Qóvakõl
Greater Tear of the Moon National Park
Tavari-Acronian Disputed Territory
15 April 2022
12:00 AM Acronian Standard Time (UTC -9:00)
Vana Dandreal awoke in the middle of a crater. She had never seen a crater before, and yet she knew exactly where she was the moment she opened her eyes. The lush, untouched, emerald jungle and crystal clear night sky absolutely overflowing with stars above her told her that she could only be on one of the Tears of the Moon, and there was only one meteor crater on the Tears of the Moon. Vana was standing at the place where, precisely two thousand and twenty two years prior, a meteor fell to the Urth on a particular path along the sky, at a particular time, in a particular way, that just so happened to make it visible to a significant swath of cultures around the world and turn what would have otherwise been just one unremarkable shooting star into a global epoch.
The Tears of the Moon themselves were named after that very event, which featured in one of the most popularly known tales of Tavari folklore—and also one of the oldest. In fact, most people tended to think of it as the first. No one knows from where, exactly, the Tavari came, and the story didn’t even mention, but they came from somewhere else, and from there, one night, they saw the moon cry a single tear, shining and glittering like starlight, into the sea. And all of them, from wherever they were, knew then that they had to journey to where the tear had fallen. The etymology of “Tavari” is similarly unknown, but its similarity to tavat—”path” or “way”—has long been considered to suggest that the first Tavari defined themselves as travelers on a journey, perhaps even a quest. And when, years—decades? centuries?—later, they found what they had been looking for, they named it Qóvakõl: “tearfall.”
Put another way, the Matron of the Church of Akrona stood at the exact place where, precisely two thousand and twenty-two years, three months, and fifteen days prior, Akrona wept. The First Elders, almost immediately after the Emergence, began to try to reach Qóvakõl, believing that they would be able to speak to Akrona again there. She couldn’t, of course, because Akrona had already become the Light, the incorporeal life force inside every living thing, but the First Elders did eventually reach it and pray there. Many of the so-called “poetic” Edicts were issued from Qóvakõl, and the first Akronists dedicated themselves to building monastic communities on both the Greater and Lesser Tears because they (in their stubborn, Tavari weakness) believed them to be “closer to Akrona.” Qóvakõl, then, occupied a strange place in the Tavari cultural consciousness because it was so important to both the traditionalists and the Akronists.
And it was beautiful. It was easily one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Of course, Vana knew that part of the reason it held that honor was because it had seen so few people. The Tavari, not normally ones to care about the environment without being made to, made one good decision in deciding that the Greater and Lesser Tears both cursed those whose feet trod upon it, and never once established a settlement on the islands in all the centuries before the First Elders built their first convent. That had been the first major controversy, the first major sign that the Avatidar were going to have a problem with this new church. The Tears were sacred ground, they said, and the Akronists had desecrated it. The Akronists said that they were honoring the sacred ground by building on it, and the traditionalists didn’t particularly care for that answer. “Public pressure,” primarily in the form of physical attacks on Akronists, eventually forced the Church to mostly abandon its handful of buildings on the islands. There were still two functioning monasteries, one only a few avnai from Qóvakõl, and the Elders did technically have a residence on the island, but even in the modern day, few people ever actually walked the ground of the Tears of the Moon.
Wait.
How did she get to this island?
What time wa-
The clap of thunder was so sudden and so forceful that Vana felt her feet cease to touch the ground for a moment before she crashed back down onto the ground, knocking the very breath from her chest. Tongues of pain lashed over her entire back, and she would have screamed aloud if she was breathing. She clenched her eyes shut tightly to focus on catching her breath and trying to readjust herself into a more comfortable position. When she opened them, any uncertainties she might have had about what had just happened were completely and entirely erased.
The sky was solid starlight. There weren’t any trees anymore—there were only Vana, the cold and stony urth under her, and the Light. Vana’s face ached already as her eyes strained against the presence of God. She knew now that there hadn’t even been a clap of thunder at all; it had only been the immense power of Her awakening. There were tears rolling down Vana’s face that she couldn’t wipe away because she was too weak to lift her own arm. But when She spoke, the force of Her words echoed in Vana’s bones so forcefully that it made it hard for her to breathe. But really, all Vana could manage to focus on beyond the words wracking her body was that when God spoke, the entire universe turned orange.
I AM SHE WHO EMBRACED YOU WHEN THE DAUGHTERS AND SONS OF ODIN ABANDONED YOU.
I AM SHE WHO IS THE GOD OF YOUR ORCISH FOREBEARS.
I AM SHE WHO WAS CALLED THE MOTHER OF THE WORLD.
I AM SHE TO WHOM THE WAY OF THE ELDERS[1] LEADS.
I AM SHE WHO WELCOMED YOU WITH OPEN ARMS SO THAT YOU WOULD KNOW THE LIGHT AND CAST IT UPON OTHERS, BUT YOU WOULD FORSAKE ME AND SPREAD ONLY DARKNESS AND BLOOD.
YOU WOULD STAND SISTER AGAINST SISTER, BROTHER AGAINST BROTHER, AND TEAR APART THE FAMILY THAT I HAVE RAISED FOR A THOUSAND GENERATIONS.
I AM SHE WHO WATCHED AS YOUR ELDER SISTER[2], YOUR ELDER BROTHER[3], AND YOUR MOTHER, THE VERY URTH HERSELF, DIED AND GAVE YOU THEIR BODIES SO THAT YOUR FOREBEARS MIGHT USE THEM AND LIVE.
YOUR FOREBEARS NOURISHED THEMSELVES ON THE LIFE THAT SPRUNG FORTH FROM THE CORPSES OF THEIR DEAD GODS.
YOUR FOREBEARS WORSHIPED DEATH, AND I AM SHE WHO TAUGHT THEM TO WORSHIP LIFE.
I AM SHE WHO STOOD IN THE SEA EIGHT OF YOUR LIFETIMES AGO AND ENTRUSTED YOUR ELDERS TO SHARE THE BURDEN AND CARRY TOGETHER THE MANDATE OF PROTECTING LIFE, AND SO HAVE THEY DONE FOR MORE THAN FIVE CENTURIES, AND YOU WOULD THROW IT ALL AWAY FOR NAUGHT BUT AMBITION AND GREED.
YOU MAY HAVE WAR, OR YOU MAY HAVE ACRONIS, BUT YOU CANNOT HAVE BOTH, AND YOU CAN ONLY HAVE ME IF YOU HAVE ACRONIS.
YOU HAVE MADE ME INTO A NATION, VANA DANDREAL, AND NOW YOU MUST KEEP ME. YOURS IS THE BURDEN.
YOURS IS THE MANDATE.
YOURS IS THE BLAME.
THESE ARE THE GIFTS THAT YOUR AMBITION HAS BOUGHT YOU.
THE REST OF YOUR LIFE MUST BE FOR MY CHILDREN, AND IF YOU FORSAKE ME AGAIN, THEN I SHALL DIE, AND NONE SHALL KNOW THE LIGHT AGAIN.
SHOULD EVEN ONE MORE PERSON BORN OF THE SOIL OF AVNATRA DIE SO THAT YOU MIGHT RAISE YOUR FLAG OF ORANGE AND SILVER, SO TOO SHALL THE ENTIRE WORLD.
The Sacred Cloister
Temple of the Emergence
Crystal Coast, Acronis
12:07 AM Acronian Standard Time
Vana Dandreal awoke screeching. It was not until a nurse produced a syringe with the apparent intent of sedating her that she forced herself to regulate her breathing.
“Sister, please, what is it? What has frightened you so?” It felt odd for Vreila of all people—only days after she had returned home from an extended hospital stay—to be the one expressing concern for her, but Vana reached out and clutched her sister’s hand anyway.
“No more,” Vana said. “We must tolerate this no more. I have led the Church astray and now I must restore it.”
“What… what do you mean?” Anda sounded unsure of herself. Perhaps she was unsure of the Matron.
“Get me Nevran Alandar,” was Vana’s reply. “There will be no war with Tavaris. There can never be war with Tavaris. Akrona demands peace, and she shall have it.”
- Translator’s note: Translated from the Tavari “Tavat Avati”
- From the Tavari “Avnatra”
- From the Tavari “Avotro,” see “https://tep.wiki/wiki/Mt._Avotro”