World of Warcraft
Before what is known by the tauren as the Age of Memory (before or at the beginning of the centaur attacks), there was a presence that moved across the desolate world. The shu’halo (also known as the tauren much later in time) have long since remembered her as the Earth Mother, the gentle and eternal spirit from whom all life first came from. Though ages of time have stacked history upon myth, and empires have risen and fallen under the ever-lasting cycle of the sun and the moon, her story remains the earliest beginning of their traditions.
It is not only a tale of creation, but of a mother who shaped the land with her own being, who birthed the lights hanging in the sky as her children, and who gave herself fully so that life upon Azeroth can continue to be. What you will read, dear viewer, is the oldest song of the plains, carried on the winds and remembered in stone.
Before the First Dawn
Before night and day had first found their rhythm above Azeroth, before the mountains were speckled with snow or the seas reflected starlight, a being later titled as the Earth Mother walked alone through a formless and empty world. Beneath the surface of this land, ancient and evil forces dwelled, the Old Ones, whose whispers would later be known as the voices of the Old Gods. Yet their shadows could not bend her will. She moved through the emptiness of the world uncorrupted, but not untouched by her growing concerns, for she carried within her the promise of light.
Knowing the darkness would be after her unborn children, she decided to create a sanctuary where they might be secure from the reach of those malevolent forces. With tenderness she pressed her hands into the ground and created the first mountains. Where her fingers carved through the earth, valleys opened and waters rushed into being. Fire arose from stone, from the tracing of her nails, and her breath made the winds, which swept across the now elementally occupied land. When the winds became restless and harsh, she softened them with rain, lifting mist into the sky and turning them into clouds. Thus the first cycle of nature began. Rain down to earth, earth giving way to seed, seed birthing into green abundance. In this harmonious movement of elements, she prepared the land to become strong enough to hold the light she carried inside of her.
The Eyes of the World
When the land had taken form and the elements learned their balance, the Earth Mother birthed the light she bore as her twins. There came a radiant son, An’she, and a gentle daughter, Mu’sha, beings of warmth and cold which the world would know as the Sun and the Moon. They were not distant specks of rock cast into space, but beloved children taken care of in the heart of creation. The elements were overjoyed in their presence. Fire bestowed An’she with brilliance, and the tides listened to Mu’sha’s voice with quiet loyalty. Under their growing influence of the twins, warmth under An’she and quiet rest under Mu’sha began to alternate in rhythm.
Yet the Earth Mother did not set aside her vigilance. The Old Gods still shifted around beneath the world, their corruption patient until it could be unleashed. But exhaustion eventually came down upon her, and in her need for rest she called An’she and Mu’sha close, pressing them into her own eyes so that their light would take guard in her sleep.. When one eye opened, An’she’s warmth spilled across the land. When the other opened, Mu’sha’s calm overtook. But when both were shut in uneasy slumber, cold swept over, thus winter first came to the world. Not as a punishment, but as a consequence of a mother’s exhaustion.
In time she understood that even with her rest came new additions. Life adapted, growth returned. And so she named the seasons (summer and winter), teaching her children to guide their turning (autumn and spring).
The First Children of the Plains
Joy came to her again, and in a moment of tenderness she bent low over the land. The beating of her heart pressed into the earth, and from that rhythm arose the first of the shu’halo. They emerged from the grass, shaped by wind and sun, their spirits attuned to the pulse of the Earth Mother’s heart beneath their hooves. She scattered grain across the plains so they might never hunger, and she entrusted their guidance to her twin children An’she and Mu’sha. From the Sun, the shu’halo learned endurance and strength. From the Moon, patience and reflection. They came to understand the language of nature; rivers, winds, stone, and the sacred bond between the hunter and hunted.
In their gratitude, they honored the Earth Mother in all things. They saw in the golden fields of grain, her generosity. In the hills they took shelter in, her embrace. Life flourished in those early ages, and the darkness below it watched with envy.
The Tear of Sorrow
The Old Gods, ever so subtle, found their moment when the Earth Mother again laid into her rest. Their whispers seeped upward from the soil, twisting the mortal minds into suspicion and violence. Some among the young shu’halo hesitated, turning the gifts of the elements against one another. Unity was fractured. Blood darkened the grasses.
An’she and Mu’sha saw the ruin among the shu’halo and stirred their mother awake from her slumber. When she saw the hostility among her creation, grief unlike any she had known came over her. A single tear fell, bright and blue, striking the earth. From that tear came the second moon Lo’sho, bearing within its fragile newborn form sorrow, but also hope. In that moment the Earth Mother understood the danger of her connection to the land. If corruption spread unchecked, even she might one day be turned into this state of disharmony, and through her undoing all life would cease to be. With resolve against her wishes, she tore An’she and Mu’sha from her own being, casting them fully into the skies where their light could no longer be contained.
Wounded but determined, the twins took to the sky, carrying Lo’sho between them as a promise that grief doesn’t need to be the end of creation.
The Great Rooting
Knowing the shadows would go after what remained pure, the Earth Mother made her final sacrifice. She summoned the elements one last time and stretched herself across the entirety of the world. Her arms became pathways, her breath felt in the wind, her heart pressed deep into stone, rooting her essence beneath the earth. There she bound the corruption in place as best she could, holding the darkness within the deepest places of Azeroth. Never again would she walk upon the plains, yet neither would she abandon them. Above, An’she burned bright to drive back the coming shadows, while Mu’sha guided the tides and watched over Lo’sho’s gentle glow.
Ages after, the shu’halo would one day be driven from ancestral lands by relentless foes from the west (the centaur), wandering beneath open skies with only their memory as compass. Yet even in exile from their own lands, they felt her presence beneath their steps. For even though she no longer walked beside them, the Earth Mother endured, holding the world in an unseen embrace.
Personal Thoughts on the Earth Mother
Since much of the played history of World of Warcraft shows many different “creators” so to say, there are theories as to who the Earth Mother could actually be referring to. Some say that it must be the tauren interpretation of the earth elemental lord Therazane the Stonemother, as some of their history imply that they could be one and the same with the empty parts of their story filling each other. Others liken her to the titan Eonar, and also her servant, the Keeper Freya for her role of bringing organic life to Azeroth. It could also be that Earth Mother is Azeroth herself, the world-soul of the planet, which was also said so too by the tauren chieftain Baine Bloodhoof. It could also be just a myth not connected to anything, but really, where is the fun in that.
The story of the Earth Mother is one that I liked with my whole heart the more I read, as I didn’t know much about it before. It shines a light on why the tauren are a race that is connected to the nature around them to such lengths, and how they can keep that peace and kindness in their hearts, for they were created from it once upon a time.
