The Creation of the World (Loduene)

First there was chaos. Out of this chaos came the gods - Athkos, Xergoth, and Goedire - and the goddesses - Yrasqa, Anndeir, and Issiphon. Seventh and last to come, the most powerful of their number, was Euchton, who had no gender.
The chaos, though it gave them birth, was displeasing to the Divines, Euchton most of all, for it was one thing that could not be controlled. In its arrogance, Euchton contrived to tame the chaos. It focused all its nearly infinite divine power on battling the chaos, but then it realized its mistake. Its power was nearly infinite - but the chaos was infinite. By the time Euchton understood this, it was too late - it was already so involved in the battle with chaos that it could not yield, and so was absorbed into the chaos.
The other Divines knew fear for the first time. If the most powerful of their number could be defeated, so, they reasoned, could they. Athkos, the strongest of those remaining, proposed they search for a place that was sheltered from the chaos. The rest agreed, and they also chose Athkos to lead them.
They did not know how long they searched, for they had no way to measure the passing time. Besides, time means little to those who are immortal. Finally, they came across what they were searching for. It was a bubble of nothing - no matter, no chaos, nothing. This nothing was pleasing to the Divines and they resolved to stay there.
Many eternities passed. The Divines had offspring, themselves gods and goddesses. From Anndeir and Athkos came Nuenov and Sona-irel, twin brother and sister, and another son, Musit. Xergoth and Yrasqa had a strong son, Ondobaern, and a gentle daughter, Korhane. Goedire and Issiphon had a beautiful daughter, Lantaqué, and a quiet son, Nothzown.
The young gods and goddesses, never having known the chaos, were not content with the nothing. They began to explore the limits of their powers. They discovered other dimensions that were more interesting than the nothing. Athkos found out about this. He decided it was harmless, but made the seven promise to always seal the gates that they used to travel to the other dimensions. The seven readily agreed. However, after a while, they began to get careless, Ondobaern especially. When he returned from the other dimensions he would often forget to seal the gate behind him. One of the other six would find the gate later, and hastily seal it, hoping Athkos had not noticed.
One time, Sona-irel and Nuenov went to their father and asked permission to bring some matter back from a dimension that was particularly crowded. He agreed, and decided the other Divines should go with them as well.
They left the nothing for the other dimension. Athkos, however, stayed behind, to make sure nothing happened in their absence.
The other dimension was almost solid matter, but this did not hamper the Divines. All twelve of them separated a piece of matter from this, and returned. When they re-entered the nothing, they began to shape the matter. However, they could not see what they were doing, for there was no light. So, Athkos found a dimension that was all heat and light and brought a piece of it back to set in the middle of the nothing. By its light the Divines were able to see to finish their shaping. They all created the most perfect orbs, then set them orbiting about Athkos' fiery sphere. Because of how close they were, Nuenov and Sona-irel made their two orbs to circle each other, as well as the central flame.
Their new creations were very pleasing to the Divines. However, Athkos pointed out that it would be selfish of them to keep this perfection to themselves. So, he proposed they create others. The Divines agreed and bent their power to the task of populating their spherical creations. When they were finished, Athkos was still not satisfied. The beings the others had created, while good, did not have the power of contemplation and, therefore, could not appreciate the beauty around them. So, he resolved to create his own race of creatures.
Athkos descended to the orb of Sona-irel, for it contained the most potential. He took some earth and moulded it in the image of the gods. He then reached up to his own orb of fire, plucked a bit of fire from it, and placed it in his created form, giving it life. He repeated the process for a form made in the image of the goddesses. When he was done, both creations stared at him in awe, their eyes wide with understanding - an understanding which was not present in any other creature. Then Athkos spoke to them. "Thou art mine creations, and I call thee 'humans.'" He turned to the first human. "Thou art called 'man'." He turned to the second human. "And thou art called 'woman.' Thou shalt live in harmony with each other and this wonderful creation of mine daughter." He raised his face to the blue sky. "Come, brethren! I hath gifted these humans with understanding. Thou shouldst gift them also." The other divines agreed, and each in turn bestowed his or her gift upon the humans.
First came Sona-irel, who gave them the ability to farm the land. Anndeir gave them tools, Lantaqué the process of domestication. Korhane gave them curiosity, Nuenov adaptability. From Xergoth came ambition, from Ondobaern came courage. They received loyalty from Yrasqa, and serenity from Nothzown. Issiphon gave them love and from Goedire came joy. Finally, Musit bestowed upon them the last gift: hope.
After Musit was done, the gods and humans joined in celebration.
Centuries passed. The humans had multiplied and spread across the face of Sona-irel's orb, Sirel. The world was perfect. No one had more power than the other, and everyone lived in harmony with everyone else. People only suffered as much as was needed. But it was not to last.
One morning Hord'ien, a shepherd, was watching over his flock when he heard a voice. It came hissing out of the air around him. It said, "I am Euchton, most powerful of the Divines. I have been unjustly banished and need your help to return, Hord’ien." For when the other Divines believed Euchton destroyed, it had actually been banished to another dimension. On one of the occasions, so long ago, that Ondobaern had left a gate to another dimension open, Euchton had managed to get some of its essence over to the nothing. However, it needed the help of a mortal human to be completely restored.
Euchton’s long exile had embittered it. It was jealous of the creations of the other Divines, and wished to punish them for their exclusion of itself. "I need your help, that I might wreak my just vengeance upon the upstart Divines." Hord'ien hesitated. He knew of nothing for which this Euchton would hate the Divines. They were benevolent! Euchton saw his hesitation and followed up its initial plea with an offer: "Once I am in full possession of my power, I will give you anything you wish."
Now, Hord'ien had never wanted anything more than what he had, but when he realized he might have more, he began to think. If he had more money and power.... This possibility had never occurred to him. Just to make sure, he asked the disembodied voice, "You can give me money?"
"Yes."
"Power?"
"Easily."
"What must I do?"
Euchton instructed Hord'ien in the ritual that would allow it to return to this dimension. It was more horrible than you could imagine, involving many bloody, human sacrifices. Hord'ien was disgusted. But when he thought of his reward, he steeled himself. He performed the ritual and Euchton made its return. It was elated at how well the ritual had worked and bestowed godhood upon Hord'ien. Hord'ien was overcome by this and pledged allegiance to Euchton instantly.
The moment Euchton returned, Athkos became aware of it. He immediately went to greet his former colleague, but Euchton's response was icy. It wrongly blamed Athkos for its exile and announced it would take that which it had been unable to help create - humans.
Thus began the Divine War.
At first, despite its superior power, Euchton seemed hopelessly outnumbered. However, the Divines did not count on its gilded tongue. Using various methods of persuasion, the Dark One, as Euchton had come to be called, turned Divine on Divine. Because of the dissension between the Divines, they could not unite against Euchton's forces. It took something big to bring them to their senses - Euchton's elite creatures which it had created for this war - the Euchtoi - killed Musit and shattered his orb, the sixth from the center. All the life on the orb was killed. The Divines realized their war was also harming their creations - but what could be done?
After much debate, the Divines settled on a course of action - they would move their bodies to one of the other dimensions, and no longer meddle directly in the lives of mortals. However, this would allow Euchton to gain complete control over their creations, for it would not willingly leave.
Goedire volunteered to sacrifice a large portion of his power to force Euchton to follow them. While the others were reluctant to let him do this, he was adamant. The humans' joy had been lost, and he would do anything in his power to restore it.
When the Divines left, forcing Euchton and Hord'ien to follow, Athkos bestowed a curse upon Hord'ien for what he had caused. He was cursed to forever be wanting more material wealth, but to never have enough. Also, he was cursed to always attract to his treasure those with greed equal to his own, and to not be able to stop them from stealing it.
So, the Divines departed from this dimension, and the humans were safe. But at such a price! Goedire had been reduced to a mere fraction of his former power. And because of a greedy man named Hord'ien, all the evils of the world had come to plague humanity: greed, anger, loss, fear, aggression, suffering, and many more.
Humans, however, are a stubborn race and they would not give up hope, though he who gave it to them was gone. They began to rebuild their shattered lives, and move on, alone.