Chapter three : Creation

The Second Epoch, we have always been told, was the time that the gods created the world and mortals. It is true that our world was created and populated in the Second Epoch, but the circumstances of creation, as I have learned, were far different from what we have always believed. It was in the Second Epoch that the Nameless One created our world, and from our world the gods were born.

Vola Ulfhedin told me that after seeing the Image of what would be, the Nameless One summoned to Him the fire He had created. Uncontrolled, flame swelled in the void, but He contained it and shaped it into a pillar. He did the same with earth, air, and water, and soon the four great pillars were arrayed before Him. Then, using the strength of the four pillars, He crafted a sphere. This Great Sphere is what we call our universe, our existence, and is supported by the four pillars. In it can be found our world, Heaven, Hell, the land of the dead, and everything else we know to exist. Whether the Nameless One has created other Great Spheres, other universes, we will never know.
Entering the sphere, He saw that it was empty, and needed a world. First, He gathered up all that was contained in the sphere and forced it to the center. Once everything was there, He formed around the center places of His creation a perfect crystalline sphere made from the positive and negative energies of creation. Inside the crystal, He cried a litany of new words. With the words for Fire and Air, He created the suns, moons, stars, winds, and vapors by giving them names. These He bound to the crystal sphere. He surveyed what He had done, and determined that it was in here, in the crystal sphere where He had placed the sky, He would do His work. He strode to the center of His creation, where there was nothing but the air and the ether and the shadow, and there He used the words of Fire and Earth to name the mountains, hills, valleys, plains, and cliffs, dismissing ether and shadow to the corners of His making.
Now the sphere had a place for the life He had seen, but life would not come without water. So, with fire and water He gave names to the oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, and streams. He had before Him now a home for life. Indeed, it is this center sphere of crystal that our world lies. In our world, He built for Himself three fortresses. From air, He built a castle in the sky; shaping earth, He constructed a palace at the peak of the highest mountain; and with water, He crafted a keep at the bottom of the deepest ocean.
For an eon, He wandered His world, until He became restless. Though the valleys, the moons, the rivers and all His creations spoke to Him, they only answered when spoken to, and did not have life as He hoped. He decided to create once more. Rather than create a place or a thing, He created something new. Giving it arms, legs, body, heart, and mind, He called it Kador. To Kador He gave three gifts. First, He gave Kador life, so that Kador could move about like the Nameless One Himself. Second, He gave Kador will, so that Kador could do as he chose. Third, He gave Kador fire, the essence of life and vitality. From these three gifts, the Nameless One crafted for Kador a soul, and so it is today that only those with the three gifts have souls.
Of course, I was as shocked as you to learn all this. Vola Ulfhedin swore it was so. Kador, the god at the center of the war of the gods, the only god ever to be cast out from the Celestial Host, was firstborn of the gods. Ill-fated Kador wandered the world with the Nameless One, who was pleased. Kador acted as he wished, and even surprised the Nameless One with his choices.
And yet, the Nameless One suffered from restlessness once more. He enjoyed what the gift of will had done for Kador, and so decided to impart it to all His creations. He spoke to the mountains and the valleys, the suns and the seas. He gave them will and whispered to each a secret that set it apart. When He was satisfied that His creations would live as they chose, He proclaimed three prophecies. First, He spoke to Kador alone. All of His creations listened, though, and overheard: “

"To you, Kador, first-of-will, I have given Fire. Others like you will be born in this world, and to them you will give this gift.”

Noticing that others of His creations had listened, He whispered His second prophecy to Kador. None know what He said, but they noted it took many years in the telling. Vola Ulfhedin believes He told Kador all that had passed before, and all that would come to pass, but there is no knowing. Volas have debated the nature of the second prophecy for as long as those priests have existed. The third prophecy was spoken aloud to all the world. The Nameless One said,

“When I spoke My name, I created Myself. When I spoke your names, I created you. When My name is spoken again, time will stop, and all names will be undone.”

There can be little doubt from this prophecy why the Volas call the Nameless One “He Who Will Not Be Named.” Should He be named, the world will end. Before I learned this, I’d foolishly believed His name was merely unknown. After speaking the third prophecy, the Nameless One left the Great Sphere, and has never spoken again. Vola Ulfhedin believes He still sits in his palace of light and sound, upon his throne of silence and darkness, and watches His creation. I believe the Nameless One has gone on to create countless other spheres, and no longer remembers which was the first, or no longer cares.

What’s in a Soul?

A being must possess life, free will, and the inner fire of power to truly possess a soul. The order established by the Nameless One imposes these three requirements. There are many things in the world that have only life, but not the other components. Many “lesser” races, including animals and certain wicked creatures of the land, have life and free will, but not spiritual fire. Very few beings have all three. These include the gods, dwarves, elves, gnomes, halflings, and humans, and most beings directly descended from them. Living things (and certain magical entities) have “spirits” that are not souls—or to be more precise, while all souls are spirits, the reverse is not true. Similarly, all beings with the inner fire have corruption and rage within them. These can exist without spiritual flame, but in such cases, must be imposed from without, and in any case, can be permanently removed, which the fire’s taint is constant. It is believed that the inner fire, entrusted to Kador to be passed on to other races, is necessary to separate the spirit from the body, so that it can be counted as a soul. Without it, when living being dies, its spirit dies with it. Kindled by the flame of power, the spirit can transcend the flesh and go beyond the body upon its death. Yet without free will, a spirit’s deeds would not be recorded in the black and white ledgers, and it could not be judged, and would simply be dispersed into the world. Therefore, the inner fire cannot make a spirit into a soul without free will—and if would not exist in the first place without life to generate it