(I don't necessarily want to be the first deity, but I thought I'd start the ball rolling. I figure other gods can be born in the chaos before the world or during the process of Creation itself.)
[sblock]When Amletan created the water and land with his hands and breathed life into the world, he sat back and surveyed his work. It was a mighty task and even the Great Ancestor was weary after the task. As he sat on the newly formed beach, leaning onto his thighs, two beads of sweat rolled off his forehead. One landed in the dust and sand, the other was swept out by a wave. Each carried the spark of Amletan's labors, however, and from his divine perspiration sprang two men, each fully formed and bounding with energies.
The first man was formed from the sands of the beach and had the heavily muscled legs of a strong runner. The Creator named him Shon the Vagabond, and pronounced him the first wanderer of this new land. The second man was thinner and with swarthy skin as if he had already spent weeks under the baking sun. He was named Meo the Sailor and was charged with the task of exploring Amletan's new oceans.
The two brothers let loose twin cries of joy and left with all speed to search the world's nascent horizons, Shon sprinting across the headlands and Meo swimming mighty into the surf. For many years they traveled far and wide, becoming experts in all manners of exploration and navigation. When Amletan saw fit to create the first mortals, the Twins befriended them and taught them all they new. Shon walked among the desert nomads and showed them how to find oases, he ran with the tribes of the northern steppes and tamed horses for them to ride, in the northern wastes he wandered with the noble caribou, and in the southern jungles he taught the parrots their many songs.
During the same time Meo showed fishermen how to stitch sails and nets, went seal-hunting with the tribes of the ice flows, raced dolphins in the sunlit tropical seas, and dove with whales in the deep ocean.
Soon, though, an envy consumed the brothers. Every man alive new that Shon was the fastest runner alive but the Vagabond wanted to best his brother at sailing. Meo was acknowledged to be the finest diver in Creation, but the Sailor eyed his brother climbing mountains with jealous eyes. One day, on the peninsula known to this day as Beak of the Twins, the two met to confront each other. Heated words were exchanged, then insults, and before long the two flew at each other in rage. Each was a mighty athelete and the fight was a powerful one. So strong were the blows and furies that the brothers threw at each other that they stirred the air into a shrieking cyclone, many of which plague the Beak annually to this day. When the storm blew itself out, only one figure fell in a heap on the ground. People from the nearby village who had come out of concern for their friends drew back as the man pulled himself up. He was a stranger, they agreed, but there was something familiar about him. The man himself seemed confused, claiming to be both Shon and Meo and not understanding how that could be. At length he realized that the brothers' conflict had drawn them closer together, as conflicts sometimes do, until they coalesced into one being.
Calling himself Epheme, this new god gave a whoop and set out to discover the world anew. He swam across the ocean and climbed mountains on the other side, racing across deserts to dive gracefully off of cliffs on the far side. Eventually, however, his joy became tainted: whenever he was exploring the wide ocean something in his heart longed for the cool forests of the land, and vice versa. Thus Epheme discovered the curse of envy.
Now known as the Divided God or the Journeying God, Epheme is constantly on the move to this day. He naturally gravitates to rivers where he can enjoy some of the joys of the water and the land, but this compromise never lasts. He is the patron of traders and merchants, seeing them as kindred spirits always on the move, and of migrating birds. In the spring or autumn some say they can hear his laughter in the wind as he trails the flocks on their journeys. His symbol is a sparrow, his earthly messenger, often carrying a small shell in one foot and a stalk of grain in the other.[/sblock]
EDIT: So my creative juices ran away with me. I shrunk the size of this post so that it wouldn't cramp the conversation so much.
