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((Translators Note: This was translated from a badly damaged, hand written manuscript found bound inside of another book. I have been unable to find ANY other reference to I-Am, and believe that I-Am is a name given to The Power. Some of the other "Children of Power" have their own names for The Power, calling it different gods depending on translation. It was written entirely in Gryphon, with the author indicating it had been written and retranslated several times. There is oddly specific damage to the original text, making the name given to the Thirteenth Child illegible. Was this intentional?

Also I have removed the following translation note from the text. I feel it is important to still keep in perspective, but it greatly disrupts the flow of the creation story to leave it where it was originally written in on the manuscript.

"The Tenth Children are not to be confused with the half-breeds. These are creatures like Harpies, Centaurs, Merfolk, and more. These spring instead, from unions between the Seventh Children and others. Only when the mother is human and the father from another race does the pairing bring about a child. This is due to the mutability and power of the Seventh Children."))

The Story of I-Am and the creation of the Thirteen Children of Power.

Long and Long ago. Even when Long was short, longer still. Longer than long. The word has but one meaning, and it means Before.

Before Time had a name, before the Winding Path was laid down, before there were elements on which to draw power, let alone earth to stand upon, there was The Power.

Long and long still The Power slept. As is the way with most who come into being, eventually it awoke. This word has but one meaning, and it means Birth. What else would you call the birth of that which births creation itself, save Birth? So we call this time, Birth.

The Power was born. After Birth, and who can say how long this was, as the Winding Path itself was just born. Does the first step on the path count as long if the path is only one step? Is it long still, if the path covers billions of miles?

After Birth there was The Power. And The Power saw everything before it and everything to the sides, everything above and below. How much was this to know, if The Power creates that which holds the stars, creates that which creates the stars, and creates that which knows the stars, all after its own birth?

Finally The Power turned and caught sight of itself. The Power was so large and so there among the nothing that how could it not? In this instant, The Power came to know itself, and by knowing itself it named itself "I-am" and set itself separate from the rest of creation.

After a time, I-Am grew lonely. I-am, in its' vast wisdom split itself into eight pieces, seven small and one final larger piece. These seven smaller pieces I-Am then gave names, and named them all Angeli, the First Children of I-Am, often referred to simply as the First Children, or the First Children of Power. Now, there was still nothing other than I-Am and the Angeli. I-Am then created language by turning thought into sound, just so that it could say, "Hello children." For an age of unknown length I-Am and the Angeli crafted Language, and thus turned Ideas and Thoughts into Words and Names. So it was that they were the Angels, named the First Children of I-Am, First Children of Power.

After a time I-Am wanted to create yet more children and more things. So, this time, I-Am split itself into three parts. Again, two small pieces and one large. To the newest children it gave the first simple bodies and placed creativity in their hearts. These were the Titans, creators and crafters of worlds. They pulled at the very fabric of I-Am's being and pulled forth the elements. Using these elemental gifts they built our world. When they finished, being such creative and tireless beings they went on to create many and many more. Titans are industrious and crafty children. They know little else. Titans are immortal, but as they are attached to their bodies, they do sometimes die. When one falls, the others join together and mourn, then craft two more Titans from their fallen friend, and with what is left over they build comets and send them sailing through the heavens as reminders of the friend who has fallen. This is why comets have tails, as even the stones cry for the one who was lost. So it was that they were Titans, named the Second Children of I-Am, Second Children of Power.

I-Am was so happy with the work that it had done on the Titans, that it built other new forms, drawing on the power and the strength of the elements left behind by the Titans. So it was that I-Am crafted heavy and heavily armored dragons and breathed life into them with fire. As I-Am had little practice with making small forms, all of the dragons that it created were large. As I-Am had no specific calling for the Dragons in mind, they were left to find their own way in the world. Having no calling, the Dragons roamed far and wide. Neither pure, nor impure they lived wild and intense lives of joy and fiery passion. I-Am loved them, but also foresaw a time when they might have, in the passion of their joy for life, dimmed the magic of the world. So it was that they were Dragons, named the Third Children of I-Am, Third Children of Power.

Concerned that one day magic might be dimmed, but inspired by the power and the might of the Third Children, I-Am called upon the grace of the elements left by the Titans. So it was that I-Am created the graceful and majestic unicorns. Because they seemed so delicate and graceful, I-Am could not bear to simply breathe fiery life into them. Instead, it gave them life through gentle and tender touches. The first touch was on the brow, and even this gentle touch was too rough. As I-Am drew back, part of its' creation stuck to it. Instead of seeing this as a flaw, I-Am carved and sculpted this spot into a wondrous horn. This is why the Fourth Children have such a direct connection with The Power. They have a bridge between in their horn. By the grace of their creation and the gentle and tender way in which they were given life, the Fourth Children were seen to be pure and noble. Many of the other children have resented them for this. I-Am gave to them a final instruction before letting them roam the world: Guard the Magic of the World, keep it safe. So it was that they were Unicorns, named the Fourth Children of I-Am, Fourth Children of Power.

Enchanted by the idea of the duality of the Third and Fourth Children, I-Am set about crafting a race that had both the Sun and the Moon in their hearts. With this idea came the Fae. Elves, sprites, spriggans, and hundreds of other lesser children in multitudes were brought forth, for just as the Sun and Moon dance and cast their shadows, so too were each of the Fifth children different. No two have ever been born alike. The Fae of the way of the Sun thanked I-Am by throwing parties and banquets, hunts and feasts in its honor They called themselves the Autumn Kingdom. To this day, they still dance along the hills and vales of power, giving thanks for their creation and causing such merriment and deviltry along the way. The Fae of the way of the Moon hunt and feast by night to celebrate the glory of I-Am by combat and blood. They called themselves the Court of Night, and while they seem opposite they are truly of the same coin as their cousins in the Sun. So it was that both the Autumn Kingdom and the Court of Night were Fae, named Fifth Children of I-Am, Fifth Children of Power.

Happy with the way the world was, I-Am traveled far and long across it to see it flourish. Each time it came to water, it stepped across until it reached the next stretch of land. Until one fateful day, I-Am set down upon an illusionary land created by the Fae as a joke, and instead landed in the sea. Where the land was vibrant with life, the sea was silent. Thoughtful, I-Am listened. The silence was so complete, that the first tenuous notes of song were almost missed, but I-Am had listened long and long where there was nothing and so with such sensitive hearing, it heard the song. I-Am followed those notes for days until, strangely, they lead I-Am out of the water and ashore. There sat a Unicorn Child and a Fae Child whom had fallen deeply in love with one another. Saddened by the blindness of their races, they had been cast out by their peoples. Drawn by their sadness and by their song, I-Am offered to change them into a new people so that they could be together. With their agreement, I-Am cast them into the sea, where, when they became wet, their forms dissolved around them until they swam as dolphins. Reborn as people of the Sixth Children, they sang their thanks to I-Am. In exchange for their gift, they now fill the seas with Music, and have taught all the other children of water to sing. There are no finer singers in all the other children. (Nor any so long winded...) So it was that they were Dolphins, Sixth Children of I-Am, Sixth Children of Power.

Time passed, but still Man was not in the world to mark the hours, give the names, and shorten eternity into manageable bites of time that he could comprehend. All about there was life, but still I-Am thought it could improve things further, and the itch to create still chewed at I-Am. Two entire spans of time equal to what had already passed were spent on the Seventh Children, and to them went a great and terrible gift. They and they alone were crafted from Prime Elements, gifting them with mutability, creativity, art, passion, and other wonders and terrors still to behold. The Seventh Children had passion, like the Sixth Children. They had a duality to them, like the Fifth. The possessed grace and beauty, like the Fourth. They were built with strength and power, like the Third. By putting all of this into one place, The Power caused them to burn so bright and fierce, so much so that they caught the attention and curiosity of all the other Children who came before. Sadly, for the Seventh Children, when you burn that bright, you also burn fast. For the first Six, this was a new and unknown power in the world, mortality. Each of the Seventh, no matter how long a life they lived by their own measure, was little more than a blink to the first six. So it was that they were Man, Seventh Children of I-Am, Seventh Children of Power.

And still I-Am sought to fill the world with Children. It turned and looked up one day, only to realize that after finally filling all the earth with Children, after bringing music to the Seas, the Skies where still sad and empty. I-Am wandered for a time, until it came to a wide open meadow. And there was a woman child and a young unicorn whom laid side by side in a field. They were looking up at the skies and playing a game with the clouds. I-Am lay beside them and around them, gently bringing them outside of the Winding Path of Time and they played their game for a year and a day. By then, they had conjured such a fantastic shape, that I-Am gladly gave it life. Head, wings, and forelegs like an Eagle, body, hindquarters and tail of a Lion. I-Am, with the help of a woman and a unicorn, created the Gryphons, who live beside the Winding Path in their castles of clouds high within the heavens. In gift of thanks of their birth, they dance and wheel in the sunlight, and sunbathe every chance they get. There is a story that the colors and patterns of the Eighth Children are not set before their birth and it is their dreams in the egg that set their colors. So it was that they were Gryphons, Eighth Children of I-Am, Eighth Children of Power.

By bringing some of the Children of I-Am outside of the Winding Path, I-Am had accidentally made the Children aware of the flow of the Winding Path. Now were the Seventh Children all the more aware of how brief their candle burned. They became more aware of their mortality, and named the end of their lives Death. This is why many of the other Children of I-Am consider the Seventh Children the birth of death. As was part of their power, by naming Death, they gave it power. No longer did the races prosper and multiply only to be brought low by fighting, misfortune, or treachery. Now that Man had tamed and named the hours, the beginning and the end, all of the Children of I-Am could feel the pull of years. Many thousands of men were born, lived, and died before Joachim was born. Joachim, first of his name, was the first of the Seventh Children to understand what I-Am truly was. As Joachim grew older, he finally found a way to speak directly to I-Am. He asked I-Am for only one thing: To live far beyond his meager years, so that he could continue to learn and study. I-Am was hesitant. It had never before attempted to change one small thing about any of the Children believing them perfect even with their flaws. I-Am had only created new Children and granted them life. Finally, I-Am was persuaded to try on his behalf. As Joachim lay near death, I-Am breathed new life into him. As I-Am did so, Joachim took hold with his teeth and drew the Life directly from I-Am. Life, being such a fickle and unpredictable force, slipped fast through the fingers of Joachim. But by then, he had discovered how he could take some life from others without dying himself or killing them. That some of these victims could even rise again after, depending on the magic cast to harness their life. And so it came to be, that Man, in his hubris, by way of I-Am, created the Ninth Children. So it was that they died and were reborn as Eaters of Life, Ninth Children of I-Am, Ninth Children of Power.

Weary of the living world and saddened by the creation of the Ninth Children, I-Am retreated into the world of Dreams. Here it lingered in the slumbering minds of Men, Unicorns, Dragons, and Dolphins. In these dreams fantastic creatures resided. Things of Myth and Legend among the many different Children. I-Am, always seeking to please its' Children, brought many of these stories to life. Goblins, Sirens, Snowmen, Kobolds, Gnomes, and thousands of other creatures slipped away in the night. While few look alike, as they all drew their creation back to the same time and the same reason, they are all thought of as part of the Tenth Children. So it was that they were Myths and Legends, Tenth Children of I-Am, Tenth Children of Power.

I-Am passed from the memory of many of the Children of Power. For long and long again I-Am roamed across the surface of the world, through the sea, and through the skies taking joy and pleasure in the great multitudes of life. All around it there was such joy, passion, and love. Tired from such powerful works, I-Am pulled up a stone and lay down to sleep. I-Am slept so long and hard that after a thousand years the stone split into gravel. Over I-Am the Second Children drew a blanket of earth that slowly hardened and formed a great mountain. And still, I-Am slept. So great was I-Am's desire to bring life into the world and so great too was I-Am's own power that the very stone it slept upon came to life. And so, the Eleventh children were born. They were short in stature, but hard as the stone from which they sprang. They called themselves the Dwarves and within a hundred years of their birth no mountain did not have Dwarves cutting the stone within, striking song into the very bones of the earth with their hammers and chisels. Those born first were called the Stone Gods and they alone know where I-Am slumbers.

It is said, that what happened next was an accident, though it is unknown. If it was not, no one has ever been able to say that it was not. But some long time after the Eleventh Children were born, the mountain which contained the Chamber of I-Am tore itself apart in a great fury. Far before the earth stopped moving strange new creatures began to flee the mountain. It is said that these are the Twelfth children. They are strange and all harken back to one of the five Elements, and so were named Elementals. It is believed that they sprang directly from the blood of I-Am, and that I-Am was wounded, truly wounded for the first time it is incredible lifespan. So it was that they were Elementals, Twelfth Children of I-Am, Twelfth Children of Power.

What ever happened at that time, it also gave birth to something else. Something that came from the heart of the mountain like nothing else that has ever or will ever walk either side of the Winding Path. A terrible dark horror came from the depths of the Chamber of I-AM, something cruel, vicious, and without light inside it. The Eleventh Children were the first to name it, and they call it "Fregh'moure" or the shadow of evil. This lone child is named the Thirteenth Child of I-Am, and as far as we can see, was the last. With the birth of the Thirteenth Child we no longer hear I-Am, and my brothers wonder if the creation of this child came from the death of I-Am itself. So it was that it was _______, Thirteenth Child of I-Am, Thirteenth Child of Power.

-As translated by Silvia the Magi into English from Gryphon,

-As translated by Wings Of Dappled Starshine into Gryphon from Dragon,

-As translated by Tessmora into Dragon from Elemental,

-As translated by Smoke of First Fire into Elemental from Angeli,

-As written by Ignaleph the Watcher, third of the Angeli.