Multiverse Creation Epic
by James MishlerOrigins of the Multiverse
In the Beginning...
Five billion years before the crowning of the Emperor of Thyatis the Sphere of Creation overthrew the Reign of the Sphere of Negation at the close of the Age of Chaos, ending the War of Creation. This heralded the beginning of the Reign of the Sphere of Creation. The Sphere of Creation expanded into the four Spheres of Life: the Sphere of Order, the Sphere of Thought, the Sphere of Time and the Sphere of Energy. The Spheres of Negation, comprised of the Sphere of Chaos, the Sphere of Decay, the Sphere of Oblivion, and the Sphere of Entropy, contracted into the single Sphere of Death [aka the Sphere of Entropy]. The Powers of Creation relegated the Powers of Negation and the Essence of their Sphere to the Void Beyond the Spheres, that the Reign of the Sphere of Creation might commence.
The Elemental Planes of Earth, Air, Water and Fire were fashioned by the Powers of the Spheres of Life the Essences of their respective Spheres and from the Aether, the Primal Essence of the Sphere of Creation. Within and separated from one another by the Aether, the Elemental Planes formed the womb for the Potentiality that was the Primal Sphere, which lay within the Aether at the single common point between the Elemental Planes. Together these regions made up the entirety of the Known Spheres, which lay within the Great Barrier, beyond which lay the Void Beyond the Spheres.
The Powers of Balance, made up of equal numbers of the Powers of Creation and Negation, which were neutral during the War of Creation, at this point had their Primal Essence dispersed into the Primal Sphere. The fusion of the Primal Essence of the Powers of Balance with the Potentiality of the Primal Sphere heralded the beginning of Creation, as the juxtaposition of the equal, yet opposing Powers of Balance, within the Primal Sphere, at the locus of the Elemental Planes, allowed Order to yield to Chaos, which caused Thought in turn to Decay, which allowed Time to fall into Oblivion, and finally caused Energy to dissolve into Entropy. The stresses brought about by the struggle between these forces, greater in strength than even the Potentiality of the Primal Sphere, caused the Primal Sphere to expand. The Essence of the Powers of Balance were too volatile for the expanding Primal Sphere, and they exploded out from the Primal Sphere, into the Aether and the Elemental Planes.
The Formation of the Prime Plane
The expanded form of the Primal Sphere became the Prime Plane, which, like the Primal Sphere before it, was made up of equal portions of the four Elemental Planes; unlike the Primal Sphere, the Prime Plane was infused with the remaining balance of the energies of the Powers of Balance. Earth, Air, Water and Fire were all mixed in the morass that formed the Prime Plane, given Potential from the Essence of the Powers of Balance. The Powers of the Spheres of Life moulded this primal ooze by imposing Order on Matter, facilitated through Thought, expedited through Time and stimulated through Energy. Galaxies took shape, and within those galaxies formed Stars, and around those Stars formed Planets, and upon those Planets Life took shape. The balance of the Essence of the Powers of Balance cause the Life of the Prime Plane to evolve, as the forces of the essence of the Powers of Balance turned upon each other; rather than causing an explosion this case, the Essence caused an implosion within Life, and tied Life to the Essences of Order, Thought, Time and Energy. Death, too, was represented here, but this was not the Corruption of the Powers of Negation, rather, this was the Balance of Life and Death, which was a necessary part of Creation.
The Elemental Planes and Races
Meanwhile, the Elemental Planes were undergoing rapid evolution without the active participation of the Powers of Creation. The Essence of the Powers of Balance that coursed through the Elemental Planes after the explosion about the Primal Sphere engendered Life in the Elemental Planes. The different forms of Matter, Thought, Time and Energy arose in each of the Elemental Planes and Life took form. Elemental Beings arose from the Essence of each of the Elemental Planes, defined by Order, engaged in Thought, living through Time and animated by Energy. Each of these life forms, of course, was dominated by the Essential Nature of their respective Elemental Plane. Thus, the Earth Elementals were dominated by Order, and were bulky and ponderous in form. The Air Elementals were dominated by Thought, and thus were ephemeral and delicate in form. The Water Elementals were dominated by Time, and thus were fluid and yet unyielding in form. And the Fire Elementals were dominated by Energy, and thus were ever motive and changing in form. Death was present here as it was on the Prime Plane, but as the Essential Natures of the Elemental Planes were different from that of the Prime Plane, so was the nature of Death in the Elemental Planes different from that of Death in the Prime Plane. By their nature, were these beings to cross into the Prime Plane, they would form bodies of the appropriate Elements, and were these bodies to be slain on the Prime Plane, the Essential Core of the being would return unto the Elemental Plane of origin, there to reform another vessel from the Essences of that Plane; were they slain on their own Elemental Plane, however, their energies would be dispersed for all eternity.
As the Essential Life Force of the races of the Elemental Planes was formed of the Essence of the Elemental Planes, Death was not a balancing factor there, rather it was a corrupting factor. Earth was corrupted by Decay, Air was corrupted by Oblivion, Water was corrupted by Entropy and energy was corrupted by Chaos. Thus, as each Elemental Plane was corrupted by the Essence of the Negative Opposition of another Elemental Plane, then did each Elemental Plane gain dominance over another, and thus was the Balance of the Elemental Planes brought to ruin. Therefore did the Element of Fire desire to bring Chaos unto the element of Earth, and thus did Earth strive to bring Decay unto Air, and Air did seek to bring Oblivion unto Water, and Water in its turn did aspire to bring Entropy unto Fire. The Elemental Planes, once in Balance with one another, erupted into war as each Element battled for supremacy.
The Formation of the Outer Planes
Even as the Powers of Life were bringing form to the Prime Plane and the newly risen Elemental Races were taking shape, the Great Barrier between the Known Spheres and the Void Beyond the Spheres was being tested by the Essences and Energies that exploded out from the Primal Sphere. The Great Barrier, unable to contain the Potentiality of the Essences and Energies, shattered, and the Elemental Essences and the Energies of the Powers of Balance cascaded into the Void Beyond the Spheres. The Aether stretched, following the expanding Essences and Energies, try to fill the open Void, striving to rebuild the Great Barrier between the Known Spheres and the Void Beyond the Spheres. The expansion of the Essences and Energies was slowed and then halted as they encountered the Powers of Negation in the Void Beyond the Spheres. This caused the Elemental Essences and remaining Energies of the Powers of Balance to fall back toward the centre of the Known Spheres. While rushing toward the centre they met the expanding wave of Aether, attempting to re-establish the Great Barrier, head on. An explosion not unlike that which had occurred at the sundering of the Primal Sphere ensued at the edge of Reality, and the Aether, Elemental Essences and Energies of the Powers of Balance collapsed into a infinite number of individual Planes. The Powers of Negation, caught in the explosion and subsequent collapse, had their Primal Essence dispersed among the myriad numerous Planes. Thus, the Outer Planes were formed of Elemental materials, and each was dominated by one of the five Spheres: Order, Thought, Time, Energy or Entropy.
Of the Astral and Ethereal Planes, and the Barriers
The explosion and collapse of the Essences and Energies strained the ephemeral Aether surrounding them, and the very nature of that Aether was altered by the Possibilities present. That portion of the Aether that was without the region of the Old Barrier was transformed by the coruscating Essences and Energies, and became the Astral Plane. The reverberations of the collapse returned through the Known Spheres, and transformed the solid Aether within the region of the Old Barrier into the Ethereal Plane. The Astral Barrier formed between the Ethereal and Astral Planes, as too the Great Barrier once again formed between the Known Spheres and the Void Beyond the Spheres.
On the Formation of Other Dimensions and Proto-Dimensions
When the Great Barrier did once again reform around the Known Spheres, the Known Spheres did then constitute the Inner Planes and the Outer Planes. The Inner Planes were formed of the Prime Plane, the four Elemental Planes and the Ethereal Plane, each of which was contiguous with one another yet removed from one another, and surrounded in whole by the Astral Barrier. The Outer Planes were formed of the Astral Plane and within the Astral Plane were the infinite number of Outer Planes. all of which were contained within the Great Barrier. Outside the Great Barrier lay the Void Beyond the Spheres, though by this time the Void was not empty as it had been in the past. For when the Great Barrier had reformed at the Edge of Reality, various Outer Planes, Elemental Essences and Energies and fragments thereof had been left without the Great Barrier. These Outer Planes, Elemental Essences and Energies and fragments thereof, beyond the Edge of Reality, and filled with Potentiality, were drawn to each other, and over time they drew together, and the Potentiality within them grew, so that each did form its own Dimension, in imitation of the Multiverse that was within the Great Barrier. Being of the Multiverse but not within the Multiverse allowed these Dimensions to grow in ways not defined by Reality, and many of them did grow in ways alien and even inimical to the Multiverse. There were those Shards, however, that never did combine with others and thus did never live up to their Potential. These Shards were called Proto-Dimensions, for were they brought into conjunction with a developed Dimension, they might live up to their Potential.
Of Magic and the Rise of the Faerie Races
The Energies of the Primal Essence of the Powers of Balance that had survived the explosion at the edge of Reality had, by this point, returned to the centre of the Known Spheres, and once there, they dispersed throughout the Prime Plane. And thus did the final portion of the Primal Essence of the Powers of Balance, that portion which had experienced the Beginning and the End of the Multiverse and all Spheres in between, and was the richer for it, come into correlation with that portion of the Primal Essence of the Powers of Balance that had formed the Life Force of the Prime Plane, and was of the Prime Plane, and it did also come into correlation with the evolving Life of the Prime Plane, and thus did Magic enter into the Prime Plane. For that portion of the Primal Essence of the Powers of Balance had come to know all that was of the Multiverse, from the Centre out to the Edge of Reality. And thus was all Possibility engendered within that force, and that which allows all Possibilities to come to pass is Magic. And from that force did rise the Spirits of Magic, that were made of the ghosts of the shells of the beings that were the Powers of Balance. And in time, the Sentient Races that did evolve in the Prime Plane came to know these beings as Faeries, for they were not as Powers, nor Immortals, nor Elementals nor even as the Spirits of the Outer Planes, they were of the Prime Plane and of all other Spheres, for they were of Magic, and Magic was of all things that were within the realm of Possibility. By their very natures, the Faerie Races were Eternal Beings, for were their physical form to be slain, their essence would return to the whole of the force that is Magic, and that force would return the Essence of that being into the Life Stream through reincarnation. Thus were the Faerie Folk doomed to be born and reborn until the End of the Age of Creation.
Of the Rise of the Denizens of the Outer Planes
Just as the Primal Essence of the Powers of Balance had given rise to the Faerie Races on the Prime Plane, so too did it give rise to various and sundry species throughout the Outer Planes. These denizens, of infinite variety and scope, formed physical vessels for their existence of the Elemental materials and native energies of their respective Outer Planes, whether they were of Order, Thought, Time, Energy or Entropy. Spirits, Archons, Angels, Titans, Phoenixes, Fiends, and myriad other life forms grew forth from the stuff that made up the very Outer Planes, each animated by the merest shard of the spirit of the ghost of the shell of the Powers of Balance. By their nature, were these beings to cross into the Elemental or Prime Planes, they would form bodies of the appropriate Essences, and were these bodies to be slain on those Planes, the Primal Core of the being would return unto the Outer Plane of origin, there to reform another vessel from the Essences of that Plane; were they slain on their own Outer Plane, however, their energies would be dispersed for all eternity.
On Nodes, Wormholes and Gates
The passing of the Elemental Essences and the Energies of the Primal Essence of the Powers of Balance back and forth through the Multiverse created rifts, tears and holes in the fabric of the Multiverse, that all parts of the Multiverse might be connected to all other parts. Nodes were weak points between two points in the Multiverse that, with some use of Magic, would bring the two disparate points into conjunction, allowing travel one way or both ways. Wormholes were Nodes that naturally allowed travel one way; these were usually associated with the transfer of Elemental or Planar energies or matter. Gates were Nodes that naturally allowed travel both ways.
On the Forming of the Sphere of Death
The Powers of Negation, caught in the explosion and collapse between the Essences and Energies and the expanding Aether, were stripped of the greater balance of their Primal Essence and dispersed among the uncountable Entropic Outer Planes. So powerful and terrible was the experience that most lost all knowledge of their prior existence as Powers of Negation; they knew only that they were formed of the energies of Entropy, and that they despised all that was of Creation.
There were those who were of Chaos, that would change all that was, that no one thing would be like unto the other, and all that was would deny all else, such that all would be brought into nothingness.
There were those who were of Decay, that would bring rot into all things, and feed that which remained unto the rot, until the rot ate of itself, such that all would be brought into nothingness.
There were those who were of Oblivion, that would turn all that was upon itself, and then turn again until it was not, and yet again until it was and was not, until all that was would be without and within, such that all would be brought into nothingness.
And there were those who were of Entropy, that would cause all things to consume of each other, then to consume of themselves, and then be consumed by those of Entropy, and thence again those of Entropy would consume even themselves, such that all would be brought into nothingness.
And these entities that were formed of the shells of the Powers of Negation were drawn unto each other, and the energies of the Sphere of Death, and they did form Alliances that they would bring all of Creation into nothingness. And these entities were the first Immortals
Of the Removal of the Powers of Creation from the Multiverse
Time passed until it was one billion years before the crowning of the Emperor of Thyatis. Life had arisen and sentient races had evolved on the Prime Plane. The Elemental Planes were fraught with battle and war, which had slowly spread to the Prime Plane through various Nodes, Wormholes and Gates. The Denizens of the Outer Planes were drawn to the Prime Plane as well, for it contained energies that they did desire and lust after. And too, even the Entropic Immortals, the last shadowy remnants of the Powers of Negation, eventually did travel unto the Prime Plane, and they did begin to work their horrid magics upon it, that they might undo all that had been wrought. And the Powers of Creation gazed upon all that was, and knew that their time had passed, for they knew that should they confront even the ghosts of the shells of the Powers of Negation, the Immortals of Death, all that had been made would be undone in the battle that would follow. And thus they removed themselves from the Multiverse, all except a few from each Sphere.
Those that did remove themselves from the Multiverse traversed through the Great Barrier and did come unto another Dimension, and within that Dimension they did create for themselves a new realm, that they might live in peace and harmony. And that none may follow them that they did not will it, they did take up a Proto-Dimension, and from it they did form the Vortex, and they did place it at the one entrance to their Sanctuary, that they might remain undisturbed until the End of the Age of Creation.
And those Powers of Creation that did remain in the Multiverse did disperse their Primal Essences into the Multiverse, that the aspect of Life throughout would be reinforced. And the ghosts of the shells of the Powers of Creation that did disperse their Primal Essences into the Multiverse did become the first Immortals of the Spheres of Life, that they might guard Creation from the despite of the Immortals of Death.
On the Forming of the Immortal Hierarchy
And the sum of the Immortals of the Spheres of Life was twice that of the Immortals of the Sphere of Death. And the Immortals of the Spheres of Life did summon the Immortals of the Sphere of Death unto the Centre of the Multiverse, where once stood the Primal Sphere. And there at the Centre of the Multiverse did the Immortals of the Spheres of Life enforce upon the Immortals of the Sphere of Death the Balance of the Multiverse, dictated by the One Law of the Immortals.
The One Law of the Immortals was thus: On the Prime Plane, Direct Action Against Mortals is Forbidden.
Debate ensued, of course, as the Immortals of the Sphere of Death were not to stand for the dictation of the Immortals of the Spheres of Life. And the Immortals of the Spheres of Life gave ground, as they knew they would, and did form with the Immortals of the Sphere of Death other rules and guides by which the One Rule might be rescinded. And the Hierarchy of the Immortals was initially founded for that one purpose, the interpretation, preservation and moulding of the One Law.
And then did the Immortals retire
unto the Outer Planes, for they were the one place that they might
gather in their forces and powers without breaking the One Law, and
without the entanglements of the Primal Conflicts of the Elemental
Planes. And the Immortals of the Spheres of Life were gladdened,
for they knew that the Purpose of the Multiverse was assured. For
the Multiverse had been created that it might give rise to more
Powers of Creation, for such might occur only in the Potentiality
of the Multiverse. For at the End of the Reign of Creation, the
Immortals of the Sphere of Entropy would rise again to regain their
birthright, the might of the Sphere of Negation, and they would
battle the Powers of the Sphere of Creation for the rule of the
next Age... and should the Spheres of Life have given rise to more
Powers of Creation, the Balance of the Universe might turn once and
for all... for Life.