NAME: Ben Kazer
TITLE: Gronkus Grem

MYTH: Before the beginning of time, there were only stormy skies. Thunder and lightning ruled the world. There was no life whatsoever, only chaos and disorder. With one clash of thunder, Gronk was created. Gronk became the god of the skies. He controlled the weather, the thunder and the lightning. But Gronk felt alone and overwhelmed in the vast, empty world. So he clapped two lighting bolts together and created Robi, a second-generation god. He did the same twice more to create Danul and then Chrisa.

Gronk set his creations to work, commanding them to construct a firm ground for him to stand and be worshipped on. But Robi, Danul and Chrisa began to feel oppressed. Gronk worked them too hard and treated them unfairly. So the three gods redirected one of Gronk’s lightning daggers towards the almighty god himself. The bolt split Gronk into many pieces. Robi fused with Gronk’s head and became the new god of the sky and the air. He cast Gronk’s eye into the heavens, creating the sun. Robi calmed the restless skies, bringing peace and brightness to the world. Danul and Chrisa fused with Gronk’s body and created the earth and the mountains. However the heat from Robi and the sun melted Chrisa, separating him from Danul and the earth. The melted section of Gronk’s body became the sea and Chrisa became the god of the waters. Danul remained the god of the earth.

Whenever Robi fell to sadness and grief, he cried, bringing rain down upon Danul and Chrisa. From this rain, Danul gave birth to plants, and the raindrops in Chrisa’s sea became fish. However, Robi was lonely often and cried regularly. Every time he sobbed, the rain brought more life to the world. Eventually, the world was overgrown with plants and the seas were crowded with fish. So the gods put their minds together in an effort to find a solution to this problem. They combined one of Danul’s plants, one of Chrisa’s fish, and one of Robi’s stars to create the world’s first man. Soon after, without Robi’s stars, Danul and Chrisa used their power to form land animals. The animals’ purpose was to feed man and to create a food chain. The gods taught the man how to hunt the wildlife and how to farm the plants. As Robi began to cry more, the gods created more men.  They created women to keep the men company and to bring love to the world. Man and woman began to love each other very much. They produced more men and women. Finally enough humans were being produced to live with the other life created by Robi, Danul, and Chrisa. The gods were happy that their creations maintained peace and balance in the world. As long as the humans recognized the three gods as their creators, the gods promised to protect their creations. But Robi still held the power to take away any human, plant, or animal life. He could strike any man or animal down with lightning, or singe him with the sun. This was only necessary to maintain harmony in the world. So the humans would sacrifice a lamb once a month in appreciation for the gods’ ability to give and take away life.

NAME: Trantum and Pradius: The Creation of Planet Earth (Original text from ancient civilizations of coastal California - 5000 BC)
           
MYTH: A small society of gods lived on a cloud that spanned for miles. No other life existed but this council; nothing was present but the lone cloud that provided a home for all of the gods. No god had ever questioned the nothingness that lay beneath.
Oratus, the most respected god of the clouds, and Thrinia, the most beautiful goddess, had twin children, Trantum and Pradius. The two were inseparable, and their curious and wondering personalities made them different from all other gods. Trantum was a tall boy with curly, black hair. Pradius was not as tall as Trantum, but was far stronger.

When the twins were still young boys, their inquisitive spirits led them to the edge of the clouds, a place that was forbidden for all gods. The boys, too afraid to jump down, desperately wondered what existed underneath the cloud. Hoping to find a bottom, the twins each dropped something over the edge. Trantum cut off a small piece of his wavy locks, and let it fall. Pradius peeled off the end of his fingernail, and too let it fall. The boys’ offerings dove and sunk into the nothingness, until they became invisible. Disappointed with the lack of results, the boys returned home, and told no one of their visit.

The next day Trantum and Pradius returned to the edge, hoping to hypothesize a new plan. However, the twins were astonished as they arrived at the cloud’s end. Trantum’s wavy hair, at the touch of the ground, had turned into gentle waters. Pradius’ fingernail had dropped and transformed into the powerful earth. Trantum and Pradius were ecstatic at the sight of their creation. However, the two boys needed to find a way to explore the wondrous land that now lay just beneath the cloud.

Aviana, Thrinia’s sister, was the Goddess of flight. The twins immediately knew to approach their aunt in order to find a safe way down. In secrecy, they discussed their creation with Aviana; she offered to take the two boys down to the new land.

However, Aviana was an evil goddess, and did not have a good relationship with her sister. Aviana was jealous of Thrinia’s beauty, and her jealousy drove her to a point of wickedness. In order to ruin the twins’ successful creation, Aviana decided to turn them against each other.  She lied to Trantum, and told him that Pradius had planned secretly to drop fingernails into the ocean, creating a land of only earth.
Trantum, with rage, approached Pradius who stood by the cloud’s end, watching his creation with awe. Trantum assumed that Pradius was ruining his oceans, and immediately began to wrestle with his twin. The once loving brothers fought until their wrestling took them off the edge. Trantum fell into his ocean, and Pradius upon his hard earth. The twins’ battle continued, as the seas forever bruised the earth with its waves.

Life sprung out from the boys’ bodies. From Trantum, seaweed, coral and all marine life were born, and from Pradius sprouted plants, animals, and human life.  The creatures that emerged from the two bodies inherited the most apparent traits of the twins, the traits that separated them from all other gods: curiosity, propensity for anger, and the hunger for revenge.

Back on the cloud, Thrinia, discovered her sister’s responsibility for the fight. And Oratus saw the abundant life that had been created from his sons’ bodies. In response, Thrinia ripped apart the cloud into millions of pieces, in hope of never seeing her sister again. The gods were forever separated, never again to collaborate or produce life. Oratus, responding to his discovery, raised the clouds higher from the earth, so the new life could never reach the heights and power of the gods. However, Oratus left the clouds low enough to remain in sight for the humans. He then put a bright shining light, the sun, upon the clouds so the humans could always see the clouds’ superiority. Seeing the godly clouds, the life on earth could now live in gratitude and awe of the creators, but always know the impossibility of joining them.

MYTH: At first there was only chaos. Then slowly, out of the swirling components of the universe, a being appeared. But he was just a speck. So slowly, using his incredible power, he attracted more and more of the universe to him and grew a body of great size. The Creator soon became bored; he was a huge and powerful creature, but he had nothing to entertain him.
                   
He decided to create something like him, something he could watch and be amused at. He reached out into the swirling chaos and pulled forth a sheet of the hardest rock crafted from the essence of creation. He turned the edges of this up so that his creatures would not fall off.  With his world created, he set about placing creatures of all sizes upon it. First, to test its strength, he placed the largest creatures, the bison upon it. Then he began placing smaller and smaller creatures onto it until he was satisfied with them. But he found that the rock could not support his creation; the creatures had no food.  He swept the rock clean of life and placed a layer of the finest dirt upon it. Once again he placed all manner of life upon the rock, this time including grass and wheat for his creatures to eat. Soon the creatures had multiplied too quickly, they had overrun the ground. Disappointed, but not disillusioned, he changed some of the animals, making them hunger for the flesh of others rather than the grains of the earth. But the predators grew too bold and life withered. The grains grew too tall and the predators began to starve.
                 
The Creator was not daunted. He reached down and created man, a hunter of predators and prey alike, but more than that, one that would also eat the grains. Man was to bring balance to this new world. The Creator went down among the men and instructed him to do this, but not to take too much from anything, but instead some from all things. Eagerly the men agreed and praised their creator. Satisfied, the Creator went back up. Before long, man had changed, he was no longer like the other creatures, who were content in the role assigned to them by their creator, but instead sought to e xpand his numbers to have dominion over all creatures. When the Creator once again looked down on his world to see how it was faring, he was astounded at what man had done. Man's creator decided to give man hardships: disease would affect him; predators would hunt him as prey; and the grains would no longer drop their bounty freely.  
                 
Satisfied with this, the Creator felt he had succeeded; man would remain more than the other creatures but would find himself unable to rule over them as god ruled man. The Creator turned back to his other works, confident that man would remain in his place, but leaving one eye always looking down at him, the sun during the day, exposing all of man's deeds and faults , and the moon during the night, gently relaxing as a reminder to man that their creator still cared for them.

NAME: Jared Cooper-Vespa,

MYTH: In the beginning, the Universe was ruled by the goddess Plutora. She watched over hell, the sky, and the space in between the two, commonly referred to as the earth. Plutora gave birth to three sons: Octane, Arcteo, and Fuegarus. All three brothers lived their lives amongst each other in peace. However Plutora had a special liking for her youngest son Arcteo, whose birth was not as painful as the previous two. As Plutora became old and unfit to rule over the entire universe, she appointed each of her sons a section to rule over.  Given her rather dislike for Octane and Fuegarus, Plutora punished the two of them by putting them in charge of the hottest parts of the universe to experience the same pain that she felt during their births. Forced to obey their mother, Octane journeyed underneath the earth, to rule over the pits of hell, and Fuegarus departed in the opposite direction where he suffered under constant contact with the eternal flame of the sun. Plutora put her favorite son Arcteo in charge of ruling the space between hell and the sun, which was covered with ice, and thus had a much cooler climate. Plutora also ordered Arctea to watch closely over his brothers, and never let them escape the regions that they were exiled too.

Despite his mother’s orders, Arcteo was nice to his brothers and tried to make their lives as bearable as possible. Acteo dug out giant caverns into the earth’s crust and filled them with cool blue water. He then punched out tiny holes at the base of these carverns, which allowed water two trickle down into Hell, thus saving Octane from withering away under the tremendous heat of Hell. Arcteo also sent aid to his brother up above. Arcteo formed clouds and sent them to Fuegarus. The clouds provided a source of cool refuge to Fuegarus, and shielded him from the unbearable heat of the sun. As a sign of respect, Octane and Fuegarus also made efforts to help Arcteo. When the ice became unbearably cold for Arcteo  to live under, Fuegarus positioned the sun directly facing the earth. when the oceans became unbearable for Acteo Octane sent hot bubbles to Acteo. Just like their childhoods, the three brothers cared for one another, had had each other’s back.

The brothers coexisted in harmony until one fatal day.  While Octane was sending hot bubbles up to his brother Arcteo, one of the bubbles exploded and out popped four human beings. Thinking that Acteo had created the human and was planning on taking over Hell, Octane immediately declared war on earth. Fuegarus, worried that Acteo would also want to seize control of his territory in the sky, teamed with Octane.

The two attacked the earth relentlessly from both sides. Octane stationed hot geysers on the outskirts of his territory, while Fuegarus sent strong beams of light from the sun in an attempt to burn through the earth. In a desperate attempt to defend his territory, Arcteo formed clouds, trees and an invisible shield around the earth to block Fuegarus’s sun. Arcteo also dug more caverns, and filled them with water in order to keep Octane’s geysers from setting the earth ablaze.  Octane hid all of his fossil fuels, leaving the humans with no way to generate electricity and heat with. Fuegarus burned away the invisible deflecting layer surrounding the earth, leaving nothing to protect the earth from burning up. At this point it was clear to Arcteo that his brothers would soon overpower him, and conquer the earth. In a desperate attempt to save the humans he cut up himself up into many pieces, and instructed the humans on how to use them to protect themselves from Octane’s geysers and Fuegarus’s sun. His sacrifice ultimately paved the way for human existence.

NAME: Liam Taylor
TITLE: Big Bang

MYTH: In the beginning, there was one. It was a singularity, a point of infinite temperature and infinite density jammed into one particle of space. Around it was nothing, though there may have been something before. Then, suddenly, there were many. The singularity erupted outwards in fractions of a millisecond. Space-time itself beginning to flatten as the universe not only came into being, but expanded exponentially, inflating the cosmos in an explosion of heat and energy. Particles born from the first particle smashed together with blinding speed all across this new plane of existence, breaking and joining their bonds in instants.
           
A battle began as matter and antimatter struggled in equilibrium. While in the first long moments they remained balanced, each fought to wrest control from the other, though the very idea seemed impossible. Soon, however, some unknown jolt surged the forces of matter over their counterparts. Thus, as the universe continued to expand in this first second, it could begin to create. In the same second matter gave birth to its first children, neutrons and protons. Infinite numbers were born from the unions of matter, but many were lost to the forces of antimatter. A small few, lucky to escape their enemies’ bombardment, were forced to move more slowly around the expanding space as the energy of their brothers and sisters was released into their surroundings.
           
The first minutes ticked past, and the children who had survived began their own unions, this time producing even greater children- the first nuclei. These nuclei were not massive, but could slowly move through space looking for their own partners. Hundreds of thousands of years then passed as the slow but powerful grandchildren of matter drifted through the young universe. It was not long, however, before they too found their own partners- Electrons born of the same violent processes that gave birth to themselves. Now the greatest child of all was born, the first element. This first element expanded into many others in the heat of the suns they found throughout space. In these furnaces they clashed like their ancestors had done, continuing tradition in the formation of new and heavier elements who would themselves build others. Over billions of years a small sphere began to build around one such furnace, finding its orbit at a safe distance. The sphere grew, spawning volcanoes and spreading gases, its geography of deep valleys and arching canyons ever-changing. This Earth grew in peace, and aid from the dangerous reaches of space supplied it with ice, water, and minerals that trickled onto its surface. One traveler, too large to land on Earth with its cargo, instead slammed into its side, tearing off a large chuck of its molten surface. This chunk, wanting to stay near Earth, formed the Moon that would always serve as its neighbor.
           
The Earth was eventually able to protect itself from the harsh winds and radiation of its mother furnace, the Sun. Water that once dripped from space now flooded its surface, and continents cracked up from the shelves deep beneath the oceans. These continents broke apart and slammed together as they continued to rise from the core. Over this long time, Coincidence had yet another child on the blue planet. A molecule was born that could reproduce. This molecule began simply, though soon its copies grew more complex and began to harness the energy of their mother furnace. Though for a time everything only produced, new organisms began to emerge through variation. These organisms consumed the energy from the plants, and as more came into existence, both producers and consumers were forced to fight for a place on their home. Some, succeeding, became more complex and fragmented as different variations fought in turn for their own survival. One consumer, originally much like all the others, began to forsake its speed for two limbs with which they carry their food and children, as well as their physical strength for the ability to outwit their predators and prey. These humans grew more complex over thousands of years, each generation with the unique ability to learn directly from the ones before it. While they were still just animals, they could communicate, build, and grow with a purpose like never before on the Earth.
           
The universe they lived in, however, was now old and frigid, and offered these humans no answers. They gazed at the heavens from which they had come, and while many seemed content to tell the stories of mighty gods, some over the ages sought answers in evidence. These men and women of science, each building upon their predecessors in turn, formed the story of their birth word by word in all of its beauty.

NAME: Lloyd Chen
TITLE: Creation of the Algurati
(Translated by Mark Po)

MYTH: In the beginning there was Chaos. There was no fire or water, earth or air, only a roiling sea of perpetual change. Everything was the same in that nothing was the same. But after an eternity or, without Time, an instant, It realized its loneliness. So Chaos wrenched and fought against the substance of Itself and, among Its shifting masses, painfully formed a companion, Order. They rejoiced in each other’s company, and together brought forth the universe. First came the Earth and the stars. They only have a touch of Chaos, since Order instigated their creation. This is why the stars slowly move across the sky and the Earth sometimes shakes. The seas and skies came next and were birthed with only a dash of Order and little form. Finally came the Three first gods: Naha, Pitre, and Orinth, who were perfectly balanced between the two forces. While they all ruled over the material plane, Naha preferred the depths and darkness; Pitre, the bright skies; and Orinth the Earth and Time. Spent in their creation, Chaos and Order fell into the very substance of their creations, fading into the background both everywhere and nowhere forever.
           
The gods soon fell into boredom. They saw that the Earth was barren and plain and were displeased, so the Three mixed and mingled, creating their first children. Thus came the second generation of gods, called the morden. They were ordered to live on the Earth, but grew fickle and jealous of their parents’ rule and strove to overthrow them. Angered by their disobedience, Orinth threw them to the ground, forming mountains and fissures from the impact and skies from the clouds of dust while trapping them deep under the ground. The weakest were devoured by the Earth, but the strongest still struggle in their prison, causing the seas to stir with waves and the Earth to quake.
           
The Three now knew that their direct descendents were too powerful and too restless to care for the Earth. Orinth now reached for the Earth and the Sea and brought them together to form models of herself and her brothers in clay. The thoughts and essence of the morden was in the mud, but Orinth did not realize in her care to sculpt it perfectly. The Three breathed and man came to life. We are descended from the Three, but tainted by the evil of the morden. As man was made in their image, the Three cared for him infinitely, and embodied the world to better protect him. Orinth dove into the Earth, Naha into the Sea, and Pitre into the newly formed skies. They washed the Sea over the Earth to bring forth plants and reached for the leftover mud to form the animals to feed their creation. And this is how mankind came to be.
           
Man lived amongst the animals, hiding in caves at night out of fear of the beasts. During the day, they stood above the others, but still scrounged around for food, their meager tools of sticks and stones lending them little protection. Orinth intended them to be in the gods’ image and was saddened by their place in the world. She appeared to the first man in a dream, showing him the secret of fire and how it would protect against the wild animals. But for this gift, she required man to sacrifice his most valuable object every year to fire, but never a life because only gods could take a life without punishment.

NAME: Jude Valentine Badaki
COUNTRY: Nigeria

INTRO: The Idagbala belong to the Okulosho speaking people of Akoko-Edo,Edo State,Nigeria.Their myth of creation is peculiar in the sense that they believe that they had existed as spirits before they  appeared as physical beings in their matrilineal abode, Idagbala.

TITLE: IDAGBALA MYTH

MYTH: Long time ago there lived a spirit-being called Oshemoshi. She was the daughter of the merman called Igbe; and the mermaid of River Ikpogo named Ojah. One day Oshemoshi was bathing in River Ikpogo and at one end of the stream was the water snake-god Dagbala who swam from his end of the stream and entered Oshemashi’s birth canal. She felt something strange entered her body so she quickly came out of the water to rest on the nearby rock. No sooner had she sat on a rock than some Izalomos approached from the thickets nearby. They seized her, bound her hands and mounted their horses. They rode to Ilu Ibinu,a far away land. On arriving Ilu Ibinu, the Izalomos tried to lay siege on the Kingdom of fierce warriors but met resistance. At this time, Oshemoshi began to feel the pangs of childbirth and was left behind by the fleeing Izalomos. She gave birth to a male child she named Odarume and they lived at the outskirts of Ilu Ibinu.One day, as he was hunting in the forest mountains of Oka, a flying arrow pierced his chest and he dropped dead.Oshemoshi heard his death cry across the mountain and she fell to her feet and wept till she became a stream called Ikpesa.

Now, Odarume died and went to the underworld. There he grew stronger and stronger as he wandered about restlessly in the country of the dead. Then one day he came across Inyiaborimi in the valley of hunger. They fought till Inyiaborimi became weaker and weaker then transformed into a old chimpanzee and ran into the forest of the dead. Odarume reached Ikukuruku, mountain of the crowing cockerel, after he had crossed the first valley. Here, he met the master of cult of the doghead whom Odarume defeated in a wrestling contest. At the third valley, where the voluminous pit of Ilekpe was, he met the buffalo king who had the eyes of the nocturnal cat.Their duel took a long long time. Here, Odarume was rescued by two vultures called Owe and Ome. They dropped him down in a mountain called Anyioro.This mountain reached the skies. In a cave, by the side of the mountain,he found the spirits of the dead in a dance contest. They held horse tails and danced on their heads, buttocks and bellies. On his way out, he met the spirit of all dances who guarded the Gates of Anyioro. The spirit challenged him to a dance contest. They danced for ten years, confined in a gourd, till Odarume escaped. As he escaped, the spirit of mortality caught odarume by the left heel and flung him into a tunneled void. Odarume became liquid fire that dropped on Mountain Imonose which exploded into fragments that became the people of Idagbala.

GLOSSARY:
Idagbala: the land occupied by a group of the Okulosho speaking people in Nigeria, West Africa.
Dagbala: a snake god
Ikpogo: a seasonal river in Idagbala that the natives still believe has mermaids and mermen whom they have seen on hot afternoons at some periods of the year.
Izalomos: an Idagbala name for pastoralists who captured people into slavery.They were seen as spirits on horseback who plundered lands and enslaved people.
Ilu Ibinu: ancient Kingdom of Benin.
Ikpesa: a confluence where three rivers met in Idagbala myth.
Inyiaborimi: a hydra septiceps which was considered a monster with many heads and the scaly body of a reptile.
Ikukuruku: a long stretch of mountains in Akokoland, Nigeria, West Africa.
Ilekpe: refers to hell where witches, wizards and bad spirits live.
Anyioro: the underworld where spirits of the dance, song, instruments and words reside.
Igbe: merman.
Ojah: mermaid of River Ikpogo and wife-sister of Igbe.

NAME: SR

MYTH: Before all else existed in the empty realm of Khali, there lived a spark and a flame.  As these two grew larger and larger, both fueling each other’s energy, out emerged a fairy.  This fairy was the goddess known as Nasime.  Wherever Nasime flew over the world of Khali, a form of life would grow.  She eventually covered the entire realm, creating masses and masses of flowing water (which became seas, rivers, and lakes), acres and acres of greenery (which became forests), and piles and piles of dirt (which became earth, and our planet).  Trusting Nasime’s power, the spark and flame decided to rest and occasionally check up on the goddess they created as they revolved around the newly-produced world in the form of the Sun.  The revolutions they made as this new source of lighted created time: years, months, days, hours, and so on. 

Over time, Nasime grew lonely.  And so, she plucked a strand of her flowing, golden hair and dropped it into the sea.  From that strand emerged life in the sea.  Fish (from minnows to whales), plants (from seaweed to coral), and countless other creatures came to life in the depths of the water.  She continued dropping strands of her hair all over the realm of Khali, filling it with animals and life of all kinds.  The Sun, though, was getting jealous of the attention Nasime was giving to all of the new wonders beneath her; therefore, she exploded into a violent rage, throwing down a body to the land below, and another one into the sea.  These two forms were Man and Woman.  Woman swam to land, finding Man lying in front of her as the waves broke over his naked body.  Man and Woman then found a pond and cleansed their salty skin.  Together, they created more humans, just like themselves.  They ate animals to survive, and began using Nasime’s creations as resources to sustain themselves.  Nasime was upset about this, but the sun was satisfied to see her in such a distressed state.  Nasime decided to fly up to the sun and ask her for guidance: “Dear Sun, these new creatures are using my creation and acting as though my supply is infinite.  Help me with these ungrateful beings.”  The Sun responded, “Darling Nasime, you left me here, alone for as long as I can remember., and only when you need my help do you come.”  Nasime managed to convince the Sun to forgive her and aid her with her situation.  Suddenly, Nasime’s fragile body condensed into a luminescent ball.  The Sun transformed her into the Moon, sprinkling her fairy dust all over the sky into the forms of stars.  The stars were the fairy children. 

From then on, Nasime (as the moon) had the power to forever replenish the world of Khali (which then became known as Earth) with land, water, and creatures; and the humans prayed to the stars (the gods and goddesses of lesser powers than Nasime) for health and prosperity.

NAME: Berta Delgado Santamaría 1ºB
TITLE: Myth of the shade

After this time, they started to need some food apart from the fruit of the trees and plants. All of them meet in a particular place to decide what to do, but each one had a different opinion, and the started fighting. When the god of the Sun saw what the problem was, he punished them by sending sickness and envy to the Earth. But this wasn’t enough for him; he also made them take care of their shadow. That’s why today people have a shadow, and when we fight, the position of it changes.

NAME: Amy Li
TITLE: The Creation Story

MYTH: Long before the world began, there was nothing but a mad swirling frenzy of complete emptiness and shadow without a single shaft of daylight, no mellifluous little bird song and not a single living thing. However, there was a star, one huge lonely star that winked like a blinking eye against the ebony black cloak of darkness. This large star was falling and falling and falling and it had never once stopped its descent from the very first moment it had appeared until it suddenly exploded into trillions of tiny fragments. These tiny chunks formed by the one large star became the planets, the Moon, the sun, the sky, the meteors and many other smaller stars. But the greatest thing of all was that the burning heart of the first star, had struck one of the 9 planets that had been created, embedding itself right into the centre of the earth. That is why now the core of planet earth is just an immense ball of lava! From the heart of the star sprouted a beautiful tree with leaves tinged subtle silver and emerald green and its trunk and its branches a rich bay colour. This was no ordinary tree – this was the tree of life. The tree then grew two small buds and when they opened, two little people stepped out from them; a girl and a boy. This is how the human race began. Then the tree grew more buds and as these blossomed, all the animals we know today, came forth from them. Squirrels, rabbits, foxes, dogs and birds and insects all walked into the world to join the humans. After this was done, the tree continued to grow buds but nothing else arrived. So then the blossoms died and fell to earth and when this happened, plants sprouted from them as the tree of life had from the heart of the star. The humans cared for the animals, taught themselves how to build their homes and how to grow food and that is how the world was created!

Yamado was very upset by this, and sealed the darkness within one half of the jewel. The immense pressure put upon the jewel of life from the darkness within was so great, the jewel shattered. The fragments formed the planets and the stars we see today. At the centre of the jewel was the core, known as Earth. It had also been the battleground between good and evil for centuries. The god was sad when he saw how corrupted the core of his jewel was, but he had other things to deal with. The evil was free and destroying the newly formed planets. When he saw this, Yamado created creatures, which he used to seal the evil within. These were the demons. By the time he had done this, most of the planets had been crushed into rubble. These are the asteroids we see today. The good was also stored within other creatures. These were humans.

Both races were placed on the ruined planet. Yamado said: “There will be no more war. Obey this command and I will restore this planet to its former glory.” The humans, as well as the demons agreed to stop fighting and debated the best way to share the planet. In the end the demons got half of the earth to live on and the humans lived on the other half. The humans married and gave birth to many children. However the good that was within them was not passed on and the children were all born with the capacity to become evil. The demons were peaceful and did not fight the humans; however they were evil and waged countless wars on their kin.

One day some humans witnessed one of these battles. Those with good in their hearts sadly turned away, but the others watched the demons and cursed them. One day Yamado came down to earth to visit his creations. He was pleased with what he saw and taught the humans how to make fire. The humans thanked him and he left with a good conscience. Some humans, however, were tainted with evil and collected their followers to attack the demons en masse. All the humans’ children gathered and got ready to make war. There was a huge battle and the humans, using the gift of fire they had been given, won.

When the original humans heard of this, they were very angry and prayed to Yamado for help. By the time Yamado arrived, he saw the original humans dead and being burnt by the others for siding with the demons. Yamado saw the evil in their hearts and was very angry. He summoned the essence of the dead demons and created all the animals from their bodies. He sent death down to the earth, stripped the humans of their immortality and blessed the animals with sharp teeth and fur to hunt and strike fear into the hearts of humans. The last thing he did, was to remove the good from the dead humans hearts and blessed some of the uncorrupted humans with it.

That is how the world came to be.

NAME: Lauren Rothfeld
TITLE: The Nike Tribe

MYTH: Many years ago in modern day Greece four gods were born on a tree. Their names were Polo, Sperry, Oakley, and Levi. All of these gods were made for a reason, they all had their own special talent, unfortunately they didn't know what their talent was. The tree which they were born on was only surrounded with enough sand to cover it's roots. The gods decided that they needed to leave the tree, but in order for them to do that they had to get land. They decided that each of them would try to run off the tree and go find land. Polo went first he got a running start from the top of the tree and took off. Sadly, Polo fell to the ground. Next Oakley took off and he fell too, the same thing happened to Levi. Sperry unconfidently took a running start off the tree,he didn't fall like everyone else did. He was running through the air and he just kept running. Sperry was gone for two days and the other gods were beginning to worry. Just then a dark cloud pulled over them, it was Sperry he was holding a huge load of sand with him, he placed the sand under the tree. All of the gods jumped off the tree and started to walk on the sand. They were running all around, there must have been seven miles of sand. The gods started to play a nice game of tag and as they were running around Polo tripped over a root of a tree. Polo started to cry so hard tears started to form a puddle under him. He cried all night, and when the gods woke up the realized that polo cried so much that where the sand stopped there was all this water, almost like an ocean. Once again they gods were so excited to have something new they started to play in the ocean.

All of a sudden when Oakley was swimming he felt something bite him. He saw that it was this scaly small swimming creature. Oakley realized that there were hundreds of them, he told the other gods and they thought they had to get rid of the swimming creatures. The gods thought the only way to get rid of them was to eat them. They started to eat the fish and threw their bones on the ground. When the gods realized there were way to many fish for them to eat alone they told Sperry with his super speed to go find other people. Sperry was gone for a couple days, and during these days Oakley started to burry the fish bones because he didn't know what else to do with them. When they woke up the next morning there were these green things growing out of the ground and there where more creatures on the land. Except that they weren't scaly and they had four legs, they were animals. Finally Sperry came back with 100 people, he noticed all of the progress that happened when he was gone, and he was very impressed. The gods realized that they all found out their special talents. Sperry was the G-d of land and people, Polo was the G-d of water and sea creatures, Oakley was the G-d of plants and land animals. But then there was Levi who still didn't know what his talent was. The gods assured him that he had a talent and would figure it out soon. Meanwhile the gods realized they had their own tribe here and they needed a name for themselves. They thought long and hard and came to no conclusion, they said that they could decided tomorrow. Everyone was sleeping except Levi he was upset because he didn't know his talent. He thought maybe if he took a walk to clear his head would help him. Levi kept walking, almost as if he was walking up a mountain, when he stopped walking he hit his head on something hard, like a rock. Once he hit his head on the rock it lit up like a lightbulb. Soon the whole sky was full of these light-up rocks. When Levi looked down he realized that he was floating in the air, it scared him so bad that he fell to the ground. As he was falling he started to scream, which awoken the gods all they heard was Levi screaming "VICTORYYY!!!!!!!!" They jumped off the tree to go help Levi up and all he said was that he won, he found his talent. Stars were the one thing that their tribe was needing, something to light up the sky. They realized that Levi was the G-d of the stars. Thus they gods finally came to a decision on a name for their tribe, they named it Nike, which means victory in honor of Levi.

NAME: Darian Ehya
TITLE: How Magalog was Created

MYTH: Long ago, there existed nothing. Nothing but three gods that is. These gods were named Jarju the dolphin, Tilinto the bat and Pawquaw the bear. The three gods were not happy about living in nothingness and also wanted something to praise them. First, they created light so they could see what they were making. Next, Tilinto said, “We should make air so all of our people can breathe. Also, winged people like me need air to fly.” Jarju and Pawquaw agreed that this was a good idea and so they created air. Jarju suggested, “Our people will need water to drink and finned people like me need lots of water to swim and live.” They agreed again and water and oceans and rivers and lakes and streams were made. Finally, Pawquaw stated, “All the people without wings and fins need a place to live too! We must make land for them.” They named this world Magalog. After creating air, water and land, the three gods were ready to make animal people. They first made the sea people like dolphins, fish, whales, sharks, seals and penguins. Then they made air people like birds, bats and flying bugs. Last, they made land people. The land people were the most of the three types of people. They included big cats, bears, wolves, horses, giraffes and many other kinds of people.

At this point, Jarju, Tilinto and Pawquaw were ready to make people to worship them, called humans. The three first made humans out of clay. These humans were too stiff to move after the clay dried out. Next, they used wood. These humans could move very well, but were also very dumb. They would not be smart enough to worship the gods. Pawquaw smashed these humans with his big, strong paws. This gave him an idea. Pawquaw started hitting the land very hard and started forming humans out of the dirt. These humans were perfect. The three of them were satisfied and thought Magalog was now complete. But then they heard their people crying. They asked what the problem was and the Magalogians answered, “We need homes. Please give us homes to live in.” Jarju then explained, “We do not have enough power left to make homes for all of you. We will, however, give you the tools you need to make your homes.” The winged people made trees and built nests in them. The finned people made coral and undersea plants and shells for their homes. The land people made caves and boroughs. The humans used some of the trees to make houses. As time passed, the three gods created more people to make the humans happy so they could praise them better. Finally, Jarju, Tilinto and Pawquaw created the buffaloes. The buffaloes would be strong enough to survive anything and would take the place of the humans if needed. And that, my friends, is how our great country of Magalog was created.