[✓] [World Lore] General Cosmology

[Islamadon 9158]

 

CREATION

 

In the beginning there was nothing - a true state of nothingness - THE VOID. Though The Void existed as an abstract concept, it did not exist in reality. For without creation there could be no comparison; it was everything and nothing. And though it is now considered by most to be a source of great powers and energy, it is more accurately described as the potential thereof. 

 

Neither was this primordial state bound by time. Though living beings may perceive the slow burn of decades and millennia, the time before time was simultaneously infinite in its duration, and of no length at all. Suffice to say, what came before is simply incomprehensible to mortals linked to the forward temporal flow.

 

Reality, as we understand it, came to be when an entity known as the Creator birthed itself into being. Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and Omniscient was this progenitor. The Creator is, for all intents and purposes, the antithesis to the Void; He is substance, consciousness, and law - EVERYTHING. 

 

Pr͖̯̹̺ͩ̍͗̏ͭ̿̽̀ȋ̩̤̣̎̑̚m̗̲͛͗͆o̗̦͒̒ͮ̎̏̓͠r̙̻̜̋i̡̪͓͚̲̣̗̝̒͑̽̚s̷̹͕͛ͯͫ̂ ̹͈̻̲ͭǪ̦͖͚̓̌ͨ̽ͭṟ̞͂ͨͣ̓͑ͧs̫ͮu̐̒̽̓͞s̜̈́͢!͔̙̱͇̫̟

 

In but an instant this divine being earned its namesake. By His will the universe was flooded with great the luminescence of Creation, and for the first time the concepts of light and darkness were cast violently into the frenzy of the void. THE SUN thus serves as the heart, the centerpoint of Creation itself, as well as remains of the Creator’s corpse. Too had The Veil been rendered - the very barrier of Creation which warded collapse by the immaterial. Intrinsically linked, the lingering power of the Sun would thus fortify and preserve reality. The Seventh Mathic had begun.

 

Countless millions of stars scattered the heavens, the Aengudaemons and their planes comprising the brightest of them. However, with each cycle of the Mathic there arises a flaw with the Creator’s design. Unbeknownst to all but a few, countless unclaimed and untamed planes of existence interwoven with reality, each brimming with the madness of infinite possibilities. The infinite Shunting Planes thus line the heavens with brilliance, and consequently reduced the potency of The Veil. 

 

As Creation pushes outwards, the Void pushes back. Both resist domination by the other, and as a result there exists a stalemate on the edge of the cosmos. It is a never ending war, and with every incursion the Sun finds itself yet more strained in maintaining the fabric of reality. Forever engaged in the dance of survival, The Veil has since become the breeding ground for wretched beings known as Voidal Horrors. 

 

In essence, these are creatures spawned randomly from the endless bouts of creation and the lack thereof. It is the immaterial made conscious; a paradox. Tragically, these creatures store within them a great fear of death and the dissolution of their being. They seek to violate The Veil, to enter the Material at any cost lest they be rejoined with the nothingness that is the void. Alas, these creatures spawn from nothing, embody nothing, and die as nothing; thus, the damage they inflict is a total loss for those dwelling within the planes of creation.

 

 

THE FORMATION

 

The Creator looked upon His lonesome bubble and uncovered newfound inspiration. It was deemed that others would inherit and inhabit His domain. From half of the Creator’s soul did hundreds of extraordinarily potent Greater Shards manifest - the immortal and incorporeal Aengudaemons. From the other half, a presumably infinite quantity of Lesser Shards - the physical Mortals. Given that these Creator Shards are aspects of the Creator’s personality and very being, their formation shattered His collective spirit and consciousness. Creation was now in the hands of His children, and His will would be done by them.

 

Split into two factions, the Aengudaemons spread across the vast stretches of Creation, and tied to them were their own planes whereby they could reign with omnipotence. Compelled to protect Creation, Aenguls will often engage in battle with corruptive entities that would threaten The Veil or the Creator’s design. Daemons, on the other hand, opt to pursue their own machinations with little regard for norms, ethics or cosmic stability. Regardless of intent, Aengudaemons understand that through the consumption of Shards, they shall attain the means to further develop their domain.

 

The Mortals, on the other hand, were ushered into the Material Planes of Aos and Eos. A two-sided coin, these planes of existence are reality made manifest. It is not hypothetical nor is it ever-growing by the will of an Aengudaemon. To reside upon the Material Plane is to embrace a finite existence, to adhere to the rules and laws of the cosm. So governed is the Material that one can even gaze upon the literal code of creation, the Material Alphabet. To traverse between the mirrored planes, Mortals need to make use of portals or by means of wayfaring.

 

 

THE FIRST MORTALS

 

It was upon Eos that Dragur, the Daemon of Knowledge, sought to imprint his legacy upon creation. With his power and infinite wisdom, Dragur warped the simple-minded dragon into that of the sentient Dragaar, empowering them with means anathemic to the Creator’s design. So powerful were the Dragaar that, upon the Material Plane, they were prone to corruption, could rival an Aengudaemon themself, and, unbeknownst to them, even consume their Creator Shard. Enraged by such a perversion of the Creator’s order, the Aenguls banded together and imprisoned Dragur for his hubris. In the millennia that followed, both Aengul and Dragon would skirmish for the fate of draconic existence.

 

The First Plane to be inhabited with natural, greater-soul mortals too was that of Eos. These hog-men, the Bohra, were the Creator’s first attempt at manifesting a Greater Soul corporeally, and throughout the continent of Eos did these people flourish. Alas, the Bohra have since vanished to the annals of time. To this day very little is known of the Bohra, with the only traces of their existence betrayed by remnant Boar-Skulls which litter the depths. Centuries following the great vanishing, Eos would again find itself populated with many a beast-race, for the Daemon Metztli experimented with her own Dragur-like schemes.

 

On the other side of the coin, the civilizations of the mortals we know today flourished upon the plane of Aos for some centuries. A tranquil land it was, and the ancestors of the Descendants spread across the super continent of Aegis and settled into four distinct civilizations. Effectively perfect, these mortals were long lived, beautiful, and hardy; they were the Creator’s preferred design. It would take centuries before catastrophe befell them; yet, until that day, Aegis and that of Aos remained a promised land - a paradise of endless succor.

 

EBRIETAES

The Soul Stream

 

As is the nature of mortality, the looming inevitability of death stalks all Mortals. Though their life upon the Material may have been one of warmth and substance, what comes after is dreary indeed. For, within The Veil there exists a nigh invisible flow of souls - the Ebrietaes. It is the desolate path of the incorporeal soul, and it is what many would consider to be the end to one’s natural existence. Thus, should the Soul detach itself completely from the thin auroras of the Elysian Wastes, a soul shall find itself hopelessly adrift in the Ebrietaes.

 

In the beginning, the Ebrietaes was a primeval realm absent of an Aengul - a realm manifested by the progenitor Himself. Deceased souls would find themselves drawn to this gloomy realm of infinity, forever destined to roam without aim and in the pursuit of liberation. Mortals rightly fear this fate, for an unending tether to a realm absent of life’s virtue is terrifying. Upon the Material Plane, the collective consciousness of mortal kind have since perceived this incomprehensible stream of souls as THE MOON.

 

Aeriel, an Arch-Aengul of great compassion, pitied the forlorn souls which were ensared upon this plane. As was her calling, she sought to claim dominion over the stream of souls and act as its caretaker. She made it so and, in effect, made the Ebrietaes her own. To solidify her claim, she fused with it her own Realm, the Golden City, so that none would seek to warp it for their own ambitions.

 

 

Aeriel understood the nature of her kin, and the potency of the Greater Soul. Were these mortals to be united with their immortal Aengudaemon cousins, the power of the Creator Shards would combine and fortify. Too would the realm of the prospective Aengudaemon provide a fate far more merciful than the torment of the Ebrietaes.

 

Thus, Aeriel configured the Ebrietaes to act as a web which interlinked the planes of her siblings, and about its Relative Center, the stream of souls would fork. It was Aeriel’s will that souls aligned with Aengudaemons would now find refuge to their respective domain; too were her kin permitted to cast the luminance of their realms onto the Ebrietaes itself, whereby forlorn souls might be guided by beautiful and inviting lights into new purpose amongst the gods. In the rarest of circumstances, Souls which had been stripped bare might even find themselves leaking back unto the Material Plane, reincarnating as a new being. Mortals would again thrive in perpetuity.

 

Aeriel remained devout to the design of Creation and, ironically, scorned those who would warp its design. Mortals who had altered their souls, be they beings of malice or charity, found themselves revoked of their once fated afterlife. It is thus by Aeriel’s will that those of Darkness, Evil - anything she deemed Anathema - would be forever condemned to roam the wastes of the Ebrietaes. It is why even today that the most wretched of beings still linger upon the moon, forever plotting their escape. 

 

 

IBLEES, THE NETHER, AND THE SEVEN SKIES

 

Iblees, the Arch-Daemon of Ruin, sought domain over Creation. As was his ambition, Iblees sought to become the greatest of his kin. He had witnessed how Aeriel claimed the Soul Stream and, deeming such a power the key to his ambitions, sought to control the shards of Mortality at its source. 

 

Millennia ago Iblees’ plan was put into motion. Manifesting upon the Mortal Plane, the Aengudaemon had sought to twist the mortals of Aos into horrid beings. He had hoped that through the corruption of the legendary Four Brothers, that their peoples would fall into his hands.

 

Iblees had promised each of these key mortals a boon which strummed the strings of their heart, and all but Krug agreed. Enraged by this mortal’s defiance, Iblees allowed his greater nature to take hold. He was as Ruin - everything he would touch would become corrupt. The subsequent war lasted three decades. The dead rose at Iblees’ whim, and their souls were forever tarnished. The concept of Undeath was born.

 

Iblees found himself upon the precipice of victory when the pleadings of the mortals finally reached the ears of their immortal cousins. En masse, Aengudaemons manifested and rejected Iblees’ scheme to control the Material. Together, both Mortal and Aengul counter-attacked, the four most dedicated of the immortals even sacrificing their own plane and heavenly being to descend fully as one of the four legendary Golden Weapons.

 

Alas, Iblees had grown too great per his conquest and could not be slain. Instead, Iblees would be banished to the very depths of the Material Plane, forever imprisoned. As he stewed in his prison for time unknown, Iblees did not lament; rather, Iblees continued to scheme. What was once an endless expanse of caverns and darkness - a plane between planes - now became alight with wretched flame and teeming with horrid monstrosities. The corruption wrought by Iblees had twisted his damnation into a wicked palace of his own making, THE NETHER. Though Iblees has since escaped, this plane remains brimmed with undeath and demonic influence.

 

In a final act of defiance, Iblees bestowed upon the mortals curses most petty. From these maledictions the distinct natures of the Descendants finally came to be, and it were the Horenites who found themselves afflicted with the most cruel of curses. Mankind would forever be burdened with short lives and crumbling vessels. In the span of an Elf’s life, fifteen or more generations of Men would perish.

 

 

Aeriel, who felt deep sorrow for the now tarnished Descendents, offered a remedy to each of their afflictions. For Man, the only blessing that could be levied came in the form of an afterlife of their own, unbeholden to any deity or the horror of the Ebrietaes. Aeriel thus opened a new path from the Relative Center, one destined for the heart of Creation - The Sun. Upon its very edge there existed a primordial realm within arms reach of the stream of souls - The Seven Skies. There, the Horenites would rejoin with the ambient energies of Creation, where they bask in Holy Light and the bliss of limitless imagination before fading altogether into a single collective. The souls of Humanity would thus aid in the fortification of The Veil, their collective shards replenishing the Sun’s exhaustive stores.

 

 

OTHER REALMS

 

The Cosm, in its current state, retains a mostly stable order by the design of Aeriel. Dozens of Aengudaemonic planes remain linked to the Ebrietaes, each retaining the ability to occasionally pluck at souls adrift in that sullen limbo. However, to the dismay of Aeriel, the planes of Apohet and Iblees have managed to incur directly upon the Soulstream, entitling either to a facilitated means of claiming souls. As a result, the descendants of Krug now find themselves ushered onto the Spirit Planes, the Stargush’Stroh, akin to Man and the Skies. More dreadfully, the most unfortunate of beings might find themselves damned to the war-torn hells of Moz’Strimoza, a patchwork of infernal, conquered planes that had been bound together by the black sorcery of Iblees and his patron Ixris. The Material Plane of Aos itself has become deeply scarred per Aegis’s inward collapse, and the resultant formation of the anomalous and malignant ABYSS. Finally, the Shunting Planes, isolated in their infinity, are left accessible only by the means of reality-warping magics.

 

Credits:

 

Islamadon - Writing

ScreamingDingo, SquakHawk - Consultation

Werew0lf - Formatting

[squakhawk 14040]

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