I am very good friends with Marko-san and Matsumoto-san, but ....

This is how I heard the races of Men were created. I am sure they have
some sort of tea-quaffing mystic nonsense for explaining this, but as
I was told this by my master off of a text at least a hundred years
old, I put more faith in this than in the kami explanation.

They're all myths anyway. Anyone that lives in a Galenese city for 10
years sees history change 10 times. Regardless, this is how the
Creator held his Grand Feast.

Men originally only lived on the Aknorian isles. At first, this was
fine, but the Creator began to be annoyed when they did not expand to
fill the entirety of the great world he had created for them. So the
creator called all of the Men of Aknor to a grand feast. Those who
partook of the meal would lose some power, but their spirits would be
strengthened immeasurably, granting them the ability to walk the earth
throughout much more hardship than the Men of Aknor. Those who came to
the Feast, however, could not return to the Isles, and they would be
transported to a new land to begin a new civilization.

Man of Aknor tended to be very far-seeing, and he would seem detached
compared to Man as we know him today. So while many came to the
Creator's feast, it was not even a majority of Aknor that took up the
Creator on his offer. But, those that wanted that which the Creator
promised did come, and the Feast of the Creator did happen.

Some of those admitted to the Feast were filled with greed and the
wish for eternal life. They quickly found each other, and requested an
audience with the Creator. They begged, bargained, wheedled and tried
to deal with the one who was all powerful and wanted for nothing.
While this was amusing at first, the Creator eventually tired of the
game and when they would not stop trying to get one last negotiation
in, banished the lot of them to the fiery deserts that would later be
called al-Hadim. The descendants of these men never stopped looking
for immortality, and eventually found it - of a sort - after the fall
of Darteem, and they have never lost their lust for trading and the
good bargain.

A small party of the men in the Feast came in looking to kill
others. As the Creator's servants made all comers remove their swords,
these Men brought in long, flexible staves, arguably too weak to hurt
anyone, and were allowed to keep them. Once comfortably at their
table, these Men restrung their bows with the strings they had
carefully concealed as necklaces and hairties, nocked their arrows
(which the Creator's servants had not noticed - these men were quite
the innovators, a property that would be passed on to their
descendants) and let fly, slaying their enemies. For this the Creator
threw them out of the party, and these men went forth and settled Tor
Morbihan, a heavily forested area (the better to hide in).

There is no greater fury than a woman whose beloved has been slain,
and this was shown at the Creator's feast. The Creator acted swiftly
with his expulsion, and the Morbihan men had been very coordinated, so
there was not much time to act. Even so, before the Creator "saved"
the men who opened fire in his feast, one had been ripped apart by a
group of several bereaved. After the assassins had disappeared, one
woman, a tracker by trade, led all those who would go and were able
bodied to track down and destroy the killers. Thus the Raven tribe was
born, and still carries the rage and determination from the feast of
the Creator.

After this happened, much lamentation was heard from one man, the
husband of one of the women slain. Too weak to join the Ravens, he, it
seems, had had a prophetic dream that such a thing would happen, but
dismissed it as impossible - for the Creator himself would be there
and nothing could go wrong.  He voiced these sentiments to the others
in the room, and several stood and agreed with the man when he then
said he would devote his life, what was left of it, to prophecy and
seeing what would happen before it happened. When these people left,
they went north, and just kept going - perhaps some of them wished to
follow the Ravens and the Morbihans (though the Morbihans ended up
eluding them...) - until they settled in the lands of the Bear.

When creating the meal for the feast, the Creator thought about
Anadem's creation of the Elves, and thought of Anadem's sentimental
heart. Anadem would certainly like there to be the possibility of
intermingling of the races, and since she hadn't crossed him recently
the Creator decided to do her a favor (for a price later, of
course). So to the salad for the meal the Creator added dandelion
greens, and those who ate the salad ensured crossfertility with the
Elves for their descendants.

The Creator allowed some of his subordinates to help in the "kitchen"
- which subordinate exactly has been lost, as I am sure the various
editors through the years did not wish to offend any of them. But
through mischance and unfortunate circumstance, some of the roasts
presented for the Men gathered at the feast were fouled. Those who ate
the roasts fell ill, and were unable to be healed by any sort of
magic.  The Creator looked upon this with great grief and worked the
world such that though this was the case, these unfortunates could
give of themselves to others and would regain their strength at the
end of the day. Despite all this favor, those who would later settle
Tor Aquillon developed a rich culinary tradition, because they would
be damned if they let anyone else cook after what the Creator himself
had served to them.

The Creator served ale, wine, and tea at this feast.

For the ale, the Creator served the finest ale brewed with the most
perfect hops and barley (as it had not been grown, but created from
the void). The ale intoxicated all that drank it, and they sang for
hours after the meal was done, even after the Creator had transported
them to their new homes. No force on Areth could stop their singing.
Thus it is that those of Loch Maben sing and treasure their ale.

For the wine, the Creator served red wine of the finest sort. But one
out of ten of the bottles were poisoned. Not all those who drank the
poisoned wine were killed, and those who survived were stronger for
the experience. Some of them, the poison acted strangely upon,
actually strengthening them. These men felt no fear after their
drunken revelry at the feast, and once unleashed upon Areth strode
north into the wastes, eventually to become the Whitesnakes we know
today.

Some, however, the poison acted partially upon. That which did not
kill them made them stronger, but mentally this time instead of
physically. They were not noticed for a while, and thus ended up in
the civilizations of others. Eventually, though, their fellows in the
Tors noticed them and became jealous and wary. So these men were
found, and when they came to the attention of the Tor Lords, they
would be exiled to a "new land" - ironically the land their ancestors
had originally come from. Thus the Galenese were borne of this feast -
possessed of a spirit able to shrug off poison created by the Creator
himself.  Remembering that the First Feast was hazardous to them, the
Galenese developed a healthy wariness, paranoia, and manner that
serves them well in the political arena.

For the tea, the Creator had leaves of the finest black and green teas
(as, again, they were created from the void). Several of those at the
feast determined that they did not want their wits hampered by
alcohol, and began to brew the tea, each their own way. Discussion
soon followed as to how the best tea could be made, for various
effects, and to this day the Okians still hold their tea ceremony, a
mere shadow of the grand debate that was held at this feast.

This was in the days before the fall of the Nameless One, though he
was not in attendance. But Darteem was there, and he was helping with
the final part of the feast, the farewell dessert. Darteem enchanted
fruits and sweetened meats brought by the others with his ice magic.
Some of the enchantments were stronger than others, and one Man even
died from being frozen from the inside out - Darteem was quite
apologetic. But those that ate the coldest fruits became enamored of
the cold, and trudged north - not so far as the Bear and the
Whitesnake, but they certainly walked with them. And thus those of Tor
Arbreth fear not the cold, as their ancestors already survived some of
the best Darteem could throw at them.

As the feast closed, several of the attendees asked those serving the
feast, fragments of the Creator that he had made for just this
purpose, if there was any way they could repay his kindness. In return
for their concern, the descendants of these attendees later discovered
much wealth in their home on Areth, and thus it is that those from Tor
Lanencrest always have something with which to tip the servants.