Thara

Thara was the first world created by Tylos. It was a world very much like our earth, but without sapient species. The land mass ratio to water was similar; it had vast oceans, wide open plains, mountain ranges, rain forests, etc. Tylos created the flora and fauna, each living in harmony and synchronicity with the others. He was greatly pleased with His creation, and leaving two of His children to watch over it, He left to travel the universe and duplicate His experiment in other places. Kol and Aya were the godlings Tylos left in charge.   Aya loved her father's creation and delighted in exploring its every aspect, but Kol was indifferent. He was angry and a bit jealous of his father for leaving - he wanted to go explore the universe as well. Kol and Aya had both paid careful attention to Tylos as he worked, and the knowledge gave Kol an idea.   He experimented, spinning up creatures out of dust and water and imbuing them with sentience. Kol met with a few failures at first, creating beings that wanted only to destroy. Then he came up with the idea of molding creatures in his and Aya's own image. He called them humans and gave them stewardship of Thara, granting them dominance over the plants and animals of the world. Finally Kol and Aya would be free go exploring the universe and all its dimensions.   Aya was appalled at her brother's meddling with Tylos's creation. She had tracked down and destroyed all but a few of his earlier attempts. The siblings argued bitterly, but could come to no agreement. Words turned to blows and they fought in the heavens, tearing at each other with cosmic forces to no avail. Finally, through rage and ferocity, Kol managed to overcome Aya. He "cast his sister away into a prison from which not even light could escape, tore the keyhole from her prison and hurled it down into the darkest reaches of Thara so that there could be no chance for her escape". from The Black Book   Unbeknownst to Kol however, Aya had planned for her eventual defeat. While Kol was distracted she 'infected' his humans with a tiny sliver of her divine self, a 'conscience' which gave them free will, the ability to know right from wrong, compassion and empathy, etc. When Kol discovered his sister's treachery he flew into a rage, tearing one of Thara's moons to bits. His tantrum nearly destroyed his father's work, causing tidal waves and floods, earthquakes and upheaval. Much of Thara's surface became uninhabitable.   Tylos created Thara with two immense crystal 'hearts', one dark and one light. (Humans call them the Crux and the Cradle, respectively) He understood the never ending cycle of destruction and renewal and implemented the knowledge in His creation. In the great upheaval of the Moonfall the two hearts were shattered and the shards were thrust through the planet's crust in places. These areas were protected from the ash clouds and poison gases produced by the cataclysm, and became the circle-states of current-day Thara.   When Kol regained his composure he grew terrified of what Tylos would do to him upon returning and finding what he'd done. He needed an alibi. After some study of the humans he hit upon a plan. Kol had noticed the humans' need to explain things they couldn't understand and their subconscious drive to worship something. He came up with a creature unlike any other he'd made before, one that could reshape itself to fit any environment on Thara. It could instinctively rearrange itself on a cellular level in a matter of seconds.   He called his new race the Prelatons, and set them among the humans with one directive: propagate the story of how he had saved the world from the predation of his sister-god Aya. In this religion Kol was the god of virtue and goodness, while Aya was the embodiment of evil.