"that in the ancient and eternal youth of the cosmos, long ere the Earth came to occupy its place, the stars were as thick as sand throughout all the heavens. Where now we see multitudes of bright beings were formerly multitudes of multitudes, so that the cosmos was an ocean of stars from shore to shore, and the great depth of their present solitude was unknown to them - a sorrow which they could not have comprehended. They were the living peoples of the heavens, as unlike to us as gods. Grand and warm in their bright loveliness, they danced to music of their own making and were content.
I'm reminded of the One Forest here.
It was beyond the Trees comprehension as well when they were being slaughtered like the stars.
Also the Wraiths and how they were slaughtered.
SRD keeps giving us these repeating themes.
Why can't we figure out the ending with all these clues???????
"But far away across the heavens lived a being of another kind. The Worm. For ages it slumbered in peace - but when it awakened, as it awakens at the dawn of each new eon, it was afflicted with a ravenous hunger.
I'm reading this now and noticed something.
This reads like the Worm had awakened repeatedly in past without a ravenous hunger.
"afflicted" seems to mean something new was done to the Worm or some new change happened.
Every creation contains destruction, as life contains death, and the Worm was destruction. Driven by its immense lust, it began to devour stars.
"Perhaps this Worm was not large among the stars, but its emptiness was large beyond measure, and it roamed the heavens, consuming whole seas of brightness, cutting great swaths of loneliness across the firmament. Writhing along the ages, avid and insatiable, it fed on all that lay within its reach, until the heavens became as sparsely peopled as a desert.
"Yet the devoured stars were beings as unlike to us as gods, and no Worm or doom could consume their power without cost. Having fed hugely, the Worm became listless and gravid. Though it could not sleep, for the eon's end of its slumber had not come, it felt a whelming desire for rest. Therefore it curled its tail about itself and sank into quiescence.
"gravid" means pregnant or distended with or full of eggs.
The Elohim are "children" or the Worm by their own admission.
They are not the stars.
BUT they are the digested star stuff that the Worm had consumed before. They and all Earthpower would be first on it's list to "reconsume"
I'm wondering if SRD is going to explain the Worm as sleeping on the Earth and when the Elohim "rose" or were "born" from within it that they spread out around the Earth and did all the creation that was mentioned in the end part of Pitchwifes story rather than it being in fact the Earth itself, which we know isn't the case now.