Age of Heroes

The Age of Heroes is the name for a mythic period of prehistory on Opelyx when the gods were said to live among humans and demi-gods and their children were common among people. This period is generally said to have lasted from the dawn of man, in rough 3000 BNE, until roughly 1000 BNE. This period predates writing systems in almost all areas of the world and the history of the period was passed down as oral history for centuries before being recorded. Historical accounts from this period are therefore not reliable. Legends from this period tend to focus on the actions of demi-god heroes, as the name implies. These legends often focus on the origin of various natural phenomena, geographical feature, peoples, and settlements.

Common features of Age of Heroes myths include false parentage of the hero, who is usually secretly a demi-god, prophesies (often self-fulfilling) of grand destiny, and lengthy, challenging quests to find some special object or place that require travel to far away lands. Other common themes are betrayal and sacrifice. The heroes in these tales usually toil and suffer terribly and rarely enjoy any fruits of their successes, often dying while or shortly after accomplishing their destined objective.

Another common feature of Age of Heroes mythology is sorcery, as many traditions hold that demi-gods and their children had magical powers that allowed them to perform miraculous feats. This sorcery involved invoking their gods to aid them and making sacrifices in those god's honor. The sacrifices required to perform this magic were usually things, animals, and sometimes people cherished by the heroes, making these sacrifices tragic events in these tales. In some cases, heroes even committed acts of self sacrifice, spilling their own blood, amputating a limb, or even taking their own life.

Local myths vary considerably in their specific subject matter and while the similar style of stories in different parts of the world may indicate a common tradition, few narrative elements exist in common between different regions. One prominent exception to this rule is The Tears of Creation, mythical crystalized tears that became the Essences of elemental forces, that were cried by the goddess Creation while she gave birth to Opelyx. The tears feature in myths from many geographically remote regions of Opelyx, indicating that the tales have a common origin from pre-history. Most traditions held that there were four tears and that they were scattered to the four corners of the world, and most traditions agree that three of the elements were Earth, Fire, and Water, with the fourth being either Life or Air. Beyond this there is little agreement in these tales. Specific tales of the tears, their locations, and their properties are considerably divergent, however, and heroes who quest after them are nearly universally said to either die in the search or be spirited away to heaven upon finding one of the tears. A prominent example is the popular Rigini myth of Machishou, a demigod who sought the Essense of Life, which was said in the tale to grant immortality. Machishou quested after the Essense for many years as punishment for a crime, exploring new territories and fighting many battles along the way, but the tale ends with him sailing away from the coast in search of the corner of the world, never to return.

Different regional traditions give different dates for the Age of Heroes and differing reasons for its end. Most traditions hold that the era ended when the gods became angry with mankind and left Opelyx, although the reasons for their anger vary widely and local traditions nearly all blame this falling out on some actions of local people, indicating that these traditions likely evolved in parallel and lack a common source. In Pinakloos, for example, traditions hold that the gods became angry because the people of Pinakloos became ungrateful and over-confident and ceased to hold the gods feasts with the correct ceremonies on the correct dates; in Tobruz, tradition holds that the gods became angry when the people of Tobruz learned to control fire; and, in Casalanoua, tradition holds that the gods became jealous when the people of the valley learned to sow crops and felt that they no longer needed the gods to provide for them.

Legends of gods making short visits to earth, and occasionally having mortal offspring, persist into historical periods and numerous historical figures are claimed by their people to have been demi-gods. Some historical era demi-god myths, like the Legend of Calansis, appear to be modeled on Age of Heroes myths and utilize the same sorts of narrative devices. Most of these stories can be traced to either folk histories or deliberate fabrications.