Astarot

Long ago, Astarot, a thousand eyed, awoke to a barren world. Slowly, he felt his body stitch together: He was encircled by his strong arms, bore countless eyes to crown him, with a blackened, toothless, tongueless maw as his mouthpiece. Resplendent as ae were horrific to behold, Astarot first did not move, as a great desire filled him: a desire to no longer be alone--to be unified and singular.
His eyes looked past the long stretches of void between sparse specks of frithling light. Ae rose up aer arms and hand many arms and hands to bring these lights closer. Slowly, Ae brought them to aem, together at the center of the universe.
"Come friends! We shall make a home of this world, together!" But as the frithlings grew closer, Astarot revealed their very essence. Neither good nor evil, they quickly bound up together--millions of them turned into a few thousand--and Astarot looked on in horror, quickly fashioning bodies to trap some of the frithlings: Ae gave an all-consuming frithling the form of strings of flame; to a flighty frithling, ae gave it an invisible body of swirling winds; to a strongwilled frithling, ae gave it a solid body of stone; and to the last and most adapable frithling, ae gaze it a reflective body that flowed across all time. "You are the primordials, and I set you upon the world as lords of your creations: Fire, Air, Earth, and Water."
Though they were bound up in their respective forms, they began to multiply and force out their smaller primordials to take up as much space as possible. Astarot watched as when they were trapped in their forms, they could no longer bind together, and yet they were compelled to meet each other and try. Fire burned away all but Air, Air moved all but Earth, Earth contained none but Water, and Water suffocated none save Fire.
In fear and anguish, Astarot cradled his head and banished his first creations beyond him. "Is this world all consuming? Is this my fate?" With what remained of his frithings, for the few thousand had turned into a plentiful hundred, he began to move particular groups of frithlings together. "I shall create someone like me and see." Slowly, out rose divines like Astarot, filled with a desire more than simple existence. The first creation he poured a great deal of time into: It would have four strong arms, would shine out with frithling life, and would be able to create anything with aer hands; this was Lung. Astarot saw there were a few frithlings left over and made one more, though ee could hardly shape much of the body with what ae had left. This sickly looking frithling, missing part of their arm and bandaged to hold aerself together to keep the frithlings from overflowing from aer body, was Saga.
Astarot stared down at them, "You will make me a world, and I will be the judge of it." Astarot, happy that his test would surely reveal the nature of the world, sat back on his throne at the center of the universe.
Saga and Lung had not met one another corporeally before, but having been fashioned out of the same frithlings, they instantly formed a bond, and looked out across the black void together. "I shall walk very far and see if there are any more of the frithlings," said Lung. "And I shall go with you," Saga agreed. They did not hunger, they did not sleep, they did not tire--save for Saga, who closed aer eyes to rest as ae was very weak. Lung watched over aer, make sure the bandages stayed knotted and together. That was when Saga's true power revealed itself: Saga could dream and wake up with whatever she had dreamed as a creation. When she awoke, she could see across all time and space, and when she spoke, Lung could hear her no matter where she was. Saga laid carefully and focused very hard, and together with Lung's four arms, they drew in the frithlings they could find near them.
Time went on like this for a while, and Astarot watched suspiciously. He could not see as far as Saga could see, and he was alone unlike Lung. Ae wondered who had made him so lonely, who had gifted him solitary existance. Ae saw Lung and Saga's union and bond and grew jealous. He wanted it. He would consume it, but first, he would force Lung and Saga to join together, as all frithlings did.

Astarot counselled them: "If you both do not join together, the world will become stronger than you and will prey on you. It will leave you behind." And he told them of what the other frithlings had done under his care.
"I do not want to live in a world where I cannot see Saga" Lung pronounced.
Saga agreed, "I would only like to be beside Lung. I do not need to possess Lung to love."
"Love?" Astarot asked.
Saga held out her empty, open palm. "Yes. I made it." She nudged her open palm toward Astarot. "Please, take it and give it to your world."
Astarot, however, looked down on the small pair and then at the rest of the frithlings as they grew stronger and more complex. "I will not take it. I see now that Love is keeping you from growing and is crippling the world I tasked you to make. --If you will not become stronger, I will find ways to make you strong. It is the way of my world."
Saga looked down then, all of the frithlings that made her up trembling. Lung put a hand on aer shoulder. "Dear Saga, my only desire is to live in a world with your love." Looking up then, Lung rose a fist to Astarot. "Love is the strongest thing in the world! It should be the way of the world. We'll show you" And the pair walked away.
Astarot watched them leave, and bitter anger rose in aem. He would not have Saga and Lung poisoning aer creations. Ae decided then, Ae would try to get the better of the pair.

One day, Astarot gave a gift to all of his wards individually--true names--save for Saga and Lung; these were the names of each thing given by Astarot, and by evoking them, one could command the thing. Astarot then gave each frithling their own true name, and then both to Saga and Lung. As one final design, the true names burdened the frithlings with a terrible void in them. It was a burden for each frith now sought to only live to fill that void. Some of these voids craved consumption and to spread anywhere it touched. For the the other smaller frithlings they craved a multitude of things, ambition, creation, and more. The frithlings now, like never before, were pulled by their own nature. They began to create and grow, yes, but chaos reigned as each frithling obeyed their void. As the more they did so, the morethey corrupted themselves. When this happened, the corruption and magic came into existence. And unto it, Astarot gave them a great desire to catch, stay, and ruin the other frithlings that existed. The thought of losing some of his wards made him frown, but he looked to the other frithlings, now binding together for strength against what he loosed, and he smiled, pleased.
Saga and Lung watched, appalled, as those who once were their wards began to force themselves together just to get what they wanted, what they thought they needed. But Astarot looked on, pleased, "Hardship is what will help you grow where binding together might not. Struggle will refine you. You will live because you will become stronger than those would would see you outdone."
Saga and Lung, so small in the face of the tide of magic and corruption, ran about the world gathering up all the frithlings they could, trying desperately to save the world they were asked to create. Weary, and exhausted, Saga went to Astarot with Lung following close behind:
"You are killing your world! Please! Banish the corruption you have created! It will destroy those left!"
Astarot smiled, "I will, but I need someone powerful to aid me when I do. Someone more powerful than even Lung. Join with Lung and become one with me. We can banish this mistake."
Lung and Saga shook their head, "You cannot make us do this. Even if you named us, we would reject your names. We have our own names, a name of Love."

Much of the conversation has been lost to time, but what is recorded resides within a text called The Exodus of Saga and Lung

And as they left, Astarot cursed them, "All the world will be your enemy, Saga and Lung. When I find you, we will be one, and we will make this world singularly and perfect"