In the time before time, there were three great Deae, resplendent, formidable, amaranthine. In the world before the world, these exquisite sisters, daughters of the Great God of all Heaven, were granted a boon of their father. He would give them a world of their own to mold, create and populate. The only condition given them was that they must share the world between them, for their father wished for his daughters to love each other.
But the sisters were stubborn, selfish, and spoiled, and did not wish to share. After pleading with their father failed to win them the bounty of two additional worlds to endow with their blessings, the sisters settled upon a compromise of sorts. The world they would create would be separated into three distinct and equal portions. Each sister would create her own land masses and waterways, and none would interconnect. The people who would populate each section would speak different languages, maintain different cultures, and would not interact with one another. There would be three worlds in one.
But their father, fearing that his efforts would be in vain, rejected their plan, reminding his daughters that a planet that did not flow with waters unhindered could not sustain life. To appease their father, the Deae decided that the waters of their world would flow without restraint, and there would be one great body of water that would touch every continent, but there would be three separate and distinct countries whose borders would never change.
Seeing that his beautiful but dreadful daughters would not be further persuaded, the King of the Gods approved their plan for a world of three worlds, and placed in the Deae's hands the powers and tools needed to begin their creation. But to ensure that the three would have to work together, he gave to one sister the power to create life, to another the power to sustain life, and to the third, the power to end life. Thus, all vegetation, all creatures, and all people would be subject to all three of the Deae.
And so the youngest of the sisters created her part of the world and called it Parca. And she named herself Nona, and her sisters Decima and Morta. The middle sister created her part of the world and called it Moer. And she named herself Lachesis, and her younger sister Clotho and her older sister Atropos. And the oldest sister created her part of the world and called it Nor. And she named herself Skulda, and her sisters Ura and Veroandi.
The people of Parca referred to the three Deae as the Parcae. The Moeraens called them the Moerae. The Noraens called them the Norns. But each of these names translated roughly into: the Fates.
Now, the Fates were not the only children of the Great God of Heaven and his Goddess of the Sky. The Horae, or Seasons (Eunomia, Dike, and Eirene) were a second set of triplet sisters, and these had daughters also called Horae, or Hours. The Nymphae also were sisters of the Fates and the Seasons, and these were primarily concerned with mortal emotions, desires, and passions. And then there was their one and only brother, Prometheus. Now, all these sisters tended to be very controlling of their mortal subjects, forcing their collective will upon the poor souls of the planet, and Prometheus, being an only son, was stubbornly attached to his ideas of freedom, choice, and power over one's own destiny. Thus a fierce battle between him and his many sisters was imminent.
However, the Great God of Heaven had a second wife, Mnemosyne, who bore to him nine more daughters, each of whom was both beautiful and graceful, and these were known as the Muses. Charged by the Father of Heaven with the task of providing inspiration and direction to the mortals of all worlds, these nine sisters were united in their undying love for Prometheus, for without freedom of choice, what purpose can there be in inspiration or the giving of direction? Thus each of the nine was wedded to him in turn, and each produced one offspring, nine more daughters, and these were given the gift of Charity, each in her own way. So the Charities became instruments in the hands of Prometheus and the Muses in promoting freedom among mortals.
The Fates, desirous that their plans not be thwarted by their brother and his wives and daughters, took issue with the providences granted by the Charities, and cursed them to live as though they were mortals themselves, saying, "If you have such love for mortals, go and live among them and suffer along with them." And so it was that the nine Charities were thrust down to the three-sided world, their powers retained, but their glory denied, forever cursed to live among mortals, to love and cherish them, and yet to watch as Thanatos, or Death, brother of the Father God, claimed them each in turn. To ease their heartsick burden, Thanatos' twin brother Hypnos provided the ability to sleep indefinitely to the Charities, if they so chose. And it is said, that when mortals make choices that anger or sicken or disappoint the Charities in some way, that they choose to sleep for a time, waiting until some mortal seeks them out and wakes them in search of better gifts.
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