In the beginning, Ubtao the Creator raised the land of Chult from the waters, then pinned the sun in the sky to dry the earth – in those days, the sun was much farther up, and so its heat was less intense. Because it was pinned in place, the earth was bathed in a continuous glow, and plants rose up from the dark, wet earth to hungrily drink in the rain and sunlight. The plants grew thick – too thick for Ubtao to see anything when he went under the canopy. And so Ubtao took the plants and wet clay and fashioned his First Children, the mighty dinosaurs, who could graze the overgrowth down to manageable levels. Thinking ahead, the Creator made some dinosaurs to eat the others, so that the others would not overgraze, and cleverly made it such that their waste products would continually fertilize the land. Concerned that the dinosaurs would still eat too many plants, he decreed that living creatures’ wet insides would slowly dry up over time until they returned to dust. He also allowed them to make more of their kind by molding the wet clay within themselves, though the First Children did so imperfectly. The First Children were somewhat confused and concerned by this, but Ubtao was delighted, for in breathing life into but a few creations he had filled the jungle with endless forms most beautiful.
One day, Ubtao wondered whether he could make an animal like himself, and so he took some stone and fashioned short humanoid figures. After practicing for a long time, he put these sculptures away into the mountains and took some apes, molding them into the image he had in mind and breathing his spirit into them. These Second Children became humanity, and Ubtao was again surprised and delighted because they wanted to create and garden like he did. However, The Second Children didn’t know how to live in the jungle, so Ubtao had to teach them to live properly. Humans spread throughout the land of Chult, but to Ubtao’s dismay, he discovered that they were capable of disobeying him. Some humans wandered too far in their canoes and became lost at sea, and even Ubtao could not see or find them. He turned the sea to saltwater to discourage these irresponsible wanderings.
In that day, because there was no night, creatures took to sleeping in the shade, or in caves, or in huts they hade made. When they slept they dreamed, but the shadows crept into their dreams and turned them to nightmares, which then sank into the ground. One day, the earth shook and Dendar the Night Serpent emerged. Hoping to bathe the world in eternal shadow and drink in creatures’ nightmares forever, she devoured the sun. Fearing for the creatures of his world, Ubtao wrestled Dendar. Fearing she was too strong to kill, Ubtao buried her in the deep and dark under miles of stone. The press of the rocks became too great for Dendar and she coughed up the sun’s fire, which raced through the cracks to create the Pillars of Flame. Ubtao caught some of this fire and made a new sun, but he put it too close to the land and it scorched the plants and animals and dried up the rivers. Thinking quickly, the Dawn Warrior took up his bow and fired arrows at it, driving the sun westwards across the sky, and now day turns into night because the sun fears his arrows. The place known as Ataaz Yklwazi – the Gorge of Blades – came to be where Dawn Warrior’s arrows scorched and gouged the earth where they landed. Humankind feared the new dark of Night, but the Creator Ubtao did two things: first, he fashioned the moon and stars from shiny river stones, so that humanity would see beauty and light even in darkness; and second, he placed his heart in the center of Chult for all to see, vowing – “so long as my heart bleeds for my Children, Dendar will not return”. And so, humanity learned to love the night sky, and regard the Heart of Ubtao as a sacred place.
As the Second Children spread throughout the jungle, they became quarrelsome and agonized over difficult life choices. Ubtao’s First Children were either made for a purpose or had time to figure out their place in the labyrinth of life – but humanity had neither. Ubtao had taught them how to live off the land, but not how to live with each other. Seeking to cultivate their goodness, Ubtao raised Mezro from the jungle and for 4,000 years dwelt among the Second Children, dispensing justice and teaching them many secrets of magic. With the assistance of his Barae – immortal priest-chiefs – Mezro became a place where all Chultans could learn how to pass through the maze of life, but it also became a den of thieves and charlatans, and a place for the lazy to beg Ubtao’s intercession over petty disputes and trivial matters. Ubtao stayed in Mezro to teach the Second Children how to travel through the labyrinth of the earthly world, but eventually he saw that they were asking him to destroy the very trials that were its walls. Finally, the day came when Ubtao said “If my Second Children wish to beg my aid over every lost goat and scraped knee rather than listen to what I have taught them, then they will wander the maze of life without my guidance!” He returned to his Great House and cast it so high into the sky that he could no longer hear their frivolous complaints – and so now the Second Children can only find him in the hereafter.