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[Religion - A'tmuzigh] Excerpt from the Tahkayt Hezzifan, the "Long Story"


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Excerpt from the Tahkayt Hezzifan, or "Long Story", 

the oral poetry telling the tale of the A'tmuzigh people.

 

 

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The Tahkayt Hezzifan is part of a lengthy and dramatic ceremony performed by A'tmuzigh Elders and Oracles, as a form of oral transmission of knowledge. This extensive spoken poem tells the tale of the creation of all things originating from the primordial One, continues by going over the A'tmuzigh's history as a people group, and ends with the prophecy of the end of all life and the world's inevitable return to its primordial state. The Tahkayt Hezzifan differs from tribe to tribe, but its beginning and end stays largely the same regardless of tribal allegiance. The following excerpt takes key sections of this lengthy poem to showcase the A'tmuzighs' beliefs.

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In the beginning

At first the world was darkness and ocean,

A vast expanse of free spirits in constant motion,

The gods in the heavens would all claim their share,

Yet could not distinguish what spirit was where,

The gods, used to feuding and constant estrangement,

Came together as one in an uneasy arrangement,

So they created the Sun high in the sky,

Hoping its heat, the ocean would dry,

The Sun in the heavens, as it shone and it shone,

Revealed from the ocean, lands of bare stone,

The spirits from water were stranded, and so they would die,

Raised their gaze to the heavens and thus they would cry,

“Oh water, oh life. Without you, we wither!”

Some of these spirits would crawl and would slither,

To escape to the ocean, away from the land,

Those who did not turned to dust and to sand,

The gods were displeased at what had thus happened,

The spirits on land left to die and abandoned,

So they came together, to save what could be,

And created the Moon, to bring the tides from the sea,

The tide healed the spirits from the water it grants,

Those close to the ocean became creatures and plants,

Yet some spirits remained far from the shore,

Pleading and screaming and dying in scores,

The gods came together for one final time,

They took from the water of the ocean sublime,

Glanced one last time at the withering crowds,

They scattered the water in ponds, lakes, and clouds,

In the midst of the deserts, as spirits did fall,

From the rain, an oasis, as if by their call,

They drank and they drank, ‘til they could drink no more,

The spirits soon realised they could see no shore,

The oasis appeared, and had been their salvation,

Yet now they were stranded, and forced in prostration,

Their heads bent to drink water brought from the rain,

Their bodies battered by winds who sought to bring pain,

The sands and winds, now jealous and vicious,

Sought to enslave those whose calls were auspicious,

The spirits thus bent, and their bodies assailed,

Tried to fight back, but surely so failed,

Their skin became tough to combat the storms,

And thus, over time, did they change their forms,

No longer ethereal, now flesh and bone,

Among them, Mezeg, a spirit well-known,

Rose up in defiance, with his body as shield,

He rallied his kin, no longer they yield,

The spirits of plants first came to his aid,

So he could make tents out of fibres arrayed,

The winds no longer reached those who resisted,

The spirits of animals then rose up and assisted,

Wool made up their clothing, and from milk they could sip,

Free were they now from the sands and their grip,

And so in their tents, did the rebels proclaim,

“No longer are we slaves, and so we shall name”,

“Ourselves for the freedom we have fought to achieve”,

“And in remembrance of those we have lost and we grieve”,

“The Freefolk we are, A’tmuzigh in our tongue”,

“A people whose battle will be heard and be sung.”,

And so did he march with his people and brothers,

From oasis to oasis to free all the others,

Mezeg was his name, the Liberator, his title,

A man who believed that freedom was vital,

And thus he marched on, breaking the chains,

Liberating the others from their plights and their pains,

A dolmen he carved at every oasis he saved,

To remember all those who died when enslaved,

And so that his people, no more would be slaves,

Whether to spirits of winds, sands or waves,

 

In the end

The gods in their folly made the Moon and the Sun,

Dried up the ocean and broke up the One,

All spirits were meant to be one and the same,

And thus do we see, and so we proclaim,

The spirits apart will grow wild, corrupt,

This growing imbalance, the world will disrupt,

The gods will look down and see their mistake,

They treasure this world and so their hearts will ache,

First the Moon they remove, their tidal creation,

The oceans will rise, flooding every nation,

Then the Sun will depart from high in the sky,

Thus in the end, all life must die,

Darkness once more, the world will envelop,

And the primordial ocean will redevelop,

The spirits at peace, one and the same,

All things as they should, so shall they reclaim.

                                                             

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This poem is available in-game through a book of the same name, Tahkayt Hezzifan, purchasable on AH or in Valhelm Square, next to the bank.

 

 (OOC: If you wish to play an A'tmuzigh character or are interested in the lore,

please feel free to contact me on Discord at Northern_Watcher#0790)

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