Before Sun and Moon is a Quest Item obtained through completing the World Quest Antigonus.
It is handed in at the end of the World Quest Collection of Dragons and Snakes, after which it can be interacted with to unlock Vol. 2 in The Byakuyakoku Collection.
Text in The Byakuyakoku Collection[]
—Before Sun and Moon—
What we wish to record is the tale of how heaven's will took shape on the earth below. O heavenly gods, these creations are your works. Grant us divine wisdom — let us endlessly record!
"When the Doves Held Branches"
When the eternal throne of the heavens came, the world was made anew. Then the true lord, the Primordial One, came forth and did battle against the seven terrifying sovereigns, dragon-lords of the old world. The Primordial One created shining shades of itself, and the number of these shades was four.
"On Phanes, or The Primordial One"
The Primordial One may have been Phanes. It had wings and a crown, and was birthed from an egg, androgynous in nature. But for the world to be created, the egg's shell had to be broken. However, Phanes, the Primordial One, used the eggshell to separate the "universe" and the "microcosm of the world."
"Forty Years After the Held Branches"
Forty winters entombed the flames, and forty summers churned the seas. The Seven Sovereigns were vanquished, and the seven nations submitted to the heavens. The Primordial One, the great sovereign, began the creation of heaven and earth for "our" sake — that of its creations which it cherished most, who would soon appear upon this earth.
...
"Four Hundred Years After the Held Branches"
The mountains and rivers were made, and the seas and oceans accepted those who rebelled and those who would not kneel. The Primordial One and one of its shades created the birds of the air, the beasts of the earth, and the fish of the sea. Together, they also created flowers, grass, and trees, before finally creating humans — our ancestors, numerous as the stars in the sky, uncountable as the sand on the shore. From that time, our ancestors made a covenant with the Primordial One, and so entered into a new age.
"The Year of the Ark's Opening"
The Primordial One had a sacred plan for humans. As long as they were happy, it too rejoiced.
"The Year After the Ark's Opening"
The people worked the land, and so came the first harvest. The people mined, and so reaped the first crop of precious ore. The people gathered, and the first poems were written.
"The Year of Jubilee"
If there was hunger, the heavens would bring down food and rain. If there was poverty, the earth would bring forth its riches. If melancholy were to spread, the heavens would reply with their voices. The one taboo was to succumb to temptation. But the path to temptation had already been sealed.
...
"The Funerary Year"
The second throne of the heavens came, and war was rekindled, as it was in the world's creation. That day, the heavens collapsed and the earth was rent asunder. Our ancestors and their ancestral land fell into this place during that conflict.
The era of darkness had begun.
"The First Year of Darkness"
The people of the Seven Sovereigns had found refuge in the oceans, and the Dragonheirs of the Depths ruled this particular place, which led to war between them and our ancestors.
Our ancestors chased them into the shadows with the light of a thousand lanterns, and they hid in those shadows, hunting us. But there was only darkness in this place, and so their hunting grounds were untrammeled.
The prayers of the people turned into lamentations, but the Primordial One and its three other shining shades could not hear.
"The Parable of the Sun"
In a dark cavern, there lived a group of people who had never seen the light. Among them was a sage who had once seen the sun, and he told the gathered folk about what life under the sun was like, and about the great might of the sun. Seeing that they did not comprehend, he lit a torch — and thus did people come to worship the flame, believing it to be the sun. They even got used to a life of darkness and fire.
When the sage died, someone would monopolize the flame. Using it, they would cast a long shadow over the land.
"The Parable of the Lethied Lotus"
A lotus that causes all who look upon it to forget their troubles. A ship captain searching for the way back to the surface discovered a tribe of people who ate these lotuses. Some crew members stayed in that place. Others rejected that temptation.
Life is a boundless ocean of suffering. We are only searching for the way home.
"The Third Year of Darkness"
We knew the only one who had not forsaken us as the "Ruler of Time." She was the moment. She was every moment. She was the measure of a thousand winds and the sun and the moon. She was every second of joy, every moment of rage, every instant of longing, every minute of obsession. She was every flash of delirium.
We call her Kairos, or "the ruler of the unchanging world." We dare not speak her true, secret name, and so I pen it here, only once, and in reverse: "Htoratsi."
"The Year of Blindness"
The sage Abrax's wisdom was awakened, and he unveiled a light-bringing miracle from within his hands. So our ancestors began to build the Helios, with him as their leader.
"The Year of Sight, or the First Year of Sun and Moon"
Helios, the divine chariot of the sun, was finally completed. The Whitenight came, and Evernight was banished.
The years of the Sun and Moon had begun.
"The Second Year of Sun and Moon"
Our ancestors sought the returning way, for surely the war on the surface had ended by then.
But the Primordial One, the first throne, had laid down a ban, preventing our ancestors from finding the path home.
In that case, the Primordial One must have defeated the Second Who Came.
Abrax was imprisoned by order of the Sunchild.
"The Parable of the Tree"
The king's gardener and the tree spirit of the royal garden were in love. But the king wished to repair the beams of his pavilion, and so needed to cut down the tree with the most spiritual energy within it. The king was the incarnation of the Primordial One, and the gardener could not defy the sovereign of sovereigns, and so he could only bring his plea to the king's priest, who was the incarnation of Tokoyo Ookami.
The priest had pity on the gardener and said to him: "Go, and cut the branches of the spirit-tree down." The gardener did so, and afterward did as the king ordered, cutting the spirit-tree itself down.
Then the priest said: "Plant the spirit-tree's branches in the ground." But the gardener said: "A spirit-tree shall take five hundred years to grow." The priest said: "Your one thought shall echo through eternity." And so the gardener planted the branches in his back yard. In an instant, the slim branches grow into a new tree, and the new tree spirit was a continuation of the past one.
For it is the God of Moments who is able to take "seeds" from this "moment" into the past and the future.
The Tenth Year of Sun and Moon
Abrax is long gone. The events before the sun and the moon have been recorded sufficiently. Well, if I did not dare to write things down just as they happened, how could I consider myself a scribe of Tokoyo Ookami?
Hark, I hear armor without. Here, I shall stop writing.
Other Languages[]
| Language | Official Name | Literal Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| English | Before Sun and Moon | — |
| Chinese (Simplified) | 日月前事 Rìyuè Qiánshì | The Past Before the Sun and Moon |
| Chinese (Traditional) | 日月前事 Rìyuè Qiánshì | |
| Japanese | 日月前事 Jitsugetsu Zenji | The Past Before the Sun and Moon |
| Korean | 일월 과거사 Ilwol Gwageosa | The Past History of the Sun and Moon |
| Spanish | Lo ocurrido antes del sol y la luna | What Happened Before the Sun and the Moon |
| French | Avant le soleil et la lune | Before the Sun and the Moon |
| Russian | До солнца и луны Do solntsa i luny | Before Sun and Moon |
| Thai | อดีตของตะวันและจันทรา Adit khong tawan lae chanthara | The Times Before the Sun and Moon |
| Vietnamese | Nhật NguyệtNhật Nguyệt Tiền TruyệnTiền Truyện | The Story Before the Sun and Moon |
| German | Vor Sonne und Mond | Before Sun and Moon |
| Indonesian | Sebelum Matahari dan Bulan | Before the Sun and the Moon |
| Portuguese | Antes do Sol e da Lua | Before the Sun and the Moon |
| Turkish | Güneşten ve Aydan Önce | |
| Italian | Prima del sole e della luna |