Beginning
Originally,
there was the One-Before-All, who created the firmament and the heavens, and
all that lay between. Greatest of his servants were the Ten, who manifested his
will in the Mortal Realms, and were indeed manifestations of His own will. The
Ten were not originally tied to any particular aspect of the One-Before-All’s
power, but they carried out his will in whatever ways they were required to do.
Eons passed.
As time went on, the One-Before-All grew more distant,
and issued fewer and fewer commands to his worshippers. The Ten grew bored, and
then anxious… were they no longer needed? They asked the One-Before-All to
guide them, to provide them with direction, but their prayers were met only
with silence. The Ten were left without orders, and knew not what to do.
Eventually, the Ten began to watch the worshippers of the
One-Before-All, the mortals who had been thriving under his benevolent
protection. They too were bereft of his guidance, and the Mortal Realms were
racked with wars and disasters. The Ten knew that the One-Before-All could
easily fix all of the problems of the Mortal Realms, and restore it to His
benevolent will. The long silence of the One-Before-All grew heavy on their
hearts.
Eventually, the Ten found common purpose. Many had been
trying to directly affect the Mortal Realms, but found that without His power,
they lacked the strength to accomplish much. It was decided that the powers of
the One-Before-All had to be used to fix the problems tearing apart the Mortal
Realms. The Ten were united in purpose: to wrest power from the One-Before-All
or to force Him into action.
It is not known how the Ten went to battle against the
One-Before-All, but it is known that the very heavens and earth trembled under
the force of the struggle. Continents sank and mountains rose. Entire peoples
were wiped out. But the Ten prevailed, and wrested the divine powers of
creation itself from the One-Before-All. Each of the Ten absorbed one aspect of
the primal power used to create the cosmos.
The Ten looked down upon the Mortal Realms in despair.
Nothing was as they remembered it, and each had his own plan on how to make
things better. The Ten argued, and gathered mortal followers to carry out their
wills. For each of the Ten, though formerly united in purpose, were profoundly
affected by the powers that they had absorbed. Each new deity was overwhelmed
by the nature of the portfolio it had assumed, and the new gods began to take
sides.
Eventually, the gods, unable to work together due to
their trouble dealing with their new personalities, came to blows. After many
years of conflict, the Beast was himself almost destroyed. Stripped of his
abilities and unable to grant spells to his mortal followers, he was trapped in
a manner unknown to mortals, to keep his powers forever at bay. The Ten could
not destroy the Beast, as he was infused with a portion of the power of
Creation itself, which could not be destroyed without undoing the creation of
the Mortal Realms. Afraid that the Beast might eventually be freed, the Sage
allowed himself to be locked away in a similar manner, in an act of ultimate
sacrifice, to forever keep the knowledge of how to free the Beast hidden.
After the banishment of the Beast, the Summoner quickly
began to rise in power, as his domains had far less opposition. Heady with
power, the Summoner began a centuries-long period of domination and control,
viewing himself as logical successor to the One-Before-All. Eventually, he
erred in directing his mortal followers to begin referring to himself as “the
Creator”. This was more than the other gods could bear.
The seven other gods conferred in secret from the
self-proclaimed Creator. They agreed to create a compact, known as the Compact
of Seven, in which they agreed that after the deposition of the Creator, they
would never fight again, instead agreeing to allow their mortal followers to
decide their hierarchy and ranking. Together, the seven gods of the Compact of
Seven overthrew the Creator, and trapped him with the others before. Since that
time, the seven remaining members of the Ten have lived by the Compact of Seven,
and the followers of the gods have determined their dominance.
Currently, the Warrior is the dominant god of the
pantheon, and is backed by the Keeper of Souls, who share a strong alliance. . ©
Copyright 2004
