FIRST INTERLUDE
Heaven and Earth
Long ago in Heaven, according to Deitist teachings, the great extended family of gods lived in dazzling palaces of jade. Like any large family, the gods had their share of quarrels, but for the most part they went about their immortal lives happily, although once they had children and those children had children, residential space in Heaven grew too tight for comfort. So the gods constructed a second home, which they modeled after the first and called Earth.
Earth was, at first, in every way as beautiful as Heaven, with vast seas, high mountains, lush forests, and countless wondrous plants and animals.
Unfortunately, the numerous children of the gods, having grown up spoiled, fell to squabbling over Earth even before it was completed. Several wanted the same ocean, others bickered over who would take the highest mountain range or the biggest continent.
At last, the fighting grew so constant and unbearable that the god parents grew enraged. “We built a perfect home for you, and this is how you repay us —by spoiling it with pettiness, greed, and jealousy, turning brother against brother, sister against sister. Have Earth, then, but suffer for it, as you’ll have nothing else from us.” And the parents stripped their children of their divine powers, made them small and weak and naked, and exiled them from Heaven.
Yatto, the Father of All, blasted to shards the first and only half- constructed jade palace on Earth, and buried under it a mountainous island.
The gods, though, being parents, could not resist keeping an eye on their
struggling, estranged children. Some, like Thana the Moon, or Poya, the goddess of agriculture, took pity on their descendants and hovered close, helping to light their way at night, or ensuring they had food to eat. Others, like Yofo, the typhoon god, or Sagi the Pestilence, refused to give up their grudges, and unless placated, would descend on occasion to remind humanity of its long-standing offenses.
All earthly conflict, so the Deitist philosophers say, stems from the original offense of the children against their parents and of siblings against one another. All human progress and virtuous striving is likewise an attempt to achieve familial forgiveness and a return to the spiritually and physically divine state, which lies latent but distantly remembered.