Esra and Entru

Gloranthan Folk Tales

Gloranthan Songbook

Moonie Madness

Carmanian Sources

Malkioni Scriptures

I once saw the Puppeteer Troupe perform a skit which they claimed was based on the innermost rites of the Esrola Temple. It was about Esra and Entru, the First Woman and First Man. Before they learned to propagate the way we do nowadays, each used a variety of other partners.

Entru was a hairy man, who ran wild in the forest and lurked with the other wild beasts. He had his earliest children by them: they are the animal-like ancestors of the beastly Wenelian barbarians. As for Esra - well, there were some bawdy allusions to serpents and ears of corn, but I can't pretend to have understood them all. Many of her children engendered by these means are the ancient temple guardians found throughout Esrolia (as indeed are their parents).

Then Esra sought out and trapped Entru. She shaved him, making him civilised. She dressed him in garments, taming him by teaching him speech and manners and love. Their children were not hairy like their father but smooth, and they are the ancestors of all of us today. Esra and Entru lived happily together until they were parted in the Gods War, when the possessive jealousy and anger of the male gods destroyed the world. Now Entru must remain in the silent caverns of Ty Kora Tek, so that Ketha, Goddess of Springtime, can return to the world with every turning year.

Notes for God Learners:

• for 'Esra' read 'Asrelia, as the Earth Mother'
• for 'Entru' read 'Genert, as the First Father'
• for 'Ketha' read 'Voria, as Spring/Grain Goddess'
• for 'Ty Kora Tek' read 'Ty Kora Tek'

This myth shows the ancient Earth Pantheon of Esrolia following the model of the Four Corners of the Earth (rather than the later Six Daughters of Earth). More recent deities such as Maran Gor and Babeester Gor are found in the current form of the Esrolite religion, but these four figures are found in the original and oldest myths.

"Entru" is an ancient figure from Manirian mythology, interpreted differently by various local peoples. Some see him as the First Male, or First Father; others treat him purely as an ancestral figure, or sometimes a Godtime saviour. The First Age Entruli of the Manirian coast claimed descent from Entru; these are the ancestors of the Ramalians and Wenelians of today.

The myth-sequence is a combination of Enkidu (Epic of Gilgamesh), Samson & Delilah (Old Testament), Demeter and Persephone (Greek Myth), and Inanna's betrayal of Dumuzi (Sumerian), with some naughty bits from Aristophanic Comedy thrown in for laughs.