Before the Punishment, the Blessed Ones were legion, and they lived in a world of magic and riches. There was no thing they could not have. They were never too warm or too cold, they rested at will, and the places they rested cradled their bodies, and were never too hard or too soft. Their food was good and plentiful, and the work they did to procure it was not work. There was no place belonging to the Mother that they could not go to with great speed, even through the air and into the heavens. All of her riches were their playthings. The killing beasts, the malevolent snakes and insects and worms and plants did not harm them; they vanquished sickness and even death; all children grew and all men lived for scores of decades. No knowledge was denied them or forgotten, but was provided at their pleasure by cunning devices, as was their food and their endless amusement. And the devices performed their work, too.

All this they expected. It inspired in them no wonder. They did not give thanks or tribute to the Mother, for they were the Blessed Ones, the Mother’s most favored children, and they believed their blessings would never end.

A good mother will suffer much for her children, and so the Mother did for a thousand years and more. But a time came when the Mother knew that her children would kill her, for they were draining the black blood from her veins, and if a mother dies, so will her children. And so the Mother took her blessings back from her children, to save herself and them.

The Mother gave signs to her children, for a hundred years and more, that they must repent or be punished, but the Blessed Ones would not heed the warnings. The trees and animals died, the land grew hot and dry, the water foul, and the very air they breathed was poison. Yet, blinded by their greed, they could see only the few blessings that remained for them, and forgot those they destroyed.

The Blessed Ones forgot, too, that they themselves were not the source of their blessings, and that all they enjoyed was owed to the beneficence of the Mother. They forgot they were their Mother’s children. When the Blessed Ones found they could pierce the Mother’s flesh and steal even the blood from her veins, they rejoiced, they were not sorry, even as the Punishment began raining down upon them. Finally, the Mother used the very blood they coveted to punish them for their effrontery, and to destroy the vanities they had constructed.

The Blessed Ones were powerless to staunch the flow they had unleashed. The waves of the sea were black with the blood of the Mother, and all the creatures of the sea were covered in her blood. Blood rained from the heavens, and the fields were drenched in blood and would yield no food.

The Blessed Ones lost their blessings, forgot even the names of their blessings, and their legions dwindled. They became the people.