The Tale of the Swords of the Ancients And Other Blades of Power

A Mythology

By

Kit Rae

Of the Ancient Ones

In the beginning of things in ages past there were the Anath, masters of flesh, fire, and steel, who forged the elements of which the land of Ammon was made. It became the world in the First Age, the age of creation. The Anath were a multitude, but were also of one being. They desired to create other beings like unto themselves to dwell upon Ammon, thus they created the Ancient Ones, and this was the Second Age of Ammon, the age of the immortals. The Ancients dwelled in Avallos, the Neverworld, and empty place created by the Anath for which to raise and educate them. When these immortals were grown and wise with knowledge the Anath brought them into Ammon. The Ancients were made in likeness to the Anath, though they could appear as any being, and each was granted a special power of creation so that they may rework Ammon in their own fashion. Being immortal the Ancient Ones would not die or age naturally, though they could be harmed or killed by misfortune or misdeed. Thus their number, which was only but fourteen in the beginning, would ever be thus unless fate would diminish them.

These were their names:
Thorcan
Attar
Othar
Thotan
Uthor
Chothven
Uthven
Thofven
Athven
Othven
Annal
Uthvar
Atnal
…and Evruc, who would later be known a The Dark One.

The Ancients were joyous and learned to harness the elements. They were experts in all crafts and the arts, but soon became saddened because they were alone in the world. The Anath beheld and well understood their sadness and thus resolved to give the Ancient Ones the power to create mortal beings, and so charged them to rule over and protect those creations. Thereupon the Ancients filled Ammon with many strange creatures of different form, and this was the Third Age of Ammon, the age of mortals. The firstborn to Ammon were the higher beings, the Elves, and later there were Uldurin, followed by Men, and finally the lower beasts. The Ancient Ones purposed to have dominion over every creature and for many ages they kept order and balance in Ammon. They built the great Temples in honor of the Anath, hidden in the frozen realm of Ulaine, and from those immense halls they watched over their creations. The Ancients would walk among those creations in the form of mortals so as to go unnoticed, showing their true faces too a select few, lest mortals forget who their masters were. Of the Ancients masters, the Anath, no mortal has ever seen.

The Ancient Ones had the power to reshape the elements of Ammon, and their greatest power was surely that which allowed them to create life from those elements, which was a joyous task to them. All creatures that made abode in Ammon were crafted thus, but another favored practice of the Ancient Ones was in the crafting and shaping of steels, and the enchantment of those creations. The steel of the Ancients was stronger than flesh, stronger than the will, even stronger than time. The Ancients taught the first mortals the skills of steel craft and forging. The fashioning of steel into weapons and tools became a high art among mortals, especially the Elves, and there came many greatly skilled smiths from that race to Ammon. Among all mortals, the talent of sword crafting was cherished above all other arts.

Mortals multiplied and explored the lands of Ammon, discovering the many great places of beauty the Ancients had created for them. Though mortals were wise and with much strength, they were also unstable through the weakness of the flesh. Through greed, the lust for power, and jealousy, they were tempted to war amongst each other and there was much bloodshed in the beginning. Thus the Ancient Ones created the first enchanted talismans to temper mortals and restore order and balance. They took the form of steel bladed devices, for blades were among the first tools to be used by mortals, and the most favored in Ammon. Each was bestowed with powers of many forms by the Ancients, but the mortals misused them and were corrupted by the new power. Much blood was spilled with them and by reason of them. The Uldurin came to wage war upon Men. The Elves moved underground to escape the chaos above, and they became the Dark Elves of the Underworld, Barkonia. In this chaos the first Ancient One came to be slain by a mortal one of the Uldurin race. This was the first slaying of immortal by mortal and Ammon was forever changed. Thus Ammon entered the Fourth Age, the age of chaos. Thenceforward the talismans became known as the Blades of Chaos, for that is what they had created.

Evruc, one of the thirteen remaining Ancients, later known only as the Dark One, perceived how easily mortals were corrupted, and how vulnerable his own kind were to them. In his mind he had dark thoughts over how best to rule them, and he opposed the will of the other Ancients, causing much turmoil. He forsook them and left them to dwell in the Underworld among mortals, and there he became dark and twisted. He took many Men as his slaves and many women as his concubines. The Elves, who also dwelled in the vast Underworld, eschewed Evruc, and it was they who named him the Dark One. Even so, some were corrupted by his power and joined him as subjects. They became the Black Elves. In this time the Orwenoch, mysterious dark beasts, appeared out of the depths of the Underworld, and it was said that they were the first creation of the Dark One after he left his brothers.

The twelve Ancient Ones, seeing the grave mistake they had made, set forth to create the Umethar, a talisman to restore order to the chaos. It was given the shape of many blades within blades, for it held powers within powers. The hilt was carved from bone of the Ancient One who was slain, known as Thorcan, and the pommel was fashioned in the image of the Anath. The blade was quenched with the blood of every immortal Ancient One, save Evruc, and within it was held their greatest power. The Ancients commanded mortals use the blade to heal the hurts they had caused, lest ere long they destroy themselves by their own hand; and they took the Umethar and by its power they brought life back to the dead mortals who had been slain in wrath over the Blades of Chaos.  Order and harmony were restored between mortals, for a time.

The Tale of the Swords of the Ancients and Other Blades of Power and its previous versions, The Swords of the Ancients and its abridged excerpts, and other forms, are ©1997 and ©2005 by Kit Rae. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any other form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, computer networking, or otherwise without prior permission in writing by the copyright holder(s).