Before A’Tuin returned to the Origin River, he realised a flaw in his creation. As a young turtle, he sought to build a repository for all his knowledge. In creation, he had left his record, but in creating his children, he introduced a flaw. He introduced change.

  A’Tuin did not wish to cripple his creation, forcing it to stay stagnant, but he did not want his labours to wash away on the river’s flow. Pondering the problem, A’Tuin came to a decision. He would create a child like no other, a child to whom he would impart the gift of knowing and show the joy of teaching.

  This daughter, he named Sphinx, while the dragons would protect, and the world turtles would add to his creation, Sphinx would remember. While A’Tuin left his other children to discover the secrets he had left in his creation, the Sphinx was taken as his personal disciple. With her, he shared all that he knew.

  When A’Tuin returned to the river, the world mourned his departure, and none took the loss harder than the Sphinx. So heavy was her sorrow that she abandoned the task she was left with. While others tried to remember, none were up to the task. Hence, the time between the age of creation and the first is known as the forgotten age.

  One day, a young man, a historian seeking to understand the age of creation, set out to find A’Tuin’s daughter with a question none but she could answer. At first, she had little interest in her visitor, still saddened by the loss of her father. The young man, not knowing how to soothe her sorrow, turned to the only thing he knew.

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  He started sharing all that he had learned with her, every story, every event and every battle. Days turned to weeks, and eventually to months and years, as the young man recounted all he knew.

  When he ran out of stories to tell, a change had come over the Sphinx. Deep in her heart, the flickering flame of curiosity had grown with the young man’s tales. Through his stories, she realised how much the world had changed. The love of knowing imparted to her by her father became a torch in the darkness of her depression. In gratitude, she took the young man as her first student.

  With her first student, she set out and found a world that had grown beyond her recognition. During her absence, A’Tuin’s other children had dreamt a world so different from her own. So profound were the changes that the Sphinx realised she could not keep up with them. Seeking a way to observe this new world, she found the answer in her student. If she could not keep up on her own, she would teach others to aid her in her task.

  Six more answered her call. They freely offered to share all they knew, and in turn, the Sphinx took them as her students. When even her students were not enough they took on students of their own, birthing a tradition. Those who earnestly seek to know can bring all that they have learned and in offering it freely may join their ranks and learn from their wisdom.

  With time their ranks swelled and they came to be known as the Archivists. Throughout history their traces can be seen, silent observers to the flow of the river. Those who fight against time. Those who remember.

  Excerpt from ‘Calaxular’s compendium of tales from early first age.’

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