In the days of old the Old Gods walked the earth and created all sorts of wondrous new things. Pamalt was chief of the gods, but he had many advisors, whom all he listened before making a decision. One of these advisors was named Balumbasta, Firebearer and eldest companion of Pamalt, Raiser of Mountains, powerful Earth Father. Soon after being born Balumbasta raised an immense and high mountain, on top of which Pamalt and his companions built their huts. This mountain is called Um.

Bolongo, wretched outcast and murderer, jealously eyed from his hiding place the beautiful mountain that Balumbasta had caused into being. Bolongo envied greatly that which was forbidden to him because he would not follow Pamalt's commands. Because he was cunning, however, Bolongo managed to steal in secret one of the rocks that were left over from the work of creation Balumbasta had embarked on. In Bolongo's hand the stone grew crooked and its real characteristics were distorted by the greed and envy of the being that touched it.

And so Bolongo stepped before Balumbasta, feigning humbleness and smoothly praising the great mountain Balumbasta had erected. Balumbasta, though great of strength did not have that much intelligence and so genuinely believed Bolongo was commending him on his mountain and was pleased by this, so when Bolongo pleaded him to tell if this stone Bolongo had found might have any value, he took it in his hand and studied it. But he shook his head and told Bolongo that the rock was just leftover matter from the creation and so was neither beautiful nor valuable.

Bolongo feigned disappointment but praised Balumbasta to no end because he had had the pity to do a favor for a wretched soul who thought the stone might be valuable. Balumbasta took the compliments not knowing, that the stone, filled to the brim with Bolongo's greed and envy had stolen some of Balumbasta's ability to create mountains. Folding the rock deep within his palm Bolongo left hanging his head and appearing very sad and depressed, even though under his sad face he was secretly almost bursting with the triumph of stealing secret powers from the great Raiser of Mountains himself.

Bolongo headed far north, where Pamalt's power was weakest, gathering on the way a great horde of evildoers and other suspicious characters, whose chief he then declared himself to be. They carried with them great masses of Balumbasta's surplus waste and finally piled them in the middle of the jungle. Bolongo took the stone in his hand and used the power he had stolen from Balumbasta to make a mountain from the pile of stones. But because Bolongo had none of the virtues of Balumbasta, only evil intentions, the mountain became crooked, a horrid mockery of the beautiful Um. While the slopes of Um were fit for man and god alike to live upon, Bolongo's mountain was survivable only by monsters and outcasts. Nevertheless, Bolongo was proud of his mountain and named it Bandaku.

Bolongo settled on Bandaku with his disgusting host and from his palace sent against Pamalt evil spirits and monsters alike. Even though Bolongo now had a whole mountain to himself, he never stopped envying all the other things Pamalt and his people had. His endless envy and greed towards the other Old Gods made the rock of Bandaku as distorted as the original piece of stone Bolongo had handed to Balumbasta. The fact that Pamalt with his companions had no trouble triumphing over any difficulty only added to his bitterness.

Finally, five shamans of great power and utmost evil took upon them the realisation of a plan Bolongo had masterminded. They killed Kendamalar, the god of the sun. By this act they awoke horrid Vovisibor, Filth-Which-Walks, which as its first act killed its summoners, created a filthy army of monsters and marched in war against the south. Vovisibor and his minions caused great carnage and destruction everywhere and not even the gods who stood against him had any success fighting him.

Even Pamalt could not face the attacker successfully in a direct fight, for Filth-Which-Walks acknowledged no rules of any contest. Instead, Pamalt lured Vovisibor to the birthplace of all this evil, the slopes of Bandaku. There he tied his necklace around the evil mountain, which blew up the whole mountain and Filth-Which-Walks with it. This act also freed all the parts of the world that Bolongo had wrongly bound to his mountain. The evil of the mountain vanished in a puff of smoke.

Unfortunately not all the stone saturated with Bolongo's greed vanished from the world, small shards were catapulted all across the world by the force of the explosion. These small pieces of stone contain the same evil power that Bolongo used to rob Balumbasta of his Mountain Magic. These evil stones of Bolongo still await their finders in secret places, waiting to suck power by their very touch.

Author: Matti Järvinen
Translation: Eetu Mäkelä
Picture: Marko Saari