“No longer a mere Human in a Human world, I moved through strange lands of gods and demons, clinging desperately to the memories of a life where people fought, laughed, and loved.” ~The Legend of Bas, by Ciaran the Bard

“Why in the worlds do we feed all our leaders

With treasure they steal from the poor?

And why in the worlds do we seal them as keepers

With measures of power that we all abhor?”

~The Writings of Ghoel the Wol Cabasshite

A?vision granted me by one who roamed the stars in the still-barren galaxy in the dreamlike empyrean days before the later universes came to be and the waning ages of death and deathly frost fell upon them. A rush of fiery wind and light stirred in the phantasmal mists of the endless void, a Great Light that uttered a note, a primordial song, singular, prodigious, and beautiful beyond all things, and never heard again.

Stars winked on across the Primary Dimension like the glowing lanterns of Venexian ships along the mighty Solleu River at the behest of dusk, a dazzling panoply of lights for the fathomless gulfs that were as yet fruitless and still. These were the cyclic and star polygons, the annulus and the arbelos, the triquetra and lemniscates, all of varying geometry and degree, swimming through empyreal space like cnidaria floating in the deep sea; the shining ones, luminous and wise, encompassed of those four living creatures unknown to most, the Kerub?m, Ophannīm, Seraf?m, and Mal’akim Celestials. And in that chatoyant light, they danced to the music of the glittering firmament in abandon.

The circuit of life began with ebullient energy spilling forth into the expectant vastness, a power like none other to move and shape and grow. And from the source of light and life blossomed the Force, sown and harvested by the will of the Father of Lights, who is its supreme and supernal master and the one who first uttered the song. And the Force permeated all life and echoed back, and time began its desultory flow.

Discordant notes entered at this time, produced by those who coveted the Dawn World, for the fear of lost glory had come to poison their hearts; and as thoughts of domination arose, so too a deep Shadow began to occlude the face of the deep, borne of those luminous stars who opposed the composition blossoming before and around them and especially on the Plane of Erets.

Nevertheless, a second and third sound rang forth even more sublime than the first, intermingling with it, causing the garden world beneath the jeweled dome to emerge in the midst of the darkened seas, awakening with its resonance all manner of astonishing life, a song sweeter even than before, but also never heard again.

The Luminous Ones were yet incomplete, for the Maker had an endowment to bestow upon them of inestimable worth. So it came about that while gathered there before the warming light of the Eternal, the Celestials were given the gift and came to fully comprehend Love, Justice, Power, and Wisdom and were thereby tasked to learn of the universe they would help germinate and configure. Free to roam and frolic, many amongst the Celestials descended to the Plane of Erets, and there they formed themselves into harmonic shapes—Feline, Avian, Bovine, and Human—that dwelt then in peace.

Erets was wondrous and alluring beyond compare, with every element upon it an intoxicant so varied and unique that few could not help but fall in love with the Dawn World, for they were to be as panoptic companions and guides to its sentient and sapient inhabitants and their interweaving components. And so it was that Erets surpassed even the infinite wonder they had previously known.

There is much that occurred in the early days of the tiny movers who dwelt upon the Dawn World in the Primary Dimension that does not come into this account, save that with the coming of the younger race, the final song was nearing its conclusion. And from the discordant notes and the terrible shade that it cast would come the long war that is now known in all lands across the shimmering universe, that most ancient of wars between the Darkness and the Light, between the predatorbeasts of Bogan and the protector-beasts of Ashla, the war that first crashed like foaming seas on barren plains to engulf the tiny movers of Erets… amongst whom it still rages, though not for all time.

The Celestials did all they could to provide succor for the innocent, all the while grieving the ruination that had been wrought, for their original purpose had been thwarted, and though restoration was prepared, it was known to be far into the future. A host of the powerful would continue to fight and stake claim as stewards to various peoples and places, but there were those who could not long withstand the wicked cruelty, violence, and betrayal that spilled in waves of darkness across the cosmic and tellurian battlefields.

For these latter ones, leave was given to prepare Seed Pods that would make up new dimensions, Cosmic Eggs from which they might birth anew the phenomenal phantasies of their minds, and they considered the terrestrial, tropospheric, subterranean, and aquatic shapes they might devise. But they were not yet to cast any shape nor harvest the four Seed Pods until the Great Song was ended. Furthermore, they were warned aforetime that the Shadow would find its way into all realms and times.

Departing the war-torn Dawn World, now thrust into the cycle of chilling winter’s death and spring’s tenacious rebirth, the Celestials went forth to devise realms of their imagination. For the four Celestials of the Osiarch who would bring forth the Cosmos, it was a long period of fertile progeneration, for although different in form and function from the Dawn World, they wished Skyriver to have a similarity of strength. Others were not as cautious or meticulous in their crafting, seeking a quick escape in which only a casual edifice with chimerical adornments would do, but these would be subject to an equally rapid relinquishment, dissolution, or destruction when the Enemy came or when ennui and indifference took hold.

The Cosmic Eggs of the Osiarch had been secured inside a Foundation Stone placed at the center of their vast expanse, known then only as the Cosmos. Now with the final notes of the Great Song, the Foundation Stone triggered the incubation and hatching of the Seed Pods as they burst open with hundreds of thousands of smaller seeds containing the elements that dispersed and formed into a new type of realm— one of many earths and satellites and suns.

Out of the sun-seeds came the Starbirds, called also Firebirds and Sun Dragons, what had been known as the Phoenix on Erets; they were the beloved wild beings of?the Supreme Master who were called forth to light up the void. A myriad of myriads in dazzling patterns swarmed out of the proto-galactic epicenter to bring boundless incandescence, warmth, and growth for the innumerable germinating suns that came to swirl around them. Out of the earth-seeds came their dancing counterparts, the Firedrakes, to inhabit the cores of the many-hued, polychromatic planets and some of their otherworldly satellites—inner-light bonding with the cynosure of outer-light— generating and incubating the seeds that brought forth and cherished life.7

As the Fire Elementals, or Pyrdrakons, took their place, so too came their companions, the Water Elementals, or Hydresians; the Earth Elementals, or Ersetians; and the Air Elementals, or Ruakians; all taking on what wondrous forms they would, occupied in perfect harmony with one another and the Whills. Rarely encountered even in the Earliest Days, Elementals were regarded as the Spirit of the Planet.

Their work complete, the original Seed Pods hardened into golden, planet-sized crystals that now orbit within the Colonies and are today known as the Aur Diamonds, while the Foundation Stone itself was split into two parts. The larger grew into a Sacred World that remained at the heart of the galaxy as a wellspring of life, and there it would be hidden and safeguarded; the smaller shrunk and was kept secret on a nondescript red planet.

The four Osiarch then placed in key positions the four Quantum Machines, biocosmic devices of great power that served as an overlapping tessellation to hold together the fabric of reality for the Cosmos, a step that Celestials of other vast realms failed to do. Sunnesine or the Sunshine Machine was secured on Tropicant; it fueled the suns, which symbiotically feed the Sun Dragons, who in turn nourish the suns; Orbitae or the Orbit Machine, in the Spinstones, helps maintain the alignment and stable orbits of the stars, planets, and moons; Quantum Satis or the Quantum Pump, on Magmar, filled the galaxy with aether and particulate matter, luminiferous ether being the medium for the propagation of light, electromagnetic, and gravitational forces; the Fāta Māchina or the Fate Machine, on Samarra in the Deep Core, opened the passage for the numinous flow of microscopic organelles, those misunderstood communicants known as Midichlorians, enabling life to flourish in harmonious affinity with their symbionts, the Whills, with whom they danced in rapture the complex movement of love, spreading out from the epicenter as living flames of the Imperishable Fire to continually find purchase in all that had life! And so, life would always have a connection to its Lifegiver and each other, into every living form they found purchase, drawn to those with greater gifts in greater need of their voices.

Though the Fate Machine was later sabotaged by its guardians, allowing access to the Anti-Force by its agents, by then the Cosmos was long established, and so it was relocated to Isorropía.8

The four Osiarch and three of the Valdilar also prepared the seven dwarf galaxies as companions to the mighty Cosmos. Their names are forgotten and are known now only by their modern designations, but in ancient times they were called:

Jinnorseel, or “Doorways;” it is known as the Rishi Maze and Companion Aurek.

P?rgrothiá, translated as “Firefist;” this was later designated Companion Besh.

Yammsara, the “Sea of Sustenance.” Later it became Yammsoro, the “Sea of Atonement.” It is now known as Companion Cresh.

Aelios, translated as “Dawnrider;” now it is called Companion Dorn.

Massula, translated as “Guardian,” is now known as Companion Esk.

Amhranair, translated as the “Single Song,” is now Companion Forn.

Mystērii, translated as the “Unknown,” is now called Companion Grek.9

At last, the Osiarch had a vast universe of their own. Lluxos was Chief amongst the Osiarch of that realm. He was called in their tongue Earth-worker, for the organisms he shaped were an encomium to the fauna and flora they’d adored in the Plane of Erets so long ago, and there was no end to the derivations they could fashion from them. Besides Lluxos were Marutz, Xurz, and Wutzek. These appeared as glowing conglomerations of pastel sapphirine and silvery globes, winged, and with the faces of birds, beasts, and men.

Together, they christened their realm Sam?naru, or “Skyriver,” as it is now known, and were joined by other Celestials called the Valdilar to aid in bringing forth the lifeforms that would populate it.

Circean in intrigue, diverting, and wondrous were the forms they created, the marvelous protista, the peculiar monera, the alluring and myriad flora, the remarkable spongia and minerale; but it was perhaps the multitude of fauna that offered the greatest and most fervent of Sybaritic joys. So intrigued were the Celestials by these that they would later shape sapients just like them, bringing forth new races that resembled those lifeforms large and small that now populated the lands and the seas above and below with numerous and variant concordances based upon the neoteric protoplast of the races of Erets. Once complete, the remaining Valdilar settled the Sacred Worlds. Soon they would manifest as guides and caretakers in forms both luminous and incarnate.

The time had come to prepare the Firstborn, who would serve as champions and guides for their own offspring, the lifeforms they would bring into being. Many were the enigmatic and Force-endowed gifts bestowed upon the First Ones of the Celestials; they ranged from the power to create marvels of archaean form, to shaping matter with hands and minds, to aggregating elements for the building of worlds. All were designed in love as beings of grace, for they were to one day take the place of the Celestials, who it was said would not always remain, for they would one day be recalled to the Dawn World and its ancient stars, destined for unknown tasks.

7 Firedrakes, also known as Fireworms and Lava Dragons, are often discovered after they’ve gone mad or foolishly been disturbed.

8 Though oft-mocked by modern scientists as being based on a flawed understanding of celestial movements, the Shawken Device appears to have been constructed to disrupt the workings of the Orbitae, inverting its energy to cause systems to repel rather than adhere.

9 The first of the satellite galaxies was appropriately named as the gateway to the dwarf galaxies, and is cognate to Jinnaru, the first month of the galactic year, represented by the Guardian of the Gate.