Creation Myth

In the beginning there was nothing. A void of emptiness. No light. No dark. No matter. Nothing. In the space between heartbeats all that changed. The universe exploded into a riot of colour, sound, energy and matter. The stars and galaxies began to take shape and at the same time extra-solar intelligences – those that we would come to know as gods – were also born.
  In those early days, the universe was a violent and hostile place. There were no such niceties as honour or trust, only have and have not. The primordial gods were barely sentient, immensely powerful and wholly driven by an all-consuming instinct to survive. In that time before time mattered, they struggled with each other for dominance, waging titanic battles across the newly formed starscape with the loser’s essence inevitably being consumed by the victor. As they gathered victories, The Gods grew in power and their awareness of the universe increased. Those that gained enough power would in time become sentient and eventually omniscient with a vast and deep understanding of the greater universe.
  It was only then that the battles truly began.
  One such titanic battle raged between a being known as Dhamoc and another called Helos. Both were immeasurably mighty beings; titanic veterans of the Godswar, each having defeated countless foes. Dhamoc was a ravenous beast bent on destroying all he surveyed while Helos only fought in defense but was merciless and equally as vicious as his foe. Their battle raged for aeons and cut such a great swath of destruction that the dark empty part of the sky known as The Great Void is still visible in modern times.
  Finally, Helos prevailed and threw down his foe in exhausted triumph. He then turned and surveyed the scope of the destruction he’d been party to. Whole galaxies had been snuffed out like candles with only their embers still burning and flickering. For the first time, Helos experienced regret and sorrow and had he been capable of tears he would have wept oceans. As he stood there he was overcome with a great sense of purpose. He vowed not to be part of the destruction any further and would protect and nurture where once he had destroyed.
 

The Birth of The Gods

Helos stretched forth his will and encompassed a vast tract of stellar matter and dust left over from the battle and with a thought enshrouded it from the rest of the universe. He was unaware that hidden within the dust was the dormant husk of his most recent foe.
  Once he had sufficiently veiled his domain he floated in quiet contemplation, communing with the universe itself for guidance. After an age, he dipped his hand into the stellar dust that pooled around him and shaped it with his will, forming a bright blue-white star to light the darkness. As the new-born sun shone, Helos saw the vast scope of his domain and was humbled. He realized that while alone he might accomplish his task, it would take ages. If he wanted to return a healthy solar system to the greater universe before it was destroyed, he would need help to accomplish his task. Taking some of the stellar dust, he spun it into five spheres and set them in individual orbits around the sun. As the planets cooled and took shape, he imbued each with a fragmentary aspect of his own essence to act as a guardian and protector. So the planets and the younger gods came into being as one.
  Helos bound the now independent fragments of his essence to the planets (and to him) with a Name. Each Name he chose defined the young godlings just as their existence shaped the very nature of their Names and would, in time, become their primary spheres of influence.
  He Named, Rayah, his first-born, as she was his most beloved. He bound her to the innermost planet, a hard and barren rock, as his shield maiden and strong right hand. Her sphere of influence would encompass Justice and Protection.
  He Named his second born Mithras and bound him to the titanic last planet, a gas giant where the atmosphere constantly swirled and waged war upon itself. His sphere of influence became War and Battle.
  Dhara was the third born, the middle child, and was lovingly bound to the fertile, green planet second from the sun where she would be nurtured and in turn would nurture life. Dhara’s sphere of influence was Life and Nature.
  An-Teth was next and was as independent as she was creative. Helos bound her to the Fourth planet in the system where the gas giant’s internal thermal power could fuel her creativity. Her sphere of influence was Trade, Commerce and Creation.
  Lastly named was Calis, the youngest and most rebellious. He was bound to the small third planet in the center of the system where his elder siblings could watch over him. Some say that due to his wild and unfettered nature, he was not bound as tightly as the others after he was Named. Others say that in Naming him, Helos didn’t truly bind him but instead set him free. In either case his sphere of influence became Travel and Wanderlust.
  After the planets had stabilized, Helos took the young godlings in hand and instructed them in the mysteries of the universe. He carefully guided them to omniscience and instilled in them their purpose in assisting him in the governance of this new realm. When he was satisfied with their progress, he then retreated to his Court behind the Sun for a time to meditate, allowing them time to experiment and develop on their own.
  The young gods were growing into their abilities and were generating massive bursts of creative power in the process. One such burst passed through the dormant husk of Dhamoc that had been drifting lifelessly in the stellar dust at the edge of the system and woke him. Barely aware of his surroundings and a mere shadow of his former self, Dhamoc instinctively grasped at the power and slowly began to leech off some of the younger god’s creative energies, incrementally regaining his awareness and strength while dreaming dark and vengeful dreams.
  Unaware of Dhamoc’s reawakening, the younger gods continued to explore their powers and surroundings with enthusiasm, each coming into their power and maturity while ever being shaped by their Name. They explored the primal concepts of life itself and during their investigations into Love and Desire they formed familial bonds and began to commingle parts of their essences.
  Mithras wooed his sister An-Teth and eventually she bore him a daughter. Using creative talents, An-Teth instinctively gathered some of the very star stuff and shaped it into a small moon around Mithras’ planet to honour their child’s birth.
  Mithras’ next became enamoured by Dhara and even while he was courting An-Teth, he also wooed his other sister. Eventually she too bore him children – twins, a male and a female. To honour these children Mithras copied An-Teth and shaped some of the star stuff into two more small moons and set them in orbits with the third around his planet.
  Helos had felt the birth of these new godlings and broke off his meditation to investigate. Mithras petitioned his father to Name his grandchildren and give them purpose. Helos gazed upon these new godlings and was not displeased. He stretched forth his will and bound the essences of his grandchildren into the moons Mithras and An-Teth had formed and Named them. The child of Mithras and An-Teth was Named Asirah. She was a perceptive child with her gaze firmly fixed on some far distant event. Her sphere of influence would be Fate and Destiny. Dhara’s twins were also Named. The male child was the elder by a few minutes and was Named Ogham. He was learned and wise even at such a young age. His sphere of influence would be Knowledge. His sister was vividly imaginative, if somewhat vague at times and was Named Marah. Her sphere of influence would become Dreams and Nightmares.
  During his dual courtship of both his sisters, Mithras found it increasingly difficult to be in two places at once. His sisters were not the jealous type, but they were demanding and took all his attentions. To solve this, Mithras enlisted the aid of his younger brother, the trickster Calis, and convinced him to pose as his double and spend a night with one of their sisters. Calis, ever up for causing mischief, agreed and under the guise of his brother, spent a night with An-Teth.
  Shortly after Asirah was born, An-Teth bore another child. Thinking the child was Mithras’ she crafted another moon and willed it into orbit around his massive planet, and she sent her son to go to his father. As the god-child drifted towards Calis, and the moon to Mithras, their deception was revealed. Furious at being deceived and feeling betrayed by both her brothers, An-Teth ripped the moon from its orbit and was going to keep it for herself, far from the influence of her brothers. Unfortunately, Mithras’ grip was far too strong, and the planet crumbled between the two tidal forces. As they watched, the moon disintegrated and as it did the newly formed god-child began to fade as well. In a panic An-Teth beseeched her father to intervene.
  Helos once again stretched forth his will and Named the child Phaestos and quickly contained his essence in the crumbling dust of the moon. With a thought, he shaped the dust into a vast belt and laid around An-Teth’s planet, hoping that his mother’s grace would help heal the young fractured godling. Phaestos was affected deeply by the loss of his planet and always endeavoured to create rather than destroy. His sphere of influence would become Creation and the Forge.
  As the newly Named godlings were brought into awareness by their peers, Helos surveyed the system and made plans for the remaining stellar matter. Even as he pondered things, a spear of absolute darkness stretched forth from the dust to the very heart of the system. At first it looked like it would engulf the star itself but true to her Name, Rayah stood in front of the cloud and stopped it from going further. It engulfed her and her planet but went no further. After recovering from their initial shock, the gods combined their wills and with a titanic effort they forced the darkness to retreat and held it at bay while they rescued Rayah As the cloud retreated, a small, dark and surprisingly volcanically active moon was discovered orbiting Rayah’s planet and she herself soon gave birth to yet another young godling. Acting quickly, Helos bound the child’s essence to the newly formed moon and Named him Dracos, for even at birth Helos sensed a great destructive hunger within him. The young godling’s sphere of influence would encompass Destruction.
  Once the child had been dealt with, Helos faced the cloud and recognizing his ancient foe, Named him Dhamoc and attempted to bind him to the remaining stellar dust at the solar system’s edge but was unable to do so successfully. Some say this was because that Dhamoc was a match for Helos, even in his weakened state. Others believe that the binding failed because there wasn’t enough stellar dust left to bind him with. Even though he was not bound to his Name, his sphere of influence came to be Chaos and Pestilence.
  Dhamoc laughed mockingly at Helos’ attempts to bind him and arrogantly declared that nothing could hold him. He then attempted to leave and encountered the Veil for the first time. Despite his braggadocio he was still very weak and was unable to pierce or even make a dent in the Veil. His screams of vexation echoed across the Heavens and after many frustrated attempts he finally gave up exhausted and fled to the furthest edge of the system to lurk in the darkness far from the light of the sun. From there he screamed angry epithets at the gods and swore that he would regain his freedom and that they would all rue the day he did.
  Helos tracked his foe’s progress across the heavens and as he watched Dhamoc’s desperate struggles to re-join the greater universe he came to realize that he could never remove the Veil and re-join the universe for doing so would release Dhamoc back into it and that would spell disaster for everyone. While he had changed during his self-imposed exile and the universe had moved on, Dhamoc was still a voracious, primal relic from an older universe and would wreak untold havoc if given half the chance. He sighed and accepted his fate as Dhamoc’s eternal jailor and then informed his children of this new and bitter task as well.
  Whilst the others came to grips with their new fate, Calis, ever being the most free-willed of Helos’ children and normally the one most likely to not enjoy being constrained, did something out of character and took it upon himself to watch his father’s foe. Some say it was guilt over the trick he pulled on his sister An-Teth, others say he was tempted by Dhamoc’s whispers in the night. He changed the orbit of his planet to rotate anticlockwise around the sun so as to gain a different perspective on Dhamoc’s movements. During his travels he became enamoured with the young goddess Marah and together they joined their essences to form three daughters. Fearful of Dhamoc’s presence at the outer edge, they sought Helos’ advice regarding their children’s future. Helos contemplated the problem and eventually decreed that they should take the last of the unclaimed and untainted stellar dust and set it above the world of their grandmother, Dhara, where they would be far from Dhamoc’s influence.
  The last of the stellar dust was used to form moons and Helos then Named the youngest first for her tempestuous and stormy nature drew his attention. He Named her Aliah and bound her to the smaller white moon. She would come to have a sphere of influence over the Sea and Storms. He next Named the middle child Selinah, for she was a beautiful and serene child, and bound her to the larger yellow moon. Her sphere of influence would be Beauty and Love. He lastly Named the eldest Korvanah and when he went to bind her, he discovered there was no moon and no dust left to create one. It had all been used in the creation of her sisters’ moons. He feared that she would fade into death without a home to be bound to, but Korvanah looked her grandfather in the eye and told him to fear not. Without hesitation she did the impossible and bound herself to the shadows of her sister’s moons and the darkness between all spaces. She would come to have a sphere of influence over Death and Secrets.
  The last of the stardust was used with birth of his three granddaughters and so Helos charged his offspring to continue learning about the mysteries of the universe and of their own place in it. He also charged them to watch over Dhamoc for him, much like Calis already was, while he contemplated the problem further. Again, he retreated to his Court behind the Sun and left the younger gods to their own devices.
 

The Age of Myth

The gods followed Helos’ commands for a time, exploring their very natures and slowly coming into their powers. Of note was the education of the godling Dracos. He was bound to his dark and rocky moon and while he begrudgingly listened to the teachings of his mother, Rayah, the proximity to his Grandfather’s throne constantly chafed and blinded him for some reason which made him extremely irritable and easily angered. One day he could take no more and after snapping at his mother in a fit of pique, he pulled at the threads that bound his moon to her and flung himself as far from the sun as he could. He raced through the system and was on a course to disappear forever into the black nothingness of space. Before he reached the edge though, his Uncle, Mithras, reached out with his strong grip and pulled him into an orbit of sorts around his planet. Dracos again chafed at being constrained by another but in time settled down because he was far from his Grandfather’s painful gaze and now that he was near the edges, he began hearing tantalizing whispers from his dark father Dhamoc. So did he gain a dual education that would serve him later but eventually served to divide his loyalties.
  Of all the planets, only Dhara’s was capable of sustaining mortal life. It soon became lush and verdant under her care. As she lovingly toiled her granddaughters watched her from high above, encouraging and advising her. Desiring to please and spoil them, she tried to think of a gift worthy of them. She finally sought out her son, Ogham, who was deep in contemplative study, as well as her eternal father and asked their advice. After a long discussion and much experimentation, she created the first sentient life, the elves.
  The other gods watched in amazement as Dhara, and her grandchildren nurtured these new lives and walked among them. They became jealous and forsook their own planetary homes to take up residence on Dhara’s world. There they began their own experiments at life. They created all manner of beasts amongst them and soon the world was filled with a myriad of creatures, from fish to fowl, insects to mammals. Sometimes they collaborated and other times they toiled alone. None however, save Ogham, had benefited from Helos’ wisdom and guidance so their creations were all flawed and never reached true sentience.
  The only species to achieve sentience similar to the elves were Ogham’s bipedal lizardmen, known as the Saurial, and Dracos’ winged reptilian monstrosities which he called the Dragons after himself. The dragons, which mockingly resembled Ogham’s children, had gained their sentience in some unknown manner. Some said that Dracos had stolen the secret of sentience from Ogham and shaped his creatures as a mocking reminder, but no one knows for certain. Unable to prove any wrongdoing and feeling slighted at the dragons’ form, Ogham never trusted his cousin again and there was always enmity between the two races from that day onward.
  From his Court Behind The Sun, Helos watched as the world filled up with all manner of life and he became increasingly concerned. He watched as his children, caught up in the throes of their creative pride, continued to give up bits of themselves with each creation and were slowly killing themselves. Finally unable to watch anymore, he flew forth from the sun in a righteous fury and landed amongst them in their garden playground with a thunderous crash. His coming scattered man, god and beast alike as wheat before the scythe and they cowered before his angered gaze.
  With a booming voice he commanded them to cease before they destroyed themselves. The younger gods did not listen, caught up as they were in their creative hedonism. Helos exerted his will, and they resisted his authority. Individually each god’s resistance shrivelled against Helos’ power and so they combined their will to face him as one but that too was brushed aside with ease for their creative efforts had drained them of much of their powers. Eventually all but Dracos were cowed and stopped fighting. Dracos, ever resentful of the time spent under his Grandfather’s baleful glare, stubbornly refused to submit and continued to defy him to the end. His last act of defiance was to send his dragons against Helos.
  The cloud of leathern wings that descended on Helos was so vast that it blotted out the sun, but Helos scattered them with the same casual ease he’d used on his wilful children. Undaunted, the beasts regrouped and came again. Helos, while tolerant, did not suffer impertinence gladly. He had given the dragons their only chance and as they came at him a second time, he simply gathered his will and obliterated whole flights of the beasts.
  Unable to watch as his children were turned to ash before his eyes, Dracos lashed out at Helos in a fury, desperately raking his clawed hands across Helos’ chest in an attempt to stop the slaughter. In his fury, he rent great gouges in Helos’ chest and bright, red blood welled forth from the wounds, falling like rain on the soil below. Where it landed a human being sprang forth, fully formed but primitively savage and barely sentient.
  Pushing Dracos aside with a thought and scattering the remaining dragons with another, Helos turned to his children and spoke. “You have squandered your powers and my gifts to you. You are dying and don’t even realize it. I will not countenance that. I have invested too much in each of you to see you waste away like this. For too long all you have done is take. You no longer know the meaning of the word give. From now on you will learn that lesson well. There shall be no more! These here shall be the last.” He wiped a hand across his bloody chest, sealing his wounds as he did and gestured to the huddled mass of humanity at his feet. “They have come from my life’s blood and from this day forward they will sustain you, but you must give to them in return. Forsake them and you will die.”
  He then turned a stern eye on Dracos who had slipped to the edge of the gathering to where the remaining dragons lay wounded and beaten and singled him out. “For your insolence I should end your existence right here, but even your selfish ways may yet serve me. Instead, I shall undo what you have worked so long and hard to create and what you cherish most.” With that note of finality, a great sheet of blue-white incandescence blazed forth from his hand. It passed over the dragons and a great scream of collective anguish rose up as they were stripped of their sentience and reason. They, who had been gifted beyond measure, were now no more than semi-sentient animals possessed only of a savage and ruthless cunning. Fearing for their lives, the dragons took wing and fled in shame and agony to the far corners of the world where they nursed their hatred over the long years. Only once in a great while would a dragon rise above its brethren and manage to throw off these shackles and to regain its birthright.
  Helos then turned to the gathered mass of humanity, elves and saurial clustered on the plain and said not unkindly, “Go forth! From this day forward you are free and must find your own way. You have been born of the very essence of us, the gods, and by that bond we are related, as a child is to a parent, and as a child looks to a parent for guidance, so too can you look to us. We are subject to you and your well-being and in turn so are you to ours. Treat us as you see fit and we will repay in kind.” As his speech ended, another halo of incandescence began to surround him and the other gods. It got so bright that those that didn’t shield their eyes were forever blinded. The gods were gone when the light finally faded, Helos had taken them returned to his Court Behind the Sun, but their presence was still felt. It had been burned into the minds of all who had been there like a retinal afterimage.