Creation

BEFORE Time itself, the World was nothing. Not a single sign of life flickered, not even a blade of grass. Fire consumed all, molten rock swallowing the few small bodies of water, clouds of steam belching up from the encounter. The sky was black, torn asunder by silver lightnings. No life could ever be sustained. Until the arrival of the All-Goddess herself. Ayaa, Creator of all Life. She happened upon the World, and She decided to mould from it a land that could hold thriving life. Her work was long, spanning many thousands and thousands of years, but at the start of Time, She was satisfied with what She saw. Forests, flourishing fauna and flora, and beings of blooming sentience. She smiled upon the World, and 	She gave the Men Her blessing, so that their minds would expand and their acumen would develop. And then, as She had such a workload, moulding new planets, Ayaa, the All-Goddess, swept away, leaving Her creations to fend for themselves – She was The Mother, encouraging her Children to fly the nest and be self-reliant. They loved her no less for it. When they learned to build structures, they erected primitive temples to their Goddess, and Priests and Priestesses of Ayaa began to rise out of society. But paradise was not to last. The World was Ayaa’s proudest creation, and thus, it attracted unwelcome attention, from her five brothers. While Ayaa was the Goddess of Life, a benevolent mother who watched Her grown Children from afar, her brothers were the embodiment of all She opposed, the Shadow to Her Light, who took joy in destroying, or controlling, all She held dear. Their greedy eyes alighted upon the World, and they knew that it was ripe for chaos; that their sister’s sentient creations were perfect for corruption. And so, they paid them a visit. For hundreds of years, they ruled in chaos and anguish. Azrael, the God of Fire, placed wild forest fires that consumed wildlife and villages whole. He burned those who opposed him. He enjoyed the death that he created. Cassian, the God of Air, sent the weather into a fury and unleashed storms and tornadoes upon the land, burying those who opposed him in debris. He enjoyed the death that he created. Demain, the God of Earth, cracked and shook Ayaa’s paradise, spewing molten rock forth and breaking the land, swallowing those who opposed him. He enjoyed the death that he created. Semirron, the God of Water, swallowed islands and coastal civilisations with vast tsunamis, sweeping away those who opposed him. He enjoyed the death that he created. Jeraux, the God of Death, created his own world parallel to the All-Goddess’ own, where the souls of the dead would languish for all eternity, under his torment. He enjoyed the agony he brought upon the dead. As Time moved differently in the World and in the Universe, the Five – named the Kerajaan; the Five Deaths, by the people – had wreaked havoc upon the World for many long centuries before Ayaa returned. She saw the death, and the devastation that Her brothers had caused. She saw the corruption they had visited upon Her beautiful creations. And fury overtook her. She snatched up Her brothers, and even in Her rage, She could not kill Her own kin. She created another dimension, parallel to the World, purely to contain Her evil brothers, and imprisoned them there. In their prison, they possessed their full powers, unable to use them against Her wardings. In Her compassion, Ayaa allowed each of them, one at a time, a month’s respite every twenty years, with only a small portion of their powers enabled, to walk upon Her World, among the people, and see the paradise returning to Her work, with no way to stop it.

Every twenty years for the past five thousand years, one Kerajaan at a time has walked among us, weakened Gods among mortals. For one month every two decades, one Kerajaan at a time has whispered in our ears, slowly filling our veins with seductive corruption. Ayaa has her own religion, her own Priests – and now, too, do the Kerajaan also. The Medan K’jaan, dedicated to worshipping the Five Old Gods, and devoted to finding a way to unleash their full glory upon the world again. And, unbeknownst to the All-Goddess, the Kerajaan have worked at creating a legacy, a lineage of their own, that will ready the world for their coming ... or destroy them. Since their imprisonment five thousand years ago, they have succeeded, in part. Three part-Gods now walk among us. A male, and two females.