"David Eddings - The Dreamers 01 - The Elder gods" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eddings David)

of the Land of Dhrall. The legends of Dhrall maintain that the life-forms of the Wasteland are the creations
of That-Called-the-Vlagh.

The legends of Dhrall are uncertain as to the origins of the Vlagh. Some maintain that it is no more than
a nightmare which one of the early gods experienced during that first long sleep. Other legends contend that
the Vlagh is vastly older than the gods whose forms resemble those of humans, and that it was the lord of
stinging insects and venomous reptiles which have long since vanished from the faces of Mother Sea and
Father Earth. All legends of Dhrall agree on one point, however. That-Called-the-Vlagh was too impatient to
give the creatures which served it sufficient time to follow the slow, natural process of development and
alteration favored by the true gods of Dhrall, but rather it chose to manipulate their development so that they
might better serve it.

And it came to the Vlagh that its servants might be of greater value if they were not all the same, for a
creature designed for one task and one only would be far more efficient than a more generalized creature.

To achieve that end, the Vlagh periodically enveloped itself in a woven cocoon in its dark nest in the
center of the Wasteland, and when it emerged from its cocoon, it was a creature of an entirely different
aspect than it had been before. Then it tested the capabilities of its new form to determine its ‘ability to
perform its specific task, noting its strengths and weaknesses.

And then once again it enclosed itself in the cocoon, and when it emerged once more, the weaknesses
were no longer there and the strengths had been enhanced.

Thus by experimentation, That-Called-the-Vlagh altered and modified its own form to develop a highly
specific creature. And once it was satisfied, it reproduced that creature by the thousands so that it would have
servants enough to achieve its ultimate goal.

Then That-Called-the-Vlagh returned to its nest and began again, creating yet another form for yet
another specific task.

And so it is that all of the varied creatures which emerge from the cocoon of the Vlagh are not the
creatures of the Domains of the true gods of Dhrall, but rather are strange combinations, part insect, part
reptile, part warm-blooded animal, and each of these variations has a specific task in its service to the ruler
of the Wasteland.

The one and only characteristic the creatures of the Wasteland share is an obsessive need to expand the
Domain of the ruler of the Wasteland until the entirety of the Land of Dhrall lies in its grasp. For truly, That-
Called-the-Vlagh hungers ultimately to rule the world.

And the Vlagh sent forth many of its creatures to intrude themselves into the Domains of the true gods of
Dhrall, and carried those intruders back to the Vlagh everything which they had observed. And the Vlagh
considered each tiny nibble of truth which its servants brought to it, and after eons uncounted, it perceived a
flaw during the transfer of power and authority from one generation of gods unto the next.

For truly, the elder gods grew weary and forgetful as they longed for sleep; and the younger gods were
yet only half awake.

And the spirit of the Vlagh was filled with evil joy at this revelation. And laid it then its plans and
marshaled its servants in preparation for a war whereby it could surely destroy the true gods of Dhrall. And
there in the Wasteland it dreamed of the day when it would come to rule the entirety of the Land of Dhrall.