by Douglas Robert Turek

The Museum dates back to the year 9982, when monks on a pilgrimage to see their god, Nutka, the god of the Airleaf Flower, stopped by a fishing village to  stay for the night.  The monks, Tesselor and Flopo, were invited by a local priest to witness the yearly Visitation Of Esmoach.  Esmoach is the god of the Finbo Sea, and once a year he rose up from the ocean and walked on land in the shape of a human, but made of the sea, filled with sea creatures.  He would shake the hands of children with hands full of eels, puff himself up to great size to let sharks fight within him, and let the villagers fish from his body until he was clear water.  The fish he bore within him would make the basis of a feast in his honor, and everything he ate would come back to life as a golden fish.  It is still considered a sign of good luck to haul up a golden crab or a golden flatfish.  Such fish are rarely eaten and are often dried out and hung on the wall as a memento.

Tesselor and Flopo were pleased to see such joy inspired by a god that was not their own chosen deity.  They decided to build a library of materials related to all of the gods, that all of them would be honored and praised.  Their original library still stands in the corner of the Great Library.  Though small compared to the Museum as it is now, it was visited by many gods, who were curious about this strange temple that was built to honor not one but all of the gods.  The gods were satisfied with what they found and many gave their blessings.  It was Gumcha, the god of building houses, who first added onto the library.  He showed up in the spring of 10020 and built a stone hall adjacent to the library to be used as a Museum Of The Gods.  His intent was to offer a space where godly artifacts could be shown.  His hammer was the first item donated, and other gods quickly followed suit.  Balar, the god of journeys, was inspired to visit all of the gods he knew personally to ask them for donations for this museum.  He returned the next year with many items, some of them accompanied by letters written by the gods themselves explaining what the items were.  Balar himself donated his cloak and travel diary from that journey.  All of these items formed the basis of the Museum’s collection and still reside in Gumcha Hall, inside the Great Library, which was not built until 11480, under the dictates of Page, the god of libraries.

© 2012 Douglas Robert Turek, all rights reserved, reblogs allowed, be cool.