Life and Death

There is a myth widely spread throughout Strix.

The goddess of karma gazed out the main window of the Godship, a single golden tear trailing down her peaceful face as she lamented the sins the beautiful planet must pay for. En, the god of mechanics, arrived behind the crying goddess, watching as she tore her gaze from the burning planet of *****. En asked the goddess why she chose not to be in a meeting concerning her planet. She responded with frustration at the goddess of death's stubborn nature.

En and Karma fell silent as the gods of fire, perfection, life, and death left the meeting room, giving the verdict to save the collapsing planet. The goddess of fire spoke with Menninn, the god of earth, and they left to bring a burning core to the world so the people could have warmth without the sun. A day later, the gods of ***** covered the world in stone to protect the people. The goddess of death created starvation to defy the other gods, forcing the peaceful people of ***** to use violence to survive. But the goddess of life granted the people of ***** food once she realized they had no source of sustenance.

That is the myth most people hear. But in smaller pieces of Strix, there is another myth, a myth closer to the truth, concerning Strix, the sacred garden, and the creation of life and death.

Once, the gods of existence, fire, perfection, karma, and mechanics held a meeting concerning the fate of a new planet, the planet of *****. As imperfections are part of life, the imperfect people were accepted by most gods. Yet the god of perfection, Phoenix, refused to allow the other gods of ***** to allow imperfection on the planet he had partial ownership over. The goddess of existence, Saoirse-Roselyn, was told by Phoenix to only create perfect mortals, and she did, for a time. But after a day, the goddess became tired of her soulless creations and began to populate the new planet with her imperfect creations. The other gods of ***** kept existence's projects secret from perfection, but the god eventually found out.

Phoenix, in his rage, split Saoirse-Roselyn's soul into two, giving birth to life, Saoirse, and death, Roselyn. Roselyn was given most of what existence had, and Saoirse was only given the power to create life, leaving her mind completely malleable. Phoenix cast Roselyn and all the other gods who defied him into a near-bottomless void, and the gods cast into the void lost control of the pieces of their power that resided on *****, giving the imperfect creations residing on the planet more ways to die, including but not limited to starvation, burning, being crushed, spontanious combustion from evil, spontanious combustion from good, old age, et cetera, setting off life timers far too early in *****'s creation. The imperfections on ***** were covered by a stone coating to hide and exterminate them until the perfect creatures could take over the planet. While the troublemaking gods clambered out of the void, Saoirse was taught by Phoenix to only create perfection, defying her very nature.

Fifty-two years later, the trapped gods managed to escape, and Roselyn shared the memories of existence with Saoirse, leading to life creating The Sacred Garden. Saoirse and her benevolent nature was truly born when she granted the people she once created the life she was created to uphold.

While that is the myth, it's often told to outsiders in passing with a slightly warped, much simplified version:

Perfection hated the love of death, so he broke the empathy of death from the potential perfection of life.

All this being said, none of these myths are exactly true. Myths spoken by mortals tend to betray the truth. While life and death were created out of existence's soul, fractured souls cannot truly be born or alive in the world of the gods. Creation is a much better world.