Silence. That was the one word that could describe the birth of the universe.
It started as quiet and low Hum. A hum that has forever been designated as the background radiation of the universe. But it is so much more than that.
That Low, in-audible hum was in actual fact, the very first note, in the orchestra of life.
To some who could hear it, they thought themselves listening to the gods.
But to others, it was maddening. Maddening to the point of Chaos.
The gods, themselves, emerged from the primordial noise. Originally as an answer to whomsoever was that desperate. One such god had dubbed himself the God of shadows.
The most common misconception and mistranslation of the earliest scriptures label him as a heretic. But his siblings never loved him any less. His sister, the Goddess of light, Atreva was his polar opposite in regards to personality and representation.
All the gods were represented and worshipped as honorable, noble beings. All except for One.
One had sworn to Protect the universe from itself and spread his shadows across time and space. All he wanted was acknowledgement in some form. He then heard it. A small voice in a darkened room. Hearing the prayer of an innocent, a call for help, the Shadowed one took action whilst the others sat and did nothing.
As his Milk white eyes slowly emerged from the shadows, he spoke. He had never had to commune with mortals before. “Do not fear, Child” He spoke, His smile unseen.
“The shadows are with you”
The child felt a cold hand gently rest on his shoulder. The small boy then frantically searched for the source of the hand, and was met face to face with darkness, and a pair of eyes.
The footsteps and voices grew closer, as the child’s fear grew. Finally the dark god spoke once more.
“Underneath the bed, take refuge… and do not open thine eyes until one says it is safe”
The child did not argue. He scurried under the bed as fast as he could.
The deity spread his form once again, as if to seek out other lifeforms. When he finally located them, he feared the worst. He then watched as a life was taken. The shadowed god finally returned to the room.
A few seconds later, the door to the darkened room smashed open, bits of wood and debris flew across the room, letting a small amount of light in. “Alright lads, find the child and take him to the Duke, I think there’s a tidy profit there” Scarlet red dripped onto the floor. The smell of blood and iron pervaded the air. “Erad, it's a bit dark in here isn't it?” One asked. Finally they watched as their friend was pulled into the darkness, the only sound heard was a sickening Crunch, and the sound of a bucket of what seemed to be water splashing against the wall.
The two men that were left standing, were now shaking. “You should have never come here,” the voice of vengeance ran shivers down their spines like Ice. “You should never have killed those people” The man who spoke, watched as his friend took a few steps forward.
His body disappeared into the dark. He watched as his head, seemingly attached to his body, Slowly rotated 180 degrees to face him. As this happened, the surrounding darkness was pulled into one being. Finally the two men were face to face.
“Janak you stupid bastard!” the final man spoke. Fear and hatred in his voice.
The dark deity finally opened his milk white eyes once more. “Do you fear death?” the shadowed god spoke with a malicious intent hidden within his voice “yutsu ulu l'har'dro”
The last man, dropped to the floor with a small thud. The life drained from his eyes.
The deity took the child to an orphanage, not far off from a nearby town. He knew he could see all from the Shadows. He had become sick of watching the world consume itself.
He gained a new title during his years in the City.
The god of vengeance. But this would not last long.
For when a god steps over a boundary, they must pay the price.
Within a century, the newly anointed God of vengeance, for a time, only killed as a last resort.
But over time he Became corrupt. In his anger he had slaughtered an entire group of rioters.
The other gods, in their malevolent wisdom thought the best course of action was to Imprison the shadowed one in a crystal, they then cast him out into the universe as if to wash their hands of the problem.
As the blackened stone flew across the cosmos, the universe slowly renewed itself.
The deity simply watched from his crystalline prison, flying through galaxies until he finally shut his eyes. His anger grew silent after his thoughts of vengeance died down, Replaced with thoughts of peace. He fell into a cold dreamless sleep
An eon passes, Atreva sends a message across the universe. “The old ones are no more”
Hoping that it would reach his whereabouts in time.
His prison crashed into the dirt of a small planet. A pre-existing, early civilization clamoured around to see what caused this mighty crevice. Slowly the dark crystal was worshipped as an entity in its own right. For thousands of years, It had stood as a testament of time. Until one fateful day, this planet, too, was destroyed.
Finally, after another thousand years of hurtling through space. The crystalline prison crash landed into a new world. The shockwave caused a small rupture in a much darker place.
What was once a peaceful land became slowly corrupted.
The denizens of this new land had found him, sleeping within his own tomb.
However, these creatures were used to the concept of crystals and as such decided to build themselves a home over it. After a what felt like a few centuries, the shadowed spirit finally awoke from his eternal slumber..
As the crystalline prison that had once contained him slowly cracked, the lonely god began to claw his way out with blackened fingertips. Finally, he pulled back his hand, slowly forming a fist. The resounding burst of energy that flew forth had destroyed had managed to create a small opening. Gripping what was left of his casing, He looked around his unfamiliar surrounding. Taking note of the two large doors in the opposite end of the now barely illuminated cavern. He slowly fell to his knees, and for the first time in an eternity, took a breath.
He placed his hands to the floor, in a bid to pick himself up. That was when he heard the voices speaking in a strange new tongue that he had not heard, and yet it seemed familiar. He slowly dragged himself to the opening, and had a peculiar thought. But as quickly as that thought came, he soon realized that he was already past his window of opportunity.
He had already dragged himself through the small hole that he created, and was now hurtling toward a river.
Such is the law of gravity when climbing out of a cliff-face.
The River itself was home to many types of fish, ones that he was oddly familiar with. As he floated along on his back, he could only surmise 2 things.
- He had gone completely mad
Or
2. He had finally returned home.
Both outcomes were, in his own opinion, spine-chilling to even lament on and as such, he decided to simply focus on the rush of the water around his body, how the sunlight illuminates the land and how he was still trying to figure out where he was, reaching the conclusion of having Next to no idea. As he reached a river bank, he pulled himself out, finally having recovered a small fraction of his strength. Once again he heard the strange language in the distance, although it sounded more feminine. As he slowly crept in the direction the new voice was coming from, he stood on a branch.
He shot his hand toward the shadows, thinking his godly powers had returned, but to no avail.
Acting quickly, he attempted to climb a tree, but it was already too late. The god had been spotted. He felt a slight jab at his side for a moment, then turned to meet two Deep green eyes.
The owner of the eyes cocked its head before speaking. Sadly the lonely god shrugged his shoulders. And simply placed a hand on its shoulders. Its eyes widened for a moment as she spoke. The language slowly becoming more and more understandable. “-unhoof me, please, before I hit you between the knees” The strange creature spoke, finally being understood.
The lonely god removed his hand and then finally, after a few milleniums, uttered his first word. “Apologies” and promptly collapsed to the floor. “Not used to being so powerless” he continued.
The creature sat down beside him. “I will remain here then, until you are stable,
Do not get up until you feel you are able”
As he lay there, staring up at a leaf slowly drifting down to meet its end on the forest floor, there were a thousand and one questions flowing through his mind. He took a deep breath, before finally speaking. “This world,” He pushed himself to a sitting position. “Tis one of magic, yes?”
The creature nodded in reply. “The answers you seek are in that direction, Follow me at your discretion”
The duo walked towards the Light emanating from the east. “Tell me tall one, what is your name, perhaps an origin of whence you came?”
The lonely god chuckled sadly, “My name is Ezarus….”
God of nothing.
