light. And from those hateful prayers arose from the abyssal depths, the great beast, Kuromega. They say Kuromega’s mane was as black as the darkest night, but their fangs were crimson, like a dying red giant. And so Kuromega began to feed on starlight. One by one, the beast leapt into the celestial heavens, and tore the stars asunder, and galaxies with millions of burning stars vanished in the blink of an eye.
Soon, Kuromega reached the domain of Isame — but there was no grand battle of any sort. The rabid beast lacerated Isame’s thousand eyes, tore off her limbs, and then devoured the rest of her body. The humans, at first, rejoiced at the spectacle: they were finally free from the tyranny of light.
But soon, they realized that Kuromega’s hunger could not be quelled until The Thousand Nights utterly consumes the universe. Inevitably, Kuromega would soon devour us all. Alas, the myth of Kuromega is representative of numerous Inamorata myths and legends. Inamoratians are immensely fond of stories of cosmic entities having some kind of come-uppance, usually by the efforts of some rival deity. And yet they are likewise contemplative about the cost of their fanciful fury.
I will leave it to you, dear reader, to decide whether Kuromega, the Beast of Scarlet Fang, was an arbiter of righteous vengeance, or if it was merely a savage reflection of humanity’s primitive fear of the dark. For my part, I suspect that this tale is not so much a reflection on the tyranny of light, but instead, a study of some instinctual drive to crave the end of the universe, perhaps.
— Kura Zineth (*alias of Sister Reine Fang), Professor at the New Eden Celestial Surveyance Institute From the foreword to A Survey of Myths and Folktales of Inamorata]
