The World:Back Story

From NexusCrossing

In the beginning, the gods looked upon the voids of space, and saw that there was nothing, save the planetoids on which they dwelt and had their cities. The vastness of the cosmos lay mostly empty.

The gods had been idle for many eons, and had forgotten their roles. They had forgotten what it meant to be gods, and a few of them were starting to wake up to this fact. They were growing restless. They were not as they should be. For all they were doing, they may as well have been mortals.

The cosmos had once teamed with life. That life had once looked to the gods for guidance. They had once been worshiped by the masses, often times freely and willingly. Now, they had a handful of small garden planets, and a few thousand followers. This was nice and all. They each had their own perfect paradise in which everything they thought they wanted was theirs to take.

It was just not right. The universe was not as it should be.

One day, Arniss the God of Knowledge went into the great libraries of his home-world to seek the knowledge of the ancient gods that had once ruled all of reality. It had long been forgotten why these gods had perished, but they had left much behind for those who wished to learn. Few of the younger gods had cared to do so.

The other gods watched as he went into the library. They figured it was no use that he would find no answer there. As he entered the depths of the many chambered sanctuary of knowledge, the other gods never saw him again.

The first sign that something was not quite right was when his followers all gathered on one side of the planetoid, in the court yard of the great library. They did nothing, only watching the sky. After three days, a large ball of light began to form in the space between the planetoids that the gods called their homes. The gods watched the light, curious as to what was going on.

When the Goddess Assis approached the great light, she was turned away. There was nothing that the gods could do to approach it. Their suspicion was that their brother had done something, they just did not know what.

Assis was a warlike goddess, but she was also highly curious. She decided to enter the great library that had been her brothers temple for thousands upon thousands of years. His followers only watched as she walked across the court yard and into the halls of the great library. When she entered, the main hall was empty, save for a large podium with a single glowing book open upon it. She gazed upon the book, and it shared with her its secrets. She left the library carrying the book. She carried it out onto the courtyards, and looked up at the sky where the great light had become a second sun. She knew what she must do. She knew now how she was meant to reach this new world that was being born before her very eyes. She reached down a single hand and touched the ground beneath her feet and did something no god had done for over twelve thousand years. She invoked her will upon the home world of another god. She knew though that permission was granted. There was a great shaking of the ground, and an enormous roar as the very planet was ripped asunder. The grounds of the great library tore themselves free from the small planet and began to move upwards and away. As her brother planetoid lay crumbling behind them, she and all his followers raised up into the sky, moving like a floating island towards the great ball of light that even now was slowing in it's motions and taking on the form of a solid world.

Her brother had done something else that no god had done since before her birth. He had truly created something. It was something that the other gods may not approve of, but it was something she would protect.

Karnkri, the god of the night, awoke to the chaotic vibrations of the distant planetoids destruction. He hurried from his bed chambers to the great hall of his temple. His followers were mostly undisturbed by the metaphysical vibrations, so only his priests were awake in the great hall. He hurried to the giant mirror that stood as tall as many mountains and gazed into it seeking the source of the disturbance. First he looked to the home of Konme, the Goddess of Chaos, but found that she too was just rising from her sleep. She felt his gaze upon her, and node. “Brother, we need to call a convocation,” she said as she shrugged off his link.

As she went about her work of doing just that, he moved onto the domain of his sister, the Warrior Goddess. Their he found something very disturbing. All the peoples of her world were in migration. They were all moving towards the epicenter of her world, the great hall at the center of her planet. They were gathering there in front of the giant statues of ancient warriors from worlds long forgotten. Her entire planetoid was teaming with life, both human and beast, and they were all in motion. Every last entity on that world was moving towards the great meeting grounds at its core.

Something was not right, and what made it worse was that his sister was nowhere to be found on the planet. As strange as these events were, it was not what had waken him. One by one he searched the realms of the other gods, and found that most were making preparations for the convocation. Konme sent out the call, and it seemed urgent. They would gather at the great hall on her world.

Finally, he came to the world of his most peaceful brother, and found that it was literally falling to pieces, but there seemed to be not a living creature on it, or the remains thereof. There was no sign either of the great library. Where it once stood was a crater the size of a continent. He then left his mirror and walked out side, where he looked to the sky.

The convocation could wait. His feet left the ground as he began to fly towards the massive island that was waiting just outside of the gravitational pull of a newly formed planet. He had to go talk to his sister. He knew that she would have the answer.

She turned to look at him as he landed on her island. The two of them stood there on the steps of the great library. “Brother, I know why you are here. You can read the book if you must, but once you do there is no turning back.”

He looked at the resolve on her face, and nodded. “He found what he was looking for, didn't he?” he asked with a kind of certainty that told you he already knew the answer.

“That he did. We have lost our way. We have gone so far off track that there is only one way to return to the light. There is only one way to return life to this universe,” she said as she looked around at the people and creatures around them. She spoke in in a slow deliberate voice that told him she knew what she was saying, and that she meant it from the very core of her being. “Real life. It has been so long, that even the people and animals that we surround ourselves with have become automata. It is not fair to them to leave them like this. We must repair them, and we must give them a world to live on.”

Her voice began to grow softer. “I know you will read the book. You will have to, because it is the only thing that will tell you why we are doing this. Where Arniss and I are going, there is no return. Do not follow. These children, they will need gods to guide them, and to protect them. Our brothers and sisters, they may not understand. Konme will eventually come around, but the others, I do not know. They may hate us for the rest of eternity. We will bring order back to this world, and...”

She grew silent for several moments, then softly almost inaudibly even to his immortal ears, “... things will change. Our place in the world will not be the same again for a long time. Gods will have to choose, they will either be gods, or they will fade from memory. The mortals will have a choice once more.”

And with that, the island descended to the world bellow, but she remained in place above the world. She herself was starting to glow brightly. As the first day dawned on the new world, the great island settled into the center of one of the worlds vast oceans. From here they would spread out to all the lands of this globe. As Karnkri looked at the book that had been left in his arms, it began to speak to his mind. It gave the same grave warning that his sister had, and asked him if he wished to turn back. It shared with him all that it had to share, and held nothing back. As he wept into his hands, he could feel his home-world, as all the peoples were gathering in the darkness. They were all going on a great pilgrimage that would end at the steps of his temple. He also reached out with his mind, and felt other worlds forming in the void that was once the cosmos that he had known from the time of his birth. His brother, Arniss, was the oldest of his generation. He had given his immortal life in order to bring life back to the cosmos. There were more steps required though. Their brother had taken the first step. His sister had already started the second. The third and hardest step was left to him. He felt his consciousness becoming one with all that was reality.

He felt it when his sister's world crumbled as her people were carted off to another of the globes that were starting to populate the skies. He wept as he felt the painful searing heat as his sister exploded sending shards of her very soul into the depths of space. Their brother had done basically the same thing, but it was different. He had seeded the worlds themselves.

When Assis died, the very essence of her being was expelled into the universe, shards flying in all directions. Many of these shards became embedded in the bodies of mortal beings, imbuing withing them a spark of the divine. This spark would be needed. It would be what made the difference between a common man, and a leader. In order for the new worlds to thrive, there would need to be powerful beings, both good and evil. These legends would shape the course of history from this point forward. They had the potential to stand on even footing with the gods themselves.

This was what Karnkri must protect. This fledgling race of new godlings that their brothers and sisters would not stand. She was right, Konme would understand eventually, once the pain of losing her precious sister had passed, but the first night was going to be a painful one for all involved.

Karnkri returned the book to its pedestal, and returned home to his own planetoid. The book had given him all that he needed to continue his task. As he flew beyond sight of the new world, the library began to sink into the depths of the earth, taking the priests of Arniss with it. The book would protect itself, as it always had. It might be needed again some day. A war was coming, and it had to protect itself.

The cosmos had chosen its champions and its priests. It was time now to put them to the test.

[edit] Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Lexicon
• Concept Page
• Project Status
• Associated Projects
• The Back Story
• The Pantheon
• The TODO List