Wrath of Asteri

Before recorded history, humans lived among the edges of the sea. Warring clans laid claim to one of five large island nations. These nations surrounded a smaller rock nation that resided between all other five. The ones who claimed that Island were said to be the most fierce of all other nations. They were said to be favored by the Sun god.

In this time, civilization had no need for the invention of water vessels. The Earth had two moons at that time. The large red moon and the small white moon. The moon’s were lovers and thus danced around each other as close as they could. Their dance would cause very low tides in the day. The sea between the islands would dry up by high noon, and flood again by midnight.

In order to move from one island to another, one would have to run along the sea bed starting in the morning and make it to the other shore before the tide returned by sunset. Many lives were claimed by the Sea from man’s attempt to invade other islands.

One nation led by a merciless warrior named Balast, conquered the rock island in the early age. They were only able to accomplish this by leaving their children and women behind. Once on the rock, Balast did not want to give up his claim over the island. His thirst for more power grew with passing days. All the other nations were now free of Balast’s reign with his fear to leave the island exposed.

Balast made a sacrifice of his own men to give to the Sun god. He believed it was the Sun that was the cause of the low tides and not the moons. With the sacrifice of one-third of his army, the Sun god granted Balast’s request. The Sun shined on the Earth for one hundred days. Balast and his army would conquer the shores of the other nations during this time.

The Sun had an effect on the tides, but the moons would still bring a return of the seas by midnight. Balast believed the Sun god wanted more blood sacrifices to appease its appetite to shine without setting. Instead of sacrificing his own army this time, Balast sacrificed the children of the other island nations. The women cried out to the sky pleading for the return of night. They prayed for the return of the stars so that their children may be spared.

Asteri, the goddess of the stars, heard the cries of the women from Earth. When she tried to see who was making the cries she was confronted by the Sun god. The two gods quarreled over the rights to the sky of the Earth. Asteri saw that man without woman would bring destruction and pain. She sought to protect the nations from the rule of a woman-less man by returning the seas to separate the islands for good.

Asteri blamed both the Sun god and the Moons for bringing the tides low enough to allow Balast to conquer the other nations. For punishment, she shattered the red moon into a million pieces and threw them into the Sun’s belly. She then reached into the belly of the Sun and rained hell fire down upon the rock island. The fiery rock destroyed Balast and his armies.

Without the red moon, the white moon was too weak to drain the sea during the day. The returning tide put out the fires from the fragments of the red moon. The red moon’s body created smaller islands between the five large nations. The Sun would fear Asteri after enduring the pain she caused him. In defeat the Sun would continually run from Asteri returning the Earth to a half day and half night.

As the stars returned to the night sky the women praised Asteri for her bravery in defeating the Sun and Balast. Their children who were sacrificed to the Sun by Balast were given to Asteri by the Sun as a token of his defeat. Asteri turned the children into meteors so that they could visit their mothers, when they would look up in the night sky.

The Sun would never again refuse to set, and the white moon would circle the Earth looking for her lost lover. Eventually the wrath of Asteri would be forgotten as man learned to travel across the seas on vessels called boats.

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