Chapter 1.1 - LET THERE BE LIGHT
In the beginning there was nothing.
Until, suddenly, there was something.
I came to consciousness in the middle of the Eternal Void, a single soul floating in the midst of true nothingness. My mind was sluggish, hints of memory hiding in the fog that clouded my thoughts, yet unreachable all the same. What was left were instincts, indecipherable emotions, and the feeling of raw power bursting forth from some unseen font within myself. My instincts screamed at me to use the power, the itch to do…something almost overwhelming. But I resisted.
Instead, I turned my gaze to the only form of substance in the empty Void – myself.
Within the Void there was truly nothing. No distance, no sensation, no sight or touch, not even the passage of time. All of those things existed within the boundaries of my own soul, however, and I found myself tracing the edges of my very being. I explored the contours and folds of my soul, sifting through the fog of my limited awareness to the very edges of my being. It was odd, to be able to hear the workings of my existence, so dead were my surroundings. It ticked away in an odd harmony, ringing in ears I did not have.
Only once I had sufficiently memorized the shape of myself did the call of instinct become too great to bear, the urge to use that bursting power within me to create returning to the forefront of my thoughts.
Yet, as I sat there in the Void, I came to realize something. Some part of me knew that I should crave sensation, warmth, substance. That I should desire a body, or light – anything at all. But that wasn't what I craved. More than anything else, I felt…
LONELY.
The power within me surged, and suddenly I was surrounded by a thousand million tiny specks. Specks that, upon closer inspection, revealed themselves to be tiny souls. Warmth and excitement both blossomed within me as I directed my soul forward, to reach out and touch these tiny souls – only for those that I neared to crumble into nothingness, unable to bear the weight of my existence. All at once I jerked back, watching hesitantly.
The souls danced about me like dust in a sunbeam, existing in a fine line between my soul and the Void. My presence was protecting them from the Void, which, if they neared, would seek to return them to nothingness. But too close, and the weight of my existence would destroy them.
Dissatisfaction rose up within me. I wanted companionship. These souls I had created were still amazing and lovely, but I needed…I wanted…they needed to be…
MORE.
This time the surge of power was greater, rushing out to coalesce into four new souls. They were far larger than the others, though still smaller than myself, and bobbed about curiously as they explored their new surroundings. In the truest sense of the word, these were my children. I could feel bits of my own self sitting within the souls – which was similarly true of all the souls I had created, but doubly so for the larger four – that were rapidly being absorbed and transformed into distinct personalities. They were not aspects of myself, but their own beings, just as I had desired.
I would not surround myself with puppets and robots.
One drifted closer to me, clambering all over me like a child might do to a parent. I chuckled, the other three swiftly following suit, exploring what little of their surroundings they could. Soon they tired of the little game, however, and my own foggy state of mind was of little entertainment for them. In a sudden bout of fearlessness, one soul that was taking on a distinctly sinuous shape darted away from me before I could react, toward the Void.
It blew through the thin veil of tiny souls, rushing out to the Void – only to jerk backward with a yelp, rushing back to my side and safety. The Void had nipped it when it left my protection, eating a tiny portion of its soul that rapidly healed under my influence. Relief flooded through me as my child huddled close, nursing the soreness that came from the Void's sharp bite.
There was a lesson to be learned there, I knew, but…well. It seemed even my children did not have my own ability to survive the Void. They needed something else. Something…safer. They needed a…
HOME.
A veritable explosion of sensation burst out of me in all directions, rapidly expanding as primordial chaos, the raw ingredients of creation, came into being all at once. Sensation came rushing back to me in a blur, sights and sounds and textures all blurring together in a veritable cocktail. My children flinched at the suddenness of it all, and I reached out to comfort them with little tendrils of power. They huddled into my touch, finding comfort in the familiar.
For a time, we stayed like that. Until, finally, they worked up the courage to explore.
The smallest of the four slowly worked its way out from under my touch, reaching out to play with the primordial chaos, vibrating with excitement at the sensations it brought. Emboldened by their sibling's actions, the other three ventured out as well, swirling in the nebulous energies and matter that was the building blocks of all creation. They giggled and chased each other, their sounds and actions soothing the core of my being. The urge to create was still there, but…for now I felt satisfied. Companionship. Sensation. And my children, still bare souls as they all were, were adorable.
A sudden tug at my existence drew my attention to the side, where two of my children waited eagerly to show me the results of their playing. One had draped itself in a power of white, fierce and demanding attention, forming crude wings that it could control with a thought. The other swirled a nebulous, subtle black around itself like a cloak, quieter in nature yet no less eye-catching than the white. Neither had chosen physical elements, oddly enough, and I watched as the powers started to seep into the core of their beings, becoming one with them. I smiled.
"That is wonderful," I said, my voice booming and unfamiliar to my own ears as I reached forward to grasp the powers they played with. "May I help you?" The two didn't seem to understand my question, but affirmation radiated from them nonetheless. With my aid the powers of black and white started to form actual shapes rather than simply swirling about my children, condensing into true bodies for the two, guided by memories I could not recall and their own inner desires.
The one of white took on a distinctly feminine form with graceful features, long blonde hair, and six brilliant white-feathered wings sprouting from her back. Her eyes glowed a beautiful white, shining with curiosity and vigor, her arm and leg muscles flexing as she tried out her new limbs with unrestrained curiosity. Two whip-like tails, tipped with feathery fans, lashed at the chaos behind her, her excitement palpable. With but a thought I created white and gold robes that draped themselves about her form, my daughter beaming up at me.
On the other hand, the one of black took on a masculine form. His skin was bronzed and chiseled, black hair falling to his shoulders in waves. Similar to his sister, two wings sprouted from his back, though his were leathery and black. Grey horns curled from his forehead, and a large, muscular tail, covered in onyx scales, silently curled itself around his feet. He, too, inspected his new form with awe, looking up at me with dark eyes filled with far too much emotion and compassion. I created robes of black and gold for him, which he inspected with as much interest as his new body.
"Go on, have fun," I urged. The two grinned at me, then at each other, and promptly darted off into the chaos even as I turned to my other two children. They seemed to be watching in fascination, but unsure of how to proceed. "Would you – " I started, but was cut off by an explosion of power behind me. Instinctually I shielded my other two children, as well as the myriad lesser souls still near me, as twin realms of white and black swirled into being in the center of the primordial chaos I had created.
My two children were, of course, at the center. Take my eyes off of you for a second. I grumbled good-naturedly, more amused than anything after realizing the powers were anything but harmful. The boy stood in the middle of the black, digging with his hands and cleaving great scoops out of the center. He seemed intent on making the biggest hole he could, while his sister did the exact opposite. She played in the middle of the white, zooming to the edges of it in single beats of her great wings, scooping up great handfuls of the white power and depositing it in the very middle of the new realm. It seemed she wanted to make the biggest "sandcastle" possible, while her brother dug a hole.
Children. Oh, how I envied them.
The problem was the two realms of power seemed…unstable. Unbalanced. White and black clashed, mixing yet not, sending great quakes through each realm and undoing much of the work my children did. Not that they seemed to care much, giggling as they were every time the castle fell, and the hole was filled. For the moment though, all was well, and I turned back to the other two.
One had clad itself – herself, she was trying to mimic her sister with a distinctly feminine form – in what I could only call physicality. Elements swirled around her in a chaotic dress, the stuff of life suffusing her form. Her other sibling – brother, I noted – had opted not to follow the footsteps of his siblings. Already his soul had taken on a more sinuous form than the others, but now he had draped himself in power. By its own nature it was mysterious, lurking beneath all others, supporting and suffusing all things. It was the stuff of souls and spirits, and made up that overarching realm they inhabited.
I focused on the girl first, forming her body with a thought. The girl was as beautiful as her sister, albeit very different. Her skin was as dark as rich soil, her hair green as fresh moss. Flowers formed a tiny crown on her head and horns, branching like those of an elk, sprouted from her forehead. With a wave of my metaphorical hand a dress of green leaves fell about her form. She opened her eyes – burning with all the colors of the rainbow – and blinked owlishly, glancing down at herself. With a little twirl to swish her dress she giggled, smiled serenely at me, bowed, and promptly dashed off to join her siblings in their game.
I turned to the last of my children, humming a song to myself as I gave the same gift to him as I did the others. The power did not give him a humanoid form, as I had expected. Instead, he was transformed into nothing short of a dragon. His body was clad in scales of white, gold, and silver, his horns long and twisting, his maw great and powerful. His eyes were full of depth and meaning, whiskers twitching from the tip of his great muzzle. Yet despite his fearsome visage, he nuzzled me with raw affection, wrapping his short, draconic arms around my soul in what could pass as a hug.
"Go," I said with a laugh, and the great beast gave me one last squeeze before darting off to join his siblings, tail thrashing and creating a great wake in the primordial chaos as he went. My second daughter had landed in the middle, between the black and white, creating her own realm of a thousand colors. It was smaller than the others, but no less grand – filled with more, and she seemed to be trying to encourage something to grow of its own accord by feeding it the elements themselves, plucked from the primordial chaos surrounding them.
It acted as a buffer for the other two, no longer clashing so fiercely now they were not directly touching.
But it needed something to bind – ah.
As I watched, my second son, the dragon, swam through all three layers, trailing behind him something akin to thread to tie it all together. Only…it looked almost more like a river and suffused all things, not just where he touched. Something tickled the back of my mind, and I drifted forward. These realms were my children's creations, not my own. But I could still help them. There was something there, but…it needed…
BALANCE.
My own power raced forward, twisting throughout all of creation to bind it together into a cohesive whole. The white and black were largely stabilized, still wanting to clash and mix with each other but unable to do so with the physical elements between them, thriving on the chaos. And the stuff of souls, that raw energy of spirit, draped itself over and through all of them, running through them like a river. And the raw chaos of creation, the primordial stuff? That was pushed back, to the edges, giving space to these new Realms and acting as a barrier to protect them against the all-consuming Void.
Soon, a mountain grew in the white, while a valley dug itself out in the black. A tree grew from the elements, fed by all, and the river of spirits flowed through them, mixing them together without muddying the waters. I smiled, and pushed forward in encouragement, willing my power forth. Almost all of the rest of my power flooded into the realms as I gave one last command, intent on seeing the visions of my children grow – and give true spaces for the smaller souls to grow as well, within these realms. My command was simple, this time.
GROW.
And when it was done, I was able to sit back with a smile, watching my children as they gaped at what had been made. Now that much of my power had been used, more of myself returned. And all I wanted was to observe and rest. But one last thing remained to be done. Well, two. With a burst of intent, another bit of creation left me to form a sparkling crystal glass, filled with a brilliant amber liquid.
rest.
Spirit whiskey. Booze even my soul could enjoy. I sipped at the liquid, even bodiless as I was, enjoying the burn as it slid down into the core of my being, providing a pleasant buzz. And, finally, I let the last of my instincts free and said the words all beings like myself yearned to say, at some point in their beginning existence.
"LET THERE BE LIGHT."
And there was light.
Chapter 1.2 The Four Realms
There was a sun in front of me.
It was truly massive, spinning and circling the four realms my children had created – one great Sun, to illuminate all. It roared with light and heat, great arcs of flame shooting from its surface as it settled into its existence, the sheer noise from the thing vibrating my very soul. Satisfaction rose up within me, soothing some part of my being that had been aching, yearning for this very thing.
Light. Substance. Heat.
I was vaguely aware of my children gaping at me and my latest creation, but for now I let them be, simply sitting back and sipping at my drink. And in that moment of relaxation, I realized something had changed within me. A strange, new power had draped itself over my soul like a cloak, swirling about me in a way reminiscent to how the energies had swirled around my children. I did my best impression of a blink. No, it wasn't reminiscent, it was exactly the same.
Just as I thought that, a sound like a sigh washed through the core of my soul. It could be described as little else; a wave of intent from some great being, as gentle as a spring breeze, softly touching my soul and infusing my very being with the power that now swirled about me. In turn, it condensed into something more solid, mirroring the shape of my soul – no, shapes within my soul – to make a body.
It happened in an instant, and I found myself blinking, actually physically blinking, in surprise as I inspected my new form. It was very clearly humanoid – two arms, two legs, unblemished skin – and my hands found my face to feel it out. Instinctively I knew my hair was black with white streaks, eyes green, but my attention focused on the most distinctive feature; two grey horns jutting out of my forehead and curling back over the crown of my head. Six fist-sized balls of primordial chaos, all the elements of creation, formed a semi-circle as they floated behind my back. Objectively they were a part of my body, but they felt separate somehow.
The overall feel of my face and form was distinctively masculine – no, feminine – no, they were –
I took a deep breath and focused through the fog that still clouded my mind, forcing myself to examine things in a detached manner. Nude as the day I was born, which I suppose would be today, I watched as my body shifted between man and woman and to something in-between at seeming random…no. It shifted in response to my thoughts and emotions, never straying too far one way or another. It was a balance. The extreme ends were never too extreme, never too masculine nor feminine, yet never denying the other existed.
Ding!
Congratulations! You have completed [Stage 1] of the [Deity Trials]!
Of the twelve souls participating, you finished 8th. Results will be displayed below.
I frowned at the box that appeared before my eyes, waving one hand through it to see if it would disappear. When it didn't I focused harder on the words themselves, trying to glean some deeper insight.
Ding!
[Stage 1] Is the creation stage of the [Deity Trials] – a trial set up by the Overgod of the Multiverse to expand said multiverse. Of the souls participating in creating their own universes, each gets a total of 7 creations using power beyond their means to form the basis of their universe. The sum of these creations is what decides the Origin Deity's domain and power.
The following stages are a grace period in which the Origin Deity must strengthen itself and its universe to acceptable levels before the protection of the Overgod fades. Each new [Stage] represents another layer of protection being removed. You must stand on your own, eventually.
Note: The power of greater creation – to create something from nothing - can be relearned in time. What you experienced was a sliver of the greater power of the Overgod.
Ding! Results are in!
"Results are in? What is this, a game show?"
Results
Deity of Balance, Origin Deity of the Four Realms.
Creations:
1) Souls; 2) Greater Souls; 3) Primordial Chaos; 4) Balancing the Realms; 5) Growth; 6) Rest; 7) Realm Sun
Side Note: The creation of your children's bodies did not count towards creations, as this was a manipulation of existing matter, not true creation.
Analysis:
1) Souls: Your desire for companionship overcame your desire for substance, resulting in the birth of souls and spirits. These beings were born both of your own being, and drawn in from the endless spaces between universes.
2) Greater Souls: A lesser soul is not able to withstand the unrestrained presence of an Origin Deity, even a young one. Thus, you took pieces of yourself to create beings who would give you the companionship desired. These childlike souls are inherently Gods.
3) Primordial Chaos: Noticing the dangers of the Void, you created a realm of safety with a burst of Primordial Chaos. The raw elements of creation and substance created a great Realm for your freshly-born children to play in safely, though the lesser souls struggled to find purpose.
4) Balancing Realms: Rather than create your demesne yourself, you allowed your children to carve out their own pieces of reality. Bold move. Only once they were finished did you intervene, granting them forms and stabilizing the realms.
5) Growth: All things need room and fuel to grow. You provided both, as well as increasing the size of your realms twenty-fold. No longer is it a mess of Primordial Chaos, the Realms are given structure as well as stability. The Primordial Chaos was pushed back to give the Realms space, creating a buffer between them and the Void. This shell will grow as the Realms do.
6) Rest: Many Origin Deities will take some time to rest, often creating objects of leisure as the act of true creation can be very taxing on the soul. You chose whiskey. Enjoy it.
7) Realm Sun: In [Stage 1] all deities will, at some point, utter the words "let there be light" to varying effects. In this case it created a sun that circles the created Realms in the empty space between them and the Primordial Chaos, shedding its light on all creation.
Universe:
Four Realms (Three Realms Variant)
The Four Realms is an incredibly rare variant of the basic Three Realms universal template, which consists of Heaven, Earth, and the Inferno or Hell realms. The Four Realms, as the name implies, typically adds another realm that acts as a glue or buffer for the other three realms. Most Four Realms self-destruct prior to reaching maturity – there are less than one hundred surviving examples of this template throughout this multiverse. I wish you luck.
Is it just me, or are these boxes sassy? "I wish you luck?" Really? There's being glib, then there's that. Quietly I scratched my chin, narrowing my eyes as I continued to digest what the boxes were telling me. If I focused there were more details I could read into, such as how much power was used to fuel each creation, the desires that each of my seven creations came from and how that affected my Deific Domain, but honestly? I had no frame of reference for those numbers, or the intense analysis. Sure I could read it, but understanding was another issue entirely. Especially with my memories still missing.
And what was with the rarity of the Four Realms in the multiverse? Was it some inherent stability issue with the design, or was it just that rare? The mere thought of watching my world crumble and disappear, my children dying, drove a spike of rage into me that had my fists clenching and teeth grinding. That result was unacceptable.
Ding!
Oh joy. More boxes.
All participants have completed [Stage 1]. To begin [Stage 2] and finalize your realm's build, please name your creations.
PSA 1: The goal of [Stage 2] is to individualize your universes; now that the foundation is set, it is time to start building. The overarching goal is to create a universe strong enough foundationally to withstand the rigors of the Void, without the Overgod's protection, protect against outside threats, and to raise souls into higher realms of existence. Not all souls can be created great, most have to grow into it as one of the fundamental rules of freewill. How this raising of souls is achieved is up to you. Good luck!
PSA 2: Once each of the twelve participating universes have reached a sufficient level, a meeting will be held between deities. This will be a good time to compare notes and build camaraderie, as this is a friendly competition. Until this first meeting, contact between universes will be limited.
[Stage 1] now complete. Returning memories to participants in 3…2…1…have a nice Creation!
All at once the veil was lifted and all my memories came rushing back, sending me stumbling from the sheer suddenness of it all. And with it came my personality, filling in the skeletal frame that had been my thoughts and mind.
"Oh you motherfu-" I caught myself mid-sentence, glancing over my shoulder at my children, who were still watching and gaping at the Sun.
Right. They were kids. No cursing in front of your god-children – and wasn't that a trippy thought.
I let out a breath and looked at the crystal glass in my hand, filled almost to the brim with sparkling amber liquid. It only took a half-second of debate for me to down the rest of it, chugging and savoring the burn as the whiskey slid down my throat. With a heavy breath I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, glaring at the blue boxes in front of me. "Someone is going to pay for tricking me into this." I muttered under my breath.
Honestly, I'd never been anyone very powerful in my past lives. Eight mortal lifetimes I'd lived on the planet Earth, three of which were spent at the pinnacle of human enlightenment before I finally took that last step to escape the cycle of reincarnation. I think that was somewhere around year…2334?
After that I'd worked my ass off, spending much of my time as a messenger between powerful spiritual beings, acting as a spirit guide for mortals – once even preventing some idiot from accidentally nuking Earth by spilling his coffee all over the incorrect missile calculations he'd made – and dealing with the mess that karmic threads could become. My peak had been something close to, to put it in business terms, assistant manager. Somewhere around a mid-tier angel in terms of power, though the nature of my soul meant I wasn't a true angel.
Never had I been anywhere close to…this.
I've been tricked. I grumbled mentally, taking a deep breath and preparing to face my children. There's going to be so much work to do, and I'll be running on instinct alone. I have no idea how to run a universe! I doubt I can even use many ideas from my old universe – the structures are already too different. But, for now, I needed to put that on the backburner.
Slowly I turned to face my children, genuinely smiling at the way they lit up when they saw me start to approach. Especially the dragon, his long, sinuous body thrashing excitedly as I stepped forward. Though seeing them did remind me that I was still technically nude…
With a wave of my hand, purple robes embroidered in silver fell about my form, weaving themselves from primordial chaos at my whim. Surprisingly easy, I thought, marveling at my new power. There was so much to do, so much going on, but...well. With the whiskey burning in my stomach, relaxing my muscles and my nerves just a little, I gave myself some time to appreciate what had been made.
I had four powerful, godly children, and countless smaller souls – likewise my children – scattered about the universe. The realm sun was brilliant in its light and colors, bigger and grander than any sun I had ever seen before. And the Four Realms themselves; the Mountain above, cast in white; the Valley below, clad in black. A grand Tree, growing in the land between them, in the fertile chaos of color; and an invisible River connecting them all. A creation that was both my own, and my children's.
Out of my depth as I was, I could feel nothing but love for what had been created. And I'd be damned if I saw it collapse because of my negligence.
But first, it was time for some names.