Far-far away, in the primordial days, when the world was yet young and the stars were only beginning to understand their purpose, there existed a land of formless chaos. The elements swirled wildly, mountains rose and fell like waves, and the winds whispered secrets known only to time. This was the Age of Creation, when the gods shaped all things but left much unfinished.
From the heavens, Orun, the Weaver of Realms, watched with concern. She was the eldest of the gods, the mother of both light and shadow, and the architect of life. She had crafted the stars, the trees, the oceans, and the animals, but the lands below remained untamed, raw and untidy. Orun knew that balance was necessary for the world to flourish, and so she descended from her celestial throne to breathe life into beings that would bring order to the wild lands.
With her radiant hands, Orun shaped the first of her children from the bones of the earth, the fire of volcanoes, and the whispers of ancient winds. These beings were titanic, their muscles knotted with stone, their skin thick like the bark of ancient trees. These were the
Behemoths, the earliest ancestors of Ogres, Trolls, and Giants - creatures neither divine nor mortal but somewhere in between.
She called them forth: Urgoth, the towering Lord of Stone; Brunda, the fierce Mother of Flame; and Nagrim, the eternal Guardian of the Wilds. To them, she gave the sacred task of bringing order to chaos, to sculpt the land as she had once sculpted the heavens. But she also gave them something more - a heart, heavy with the burdens of creation, and minds that could reason, feel, and dream.
At first, the Behemoths were as loyal and noble as Orun had intended. Urgoth raised mountains with his bare hands, Brunda forged rivers of molten fire into lifeblood for the earth, and Nagrim coaxed forests from the barren ground with a mere touch. Together, they shaped the world into one of beauty, symmetry, and power. But the price of their creation soon revealed itself.
As the world settled and their work grew less demanding, the Behemoths began to feel something new -
boredom. For eons, they had followed the will of their mother Orun, but now they craved something beyond her directives. They yearned to create as she did, to fashion life of their own.
One night, as the twin moons cast an eerie light over the land, the Behemoths gathered in secret. Urgoth spoke first, his deep voice rumbling like the shifting earth. "We are children of Orun, the Mother of All. Why should we not create as she has? Why should we only mold stone, flame, and wood? I say we craft beings like ourselves!"
Brunda agreed, her eyes glowing like embers. "But we must not make them too perfect. Let them struggle as we have struggled, and through their strife, they will grow strong."
Nagrim, ever the cautious one, hesitated. "If we fashion life without balance, we risk corrupting the harmony our mother seeks. What we create might defy us, even challenge the gods."
But pride had already taken root in their hearts, and they dismissed Nagrim's warning. Together, they labored, weaving their own twisted forms of life from the same materials Orun had once used. From the bones of the mountains and the flames of the earth, they shaped towering creatures, muscular and misshapen. They imbued them with intelligence, but not wisdom, strength but little compassion, and a hunger for dominance.
Thus, the first
Ogres were born.
These creatures were brutish, towering nearly as tall as the Behemoths themselves. Their skin was as hard as stone, and their eyes glowed with a cruel fire. The Ogres worshipped their creators with a mix of reverence and fear, and they spread across the land like a plague, carving out domains of their own. As time passed, their numbers grew, and with each generation, their lust for power deepened.
But the Ogres were not the only ones the Behemoths had fashioned. From the marshes and caves, new creatures crawled into the world -
Trolls, beings crafted from the muck and darkness of the earth. They were lesser than the Ogres but no less dangerous. With their regenerating flesh and twisted minds, they spread chaos wherever they roamed. And from the hidden corners of the world came the
Giants, enormous and slow-witted, but with a destructive force that could shatter mountains.
At first, Orun, still watching from her celestial realm, was pleased with the new diversity in her creation. But as she saw the havoc wrought by the Ogres and their kin, she descended to confront her children.
"Urgoth, Brunda, Nagrim," she thundered. "What have you done? These creatures you have made are not in balance with the world. They seek only to dominate, to destroy, and to consume."
Urgoth, ever proud, stood tall before his mother. "We have only done as you have, Mother. We have created. And through destruction, new worlds are born."
But Orun's heart was heavy with sorrow. "You have twisted the gift of life. What you have made is not creation, but corruption."
In her fury, Orun cursed the Behemoths. Urgoth was bound to the deepest mountains, never again to walk the surface of the earth. Brunda was trapped within the molten core of the world, her flames forever sealed. And Nagrim, the most sorrowful of the three, was transformed into a great tree, rooted for eternity in the wild forests, watching over the creatures he had once sought to protect.
Yet Orun did not destroy the Ogres, the Trolls, or the Giants. She could not, for they were now bound to the world as much as the trees and the stars. Instead, she let them roam the earth, wild and unchecked, forces of chaos that would forever challenge the balance of creation.
In time, the gods would create other beings - humans, elves, and dwarves - to counter the might of the Behemoths' twisted offspring. These new creatures would bring ingenuity, culture, and wisdom to the world, standing as a bulwark against the primal forces of destruction.
And so the world came to be as it is now, a place of constant struggle between creation and chaos, light and shadow. The Ogres, the Trolls, and the Giants roam still, remnants of an ancient error, reminders of the dangers of unchecked pride.
The tale of Orun's children, of the Behemoths and their dark creations, would echo through the ages, a warning to all who sought to shape the world without understanding the delicate balance between power and responsibility.
Thus ends the
Genesis of the Behemoths, the origin of Ogres and their kin.