Bonus Story - The Origin of the Divines

[A/N: This is a bonus story exclusive to Patreon. It will never go up on RR and does not count as the weekly chapter. Enjoy!!]

The Origin of the Divines

Time Immemorial

Long before the mountains surrounded Maeve, before mortals built cities, before Divines rose above all, there was nothing. A blackness so deep that not even stars could form. It was empty. There were no humans or beastkin. No elves or dwarves. No Gods or Goddesses. No Suns, no moons, no worlds at all. Just the aether. It was from this aether sparks formed, and from those sparks heat was produced. And where there is heat, there is cold.

Slowly, over eons, the sparks grew –and on the other side of the aether grew ice crystals. The sparks became flame and the crystals became true ice. Eons more passed. The flames became an ever growing inferno, and the ice became a blizzard. Suddenly the aether was no longer empty. Half was fire and half was ice –and where the two met was steam and water.

That was how Primus was forged. The first of his kind. A God of Nothing. A being with two arms, and two legs, two eyes, and two ears. A mouth. A nose. All muscle. He was a being of fire and rage. He was all red and gold and orange.

Next came Secundus out of the ice. The second of his kind. A God of Nothing. He was much like Primus. Only he was a being of cold and cunning. He was all blue and white and silver.

Thirdly came Troya, from the steam and water. She was the third of her kind. A Goddess of Nothing. She was the difference between the two. Half of her was fire, her blood hot and her skin red. Half of her was ice, her mind cold and her eyes blue.

These were the original three. The Gods and Goddesses of Old. They ruled the aether. Which was to say they ruled nothing at all. And they loved each other. More than brothers and sisters, they were One Made Three.

One could argue that time had not yet begun to pass, that it was all at once the sparks began and then the Gods sprung up. Because none had observed the event until then. After their birth, though? None could deny the passage of time.

The fire expanded ever further into the aether on one side –ice on the other. And as Primus and Secundus expanded their territories, Troya stretched both up and down, bridging the gap between them. They did this for millenia.

Then, one day, Primus and Secundus could no longer bear to look at each other. All they wanted was to spend time with Troya. In turn, Troya grew tired of Primus and Secundus’ fights. So, she fed her power into the aether, forged new elements with her fire and her ice. She created air, she compacted earth, lightning flickered around her, metal was forged for the first time. And for each of these elements, a God or Goddess was born. Each of them bound to Troya’s light.

No longer were they Gods and Goddesses of Nothing. There was simply too much now. And Troya was growing weary from her creation. So they changed their names.

Secundus, in his desire to impress Troya, begged the Goddess of Lightning to help him create something new just for Troya. Thus, he was the first with two domains. The God of Ice and Invention.

Primus, in his desire to best Secundus, begged the God of Metal to help him create something even more beautiful. And Primus became the next with two domains. The God of Fire and Forge.

Troya, in her golden crown and her dress of frozen lightning, was tired. She simply wished for somewhere to rest her feet. She was the first to be called three things. Goddess of Life and Duality, Mother of the Divine.

As they watched their mother, the new Divines hatched a plan to present Troya with something they knew she would love. The Goddess of Earth created land on which to stand, the God of Water created the rivers and the seas, the Goddess of Air created a breeze, the God of Metal filled the world with depth, the Goddess of Lightning set it’s center burning, and the Gods of Fire and Ice filled in the rest.

Thus, Gargantua was born. During its formation a dozen more Gods and Goddesses were born from the aether. In the wake of such a creation, all the Divines took a rest. Troya most of all.

She found the equator, where fire met ice in equilibrium, and laid her head and slept.

Millenia passed by.

Gods and Goddess lusted, and loved, and did everything in between –bringing a new kind of life to Gargantua. Mortal lives. They gave birth to man and beast and beastman alike. Elves sprung from the Goddess of the Deep Forest, dwarves from the union between Earth and Metal. Animals and monsters and everything in between began running about the world.

And thus, Death was born from the aether. The fourth of his kind, he was a force of nature. Nocturne. A master of manipulating the aether, his only match in power was Troya.

Unable to comprehend the short lifespans of their offspring, the Divines wondered how they could give their children immortality. Domains. Their children were lesser in so many ways.

Then Troya awoke –to a world of light and life and death. And she met Nocturne. The other half of her domain. For she had long ago embraced Life.

With Troya and Nocturne working together, there was no impossibility. Not even granting their mortal children domains, and immortality, and power.

Thus, they pulled the remaining aether into the world. Molded it, shaped it, creating a path to power for their children.

This became the [System]. Neither God nor Goddess, the [System] was the aether of the void. It was beyond the Divines. It funneled aether into itself, channeling it into something neither Troya nor Nocturne could control –not fully. Simply alter, add to, expand. Never detract, never weaken, never overcome. The other Divines loved it. At first.

Until they realized there was no more aether left. No more creation from the void. This was it. They had sacrificed future Ones Who Became Many to their children. Some, like the Goddess of the Tydes, were thrilled for what this would mean for the future. Some, like the God of Rest, were enraged that Troya and Nocturne did this at all.

This became the first Divine Revolution.

This became the first War of the Gods.

This became the Dawn of the [System].

Aether became Divinity and the [System] ruled over it with an iron fist. A mind of its own that was too brilliant to be overcome.