The Canon Whisper'd Through the Swaying Leaves

3: The Sundering of Lands Into the Four

And so the Second Epoch did commence:

Humanity, so born of two extremes

as that of demon-kind and fairy folk,

were fast to fall in ways yet unforeseen

as not another creature'd done before.

As sep'rate tribes the humans swept across

the land from south to north and east to west

consuming ev'ry piece of knowledge found

and ev'ry morsel til they giant grew,

so towering and strong as elephants

their walking carv'd the very roads we drive.

Yet something was amiss, for arrogance

befell the humans, causing them t'reject

the Gods, abandoning the River's flow

as Piety became Irreverence,

Iconoclasm from Devotion's mould,

Humility deform'd Vainglorious.

And soon—with generations come and pass'd

and splitting tribes and splitting tribes and on—

did conflict rise from nomads roaming th'Earth

encountering each other on what they

each wrongly claim'd to be their rightful turf.

And as th'Adherences had been forsook

and nothing held their moral compass straight,

their Virtues twisted into awful things,

with first their Tolerance to Bigotry

which caus'd superiority in man,

whose pride for kith and kin grew narrower

until their points of view were blind to all

but clan and secondarily the tribe.

With view impeded by their closing minds

and arrogance to steer their course awry,

Consideration warp'd t'Impet'ousness

which brought the humans—parents though they shar'd—

to arms for piercing flesh and breaking bones

of fellow humankind til those still left

were either of the tribe victorious

or gave apology to save their lives.

And as the victors suffer'd heavy loss

and knew that they'd been weaken'd by their fights,

they took these captives as their labourers

contorting what Cooperation'd meant

so that Enslavement bore its countenance;

and slaves they were, so made to walk in binds

and hunt and fish and fornicate upon

the pressing tips of spears for all their lives,