Divine Architecture

Randos is the known inhabitable world that Elves and Men reside within. It is surrounded by heaven and was laid out in such a way by the architect Elonwye. Here I will try to decipher his plan and explain the cosmology and geography of the divine plane of Randos. ‘Randos’ comes to us from the ancient language used by the spirits of elves and men, the language of the gods called Kermim or “God Speak”. The word in their tongue means “vastness,” or “plane”. It was designed as a flat plane so that the eye of Elonwye, our sun that we call Cyrius, can always watch whats happening on the surface. It’s believed that Randos is a reconfigured space fashioned out of the previous Nine Worlds that came before it, including the world that was inhabited solely by the races of men called Emblar. That world of the previous bygone age was not a flat plane but a round planet. A spherical world that could traversed by going sideways around it.

After the destruction of Emblar and its counterparts, Elonwye refashioned the remnants to be a flat plane floating in the heavens so that the gods of men were segregated permanently to the underworld beneath Randos. The gods of men, who we Elves call the Gantas, are sealed beneath the world so that they can never war with Elonwye again and destroy the world as they had with Emblar and the others. Men, who are prolific sailors, found their way to Randos by unfurling their sails and finding their way across the cosmic sea to Randos. We found our way to Randos by following Elonwye's divine light but the men on their ships used their tried and true compasses of crude design that can not only navigate the seas but also the dark void outside of the world.

Before the construction of Randos and the worlds that came before it, there were the forces of entropy and energy which were Ieru and Sheol respectivly. The gods of the elves were born from the order of Ieru and the gods of men were concieved in the swirling chaotic waters of Sheol. The Nine Worlds that came before Randos were born from the constant warfare between the children of Ieru and Sheol. After the destruction of the Nine Worlds, their wreckage was refashioned by Elonwye, who was born from Ieru, into the plane of Randos. Some remnants of the previous worlds can still be found on Randos today, such as the Iron Trees that were native to the world of Emblar or the metal known as Orichalcum that was used to construct the tower of Nee-Delfi in Lareth.

We live in a world of patterns that seems to function much like clockwork. This is why the elves find comfort in it's order and why the restless spirits of man fret at the thought of routine. They see these patterns much like the bars of a jail cell. Men and their gods were once born from the chaotic energy of Sheol and made war against the percieved tyranny of Elonwye's design; they thrive in unpredictability. These men crave constant struggle and often create it for themselves; the lands of Terrador and Ekarus that they inhabit reflect this. Where there is peace, they make war. Where there is order, they bring change. Where there is truth, they create myth. Randos was not made for them and yet they still came; seeking what, we can never be certain of. However, there is enough room for us all and this must still be apart of Elonwye's greater design. Men and elves constantly struggle against one another just as the forces of Ieru and Sheol did at the beginning of time. We are the echoes of their war and live in the shadow of the war to come.