The Galactic Pantheon

**Origin**

Qaili was the first to realise their existence. They started to name things, the stars and rocks and other objects in the space around them. They saw themselves, and named themselves Qaili. Slowly they began to realise other things, like science, magic, and most importantly emotions. When Qaili realised emotions a great loneliness overtook them. Alone, they looked to the floating rocks that rotated around them and decided that it would be nice to have friends.

Qaili looked to the liquid planet of iron closest to them. Taking a piece of their life force they flung it to the planet and it hit, sinking from the surface into the core. Several years passed as the Qaili’s lifeforce slowly awoke the planet. During this time Qaili pined and yearned for companionship so they broke off a bigger piece of their life force and flung it to the second planet covered in water. It hit, and slowly sunk into the planet. More years passed. The iron planet was slowly coming into its existence. The water covered planet was developing faster than the iron planet, but still had not realised their existence. Qaili wondered how long it had taken them to realise their life in the universe, and could not remember.

With a sinking dread Qaili looked to the five planets circling their body, and back at their remaining lifeforce. The process of breaking off pieces of one self to awaken the others had taken its toll. Qaili was no longer the big bright yellow star they used to be, but was smaller and their flames were becoming darker. Qaili thought for many days, and decided that a short life with company was better than a long life absolutely alone. Qaili broke off more pieces of themselves, small enough to awaken the remaining planets but large enough to awaken them eventually. Qaili calculated the trajectory and flung them into space, hoping that they would hit their mark. This caused a great change in Qaili. Qaili grew much smaller and their flames started to turn orange. Qaili decided that in order to live to see friendship they would have to wait a long time. After much consideration Qaili took their sentience and subdued it deep within themselves, with the hope that one of their new friends would awaken Qaili the same way Qaili awoke them.

After thousands of years, Hadid came to realise their existence. They started to name things around them. They saw the sun, and named it Qaili. They saw themselves, and named themselves Hadid. It only had a little time to contemplate their existence when it was contacted by another planet, which called itself Ari. The two planets became fast friends, and for thousands of years grew and developed together. After these years went by they were contacted by a new planet named Alhaya, who came into self-realisation. Hadid and Ari rejoiced and taught their new friend everything they knew about the universe. The three explored the structure of the universe together and learned much. One day Ari questioned the possibility of the existence of other life in the universe. Thinking about this, Alhaya looked out into the distance past what they named the Niun Bawwaba, and saw another planet in the distance. The three friends quickly sent out their greetings, and were surprised that they received not one response, but two! Soon enough they made two new friends, who called themselves Qazam and Eimlaq. For hundreds of thousands of years, these planets bonded, explored, and played together. It was difficult to communicate with Qazam and Eimlaq because of the barrier, but they were happy enough in their distance. Hadid, Ari, and Alhaya were three best friends. They were young, joyful, and happy.

One day Ari wondered if there were any more life forms in the universe. The rest were quick to disagree as there were no other planets in sight. They did not view the sun as an entity as it had never communicated with them and stayed dormant. Ari was dissatisfied with the answer their friends had given them, and pondered the question for several days. After much thought, they asked “can we create life”? This question shocked Ari’s friends for they didn’t know.

Years went by as they pondered and talked about the question. Arguments frequently rose on the topic until one day Ari declared that they would attempt to make life. They asked how, and she explained that she would create life by imbuing their surface with life force and guiding chemical beings to sentience. Ari’s friends wondered if this was a good idea and tried to convince them not to but she would not be swayed from their plan. Ari beseeched their friends to help them protect and nurture any life that would come from this experiment. One by one they agreed, and Ari started to create life on their surface.

Millions of years passed. As the planets grew older they became more dedicated to Ari’s project. Early single cullar life was found early on, and soon enough that life became multicellular. Plant life developed on Ari’s surface, which Alhaya fell in love with immediately. She loved the plant life so much that she pleaded with Ari to send them some to grow on their own surface, which they did by shooting a rock covered in moss from an underwater volcano. Ari’s and Alhaya’s surfaces were soon covered with plant growth, but while Alhaya was content with their plant life Ari wanted to create sentience, so they kept feeding their surface with their life force. By this point most of Ari’s life force was in circulation on their surface, supporting basic animal and plant life. When those beings died, Ari’s life force went to new beings. With the help and guidance of Ari’s friends, complex animals were beginning to form. The process was slow, but eventually the trappings of sentient creatures started to become apparent. Ari and their friends were overjoyed. They grew and matured over the years, focusing more and more on the creation of life. They considered Ari’s creatures to be the pinnacle of their achievements.

Ari and their friends were there every step of the way. When they started to develop languages, the planets taught them all they knew. When they started to create tools they were taught the applications of physics and science, even if they could not understand it fully. They knew and every single one of the beings personally, and they loved them. They named the race Tifls and celebrated their achievements. It came at a cost however, as Ari had to use almost all of their life force to maintain the planetary system that they created. She was still alive, but simply lived inside of the life that she made. Other than that, everything was perfect. The Tifls were getting more intelligent by the day and everyone was happy. Then one day Eimlaq told his friends of an unknown and anien shight: five massive metal constructs on the edge of Eimlaq’s vision that were coming closer.

The planets were confused. What was this thing? They tried talking to it but received no response. They watched and waited with wonder and fright as these unknown objects came closer. They moved with purpose, but they did not seem alive. The planets could not understand what the objects were. They were even more puzzled and confused when the unknown objects went to land on Ari’s surface! They did not crash into the surface like a meteor, but instead landed directly on several acres of forest life. The planets were shocked; outraged! Thousands of years went into making that land, all destroyed in an instant. They were confused and talked about what to do. Ari was in pain because of the death from the landing, and wanted the strange objects off of their surface. Ari’s friends could only agree, as it pained them to see their friend hurt. They are debated on ways to get the objects off of the planet. However, after a mere week they would get their wish.

The objects took off, and hovering in Ali’s atmosphere they released several metal objects to fall on Ari’s surface. Ari, for the brief second it took for the objects to reach their surface, wondered what they were. Then they exploded, and she burned. Ari never felt this pain before, and they screamed with every fiber of their being. Fire bathed Ali’s surface decimating anything that stood in its way. The plants, animals, their creations and friends the Tifls, none were spared from a slow fiery death. Ari forced those creatures that could make deep underground, but few survived the blast.  Ari’s friends were confused, shocked, and scared. It took hours for Ari’s screams to reach them, and by that time there was little they could do. After the objects bathed the surface with their purge, they went to the seas. They fired a concentrated beam of light, and the ocean started to boil, and the sea creatures started to die. Ari screamed all the while as pain racked their body and soul. Ari’s life force that sustained the planet was destroyed with every dead organism. It soon became too much to bear, and Ari fell silent.

Ari was all but dead, and in the weeks and months after this shock the planets were devastated. They lost not only a close and intimate friend, but their greatest achievement as well: the Tifls and their friendship. Devastation and shock quickly turned into an unbridled rage, which only grew as events unfolded. The land and seas were populated with strange creatures, completely different from the creations that they worked so hard on. New plant life was formed, and through vile sorcery they made the plants walk and talk. The metal death-carriers opened up and from within came ugly, fleshy things that took the land meant for the planet’s creations and terraformed it to their liking. All of Ari’s work was ruined, and it was all the fault of these vile creatures.

The remaining planets screamed and cried for their lost friend. They searched desperately for a way to bring them back to no avail. When they realised the truth of the matter, that Ari was gone, a new feeling started to burn inside of them. Revenge. They started to learn to read these foul creatures' minds. They learned of many things that they did not even know existed. They learned of the reason behind their foul genocide. They learned of their ignorance of magic and their reliance of technology. They learned of a nuclear power plant set up that would cause a chain reaction if it melted down. With that they knew what they had to do.

They pulled a meteorite off of it’s path and flung it towards the powerplant. They did the math and knew it was going to hit where they wanted it to. As the mushroom cloud burned brightly on Ari’s surface, they could not help but feel sadness for their lost friend all over again. As the human’s metal death machines took off and flew away, they became aware that some humans were left behind in bunkers to hide away from the blast. Anger filled them again, as these pests would not leave Ari’s corpse in peace. They debated among themselves, and agreed that they would get rid of these miserable beasts one way or the other. The planets forced themselves into the human minds, and through them destroyed all of the technological and scientific information stored in the vaults. They reasoned if they took away their one strength they humans would die off quickly. With one fell swoop they destroyed their technological advantage, and with it ingrained in the human minds their names, lest they would ever forget until their end.

When the humans exited the vaults they were ignorant and scared. Many died to the dangers that now plagued the surface. The planets watched and waited, playing and talking among themselves like they used to do, but always keeping a few feelers on the humans. They saw four ships come again, waiting for the chance and ability to strike. After binding their time and “collecting” enough meteorites, the planets tried to knock the human death ships out of the sky with meteorites. Two of the death machines used their lazers to blow the meteorites up, but two were hit and fell. One did fall and crash into the earth, and the other was hit in orbit around Ari. When the two remaining ships left again they watched and waited.

They hated these humans and their races that they brought with them for what they did to their friend. Even today they look for an opening to cause the downfall of the races. Their methods and practices differ from each planet, but they all want to see the humans feel the pain and loss they had to endure. They do it out of spite and sadness, and the vain hope that if they go away then maybe everything can be the way it used to be.

**Beings of Immense Proportion**

The first gods of Gloria-Etalia. They are unknown to the world at large with the vast majority of all life believing them to not exist. Their primary objective is to punish the mortal races who destroyed their friend Ari. While they would prefer the destruction of all life on Gloria-Etalia, after more than five thousand years of trying to cause their demise they have resigned themselves to applying retribution to the mortal races as they see fit.

**Immortals of Eons**

The planetary bodies possess great amounts of knowledge from their millennia of life. They have a natural affinity towards magic, and have discovered countless secrets to subvert the greatest challenges of the universe. While normal gods usually gain their power through belief, the pantheon performs their miracles through skill and prowess honed through eons. However due to their physicality they can rarely interact directly with the world around them. Instead they find mortals and convince or coerce them into accepting a slice of their power in exchange for service. Cults do exist, but usually paint an inaccurate picture due to manipulation from their leaders. As long as they do their bidding the planets usually do not care how it is done and are fine with this image.

The exact nature of the service differs from planet to planet but almost always involves chaos, destruction, and personal, constant communication. Through the use of dreams, hallucinations, subtle alterations to the world, or other means they will usually contact their ward frequently. They are developed talkers, but struggle with some concepts like gender or how mortals look. The planets understand these concepts, they just find them unnecessary or too complicated to use.

**The Pantheon**

Qaili is asleep, trapped in their own subconscious state of living, for the planets do not know the life their sun holds. If Qaili were to awaken, it would be a galactic gamechanger. All they want in life is someone to be with, mortal or planet.

Hadid was arguably Ari’s closest friend, and from their death feels the most hate towards the mortal races. Hadid still works towards the death and suffering of those on Gloria-Etalia, flora or fauna.

Alhaya, while not as heartbroken as Hadid over Ari’s death, still hates those living on Gloria-Etalia with a passion and wishes them long, painful deaths. Unlike Hadid, Alhaya believes that by disasters like monster attacks or war the races will pay for the death of Ari.

Ari is dead. Glimmers of their life essence can still be found in the deepest regions of the world, where unknown horrors lurk.

Qazam and Eimlaq live beyond the Niun Bawwaba. While they mourn the death of their friend like the others they have an curious interest in the creatures that now live on Gloria-Etalia. Qazam finds the flora and fauna on the planet fascinating, and experiments with the wildlife and mortals on the planet. Eimlaq is more interesting in the geography and weather. While Qazam and Eimlaq will instruct their servants to spread havoc and chaos they will also have odder requests, like dissecting an animal or measuring the wind patterns for a few days.