Kalio

Originally there was the darkness. There was nothing in the darkness, except the world. Kalio was a quiet, contemplative world. She stared into the darkness with nothing except herself and watched as the empty void started back at her, silence eternal between each of them until it became unbearable for Kalio to wait any longer. With a single flick of her wrist, Kalio reached into the darkness, pulling twenty-one gems from the darkness, and placing them upon her body, granting them life, intelligence, and strength. Each of these gems went across her bare surfaces, and with time, began to turn it into art… into a masterpiece of life, with people all over her surface. These first gems were the original gods. Immortal and strong, they cared for their mother and spent many mortal generations making the world what it was.   Among the first, came The Dominion and the Mother, the Masculine and the Feminine. The Dominion taught us how to forge metals, to build cities, to make war and to fight. The Mother taught us to farm and to heal, to love and to nurture. Each of them made races in their ideal image, with the Dominion making the Kurok, men of muscle and bestial strength, who made cities and forts. The Mother made the Ilsiri, men of lithe build and a connection to nature, a people who eschewed cities, instead of living in the homes that grew around them.   But then, the Void. Silent… Envious… Empty… it became jealous of Kalio. It hated that her attention had shifted from it to the puny mortals who wandered her body, defiling it with nature and cities and culture. And so… the first monsters were born from the shadows and void. He sent the darkest creatures for the heart of Kalio herself, and the Gods went to War, fighting for the Life of their Mother.   While the Gods managed to send the Void back where it came, it was at great cost. Their mother was struck down with a lethal blow, and as her body was fading, each of the gods saw their world fading around them, their people disappearing into nothingness, and everything they existed for vanishing.   Each of the Gods took in the sights and realized they were the last things their mother had truly made. Their hearts were the only living essence of hers left… so each of the Gods removed the gems at their heart, and placed them in certain places on their mother’s grave, stabilizing the World for their children.   Each of them became mortal, their hearts no longer able to bear the challenges of darkness, and died within a few weeks. The Mortals of Kalio were devastated until they realized that the Gods hadn't left them. They were reborn again among the mortals of Kalio. Kalio had granted them one final boon. A chance to learn. A chance to keep living, and to experience the lives of everything in their precious world, and a chance to keep learning as her children. These are the gods now, mortal, random, and chosen to continue taking up the mantle.