The Time Before Time
Celestial / Cosmic
Before mankind walked the face of the world, the Mother of All gave life to the gods.
In the beginning, there was Y'nara, 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. Then 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, Y'nara 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 her blessing for she entrusted with him the power to See all ways and endings, both light and dark. When at last her tasks were done, Y'nara 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 saddened by the gulf that lay between him and his creative siblings. Seeking to join them in their creative pursuits, Nimagos began to attempt his own experiments with building new creatures to populate their new world. Despite his best and most imaginative efforts, his odd children were almost universally scorned and rejected by his brother and sisters when they beheld the strange and terrifying fruits of his labor. Only Ellastrophel, the youngest and kindest of the sisters, saw any beauty in his progeny.
For reasons unknown to any but himself, Ardün seemed to take the creation of these strange monsters as a personal affront to their mother's perceived order. As such, he took it upon himself to hunt them down and destroy them, one by one, despite the disapproval of his sisters and the vehement protests of Nimagos, who fought against his brother tooth and nail to save his children. The conflict between the two brothers continued to build until Nimagos, in a fit of rage, drew up the plans for four aspects of terrible power, with the intent that they would assist him in driving his brother back from his children once and for all. Luckily, Ellastrophel saw Nimagos's plans and managed to talk him down before issuing a challenge to the brother with the backing of her sisters: pool your vast resources and talents to create something wholly new and unique that unites your opposing natures. Ardün, unable to resist a challenge, and Nimagos, grateful for any relief in the fight, accepted.
With many fits and starts, the brothers at last reached an accord and began to design a new race of creatures. Blending their unique gifts, Ardün and Nimagos developed a set of plans for a creature that simultaneously relied on destruction in order to create and live. The project brought them together in ways they had never imagined and forged a new bond they had never experienced before. When at least their project was nearly complete, Nimagos thanked his brother for his faith in him and Named their shared project: humanity.
Yet before instilling these new humans with the spark of life as they had planned, Ardün abruptly abandoned the project and his brother without a word. Left with only the inert forms of their shared labor and more questions than he had answers, Nimagos despaired of ever truly knowing his brother or seeing his children walk on their own. Instead, he took his children and withdrew to his mountain retreat with the few other children he had fought to preserve.
Meanwhile, Ardün began work on a new, solo project that would result in the creation of the Eidolons, beings of vast power crafted to assist his siblings in their great work. Although the sisters were disappointed that the challenge Ellastrophel had set them had been abandoned, they accepted the gift of these new companions with joy. Nimagos, however, saw how similar the design of these creatures was to that of their abandoned project and rejected his own gift, both out of spite for his brother and fear that he would simply corrupt this innocent being.
Abandoned to the world with no name and no guidance, the being began to turn in on itself, consuming and destroying everything it encountered in a violent attempt to understand itself and the world. Finally, when the spirit destroyed the very mountains where the sister Soren and her companion Kiemra had made a home, the sisters demanded action be taken. Before Ardün could attempt to force his brother to "clean up his mess", Ellastrophel stepped in and offered to take the spirit under her wing, arguing that the spirit deserved kindness and care, not destruction. Ardün and the rest of the sisters resisted her offer, arguing that the rogue spirit would demand all of her attention and leaving her current companion on their own, until Síorladh themself stepped forward and offered to trade places with the spirit for Nimagos's custody. Reluctantly, they agreed and the deal was struck when Ellastrophel called the spirit's Name for the first time and she answered.
For one beautiful age, Ellastrophel and the newly healing spirit existed together in harmony, both falling endlessly in love with the other. Their happiness was not to last however.
Despite his initial resistance to Síorladh's kindness and patience, Nimagos eventually began to trust the child of his brother and understand that they were utterly possessed of their own thoughts and agency. With the gentle encouragement of Síorladh, Nimagos even approached the spirit he had once abandoned to apologize for the hurt he had caused her. From that moment, Nimagos began to think of Ellastrophel, Síorladh, and the new spirit as his true family. He even shared with them the story of what had really happened with Ardün the night he abandoned him and humanity. The little family agreed that humanity deserved to live as they had been made to and therefore set about finding a way to bring them to life.
Since El did not have the power to grant humanity life on her own, Nimagos was certain that the answer lay in hunting down Y'nara's departed spirit and beseeching her for a spark of creation of his own. However, Ellastrophel approached Nimagos with a counterproposal.
El understood that giving humanity life on its own would not be enough; their bodies were not designed to last forever in the same way that a primordial or eidolon could exist in perpetuity. Instead, she envisioned an ending for their bodies, but a way to preserve the spirits of humanity themselves even after those mortal bodies had given out. She intended to give them both. She proposed that Nimagos Unmake her by separating her soul from her body, allowing her to project her consciousness outside of D'neth into the Great Beyond. In doing so, she would be anle to create the greatest mystery of all: Death, a means by which humanity and all the other delicate creatures her sisters had been inspired to create would be able to achieve a peaceful ending, while her life, the very spark of creation that fed her spirit, would remain safely in the care of her beloved companion. With the creation of Death, El would then be free to search the Great Beyond for the spirit of their mother Y'nara and beg her for the blessing of life for humanity. After that, she could return to her life on D'neth with her lover.
Initially, Nimagos was appalled by Ellastrophel's suggestion and her companion horrified at the idea, but with unrelenting logic, she managed to bring them around to the plan. Once El had managed to create Death, it would be Síorladh's responsibility to monitor the new pillar of reality until she returned, while it would be El's companion's job to care for her soul. When the time came to begin the plan, Nimagos moved with the utmost care to extract his sister's life from her body and pass it whole onto her beloved companion.
Disaster.
With the Unmaking of Ellastrophel's living body, her connection to the Tower of Stars was broken, leaving the primal force of mystery itself to atrophy and decay and taking El's soul with it. Nimagos, Síorladh, and Ellastrophel's companion each swore themselves to secrecy, hoping that turning El and Death into mysteries unto themselves would bolster the unmoored primordial in the Great Beyond. Yet even so, Ellastrophel's soul continued to crumble in the companion's hands. In a desperate bid to save her lost love, the companion agreed to the sisters' demands that she take up the Tower of Stars herself, hoping that she could reestablish Ellastrophel's connection to her wavering Pillar. Such was not to be. Instead, the crumbling Tower began to destroy the companion as well, breaking and fracturing Ellastrophel's delicate soul even faster. Terrified enough to damn the consequences, the companion began to claw her way free of the Tower until at least, bleeding, broken, and clutching the shattered pieces of Ellastrophel's soul in her hands, she crawled free at Nimagos's feet.
Sobbing for any ounce of mercy, the companion thrust the pieces of El's soul into Nimagos's hands and begged him to take away the parts of her that loved and knew Ellastrophel for she could no longer bear the pain and weight of her failure. Though agonized at the thought of harming the being he had once so cruelly abandoned, Nimagos hastily did as he was bid before spiriting away to where his children lived with only a prayer on his lips. Knowing that his sisters and brother would be on him in a matter of moments once he did what he intended, Nimagos carefully pressed the broken pieces of Ellastrophel's soul into his human children, hoping against all hope that doing so would stabilize his sister's broken connection to D'neth...and to them all.
