The Elder hummed thoughtfully. "Once, many, many millennia ago, long before the Sage Emperor arose and ended the Age of Sorrow, the world was not as it is today," Ling Qi leaned forward listening intently. "Great Spirits walked, flew and burrowed freely through the world, which held to order and form only at their whim. There were no humans then, and beasts and spirits were born purely from the churning turmoil of the elements, most of them mere fragments and extensions of greater spirits, with little true will of their own."
It was a difficult thing to picture, but Ling Qi remained silent, letting the Elder speak. "Not all were pleased with the arrangement," Elder Ying said with a slight smile. "The spirit which we know only as the Nameless Mother was one of the greatest spirits, mighty even by the reckoning of their kind, and she grew to despise the disorder of the world, and the loneliness of her existence. She came to desire companionship of beings who were not simply her thoughts given temporary form. She sought her fellows, but their incomprehensible company left her unfulfilled, for great spirits were as alien to one another as such beings often are to us."
Ling Qi thought about her own isolation in the streets, and nodded despite herself. "So what did she do?" She thought that she had a pretty good idea of where this was going, but she wouldn't interrupt the story.
"She tried, for a time to create something which she could converse meaningfully with, but it was for naught. No matter what she attempted, her creations were little more than dolls, moving at her whim," Elder Ying replied, a note of sadness touching her voice. "She tried again and again to no avail, using every element and combination she could think of. When her latest attempt, dolls shaped of clay and river water had failed yet again, the Nameless Mother despaired, and broke into tears over the clay dolls, which held no will of their own," the Elder shook her head and sighed. "Her despair was not for naught though, as the sound of her tears brought the attention of another great spirit, he found the dark vortex formed by the Mother's emotions a great curiosity, and when he beheld her crying over the dolls, a strange feeling came to him."
Ling Qi's lips quirked up for a moment, of course it did. A man coming upon a crying woman, well that was an opportunity wasn't it. She supposed that wasn't where the story was going though, especially since this was a story about spirits, and the description was likely symbolism to make it comprehensible.
Elder Su paused, giving her an amused look, as if her thoughts were heard, and Ling Qi ducked her head and flushed a bit. "Great Spirits were alien to one another, each was their own unique being with little connection to one another, yet this spirit felt strange at the sight of the Mother's tears. He felt a pain, as if he had come to harm. At first he imagined it an attack, and withdrew in suspicion," she continued without pause. "Eventually though, he found that he was not wounded, and once again grew curious, filled with a desire to understand. He returned and considered the scene. Soon, he came to the conclusion that the Mother's pain had caused his, and set about to correct the problem. The dolls were the obvious problem, but he could find no damage, they were filled with her essence, active fragments, just as such things should be. Yet they were without motion or will, as the Mother was a being of order and stillness." Elder Ying paused here, turning here, spreading her hands. "The other spirit however, was a being of chaos and motion, and so he considered that perhaps the stillness was the problem. He extended his own essence to the dolls, and made them dance."
Ling Qi couldn't help the slight snort of laughter that escaped her lips. Elder Ying, surprisingly, did not reproach her and instead let out a quiet chuckle herself. "This story makes Great Spirits seem very simple," Ling Qi noted. "Is that intentional?"
"Most likely," Elder Ying replied. "You must understand, that the beings of this time had no real comprehension of communication with one another just yet. The world was new, and they were in many ways as children.There are many treatises on the evolution of Great Spirits, if the subject has your interest. For now though, simply keep that in mind as we continue," she answered kindly. "Now, this of course startled the Mother, who had been so embroiled in despair that she had not noticed the approach of the Other. She grew excited for the dolls before her acted without her will, she could perceive the existence of the other being before her though, and it quickly became clear that he was the source. Her mood fell, as she realized it was only another Great Spirit playing with her discarded creations," Ling Qi cocked her head to the side. What must it have been like, to simply be fundamentally unable to communicate at all like that. "The other spirit saw her plunging mood and thought furiously about a solution. To a being such as him it was obvious. The dolls needed more motion. He poured greater essence into the effort, going so far as to longer puppet the dolls, but to infuse them himself," Elder Ying smiled. "And so, his essence mingled with the Mothers, and from it was born two things. Understanding, and the very first humans."
"So, we are different because we were created?" Ling Qi ventured a guess. "We aren't… natural the way spirits are?"
"That is roughly correct," Elder Ying replied. "To summarize the rest of the tale, from their new understanding, the Mother and the Father found happiness and fulfillment for a time, but other spirits found their mingling of essence, the 'impurity' wrought by allowing oneself to be affected and changed by another being to be repugnant, and an abomination. The two were attacked, and most of their first human children slain, but this proved a mistake, wrought by the other spirits ignorance and incomprehension. The Father and the Mother were mighty beyond compare, and the assault enraged them. They reshaped the very world into what we know today, slaying dozens of their kin before sacrificing everything down to their names, to forge a world where their children could live and prosper. This is why Great Spirits can no longer interact directly with the world, and its nature is no longer ephemeral, but ordered and solid."
