Cosmology
in CadilonThe Aura and the Void
Before there was time, thought, or life, there was an eternal emptiness. It is hard to conceptualize the early days of reality, fore though it was empty, it was filled with everything that has ever been, and nothing at the same time. And so our story begins, at one of the many beginnings.
In the beginning there was the Aura and the Void. Both were everything and both were nothing. They complimented and contradicted each other. The Aura was warm, the Void was cold. The Aura was love, the Void was fear. Both the Aura and the Void lived for eons and seconds, fore what is time if there is no one there to witness it?
For an unknown and unknowable reason, the Aura created life, two beings made of energy and essence, grown in the warm embrace of the Aura. These beings spent eons exploring their home, knowing only two fundamental truths, the Aura was warm and inviting while the Void was cold and frightening.
Lifetimes passed, and eventually these young lifeforms started to understand more than safety and fear. They started to realize they had companionship with each other, and neither wanted to be alone. They grew with the other, growing as opposites and equals.
As if a response to the life the Aura made, the Void manifested two beings as well. The Void Born were made stronger than the Aura Born. They felt deeper, hated stronger, and wanted for more. Pitted against each other from the start, these beings grew in fierce competition to each other, desiring to be better than other at all things.
Before long, the Aura made more life. Each new being gravitated to the others, and though many wanted independence, all wanted companionship. The Void too created more life, but the elders choose to kill or dominate these new beings in an endless desire for power and control.
And thus the two realities started to grow in power, pushed by the beings that each had created. The Aura Born grew in harmony and a desire for companionship while the Void Born grew in competition and a desire for bloodlust.
The gods are impossibly old beings that live in a number of realms known as the Outer Planes. Though they vary wildly, they are all apart of a race of brings known as the Astrum. The Astrum came from the three original sources of primal power - The Aura, The Aether, and The Void.
The Astrum have their own political structure. There are not that many of them in comparison to other beings, and in many stories, they are likened to more of a family unit, or small community. Since few mortals will ever interact with the gods, these stories many just be some versions of some truth, simplified so mortals can understand these ageless powers.
The gods, and those who live in the outer realms with them, have divided them into a number of different categories, which have become political titles. Mortals may refer to the as gods, demi-gods, archangels, or archfiends, but that is rarely what they call themselves. The greater, older, and most powerful of the gods are referred to as the Theos and the younger or less powerful or politically influential beings are known as the Rethos. The least powerful, which are known as demigods to mortals, have a number of political titles within the divine. The most powerful of these demigods are called the Haeos. These beings are almost always Astrum themselves, and potentially can ascend up the ranks of the divine further. The least and youngest of the divine ranks are Nephilim. These beings are sometimes nicknames Divine Infants, and that is exactly what they are. Nephilim are created either by The Aura, The Aether, or The Void, or are the fully divine offspring of two Astrum.
