A God in a Xianxia world

Chapter 1 - Godhood

This is a story about Tom. Who is Tom you ask. Tom is a God. He is also extremely bored. To understand his boredom you first need to understand a little about Godhood, the Grand Cosmos and his position in it.

Although Tom is a God, not all Gods are created equal. You see, Tom, is a minor God. In the Grand Cosmos and the society of the Heavens, Gods have their own hierarchy and levels of power. These are broadly sorted into the categories of Ancient Ones, Old Gods, Full Gods, Minor Gods and Demigods.

Ancient Ones, which are fewest in number, are those that have existed since the beginning of the Grand Cosmos, and the beginning of known time for all those within it. However, as the Ancient Ones all came into being at the same time and none have openly spoken about their early years, it is theorised by the younger generations that the Grand Cosmos existed for an unknowable time beforehand and they were born from it as part of some natural phenomena. On the other hand, there are also those that theorise that there is a plane of existence beyond that of the Grand Cosmos, from which the Ancient Ones originally came from or, from which; the Grand Cosmos was originally created. However, as the Ancient Ones themselves have not spoken on this matter and the first Old God only came into being many myr after the Ancient Ones appeared, the society of the Heavens and the Great council of the Gods can only speculate about the matter.

Although the Ancient Ones are the undeniable powers of the Grand Cosmos, which none can thwart, they rarely appear within heavenly society or the Heavenly Plane where the society resides. Due to this, amongst all the Gods, the old Gods hold the most functional power within heavenly society, having created the council of Elders and later the Great council, which set the governing rules of the Grand Cosmos and Heavenly society. All of the Old Gods are those that ascended to Godhood from the first worlds and planes that the Ancient Ones created. Having been the first group of Gods to ascend from mortal living beings, as opposed to the Ancient Ones which merely came into being, they came together and formed the Heavenly society. Functionally, the Old Gods don't differ much from Full Gods, but, the advantage of being older granted them both seniority and a longer period of time to comprehend the Grand Cosmos, thus allowing themselves to become stronger.

Full Gods occupy a significant position in their separation from Old Gods and Minor Gods. Full Gods are separated from Old Gods by virtue of the fact that they ascended after the Old Gods formed the Heavenly society and the first council, now known as the council of Elders. Whereas Old Gods make up the council of Elders, Full Gods occupy the 1200 positions of the Great council, though not all Full Gods have a position on the council due to its size being limited. Full Gods are ascended from the first worlds and planes, the worlds of Old Gods or the worlds of other Full Gods. To date, no Full God has directly ascended into being a Full God from the worlds and planes of Minor Gods and Demigods. However, there are some beings that have ascended as Demigods or Minor Gods from the worlds of Minor Gods and then went on to become a Full God through their comprehension of the Grand Cosmos.

Finally, this brings us to Minor Gods, and to Tom. The difference between Minor Gods and those of higher rank is determined solely on one basis. This basis is the ability to create new life. Yes, Tom is a Minor God. He ascended to Godhood and after several millennia he has created his own planet. However, this planet is completely devoid of life. Right now Tom has two options. The first is to meditate on the profundity of the Grand Cosmos and attempt to reach the rank of a Full God, an arduous and longwinded task that could take days or aeons, though if the past few millennia told Tom anything it's that it would be closer to the latter than the former. The second is to ask another God to help him, preferably a Full God or higher as the most assistance Minor Gods could give is to transfer living beings from their worlds over. However, there is a great deal of complexity in creating a functional ecosystem on a planet and the sheer quantity of living organisms that would have to be transferred brought about both practical and ethical issues. What's more, this hardly allowed for any originality in the world. Tom didn't want his planet to be just another run of the mill world. He wanted to add some of his own originality and flare.

Tom whilst looking down on his world; came to from his inner ponderings, raised his head, sighed and softly said out loud 'I guess I'll have to do that then'.

Tom stretched his body, an unnecessary action for a God though excusable for one who was relatively newly ascended, opened up a portal and stepped through.