Xeriar/RandomUselessStory

This will make more sense if you've read LordDunsanysPegana, or at least the beginning.

Random, Useless Story

In the Beginning

The Finder, Devi, and Meru were lovers, in a kind of cosmic sense, aspects of one or more Shinma. Like the other aspects of the Shinma, they shaped and played at Worlds, doing as they had for countless Aeons.

Never did they grow too attached to the creations that they made, for one day Nirguna would wake, and it would all end.

So they shaped and remade eachother, until one day the Finder... well, found something. Something outside of Nirguna. He brought back what he could to his lovers, calling it Raw Material.

He went away for an aeon or so, trying to learn more of it, while Devi and Meru played with his discovery. It warped their natures, and made them no longer aspects of the Shinma, but something more. Something more real and natural than the mere dances which played out inside of Nirguna.

They called it the Great Creation.

In their meddling, Devi and Meru were both warped by the thing that they had made, and were no longer. Devi became Cytherea, and Meru became Gaia, both trapped in the very object of their own making.

When the Finder returned, he was shocked to see the change, and, somewhat reluctantly, he joined his lovers in their work, forging Creation as never before with his newfound knowledge. It, too, began warping him. He was first shaped through the Earth, into Iron.

Already, this new thing of Creation was causing a great debate amongst the remaining Aspects of the Shinma. Some thought it would offend Nirguna, and wake him prematurely. Others thought it might let them escape their inevitible End.

Those who marshalled to Creation's defense too were warped. Smarana most of all, casting his name into a Well Beneath the World, becoming a thing of darkness in his own quest to become more than Dream.

The First War

Those who disagreed gathered their minds - much as they were - and with Advaita Iravan leading them, they tore at the Great Creation, seeking to rend it asunder. It was a new thing, and named War.

The War lasted for many ages. It was not a War as mortals know it, for how does one subjugate those who may not perish?

In the end, the Warped Aspects, now the Primordials, managed to capture and subjugate their less forward-thinking brethren, enslaving their core sentiences to work the wheels of Creation. These became known as the Seven Maidens, and, for each one, one of the infinite Aspects could no longer be turned against Creation. Countless lesser sentiences were so captured as well. These became gods.

Through these trials, the Finder endured. The breath of Gaia soothed his mind, and her waters sealed his wounds. These things tainted him.

Many of the Maidens were taken from Aspects of Nirvishesha, which were not infinite. The Finder began working with the Maidens, to strengthen both Creation and Himself, for he wanted Fire to forge him, not taint him further. In both these tasks, he succeeded.

For all these works, Advaita Iravan could not be defeated. Faced with the increasing invulnerability of the Great Creation, he threw his Sword, and ceased his conflict. To atone for his deeds, he offered up his own core sentience, that it may bring a warmer light to the Great Creation.

The Primordials accepted this sacrifice, and in honor of his prowess, it was named the Unconquered Sun.

Thus ended the First War.

Before the Second War

The Finder was still torn, and yet incomplete. Or too complete, he could not decide.

Gaia called to him, seeking to shape her lover with Wood and Life, so that he might join with the rest of the Primordials, being one of them. But, in this, the Finder saw weakness, and was torn.

The Finder saw a solution, and tore out his heart. He offerred it to Gaia, in thanks and in now-dying love, and became the Great Maker, and served a new passion. Gaia named the gift Luna, and hung her in the sky, that they may always look upon eachother's beauty.

Aeons passed, and the gods forgot their origins. The Maidens grew to love the Creation for which they toiled, and the Great Maker performed many works, among them the First. The eight souls he had remaining courted the Maidens, weaving Creation into a pattern all its own, mightier and stronger than Nirguna itself.

Or so they tried.

The First was tasked with carving the Ten Thousand from the caverns of Meru, and when his task was finished, the other Primordials seized him, for in him they saw a small piece of what the Great Maker had been seeking for all these Aeons. They had made for themselves many servants, but all of them were a part of Creation, and showed no sign of growing beyond it. But, through their experiments with the First, twisting and warping the immortal in many ways, they found the Well of Above the World, and forged Humanity.

Seeing that this new creation of his brethren had potential, Autocthon grew worried. Not wishing to see them revert their progress - as they were wont to destroy many of their creations - the Great Maker forged the Games of Divinity, to distract them. He warned both of his ex-lovers, and though Gaia heeded his warning, Cytherea did not, and grew enthralled in the Games. They left the gods and Incarna to toil at Creation, meddling in Creation long enough to merely be distracted, forcing the gods to clean up after their indecencies.

The Incarna and the gods grew jealous of the games, but could not raise complaint at those who bound them. Gaia mourned at their excesses, for they caused her many wounds, trapped in her own Creation as she was. Autocthon was not blind to these things, but his heart had left him, and his intellect ruled by cold logic.

In his searches, he found a potential answer to his quest. A means by which he could truly be in the absence of Nirguna. But, it required a great crime, for it first required that a wound be made in Nirguna, a wound that would strike more than just Existence itself, it had to be a part of something else.

For that, only one kind of death would suffice. For that, the Incarna, Gaia, and Autocthon drew their plans.

The Second War

((Will write later))