The Creation of the World According to Magi

Like all things with the Magi, this story begins with the Void and the spirits that inhabit it. They teach that long ago there was only the Void as an endless maelstrom of powers for which great elemental spirits roamed and fought one another without purpose or end. They did this not for any reason, but an endless existence in time becomes one without any purpose. The spirits of the void are entities as alike men as they are far removed, beings of unimaginable power, yet they lacked a world of physicalities and purposes that are only instilled by one's life with the necessities of upholding and preserving their existence and desires. Of all the spirits, the first to try to change this existence was the youngest and weakest. While the name might change from nation to nation, it is known as a furtive shade, often called Pneuma.   Pneuma hid away from its kin, for it took no pleasure in the great game of fighting that consumed the eternity of their existence. In its quiet nature, it stole from the other spirits. Taking tiny fractions of their powers when they were deformed from their fighting so that it might use these powers to protect itself from the others. It hid these shards away in a corner of their realm so dark, so terrible, within the void at even those old gods feared to tread there in their great game and war.   Pneuma perhaps from its youth or a nature different from other spirits sought to create a shelter for itself, where it and any it could find like it could be safe. At first, the task proved to be impossible, the powers it stole were mighty and yet it could not force them together. It would find a solution, one that would come at a great cost. It took a shard of itself, half of all that it was, and used that as a catalyst to bind the disparate powers. This catalyst was the essence of life. In a single moment, it formed a something beyond its recognition, a plane of physicality. It had birthed the land of Prospero.   Pneuma would walk its creation in wonderment, taking a form all its own. In time though it would play with the world it created and put shards of its self into the land once again. It shaped idols from the land about it, giving them shards of itself and creating life. Pneuma rejoiced in its children for each one was perfect and it strived to make more, each creation different from the last, each having something which made it unique. One thing creation shared were their shards of it and a most curious of gifts, for these living creatures they grew old, they loved, they created more of each other. The shards of Pneuma did not get smaller though, no they grew over time, with each new creature it only seemed to grow faster and they could gift parts of themselves back to their very creator.   While its children pleased Pneuma, the spirit was still sad, nothing was like it. That is what the spirit truly wanted, to no longer be alone and yet be safe unlike with its now forgotten kin. So Pneuma shaped beings that strived to create like itself, being that looked like it, Mankind. Pneuma used shards larger than those given to any others and placed them in the creatures' hearts. Its newest creations grew into something more than the spirit predicted not only could they think but they could use the powers of the void itself. They were more than abstracts sums of their parts because the spirit's power burned in them. They grew the power of Pneuma within them more than any other.   For a time their world was a peace. Time though leads to the ending of all things. The other spirits would find the world that their youngest created. Some say that it was by accident, some say it was the nature of mortals playing with the power of the void that attracted the eyes of these power's masters. This was the world that the spirits wished, one that was animated and phyisical. The spirits found their way to the world and, despite the protests of their youngest, they began their great game again. They had power, they had forms of their own desire, they could create and destroy. They found a love of this as it brought a new joy to their game.   Mortals beseeched their creator for help. Pneuma did the best that it could to protect its children, but all that it created it was far weaker than its brothers and sister. The old spirit had found something to sate their desires and they would not have the youngest of them deny them it. The final straw though was broken when the spirits began to use the living as tools, playthings, only to break them like a child might a cheap toy. Pneuma could not stand for the mindless destruction of its children, but the intentional use of them shattered any restraint the kind spirit had.   The youngest would not allow its children to fear the Void or its residents. Pneuma began to teach its children how to control the powers of the void that surrounded them, as he had stolen these powers once. They bided their time and prepared, as the spirit created the first of the mage kind and the witch kin.   With every death, while they waited and trained, shards of Pneuma would return to it. For the others creatures of the void, if their power grew it at all it was slow enough to say they seemed to remain constant. While the power of the youngest had grown in millions of little vessels. Any flora, fauna, or mortals to perish grew Pneuma's power though only of a fraction of its rage. It made sure to hold itself back lest its plans come into jeopardy. Soon enough though the age of the gods was coming to an end.   The spirit took the power it had once stolen and gathered the most gifted of his children. They fought the old spirits, one by one the weakest of the elder spirits fell to the progenitor of the world. It was a long and bloody war though that forged the mountains, ravines, and what would be oceans. The first of man and their protector struggled at first, but they went after the spirits broken by the great game. They fell upon old spirts while they rested like carrion birds or wolf's smelling dying pry. The youngest and mortals' ancestors capturing and forcing the older ones away from the plane, yet not before robbing them of their powers to use against others.   In time though the old ones realized that they could not fight each other if they wished to continue on this world. The old spirts turned against the youngest and its creations. It became a war for the land. All of life and its creator turned to push back the spirits that seek to rule.   There was a great battle, in the end, one final stand for both sides. Pneuma ripping out the heart of the eldest of its kind and using them, and almost all of itself, to weave a barrier between the Void and Prospero to hold back anything trying to return. It did this knowing it could have trapped itself out of its creation and prevented its children's spirits from reuniting with it in death.   In the end, the old spirits were sealed away and banished from Propero. The last of the old ones cursing the world with The Cycle and in their final moments striking down the youngest, before being trapped and thrown deep into the void. Pneuma managed to remain but it was dying.   The protector of man was falling, weakened it had to succumb to a slumber so it might sustain its barrier to protect its people. Pneuma feared that without it, the world would fade or fall apart without its guidance. The spirit, however, knew it could not watch its children forever. Using the last of the magic it stole from its kin it forged the sun, moons, and stars to represent all that was lost in this great war. It blessed the lands with its essence where its children could live and prosper, the spirit sunk into Prospero and slumbered deep beneath the earth.   The youngest's task is eternal though. It fights to keep the void from infringing on the world of its creation or the oldest of spirits from returning. It watches its children's spirits together, collecting them from death and pulling them back into its embrace. It also watches man and does its best to protect them and extend their empire as long as possible. For it does not wish them to suffer   In time new spirits and gods would be born in the void. Each and every one reflection of men, their ideas, hopes, and cultures. Some stories though say thought that men's cultures actually reflects the spirits that they believe in. All that is knows is that new spirits came to replace the old.   And so Pneuma resides in this eternal state guarding the world against the Void beyond and saving its children's spirit and uniting them in its embrace. Such is the actions are the progenitor of Prospero in the magi's eyes.

No mage or mortal has ever lived so long as to know the truth. The way that mages have developed the story is through divination, although this does little to its credibility. To be a diviner is to tempt fate. The mind can only stretch so far before it snaps and destroys the mage. Powerful magi might view distant ages long gone or yet to come, but even the best have limits. Some have dared looking back farther than any others and have become gibbering mad man for their efforts. However, several times dividers have worked together to see even farther, while it often has similar results more than once the mass of gibbering lunatics will tell a tale that is similar to another. From these similarities a whole was eventually comprised.

It is taught in the entirety of the Colleges of Magi as a way to unify them. It is unlikely to have much of a grasp in other nations though, purely depending on the nation and it's history. Most will never hear the story but it would not be unheard of for more scholarly men to have heard or read a rendition of it.

Normally the name of the spirits change in the story depending on each college's local region. It however is used to unify mages into a group wholly their own instead of simply many smaller groups. A unified foundation of faith to better allow communication without the problems of cultural differences. This has been for the most part been supported by The Magistrate. It not only makes the college's work better with one another but also helps to distance mages from the traditions of their homes. This is supported in an attempt to assure that they find home and loyalty in their colleges, by extension the Empire, rather than their homelands.