Universal Existence

The Universal Existence is considered the beginning of all existences, across the entire universe, thus the name. The Universal Existence is credited with creating every known world, and creating each world's ruling gods or goddesses. In some societies, the Universal Existence in referred to by other names, such as the Grand God / Goddess, Original God, or Divine Truth.

After creating a world and its ruling gods or goddesses, the Universal Existence is known to cease further involvement with that world and its inhabitants. The content and progression of a world is entirely up to the discretion of its ruling gods or goddesses; as such, each world is typically very unique, and the species in one world do not exist in others, unless inter-world travel has been established between them.

It is not known how many worlds the Universal Existence has created, nor is it known why it creates them; the only information given to the inhabitants of a world is what was told to the ruling gods or goddesses, and even they do not know much of the Existence.

Information such as a gender, age, or even appearance, is also unknown.

#### **The Nature of World Creation and Existence**

When a new world is created, it is like a blank slate; it is essentially a void of nothingness until the ruling gods or goddesses decide to create something within that space. Though the space is large, it is not infinite -- it is more akin to a pocket of space within a larger area (the universe). Each world's void space is presumed to be the same size, but the size of the world itself is up to the discretion of its gods or goddesses.

The variety of existing worlds is notoriously vast, as most godly beings enjoy ruling over creations they deem superior to other gods' creations. Some worlds are orbs with a central gravity, while some are made up of floating "islands" or landmasses. Some worlds are even a combination of the two, or are something else entirely. Things such as the existence and placement of celestial bodies (suns, moons, and stars), number of species, and the intelligence of said inhabitants, tends to differ by large margins between different worlds. It could be said that each world carries the "flavour" or style of its ruling godly beings.

#### **The Role of Godly Beings In World Creation**

Godly beings (gods and goddesses) are usually created in groups of three, five, seven, or twelve, to adhere to various sets of elements. These elements can differ between spatial elements, natural elements, or celestial elements, but an individual world will only ever contain the elements of one category. Each godly being will represent one of the elements, and will have powers that preside over whatever that element entails. For example, a god that has power over the natural element of water will be able to create bodies of water, and organisms that have water-based qualities, such as fish, or sentient water elementals.

With their powers put together, a group of godly beings created by the Existence will be able to create a full world in the void space given to them. As such, void spaces with larger groups of godly beings are typically home to more complex and robust worlds. After the godly beings have created a suitable world to their tastes, their task is to watch over their world and keep its balance. This is typically done by having some form of divine object for each element placed in certain areas of the world. The method in which these objects keep the balance of the world's elements differs based on what the godly beings decide. (In the case of this world, the goddesses created one large divine crystal for each element, and housed them in temples scattered across the world. Each crystal was "given" to one of the races, and the balance is kept through a constant flow of worship and prayers towards each crystal).

Although it may seem odd, the godly beings are not tasked with keeping their world peaceful; they are free to be warlike and violent, and to essentially destroy their own worlds to their discretion. Despite this freedom, some godly beings do choose to uphold peace as best they can in their worlds. The only rules they must abide are these: in no circumstance can any godly being use their powers to create more gods, and in no circumstances can they allow the elemental balance of their world to diminish to a critical point.