(Setting) The Origin of the World

In the beginning of time, there were four almighty beings. Their names were Amaterasu, Menthu, Riojin, and Aolos. They poured all their power into making the planes. First they created heaven, then the abyss to compliment it. After those came the wilderness, and the underworld. The gods were running out of strength, so they decided to create one more plane, a combination of all the planes. It had the skies of heaven, the mountains of the abyss, the caves of the underworld and the forests of the wilderness. They called this plane Svalpana. The gods rested for 100,000 years, watching the plants grow, and fixing a mountain here and there. This was known as the first genesis. Next, the gods created creatures in their own image. Wolves, hawks, dragons, and minotaurs. This was hard, seeing as gods have awesome images. They required a suitable resting period of 500,000,000 years. This was the second genesis. When they were of full strength, they returned to looking at their collaborative creation and were astonished to find that the life they had created had changed, specialized, and evolved. From just four species had sprung millions of animals, ranging from rabbits to beholders. They were startled to realize that this evolution was possible, and decided to test how far it could go. They created seven single-celled organisms, and placed them in different planes and locations. The third genesis. It was a simple task for a god, so they began watching how the cells changed over time. They underwent many different changes, but sometimes the gods would find something in one of the creatures they liked, such as eyes, and hands, or the ability to walk on two feet, and nudge the rest in that direction. Eventually, assisted by the gods, those seven races became the dominant force of the world. Finally, a time came when one generation of all the races was absolutely perfect (according to the gods’ tastes, of course), and the gods picked one person from each of the races and made them a god as well. They were known as the lower gods, for they could not directly influence matter in the planes. They simply watched over their respective races, and if they saw a cause worth fighting for, they would fly down from heaven or the abyss, their homes. And when the races’ technology reached a certain point, the gods saw fit to stunt it indefinitely. This period was, and is, and forever will be called the Renaissance. And that is the story of everything.