Of Gods and Creation:

Expansion:

That which follows, replaces the first few paragraphs of the creation myth of Áereth from the DMs guide in DCC #35

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In the time before Time, in the place between Places it came to pass that the three beings known as the Triad discovered their divinity shortly after they came into Existence.  It might seem incredible or odd that such a thing could be, but in truth it is not that difficult to become a Deity in the D&D Multiverse… they pop up all the time.  In this case they were newly born to a Crystal Sphere whose pantheon was so over crowded (from a Deities point of view) that in the end they decided to look elsewhere.  Following a subtle call in their hearts, the Triad of Proto-Deities known as Choranus the Builder, Ildavir the Giver of Life, and Centivus the Shaper set out to find and/or make a home of their own. 

But not all Gods have things so easy… if it is possible for Gods to be born; then, it is also possible for them to die.  At the very moment in which the Triad set forth on their epic quest to find a place in the Multiverse; the beings that would later come to be known as the Sancturn Pantheon, were led by the near exhausted Deity known as Oae in frantic haste from a Crystal Sphere that had sheltered them from their birth.  They fled before the unrelenting onslaught of mass-disbelief… the only thing that can permanently rob a Deity of its power.  They were too weak and disorganized to hear any calling of the heart; they simply picked a direction and ran as fast as they could manage with the strength they had left.

On their respective travels; the Triad expanded their numbers, whilst the Sancturn Pantheon simply licked their wounds and tried to make the best of things. 

Then one day the Triad and their progeny found what they sought, a new and untouched Crystal Sphere floating in the gray blankness between spaces.  Upon arrival the Triad and their children sang the secret “Song of New Beginnings” known only to the Gods and those few beings who are fluent in the True Speech of Making and Binding.  When the last notes faded the echoes and oscillations set up in the sphere suddenly stopped.  Where there had been featureless, perfectly smooth black surface there were now millions of portals.  Each portal subtly aligned to the relative positions of other spheres out there somewhere in the greater Multiverse.  With the echoes of their song still ringing in their ears and hearts, the Gods entered into their new home… only to discover Zhühn, creature of the Void…

Inside the Sphere was illuminated faintly by the proto-light from the millions of new portals, widely ranging in size and intensity of light from the phlogiston that shines without actually burning, for it is pure potentiality.  After a great passing of time, and many failed attempts to create their new world, the Triad and their progeny were nearly willing to give up and use the last of their energy to travel elsewhere.  Before they could reach a decision; however, a new rag-tag group of Gods arrived on the scene.  They were older and more experienced than the Triad, but too travel worn and drained of power to affect much change to the situation.  

The Leader of this new group of Gods was a being known only as Oae.  He was the wisest of all the Gods, and the Triad gave serious weight to his council, and it was to Oae that they all turned for a solution.  Oae is a crafty fellow and he invited all of the Gods into the private dimension he maintained as part of his identity.  It is a place known only as “the Dreaming” and within this secret plane of existence the Gods found their first true taste of peace.  Once inside this domain Oae gathered the Gods and Goddesses to him and told them his plan.  It was simple… they were all to weave the strands of the “dreaming” into the ideal forms and constructs of the world they wished to be their new home; as a sort of cosmic rough draft.  They were to plan everything down to the most minute details, no cycle of events too trivial to go unstudied and all problems solved prior to investing this new world with any real energy or substance.

The second part of his plan was the product of his observations of Zhühn and its desire to tear all things asunder, leaving only formlessness in its wake.  Oae decreed that all Gods were free to create the cycles and forms of this new world however they chose to do so; but the Gods were to adhere to the following principles:

1. All of their creations must work in harmonious balance with respect to each other,
2. All of the systems and constructs must be designed in such a way as to require that they be broken down into their component parts as a necessary part of their healthy/balanced existence.  It was this second principle that would truly cage Zhühn for eternity; for in harnessing its desire to destroy as part of a healthy cycle of life, the Gods remove Zhühn’s ability to eliminate the whole of the construct.  In order to destroy the world, Zhühn would have to stop destroying things…  which would be contrary to its fundamental principle of existence.

After the Ideal World of Áereth was created down to the last detail, the God Oae once again called the rest of the Gods to him and he spoke to them of the third and final part of his plan.

Oae:  “We have truly woven a spectacular dream, but it is not yet safe from our Enemy.  For in order to make this Dream a reality… we must truly build the world from the mater of the Universe, and not from these wisps of light and shadow.  For this we have always reached out our wills to the formless materials of this new Crystal Sphere, and this has been our greatest failing.  Our enemy is a creature of this place… It is far more capable than we of shaping and rending these materials.”

Gil’Maridth: “With what then shall we build… there is naught else to work with.”

Oae:  “Incorrect.  We have the substance and essence of our own bodies… we are not of this place and so our material is as alien to our Enemy as we are to it; The Enemy will have greater difficulty in destroying the alien matter of our new world than it would if we were to construct our world from the local material.”

Gil’Maridth: “You are asking that we sacrifice our flesh for this new world?!  How then are we to enjoy our creation?!”

Oae: “We are Gods.  We no longer require the need of a physical form, and we should be beyond the need for physical gratifications.  When we began, I said only that I had a plan that would succeed; I did not say that it would be easy, or that it would not require sacrifice.”

After Oae had finished speaking, the Gods voted, and it was decided to follow through on there plan rather than risk oblivion fighting their Enemy until the last of their strength was spent.  However, they were not unanimous in their decision.  Many of the Gods and Goddesses who would later become the Gods of Evil tried to flee rather than sacrifice their forms to the cause.  It was then that all of the Gods realized that they had unwittingly placed themselves entirely at the mercy of Oae.  When they had entered the Dreaming, they had trapped themselves.  Some of the Gods and Goddesses escaped with a trace of their original substance, but most were retained and the Gods shed their bodies that they might have the media needed to build the World of their Dreams…  Thus it was that the World of Áereth was born.