The most thunderous of the lost lands of the world was the boreal homeland of the warlike race which fell down on the dwellings of the civilized world with the Aeon of Shay, called variously by different tribes of its descendants: Furaz in the language of the western Wiendazi, Parkas by the Mata nomads and finally Phyres by the proud Korypheans.
Had a brave one travelled north from one of the lofty cities of Aucardia, beyond the woods of Wiendland, and even further, leaving behind the dark and strange forests with all their man-eating trolls and tribes skulked around fires, he would witness a vast and boreal desert. Here the mighty pines of the forests turn thin and dwarfish, and give way to a vast grassland. No more are seen the imposing beasts of the forest, only small and furry creatures withstanding the icing cold. And even further north from that inhospitable tundra, where the snow has hardened into eternal glaciers, our adventurer would find ruined palaces and stone pyramids buried in the ice. And standing before this image of desolation he could say: “I have found the once-sunny Phyres, the mother of races.”
Yet before Phyres was sunny, it was dark and frozen much like it is today; its blooming being only a blink in the face of the aeons: and what brought this short flicker was love and tragedy in the stars.
There is life on the Planets as there is on Earth; blooming with kingdoms of alien races. Even the Sun itself is populated. Its people have not the bodies of the gross and heavy substance that makes up earthlings but bodies of subtle fiery matter, and among the sun-folk was a mighty tribe whom the Phyrean tradition calls the Manta. They were imperious and warlike spirits, rolling over the fiery plains of the Sun in plasmatic chariots and venturing into the void of space to seek thrill in the life of other planets. It was during one of those voyages that their king, Varsa, first saw the maiden Eo in the silver gardens of the Moon. Struck with grace and beauty unseen in any of the solar kingdoms he wished to possess her; yet had he tried to touch her he would burn her with his fiery body. Varsa ventured then to the planet known as Aphal to seek the advice of the cunning sorcerers who resided therein. There he sought out a magician by the name of Un, who was skilled in the transfigurations of things. He told him of his sorrow and requested that Un make a body of flesh for him, so that he may know Eo’s embrace. Un warned Varsa that he shall lose his radiance and that his children will follow him and take too on bodies of flesh, yet Varsa still pleaded unshaken. And so Un made Varsa and his children bodies of gold and they descended upon the silver hills of the Moon. And therein Varsa took Eo as his wife and they established a kingdom upon its surface, and she gave birth to five sons who became the land’s high judges.
Yet Varsa’s children complained: “The land here is heavy and frigid and no joys are found here, for we cannot ride and make war like we did on the plains of the Sun.” So they grew restless in the gardens of the moon and went out to make war on its people. And they took moon-maidens and children were born that were of a half-solar, half-lunar figure. When this was relayed to the queen of the Moon, she summoned Varsa with his wife before her and said so: “The children of Varsa have transgressed against the laws of the Moon, reined in violence upon my people and created beings of dual nature, that brought change to the celestial realms. For that crime, it is decreed that they shall be exterminated with their progeny”. And upon hearing these words, Eo fell before the queen to plead for mercy on her family saying so: “Take my heart to be made into the heart of a silver vessel, where the children of Varsa may enter and which will take them away from the gardens of the Moon to Earth, the realm of Time.” And the queen was greatly moved by the moon-maiden’s love so that she ordered the silver-weavers of her kingdom to fashion her heart into the engine of a star-ship that would take the Manta and their children to the frozen land of Phyres.
And when they landed, among them gathered the nomads and wanderers that were then in Phyres. They took wives from among them taught them the arts and numbers that were in the Heavens, and relayed to them the operations of Gods and spirits, and they built edificies that invited the Sun to shine upon Old Phyres, so that its frozen plains were made into warm meadows and lush forests. And so the Phyreans grew to be a tall and mighty race, which put a yoke over the peoples that were among them. And so generations passed and Phyres grew in wealth, but as the sun dimmed and blackened, the blood of the stars grew weaker, and the Aeon of Shay fell upon the earth. Where once Phyres waged war against the world, now it waged war against itself, the operations of the Gods were forgotten, and no man could worship together with another; and so sundered were the mighty towers that warmed the Earth.
Then the frosts returned to Phyres, and its homeless race fell upon the lands of the South; and it brought many wars and much conquest. So did this fair-eyed people move restless in its eternal exile, walking always forward, yet longing only for its lost home; for love in the Heavens made them to forever be a race of strangers.
