OOC
Lore
No-one knows what there was before the first world, personally I don't think that there was anything before us or rather I believe that we always existed in some form. What we do know is that we woke in an empty world, a place of shadow, cold and silence. We were innumerable back then before mortals existed when only we imimoya yokuqala were known simply as people. Reality was our canvas, a blank slate to mold as we pleased.
At first all seemed perfectly fine, at least I did not see any dissenters to the forging of a communal plane. When it was first forged the communal plane was featureless. It was a limbo, empty place, but still filled with the energy of creation. Awiase, as we had come to calling that plane, glowed faintly with energy and did not chill the soul.
Thandiswa, who would become one of the prominent imimoya yokuqala, was the first to suggest our next plan of action. “Let us all leave to build our own places. None should have the right to singularly influence this plane,” she argued.
Darcy, who would build a plane of terrors so fearful that they could not be described by mortal words, spoke against her. “This world is ours. I want to form it into that which pleases me, I don't care if you or anyone else tries to build their junk over my stuff. Whoever is greater, whoever dominates.” There were mutterings among the masses, positive and negative in attitude.
“But this place is for us all, it is our shared communal ground…”
They argued, had the concept of time been yet formed then I am certain we would have at least been at the debate for hours. Eventually, a compromise would be reached, first creating our own realms and then experiencing Awiase before taking action.
When we returned, Awiase was not what we had left. The communal realm now had a sky and earth, rivers flowed and there were fifteen oceans (each derived from a separate God). Each ocean was unique, different in some way like Ayesha's which brimmed with colorful creatures or Doriam's that seethed with hungry things that awaited flesh (and devoured each other readily). Mariana's ocean was without exception deep as a mountain's peak is high and Oceanus created the largest of these bodies.
Bipedal creatures, from which many gods chose their form, had now come into being. Humanus’ children and the only thing that existed within his realm. Unlike now, no sun shone but light merely permeated existence when a light deity was not present (which unfortunately for man on Awiase was not often). The laws of nature did not yet exist, they were only created in the next world. Awiase was after all not a planet but a plane unto itself, the things I have described here stretched on into infinity back then with no horizon.
Some gods were not happy though, these were outside the likes of Darcy who still tried to impose his will upon Awiase with varying results. No these were gods who wanted nothing but creation to crumble back into the void from whence they believed all things came. I don't know why they did not object at the first council or at any other time. Some of those lost theorized that they were merely manifestations of that dying unreality. These gods, the imimoya ephukile, did not only exert their will over Awiase but also vanquished the realms of many other gods. Kuasa, the goddess from whose realm the sparkling silver sea flowed, was the first to suffer this pain. With her realm broken, so did the silver oceans of the communal plane. Many planes of existence fell to the imimoya ephukile during the first confrontation; Maladi's realm of angels, Vivian's realm of ents, Malibongwe’s domain of flying mountains, Lorelei's dimension of singing crystals, Cujo's world of robots and Tsukasa's kingdom of hive-minds to name a few. Each time a plane fell, so did our shared world change and lost so many of its features.
The attack on Maria's sanctuary, the world of the kind selkie, was the inciting event. It was the event that brought all the imimoya yokuqala together against that threat in bloody war. From Thandiswa to Darcy and from Trinity to Anansi, we all joined against the destroyers. The was was bloody and pointless, we could not die any more than our adversaries but the battle still spilt our blood across the sanctuary of the selkie. The battle still raged when the realm collapsed under Maria’s misery, something snapped in her and the plane vanished in the blink of an eye. The selkie vanished from Awiase and poor Maria fell into a permanent state of dormancy.
This loss deeply affected many of the gods, I don’t know if it caused our eventual destruction but something changed in the ranks of the imimoya yokuqala. A collection of seventeen gods, including myself, decided to lay Maria to rest within Awiase. We chose a quiet beach with sand white like snow for her to sleep, under a tree which often fed her selkie. The vast majority of my kind, however, was broken in a very different way, instead of mourning or solemnity Maria’s fate seemed to spur them into a rage. The imimoya ephukile had altered their tactics as well, the war was no longer fought at an individual deities plane and instead, Awiase was washed in pain and suffering.
The few mortal species we had created had begun to congregate near Maria’s beach, in the war that had erupted over Awiase only that realm was safe. We seventeen watched over it, keeping it safe and from blood and harm. I created my first species during this altercation, knowing that my children could do very little but hoping that they would at least inspire hope and safety amongst their fellow mortals. The dragons were born to watch and guard the last sanctuary on our shared plane, given strict instructions to summon me rather than engage in combat on the perimeters. Within the safe-haven, my children acted as unbiased peace-keepers, one of the most powerful mortal races of Awiase.
The beginning of the end was Anansi, smallest and oldest of the tricksters. I don’t know why he betrayed his own kind, perhaps it was another effect of Maria’s loss or maybe he just thought it the most advantageous action on his part. Whatever his motivation, Anasi seemed to have approached the imimoya ephukile and agreed to poison his own kin. That fateful day he approached the collective gods, an unexpected peace allowed most of the seventeen to join, with a drink to celebrate. Neither toasts nor treachery was concept yet, we were intrigued by the idea of a celebratory drink.
“To peace! To the imimoya yokuqala! To Awiase!” Anansi shouted before throwing the drink down his own gullet. Many of the gods followed suit, a few others merely sipped at the drink before the treachery was revealed. Thandiswa was the first, she began to writhe in agony. Those who drank the whole goblet were affected the worst, soon the majority of us had torn themselves apart. Pieces of gods lay across the ruined field, glowing bits of expelled power housed in flesh and a new breed of gods. These new beings were later named the Wazee Roho or Elder Gods. We who had only sipped at the drink were not so strongly affected, I cannot describe what the others experienced but I developed a splitting headache. In moments the broken and bloodied land was deserted, save for Anansi, as the rest of us fled to somewhere we felt safer.
I emerged on Maria’s beach, a surprised and frightened dragon instructed a few humans to call their maker as he hurried to try and care for me. I will not record what happened to me then, some mysteries are still to be kept. Nonetheless each of us who survived unscathed was able to find some method by which we could recover from Anansi’s poison, unfortunately, that was not the last of his cruelty. Days went by before we were able to notice the repercussions, but soon it became evident that the realms and Awiase could not support themselves with the mere seventy imimoya yokuqala left.
After I had recovered, I spent some time wondering the shores of the beach, the imimoya ephukile were no longer attacking us so I was able to take the time to venture out into the world and see the beauty of all the various different kinds of trees and search deep into the earth for jewels once again. I wasn’t bound to protecting the mortals anymore, nor to seeing that they did not devolve into savagery and barbarism or fall to the warring imimoya yokuqala or imimoya ephukile. Humanus could call if a threat appeared (and hold it off until I arrived to aid him) while my children maintain order and civility. I decided that I would take my time enjoying the weak wind on my skin, enjoying the dim light and peering into the endless depths of the jewels which I often had affixed into new trophies or ornaments.
Walking past a forest, all it’s trees disappointingly seeming to have faded and all it’s leaves seeming less vibrant and flatter than the great creations of my fellows, and entered a old cave I often used to visit. The land was scarred around the two landmarks, great barrens of burned earth and chasms cut deeply into the land marred what was one a picturesque meadow bordered by the most gorgeous trees coloured in such vibrant, rich shades of green that one could get lost in the splendour of one cell alone. I remember needing to guide mortals away from looking at any item for their beauty then, many of them passed away in dazes as their consciousness was absorbed within the transfixing gleam of sand or mud. It had not occurred to me yet but something was wrong and Humanus could not or would not acknowledge the deterioration.
Deeper I climbed into the maw of the earth. All the diamonds and emeralds I passed during my descent seemed lower quality than what I was used to, they seemed to hold less lustre with dulled surface shine and diluted internal refraction. I kept pushing deeper and deeper, there was one beautiful jewel I knew must still remain. Before the imimoya ephukile I had found it many miles beneath the surface of Awiase, the queen of all jewels, shimmering pure diamond roughly the size of what would be known as stars. Today I have it harvested and refined it so that it may adorn the s Tir na Nog but when I arrived to see it that day though, I was devastated. It was like all the others; a faded stone of lower quality, only I had seen this jewel before and knew how beautiful it should be. “Something is wrong.” I muttered.
Days later I had finally found out what was wrong. The various planes, including precious Awiase, were failing. Either they required constant support or whatever Anansi did had somehow changed the fundamental nature of reality, regardless of what it was planes needed to be constantly supported by a god or gods or the void would begin to reclaim it. Things had begun to look different because the planes were not instantly destroyed, but their existence was being drained away without a primordial to sustain the realm.
“Humanus, we need to call a meeting of the gods. All of the imimoya yokuqala and the wazee roho should come.” I called to my friend, he was teaching a few mortal children how to build a fire. “We have a grave problem, one that we may need to collectively solve.”
