The Page
The Page is the plane in which traditional physical existence is experienced. Its true scale is difficult to determine and the amount of matter that can be held within it is, for practical purposes, immeasurable. It is currently maintained in a sustainable cycle of Life, Death, and Rebirth.
The Page was created untold billions of years ago, pristine and free of matter. Its purpose was that of a canvas for its creator Vanae, whom intended to fill it with her creations. As a result, it has gone through several stages during which Vanae has experimented with the various aspects of creation, including the creation of every known element excluding Shiftsteel. During these experimentation phases entire celestial objects and planets composed entirely of one type of matter were common, as were abstract celestial works of art.
After several eons of aimless experimentation, Vanae grew tired of creating meaningless objects and opted to, instead, shatter them all, scattering their raw materials randomly throughout the Page including Emerglass, an experimental material that while seemingly useless she had no desire to waste. This done, she devised and created the first Stars, using portions of her soul and placing them throughout her canvas. Each was granted autonomy, aspects of her own power, and a well of power to draw upon in the form of Starlight. These Stars were granted different general classifications, determining the manner in which they would develop, and were then left to their own devices to do on The Page as they deemed fit. Vanae, in the meantime, simply ceased most of her activity on The Page in favor of observing what her creations made without her guidance, allowing The Page to paint itself.
The Stars, as a whole, took many millions of years to discover how to create anything themselves, going through a similar process of experimentation that Vanae had undergone though through manipulating local materials and determining their limits. Once the process had been mastered by Stars, however, infinitesimally small mortal creatures began to form within the complex ecosystems that were created, forming intricate ecosystems of their own. Vanae was, by and large, satisfied with the direction The Page was taking, but it would only be a few billion years before those most ambitious of the Stars would expend all of their considerable energy in the pursuit of their great works, plunging into a dark, miserable form of false-death which latched their empty souls to their neighbors, draining them of energy.
Realizing the mistake in her creation, and determining that flaw could be turned to a purpose that would give all of this directionless creation some sense of meaning, she opted to incorporate it into her own grand design, setting the The Page into a cycle inspired by the short, fleeting cycles of the mortal creatures that the Stars had formed. Choice made, she created the Hyperdrakes, vast serpents that traversed the space between stars recycling old, dead, or dying Stars. Granted Vanae's own ability to create and manipulate energy with few reservations and given true eternal life, they were tasked with a sole purpose, one Grand Work for which their entire existence would be dedicated: To maintain the cycle of The Page by any means necessary. To ensure this task was seen to, they were left devoid of most emotion, especially regarding matters that did not involve their Grand Work.
They saw to their task dutifully, and Vanae was pleased with The Page once more. For mere millions of years, The Page was allowed to exist as it was, its cycle having just begun. This, however, changed as the first mortal civilization discovered Shiftsteel. Unknown to Vanae another plane existed beneath The Page where she could not see; The Underside, home of mortal souls and the manifestation of a natural law beyond even Vanae's control. From here, mortals learned to use that peculiar material known as Emerglass, which had proven to be an interesting hurdle for the Stars to overcome in the process of creation, turning it to a darker purpose.
Made aware now of The Underside and the potential for souls to be desiccated and abused in such a way she grew disgusted and enraged with her creation. Instead of attempting to resolve the situation she chose an attempt to destroy the entirety of The Page, seeing is as tainted, to start from nothing. Upon attempting to work her will upon her own canvas, however, she found that she could not. The Law created by Stars resisted her. They did not want themselves or their works to be destroyed. This could be overcome with time, but unfailingly her attempts were repeatedly thwarted by the arrival of a Hyperdrake, whom would dutifully nullify her attempts to change the cycle of The Page by using the power that she herself had granted them. So The Page remains, Vanae observing in anguish as the brutal cycle continues, souls enslaved then perhaps freed by the Hyperdrakes, only to be bent and enslaved once more. Eternally, she watches for any opportunity to destroy the dark world she has made, and that has defied her will as creator.
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