War of Order and Turmoil

Twelve motes of light stood against the Consuming Shadow

The beings of pure light and order struggled to draw their first breath, for as they came into being the Turmoil wanted quickly to consume them, as it had with everything else that had come forth. But these were beings driven by purpose, by Design. They had within all of them a desire to create, to build and to watch it grow. So they fought against the Shadow, desperate to prove theirs was the right to exist. The battle waged for ten-thousand years; not only did they have to keep it from devouring them, but they also needed to bind it, if they were ever going to fulfill their potential. As the war raged on, the Twelve would learn to use the well-spring of power within each of them to strike at the Shadow. The power was not of fire or force, it was not piercing or bludgeoning; it was Design conforming the Shadow to Order. One the first to bend the Shadow into place would come to call himself Thanriel. As he contended and proved himself worthy against the Shadow, he saw within it...space. He saw a place where the turmoil could be tamed and peace could be found. Where there could be release and silence. So Thanriel, using his divine power, his need to create, ripped away at the flesh of the Shadow until at last he had done it. He used the husks of Turmoil flesh to create a space for himself. In eons to come, when life would be brought forth, this would also serve as the place where those that were alive would pass into peace and silence. In that moment, Thanriel carved his domain, his very essence, from the Turmoil. He became the first of the Twelve Gods.   As it was with Thanriel, each mote of light would carve out the space it saw in the chaos; using divine Design to bend Shadow to Order. Some found places of quiet rest, others found places that almost resembled the chaotic Shadow but were bound by their will and power, and others still found a harshness in the Shadow. It was not a harshness that dwelt solely in the Shadow, but it was something the Shadow reflected back from the three who had stopped long enough to peer into the Roil: Paragon, Reihner, and Alvah.   When Paragon saw the reflection, he saw a space where the harshness had a nobility to it. He saw conflict, but he saw the resolution as well; he saw the need for harshness to answer harshness, much like they had in order to survive. With this, he carved his domain. A domain of war and of justice and of recompense.   When Reihner saw the reflection, there was a sharpness in his Design. The Shadow had reached out to him and struck in a way he had not anticipated. For he did not bleed the blood of mortals or even the ichor of the Gods; he was still a mote, forming his domains and shaping his very self. As the Shadow struck him, it corrupted him. Where Paragon saw the harshness as an answer to a need for balance and accounting, Reihner saw harshness as way to re-shape, to conform to order beyond the Shadow. To conform Order to his own order. So, he too, carved out his domain. it was also of war, but tyranny and misfortune as well.   Alvah saw the harshness and simply reveled in it. She saw a place where the strongest would have victory and weakness would be crushed. She saw the thrill of growth in ways others didn't. And so her domain was of War and how a warrior might grow stronger.   But still, the War of Order and Turmoil came to end. The cosmos was ready to be filled with life and The Twelve became the Gods who would preside over the it. Each vying for it's own interests and desires. Each eager to see what would grow from the ashes of The Savagery.