The Story of Why the Earth Shakes (Star Trek Fandom)
Title: The Story of Why the Earth Shakes
Description: In attempt to further develop a Star Trek fan character I have been working on I have slowly been developing the mythology, culture and language of Risa, which is her home planet. It is known that on the planet of Risa that with out regulators there would be immense seismic activity and storms. So I had to question, why kind of mythology do a people develop when the very earth beneath their feet rebels against
them? This is what I came up with. Also completely unbeted. This is all me folks.
Disclaimer: Based on the world and situations created and owned by Gene Roddenberry. This is NO way claims to be canon.
There are stories on Risa which are only told by women, by mothers to their children. This is one of them.
In the first days of our people, when we were still so young we did not yet even know our names we slept within the Earth, deep within her dark embrace and we knew neither sun nor sky nor wide ocean. We walked in darkness, slept in darkness and dreamed in darkness.
In those days we were all one tribe, one clan with one leader. One day the people began to grow sick, for there was little to eat and the earth was dark and cold. We cried out to the Earth, but the Earth would not answer. The people swaddled themselves in many layers and scarped together food from the most putrid of sources. And again they cried out and still the Earth did not answer. Still the people froze and starved but the Earth still did not answer. The leader, who was old by now and suffered as his people did, had a daughter and a son. The leader’s son, who was both kind and loyal wept to see how his people suffered and swore to find an answer. And so taking his warmest clothes and a bit of food he set out. For a year and a day the people waited, dying one by one, until finally the daughter, who was clever and good, stood and spoke. “My brother has been gone for a year and a day. I must find him, or find an answer for our people or else we shall all die.” And so wrapped in her warmest clothes but carrying no food, for her people had so very little to spare by now the daughter set out.
For many days she walked deep with in the earth, within the dark. One day she felt a breeze brush past face. This was a thing she had never felt before for with in the earth there are no breezes, no sounds. All is dank and still. The daughter was sore afraid but she loved her brother and she loved her people so she turned toward this new thing, this breathe within the earth and began to follow it. It led her up.
As she rose she became warmer, so warm that she felt stifled in her swaddled up clothes. Again she was sore afraid, for her clothes were all she had left of her people but as she rose she grew warmer and warmer so that she could barely breathe and think. In this way she began to remove each piece of clothing slowly. At last up ahead she saw a light and as she approached it she removed her last stifling garment. She stepped out into the sun and flinched in the light, but she had never been so warm in her life. Above her was the blue sky and warm sun, before here was the vast oceans and all around her where lush forests. And behind her was the cave. She remembered her people and turned.
There in the mouth of cave she saw the spirit of her brother and gasped. He spoke “You have done what I could not sister. I was too afraid to move forward and I died here, in this cave.”
“My brother!” she cried out, and she ran forward to embrace him, ran back towards the cave.
“No!” he shouted and stopped her. “Once you have left the Earth you may only return when you are dead.”
And the sister wept to know that she could never hold her brother again for to her he was the most beloved of all creatures. And when her tears subsided she begged him “My brother, but what of our people? If I cannot return to the caves how I will I show them the way to this paradise? How will I save them?”
“I will go and fetch them sister, if they are brave enough to follow a dead man.”
“And if they are not?” the sister asked, for she knew that by this time her people would be broken hearted and perhaps beyond hope.
“Then you must sing” the brother instructed her, “Sing so that they will know they are being led to safety and work as you sing, so that they will have homes when they arrive here.”
This the sister agreed to and began to sing. She sang of her journey within the earth, of the great darkness there. She sang of the bright new country she had found, she sang of her brother who she loved and she sang a prayer for the safety of his soul as he led his people, she sang for her people and for their happiness. The sister sang of her people’s new homes as she built them and of the fruits in the trees as she gathered them and of the animals in the forest and the sea. She sang of the bright sun and the great sky and the wide deep ocean. She sang and sang until she had near no voice and still she sang. She sang her self to exhaustion until finally she heard a great many voices crying out and turning she saw there her people stumbling out of the cave. And there standing in the shadow of the cave was her brother, smiling at her. There came her people having followed a dead man through the earth and the sound of the sister’s singing. And though the sister’s heart was sore to see how few of her people were left she was glad to see that now they were safe and her brother’s soul could rest in peace, having finally completed his quest.
But then, as the last one of the people stumbled out the cave, a child of only a few years, the earth began to tremble. The people cried out and ran towards the sister and the ocean. For they were sore afraid at the earth’s jealous wraith. For the earth, having finally realized that it’s children had abandoned it became angry and violent. The sister held her arms out, calling for her brother to come to her, so that his spirit would rest in the light before the Earth’s shaking trapped him forever.
“No!” the brother cried, “No, you and I have led our people to freedom but now I must stay here to protect them, to fight and calm the Earth else she swallow our people up once more!”
And the sister wept because she knew it was the only way. And she saw the spirits of all the people who had died deep within the Earth rise up and how now they fought to hold her still, fought for the lives of those they loved who still lived. And the sister called the living back to stand in the ocean, that they might be safer there.
And when all was done and many of the trees had been shaken down and all the huts she had built had been shaken down and all the food she had gathered had been strewn about finally her brother and the souls of the dead managed to quell the earth and the shaking stopped. But the sister knew it was only a temporary reprieve, that her brother and her people would be fighting the shaking earth forever. And she wept and wept to see her work undone and so many of her people’s souls still trapped within the jealous hateful earth.
“Do not weep lady,” a voice said to her. And she looked to the child, the last child who has escaped from the caves, the last child of her people. “We are still here” and the child gestured to the living souls around them. “And if, when we die we join our people in there earth then perhaps one day we will win the fight with the shaking earth. And the there will be peace.”
“But how can I condemn more of my people’s souls to that sorrow? To that darkness?”
“Let us have a party for them!” shouted the child, “Let us have a celebration for them, here under to sun. That way they will hear our voices and our singing, as we heard your singing in the cave Lady. Then they will know they are not forgotten and that one day when the battle is won they will be welcome here in the sun with us. And then we will all be together again, the living and the dead.”
And the sister smiled and kissed the child on the forehead “You are very wise.”
And so a great feast was held in honor of the brother and the people’s dead and all prayed for the day when the living and the dead could walk hand in hand under the sun and then there would peace at last.
And so this is why the Earth shakes and why we sing for our dead and lay them within the earth.
“Mommy what about the rains? Why does it rain so?”
“That is a story for another day beloved, now sleep.”
Description: In attempt to further develop a Star Trek fan character I have been working on I have slowly been developing the mythology, culture and language of Risa, which is her home planet. It is known that on the planet of Risa that with out regulators there would be immense seismic activity and storms. So I had to question, why kind of mythology do a people develop when the very earth beneath their feet rebels against
them? This is what I came up with. Also completely unbeted. This is all me folks.
Disclaimer: Based on the world and situations created and owned by Gene Roddenberry. This is NO way claims to be canon.
There are stories on Risa which are only told by women, by mothers to their children. This is one of them.
In the first days of our people, when we were still so young we did not yet even know our names we slept within the Earth, deep within her dark embrace and we knew neither sun nor sky nor wide ocean. We walked in darkness, slept in darkness and dreamed in darkness.
In those days we were all one tribe, one clan with one leader. One day the people began to grow sick, for there was little to eat and the earth was dark and cold. We cried out to the Earth, but the Earth would not answer. The people swaddled themselves in many layers and scarped together food from the most putrid of sources. And again they cried out and still the Earth did not answer. Still the people froze and starved but the Earth still did not answer. The leader, who was old by now and suffered as his people did, had a daughter and a son. The leader’s son, who was both kind and loyal wept to see how his people suffered and swore to find an answer. And so taking his warmest clothes and a bit of food he set out. For a year and a day the people waited, dying one by one, until finally the daughter, who was clever and good, stood and spoke. “My brother has been gone for a year and a day. I must find him, or find an answer for our people or else we shall all die.” And so wrapped in her warmest clothes but carrying no food, for her people had so very little to spare by now the daughter set out.
For many days she walked deep with in the earth, within the dark. One day she felt a breeze brush past face. This was a thing she had never felt before for with in the earth there are no breezes, no sounds. All is dank and still. The daughter was sore afraid but she loved her brother and she loved her people so she turned toward this new thing, this breathe within the earth and began to follow it. It led her up.
As she rose she became warmer, so warm that she felt stifled in her swaddled up clothes. Again she was sore afraid, for her clothes were all she had left of her people but as she rose she grew warmer and warmer so that she could barely breathe and think. In this way she began to remove each piece of clothing slowly. At last up ahead she saw a light and as she approached it she removed her last stifling garment. She stepped out into the sun and flinched in the light, but she had never been so warm in her life. Above her was the blue sky and warm sun, before here was the vast oceans and all around her where lush forests. And behind her was the cave. She remembered her people and turned.
There in the mouth of cave she saw the spirit of her brother and gasped. He spoke “You have done what I could not sister. I was too afraid to move forward and I died here, in this cave.”
“My brother!” she cried out, and she ran forward to embrace him, ran back towards the cave.
“No!” he shouted and stopped her. “Once you have left the Earth you may only return when you are dead.”
And the sister wept to know that she could never hold her brother again for to her he was the most beloved of all creatures. And when her tears subsided she begged him “My brother, but what of our people? If I cannot return to the caves how I will I show them the way to this paradise? How will I save them?”
“I will go and fetch them sister, if they are brave enough to follow a dead man.”
“And if they are not?” the sister asked, for she knew that by this time her people would be broken hearted and perhaps beyond hope.
“Then you must sing” the brother instructed her, “Sing so that they will know they are being led to safety and work as you sing, so that they will have homes when they arrive here.”
This the sister agreed to and began to sing. She sang of her journey within the earth, of the great darkness there. She sang of the bright new country she had found, she sang of her brother who she loved and she sang a prayer for the safety of his soul as he led his people, she sang for her people and for their happiness. The sister sang of her people’s new homes as she built them and of the fruits in the trees as she gathered them and of the animals in the forest and the sea. She sang of the bright sun and the great sky and the wide deep ocean. She sang and sang until she had near no voice and still she sang. She sang her self to exhaustion until finally she heard a great many voices crying out and turning she saw there her people stumbling out of the cave. And there standing in the shadow of the cave was her brother, smiling at her. There came her people having followed a dead man through the earth and the sound of the sister’s singing. And though the sister’s heart was sore to see how few of her people were left she was glad to see that now they were safe and her brother’s soul could rest in peace, having finally completed his quest.
But then, as the last one of the people stumbled out the cave, a child of only a few years, the earth began to tremble. The people cried out and ran towards the sister and the ocean. For they were sore afraid at the earth’s jealous wraith. For the earth, having finally realized that it’s children had abandoned it became angry and violent. The sister held her arms out, calling for her brother to come to her, so that his spirit would rest in the light before the Earth’s shaking trapped him forever.
“No!” the brother cried, “No, you and I have led our people to freedom but now I must stay here to protect them, to fight and calm the Earth else she swallow our people up once more!”
And the sister wept because she knew it was the only way. And she saw the spirits of all the people who had died deep within the Earth rise up and how now they fought to hold her still, fought for the lives of those they loved who still lived. And the sister called the living back to stand in the ocean, that they might be safer there.
And when all was done and many of the trees had been shaken down and all the huts she had built had been shaken down and all the food she had gathered had been strewn about finally her brother and the souls of the dead managed to quell the earth and the shaking stopped. But the sister knew it was only a temporary reprieve, that her brother and her people would be fighting the shaking earth forever. And she wept and wept to see her work undone and so many of her people’s souls still trapped within the jealous hateful earth.
“Do not weep lady,” a voice said to her. And she looked to the child, the last child who has escaped from the caves, the last child of her people. “We are still here” and the child gestured to the living souls around them. “And if, when we die we join our people in there earth then perhaps one day we will win the fight with the shaking earth. And the there will be peace.”
“But how can I condemn more of my people’s souls to that sorrow? To that darkness?”
“Let us have a party for them!” shouted the child, “Let us have a celebration for them, here under to sun. That way they will hear our voices and our singing, as we heard your singing in the cave Lady. Then they will know they are not forgotten and that one day when the battle is won they will be welcome here in the sun with us. And then we will all be together again, the living and the dead.”
And the sister smiled and kissed the child on the forehead “You are very wise.”
And so a great feast was held in honor of the brother and the people’s dead and all prayed for the day when the living and the dead could walk hand in hand under the sun and then there would peace at last.
And so this is why the Earth shakes and why we sing for our dead and lay them within the earth.
“Mommy what about the rains? Why does it rain so?”
“That is a story for another day beloved, now sleep.”