The Story of THE TREE and it's GUARDIANS - Ampithere AU
Art by: @sealpointselkie
Long ago, before humans came to this land, there was THE TREE. It stood upon the highest peak in the area and dominated the landscape; so tall, it towered over the rest of the trees of the rainforest, and even above the clouds themselves. But it was not to last. Clever people moved across the land bridge and started migrating their way down the new continents until they made the area around THE TREE their home. This wasn’t a problem in itself, the humans learned how to make the rain forest their home and slowly began exploring the surrounding area. They eventually found the mountain and the fruits of THE TREE at the summit: the golden yellow and purple black apples created many miracles. The Golden Apples could increase the fertility of the people and land, wine made with the fruit would bestow wisdom upon the drinkers and was offered every time there was an alliance, important marriage or peace talks. The Dark fruits had opposite effects, it could be used in various potions to poison the land and water, make women infertile and poison the minds of those who drank it leaving them open to manipulation. However, the mountain THE TREE topped was very steep and it’s natural hazards meant that far more humans attempted the climb than could make it to the top, and so everything was as it should be.
Then the invaders came, humans with pale skin and evil hearts ripped into the land and the people there until, finally, they too discovered THE TREE. With their technology scaling the mountain wasn’t as difficult and the fruits were taken on mass, preserved and scattered across the world.
This was an affront to the natural order of things so therefore, the Great Spirits above us decided these event must stop and, with a heavy heart, they threw lightning and fire from the heavens and shook the ground beneath the mountain until it broke in two and the tree tumbled from it’s mighty perch, leaving just a broken stump and large roots to remind others of it’s passing. Strangely, the invaders forgot THE TREE and it’s fruits, we are unsure if the information was repressed somehow or if the Great Spirits blighted their minds.
Take heart reader, this isn’t the end of the story! From the corpse of the tree emerged the two GUARDIANS who shepherded the last of THE TREE’s fruit and took them to their respective summits for safe keeping. The GUARDIANS are a beautiful mix of bird and serpent, their wings soft and glorious but their bodies lithe and warning you of their danger. Their faces are human, but if all the flesh had melted away. Sometimes on a clear day you can see them flying, frolicking with one another. The way of the mountain changed, if you wished for one of THE TREE’s no only did you have to scale one of TWO mountains, you had to treat with the GAURDIANS and convince them that you are worthy.
And this is how it went for a few hundred years; the invaders never left, however, only the locals knew the story about THE TREE and somehow they were the only ones who could see it, protecting it from the invaders interest.
The GUARDIANS were quite different from one another: one Golden and Positive the other Dark and Negative. In that way the locals named them DREAM and NIGHTMARE, gods of GOOD and EVIL, of POSITIVITY and NEGATIVITY. And although they were opposites, they strangely got a long very well, calling each other “brother” and could often be seen playing together or sleeping together in the vines that crossed their two peaks and bound them together.
It was obvious that DREAM received more supplicants than NIGHTMARE. DREAM was much more approachable and gracious than NIGHTMARE, also his fruits helped people instead of hurting them. Sometime hurt was necessary, however many locals’ minds turned to survival before attempting the climb. It didn’t go unnoticed by NIGHTMARE that his supplicants were fewer, his gifts cheaper and their demands more often unworthy of one of his fruits. This depressed NIGHTMARE and he cursed his fate as GUARDIAN of these cursed, evil fruits. DREAM’s supply of fruits were steadily dwindling, soon he’d be FREE and, although he assured NIGHTMARE that he would stay until they both discharged their duty, NIGHTMARE didn’t want to be the reason that DREAM couldn’t finally leave this place to explore the world beyond.
Then NIGHTMARE had an idea, if there were no more of his fruits, their problem would be solved! He couldn’t, in good conscience, just scatter them for innocent people to find, he knew how much damage a single one of his fruits could cause. There was no other option: NIGHTMARE would have to consume the fruits himself.
NIGHTMARE didn’t fear death by the fruits, his nature as the GUARDIAN protected him from their most heinous effects. However as he consumed more and more, he realized something was terribly wrong. He breath turned from lightning into spewing a cloud of dark, poisonous gas, his scales and bones darkened to an inky darkness and four tentacles erupted from his back, he was in such pain that he clawed one of his eyes from his sockets. The poison also seeped into his mind and he felt his frustration, shame, rage and envy bubble forth clouding his mind.
When DREAM realized what was happening he rushed to his brother’s side and tried to comfort him through his agony, however he couldn’t know the changes that here happening in NIGHTMARE’s mind. For the first time, the brothers fought. NIGHTMARE lashed out screaming about the unfairness of the GREAT SPIRITS and how his brother was favoured by everyone over him; DREAM, for his part, could do nothing but defend himself from injury at this point while NIGHTMARE’s fury damaged their home. Eventually they fought to a stand-still, NIGHTMARE retreating to his cave and declaring if DREAM came close there would be blows. DREAM left for his side of the once whole mountain and fell to despair.
He did nothing as NIGHTMARE sneered at him saying that: now that there were no fruits to guard he was free to leave, and did nothing to prevent his departure. NIGHTMARE deserved his freedom, DREAM decided as he watched him go, protecting the few fruits he had left, NIGHTMARE had paid a great price for it.
Eventually DREAM too ran out of fruits to guard, however, he couldn’t bring himself to leave his mountain. What if his brother came back? He’d have no way of finding him again, because, deep down, DREAM still longed to see his brother again.
And eventually he did! NIGHTMARE returned to their mountains with an entourage of Harpys. He told his brother DREAM that he found the world horrible and destructive beyond even his worst nightmares and decided to protect what’s his the best he can: and the safest place he could think of was home. DREAM welcomed him, and his friends (ENTOURAGE) back and although everything was NOT forgiven between the brothers, they began to rebuild their relationship. They’d take turns, exploring the world, meeting other ampithere gods and bringing home any harpys they found back home, building a bustling community far away from the predations of man.
But what of the Harpys? What did they think of their “saviours”? And the other gods?, What were they like? All stories for another time.
The End?
Dream and Nightmare Sans created by @jokublog
Ampithere Dream and Ampithere Nightmare created by @sealpointselkie
