The Dance of the Sky Gods
Written by J-Haskell.
An old windwyrm legend about how the Seven Sky Gods came to be, and with them brought the four seasons that come and go with the passing of time, as told by Lady Three-Eyes.
. . .
Long ago, when the Realm was young, there was just Maura, Queen of the Seven Skies and crafter of storms, and her future mate, Muirchertach, lord of the Sea Winds and bringer of rain. Not long after the birth of the Realm and the emergence of the pair of deities, Maura gathered up the wind and pieces of the sky - that you can see today in the form of the sun, the moons, and the stars - and shaped the windwyrms in her own image and in the image of her favoured creatures, birds of prey. She did so out of curiosity and a desire to longer be lonely; after all, the only other god was Muirchertach, who was quite shy and dwelled far away in the sea.
Back then, just as she is today, Maura had a volatile temper. And Muirchertach, despite being a god, was the quiet sort and did not like to challenge her when she felt wrathful, and so her anger went unchecked and the Skyswept Peaks echoed with thunder near-constantly. The windwyrms of the time adapted as best they could, as challenging the Queen of the Seven Skies never went well, but they were often forced to hide underground and in caves to avoid being struck down.
One day, rather than fade away with the clouds and vanish like all her other storms, Maura’s lightning struck the heavily forested ground where the Trickster’s Vale stands today and burst into flame. A great fire spread and threatened to consume the land and the windwyrms that Maura had created, and she attempted desperately to bat out the blaze with her wings. The wind only served to stoke the flames and Maura realized that her wrath might very well be the end of everything that she had worked so hard to build.
She turned to Muirchertach for help, and together they formed a massive storm - this time not of lighting and thunder, but of strong wings and a downpour of rain - to cascade across the mountainside and douse the flames. It worked, and the pair of gods celebrated together afterwards and became friends.
While they were distracted, they did not witness someone new emerging from the glowing embers in the Trickster’s Vale - a new deity, Fintan of the Changing Winds, the tender of the flames. - born from the spirits of those who had died in the great fire. They immediately set out to do just that; despite the attempts from Muirchertach, the embers in the Vale could not be put out, and Maura soon found herself the target of pranks, of all things, and set out to find the windwyrm culprit behind it.
While she hunted for the clever trickster, she and Muirchertach wed, and together had three children. With each new god that emerged into the world, they brought something new into the world, and with them, the seasons changed.
First was Niamh of the Spring Wind, the lady of the land, who set about rearranging the earth itself and blessing it with fertility so that the creatures of the Skyswept Peaks might prosper.
The second was Úna of the Summer Wind, warden of the woods, who completed her older sister’s work, flying over the land and bringing with her spring and new growth.
Between the hatching of Maura and Muirchertach’s second and third children, the Queen of the gods finally caught the prankster in the act - trying to steal a bolt of lightning from her quiver - and was shocked to realize that the pest had not been a windwyrm subject getting too bold, but another deity that she had not yet met. Her annoyance faded away and the two met up a number of times following Fintan’s discovery, and eventually, Maura had a child - the sixth deity, Oisín of the Autumn Wind, the shaper of beasts. Oisín immediately began to leave their mark on the world, creating new and strange creatures to roam the land, and turning the leaves to rich shades of orange and gold, like the fires that had birthed their other parent.
The final child of Muirchertach and Maura was Líadan of the Winter Wind, herald of frost, who came to bring the end of each year so that in the next spring, things could grow back stronger and more lively than ever.
At first, the children of Maura fought eachother to establish their season as the perpetual state of the world, and the Skyswept Peaks were caught between the different times of the year. In some areas, there would be winter, and others a sharp line where the summer sunlight shone unfiltered onto the mountainside.
Eventually, the three eldest gods convened with their children and forced them to come to a compromise; they would share, and each would have their turn with the Peaks, in order of their birth. Niamh would take her turn first, bringing spring, then Úna and summer, Oisín and autumn, and lastly the quiet Líadan and her winters.
And so that is how the seven sky gods came to be, and why as the months pass the seasons change as the four siblings share their influence over the land.