Listed: The Story of Lord Moon and Lady Sun (as related by Bayushi Taga,
translated from the original Terran Japanese by a standard Starfleet Universal
Translator unit)
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In the beginning, there was Chaos - the world was a primordial sea. I think we can skip past the creation myths and whom beget whom, simplifying it down to two Kami (gods, in your tongue) came down and formed the lands - Lord Moon, and Lady Sun.
After they formed it, they formed the heavens, where they dwelt. Lord Moon and Lady Sun then set about naming creation - Lord Moon would create the names, and Lady Sun would assign them to the things of the land.
As they did this, Lord Moon spotted a thing that was hiding in the shadow of a rock. He approached it, and asked why it was hiding. "I do not want to be named, for then I will be recognized, and can be bound and defeated," it said. Lord Moon offered it a deal - he would not give it a name if it agreed to serve him. The thing, which would become the "Living Darkness" or the "Shadow" for lack of a better term, agreed. Lady Sun never noticed the wayward thing that had no name.
Eventually, Lord Moon and Lady Sun beget nine children, who would eventually found the Seven Clans and the Emerald Empire; Hantei (Emperor of all), Hida (Crab Clan), Doji (Crane), Togashi (Dragon), Akodo (Lion), Shiba (Phoenix), Bayushi (Scorpion), Shinjo (Unicorn), and Fu Leng (Who would become the enemy of the Emerald Empire of Rogukan). (Note to Steed - you may recognize some of these names as family names of current Avatars who are descended form these Kami - particularly Bayushi and Shinjo.)
Moon grew jealous of the attention that Lady Sun gave to the children, rather than him. He chased and swallowed the children whole, attempting to destroy them. Lady Sun hid Hantei and fed Lord Moon a rock in his place, and offered him drugged sake to sate his thirst with each child. Eventually, Lord Moon fell asleep. Lady Sun raised Hantei in secret while Moon slept, and trained him in Bushido, the Way of the Warrior. When Moon awoke, Hantei challenged him to a duel. Still drugged and weighed down by the children and the stone, Moon was bested by Hantei, and his belly slit open. The children (and rock) fell out, and down to Earth - Lord Moon grabbed Fu Leng, indenting to keep at least one of his children. Hantei cut off Lord Moon's hand, and Fu Leng again fell. As he did so, he grabbed Hantei and dragged him with him to the lands below.
All the children fell into what would become the plains where the City of the Emperor would be built, except for Fu Leng, who fell into the Shadowlands and through them into the Underworld. The eight children had a competition to see who would rule them - Hantei won, and became the first Emperor. The others founded the Seven Great Clans, and swore fealty to him.
Once again, Lady Sun paid more attention to her children than she did to Lord Moon. He became jealous again, but since they were on Earth, he was unable to directly affect them. So he sent the Living Darkness to destroy them, proclaiming it to be his child in all ways, to destroy the children that Lady Sun loved more than him.
The Shadow gained its abilities from the fact that it had never been named - it could not be defined, bound, or identified without one. It could borrow anyone else's identity, and tried to absorb them to claim them, then destroy them. I have heard it said that the difference between Magic and Science is viewpoint - how do you analyze something that does not, or all intents and purposes, exist?
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In the Nexus, the Avatars successfully managed to persuade Lord Moon to grant the Shadow a name, and thus averted a disaster. In the "real" Rogukan, things were a bit more... complicated. Lord Moon was not as cooperative. Mirumoto Hitomi, the Lord of the Dragon Clan, set about trying to defeat Lord Moon in combat. She gathered Lord Moon's Bones (a sword of obsidian), Lord Moon's Hand (the one that fell into the Shadowlands, still attached to Fu Leng), and Lord Moon's Blood (A mirror of Obsidian with scrying properties). With these three, and the essence of the original Togashi in her, she defeated Lord Moon in a duel, with the aid of a mortal monk. She then committed seppuku, leaving her body behind and becoming the Moon.
Shortly thereafter, Lady Sun committed seppuku in mourning of her lost husband, for although he was evil, Honor and Bushido demanded it. Hida Yakamo, the Lord of the Crab Clan (who possessed a hand of pure jade, the soul of the greatest Naga to ever roam the earth, and a mutual hatred of Hitomi from a past duel) became the Sun. With both in place, Hitomi created a new name, and Yakamo bestowed it upon the Living Darkness. The name they bestowed it was Akodo, for than name had been stripped from the records of the Empire in dishonor, and the two saw it fit to restore the name and bring back the might of the Lion Clan.
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That is a brief summary of our history. There is much more, although
I think it is already within the Delphi Archives - Bishop has come across
it at least once, and Nifty is familiar with it through our mutual father,
the original Talgar of Galahad.