A/N: "In the time before time" is the traditional beginning for tales and stories in the Empire, much like "Once upon a time" is in our culture. This is one of multiple versions of the creation story in Jiaang. The odd bit is that it exists concurrently with the actual history of the Empire and the first Emperor, who has very little in common with the character of that name in this tale.

In the time before time, the First Emperor awoke in the mountains that are now called sacred, and he saw that the world was barren and without life, and he wept, and the tears that he wept became the river that flows from the hills. Where it flowed, grasses and flowers and the seedlings of trees began to sprout, and when the First Emperor saw this, he ceased to weep and laughed aloud.

A silver light shone upon him then and he marveled, for the world had hitherto been as dark as it was empty. He looked into the sky and marveled anew, for it seemed to him that his laughter had broken into many thousands of glittering things, and he was made glad.

And for a time, the Emperor was pleased with the world and the lights in the sky, but only for a time. He walked alone in the forests that he had made and where his feet fell, there came new and bright flowers and though he was pleased by their beauty, his grief was not soothed. Even yet, he was alone and he was lonely, and he considered the world to still be empty, for he himself was the only living creature that he found.

And so he decided to make for himself companions, and he took stones and said to them, “Live,” and they became animals of all kinds and shapes, but they could not speak and though they tried, they could not ease his loneliness. And he took flowers and shaped them and said to them, “Speak,” and they became creatures like unto him and like unto the creatures he had made from the stones, and he was saddened, for it seemed to him that he could not make a fit companion for himself out of what materials he had.

And the Emperor laid himself down to sleep, for he was weary with grief, and his tears fell as he slept and fell upon one of the flower creatures, and it turned to its fellows and said, “See, our creator and father is sad, for we have not satisfied his desire for comfort. Let us discourse together, therefore, and let all who wish to please our master set forth plans to ease his loneliness.”

And the children of the First Emperor sat together and spoke for many hours, and they took gleaming stone from the ground and molded it and set it in the sky, and it shone down upon the Emperor and woke him.

And he smiled not and spoke not and grieved even yet. And when the newly forged sun had slid from the sky—for the creatures were clever and knew that they could not sleep if the burning light shone always upon them—he slept again, and his tears watered the flowers so that they grew their own height over again in one night.

And the children sat together and spoke again, and many of them were angry that the Emperor had not taken joy in the gift they had made for him, but many more of them were sorry that they had not pleased him. And they took counsel with one another for seven cycles of the rising and falling of the new sun, and upon the eighth sunset, one of the children said unto her brethren, “See, the Emperor our father hath brought to life flowers and trees by his tears. Might not his blood and his flesh bring to life a creature like him, that he might not be alone longer?”

And this idea was abhorrent to her brethren, but when seven further cycles brought no better answer to their minds, they determined that they would take his blood and one of his hands, and create for him a fit companion out of the blood and flesh of his own self. But they realized that they had not the power to give life to things that did not live, and so they determined that one of them must give up their own life to give breath to the creature they would make.

And the daughter of the Emperor who had conceived the idea in the beginning offered herself unto her brethren and said, “Take my life and put it into the creature we shall make for our creator and father.”

And the others agreed. They took flowers and clay and fashioned of them a maiden that they thought that their father would find fair, and they gathered fruits and plants and sprinkled them with a powder to cause he who ate it to sleep and presented them to the Emperor as a gift. And the Emperor did not suspect their designs, and he took the fruit and ate of it and he laid himself down and slept as deeply as one dead.

And the children of the Emperor cut off his left hand and caught the blood in a cup and bound the stump, and they poured the blood onto the creature they had made and gave it the hand of the Emperor, and they slew their sister there and as she ceased to breathe, the maiden they had fashioned took her first breath, and opened her eyes for the first time.

And they led her to the Emperor, who awoke and was very wroth with them for taking his hand. But his anger was soothed when they explained why they had done what they had done, and presented him with their creation, and he found the maid pleasing, and asked which of his children had been so clever. And the others of his children would not answer, and they went away from him, and he bade the maiden wait for him, and followed, and found the body of his daughter, and he sorrowed.

Her body he set in the sky, among the stars of his laughter, and returned to his new wife, and forgot the children of his voice and of his thought in the joy of creating children of his flesh. And the children of his flesh have ruled over the children of his voice, and they have spread over the world and many have forgotten him. But even yet his laughter shines down upon us in the night sky, and his tears give life to the whole of the land, and it is well.