Birth of the World

Birth of the World is a part of the Tales of Arkain.

## Synopsis

This story was about the Genesis of Arkain.

## Story

It all began, with the creation of our world. The world later to be called Arkain.
It was an... experiment. A game, played by foolish and unexperienced creatures, later to be called gods. They were young back then, didn't have any idea what consequences their doings could have. Immortality can be both a blessing and a curse, it appears, it makes one become... uncautious. The gods had no names, they were separated by the element they had power over. Only a few of them survived their deeds, the others.... are no more. The gods, not knowing the true meaning of their own power, created Arkain as a playground. They wanted to test their abilities. They created mountains, plains, forests, seas, rivers, volcanic areas, arctic areas... They created every landscape one could imagine – along with those no one could imagine. But it wasn't enough. They wanted to create more and more. At some point, they became bored of their work and wanted to do more: Create intelligent life. And today they know, no matter if they'd be willing to admit it or nor, that from this point on, things started getting worse. They started a project to create the first race together. All of them combined their powers to create one single race, a race they wanted to be perfect. It took them one year to complete their work: They created a powerful race which they named after the world they had created: The Arkainians.
The Arkainians started settling on the main continent of Arkain. They prospered and created a beautiful realm. They were religious and devout people – until the day came, which announced their downfall. After two hundred years of wealth, the Arkainians started to become extinct. They didn't get enough children anymore and a strange illness killed them, one by one. All their prayers didn't help them, the gods themselves were unable to figure out, how this was possible. Little did they know that it was the doing of their very own creation. They had made a mistake when they created the Arkainians. It was a miracle that their creation had been able to live for such a long time in the first place. When they discovered the reason for this, it was far too late.

The gods started blaming each other for the failure, as more and more Arkainians died and the civilization fell to chaos. They started with insults, insults became threats, threats became attacks and attacks became war. A war amongst the gods themselves had begun. They had no armies, they needed none, they fought each other. The remaining Arkainians presumed that they had to follow their gods and started fighting each other as well. Their extinction made them desperate, some just wanted to die, others thought they could end this whole mess if one faction won. Only a handful of them stayed peaceful – in turn, they were the first to be killed by their mad brothers and sisters. Day after day, week after week, for almost two thousand years the different forces had fought each other. The Arkainians were all dead, either killed by their own kind or the doing of their gods. The day the last of them died from a wound, the gods stopped their battle and finally realized what they had done. Tired and full of grief, they wanted to undo the damage they had inflicted. They had destroyed their playground world and killed the race they had created. They had even killed most of themselves, only half of them had survived their battles. They tried to restore their world and to re-create their creation with their united power. But their attempt to do so was sabotaged by four beings so powerful that they were capable of killing a god. The gods were so focused on their war that they hadn't understood what happened to the gods that had been slain. The dead gods themselves vanished, yes, but their powers surely didn't. The powers of several gods combined and created new beings, each with the power of several gods. They were later known as the Demon God, the Avatar of Death, the Dark One and the Master of Shadows. They understood that what the gods were trying to do would, in fact, destroy everything that was left. While the gods focused all their power in their ritual, the Four attacked them. After all the war and battle, the gods were no match for the four empowered beings and were either killed or banned from the world of Arkain. This left the Four as the most powerful beings on Arkain. A time of peace had begun.

The Four started their own games on several continents, even creating new races. The Demon God created a demonic race whose real name was lost, the Avatar of Death created a race later known as Dark Elves or True Elves, the Master of Shadows created beings of deepest shadows. Only the Dark One created no new race, instead he was watching the primitive beings of the world and the races created by the others. For several centuries, all was going well, but as always, peace wouldn't endure long. The Dark One started taking members of the different races from his brethren. His plans are still unknown, but it was quite clear that it had something to do with getting rid of his three counterparts. However, it didn't take the others as long to figure that out as he had hoped. They allied up against him and ordered their armies to attack him. The Dark One had summoned both creatures of his own, monsters created out of magic, and members of different races, perverted to his dark will, but even with all his servants and tricks he stood no chance against the others. It was the Demon God who utterly crushed the Dark One with his bare hands. He tore the traitor apart and the pieces were thrown into all directions of the world. This part of the story could be over here, but it isn't. The Avatar of Death, who had forseen these events and had figured out a plan himself, used this opportunity. He had seen the world's end and understood that the only way to prevent it, was to destroy everything that endangered its balance. Like the Four. He stabbed the Demon God and literally tore all life out of his body. The Demon God, not expecting another betrayal like this, died in an explosion, that destroyed the realm of the Dark One completely, making it drown underwater. The Master of Shadows was, too, destroyed by the explosion and his remnants faded away. Only the Avatar of Death, heavily wounded, managed to survive. But his wounds wouldn't heal. He had forseen all of this, he knew he would die and did, what he had to do: He sealed away his creation, the Dark Elves, and disappeared.

Without their leader, the Demons fell into chaos and fought each other for power, the Shadows disappeared, one by one, making room for the young races.