The Account of the Gods Chapter 1: Dissonance

Chapter 1: Dissonance

Before the polymathsof theVivenic Empire compiled The Greater Histories, before the Dwarves were released from their centuries long wandering, Before theHigh Elves awoke inside the girdleof the Mother, and Before the stars outshone the Father'sforlornpast there was Eimatä, TheNothingness. This realm of realms is all encompassing, all surrounding, and all that isand would ever be, and it contained within itself everything that would ever come tofruition. It surpasses every thought and comprehension of being for those whostare into it areunable to draw from reason, speculation, wisdom or arrogance.

Eimata’s vanguard, The Fires of The Nothingness, expand conception, and The Edenwhite, the light of the fires that are forsaken, absorb the acquired knowledge and utterly compound it into a chaotic confusion. This saga of expansion, creation, and transformation is unrivaled by any of the acts of mortals or immortals alike, and for time never ending, The Nothingness expands around this influence, and The Edenwhite extrapolates it without fail. For a long time this went on uninterrupted until an anomaly, a mistake uncaught by The Edenwhite came into vision: life

This inconsistency, an abnormality in the fabric that keeps woven creation together, tore at its own seams until a hole big enough for it to crawl through appeared. As it did this, it escaped the expansion of the fires and the oversight of The Edenwhite allowing it to remain unnoticed and unhindered until it was too late. When all was still with the passing of the horizons, the irregularity severed itself from the torn seam, and solidified itself into two astral beings.

The first was cut of the fabric itself. Law and order as well as the forces that compelled its dictators. The second, a darker and more fluid being, was of the stuff of creation that was freed through the tear. Both possessed new and great knowledge – knowledge that was apart from what The Nothingness had possessed beforehand. When the tear was repaired, by properties unknown, the two became eternally trapped in the confines of Eimatä, and so they remained together.

In the time following, The Nothingness kept at its expansion into the shadow of which it had yet to claim. Its fires always scorching the borders of reality and abstraction pressing ever on. The Edenwhite, which always followed suit, kept its flames at bay while also stoking them to come hotter and to crave more and more of the shadow. This focus of purpose by the forces of Eimatä clouded its vision, which allowed the stature and influence of the two beings to gestate inside it. When they were of considerable ability and standing, the pair finally came under the auspices of The Edenwhite. However, the wills and testaments of the twins were too strong of standing for it to convert them. Instead of focusing its attentions at their destruction and reconstruction, The Edenwhite decided to convert them in a different manner. Calling out to the two, The Edenwhite bestowed upon them The Enemak, the All Power. This rite allowed the pair the sole responsibility of stewardship over The Nothingness from future apparitions as well as granting them the titles of caretaker and protector. With their endowment, The Edenwhite titled the pair ‘The Twins of Fate’. Deciding to remain in their states, the twins continued to consolidate themselves and their place amongst creation.

Thereafter, the twins kept up a peaceful and enlightened upbringing filled by the expansion of The Nothingness and the knowledge that The Edenwhite passed down. Although peaceful, time and knowledge are catalysts of change, and so the pair grew to become increasingly more distinct from each other. When their division was at its greatest and their forms were at their highest distinction, they finally agreed to give themselves names apart from their title: Uirgyl and Vandre, the Decipherer and theWanderer. Together, although divided, they were the kindred to rule the emptiness, and through it,they would uphold the standardsof itsbenevolentunity and understanding.

Uirgyl, the eldest of the Twins of Fate; that which was the fabric became the wisest of all beings as he grew into himself, and the only deity who could evercomprehend The Nothingnessin its entirety as he was of Eimatä itself. However, his knowledge, although great,came with a price, a vow of everlasting silence for only his being could suppress the power ofknowing through taciturnity. The price also clouded his immense interpretations of his singular foresight and rid them grossly with tumultuous instability and doubt of the future that he knew many outcomes to. Through them however, it made clear to him the contrivance that his folly could bring if he should ever fail as the Retainer of Cognition,although he ignored these warnings staunchly.   

In his lifetime, Uirgyl wasknown to take on many vestiges of varying visualizations. Despite his concrete celestial presence, his likeness has been blurred as his chronicles have passed throughoutthe ages. While many have pictured him in multiple forms, Uirgyl In reality has only taken one trueform, although he possessed the innate power to change it at his will. The truth of his body is one like that of an angel steeped in clockwork, although Man’s representation is vastly flawed. Like the Paragon’s of the Dwarves, Uirgyl’s body was garnished ingears of shimmering goldthat spun unabatingly. Hislengthywings offluorescentsilver shown clear as the light deflected off sharpfeathers that fell often and regrew before time itself could grasp that they had departed from him. Uirgyl’s hair which was long andhued in a robustly richblackrivaledeven the Nothingness as it flowed in his aura. His eyes, thatsame black, perforatedthroughthe fibers of the Nothingness to seebetweenthe spectrums ofwhat is and what isn't. Apart from hisriddling eyes and his scintillatingwings, he appeared as but a man, the very same men that would live free in the ages to come. However, that appearance only lasted for but aglance as his shape blurred and became unclear whenever another looked upon him. When you did look upon him, all that could be seen werethe gears ofhis existence, and all that could be heard weretheir great churning. All those who witnessed him came to believe that he was the source of all light, but light didnot trulyemanate from him, it merely flockedto himfor light came from the fires themselves. Theflockthat surrounded his presence served only as a mask to shroud him and those same thralls that crowded him served to give life to the gleam of his wings and the sheen of his gears. At all times that aura masked, his vague presence concealed it from the reception of lesser beings.   

The only fault against Uirgyl was his absence of distinct emotion. He waslogical beyond any and more intelligent than all the living thingsof Eimatä, but even with all his intellect he was stillunable to reason with thecomplexconcepts of emotion, truth and lies,and the spectrums ofthe living mind. Through his knowing he could fathomnoempathy to which only caused him only greaterapathy. Thisbecame hisonly moral standard. He wasindifferent in the most absent sense for he knew not what he was doing. In himself, he sawnoroom forthe failures of emotion; he sawno room for the contempt they caused and he was, in his ways, corrupted and idle to the blessings ofwhat he did not know.  

Vandre on the other hand was wholly opposite of his brother. He is the embodiment of the past, present, and the future made tangible and living. The title, the Keeper of Time was signature to him and he guardedit with the upmost hostility and paternal protection. Instead of possessing the ability to fully comprehendthe Nothingness, Vandre was granted the power to envision it andall ofits noble truths and itsfaithless lies. He could even see into the time before the fire was lit, and all the futures in their infinite probabilities unseen. His physical body wasamplified by these aged emotions that had existed for as long the Nothingness.Together, years and emotions werehis greatest tool.  

Through theexpanding Nothingness he ambledhis way through coarse roads of hatred, anger, and contempt;through calm paths of joy and happiness;andthrough the still ways of sadness and pain. In his wandering, visions of grandeur, great peril, and even the many endings of the universe and their saviors were revealed to him. Vandre could see dark dictators and fell lords that would seek only to claim the heart of Eimatä. These visions were the source ofhissight as he wandered far and wide throughout the Nothingness. Nevertheless, whereverVandre looked he would always beconsidered as the most compassionate of the gods.This was undoubtedlyhis greatest fault,and the catalyst of his eventual downfall; for thedoom of goodness is the empathy that furthers it. 

Unlike his brother, Vandre wasknown for being the most ambiguous inappearance. Thought of as a wisp clad in long tattered cloth that flowed back and forth as if it was in a soft breeze. Vandre’s sorrowed hood was tall and hollow with a deep emptiness. It droppedlow to cast an eerieshadow over hisoncehallowed face so none could see it, even Uirgyl.Others described him as the first reaper of suffering with a body hidden by sullenly long black cloak. His torso, uncovered by the robe, was like an old stone fortress of which had seemingly existed for centuries. It was cracked, discolored, chipped, and broken with grey and brown weeds going in all directions until they disappeared into his cloak. They seemingly masked the stones and their age but instead, gave him an even older appearance, like the aged body of an elderly man who refused to succumb to his age. In all his appearances he was faceless, and entangled in thememories of the past, but in the past, present, and the future was his dwelling. He ponderedon all the things his foresightcould spy and with it he peeredinto the boundless Nothingness, and In its infinity he couldespy the hearts and minds of all beings throughout time. He came to be known as the Perpetual Gatekeeper, Vírandar, and the Watcher in the Night.   

 As the twins aged, The Nothingness followed them. However, time is like a curse, and as it ticked ever on, the perception of the twins and the Nothingness only grew darker until they only saw a dreary realm; full of melancholy, and sadness, and most of all:  Misunderstanding. Even the twins, felt its great sorrow and misfortune. But the sorrow of Uirgyl was the greatest. Uirgyl, unable to process his own view quelled all his feelings of remorse, empathy, and lacking from him in a pursuit of the true godly perfection that he desired. In doing so, he began melding the fabric of existence with his own godly attributes until beings came forth into existence that resembled his want for divine perfection. Perfection however, is short lived once it is attained by those who acquire it. For time and time again unchecked he continued his labors of crafting and molding, but all those that came into existence were flawed, and misshapen despite their perceived perfection by Uirgyl. The gears of creation churned out some who were dark and full of his quelled anger; some were light and full of his dispelled wonder, but they were the most fragile;andothers were grey or blurred and held mysterious, unfathomablepower. All these were his imperfections incarnated with his lost wants and his deepest regressions. But Uirgyl tarried on his road of trials until athought, all new and never seen before, came to the center of his everlasting mind. He would make them new, and all together.  

All the beings of that time were of his creation, and all those who were filled with his thoughts and tempers were brought forth to him and chained in close quarters by his ethereal essence. The gears of creation began to turn and with their grinding he dissected and tore them apart until all their fragments were strewn across the black and the weary of the Nothingness in great disassemble. When his ill task of hope was complete he reformed them ina monstrous and godly form in the likeness of which he had never made before. Darkness was layered over the astounding light and over the blurred. The bright splotched and the dark thinned and they followed the blurring of knowledge. Time mixed them all together and with time his imperfect perfections were madenew again and with a new and singular form. He hallowed his creation and filled it with a foresight akin to Vandre, but premature. Upon looking at his creation, Uirgyl stopped and gazed down upon it for a long while. 

The being that stood before him was monstrous and yet it was miniscule; young in the eyes of what beheld it, the Nothingness. It was tattered like Vandre, but not wispy. It was wholly solid, completely visibleand comprehensible in every fiber of its existence. Its body was constructed of different patches that possessed varying hues and sizes that were arrayed aboutit in oblong shapes. Each patch was bulged, dented, or torn and were all sewn from thestitches of Uirgyl’s own life, and they sustained it. These stitches also kept the light and dark from destroying each other and the blur from melding them together. Locked in a conflict that would see end, its body became ever changing but always as it was. Its head was large with seams connecting it to its hulking shoulders. The fibersof beingwerealways at the brink of tearing, and through the seams at its neck you could peer into the depths of its soul. Deep within was its torment and anguish at the center, but its happiness and humor were clear as well. Emblazoned like the fires of the Nothingness were its eyes and they radiated throughout the infinite confines of the Nothingness, and the foresight they gave itcaused it much confusion for the creation hadlittle comprehension of the realm that it been born into.   

Uirgyl stared longer and longer upon it until the creation, in its impatience,lashed out and darted throughout the Nothingness with unceasing ferocity and graceful elegance only it could make use of. Witnessing this display, Uirgyl quickly grew proud of his monster and bestowed upon it the name of Epadyäd, the Perfect and the Imperfect, in the godly tongue. Then, Uirgyl halted his great gears and said to Epadyäd 'Still your heart, child of my lacking, for I have formed you in my likeness to knowledge and that knowledge cannot availyou, for if you let it then even the Nothingness will be in great peril. Now come and rejoice with your father for the times are joyous again." So the thought child of Uirgyl calmed and returned to his place by Uirgyl's side and they whispered philosophy anddebated the meanings of several things that are out of the minds of any mortal.  

The talk of questions and consideration continued for millennia unchecked and for that time the child and the father grew to love one another very much; Uirgyl held Epadyäd in great esteem and Epadyäd held Uirgyl with even greater respect. Vandre however, steadily grew unnerved. Epadyäd was constantly at the forefront of Vandre’s visionsas he kept his watch over the wellbeing of Eimatä. Epadyäd’s mind was steadily growing and the seams of his existence were steadily pulling ateach other until they were taughtand strained against his life. He craved the knowledge his father was giving him and Vandre knew this,for his knowledge of lust was the greatest. Epadyäd never left the forefront of Vandre's worry. 

Times however, easily grows sour and wilts into newages of fell happenings. Uirgylwas yet again ill content with himself, and no matter how hard he fought he could not quell his perceived inadequacy. Epadyäd, becoming aware of this,followed his fatherusing his envy to ensure Uirgyl never forgot his true failure, which was Uirgyl himself.

On a forgotten day, Epadyäd restrained himself from his father and ventured into the black of the nothingness until he came upon a peculiar sight of which was newborn, tender, and utterly unknown to him. Eimatä however, had a mind of its own.Withinit, it saw the downfall of the Twins of Fate and the belovedEpadyäd. In love, itcast out a flesh of itselfderived from the very fibers of its existence. The Flesh was holy and young and it possessed a new heart, a pure heart, and a sound mind;foreign to the confusing rattle of the Nothingness. In its naivety the Flesh peered into Epadyäd's mind and saw his want to fill Uirgyl’s void. So,The Flesh came forth to face the son in his wandering. When Epadyäd spotted its good graces he was captivated by the Flesh which was majestic to behold.  

The Flesh was long andslender like that fabric that made up Epadyäd, and like the fabric, radiance burst forth from it exuding what life it held together. Unlike Epadyäd, It was emblazoned in an aura of life light that blindedall those around it. The wirylight andradianceconcentrated in the center of its bodyto culminate intoan effulgent power and superior divinity that seemingly dwarfed that ofthe twins.   

Its divinity emanated towards Epadyädlike a lure attracting a gullible fish. Once Epadyäd came near, itabsorbed him into his being and changed him wholly to its owndisguisedpurposes. Inside, Epadyäd peered into himself and saw his life coming to its bitter end, but it was not yet upon him so he could still make time to prepare for the flourishing vision that would come of The Nothingness. The vision of The Flesh however, was not akin to his own and that of his fathers, but it intrigued Epadyäd. Shortly after he departed from The Flesh and returned to Uirgyl who was dismayed and he pleaded. 

“Father of my mind and being, I have wanderedfrom youandin my wandering I came upon TheNothingness incarnate. Through it I have seen visions contradictoryto our own, and in them my end, nay, our end is nigh!The Nothingness isripening fora new beginning of which we will spoilin and become rotten. Ohfather, please cease thisuseless quest for perfection! Come and rejoice with me in the flowering ofyour nothingness! I have been shown a pale light, but it is blurry and I do notfullyunderstandit.”

“What say you, my son? Have you not myvision? Have you no care of what I aspire to accomplish in this confounded nothing? To seek perfection is to seek The Nothingness itself, but to seek its flowering will only tear our realm asunder and leave us in a wake of blissful silence and sleep. What has pervaded your mind to make you think this? Who is this incarnate that claims to be The Nothingness?”

“Father, The Nothingness has shown me your folly and I will not be a part of it; for I seek the understanding and the newborn light that I have been shown. The Nothingness has promised it!”  

With that last word, Epadyäd ran from his Father. His haste carried him quick and far from Uirgyl who was gave chase after his son. Epadyäd however, was too swift with impassionate rambunctiousness and soescapedhis father. Uirgyl tried with all his ability to seek after his son, but to no avail. The Nothingness was vast in its seemingly unsurmountable scale. 

In Epadyäd's haste he faltered, and in that misstep The Flesh appeared before him, but it did not appear as radiant as it had before. The Flesh was fell and full of a malice that only Vandre could know. The light that radiated from Epadyäd illuminated The Flesh and exposed his dark seams. As the seams were lit, they split openand pulled the very fabric of life over itself revealing the deeper Eimatäthat was hidden within The Flesh. The fabrics of The Nothingness that made him were already tatteredwith many torn strings the flailed wildly about him. Suddenly, they seized Epadyäd by his limbs and pulled him being into The Flesh. The fibers took him to the very heart of the creature and in it, it transformed him from his inner goodnessto much darker favors. Hebecame terrible to see, and with his form now shadowed, the patches of his creation grew ill and decayed much like the flesh which had absorbed him.

The Flesh quickly regurgitated Epadyäd into The Nothingness with a cruel and terrible force. Pain suddenly overtook him and he shrieked and recoiled from it. The suffering of Epadyäd was so great that it caused several tumults that rocked Eimatä and gave way to new life and new creations that would remain unknown forever.  

Before the declining Epadyäd, the Flesh laughed and rejoiced in his confounding of the son. Harshly he spoke.

“Behold, Child of Uirgyl, for I have misshapen thee! I have bestowed upon you a new and terrible form! You, an abomination of pride and want will be returned to The Nothingness from whence you were created! As you have seen, my fibers are potent and just one foul strandcan corrupt any good that comes before it. But I possess many and through them you are now mine, and in your mistake you have taken me for a child, new and unlearned, but you have been deceived. Unbeknownst to you, child, I was never OF The Nothingness. I am The Nothingness, its will diverted and corrupted! Now you will fall to the bidding of Onephír, the Corrupter!"  

With his last word and final absolution, Onephír absorbed Epadyäd once more into its perverted depths. Once consumed, his prison became his execution chamber as he was sundered and then again and again until he remained only in pieces. Each broken and battered shape was distorted beyond recognition and scattered leagues from each other. Onephír then dispersed each piece far, far away amongst The Nothingness. When they were settled, the pieces molded and were absorbed by The Nothingness’ due process. However, the rotted corpse of Uirgyl’s son was foul and corrupt, and so sweltered inside the fibers and bonded once more with each other forming a great mass of entrenched decay that remained idle until Onephír would come to see his plan to its full fruition.

Now alone in the vast emptiness of space once unburned, Onephír laughed to himself and stared into the distance that he now presided over.