Due to the prophecy, the Skeksis hunted down and killed all the Gelflings. A prophecy was written that stated if a Gelfling healed the crystal, the world would be renewed and the UrSkek would be reunited. ”ġ,000 years ago the crystal cracked, and the spirits of the UrSkek were divided into the peaceful Mystics and the evil Skeksis. Then strife began, and two new races appeared: the cruel Skeksis. For a single piece was lost a shard of the Crystal. A thousand years ago, this land was green and good, until the Crystal cracked. This then, is the beginning of the Journey of Jen.“Another World, Another Time.

Jen was found and fostered by the urRu, Kira by the Pod People. Two Gelfling survived the slaughter, two infants unknown to the Skeksis.

I was, at those moments, the fabric of the World. The rocks felt the pull of the Suns and as the Suns combined in conjunction, the seams of the World were stretched. At each conjunction I felt the song in my heart, pain and torment, yet beautiful. The song of the Suns became my song, and I sang it to the rocks that they might vibrate to it as they had to the Crystal. I became one with them I seemed to move in their great courses thorough the sky. I would have lived among the orbits of the Suns. I fled to my mountaintop I studied the Three Suns above, and chose not to see the hordes of Garthim marching across the plains and the clouds of smoke behind them. They thought the path to further darkness lay straight before them. They cared little that some Landstriders still hid and fought in the mountains the loss of a few Garthim (I will not say their deaths) meant nothing to them. They had been much afraid they had even killed their Gelfling prisoners quickly, preferring safety to pleasure. Then the Skeksis exulted in the deaths of the last Gelfling and of the prophecy. Foremost among the enemies of the Garthim were the Landstriders, beasts of swift passage for the Gelfling.

Then the Skeksis made the Garthim from the memories of sea creatures in their first world. And it was better to live with the Crystal dark but nearly whole than to place the creation of the evil Skeksis in a position of such power. The Gelfling found all six and brought them to me, hoping one was the true Shard but not effort of mine could make it reveal itself. (Had they quarreled less among themselves, they might have made a crystal of greater power had they been less evil, they could have done more harm.) Of their artificial crystal they made five copies and scattered them on the slopes of the mountain beneath the castle, near where the Shard had fallen, so that the Gelfling would not know which to place in the wound in the Crystal. They had made the great Haakskeekah Stone, which outdid the darkened Crystal in impenetrable blackness and they made fragments of artificial crystal without the higher virtues of the great original but not easily distinguished in appearance. Their first thought was to confuse the search for the true Shard and for many years they sought to make a crystal of their own. The Skeksis saw it too and with bold cruelty resolved to foil the prophecy. And there too they were shown the ruin of the Gelfling, the fall of their houses. There the Gelflings were shown the Quest for the lost Shard, and they were shown the healing of the Crystal by the hand of a Gelfling, replacing the Shard by the light of a Great Conjunction. Their dreams were made stone the Wall of Destiny still stands. Seven circles of seven Gelfling lay on the hilltops all night, their faces to the stars. The Story of the Dark Crystal The Prophecy

Gelfling dark crystal