Gifts of the Moon

Long, long ago, in the days when fire was new and there were no wars, the moon was the only light in the night sky. The nights were very dark, especially on nights of the new moon. People feared to go outside at night, for the jungle was full of vicious creatures. Those who wandered in the darkness were rarely seen alive again.

In those days, Yrivvenna was a collection of villages, not the prosperous country we know now. Each village was ruled by a zhvaron, someone blessed by the moon with knowledge of nature and humankind. These zhvaron sent messages to each other during the day with smoke signals and the sounds of sacred drums. All the zhvaron were worried that the creatures that lurked in the darkness would kill their villagers and bring about Yrivvenna’s destruction. Something had to be done, they agreed. But what could they do?

Tamenor, the zhvaron of Orenxiao, decided that he would seek guidance from the full moon. He would go to the top of the nearest mountain and spend the night of the full moon there, meditating and praying. When he announced this decision, the people of Orenxiao protested. “If you are outside at night, you will surely perish!” they cried. But Tamenor’s mind was made up. To appease the people of Orenxiao, Tamenor agreed that he would travel during the day. The mountain was not so high that he could not climb it in a single day; he was young and strong and determined to help his people.

“I will build a large fire on the mountaintop when I get there,” Tamenor promised the villagers. “You will see the light and know that I am safe, and the creatures of the darkness will not trouble me because they fear the fire. All will be well.” Through drums and smoke, he told the other zhvaron of his plan. None of them dared to do anything similar. They felt that they could best serve their villages by staying with their people. Tamenor alone was unafraid.

On the appointed day, Tamenor climbed the nearest mountain just as he planned to do. On the way, he gathered wood for his signal fire. The jungle was eerily quiet that day, as though a predator skulked amongst the trees. Tamenor continued on, quiet and alert, armed with only his bundle of wood and a sturdy staff. He did not stop to rest or to eat until he reached the top of the mountain, and even then, he built and lit his signal fire before he took a break. The sun was just starting to set when the smoke of his fire became visible to the people of Orenxiao.

Then Tamenor sat beside the fire with his staff across his lap, closed his eyes, and listened to the world around him. He heard the fire crackling, wind in the trees, distant birds, and the evening insects and frogs starting their nightly songs. All through sunset and dusk he sat and listened, until he was sure he could hear even the murmurs of the stones and the mountain itself.

The moon rose over Yrivvena, bright and full. Tamenor’s fire was burning down low. When he got up to feed the fire more wood, he heard rustling in the trees nearby. Before he could react, an enormous tiger sprang out of the jungle, growling with jaws bared. Tamenor thought he was done for. His spirit cried out to the moon for salvation–and the moon answered. As the tiger leapt through the fire towards Tamenor, it was caught up in a tangle of blue-gold light. The light dragged the tiger into the sky and became one with its body. As the glowing tiger approached the moon, it split into many fragments of light we now call stars. The moon placed the stars in the night sky, creating the Constellation of the Great Tiger.

Tamenor fell on his face and thanked the moon for his salvation. “Truly I am blessed, to have found favor in your light,” he said to the moon. “I only wish that all the people of Yrivvenna could be so fortunate.”

The moon answered in a silvery voice that Tamenor felt rather than heard: “The tiger that threatened you will forever be in the night sky, breaking up the darkness so that the people may not fear to spend time in my light. When the sun takes my place in the sky, return to Orenxiao and tell the other zhvaronim what I have done for you. I will do the same for any who seek me and honor me and humble themselves before me as you have done.”

When morning came, Tamenor did exactly as the moon had told him. At first, the people and the other zhvaronim were skeptical of what he told them. The story he told seemed impossible. But when night fell over Yrivvenna once again, all of them saw the glowing tiger in the sky and believed.

On the next night of the full moon, the zhvaronim of the other villages in Yrivvenna went out to meditate and pray in the moonlight. Each of them had a signal fire. To the moon, it may have looked like the land gained a constellation of its own. At each fire, as its zhvaron prayed over the course of the night, a miracle occurred. Some had experiences like Tamenor–thus the constellations of the Bear, the Jackal, the Boar, and the Serpent were born. Other zhvaronim made offerings by fire to the moon, which became the constellations of the Lotus, the Pitcher, the Carp, the Seven Spears, the Rooster, the Conch, the Tortoise, the Shield, and even the Pine. Still other zhvaronim startled nearby animals that were then claimed by the moon and the fire, creating the constellations of the Monkey, the Rabbit, the Rat, the Fox, the Peacock, and the Iguana.

For some zhvaronim, the miracles were more tragic. A zhvaron’s beloved stallion came too close to a fire that night and was immortalized in the sky as the constellation of the Stallion. The constellations of the Yak and the Ram were born in similar ways. The constellations of the Falcon and the Eagle were made from hunting birds that flew too close to the sacred flames. The men who became the Archer and the Drummer passed through the fire willingly, hoping that their sacrifices would bring honor to their villages. The constellation of the Thief was created from the execution by fire of a villager who had been caught stealing from the temple.

Other miracles were more wondrous. Near one village, sparks from the zhvaron’s fire blew into the Khamari River, which rose from its banks and became a massive scaled creature that twisted into the sky, creating the constellation of the Dragon. Another zhvaron went out on a sampan that night to commune with the moon, but the sampan came loose from its tethers and drifted downriver towards a massive waterfall. The moon took pity on that zhvaron and took her into the sky, along with the sampan and the waterfall, to make the constellations of the Water Dancer, the Sampan, and the Great Falls.

By the end of that night of the full moon, the whole of the night sky was sparkling with stars in all these different shapes. The voice of the moon reverberated through the land: “Now you have lights for the night through all my phases. Remember and honor me and these stars, and when your people die, they will join me in the night sky. But if you forget this night and what I have done for you, the stars will fall and bring destruction on your land.”

The people, led by their zhvaronim, have remembered the moon’s gifts and honored the constellations and the moon from that night on. The zhvaronim became astrologers, studying the night sky and learning its secrets. They created calendars based on the moon’s travels through the constellations and studied the impact of the night sky on the lives of the people of Yrivvenna. Just as the moon promised, when an Yrivvian dies, another star joins the heavens. And so it shall be evermore, so long as we keep the traditions of our ancestors and honor the gifts of the moon and those ancient zhvaronim.