Part the First - Creation

In the beginning, there was not simply darkness... there was Void. It was a force of nothingness, the reason that existence remained void of life, sterile... and ordered. Void was matched in power by a being known by many names, most notably 'Trickster' in the creation myth. Where Void was a creature of cold, logical absolutes... Trickster's creations were the product of random inspiration and, some would say, madness. Eventually, Trickster did something that Void could not... Trickster created life. The events that followed were inevitable... Void's nature could not allow this to exist... yet it had no power over life, much less to prevent it. Void began by attempting to order the infinitely varied spawn of Trickster... having this type hunt that type... having these ones favour this area and those ones favour another. It was a gruelling task, but Void was resolute as it was methodical in this work... soon all living beings had a place, a role to play in the workings of the universe. Trickster was less than pleased that Void had perverted his vibrant wonders. In an act of spite... the creator of life brought about something so fickle and chaotic that it could not be controlled or categorised by Void... man. Here on Mundus, the planet at the center of all creation, was a creature so unsure of what it was... so different within itself... so ever changing... that Void could not stand to be near it, his very power paled in the face of this abomination.

In a bid to save itself from what it saw as failure, Void amassed all of his power and brought consciousness into being... in the form of his own servants, Angels. These were not sentient beings, like those of Trickster, but rather mindless drones meant to do the will of Void. The intention was that these beings would speak to humanity and teach them the way of order... and how to live. Hearing the ethereal voices, Trickster again grew fierce. This time, it did not create... this time, Trickster corrupted the Angels... cursing them with the gift of free thought. Some became lesser than man, hedonistic and ever-hungry for more, while others remained loyal to Void and remained on Mundus in a bid to maintain order. This sparked a war, factions of men bowing to Angels and Fallen alike... a war Void could not resolve. Having watched everything it had brought into being twisted and destroyed, Void decided that there could be no order in this plane... by rule of its own logic, it no longer had a place in existence... and so Void was no more. Trickster is said to have grown weary of the constant conflict between those who cling to order and those he turned to his own chaos... and so moved on to greater deeds in other the other planes... though his influence is still felt.

Over time the tribes of those following both the Angels still loyal to Void's vision and the self-proclaimed 'Demons' evolved into larger settlements and, as populations swelled, fully fledged cities. At least the Demons had 'cities'. The dominion of the Angels was limited to one superstructure, a monolithic tower that could only be the product of tireless obedience and years of labour. It was a completely utilitarian marvel, designed to shelter the remnants of order in a world subject to chaos. The Demon's opted instead to create many settlements, each one taking a multitude of humans to rule over. Rule over, in this case, meaning to encourage the naturally creative and chaotic minds of humanity. These vast megacities, each one leagues different from the next yet still a marvel to behold, also flourished under the mad genius of the artists, musicians and architects living within. It was in one of these cities, under the eyes of a Demon, that I was born.