The God Wars, and the birth of the Firstborns' tyranny

The Firstborn, their hunger finally satiated, watched in wonder how the mortals explored and discovered what the world had to offer them. The thrill of adventure, and the wonder of the unknown, were feelings the gods could relate to and grew to desire the experience. The only thing that had prevented them from attempting such journeys was their pending demise by hunger. However, satiated at long last, and with their sustenance all but secured, the gods went to travel across the greatness of the Cosmos, no longer drifting as they once did at birth and in their first years, but instead guided and controlled flights across the stars. The destination of each of their travels was theirs to decide and control.
And so, the gods traveled across the vastness, to the infinite stars beyond. A few remained in the world, always ready to assist the mortals if need be. But those left behind quickly found they wanted to explore as well, so soon enough, a rotary system developed, allowing all to have time to travel, while also having enough prepared to help the mortals and recover their expended energies and powers with their prayers.
This lasted for many ages until the gods discovered something they weren't expecting: they weren't alone. For their group had been but one of many that had been born when the cosmos did. These other, foreign gods had experienced similar things to the Firstborn and had also found ways to deal with the hunger they had developed once their original energies had started to dwindle as they drifted through the Universe. Some had decided to feed on the raw light of stars, while others had found rocks and matter similar to what the gods were made of, devouring them whole like one devours an apple. A few even had discovered the secret of life’s creation and had given rise to worshippers of their own.
Regardless of how these other gods had found ways to remain alive and powerful, all shared a drive to explore and discover new things, so the first interactions were peaceful and loving. Unfortunately, it wasn't to last.
Eventually, the entire Cosmos had been explored, all of his wonders and resources known to all the gods. Yet despite its immensity, it wasn't infinite unlike the ever-growing population of the gods. Their resources to feed and sustain them proved insufficient to keep them alive and well. Many godlings perished in their fathers' and mothers' arms. With desperation growing anew among the gods, all desiring to make sure never to lose their children again to hunger, all the groups looked to one another, to the resources and especially the worshipers they had created, for if a group lacked what it needed to thrive, it could simply take from the others.
At first, the groups traded and exchanged what they lacked with what they had in plenty, but this wasn't a good enough solution for many, especially for the gods who lacked many of the more valuable resources that other, older factions had found and laid claim to. These weaker groups resorted to stealing what they could, and soon enough, small disputes and debates evolved into great conflicts and heated discussions. Until one of the gods, enraged by what he saw as pointless arguments, punched another god of an opposing group, and the first fights began. It was soon followed by others, and this escalated until the first and greatest war the Cosmos had now begun: The God Wars.
The many groups of gods clashed across the Universe, all fighting to secure dominance and the ultimate prosperity of their members. Stars died, worlds perished, friends turned to enemies, and the few non-combatants were caught in the crossfire. Gods were murdered and killed, revealing to all that hunger was not the only way gods could meet their end: they could be ended by a fellow deity instead.
It lasted for several generations of gods, with very few of the original members of each group surviving to see the end of the God Wars. When the stardust finally settled, the result had proven to have been a pointless bloodbath, for no group had proved to be strong enough to defeat the others and lay claim to the entire Cosmos and all it could offer to the would-be victors. And so, while slowly recovering from the many wounds suffered, those that remained made peace, and the first peace Treaty was signed by all involved, the Treaty of The Great Partition.
Each group of gods would lay claim to the part of the universe that they had managed to control during the wars and never would dare to expand them further. Instead, each group would primarily focus inward, developing and nurturing the many power sources that were essential to their prosperity, trading with others if so desired and needed. If any group of gods attempted to expand and take territory from others, the others would ally themselves with the attacked and repel the aggressor, keeping forever a balance of power amongst the many factions. All this and more was made to make sure never again, would gods kill gods in pointless conflicts.
Once this was done, the Firstborn returned to the world they had come to call home and the capital of their vast territory, the place where their children and the children of their children had been born, the main source of their pride, hope, and future. During the God Wars, wherever a god had been wounded he returned here, to rest and recover, as well as to take temporary care of the mortals before returning to the greater frays beyond. But now that the war was over, and the cosmos had been explored, the gods focused their energies to build up their Realm, and especially their Capital Territory, which would be named Paraborn.
For countless ages, the Firstborn built and developed their kingdom, while looking at their worshippers doing similar things. Yet, one day, they looked down on their followers and realized that, despite the very best of their efforts, what the mortals had achieved in the period the gods had been exploring, waging war, and eventually building a glorious civilization, they had by comparison achieved nothing. The gods were surprised by this lack of progress, especially considering that they had the advantage of both time and the lack of conflicts. Then, they became slightly annoyed, and eventually disgusted, both to the mortals as well as themselves. "How could they have been content with such brutish and lacking followers?" "Had they been ignorant, or short-sighted?", "The mortals should have achieved so much more than what they had done!" The firstborn thought. They all share a sense that they lacked ambition and foresight when they first interacted with the mortals. Eventually, all came to express their worries to The Grand Almighty, the maker of the world's mortals, who had led the Firstborn to many victories during the God Wars and ruled with great care and experience after they ended.
The Grand Almighty listened carefully to his fellow gods and subjects and revealed that he not only carried the same feeling of disappointment and failure, more so because he and he alone had been their maker. He wanted to correct the situation, but cautiously had chosen to wait and see, for he didn't want to upset his followers if he acted in haste. The other gods thanked him for his caution and asked him if he could fix the situation.
The Grand Almighty smiled, for he had been waiting for something like this for a long time already. And so, the maker looked down at his creations, and with a movement of his wrist, he ended all the mortals' lives, extinguishing them from one moment to the next. He made sure to ease the brief bit of fear and terror his first creations felt as they were quickly vanishing from existence, telling them that he was thankful, but he needed to do this, to create a new generation of improved mortals. As a way to honor them, he promised these new mortals would be named after them and would know who came before them. That way, the first generation would live on, their history, knowledge, and achievements preserved for posterity.
The mortals understood, and although saddened about the need for them to end, nonetheless accepted it with little effort. They appreciated that their maker was going to the lengths he was going, soothing their sorrow and promising a legacy to last beyond death; that was one of the greatest gifts he could give them. Then once he bid farewell to his first creations, he immediately started to work, creating a new, better version of the mortals, one more fit to the standard the gods expected of their worshippers. He even included the assistance of his most trusted followers, asking them for their opinion regarding certain traits the new mortals could have, and then deciding if to take the advice or not. This simple act was appreciated by all the gods; the Supreme One still made the final decision, but now they influenced the final result, unlike before. This also helped a little with the sudden fear of their loyal worshippers being destroyed and the sustenance they provided gone, but since the Creator had stored plenty of power and the gods themselves had plenty of energy still, by the time the new second and improved generation of mortals walked and explored their home, starting their first prayers as a token of appreciation to the life their maker and his brethren had given them, the gods weren't in actual peril in the end.
Then, as their realm's development was coming to its zenith, the gods watched and were witnesses to the development of the second mortals instead. They were extremely happy and proud of them, for they not only had adapted and applied the knowledge and wisdom of the first generation nearly instantly but had in just a few generations developed to a similar level of progress and sophistication to one of the gods. Yet the gods failed to realize that unforeseen and dreadful consequences would come next.
This new species of mortals was stronger, tougher, more intelligent, and all-around better than their predecessors, that soon enough, nothing that they faced was a threat. They easily beat any dangerous predators that tried to harm them, natural disasters and diseases at most wound and sicken the few, unluckiest, and/or weakest of their kin. Only their age limit was the main limiting factor, but even that was not an issue, for new younger leaders and generations were always ready to take their place, leading them to ever greater levels of prosperity. All this, completely on their own. So, as time passed, the worship of the gods started to dwindle, for the mortals didn't see its worth: they had managed to devise tools and techniques that were equal and, in some cases, even superior for the tasks and needs at hand to the boons the gods provided. This went on and on, until what was thought impossible happened: the mortals stopped worshiping the gods outright.
This revealed a major disadvantage regarding the relationship between gods and mortals: gods relied on their worshippers for sustenance and life, while the mortals could survive and even thrive without the gods' assistance if the conditions were right for them. Sure gods could entice the mortals to further worship by giving better boons, suited for needs the mortals couldn't accomplish with their current tools and knowledge, or for the contrary make their current boons more powerful. Either way, this would prove to be a extreme effort, and perhaps a futile one, for the limits of what knowledge could provide were non-existent, unlike the gods which for all their might, did have limits.
However, had this been the case in an earlier time, and especially if it hadn't developed to this level in such a rapid manner, the Firstborn would have been surprised, but would overall have remained calmed and adapted to the new conditions and demands that were necessary to deal with for the sake of their long-term survival. Instead, the gods were shocked and terrified, feeling that they had lost control of the situation, and extreme measures were necessary for the mortals to return to serve their masters.
They once again rallied to their ruler, and he tried to calm them, for although just like them the way the events had turned out had shocked him and even scared him a little, they had nothing to worry about: the mortals merely needed new challenges, fit to the new capabilities that they had. Once this was done, the mortals would once again come to worship them, and hopefully remain forever loyal this time.
This decided the maker and his most trusted followers work together to create new creatures, strong and capable enough to prove to be a challenge for the mortals. With their advice, The Supreme Maker created the first beasts and monsters. These living creatures were different from all the others, for they had but one purpose: to destroy and prove a threat to the mortals and their world, no matter what else. To make better for the task at hand, these new creatures lacked what most other living beings possessed : they were aggressive to the point of temerity, charging against anything alive no matter how dangerous and deadly it would be. They lacked fear of death, and although they could feel pain, they lacked the behavior to back down from it (i.e. no matter how many or how painfully hard you hurt them, they would never escape or dodge the damage; they would continue attacking until either they or their targets were dead). Some had intelligence, but only enough to devise simple ambushes; most of them lacked it, and merely charged headfirst to their prey. They also practically lacked any mechanism to hold back: they would not stop until all prey were dead around them, no matter if that later led to them starving to death. They only held back if they found another of their own, but just to breed and perhaps make sure their offspring grew until they were independent and went their own way. These were the first "Beasts and Monsters" that came to be in the world.
The mortals were at first caught off-guard by the monsters, for it had been several generations since the last time a proper animal threat had existed for them. Many perished, and they proved resilient and dangerous enough that mortals quickly started worshiping the gods once again to better take the new growing tide. Meanwhile, the gods applauded from beyond, seeing that their plan had been successful; once the mortals finished the beast and monsters, they would remain forever loyal to their makers, thankful for their assistance in their moment of direst need. Yet, this proved a rushed celebration.
The mortals quickly devised new tools to end the beasts, wiping them off the world. Once this was done, they abandoned the worship of the gods once again. As before, the gods panicked, but the Maker assured them that this merely needed new, stronger beasts. Make them strong enough, and the mortals would inevitably return to the gods' service forever, it was just the proper way of things, The Grand Almighty said.
But this proved to be an utterly wronged conclusion: no matter how mighty the beasts were made of, the mortals with their cunning and might would always devise ways to beat the beasts, all the while the power of the gods being used as a backup tool in the short time they lacked the means for it. The gods grew more desperate, and decided not only to create better monsters: they would have to intervene in other ways as well. And so, new sicknesses and plagues were created, stronger and more contagious than anything made by natural change and adaptation. They also started to mess with the land, air, and water itself, producing earthquakes, tornados, and other natural catastrophes where they had never been an issue before. All in their ever-growing desire to force the mortals to worship them.
Yet the mortals proved their resilience and capability time and time again, no matter what the gods threw at them. To make matters worse, the mortals' intelligence allowed them to realize that these cataclysms, all of them, were not natural: so many, so strong, and capable of dealing with anything they had, with their capabilities JUST right to beat them? No, there was no way all this was a coincidence. And so, the best and brightest of the mortals researched like never before, trying to find the origin of these threats while most of their kin worked their hardest to allow them the time they needed to reach the root of the issue. And inevitably, they found out that their makers, the gods themselves, were behind this. The mortals were appalled at first, but quickly demanded answers from them.
The gods thought this was the best opportunity they had had in a long time to convince the mortals to worship them. And so, they communed with the mortals, being fully honest, and explaining the reasons behind their actions. They thought once this was done, the mortals would at the very least, forgive them and simply return to worship them, for the sake of comfort and to not deal with the dangers at long last.
They were wrong.
The mortals, even though they understood the gods, and that they had done this for the sake of their survival, were still enraged to know that they had been in essence killing them to force them into worship. To make matters worse, once the mortals asked the gods if they had thought of doing something else instead, like for example, creating new mortals who would worship them either in this world or in others in their vast territory. The gods revealed that they had not even considered such an idea; they were too scared and perhaps...lazy to think things a bit more. Yes, it was easier and less complicated to simply force their current mortals to keep on worshiping them.
Well, guess what? This proved to be too much for the furious mortals. Out of spite and hatred, all of them immediately stopped worshiping them, relying completely on themselves. And even though this proved costly as the latest batch of monsters, plagues and disasters could have been easily controlled with the powers of the gods, the mortals simply held on. And once again, triumphed against the odds, exterminating the monsters, eradicating the plagues, and even managing to contain with devices the cores of the disasters, allowing them to disappear on their own. And, as a final outcry, they celebrated this while burning down figures of their gods. Their message was clear: "We beat your creations alone. We will never worship you, even if our species' last chance depends on it. Now, go make trouble somewhere else!"
This was the last straw for the Firstborn: the mortals had not only refused to return to worship them, but also had insulted and humiliated them! They were all furious, especially The Grand Almighty himself. His creations, turning to rebel against him, how dare they! This was no longer just a matter of survival: it was a matter of pride. And the gods' pride had been wounded beyond measure. And there was only one way to compensate for this. "Very well, mortals", the gods thought, "you think we were beaten? You've no idea what you're talking about".
The Firstborn, for the first time, focused their energies and summoned themselves onto the world. They had spent most of their power doing this, but from the mortal's perspective, had still more than enough to achieve their goal.
And so, the gods unleashed their wrath and rage directly on their creations, all their anger set loose: Entire mountain ranges were obliterated, burying beneath their rubble countless souls, cities the size of counties reduced to ash by firestorms as vast and tall as hills, while coastlines were sunk beneath tsunamis so large they made Titans human-size in comparison. And the most dreadful one of them all, the Great Maker himself, turned to non-existent in a second and with a twitch of his fingertips any mortal military force and settlement that stood in his way. This and more were the powers the gods unleashed upon the world, and its effects are said to have shattered the land, leaving it divided on the many large continents that our explorers have discovered.
Finally, the gods’ rampage came to an end, and once the dust settled, most of the mortals had been annihilated, with the few that remained cowering in fear and terror. They had underestimated their makers' powers and character and paid dearly for it. They kneeled to their masters, asking for forgiveness and mercy. They promised to worship forever and serve the gods if that meant never suffering their unleashed rage ever again. The gods accepted...for the most part.
For you see, the gods, as they looked at the terrified mortals, and how desperate they were, to the point that they were doing the most cowardly acts, and obeying whatever request the gods asked of them, no matter how humiliating and demeaning it was. All for the sake of their survival. The gods...loved it. They loved the newfound fear and utter terror their worshippers were feeling by simply looking at them. They loved the desperation and willingness to follow whatever thing the gods asked of them. This was certainly a complete contrast to the previous defiance, hatred, and pride the mortals had before. And it was a contrast that the gods rejoiced and were thrilled with it. So, as previously said, the gods accepted the mortal's request for forgiveness and mercy...but they refused to be held back by them. The act of punishing and humiliating them so dearly, and how powerless they were...was too sweet and entertaining an experience to give up. With this in mind, the gods decided that wherever it was necessary, or just because they felt like it, they would come down from their realm, and lay waste to the mortals until they were satisfied with the results. Of course, the mortals would never be extinguished by the gods, they would always make sure that there were enough survivors to keep their kin alive and capable to rebuild the destruction, until the next time a god or couple of gods descended to the land and started the new cycle anew.
To make the suffering and pain of the mortals' defeat even greater, The Grand Almighty made sure to erase a greater part of those that remained in front of the others, while also severely stripping the capabilities of the living and their future descendants. Never again would mortals consider turning their backs on the Gods, not that they would ever be capable of trying even if they did.
Once this was done, the gods returned to their Realm, not before leaving a few "weak" monsters here and there as a final "gift" for their worshipers. With most of their capabilities forever taken from them, many more mortals perished, before the survivors were forced to flee into hiding, unable to face the beasts head-on like they once did. Many of their tools had been designed with their previous capabilities in mind, so most of their previous tools and even knowledge became useless as well. Nonetheless, the mortals managed barely to survive, and slowly and with great effort, adapted to the new circumstances their fallen civilization found itself under.
Once they were more settled, the mortals developed a new culture, one forever fearful of the gods, and who looked at their previous achievements as arrogant attempts to equal the divine. They had deserved their punishment and servitude, and anyone who thought otherwise was quickly silenced, all in the hopes of not provoking the gods further, and giving them the final reason to wipe them all once and for all.
This was how their once bright spirits dimmed, their progress slowed down, and was now at the mercy of the whims of their makers, who came to destroy and turn to rubble anything greater they managed to build. Sometimes this was done for the purposes of sending a message; most of the time, it was just because they were bored.
Alas, the core element of the mortals remained: their perseverance and diligence. Even though the odds were stacked against them like never before, even though they lacked the once total freedom to experiment and construct new things, mortals still managed to improve their lives. A god destroyed a town and laid waste to its populace? Sad, but it was but a matter to rebuild and repopulate. Had the great buildings been turned to rubble with one punch? Mortals found ways to make their constructions sturdier. Did the gods get a bit angrier than they should have by this? No matter, a few prayers, and temporary humiliations here and there, and the angry god was satisfied. In this and other ways the mortals slowly, bit by bit, devised new things, making their hard lives more manageable with every little new invention, tool, or technique designed/discovered. It came to a point that, once the gods grew inattentive enough to not notice, the mortals started building new, prosperous settlements in hiding, either deep down or by the use of magical artifacts they had to build. That way, only mostly mock settlements and populations were targeted, while the majority lived safely in shelters. These new settlements and the standards of living within them were very poor compared to what their now-distant ancestors once enjoyed, but it was good enough, given the circumstances. Unfortunately, they could never go beyond this and risk the gods finally noticing they had been duped for a long time, so the mortals always made sure to control the population and technologies on them, preferring to remain a bit trapped yet safe rather than comfortable for a time before inevitably ending dead.
Little did they know that all of their efforts would pay off on a scale they never imagined. For a young god would discover their secret achievements, and grow to admire them so much… that he would lead them to the greatest and most righteous rebellion ever.