Interview with a Titan

D: Of course that is your first question, why would I abandon my siblings to certain death? Well at least you bought me dinner first. *sigh* I have spent centuries asking myself that and the best I could say to a mortal was 'it's complicated.' I know that most of the stories say that I was a coward or in league with the Dark One. Neither are true but it does not matter what the bards sing. The truth is that I knew their plan would not work and the outcome would not have changed even with my sacrifice. Binding him was the best we were ever going to accomplish.
How can you say that?
D: For reasons far outside your comprehension. Again, the short version is that I remembered the lesson that my siblings forgot. What is that lesson you ask, then listen, and I will try to explain. How familiar are you with the creation of this universe?
How would I know, I wasn't there.
D: True enough...well I was not there either but I knew the One who was. So then, the entire universe was nothing but primal, elemental chaos. Eventually a portion of that chaos shaped itself into a being, thinking and aware. No longer chaos, it was structure and definiton...this was Order, the first of the Prime Powers. For a period, Order was alone with themselves but as the novelty of being a self wore off they began to long for company. In the potent environment of the Beginning, a longing was enough and the chaos took on structure once more and two more Prime Powers were born, Time and Growth.
What do you mean by Prime Powers? The gods?
D: Mortals always want to turn to the gods. The gods that you worship are but the echoes and whispers of the Primes from beyond the Divine Gate. The Primes were power, shaped by will, and driven by a desire to experience. But back to my tale, these three Primes rejoiced in each other and in being. Inspired, Order began to stretch themselves out into the universe, stilling the chaos and dividing the elements. With the help of Growth the planets and stars were born and Time sent everything spinning like clockwork. One of those worlds was Vestra and it was here that Life and Fate, the fourth and fifth, Powers sprang into being as the world developed plant and animal life.
How many of these Powers are there? And what does this have to do with you abandoning the Shiners?
D: I knew this was a bad idea. It's not your fault, you are mortal. I should go.
No, no, I'm sorry. Please, continue your story.
D: I promise that there is a point. Besides, you should count yourself lucky...not many people know about the creation of the universe these days. Where was I? Oh yes, Vestra was a lush and thriving world. As the animal life took shape, these Powers had a new idea and shaping some of these to be receptive, breathed will and mind creating you humanoids. This was the age of the dawn. For a time the Powers did walk among the people as you like to tell of the gods once doing. Five more Powers rose up in those days and all the world rejoiced to welcome Creativity, Joy, Love, Knowledge, and Passion. For a time all was well.
Oh it looks like that bottle is empty, let me get another.
D: So everything was an idyllic paradise, but there was a dark secret at the heart of creation, Growth was jealous of all the others, both Powers and mortals. Over the eons, that jealousy plus a hunger to consume and expand drove Growth mad and they became Entropy. Being a Prime Power they had been involved with very first creations and so those fingerprints of power began to turn rancid. This is what makes you all mortal...a seed of Entropy lies in your very makeup. From the moment you are born you are destined for death.
But it's the life that is important, what you do with the time between birth and death.
D: True enough, you still retain that will, the primal drive to do, to experience. As you can imagine the other Powers were not happy about this change. Nor were they very happy when the Devourer sank an entire continent of saurians and consumed the souls of all. Thus began the War of the Gods. I'll skip over that entire saga, but it ended with Entropy being locked away in the Abyss. Unable to remove this curse from their creation and worried at what might happen should another Power turn rogue they decided to withdraw and lock themselves beyond the Divine Gate. The Powers had already created the Titans during the war to act as protectors of the sentient races and so when they withdrew we were charged with doing the same.
But didn't you all sleep for thousands of years? And I still don't get what this has to do with the Binding?
D: I am getting to that. We did sleep eventually, but not before helping the races to settle and cultivate the land. Once you all had begun developing civilization we stepped back and went into hibernation so that you could grow on your own. Of course you know what happened.....Entropy, or Tharizdun as you all call him now, managed to slip his chains enough to send out a shard of his power and finding a willing recipient in a Duskwizard named Ollamaas who became the Dark Titan. We woke in time to confront the threat, but not before he had managed to corrupt a kingdom and more. I clearly don't need to go into all the details of that fight. But in the end we had two strategies for the Binding. The first was to destroy Ollamaas and purify the land and it's people. Or we could do what was done, break the Dark Titan and imprison he and the kingdom in a pocket dimension. The others split down the middle, so it was up to me to decide. I told Molkem that there was no way we could destroy Ollamaas and cleanse the land and that it would be better to either banish them all or just take out the Titan. Perhaps if the Powers were still here it would have been different, but they are unreachable and neither of the two new Powers were capable of helping. So I left, knowing that without me Molkem would be forced to concede and proceed with the banishment.
So you just left them? And what did you mean two new powers, new gods?
D: I suppose you could say that, the first was Death, for with a seed of entropy within you there is now a need to guide your souls on when the body is finished. She could not help for she is bound to her task and will be until the last star cools. The other was Hope, while she was a mighty fighter, she too had another task. Her job was to shield and shelter the innocents from the world-wrenching magics we were attempting. And yes I walked away. The others did not need my power to accomplish what was done, and there was one major flaw in that plan. There was always a chance he could come back...and if he does someone needs to be waiting.
But wait...what was the lesson the Shiners forgot?
D: *long sigh* Weren't you paying attention? Entropy lies at the heart of all of creation, we will never fully eradicate it until World's End and you all pass beyond the Divine Gate into the new worlds the Powers have created.