Creation, Clash, and Descent

## Creation

 At the very
beginning, there was nothingness. There was only darkness that stretched
 out indefinitely. However, it was not completely empty. Two entities
occupied this endless space, each of them as old and ageless as the
other. One of these deities called itself the **God of Light**. This
deity craved warmth and companionship, and to ease its loneliness, it
created the planet of Elbrion and infested it with all sorts of various
creatures. One of these creatures were
dragons, which the God of Light picked as its favourites. It made them
into the things it desired most: friendly, approachable and trusting
companions, that could live forever and would require nothing to sustain
 their lives. The deity fell in love with its own creation, and came to
the conclusion that it never wanted to be apart from its beloved
dragons. After making sure that all was well, that its creations would
live eternally and never question the God's need for warmth, it exited
the divine realm in which it had resided up until that point.

 To
 keep itself in the mortal realm, the God had to lock away most of its
powers and knowledge, instead inhabiting a dragon-like vessel and coming
 to live among the common folk. Those would become accessible if the
vessel was damaged, meaning: if the deity got extremely emotional or was
 on the brink of death, its divine part would take over.

 But
 a dragon's body could not possibly handle that much power, and
accessing the full knowledge and power of a god would simply destroy it.
 The God of Light did not know this. It inhabited a female vessel,
descended and was immediately accepted. For a while, all was good.

 However, there was another entity that roamed the divine realm, and that entity called itself the **God of Darkness**.
 This deity admired the God of Light from afar, never attempting to make
 contact. It saw what the God of Light had done, and it too wanted to
abandon the divine realm and live its life among the dragons—but it was
driven by curiosity and intrigue instead of loneliness. The deity knew
that it would one day grow bored of living among the dragons and decided
 to give them a "gift" before joining them.

 It
 made them mortal, thus enabling itself to someday abandon its vessel
and return to the divine realm. The God of Darkness sealed away most of
its powers and knowledge, inhabited a male vessel and descended.

 Both
 of the gods were accepted by the mortals, and lived their lives
peacefully for a while. However, it just so happened that the God of
Light and the God of Darkness' vessels met—and fell in love. Soon
enough, something new was created as a product of their relationship: an
 egg. Seeing as this was something none of the dragons had seen before,
being creations of the first generation, they started worshipping the
couple.

 In the midst of those
friendly and kind dragons was another friendly and kind dragon—a pack
leader, one that was so quick to bond and forgive that he fell in love
with the God of Light when he first saw her. The God of Darkness did not
 take that well, and as soon as it found out that the mortal was trying
to get closer to his mate, he got very, very angry.

 Because
 it was a god, the God of Darkness was able to access some of its
previous power due to the extreme anger that it felt at the time.
Instead of killing the dragon, it chose to make him suffer. The god
turned his flesh and blood into a deadly substance, which would harm
anybody who got close to him. However, this poison could not kill him,
and to ensure that he may never escape his punishment, the God of
Darkness made it so that the dragon would simply become alive again
whenever killed. He is now known as the **First Verris King**.

 The
 God of Darkness returned to his mate. He did not tell her of the curse
he had put onto his rival, and instead chose not to mention it. But
eventually, she did find out—because after a while, the cursed dragon
was able to find her and told her about what had happened to him. She
was furious.

 So furious, in fact,
that she declared war on her mate. Some of their followers took her
side, and the others chose to fight on the side of the God of Darkness
instead. The two armies clashed in a valley that is now known as the
Valley of Death. The battle went on for ten days and ten nights, and by
the time the sun had risen on the last day, every single follower was
dead. The gods, slowly and unknowingly using their divine powers, had
kept fighting until their own vessels had collapsed.

 They
 both reclaimed their divine forms immediately after that. The gods, as
soon as they realized that they were both in love with each other,
became infuriated with each other. What they felt for each other was not
 nothing but hatred. The God of Light finally realized what the God of
Darkness had done to its creations, and being unable to turn the dragons
 back to immortals, it fled back to the divine realm. The God of
Darkness, however, ignored the emotions of the God of Light and instead
chose to focus on the destruction the two of them had caused. Overcome
with sadness and grief, and not being able to bring the dead back to
life, it gave them two more gifts: a mind, to use reason and never to be
 blinded by love and rage like it had been, and a soul, so that the dead
 may still watch over their loved ones.

 It
 then ascended, taking the souls of the dead with it, and scattered
their eyes—one remained on the night sky, taking the shape of a star,
and the other one returned to Elbrion, becoming a shiny drop in the sea.
 Then, it returned to its respective realm, deciding to never interact
with the God of Light in any way again.

 When the dragons gained reason, they could understand the gifts that the gods had given them, and named them the **God of Life** and the **God of Death**, worshipping both of them as the ultimate creators, and yet still grieving for the ones they lost due to their rage.

## The Clash

 The
 gods had also left something else behind: their child, who inhabited a
female vessel and was raised by the mortals themselves, not knowing
about her heritage or powers. She grew up among the mortals, falling in
love with life itself just like her "mother" had. Her foster mother
eventually told her about who she really was and what she was capable
of, but instead of taking her own life and gaining her own powers and
divine form, the child chose to remain among the mortals, who had raised
 her as one of their own, and to whom she was incredibly grateful. She
 refused to access her powers in fear of harming others. She died a
peaceful, natural death—but chose to remain among mortals even then. The
 young god regained its divine form, and inhabiting vessel after vessel,
 it became known as the **God of the People**. It was able to roam
the lands as it pleased, and in time saw the destruction its parents had
 left behind. The god, feeling guilty about the sins of its ancestors,
exclaimed that it will ascend and get their dead loved ones back, because they were still deeply missed, and it made its mission to find
the other two gods and face them, making them pay for the damage they
had caused.

 It had eventually found both of its
 "parents" and confronted them, calling them out, saying that they
should return the creatures that they had taken. The god expected to be taken seriously, but was met with laughter and mockery, its "parents"
telling it that what is dead cannot come back because it becomes one
with the universe. The two gods addressed their offspring as the **God of Time**, and that's what it became known as later on.

 However,
 the young god was not prepared for how the other two would react when
faced with each other again—and they engaged in combat, the younger god
getting caught in the crossfire. Not wanting to disappoint its beloved
mortals, it fought too, and that battle became known as **the Clash**.
 As the gods battled, they became injured, because only another god can
harm a god. From combined pieces of their cosmic weaving[1]
 emerged the new gods: six of them, each in pairs that consisted of an
elder, nameless, "active" god and a younger, "passive" god. [2]

 These are known as sibling gods, and they are:

 •**Mother of the Woods** and **Relles**,
 created from the combined cosmic weaving of the God of Life and the God
 of Death. The elder, active, nameless god had picked a name for herself
 but kept it a secret, and instead chose to be known as Mother of the
Woods. Her younger sibling is the passive god Relles.

 •**Crimson** and **Oedis**,
 created from the combined cosmic weaving of the God of Death and the
God of Time. The elder, active, nameless god had picked a name for
herself but kept it a secret, and instead chose to be known as Crimson.
Her younger sibling is the passive god Oedis.

 •**Seyvyora** and **Bennsen**,
 created from the combined cosmic weaving of the God of Life and the God
 of Time. The elder, active, nameless god had picked a name for herself
but kept it a secret, and instead chose to be known as Seyvyora. Her
younger sibling is the passive god, Bennsen.

 Each
 of the new gods refused to pick a side, and they descended into the
mortal realm. They are, however, too weak to ever return to the divine
realm, so they are forever trapped among the mortals and became known as
 the Minor gods, while the Gods of Life, Death and Time became known as
the Major gods.

 The Major gods eventually
 got tired of battling each other because they understood that they are
all evenly matched, and that there could never be a winner. They stopped fighting, and decided to offer the new god a place among the Major gods. It refused, growing to hate the other two gods because of how they
 see and treat the mortals and descended back into the mortal realm. The
 God of Time was too ashamed to face its beloved mortals, seeing as it failed to keep its promise, and instead of creating itself a vessel, it
had found out that it was able to change its shape at will, because it
was a being of pure energy.

 From then on it wanders among the mortals, its shape forever changing, and
longing for life it is too ashamed to reach for, still interacting with
the mortals, but staying unrecognized. As its attempt at retribution, it
 created the elements and assigned one to each dragon, but with slight
differences so that there may be many diverse races, each different from
 one another, and each beautiful in its own eyes.

## The Descent

 For
 a long while after the God of Time had hid among the mortals,
everything was going fine. The dragons' culture and cities thrived,
there was plenty of food and no wars—but the God of Life was still
lonely.  It kept thinking about how to ease its loneliness, and knowing
that it could not turn to the God of Death, it chose to abandon the
divine realm once again and inhabit a mortal vessel. Up
 until then, the God of Life was the one who made the crops grow and
enabled the young to be born. It was the one who gave them life, and
once it descended, there was nobody else who could do its job. The God
of Death could only watch as the crops failed to grow and every egg
turned out to be devoid of life. It could only watch as the world it
fell in love with slowly withered, and it couldn't do a thing to stop
it.

 The only way to restore
balance, to bring life back into the now dying world, was to bring the
God of Life back. And to do so, its vessel needed to be destroyed—a task
 which was nearly impossible, seeing as the god looked and acted like
every other dragon. Not even the god knew it was a god, and the only one
 who might be able to track it, the God of Death, could not leave the
divine realm because that would mean that the God of Life cannot be
killed. If the God of Death were to descend, nothing could die because
it is the entity that takes life away from creatures and returns it to
the universe.

 That leaves the God
of Time and the Minor gods. The God of Time might be capable of fighting
 the vessel and the god that would take over once God of Life's vessel is destroyed, but is it able to detect the presence of the God of Life?
After getting in contact with the God of Death, they realized that it is
 not—because the only way to track the god would be to track its cosmic weaving, which the God of Time cannot detect, being born of the gods
which were, at the time, mortals.

 But
 the minor gods are not the same as the God of Time: they are not
physical beings and cannot be tracked down—with the exception of the
Mother of the Woods, the only minor god that possesses a physical vessel. The minor gods can detect cosmic weaving because that's what
they are made of, being similar to the God of Time in that regard. The God of Time tracked down the Mother of the Woods and explained the
situation. She agreed to help and assisted the God of Time in finding
the rest of the minor gods. Together, they came up with a plan of defeating the God of Life.

 Seeing as they needed all the help that they could get, the minor gods would find themselves suitable vessels. They are not powerful enough to create vessels themselves, and so they must find a mortal they are compatible
with and force their soul into the mortal's body. The creature that is
created when a minor god shares a physical body with a mortal is called a **Godborn**, and the Godborn are tasked to assist the God of Time in finding and defeating the God of Life. The God of Time often helps in picking out the suitable vessels.

 At a
single time, there are six Godborn: one for each minor god. They all group together due to being able to sense each other's presences, and
then they track down the God of Life, fighting it and destroying its
mortal vessel. The God of Time will be able to sense the presence of the God of Life as soon as it is back in its divine form, and will track it down and hopefully overpower it if it had not been travelling with the Godborn already.

 After the God of
 Life has been found and overpowered, it is carried back to the divine
realm and imprisoned by the God of Death and the God of Time, who
combine their powers in order to chain the God of Life to the divine realm. However, the god cannot be imprisoned forever, and sometimes it breaks free of its bindings. The entire process is then repeated, the new Godborn are selected and the God of Life is tracked down again. It's a race in which there is no option other than winning—if the Godborn do not track the god in time, the world will be beyond restoring, and they will be faced with death, not only their own but the death of their entire world.

#### Footnotes:

[1] Basically, it's what their divine bodies are made of—pure energy, but it is concentrated at a different part of each god. The God of Life has its in its hair, the God of Death's weaving is contained in its wings, and the God of Time's whole body is made of it.

[2] Active gods can impact the mortal word in a more "real" way—for example, Crimson is the goddess of fortune, fire and wars, and will often communicate with mortals directly if she so desires—she impacts the mortal's luck, toying with it as she sees fit, while her brother Oedis will only observe, representing rage, blood thirst and aggressiveness, and being able to increase them in certain mortals.