Underfoot

Millennia ago, there was too much: too much energy, too much strife, too much chaos. Beings some would refer to as gods were caught up in an ever-escalating, unending conflict, each forever attempting to destroy all else in attempts to become the single god who would have hold over all that was, is, and will be. Sometime undetermined in the midst of this endless war, two of these godlike beings - Drakos and Pheon - suddenly found themselves in an unnerving place in the cosmos: a pocket of nothing. A bubble of void where no gods, no strife, no chaos existed. So shocking was this suddenly burst into nothing that the two stopped fighting long enough to ask the first question ever spoken between two beings: "What is this?"   In this space where nothing yet existed, the two began to explore, not so much the void but the possibility of the void. It was here that they discovered the unique ability of all gods: creation of something from nothing. At first, they dabbled in the elements associated with their beings: Drakos brought water and earth, Pheon fire and air. And thus the world was built on these four elements. But as time went on, they began to wonder: wonder about themselves. After all, years of conflict had distracted all the gods from self-reflection. So in this void, they created images of themselves: Drakos the dragons and Pheon the phoenix. They created these first peoples and began to observe them. And very quickly, as all parents first realize when they watch their children at play, they realized just how petty all the chaos of before had been.   So, they began to create more and more, trying to see if there was a way by which they could create a world free of strife and chaos. Many attempts at early creation were wild failures, ones Drakos and Pheon had to lock away for fear of the damage they may have caused to the rest of creation. But finally they found a balance of twelve peoples who, through their different traits and cultures that synergized with each, created a world of harmony and balance.   And so the two gods left the world as it was, content with their final product. At first. But as time wore on, the two beings realized that, with the world as it was, nothing new came. Everything was so balanced, so in sync, that there was no need to challenge how things were, no drive to make something else. Swiftly Drakos and Pheon realized that without the chaos they had come from, there would have been no initial drive to create this world. And without that same desire to escape chaos, their creation was stuck in a space of contentment, no windows to the soul opening wide to bring about the unexpected and beautiful. But what were the gods to do? They had no desire to inflict chaos upon their children just so they might desire to escape it. Caught up in grief, the gods wept, the first rainfall ever as their tears of love fell upon the world...   The peoples of the world, now soaked in these tears, experienced for the first time the fullness of something the gods alone had thus far experienced: love. The pain of love, the passion, the life, and heartache. From that spawned a deep desire for connection, for creation, and eventually jealousy, conflict, competition. The gods watched, at first in horror but then in deep curiosity, as the world, once perfect, fell into a conflict state that was a very different sort of chaos that they had never considered. For though there was great pain as a result of this new-felt love, there was also deep, ineffable connection between these peoples that had not existed before. The gods decided it was the time to stay back, to let the world rule itself, and to simply watch with love as the world went on.