Origin

How It All Began
In the beginning there was nothing. The Creator willed the void into being, a place to put his creation. He willed the void to be filled with worlds, and it was so. He chose a single world, and willed it to take shape, a place where life could flourish like paint on a canvas, a place to be filled with beauty. Around it he scattered plants and animals, beasts, birds and fowl. And the world was perfect, but it was not yet complete.

And so the Creator made Aquillus, Adara, Karassa, and Kenalo, and he called them archons, which means rulers. To Aquillus was made archon of the sky, Adara archon over all the rivers that flowed over land, Karassa archon over all the seas, and Kenalo over the land. And the creator looked upon the earth and saw that though it was filled with animals, none could join with the archons in the act of creation, and so he made a man and a woman and charged them to fill the earth, watch over it, and partner with the archons in filling it with beauty and majesty. And the world was perfect, but it was not yet complete.

Both man and archon worked in joy and contentedness. Their numbers began to increase, and yet there was no sin. None were killed, or spoken ill of, or stolen from, or lied to. For the thought of evil never entered the mind of man. And the Creator said to himself "It is good that my people have the power to choose for themselves whether they will follow my ways or not." And so he spoke into existence the tome of knowledge of good and evil. And whoever should read but a single word from that book would be granted knowledge of good and evil, that they may serve the creator or not as they chose. And he warned them not to read from the book, lest their ways be subject to perdition.

But Karassa came down to earth in the form of a dragon, seeking to obtain the knowledge in the book. For she thought to herself "The Creator is a mere archon like myself. I will study this book and obtain its secrets, replacing Him as ruler." But as she finished reading the book Kenalo saw what she had done and said "Woe unto you, for you have broken faith with our Creator and have chosen to do good and evil in your own sight." And as he rebuked her she was filled with rage at the truth of his words and she took a rock from the ground and struck his temple and he fell over dead. She took him and buried his body, lest her crime be discovered, and retreated to the sea.

When Karassa had read the book and filled herself with its knowledge, she was filled with rage, for she now knew that she could never replace the Creator. And so she chose to destroy the world and everything in it in her anger against the Creator.

Her first act was to speak abominable words that filled her waters with salts and poisons and other horrible things so that any living thing who entered its waters would slowly be made ill and then eventually turned monstrous. As her skin began to flake she shook it off into the seas and turned into scaled horrors that sought to devour anything they could find.

She spoke great lies to Aquillus and Adara, attempting to turn them with her against the Creator, but they did not listen. She went to the children of the four original archons, and told them smaller lies, mixed with more truth, and they were tempted to rebel against the Creator in small and subtle ways. Her son, the Great Dragon, sided with her and led his followers in a war against the other archons. Then Karassa thought "What do I care if the other archons side with me, so long as I can get my vengeance against the Creator?" And so she went among the next generation of archons and spread even smaller lies, to turn brother against brother and friend against friend. She sowed strife and reaped chaos, and though few of these archons sided with her, they served as a thorn in the side to the forces still loyal to the Creator, who spent many years trying to quell the troubles these younger archons started.

The fighting goes on today, and though all have grown weary, and do not battle with the same vigor as in ages past, the aftershocks of these battles resound throughout the world. The sea remains a place of evil, and few brave the waters of the ocean to trade or explore. Fortresses ring the land, watching for the dead and the sea peoples who invade with ferocious malice. The earth has never regained the fruitfulness it had when Kenalo watched over and supported it. Man must toil and work to bring forth the bounty of the earth, and some areas remain barren and desolate. Many of the archons have claimed territories of land and watch over them, but none can match the archon of the earth itself. The ground still shakes and rumbles at various times and places and none know the reason why.

Who are you, Archon? What imprint do you wish to leave on this world? Which side do you join with in this struggle? Or do you even take a side?