The Stirring - The Creation Myth of Avaleen
The Stirring - An Avaleen Creation Myth
In the beginning, there was only Nothing. Then, from the depths of the endlessness, something stirred. A ripple in the Nothingness. It was not a spark, nor a flame, but the first stirring of thought, will, and desire. Nothing became the Primordial Void, an endless expanse of nothingness, silent and still. It was neither empty nor full, neither dark nor light. It simply was. A vast ocean of potential where time, matter, and form had not yet come into existence.
From this Void, the Titans emerged. The Titans were neither gods nor mortals, but something older, far more ancient. Their bodies were composed of the raw elements of the world—stone, fire, water, air, and the very fabric of reality. They were the architects of existence, and their wills shaped the cosmos. The Titans were vast, their forms impossible to comprehend, their minds complex beyond mortal understanding. They were the first stirrings of creation itself.
The first Titan was Aroth, the Titan of Time and Space. He stretched the fabric of the Void, pulling it apart, and from the space between, he birthed the first stars—great cosmic flames that filled the endless abyss. He shaped the passage of time, creating the cycle of day and night, seasons, and the ticking of existence itself.
Then came Ishthara, born of the void’s silent pull, its stillness and emptiness. Ishthara’s touch gave shape to the world, pulling together fragments of matter and binding them in the first mountains and valleys and crust. What mineral she discarded she crunched into a ball and threw away. This became Gio - Avaleen's first moon.
Following Ishthara came Varaak, the Titan of Fire and Flame, who wove the first volcanoes and set the earth ablaze with heat and energy. From his touch, the sun was born. Its eternal flame igniting the world with light and warmth, and the first cradle of life potential.
Then came Olthra, the Titan of Water and Flow, who shaped the oceans, rivers, and lakes. With Olthra’s touch, the second cradle of life began to pulse and grow in the primordial waters. Where Ishthara had carved, Olthra filled, bringing motion to the world and setting the tides in motion. The world began to spin and darkness and light chased each other across the new lands and seas.
The last of the Titans to emerge was Rhyssar, the Titan of Air and Winds. Rhyssar blew through the world, stirring the skies, creating the winds and the storms. His breath was both one of aid and one of destruction.
The newborn world turned, and the eons passed. The Titans each shaped their domains and began to experiment with the world they had created, testing the forces of nature. Ishthara, the Titan of Earth, breathed life into the soil, giving it the ability to grow. Vast, petrified forests sprang up where the winds of Rhyssar and the water of Olthra met. Rivers carved through mountains, and seas stretched out across the world. Where Isthtara's touch fell, plants began to bloom. Thus the first spark of life in a world was shaped, though the world was still empty and silent.
Varaak, the Titan of Fire, tested the limits of his power. With some bursts of flame, he ignited the land, creating spark and growth. From this creatures of fire were born. Small, and fleeting, but full of energy. Oltara, the Titan of Water saw this and began to shape creates of water in the deep seas, imbuing them with the power to live and thrive in the aquatic world they had created. Rhyssar, with his winds, gave breath to the skies. Creates of air took form, able to soar and drift on the currents that filled Avaleen's newly formed atmosphere. Aroth saw this and guided the stars, weaving constellations into the night sky, marking the heavens with patterns that only the wise could decipher.
The First Sundering
Together, these Primordial Titans crafted Avaleen. A world of unimaginable beauty and boundless potential. But as they shaped the land, a great rift began to form between them. The Titans were beings of such power that they began to disagree on what should become of the world they had created. Aroth, the Titan of Time, sought to preserve the balance of order and cycles. Isthara, the Titan of Matter, wanted the world to be a place of pure creation and stability. Olthran, the Titan of Life, wished to give the world untamed freedom and chaos, while Rhyssar, the Titan of Wind, longed to see the world in constant motion, ever-changing and evolving.
The world, once full of harmony, began to fracture as the Titans’ ambitions clashed. Their once united effort splintered, and Avaleen grew chaotic. A beautiful, untamed world where life flourished, but conflict stirred beneath the surface.
As the Titans quarreled, their battles and disagreements caused great upheaval across Avaleen. Cataclysmic storms, volcanic eruptions, and floods ravaged the lands. The Titans realized that their conflict would destroy the world they had created if it continued. Despite the creation of life, the Titans could not escape their inherent nature: their power was too great. As the world grew, so did their reach and influence, until their very presence began to warp the fabric of reality itself. The raw, unchecked power of the Titans tore at the world, pulling the fabric of existence in different directions.
Amid this chaos, a group of deities descended upon Avaleen. These gods were not born from the Titans' own creation, but rather from distant realms beyond the fabric of the world. Forces that existed outside the laws of Avaleen itself. Their arrival was sudden and incomprehensible to the Titans, for these gods hailed from planes and dimensions that existed beyond even the understanding of the ancient behemoths. Still, the gods were welcomed and a fragile peace once again embraced the world as the first mortal races emerged.
But a thousand years, two, three, more, is a long time and the Titans grew obsessed with their creations, seeking control over domains that were never meant to be controlled or theirs to control. How and why the cataclysmic eon-lasting Primordial War broke out between the Titans and the Gods is a secret shrouded from mortal eyes. We only know that it happened. And that this war led to the First Sundering. A great cataclysm that shattered the Titan's power and fragmented their once unified forms.
The earth trembled, the seas roared, the forests fell, and the winds screamed as the wills of the Titans and the Gods collided and tore at Avaleen's surface. The Sundering did not kill the Titans, but it scattered them across the world. Their forms broken and disjointed. Some became mountain ranges, volcanoes, rivers, and forests of a lesser, more verdant shape - their physical forms forever intertwined with the land. Others remained as dormant forces, influencing the world from beneath the surface and beyond the Veil. Shaping the cycles of time and the forces of nature that govern Avaleen today.
The Legacy of the Titans
From the wreckage of the battle, new life emerged. The world, shaped by the elemental forces of the Titans, began to thrive with sentient life as the new gods began their rile. The first beasts and mortals grew from the soil of Avaleen, worshipping the land, the elements, and the very forces that shaped their world. They were the descendants of the Titan's creations, inheriting their raw power and their deep connection to the earth. The gods saw them and rejoiced.
Though the Titans are no longer seen as living, breathing beings, their influence continues to reverberate throughout the world. Its seasons, lands, tides, all of these are reminders of the Titans' presence once upon a primordial time. And though the gods may now rule, the legacy of the Titans, with their power of the raw elements, remains the guiding force in the world. It is, after all, because of them the elemental planes exist as each Titan tried to funnel some part of their power away from the fragile surface of Avaleen.
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