Holy Lakes
The Holy Lakes of Hurmu are six lakes revered by the people of Hurmu. Tradition holds that they were formed by a series of meteor falls and later filled up with water from rain and from the tears of the first people.
The names of the Lake are rather abstract.
'Dawnuk ("Instrument" - melody making) The name of Dawnuk comes from the beautiful sounds the waves make. This lake lies in the deepest depression with large hills on the sides. Every wave makes a sound, a note and when the lake itself is in movement melodies come.
Kassma ("Peace" - this lake is also the largest one) This lake is the biggest one. Kassma is also the one with the lowest saltage. Many fishes have been planted in the lake which is now sweeter than the ocean itself. At the shores of Kassma the Hurmudans vowed to be peaceful and not to harm anyone. Therefore we have the name, Kassma.
Nwem ("Night") Shadows cover this lake very much, so it's often dark. It lies very deep in the depression and is very still. When there is night, Nwem is like a mirror. You can even see the stars reflect in the water surface.
Arkwass ("liberty") The most important lakes in the mythos are Kassma and Anset. It is believed that the Humans rose from the Anset hole and then moved around. From the others fictional species came, for example dwarfs and faeries and giants.
Anset When a Hurmudan goes to Anset it is about life and death. Anset was the first meteor to hit the ground and caused the first devastation and shockwaves. When you go to Anset you hope that nothing like that will ever happen again. No more meteors, no more devestation. But today, we humans have created this devastation in nature and through weapons. Because of this the Hurmudans feel very deeply from Anset.
Sselm Sselm is a small lake, it has the highest saltage and there is no vegetation around the lake, at least by 200 metres. It is almost as salt as the Dead Sea. Sselm is very quiet, and the land around it is quiet. Nothing can grow around this lake, and thus there is no life around it. The streams going into it are very still too. That's why we have the name Sselm, Silence.
Legendary history
According to ancient Hurmu legends a comet ten thousand years ago passed Micras. Somehow parts of the comet broke off to form six meteors. These entered the atmosphere and hit the ground. The impact created six big holes in the ground. Out of the holes the first Human (in Hurmu: Hurmudan) people came, from earth and rock – earth symbolizing the muscles and organs of the body and rock symbolizing the skeleton. The holes are very deep, around 600 metres below sea level. It took the Humans many weeks to climb out of them and during this time much rain fell for it was in the winter this happened. In January to be precise. Anyway, the rain fell and made the Humans very wet. The rain mingled with the Lyrican red soil and thus blood was formed in the bodies of the Humans. Now the Human life was complete.
Once the humans reached the surface of the Earth they saw was devastation. They saw that their rocks from the sky had destroyed the lands of Lyrica. Shockwaves had damaged much of the lands around them. Everything was lost. Many animals lied dead on the ground, rotting in the sun. And the grass was black, burned and ruined.
Many animals’ lives were lost and all vegetation was gone as far as the eye could see. And all of this had been caused by the humans. Most of the humans decided to travel to places beyond where the land was fertile, but few remained around the holes. They were so traumatized that they couldn’t do anything but weeping and crying. Their tears filled the holes, which soon became six salt-lakes. Now they realized that they just couldn’t sit there all the time and crying. “Be happy!” they ordered each other. “But let no one forget this tragedy.”
No one should forget what happened they vowed. So they decided to live forever around these lakes and guard them. It was a strange feeling for the Hurmu people. They were happy for the lakes, giver of life, but sad too, because their lives had been created on the expense of killing others.
“No one shall be killed just to give life for someone else” they said, so they became vegetarians. Some Hurmu people still follow this practice.
The Hurmu cherish the lakes, giver of life and slayer of living. They “baptize” their children there and they wash their dead there.
Today four of the lakes (Kassma, Dawnuk, Nwem and Arkwass) are administered by the Hurmu people themselves and two of the lakes were lost when the Hurmu people had to give up mich of their lands to keep on surviving. Now the other two lakes Anset and Sselm are in Stormark.
