God

Millions upon billions of sentient beings on this world and others have yearned to better know the being as old as the universe. He has been given as many names as he has had worshippers. Among them are YHWH, Deus, Allah, Logos, Bhagavan, Ahura Mazda, Shangdi, The Oneness, Gan, Gitche Manitou, Tengri, the Powers that Be, the Presence, and the One-Above-All. One particular sect of Shambhalese Buddhists estimate that there are more than 9 billion possible names for the being. He (if it can be called "he") is unlike any other being, not even like the other more common deities, with distinct form and personality. It cannot even be determined if the being is sentient, or simply the collective actions of an infinite number of physical forces that grew to know itself and declare, "I Am." For our purposes, the being shall be considered sentient and called by its most common title: God.

It is now thought that God was not necessarily present at the beginning of the universe itself. Scientific studies point towards a rapid expansion of matter outwards from a singular point, commonly called the Big Bang Theory. Whether the being was the one who caused the Bang or simply the first sentience to arise from the new universe is unknown. However, it is generally thought that God came to represent all physical forces in the universe, much as the seven Endless, formed eons later, came to represent key psychological aspects of all life. Before life began, God made a presence in a far corner of reality. This place was a Sephira, an "enumeration" through which God could manifest his will. This place was later called Keter, a Hebrew word meaning "crown", for Keter is the head of divine knowledge, the place from which all creative forces are drawn. Later theologians would call this place "The Source". From Keter, God laid out His plans for life. Gathering the first random intelligences, he created the first deities: the beings who would later be called the Angels. Gathering in the small but glittering realm of the Silver City, they made plans for the basic concepts of sentient existence. Through their work in Keter divine knowledge spread through the other 9 Sephiroth: Chokhmah, Binah, Hesed, Geburah, Tiphareth, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and finally to the material Sephiroth of Malkuth, where our reality lies. This path of creation became known as the Tree of Life, called by some Ashvastha, Yggdrasil, or simply the World Tree.

In the eras before humanity, the force of God set primal forces in motion, allowing for the formations of galaxies, then solar systems, stars, planets, and eventually life. While controlling the evolutionary processes on planets in all four quadrants of this galaxy, it was on Earth that God chose to ignite his creation. Life on earth evolved over millions of years, sometimes developing intelligent life such as the Silurians and the Vril. As time went on, the most influential of Earth's sentient life appeared on Earth in the form of intelligent hominids, the first humans. This intelligent life came about due to a variety of independent forces, including various aliens, gaining sentience long before them, working special mechanics on the young hominids as they spread to different areas of the globe. These forces included the gods, beings alive thanks to human belief taken from the divine inspiration of the Sephiroth. Other forces came from alien beings such as the denizens of Yuggoth, the dark matter beings who allegedly built the black Monoliths, the planetsmiths of Magrathea, and according to new research, a human-like alien race who crashed into the planet around 150 thousand years BC and began interbreeding with the native homo sapiens.

God, who had now distilled a part of his form through the Sephira into a consciousness much like the other gods, chose to form his own branch of humanity. Choosing a plain in Iraq to do his work, God created a garden in six days. On the last of these days, God breathed life into clay, making it human. The human was called Adam, who cried out "God is Great" upon receiving the breath of life. Soon God created a mate for him, Eve. Adam and Eve are thought to be the progenitors of all humanity by many religions. Although many other races of humans were formed by other gods, Eden and its inhabitants are considered the first work of God himself. This occurred prior to the late Hyborean Age when gods such as Crom still ruled most other men. Although they were made from clay, the new humans would become just like the other humans on the planet, making the single species of homo sapiens.

The young Adam and Eve were like humans in appearance and genetic makeup, but unlike other humans in their simplicity. They were not different from children in some ways. Uninterested in the outside world, they lived in peace with nature and with each other. As the usual to-do of the harsh realities that raged outside, the Garden of Eden remained untouched. It was around this time that God's will was first tested. One of the angels, Lucifer by name, did not think much of the new beings. He refused to bow to the new creations, which angered the young God greatly. The fight over man soon turned into an all out war in the Silver City. Lucifer led a band of angels loyal to him against the forces of God. Ultimately, he lost and was banished to a realm called Hell. There he took the name Satan, and developed a hatred for God's creation. Disguising himself as a serpent, he entered the Garden and persuaded Eve to eat fruit from the Tree of Life, a physical manifestation of the Sephiroth growing in Eden. Upon eating it, she gained the knowledge of the divine that other humans had. Adam followed suit. God, wishing to keep his humans innocent and unaware of the creative psychological power that people had through their connection to the tree, decided to drive them out of Eden. Thus Adam and Eve became like all humanity. In time Satan formed a truce with the Silver City, claiming reign over the Hell realm and serving as a balance to God's love, punishing those deceased souls who died without giving God his due. On Earth, Adam and Eve gave birth to two sons, Cain and Abel. The sons were the first beings to worship God directly, giving him offerings. But when Cain offered his harvest of fruits and vegetables, God preferred the offerings of meat given by the younger brother Abel. In a fit of jealous rage, Cain murdered Abel, marking the first time someone was killed to win the favor of the deity. Angered by Cain's actions, God marked him and banished him from the lands of his parents. God also took the release of death away from him, and Cain (later spelled Kane), would live for millennia. Dream of the Endless granted the spirit of Abel asylum in his own realm, taking an aspect of Cain later. Eve too found a permanent place in the Dreaming. In what would later be called Australia, the two brothers, now weavers of stories, built the nations of the Aborigines through the powers of the Dreaming.

A goddess formed by the people of early Corinth, Gaia, came to the God Uranus. Together they sired several fearsome races, including the Cyclopes, the Hecatonchires, and the Titans. Uranus hated the offspring that Gaia bore him, and his offspring hated him as well. The most powerful of the Titans, Kronos, rendered Uranus impotent. Kronos castrated Uranus. Some speculate that Uranus was God under a different name and Chronus attacking him rendered him incapable of siring Godly offspring.

God looked out across the world and saw empires from Aquilonia to Melnibone to the nations of Mu who would not recognize his divinity. The use of magic (defined as the practice of drawing powers from the Source to work one's will) was widespread, and God in his youth thought that such practices ought to be reserved for the gods alone, or at least those of divine lineage.

But more frightening, not only to God, but to the other deities as well, was the rise of the beings of Yuggoth. They were not gods; how could they be? The other gods of men required belief that gave them form and power. How could a human mind form something as unknowable and incomprehensible as a Yuggoth being? These terrifying aliens had begun to work their wills, driving people to madness. The other gods urged their peoples to fight the growing cults. In this struggle God saw opportunity destroy,the Yuggoth, the warring land fo Westeros and the other gods.

In a cataclysmic gambit, God took a young mage from what would later be called the North American continent, Wisakejak by name, to call great rains upon the world, washing its people away. To save his worshippers God called upon an old man living in Shem named Utnapishtim, or Noah as he was known to the Hebrews, to build a great ark to protect his followers. The newborn gods of Sumer aided in the plan, for Utnapishtim also swore allegiance to their pantheon. The ark itself was divinely blessed, bigger on the inside than it was on the outside. Given how large the outside was, no one knows just how much it could have held. Noah's family and two of every animal were placed on the ark. When Wisakejak summoned the great rains, the ark and all of its passengers survived, saving not only themselves, but belief in God and the Sumerian pantheon as well. There were other survivors of course. Small populations of other groups survived thanks to local mages, at least enough so that they could attempt to rebuild the culture that the flood washed away once the waters cleared. With the flood, the Westeros age ended, changing the shape of the continents of the world, but with some vestiges of the old culture intact. But God's gambit was only partially successful. The Yuggoth were set back, but the other gods remained.

Once Noahs family had settled and the Earth had begun to repopulate, the remaining humans had become a close-knit group, united by the collective trauma of the Flood. In Sumeria, the demigod Gilgamesh, known for his grand building projects and defiance of divine will, organized a massive project that would show humanitys mastery over nature: a tower that would reach to the heavens. The tower was an impressive sight, looming over the land of Shinai. God, still wary of humanitys power, did not care for this, and stopped construction on the tower by altering the builders comprehension of language. None working on the project could understand each other, and the tower was left incomplete. God decided that if humanity was to know his nature, he had to do it directly. Ultimately, he hoped the worship of himself would serve as a balance to the worship of the other gods, preventing human access to the Sephiroth. He once again turned to the land of the Sumerians, finding an old shepherd named Abram, a descendant of Utnapishtim, as his first prophet. Given the name Abraham by God, he was told he was to be the progenitor of a great nation. At first, Abraham was unsure of Gods plan, since his wife was old and no longer fertile. But ultimately he trusted Gods word and headed to the land of Canaan, which would from then on be known as the Holy Land for all of Abrahams descendants. In Canaan, Abraham decided to live in relative solitude with his wife Sarai. His nephew who accompanied them in their travels, Lot, chose to leave them after a dispute over pasturage. He and his family moved to the nearby cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot would not stay long, as the two cities were not to Gods liking. After sending two angels to investigate the city, they warned Lot that God would destroy the two cities. He did so, but indirectly the floating island of Laputa used its cannons on the cities after visits by two angels. Meanwhile, Abraham settled in the land of Mamre. God had promised Abraham a lineage, but since Sarai was infertile, there was seemingly no way this promise could be kept. So, Sarai offered her handmaid Hagar to Abraham, and from this union came Ishmael. Through a miracle (a willing act of a god or gods to use the psychological power of the Sephiroth to make a physical change in the material world), Sarai became pregnant in her old age, giving birth to Isaac. Isaac would become the father of the tribes of Israel, and Ishmael would sire the tribes of the northern Arabs. As God changed Abrams name to Abraham, so Sarai became Sarah, and the lineage of Abraham had begun, Gods chosen people on the Earth.

For a time worship of God was limited to the tribes living in Canaan, and worship on a national level would not come for a few generations, starting not in Canaan, but in Egypt. Joseph, the grandson of Isaac, would introduce God to the peoples of Egypt. Cast out by his brothers, jealous of the seeming favoritism placed on him by his father Jacob, Joseph was taken by Egyptian slavers and languished for a time as a servant to the noble Potiphar. He earned his way out of slavery when word reached the new Pharaoh Amenhotep IV that Joseph had a talent for interpreting dreams. Amenhotep had been having a troubling recurring dream and asked Joseph for help in interpreting it. Joseph decided that his dreams foretold a seven year farming surplus followed by seven years of famine. Impressed by his insight, Amenhotep put a long-range farming plan into action and asked Joseph where he received such instinct. Joseph told him about God, and Amenhotep realized this being was Aten, the Egyptian name for Keter from which the pantheon that included Ra and Osiris were drawn from. In Egypt at the time, the old gods had reaped a dubious reputation, especially after the expulsion of the Goauld. To revive Egypts spiritual life, Amenhotep renamed himself Akhenaten, Effective Spirit of Aten. For a time worship of Aten was accepted, creating the first state-sponsored worship of God. During this time Josephs brothers, led by Judah, and the other people of Canaan began to emigrate to Egypt, comforted by the knowledge of Josephs good treatment there. But ultimately the priests of the older gods expelled Akhenaten and attempted to erase him from history. The God worshipped descendants of Judah, or Jews as they were then called, became slaves to the Egyptian nobility. It looked like worship of God would not spread beyond the chosen people, at least to those in Egypt. But around this time, a man named Zoroaster began preaching of Gods existence in Persia.

Fearing the return of the Akhenaten cult, Seti I ordered all firstborn Hebrew children executed in a ploy to eradicate the lineage of all God worshippers. In the slaughter, one boy was saved by his mother when she placed him in a basket and sent him floating down the Nile. An Egyptian noble found the basket and adopted him. The boy now known as Moses would prove pivotal in the Judaic peopleís history. As an adult, God spoke to Moses in the form of a Burning Bush and compelled him to take a staff and perform wonders. God also unleashed the plagues on Egypt and aided Moses in parting the Red Sea to allow the Hebrews to flee to Israel. God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and the Ark of the Covenant. Israel established worship of God but was split between the nations of Israel and Judea.

(to be Added)

- The Holy Lands are conquered by Babylon, then Persia

- The strongest worshippers of God are now the Persians. God comes to Xerxes and tells him to conquer the newly unprotected Greece so his worship would spread. Xerxes ultimately fails.

- Under Roman rule, God attempts to bring about the Messiah prophecy by sending part of his form to Roman Palestine. Christ is born. The spirit of joy is present, and chooses to do his works of gift-giving in honor of the boy.

- Christ is crucified. The grail used to catch his blood is imbued with sacred powers. A Roman Jew, Casca Longinius, mocks Christ on the cross. God takes away his death, and Casca wanders the earth for centuries to come. Famed gladiator Ben-Hur is also present at the crucifixion. Meanwhile a false prophet is also crucified, and Brianism sputters and dies after a few years. Christ's wife, Mary Magdalene, and her children are hidden by the surviving disciples.

- God appears to Paul and instructs him to spread worship of God through Christ

- Rome becomes Christian, Jews are spread throughout the empire and become persecuted

- Rome falls, Christianity spreads to barbarian Europe

- Two pagan gods, Thoth and Hermes, call upon a young girl to be the spirit of magic, called Promethea

- The descendants of Mary and Jesus, the Merovingians, claim the throne of the Franks. The Pope and his successors deny that Christ had offspring.

- Seeing potential in the Arabs, God sends the Archangel Gabriel to Muhammed, who founds Islam

- Arthur attempts to find the Grail

- As Jews are persecuted in Europe, Christians and Muslims fight in the Crusades and the Reconquista

- Prester John fights the Crusades

- Christian the Pilgrim searches for truth

- Christianity spreads to other countries through colonial ambitions, though the Age of Reason begins to dampen Godís power

- God during this time began to think that his work was going unnoticed. Many still acknowledged his existence, but preferred to think of him as distant and more abstract, a belief known as Deism. In an attempt to revitalize worship in His name and rein in interest in the physical sciences, God sent messages to two men in two different hemispheres. In the 1840ís Joseph Smith of America and MÌrz· Husayn-`AlÌ Nuri of Iran, were both visited by divine messengers, creating the new religions of the Bahaíi Faith and The Church of Latter Day Saints. Bahaíi served as a culmination of all previous visitations of Godís message to Earth, an attempt at inclusiveness in a quickly globalizing world. The Latter Day Saints ñ or Mormons as they are more commonly called ñ was a gamble to firmly establish Godís presence in the New World. While Christianity was already a dominant faith in both Americas, Smithís visitation by the angel Moroni was meant to solidify the bond between God and the land, making America to be a new promised land.

- The two young religions are marginalized, and scientific progress marches on. By the end of the 19th century, a new prophet who shares the name of the prophet Zoroaster declares God to be dead

- Thinking his worshippers no longer need him, he abandons Earth in a disastrous manner that rocks the heavens. On Earth this manifests itself as a terrible earthquake in San Francisco. On a distant planet he gives them his last message: ìWe apologize for the inconvenienceî

- The O.T.O. starts its plan to bring back the pre-Flood era of unlimited magic use. The Anti-Christ (or Moonchild as the order calls it) is on its way.

- With God elsewhere, the Angels scramble to rebuild Heavenís relationship with the world. Confused, they begin a three-part plan. The first involves arranging the birth of a child who can return the Ten Commandments to heaven, breaking the old covenant. The second part revolved around finding a suitable new prophet who could give a new message to the world ñ one of stasis, allowing God to return and regain control of humanity. The third required a complete remaking of the universe, one without magic and the superhumans

- Mooby Enterprises is founded, a sign of growing secularism through the return of the Golden Calf symbol

- 1961 Valentine Michael Smith becomes a new Angel. He succeeds in founding a new pantheistic religion based on Martian values. The Angels hope the religion will serve as a new connection between Heaven and Earth, but the non-monotheist faith is again marginalized, with only wealthy celebrities able to live its lifestyle.

- In 1967 the Antichrist is born to Rosemary Woodhouse. The child is moved to England to a foster family and given the name Damien

- In 1985 the plans come to fruition. The child, Quinten Quist of the Netherlands, successfully returns the Ten Commandments to Heaven. However, the chosen prophet, Prior Walter, refuses his calling.

- God is spurred to return to Earth after the cataclysm of the Crisis on Infinite Earths. The superheroes are destroyed in a plan utilizing the powers of the worldís supervillains, the Vogon fleet and the powerful sciences of the dolphins. In heaven, God faces the angels, using the recently deceased American lawyer Roy Cohn as his attorney.

- Lucifer decides that he need not be Hellís ruler, and that hell only exists because many humans feel the need to atone after death. In short, they make their own Hell. He gives the keys to the gates of Hell to Dream of the Endless, who in turn gives it to the Angels.

- Two angels attempt to prove God wrong. In the course of their quest they destroy Mooby Enterprises, but are stopped by one of the last descendants of Christ.

- The Awakening of Magic, spurred by the Antichrist, brings magic back to the forefront of the world. The use of magical abilities becomes widespread and public. While God once said, ìThou shalt not suffer a witch to liveî, goes back on his words and does not intervene.