The Creation

## Chapter I: Ab Initio

In the beginning, there was Law and Chaos. For an eternity, these forces clashed in the unfathomable void that would later become the Material Plane. Law sought to make all of existence an ordered uniformity, an infinite One, while Chaos sought to disrupt existence so that distinction always remained. It has to be understood that this conflict was impersonal, a simple conflagration of two cosmic forces colliding. Indeed, the very idea of "persons," individual points of will and volition, did not come to be until the cosmic accident that birthed Good and Evil.

For after an eternity of conflict, a person of sorts coalesced in the infinite void of the Chaos. And this God, the Trickster Avatar who would later be named Nilu, set to dance across the battlefields of Law and Chaos. And in the course of his mad dance across the infinite void, two gems glowing with the brightness of a thousand-thousand stars were birthed. These brothers, named Ahman and Vaelor, were the first gods.

Immediately, it became apparent that Ahman and Vaelor were driven by the desire to create, unique among the cosmic forces of the planes. Vaelor set forth crafting the celestial bodies: the stars in their multitudes, scarce to be counted, filling the darkness with order and light. Ahman, meanwhile, found it in his heart to create beings not unlike himself, desiring companionship over craftsmanship. Ahman crafted the Little Brothers, the First Angels, beings whom the First Brothers could send forth to create and populate the planes on their own.

## Chapter II: Donum Divinum

Yet, as numerous as the Little Brothers became, Ahman always felt that his labors were somehow unfulfilled. Vaelor dismissed his brother Ahman's concerns, reassuring him that Creation as they had wrought it was perfect in its obedience to their will. But Ahman remained troubled.

It was then that the Trickster, Nilu, approached Ahman with sinister counsel. "What you crave is Others," whispered Nilu. "Others like your brother, and you, who can listen, and love; but what is listening and loving if that is the only thing your creations can do? No, for Obedience and Love to matter, you must give to your creations the gift of Free Will. They must be free to obey and love if they choose, but also free to disobey and hate if they so choose. For only then will their obedience and love mean anything to you."

Ahman was swayed by the words of Nilu, and set to work crafting a race of beings that would later become known as the Titans. The Titans were not dissimilar to Ahman, Vaelor, and the Little Brothers: yet they were born with the taint of Disobedience in their hearts, and as their numbers grew, they learned Envy, and some even learned Hate. Soon, the inevitable came to pass: the Titans rebelled against their creators, hoping to usurp the mantle of Creator for themselves.

A bitter war was then fought, with Vaelor, Ahman, and their angels on one side, and the Titans on the other. No mortal was then alive to count the years for which the war raged on; but the years were surely beyond mortal reckoning all the same. Eventually, the tide turned against the Titans, and in their desperation, the Titans called out to a great evil from beyond the void, beyond even the eternal seas of Law and Chaos.

## Chapter III: Ex Nihilo

It was then that the Destroyer came. No one, not scholar nor god, knows for sure whence the Destroyer came; but the Destroyer came, devouring in its immeasurable maw innumerable legions of Titans and angels alike.

Faced with total destruction, the Brothers and their angels devised a gambit: creation still lied within the Brothers' powers, and even if the Destroyer could not be itself destroyed, it could perhaps be imprisoned. Vaelor himself crafted a prison of rock and fire, while Ahman and his angels advanced to lure the Destroyer into the divinely forged cage.

Even today, the learned and the holy dispute what followed. Some maintain that Vaelor willingly sacrificed Ahman to seal the Destroyer within its new prison--or worse, even deliberately caught Ahman within the same trap, supposedly as punishment for Ahman's original treason in creating beings of free will. Others maintain that Ahman, in the ultimate demonstration of the same love that led him to create the Titans, willingly sacrificed himself to imprison the Destroyer once and for all. Yet all accounts conclude the same: Ahman perished in the final gambit, and the Destroyer was ensnared in Vaelor's prison.

## Chapter IV: Compromissum

And so one of the Brothers died, yet the Destroyer's all-consuming hunger was contained. Yet great discord grew among the angels and Vaelor thereafter: while Vaelor and his loyal angels set to work crafting a myriad of planets to orbit around their stars, so as to forever conceal the location of the Destroyer's prison, those who were created by the hand of Ahman secretly populated the prison and other planets with creatures, not so mighty as the Titans, but with the same gift of Freedom that the Titans were given. These creatures, thought the children of Ahman, would serve as guardians of the prison, and of the rest of creation. Their free will, thought the children, was a fitting testament to the legacy of Ahman: the pure notion of Good that pervaded creation even after Ahman's death, the notion of Good that could not exist if free will had never been gifted.

Vaelor was furious when he learned of the angels' treachery. From the war with the Titans, it had been learned that the evil souls of slain Titans formed new monstrosities, with sinful souls coalescing into creatures of pure evil in an area outside of the Material Plane known as the Abyss. How, then, could these angels make the same mistake that led to the near extinction of all life in the planes?

Yet when it seemed that a second war within the ranks of the Divine was inevitable, one angel stepped forward, offering a compromise. Those angels who had been created by Ahman, who still felt his will resonating in creation even after his death, would establish their domain outside of the Material Plane, and they would be allowed to continue in perpetuating the will to which they felt themselves eternally bound. Yet Vaelor and his angels--who themselves could not sense Ahman's will, at least not in the way that these angels claimed--would be permitted to continue their warfare against the forces that would seek to destroy creation and destabilize the planes, from a citadel located in the Abyss itself. Both Ahman's loyalists and Vaelor, as well as his obedient, would be permitted to attempt influence over the newly created Mortals; yet, for the sake of peace among the planes, neither would ever be allowed to send extraplanar armies to conquer the fledgling worlds, nor otherwise take so drastic and direct measures to gain power over mortalkind.

No one knows why Vaelor accepted the upstart angel's offer. Some say that the loss of his brother proved too traumatic an experience to risk repeating, and that upon seeing the hosts opposed to his vision, Vaelor humbly accepted exile as a necessary resolution. Others maintain that Vaelor foresaw the opportunity to corrupt mortals and draw them into the Hell that Vaelor would create upon the Abyss, and thus Vaelor would build an infernal host that one day he might use to retake Heaven and the rest of creation.

Yet the First Compact Among Gods was drawn and accepted by all parties: and upon this foundation the universe as mortals know it was built.