Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos
chapter-365

The 'Age of Myths' was defined as the period in history dating back nearly six-hundred-million-years ago. It was a time when the world was a singular plane and gods freely roamed the nearly infinite landmass of the primordial land known as Aiua. During the Age of Myths, the gods suffered no restrictions to their powers at all and many possessed a singular Divinity which gave them absolute influence over a set of laws. By working alongside each other, they were able to create hundreds of small worlds that were populated by strange and wondrous creatures. As even the gods had yet to understand the meaning behind their existence, they sought purpose for themselves through their creations and endeavored to create a nigh-infinite number of entities as a reflection of themselves and the Divinities they embodied.

For several million years, other than some small interaction with each other, the gods, which would later be known as the 'Primordial Deities', kept themselves busy with their own creations without interfering with each other. However, this would not always be the case as there were several gods that began to lose interest in their own creations that were limited by their Divinities. They sought stimulus through observing the creations of others and began to form relationships and bonds with like-minded gods and goddesses. After nearly one-hundred-million-years had passed, the gods had split into several groups of varying sizes and combined their Divinities to make entire worlds in their image. Unfortunately, none of the creations of the gods were entities that possessed a soul, nor were they truly sentient.

Though they could create life in an endless variety of forms, it wasn't truly 'alive' in the same vein as the gods saw themselves. Everything they created was simply 'temporary' and they grew bored of it quickly. Since there were no new gods being born, it got to the point where several gods began to lose their sense of 'being' as there was no true stimulus, just fabrications they had made to distract themselves. Though they found companionship in each other, even this became a temporary reprieve when taking into consideration concepts like eternity. Some gods even grew desperate and tried to destroy the primary shards that represented their Divinity in order to escape the endless monotony of their lives. However, regardless of the power they wielded in creation, they were unable to destroy the Divinities that gave them their power.

A great divide occurred between the Primordial Deities as many began trying to find way to enter long slumbers, while some even made an effort to break free from the constraints of the world entirely. Some believed that, because there were powers behind the scenes that allowed for their existence, there had to be a way to interact with, or even break free, of them. The leader of what would later be known as the Discordant Gods were two Primordial Deities named Nyx and Erebus. They gathered a large number of Primordial Deities with Divinities relating to Darkness, Yin, Time, and Destruction. The mission they had set for themselves was to either find a way to discover a means of 'True Death' for the gods, or the find a path to break free of the constraints of the world they were unjustly born into.

Opposing the Discordant Gods were the two Primordial Deities known as Ouranos and Gaia. They led the group of gods that were most heavily involved in the 'creation' of things and directly opposed the Discordant Gods who reveled in destruction. Because of the fundamental differences in their nature, the two sides weren't able to come to a compromise and there were several instances where they would clash against each other which resulted in realm-wide devastation in the worlds they had created previously. Even though their creations didn't possess 'True Life', it was still very demoralizing for the Primordial Deities of Creation since their opposition of the Discordant Gods inevitably lead to the destruction of the things they held dear.

Throughout the fighting, Ouranos continued to watch over everything as an objective observer and tried to mediate between the two factions since he considered it his duty to do so. He controlled the principle Divinity of Space and, alongside Gaia, they were the two responsible for the structure of the current realm. Gaia grieved at the devastation wrought by the Discordant Gods, but Ouranos advocated that both Life and Death were necessary and that the world must maintain a balance or it would stagnate and lead to the propagation of the monotony that was so trying for many gods to bear.

For nearly seventy-million-years, the two sides continued to clash until the entire realm, and all worlds contained within, had been devastated to a point where many worlds couldn't sustain life in any shape or form. Many of the gods that possessed Divinities related to creation simply gave up creating new things because it was always painful when the Discordant Gods inevitably destroyed them. Though it might have been something to celebrate since they had technically won the fight, the Discordant Gods began to fight amongst themselves after there was nothing new to destroy. Without having new things to ruin, many of them began to lose their minds and even tried to force the creation gods to make new things without any success.

Seeing what had become of their forces, Erebus and Nyx finally tried to compromise with Ouranos since he had always advocated the necessity of both sides. However, when they finally went to him, Ouranos simply stated that it was the right of all gods to choose to use their power at their leisure. Though they had taken sides, there were no entities above others and everyone had the same rights to choose how to live out their eternities. Ouranos told the two that, if they truly wished to reconcile with the gods of creation, they would have to show it through their actions and come to a compromise. Since it was the Discordant Gods that caused the problem, it was their responsibility as gods to clean up the mess they had made. If they truly desired 'change', they needed to focus less on destroying things mindlessly and proactively contribute to maintaining the balance lest they invalidate their own purpose.

Because of their pride, Erebus and Nyx weren't able to agree with Ouranos and they continued trying to find a way to force the other gods to do as they willed. However, though they all controlled various different laws, all Divinities were fundamentally equal in power. No matter how hard they pressed, the gods of creation simply shrugged off the various different attacks, schemes, and plots that had been created by the Discordant Gods. The gods of creation knew that, without their creations, the Discordant Gods would eventually break down and it was much easier to tolerate creating temporary existences than trying to preserve things just so that others could destroy them later.

As expected, the Discordant Gods broke down long before the gods of creation since, without a way to express their Divinity, they quickly began to deteriorate and there were several that had retreated to distant regions of the realm in order to try to seal themselves away in solitude. Unable to persist with their old methods, the Discordant Gods approached Ouranos and Gaia and undertook the first vows. They swore to uphold the balance between creation and destruction, but only if the gods of creation helped pursue the concept of 'True Death'. There were several Primordial Deities that had started to turn catatonic as they were unable to express their Divinities. Ouranos agreed to their terms and the two sides came to the first meaningful compromise in history.

After the vows were officially made, there was a drastic change in the nature of the realm itself and both sides felt the echoes. All of the Primordial Deities that were part of the vow suddenly became much weaker as their Divinities began to nourish the realm together in a manner unseen since the dawn of the Age of Myths. The Primordial Deities didn't understand the changes at first and went about their duties as normal until a goddess named Nuwa created a small creature that was a peculiar existence compared to anything she had created before. Unable to understand what was unique about the small, six-legged creature, Nuwa showed her creation to the other Primordial Deities and they quickly discovered the incongruity in the creature. Against all expectations, the small, six-legged, nine-eyed, bulbous, creature possessed the first 'mortal' soul in all the realms. Unlike the temporary creations of the past, this creature was capable of rebirth and, as long as the cycle of creation and destruction was balanced, would continue to be reborn infinitely in various different forms.

Spurred by Nuwa's 'discovery', the creation gods entered a mad frenzy of creating new worlds once again and noticed that the majority of their creations were still 'normal' and only a few possessed souls. Dissatisfied, they began working alongside the deities capable of creating 'True Life' and contributed their Divinities to create a variety of different entities as all the Primordial Gods began to watch their creations in interest. Even the Discordant Gods were satisfied with the changes in the realm because, even without them having to act personally, destruction was wrought by the creatures that were created. Because they possessed weak souls, the creatures were capable of evolving over time and repeated and endless cycle of death, rebirth, life, and eventual death once again. Since life evolved in many unexpected ways, the gods were no longer 'bored' and proactively watched over the various different worlds with interest. Whenever the monotony got difficult to deal with, the only thing they had to do was introduce new variables and watch how the creatures within the worlds would react and change under the new stimulus.

By the time nearly three-hundred-million-years had passed, there were more than a billion different worlds within the realm that were visited by the various different gods of creation and destruction. Now that things were balanced, the realm had stabilized a lot and most of the gods found purpose in observing the changes within the world while only taking action whenever they wanted to see what changes would occur from their interference. However, this turned out to be a temporary peace as the Discordant Gods that had fled to the distant corners of the realm began to return. Unlike their old selves, they had changed into monstrous creatures far removed from the immaculate existence of the other Primordial Deities.

From the moment the first god returned, the gods of creation and destruction noticed a drastic change within the realm. One of the strange, tentacular, gods began to rampage and destroy several worlds that had existed for millions of years without a single thought. When other gods tried to approach the inconsiderate god to reason with them, the monstrosity lashed out at them and, for the first time in history, a god was killed. A stir occurred within the realm amongst all gods because they were all omniscient and had immediately learned of the incident as it happened. It turned out that, after their compromise which brought balance to the realm, the excess power had been absorbed by the slumbering gods at the edge of the realm. Though their Divinities had warped into something chaotic, almost unrecognizable, they were much stronger than any of the other gods within the realm.

During their emergency meeting, these returned gods became known as the 'Old Gods', because they still had the incredible power that Primordial Deities possessed before the compromise a hundred million years prior. Though there were several that still sought 'True Death', the gods of destruction were unwilling to seek assistance from the Old Gods due to the fact they were not simply killing the gods they struck down, but they were absorbing their Divinities and imprisoning the essence of their victims inside of themselves. If they weren't stopped, the Old Gods would eventually consume all of the other gods and bring absolute destruction to the realm. Many began taking up arms to oppose the Old Gods, but Ouranos continued to observe the events in solemn silence as they transpired.

A long war was fought between the gods of the realm, both creation, and destruction, against the Old Gods that sought nothing but chaos, destruction, and the propagation of madness. In the resulting conflict, nearly all gods were destroyed and assimilated by the Old Gods before they were eventually defeated when Gaia, Erebus, Nyx, and the god of Light, Aether, sacrificed their lives by fusing their Divinities together in a desperate attempt to save the realm...When asked about his decision to not interfere at the end of the long war, Ouranos would remark to his fellow god who was on the verge of death, "Life and Death, be it mortal or god, these are both necessary for the world to change and move forward. Had I died in the conflict, that would have been my fate...I will continue to watch over this world and maintain this realm, so go peacefully my old friend..." With these parting words, Ouranos held the body of his longtime companion Gaia as her body dissipated into oblivion...

By the time the war had concluded, there were only seven Primordial Gods remaining including Ouranos, Nuwa, Brahma, Tiamat, Amenominakanushi, Ymir, and the enigmatic Tartarus. Using their powers, they endeavored to restore the realm to stability before consuming the majority of their own Divinity to reverse the devastation that had been caused by the Old Gods. They were able to turn back time nearly to the point before the first conflicts between the gods of creation and the Discordant Gods in the past. Though they were unable to revive the dead gods, they were able to return the Divinities to the realm before shattering them into smaller shards to increase the stability of the resultant realm.

Because there weren't enough gods to keep the worlds from destabilizing, they split the realm into three different states before sealing the majority of all Divinities within the new realm that became known as Heaven. As time passed, the fragments of Divinity regained sentience and this resulted in the creation of the first generation of gods in Heaven. Not all the Primordial Deities stayed in Heaven though, Nuwa and Tiamat both remained in the old realm of the gods which became known as Hell. Tartarus had sacrificed her own body, while retaining her Divinity, to become the bridge between the three realms while her main body became the foundation of the mortal world. Ouranos, Brahma, Amenominakanushi, and Ymir remained in Heaven to guide the new generation of gods to be better than their past selves while teaching them to cope with the various fragments of Divinity they possessed.

The period of time after the Age of Myths came to an end was known as the Age of Darkness, since there was not a single entity within the mortal world that drew the breath of life. All of the souls that had been created in the past were still within the cycle of reincarnation, but there were no gods to breathe life into the world for a very long period of time. By some strange twist of fate, Nuwa was the one to come up with a solution to the problem as she used a large amount of her power before feeding it through Tartarus and into the Mortal World. She nearly exhausted all of her Divinity, but various creatures began to appear in the surface world with a single sentient species that became the progenitors of all humans.

With the birth of primordial man, the gods within Heaven gained a new purpose and began following the path of their ancestors and working to regulate things within the mortal world and ensure the continuation of life and propagation of the human race. Unfortunately, since Nuwa had been unable to control her power through Tartarus, the strongest creatures on the surface were not humans. In fact, due to their weak souls, humans were one of the weakest species in the entire world and were easily killed without Divine Intervention. Worried that humanity would be wiped out, several gods worked together to speed up the development of the more docile creatures in the mortal world and eventually created the entities known as spirits. Because they possessed a small portion of the power of the gods, the spirits were incredibly powerful and even possessed a certain degree of immortality. Representing the gods in the mortal world, the spirits went to the aide of humans and thus started the Age of Heroes as Humanity fought alongside Spirits to reclaim the surface.

Though spirits weren't supposed to be able to bear children, fate seemed to be whimsical as there were several humans whose souls increased in strength over several generations and they eventually managed to impregnate several spirits over several millennia. This was how all of the races that are currently present in the world came to be, the result of the bond between humans and spirits. As for the High Elves, who pride themselves as the 'Descendants of Spirits', the only thing that made them truly unique was the fact they had performed selective breeding early on to ensure the purity of their bloodline to cultivate the power of miracles that was used by the spirits, which would later be known as magic. The High Elves weren't the only species to develop a unique culture since the majority of the races were inhabitants of specific regions and didn't spread from them for several thousands of years. By the time the various races began to interact with each other, their common ancestors were no longer important and they focused more on the differences between the races than their shared qualities.

Not long after the surface had started to become peaceful, the various different descendants of primordial man began to wage war against each other for superiority. Disconsolate about the state of the world, a large number of gods began to pressure the Primordial Gods, who were then known as Elder Gods, into coming up with a solution. Ouranos initially resisted but, after recalling his 'failure' in the past, decided that his resistance against the gods was actually going against the principles of allowing change to occur in the world. He decided to use the ancient bridge created by Tartarus to establish a pathway between Heaven and the Mortal World, but one that could only be used after the gods underwent several vows to restrain their power.

Ouranos descended with the first batch of gods, which also included several first and second generation gods and goddesses such as Odin, Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Amaterasu, and a plethora of others. The spread throughout the mortal world and sought out champions to continue the fight to reclaim the surface while also trying to put an end to the strife between the different races. Ouranos found a human with a powerful soul named Albert Wallenstein and bestowed him the first Falna, the blessings that humans received from gods to break the limits of mortality. With his allies, including the spirit Aria, Albert traversed the continent that became known as Eden and helped to resolve the differences between the various species while eliminating the powerful monsters that still roamed the surface. It wasn't until Albert's death against the Black Dragon that the Age of Heroes came to an end.

With his death, the Tower of Babel, which had been constructed in Heaven to act as the anchor between the Mortal world and Heaven, was brought down to Eden to act as a seal to cover the living Dungeon where the now One-Eyed Black Dragon fought its climactic battle against Albert. Drawn to the Heavenly tower that had appeared in the mortal world, representatives from every race began to gather around the tower and this became the foundation for what would one day be known as the City of Orario. True to his neutral nature, Ouranos declared the City to be a sovereign nation that accepted all races in an effort to draw new heroes to the City in order to challenge the Dungeon and eventually grow strong enough to defeat the dragon sealed within its depths. For the last 997 years, Orario had continued to develop and had become the central power within the entire continent and had now grown to the point that it was unrivaled within the world...

(A/N: 'In the beginning...','Ouranos, the Eternal Watcher','Perpetuation of the Natural Cycle...')

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