Tonaltocaqueh, I give to you the Huentlitolli; language of my ancestry, that you are never bound by the Three-False-Gods’ tongue. I give to you the maps of my ancestry, that you are safe from the unseen death on your travels. I give to you Hearth-and-Home, that you will live long in the eye of the storm that transforms this land; I name her Ch——, after the Twice-Slain-God of my ancestry.

I furnish you with these gifts and others, not for your debt; I give to you freely, and beg that you remain free. I ask that you not worship the Castleman’s Three-False-Gods, nor my Twice-Slain-Gods, nor myself. I set your task to this: live freely, create your own paths, your own gods, your own stories, and create a world for yourself. You are their equals. They will look down upon you, in their arrogance, and will try to wipe you from this world. I will burden you with the gifts of protection; a prison of no walls.

 Do not deviate from this charge of rebellious survival. Live to spite all for your own humanity, and cherish it before any deity or story or nation. See no borders upon my maps, and write none upon your own, and be free of that prison, that you may trade it for this one of storms and sands and Tecuani. One day, outgrow me; become dystheic, and remember that a god is beholden to man. Learn not the Castleman’s lessons, nor his ways, and be free of his burdensome trinkets. Do not bargain less than your worth, and do not be fooled by the steel veneer; it has killed my gods twice, and killed theirs many more times also, but it is a death brought by men regardless. Live always guided by what you can see; follow only the sun, and you will survive this land.

And one day, I hope that you may forgive me, even if it is too late for my redemption.

-The Gifts-Giver, to the first Followers of the Sun