Myths of the Desert World

Myths of the Desert World
Jennifer Wilson
William Meyers
ENG-295-W01 FA15
Zimmerman

Introduction
Listen well and remember
my daughter to the tales of
our people from time before
memory. The histories of our
mothers must continue,
when the flesh of my fathers
returns to the sands and the
blood of my mothers returns
to the ice it will be upon you
to pass the history of the
world to your daughter.

Pantheon
 The Scorpion King: High god, he who rules the sands.
 The Seal Queen: High goddess, she who rules the waters and ice.
 Regade: Low god, he who shines in the daytime sky. Guardian of the
balance between sand and ice.
 Rutilus: Low god, she who watches over the dead.

Creation (1 of 5)
Or the Tale of the Scorpion and the Seal
For time unknowable, before the
first woman came from the ice,
and before the first man came
from the sands the two stood
alone. The Scorpion King lived in
his Quartz Castle. The Seal Queen
lived in the waters. The Scorpion
King feared the Seal Queen, for
while she lived in the freedom of
the waters, he could not leave his
castle for fear he would drown
and perish. For eons they fought,
but the waters could not eat away
at the quartz, and the quartz
could only stop the waters from
entering the castle.

Creation (2 of 5)
But the Seal Queen was clever, she
came up with a plan. "My waters are
not strong enough to destroy the
quartz, but if I could make my waters
solid like the quartz then I can
destroy the quartz castle and kill the
Scorpion King." The Seal Queen used
all her power to freeze her waters
into a mighty hammer of ice. The
Scorpion King saw the hammer and
was afraid. He feared that if his castle
was destroyed he would fall and
drown in the waters. He decided to
use all his powers to freeze what
water remained so that he would not
drown.

Creation (3 of 5)
In a mighty clash, the Seal Queen
struck the Quartz Castle with the ice
hammer, and the Quartz Castle
shattered. The Seal Queen, angry at
the Scorpion King for freezing all her
waters unleashed her fury on the
remains of the castle, crushing all the
remains into sand. The Scorpion King
fought back, "I have frozen your
waters, now I shall split them in two,
dividing your power in half." He took
the ice hammer from the Seal Queen
and struck it onto the frozen waters,
which split into two parts. This my
child is why there is ice to the north
and south of us with sand in
between.

Creation (4 of 5)
With the waters frozen and
parted, the Seal Queen lost
her power. With her last
breath she spoke into being
the first woman, "My waters
will be your blood, woman of
water, giver of life. Find
peace with the Scorpion King
where I could not."

Creation (5 of 5)
The Scorpion King saw the Seal
Queen as she drew her last
breath. "Forgive me, I was
foolish to fight with you." he
lamented. He saw the woman
created from the waters of the
Seal Queen. He gathered up
sand that formerly made his
castle and breathed life into it.
"Go into the world, man of my
image. Cooperate and work
with the woman in peace, do
not fight as the Seal Queen and
I did."

The Flood (1 of 9)
Or the tale of Regade, Lord of the Heat
The children of the Scorpion King
and the Seal Queen lived in
harmony for ages that seemed to
have no end. They had children,
and their children had children
until the world was full of their
descendants. The men followed
the ways of the Scorpion and used
the land to provide, the women
followed the ways of the Seal,
taming the ice to provide. They
worked together using the heat of
the sand to melt the ice to have
water to drink and grow crops.

The Flood (2 of 9)
One son of the Scorpion,
Rutilus was proud above
others. He asked the sky why
the heat of the sand and the
cold of the ice had to work
together to create water? Did
the heat not always melt the
ice? Why should the sons of
the Scorpion and Daughters of
the Seal be equal in all things
when the Scorpion’s heat was
more powerful than the Seal’s
cold.

The Flood (3 of 9)
Rutilus offered gifts to the
Scorpion King. “Accept these
gifts of meat and grain that
have been raised from your
sands.” he asked of the King.

The Flood (4 of 9)
The Scorpion King came to
Rutilus and asked, “My son, I
once thought as you, I envied
and feared the waters that
are now ice. I wish that all
my children should live in
peace together. Do not fear
the daughters of the Seal,
work in peace together.”
With that the Scorpion King
rejected the offering of
Rutilus.

The Flood (5 of 9)
Rutilus was angered at his
rejection from the Scorpion
King. He got angrier and as
he got angrier he got hotter.
He walked into the sands of
his fathers. He continued to
be angry as he saw the
graves of his fathers. In the
heat of the sands he grew
angrier and angrier until he
burst into flame.

The Flood (6 of 9)
Regade became a ball of flame
and anger, he rode his heat into
the sky. In his fury he moved
about the world, melting all
the ice he could find. He
melted the great mountains of
ice to the north, he then went
south and melted the great
frozen plains of the south. He
would not be satisfied until all
the daughters of the Seal saw
all their ice melted away and
he proved the heat of the
sands was superior.

The Flood (7 of 9)
Regade looked down upon
the world to see the
destruction of the ice. What
he saw was not what he
expected. He could not see
the sands. No matter where
he looked he saw water. The
ice had melted and covered
the sands. Humbled, Regade
realized that the ice was
more powerful than the
sands.

The Flood (8 of 9)
Regade cried for forgiveness
from the world. I will leave my
home forever so that my heat
will no longer melt the ice and
the sands will come back.
Regade flew away from the
world until the ice mountains
of the north once again took
shape and the ice plains of the
south once again appeared and
he could see the sands of his
home between them.

The Flood (9 of 9)
To this day, Regade stays away
from the world in the sky.
Watching us and reminding us
to remember the teachings of
the Scorpion King. We need
both the heat of the sands and
the cold of the ice in balance,
too much of one will lead to
too much of another. Regade
circles us each day to keep the
balance between the heat of
the day and the cold of the
night.

Afterlife (1 of 11)
After centuries of peace,
Rutilus, a young daughter of
the Seal Queen, grew curious
of the graves far off in the
sands. 'Where did the
people go?' she
wondered. Ever curious, she
prayed to the Seal Queen,
asking what happened when
the Queen's children died.

Afterlife (2 of 11)
"My dear child," the Seal
Queen told, "once they leave
this world, my children
return to me. Deep in the
Ice Mountains they travel to
the Shade, the land of the
dead."

Afterlife (3 of 11)
"Is there nothing more after
death than to live in the
ice?" But the Seal Queen
made no reply. Being ever
curious, Rutilus chose to
search for herself. Travelling
through the deserts, Rutilus
prayed to the Seal Queen
and the Scorpion King to
help her on her journey.

Afterlife (4 of 11)
Day after day she
continuously searched,
before she found a cave
leading into the largest
mountain, the opening large
enough for a lone man to
enter. Entering the cave,
Rutilus made her way down
the dark cave
tunnel. Further and further
she went barely noticing as
the cave grew colder.

Afterlife (5 of 11)
But as she neared the
entrance to the Shade, the
tunnel began to grow
brighter. Standing in front of
a large gate stood a large
mole man, who looked down
at Rutilus and knew that she
was not a soul to be let in.

Afterlife (6 of 11)
"Leave!" He states, not to be
deterred from his
mission. He was to stand
guard and keep living
humans away from the realm
of the dead. But Rutilus did
not leave. With a curiosity as
large as hers, she began to
ask the guard if he knew
what happened to those
who died. He did not
answer.

Afterlife (7 of 11)
For days she asked him
questions, not noticing that
she was growing weaker
from being so close to the
dead. After days of growing
weaker and weaker, she
eventually died, and she was
allowed into the Shade, but
the guard did not want her
body to deter other souls
from entering, so he placed
her body inside of the Shade.

Afterlife (8 of 11)
Rutilus tried to search
around in wonder, but there
were so many souls that she
could hardly move. Giving
up on searching the world of
the dead, Rutilus noticed
that her body was in the
Shade as well. Knelling by
her body, she was pulled
back into it, waking up as the
now living human in the
realm of the dead.

Afterlife (9 of 11)
Being alive, Rutilus moved
freely through the dead souls
eventually finding the throne
on which the Seal Queen sat
to watch over the dead
souls.

Afterlife (10 of 11)
"Dear daughter," the Seal
Queen motioned Rutilus
forward, "how you got past the
guard alive is wondrous. Your
curiosity got the better of you,
and for that, I will bestow
wondrous powers that are both
a blessing and a
curse." Rutilus grew excited at
the thought of having powers,
but a light touch from the Seal
Queen sent ice through
Rutilus's veins, freezing her
body and stopping her heart
once again.

Afterlife (11 of 11)
Waking again, Rutilus knew all
that she had asked to know,
and with that knowledge came
the truth that she did not know
she had not wanted. Rutilus
thanked the Seal Queen,
knowing that the Queen had
been waiting long
enough. Once Rutilus took
seat upon the throne, the Seal
Queen disappeared and went
to stay in the heavens with the
Scorpion King as Rutilus took
her duty, her curse, to be the
protector of the dead.

Myths of the Desert World

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