General
The Ages and Melodus
Long ago, when humans first began to form larger communities and settle on the banks of rivers instead of wandering the plains in small nomadic groups, they began to learn of a common story thread: The Ages. A being so unknowable the only thing that could be used to relate to them was time. The concept of familial generations, of life and death, of decay and rebirth. All these things were linked to The Ages. It was through The Ages that stories of the world came to be, and it was through The Ages that people found solace.
As time went buy, the human need for control began to unbalance their cooperative nature. Kings rose and built walls around themselves. Their kingdoms went to war against other kingdoms. A bloody scar was carved across human history for a while until the birth of the Prophet Melodus.
"when such a day arrives that The Ages sees fit,4
Holy Breath will be given to the cold birth,
on the sun5 rise of His third day."
Melodus was stillborn, the family grieved, and prepared the tiny body as is the custom, wrapping it in swaddles and setting it in cloves and spices so that all the family might observe the child before its body was returned to The Ages. However, on the morning of the third day after his birth, the household was awoken to the sound of a crying child. Melodus was found, alive and well, where they had left him.
Such a prophecy was known to many and from then on, Melodus grew up surrounded by priests and wise men and women prepared to spend the rest of their lives teaching him everything they could about The Ages so that he could fulfill his destiny.
"8 Listen well for in those days
He will be exiled, 9 and
be at rest in the bosom of secrecy"
As was unfortunately commonplace, shortly after his birth, one of the many kings of the land swept through with an army and all knowledge of Melodus at this time has been lost.
"15 Look unbelievers, does He not bring with him
the 16 wind of the east? Does He not come forth
with song that shakes the mountains 17 and sends
Kings to hide under their mothers skirts?"
When Melodus returns to the Codex records, he does so as an orator. Melodus wanders the land, speaking to anyone who will listen about The Ages, about cooperation, and how the people will need to rally together to show the tyrant kings of the land that they will take no more of their cruel rule.
"and weep o brother 3 for He falls.
Weep o mother for the child whose breath 4
has been emptied and for whom even the sky
will veil herself in grief"
Melodus was quickly branded a rebel, and an inciter. Afraid to act against themselves, for they truly would be outnumbered should the people rise up, the kings convinced one of the most loyal followers of Melodus to betray him. They paid the man, Callinicus, a small fortune to lead Melodus away from his followers to bathe, and when he was alone, the kings men took Melodus into custody and slew Callinicus, framing the murder on Melodus.
Melodus was briefly put on a very public trial, though there were many witnesses brought forward and he was quickly found guilty. In front of crowds of his once loyal followers, Melodus was sentenced to death by drowning (a just punishment at the time for murderers). It is said that he never struggled, and simply grew motionless in the water, as still as the day of his birth. His body was dragged onto shore and laid out on a large stone, as was custom for murderers, for animals to come and tear the body. But no animals did come. Two days his body lay on the stone, many came to see him and many said how unblemished he looked despite his exposure.
"20 And on his third day, such was his
birth 21 so shall be his death. The Ages
will bring their child home."
The writer of the Codex details that there were hundreds of eye witnesses to the event that occurred on the third day after his execution. As the sun rose, a being of pure light descended from the cloudy skies overhead and lifted Melodus into the heavens. The Kings soldiers who were guarding the body were struck dead by the beings mere presence, and those in attendance could barely look upon it for more than a few seconds.
It was shortly after this that The Cascade began. For some time after this, followers of The Ages and Melodus, who call themselves Melodies, believed that these alternate "Ancestries" were punishment from The Ages for our treatment of his child. However in more recent days we of course have adjusted out position on this interpretation as insensitive and understand that The Cascade was necessary for the bloodshed of the kings to finally end and for all peoples to take more time to learn about one another.