The Age of Creation

Celestial / Cosmic

Before mankind walked the face of the world, the Mother of All gave life to the gods.

In the beginning, there was Ynara, the Mother of All. While she walked the stars in the Time Before Time, she saw many strange and wonderful things. She found empty worlds, dark stars, and such endless silence, yet there was one corner of the universe in which she saw how the stars framed the sun and fell in love. Yet there was no one with whom she could share this beauty and for the first time, she felt alone.

But the Mother of All knew how she might fix her loneliness, and so set to work creating children with whom she could share the cosmos.

She first gave birth to two children, twin boys, who were opposites in nearly every way. The first to be born was Ardün, who took after his mother in creating things with boundless ambition. His twin, Nimagos, was a different creature altogether: a spirit of endings who would bring completion to the cycle of creation. Last she created twelve daughters, the Pillars of Eternity, with whom she entrusted the very foundations of the world. Into each of her children, save Nimagos, Ynara poured a portion, a spark, from the Fire of Creation that dwelt within her. This spark would enable them to give life to their works and fill the dark corners of their world with light. To Nimagos, she gave only her blessing for his was a different path altogether. Then, when at last her tasks were done, Ynara chose to rest, and so gave of her own body so that her children might craft from it a sanctuary for their imaginations.

As her elder children gave life to the universe in the form of the seasons, the elements, and the deepest aspects of nature, Nimagos became jealous of the power they wielded, coming to hate and scorn the supposedly destructive nature of his gift. He began to attempt his own experiments at building creatures, but his efforts were met with horror as his siblings beheld the awkward, terrible manifestations of his thoughts.

While the sisters busied themselves with perfecting their new home, the elder twin, Ardün, turned his power and attention to creating his most ambitious project yet: living, breathing creatures crafted in the image and aspect of his sisters to assist them in their work.

The sisters were overjoyed by their gift, but Nimagos was overcome with hurt and jealousy. As an apology to his brother for failing to include him in his godly creations from the beginning, Ardün created another, final god, in recompense: Síorladh, the god of death. Rather than being pleased with his brother’s gesture, Nimagos was even more hurt by the presence of the death god, whom he saw as a living embodiment of his hated role in the universe. In answer, he began to work at creating his own version of the gods, but this time, he understood what his creations were missing.

So, Nimagos went to Ellastrophel, the youngest of the sisters and the sculptor of the stars, who had always shown kindness towards his creations. He begged her for support in petitioning their Mother for his own creation spark to give life to his children, but Ellastrophel, who had just discovered the first fallen remains of one of her beloved stars, implored him to stop aching after abilities he did not possess and instead take pride in the unique and vital role with which he alone had been entrusted. Nimagos was enraged at her words and they began to argue.

Full of hurt and anger, Nimagos demanded to know if destruction was all he was to her and all he would ever be. He gave voice to the pain and fear and loneliness he felt at being the only one like himself in the entire cosmos. Finally, he told his sister that if she was so certain that his role was noble, then she could sacrifice her own spark for humanity and join him in its absence. With that, Nimagos tore the spark from his sister, not understanding that doing so would kill her as nothing else in the known cosmos could, and watched in horror as her body collapsed into an empty husk.

Instantly, Nimagos was horrified by his actions, simultaneously devastated by this most terrible confirmation of his destructive nature and the realization that he truly was fundamentally different from his siblings. Driven frantic with fear and anguish, Nimagos plucked a shard of metal from the fallen star that Ellastrophel's body yet held in its hands and used it to partition her spark into pieces for each of his experimental creations. As Nimagos beheld his bloody work, the turbulence of his emotions boiled over into the form of a dark shadow of his former sister. With a final breath, Nimagos named the shadow Obarion and fled into darkness.