Before everything, there was only energy. This energy of the universe was unformed, seething through space and time with no direction and no conscience. As time went on some of this energy gathered together and became darkness, and the mind behind the darkness was that of Niesh. For a long time there was only Niesh, and she spread throughout the universe and covered everything in night.
But the night was lonely, and dull. So Niesh gathered some of it close to her, squeezing it tighter and tighter until it hardened beneath her touch and began to glow with a cold, white light through the darkness. And she breathed a name upon the light, and called it Oumi, and she cast it into the darkness so that it hung as a point of light against the black. It pleased her, and she created more lights, millions of tiny points in the darkness. Each of them bowed to her and worshiped her in twinkling voices. And so it was for many eons.
But even the beautiful songs of the Oumi were not enough to bring Niesh joy. She pondered what was missing from the universe and decided that it needed balance. She drew the energy of the universe to her once more and brought together everything that was not night. Then she breathed upon the warm and golden light and gave it life, and he was called Rases.
But Rases was not content to dwell beside Niesh and be her creation, and he decided to create something for himself. He gathered the dust that was left from his own creation and formed it into an orb and set it spinning about himself, and named it Aeri. But this orb was lifeless dust, because Rases didn’t have the power to breathe life into it.
Niesh watched the effort of her son, and was moved by his labor. Tears fell from her eyes and she gathered them up and flung them upon the orb Aeri. Wherever these tears landed they created salty oceans. Rases rejoiced, shining even brighter in the night, and nurtured his creation so that life was brought from the water. To give thanks to his mother, Rases only shone upon Aeri half of each day, giving the night to Niesh.
And so life thrived on Aeri, and creatures came up out of the waters to walk upon the dust of the land. Rases watched his creation with pride, encouraging growth and passion among the creatures that developed there. All lived in balance with each of the others, and when the creatures looked to the heavens they saw Rases and they worshiped him. Rases enjoyed this attention more and more, and so he gave to the people of Aeri a part of himself that they could keep during the times when Niesh ruled the skies. Thus fire was introduced to the people.
The people of Aeri took fire and used it to shape their world to their own will. With the captured piece of Rases they no longer felt they needed to worship the god. Instead they worshiped things of their own creation, seeking to enslave one another for their own amusement, warring with each other for entertainment.
Rases was embarrassed at the corruption of Aeri and cried out to his sisters, the Oumi, to help him punish the people there. The Oumi threw their cold fire upon the land and waters of Aeri, trying to purge the evil, but the people took shelter and survived. Then Rases, desperate to set Aeri in balance again, blasted the orb with all his fury, scorching the land. But the people again took shelter and were spared.
Finally Rases turned to his mother Niesh, and pleaded with her to do something to make Aeri the beautiful place it once was. Niesh held the orb in her hands and thought. Night descended on Aeri as Rases left the orb to his mother’s care. She contemplated the creation and began again to weep. The tears fell upon the orb and smothered all the land, drowning all the cruelty and arrogance that Rases’s gift had brought out in the people. When the orb was cleansed, Niesh gave it back to Rases, who set it again around him, warming it so that the waters receded and land was again ready for creatures to dwell upon it.