In the beginning was the One.  The One was a light in the darkness, order in the primeval chaos, a warmth in the utter cold of the deep void of night.  The One slept, and in this sleep, [he] dreamed.  The dream was of Praedia Teneris, the Guarded Land, a place of life and order.  When the One awoke [he] undertook to create the world of the dream.  To do so, [he] broke himself apart, sacrificing [himself] for [his] vision. The world formed from his body and the inanimate life upon it from the fire of life within [him].  From his soul, divided in death, awoke the gods and their messengers, and from his thoughts the stars in the heavens.
     The gods made forms for themselves from the matter of the earth, each according to his or her own nature, for each of the gods had once been a part of the One, and each was most like unto a certain part of [his] nature.   Because each of the gods was once a part of the soul of the One, each remembered a part of [his] Dream.  Thus, as their natures urged them, they shaped the stuff of Praedia into pleasing forms, laying the seeds of great forests and raising up the mountains from their roots.  In time, they realized, that they were alone in the world.  Though trees grew and creatures moved in the woods and the seas, only the gods understood.  Only they dreamed.  So the gods held council and one among them said unto them, "We must, as did the One which birthed us, give up of ourselves to create the peoples to live in the woods and the mountains we had made.  And so they did, shaping creatures of pleasing form and placing sparks of their souls within.  Like the gods who made them, these creatures had days unnumbered or darkened by infirmity, and like the gods they shown with a light that illuminated all creation.  For long they multiplied (as is the way of life) and lived harmoniously in the world, giving thanks to the gods who made them.
    But some few of the gods grew bitter.  "Look," they said, "here we have given of ourselves to make these things, and what returns to us from it?  Praise and thanks?  What need have we of such?  They are not ours to command, these creatures, even though they sprang from our souls."  In their anger and self-centeredness, they forgot the sacrifice the One had made to create them, and they forgot the echoes of [his] Dream.  They saw how the creatures below made themselves into kingdoms and clans, and desired to rule over them in a like fashion.  So they made more creatures, now darkened and twisted by the hate growing in their master's souls, and set them upon the earth to conquer and destroy.  From this pain an destruction they gained power, as their brethren did from willing sacrifice made in their names.  Moreover, even where they did not rule, the soul-poison of these twisted creatures spread, darkening the hearts of all whom it touched.  No longer did the bright people shine with the light of the gods, and the world was thrown into shadow.
    The gods knew not what to do, for their creations turned from them, and were lost to wisdom.  Again they took council and one spoke forth: "When we made these  below us, we made shaped them from parts of our souls.  Thus, as we are less that the One, they are less than us.  Our thoughts are their vague dreamings, and without our guidance they cannot fight the evil which our brethren have cast among them.  We must go into the world and reorder things as they once were."  But another spoke as well,  saying "No, what we must do is to make things free from the confines of our thoughts, free to shape the world as they will and not constrained as the fey beings we first made, to the images we had in our minds as we shaped them.  We must make this new race not to be like children, for to continually meddle in the ways of the world will only steal beauty from it.
    So again the gods made pleasing bodies, though of less profusion of forms than before.  Into these forms they placed a few of the (infinite) thoughts of the One, which as stars were the only light that still lit the earth.  Like the waking thoughts they were made from, the lives of these creatures were fleeting.  But like thoughts, they were sharp and bright before their passing.  Into the world the gods placed these new lives, naming them the race of man.  Strong and wily in nature, few succumbed to the poison of the darkness, and for a time they walked strong upon the earth.  But eventually, the twisted ones came against them with claws and teeth and the sorcery of their masters.'  When the darkness was turned back from the kingdoms of the men, the hating-ones who had shaped it came upon the earth to fight as well.  They left the heavens, taking forms again as had the gods at the beginning of the world.  Their forms were terrible and great, shining with rage and hatred, but in taking flesh upon themselves again to destroy and create imbalance, they found the doors of the heavens closed to them.  The gods followed, bringing war but driving their enemies deep into the cracks and crevasses of the world itself, stripping away their forms and leaving them as but evil winds in the darkness.
    When the wars were over, men and the fey alike dwelt in peace for a great time.  Evil had shaped the world and there was always darkness in the hearts of a few, but always there were men of good heart willing to fight this darkness and drive it from the farms and cities of those who wished to live in peace.  But after many an age, arose those fey who would not be content.  They were curious about the wars of old and the nature of the Gods and those who fought against them and came to be called demons.  They sought old knowledge and magicks, and after long years learned to call forth the shadows of those demons.  They made sacrifice to them in return for power and knowlege, and the demons became strong again.
    In this way the demons, while they could not regain the heavens, tormented the creations of their fellows.  The demons had learned the power of blood, and because men feared the demons and made sacrifice to them they became powerful and the gods could do nothing to stop them.  Each god in turn tried his or her particular powers against the demons to no avail.  In desperation they all agreed to give up their powers and pour all that they were into one of their number.  The god they chose was the sun, the Sol Invictus, who had been the most successful of all there number in trying to drive the demons away.  All of the gods took their powers and poured them into the sun, who began to glow so brightly that none could look at his face.
    The demons, upon seeing this new, terribly bright fire in the sky turned and fled away from him.  He tried to give pursuit but came too close to the earth herself and burned away all the life on her surface.  Thus were the great southern deserts formed.  Not being able to pursue the demons, the Sol Invictus had to content himself with waiting in the sky above.  Even here he saw the plants below begin to whither from his heat, and he decided he must only keep watch half the time or he would destroy the very things sought to protect. 
    Thus stood things for a very long time.  The demons were driven deep into the ground by day, but roamed free at night.  The sun sought a solution to this dilemma.  To protect the night sky he made a great mirror and poured some of his endless light into it.  This mirror he named Moon, and he set her in the night sky to keep the demons at bay.  But Moon was overly curious and turned her face to the dark caves to watch the work of Evil.  This too was reflected on her surface and she was marred and her light darkened.  The Sol Invictus did not take her from her course for he knew it was in her nature to reflect that which she saw rather than remaining true to the light (as is true in general for the weaker sex).  Rather he required her to turn away from the earth every few days to renew her light from him.  This left the earth unguarded for only a few nights, and mankind began to flourish.  With the light of the sun to guide them they turned away from the worship of the Darkness and the demons were weakened.
    It was not destined to remain so, however.  Deprived of the surface and therefore their source of power through sacrifice, the demons crafted a new plan.  They could no longer martial a mighty force of arms, so they fought a war of lies and temptation instead.  They made their targets the elves and those men who were learning from the elves how to work magick.  Only these, with their sensitivity to the essence of the world could here the their faint whispers from the shadows.  At first, the men who knew the desires of the Sol Invictus turned away from these offers.  But the elves, ever proud and unwilling to bend themselves to humble worship, listened and were deceived.  Thus they learned the darkest of magicks, and slowly they taught them to men.  As these users of magick became more and more corrupt they turned back to the way of sacrifice and the demons again grew strong enough to face the light of the sun.
    In time all the lands of men were threatened by the demons and their human minions.  The sun agonized over what to do.  He could not bring more light to the earth without destroying her.  He could not sway the men over by force without doing the same, and they would not listen to the words of his priests.  To reach out to those on the earth below he again made a sacrifice of his light.  He took a vessel of the earth herself, one-time goddess whose dreaming was still rich in power.  A great and pure crystal was the form of the vessel, and into it he poured his light.  There it was magnified and took the form of a man.  When the crystal burst asunder, Mithras, whom the Gaels named Lugh, came forth into the world.  Many were his deeds and much has been written of them elsewhere.  Here is will suffice to say that he rallied those men who would here his words and led them forth against the dark.  The demons were defeated and driven into the shadows.  The great mountains that had been their shelter became their prisons, and only with the aid of sorcery can the weakest escape for a time to wreak havoc upon the earth. 
    Still they struggle, though.  The prayers of the evil or the deceived have ever been their hope.  There are still those who worship such dark powers and sacrifice the innocent to give them strength.  There are also those who, in their ignorance still worship the Old Gods who are only dreams and memories.  The force of their prayers, pure though they may be, does not increase the light but only serves to strengthen illusions of a time gone by.  Only by following the one true light can the world be freed from evil for all time.