Eon of Eater

Eon of Eater is one of the first documented pieces of literature on Continent, as well as the most influential, forming the theological basis for every currently existing religion, with the exception of Lolion. Eon of Eater is sometimes classified as a meta-religion.

The Myth of Eater exists as an oral tradition and as several dozen written versions that share a very strong thematic resemblance.

The myth

Gods are telling each other a story. At first, the story is uninteresting and gods become bored, so they breathe life into it and the story comes alive: the story is told in a language where every word is a spell that creates the world. Therefore, as the story is being told, words of gods are creating the world on the fly. (this has implications for the accepted theory of time, according to which the future is unwritten).

The story is so long and involves so many characters, that no individual god can know all of it, and the only way to keep the story intact is for all the gods to work together and closely listen to each other.

But although the story is alive, it is still not interesting. And gods realize that an interesting story requires a conflict. And so they introduce an antagonist called Eater, a preternatural animalistic creature. Eater is imbalanced and incomplete and this forces him to eat everything in his path.

Because the story is being created by all the gods, they all took part in creating Eater and he is, thus, more powerful than any individual god, but just slightly less powerful than all the gods taken together.

The only way to defeat Eater is for all the gods to join forces, but this will not happen until all gods are going to be individually defeated and swallowed by Eater. When they are all inside his belly, only then will they truly come together and defeat the Eater from within. They will then begin telling a new story, and the world will be born again.

Interpretations

Different religions interpret the myth differently, from putting emphasis on very specific parts of the myth to outright rejecting certain plot points. Some religions, most notably Xaewoon, consider Eon of Eater to be a worldview that is largely irrelevant to mortal beings.

Defenders

The concept of Defenders suggests that gods actively defend each world from Eater. Eventually, each Defender will be defeated and devoured by Eater.

How this happens differs greatly between cultures and religions, but the general idea is that each world has one or several Defenders.

Last World

Rahkahnja places great emphasis on the concept of the Last World. According to Rahkahnja, the Last World is defended by a god known as the Child Who Walks the Universe.