World of Tael
The world of Tael is the creation of Ayla and Norn, who sought after means of telling more stories to each other.
Description
In order to bring this new world to life, Ayla and Norn created a new Voidling with the knowledge of all the concepts beknown to them from the very beginning. This new Voidling was called Tael, and they decided to announce him the spark of life. As the main driver of this world, Ayla and Norn decided to name the world after him. With his introduction to the world, it started to flourish and evolve, eventually leading to the world of Tael that is known today.
Origins
The story told by Ayla and Norn about how the world of Tael came into being.
Before there was anything, a spark of energy was flying through the endless void, aimless and without a purpose. No one knows how long it was there, not even the spark itself, as time was not even a concept at that point. At some point, the spark notices something in the distance, a little light, barely glowing, barely moving. It approached the spark, but it barely reacted. It was about to absorb the small light, but as the sparks glow went even dimmer, accepting it's fate, the bright spark realized that this would change nothing. Suddenly, the energy split into two, and let the small light consume one half. The dim light once again shined bright, it was surprised, but also filled with joy. Not knowing how to express itself, it started to dance, dance around the spark that gave it a new chance. The other spark joined in on the performance, dancing in perfect harmony. From that point on, the two sparks travelled together through the void. Eventually they invented ways to express their thoughts to the other, they learned to speak. They exchanged their ideas, their wishes, everything they could think of. Eventually, they ran out of topics, after all, there is nothing but emptiness. Then one spark says "You know what, we have shared everything that there is to an empty world like this. We have nothing, there is nothing, nothing but an empty canvas!" "So let us create something beautiful, a place in this endless void, a world that we can call ours, a home"
So, out of nothing but there own Essence, they created a piece of art unmatched by anything they ever thought they could imagine. A world in which they can rest, a space to express themselves with more than just words, a place they can call home. But something was missing. They have an endless world, but nothing new to talk about, the world they created was static, stiff; beautiful, but... lifeless? "Let's bring it to life" the spark says. "Let us both merge a part of our conciousness to infuse into this world, and let it be free, free from the endless void, free from the darkness and emptiness that lies beyond this world. It will know only the beauties of this world, and fill it stories and life, yes life... it will bring this world to life!" "It will be like a child of our own, this world will be our child, it will need a name."
"Let's call it Tael"
"So be it, but what if it calls for us? we need names it can call for if it ever needs to"
"Then let us decide our names here and now"
"I want to call you Ayla"
"I like that name, as for you, I want it to be Norn"
"So it's decided, let us, Norn and Ayla, watch together as our child Tael grows up to bring life to a world, free from the darkness outside, a life that we could never have"
Holidays
Festival of Light
The Festival of Light is celebrated once a year. During the three-day festival, the streets are littered with handcrafted lanterns of all sorts of designs, as they are supposed to represent what each person thinks would be their perfect world. Additionally, this period of time is used for people to broaden their horizons and discover a new trade, hobby, or even a new lifestyle. These people carry a small, dim lantern with them, designed in a way to represent what they aspire to. However, what is most important during this event is that, no matter how unusual the goal may seem or how contradictory it is to what one would assume of the person, they must not be judged by it. Legend says that people who fully respect the traditions and truly seek to open a new chapter in their lives are blessed by Ayla or Norn themselves, who guide them to success.
Additionally to the dim lanterns, some people carry bright lanterns with them. These people strive to guide people with dim lanterns on the right path, helping them achieve their goals. One person is not limited to only carrying one or the other type of lantern and it is quite uncommon for someone to only carry a bright lantern around.
On the night of the last day, a great firework is held by everyone celebrating, to mark not only the beginning of the new year but also the beginning of all the new chapters the people opened up during the last three days; it is basically the beginning of a new chapter of the world itself. The fireworks are supposed to represent the dance of the two sparks when they first met each other and began their new chapter in their existence.
Trivia
It is unknown who was the bright or the dim spark; many people don't really care in the sense that they simply consider Ayla and Norn as one God, whereas some extremist groups want to convince people that, depending on the group, on or the other was, in fact, the bright spark. This can sometimes lead to heated arguments between people that, at some points in history, even caused wars to break out. Nowadays, most people tend to agree that it was simply one God after all, or that it does not matter at all and is considered unofficial taboo talk because most people agree that there is no point in fighting over it, as it is impossible to learn the correct answer anyway.
Some people even believe that when the bright spark split in half, the other half actually consumed the dim spark. And because people think that the split also caused the personality of the bright spark to split, they think that it did not realize and just thought that this other half of his personality is actually the dim star.