‘Before your times, O Ingos, the earth was watched over by the long-living ones, the Doitherúna. They were the Guardians. They were charged with preparing the earth for the coming of the Hyûvandri, mortal men and women. Many and various were their kinds but among them were the Gangri, the mighty ones, builders; the Kabdath, the skilled ones, the makers; the Thendâ, the lovers of beasts and husbandry, the riders; the Silúna, shapers of waterways, whom are now named the Fâwiengri, the mariners; and the Entellári, the fair ones, lovers of everything that lives and grows, the blessed ones. They laboured to build a world for the Hyûvandri to inhabit and to rule. But in their number was Melyúnas, the seeker of knowledge, who named himself Negobith.
‘You ask about the nature of Negobith. Negobith was a Doitherân but a corrupted one. His nature was such that his body and spirit could be parted by someone with sufficient power and authority, but his spirit could incarnate itself again.
‘When he heard of the felicity planned for the Hyûvandri, he became envious. He desired rule for himself. He took counsel to bring the world of the Hyûvandri under his own lordship. His first act was to tempt others of the Doitherúna to harbour the same desire. Then he sowed strife between the Doitherúna. Negobith’s greatest deception fell upon the Gangri, who warred among themselves. Negobith won over the Falakkazri whom men call Kúmi Netári, for they fear them. He sent some of them to serve the Gangri in their wars. He made his dwelling deep under the earth, in Ombros, for he needed no light but continually desired Night.
‘At that time began the First Circle of Time, when you came alone, Lord Ingos. It was said: Othaller Ingos milenale-ruvot erderofesta: “Ingos walked upon the face of the earth before all men”! That Age was Thallut’ Ingos, the journeying of Ingos: you were Ingos, the Long-lived: you were granted years of life far beyond the span of the men and women who came after you, so that you might fulfil your tasks. Indeed you faithfully fulfilled the tasks that were for that time. And you walked the earth, and held converse with the faithful Doitherúna, especially the Entellári. And then came the Hyûvandri, men and women in their families and tribes, at first few in number. You were their father and guide.
‘You settled the Hyûvandri in places that were far from the strifes of the Gangri and the Falakkazri. Nonetheless, some of them wandered into the clutches of Negobith, and there arose the Valkari, the witchfolk of Nanôr. The greatest of them was Murnag ta-Valka, who became the consort of Negobith himself and bore him Prámiz and Groiznath. And Prámiz went about to steal star-fire and brought it down to the land of Nanôr. But the Entellári bound him on a mountaintop in the East. Groiznath assaulted the stronghold of the Gangri, but was overcome and cast into the form of a wood-demon. Finally the peoples of the Midworld confined Negobith within Ombros by the Great Runes of Binding so that he could no longer exercise his power. And so the Midworld had peace and you travelled its length and breadth among your people.’
‘At the close of the Giants’ Wars, Dreygan the last of the Frostgiants forged the Blade, Gantzor, from the ice spittle of Firungwáfi, the coldworm which he had captured and imprisoned in his cavern beneath Kapgar-Kûm. At the death of Dreygan, Gantzor was lost. But Negobith knew of it, and desired to obtain it so as to achieve the power of cold-death over others, and foremost over you, Ingos.
‘After a search by his servant, Negobith obtained Gantzor. He lured you, Ingos, into a meeting, and made to slay you with the Blade of Dreygan; but in his folly he only cast a spell of frozen sleep upon you. Thus it was that you fell into that Age-long sleep. But Negobith did not know of Dreygan’s curse, that Gantzor should be the bane of anyone who struck with it but he himself. Negobith did not die, but destroyed his body, so that his anya became houseless.’
With that, memory that had long slept awoke in the heart of Ingos, and he cried out: “Yes, I reasoned with him on the mountain top, but he came to smite me, and a darkness fell. But Master, it was that Drumster of the Deep, Slungandi, who restored Gantzor to Negobith. Yet in the former age he helped us to overthrow Negobith, and without him we could not have prevailed. He is a Doitherân: where is he now?’
‘He fell at length to the same blade as you did, Lord Ingos, and lay in ice-sleep on the same Isle; but if the Flood awoke him or bore him away is not revealed.
‘And after the Dolorous Stroke that bound you, Lord Ingos, there followed the Age of Imlonyat’ Ingos, the Sleep of Ingos, when many hundreds of human years passed by. While you lay in ice-sleep, the angûthégri of Nanór, by abominable arts, housed again the anya of Negobith in the body of Dreygan, that he might wield Gantzor with the hand of Dreygan. By the power of Negobith, his one surviving son Prámiz compelled many Hyûvandri and Kabadri to receive the Yoke of Negobith and to go to dwell in his evil city of Magéraz Urlan-fên in the land of Fíbor. There arose more strife in Thrâyeldim.
‘The Doitherúna built Dúmiel as a place of safety from Negobith for Hyûvandri. That realm endured for five hundred years, guarded by the enchanted encircling forest, the Berufarána. But the Wingworm Kervandwáfi, with his fiery breath, laid waste the heart of the Greenmarch, making a path by which the hosts of Fíbor entered Dúmiel, and caused a great flood that destroyed Tídris.
‘The flood awoke you from that long sleep and sent you here to bring this enchanted land into being, as a haven for your people. This is the Age of Klíst’ Ingos, the Island Realm of Ingos, which will not end.
But you will learn more of that charge in time to come, my friend! For now, Lord Ingos, make me your guest, and let me see the fairness of this wondrous land.’
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