Tome of Ancient Aeons

Tales of the Primordial Age: Part II

Curious about the far horizons and frontiers deep in the nothingness of the cosmos, Sul'zhagul set on a long journey towards the unfamiliar shadows. Sailing in distant, horrible spaces, he realized that the gleam of the Ilisarin was fading away; the spellthreads turning into slight flashes, becoming corrupted and wicked rivers which intertwined and conjoined according to their own laws, forming an unpredicted region. 

A realm so corrupted and evil, too complicated for the small mortal mind to comprehend, a domain of unique, malignant beings of great power wrapped in chaos and energies too terrible to imagine. There was not much known about these distant things for none had truly seen their form or encountered them in the later ages, but the titan manuscripts speak of their might, capable of plunging through the realms, corrupting and destroying entire worlds and planes of existence. The touch of these malignant energies only reawakened the hidden flame in the core of the Darkness himself. He became so dark, returning to his primordial shadow, that even the love for Anaya was unable to prevent it.

Having his infinite power of divinity, Sul'zhagul conquered this dark realm he called the Void and declared himself ruler over them. For the next thousand years, he summoned and bred a legion of horrid beings, twisting and manipulating them into mutated creatures more powerful and more cruel than ever before. During his dwelling in this unholy realm, dark thoughts consumed his essence once again, only to remind him the true nature and purpose of the eternal shadow. He believed that the cosmos had strayed too far from the path of perfection. It needed to be purged, destroyed to the very core in order to be reborn stronger.

On the other hand, Anaya stayed back with her thirty-four children, shaping and bending the spellthreads of the Ilisarin to create the Cyan Nightfall - a second plane of existence, vast and ever-shaping dimension which defied the perceptions of reality and laws of the universe. The threads of time and space had no effect on this realm and it flowed by its own rules, fueled by the Ilisarin; laws that even Anaya could not predict or direct. It was the Cyan Nightfall that served as an underlying blueprint for the birth of the worlds as the races would come to know in the later aeons.

Anaya was unable to predict the doom which emerged in the far depths of the unknown expanse. And Sul'zhagul used this opportunity to lead his armies of horrid creatures against the light of Anaya and his thirty-four children. It led to a devastating war for millions of years, causing destruction of numerous worlds across the dark space. Countless stars were silent shut, planets were ravaged and torn like fragile glass, leaving only havoc and destruction in the wake of the war. But, while the unholy fiends rampaged in the known universe, Sul'zhagul remained in the Void, observing the celestial battle from far away, untouched by it in the distance.

Despite his will, Anaya still longed to create, to freely give the universe anything that there was to offer. The empty worlds were shaped a long time ago, but the emptiness tore her heart and soul. Life was needed, a spark of something that would change the face of everything. And life was the most beautiful thing she had ever imagined. But, in order to create life, a great sacrifice had to be made. And Anaya, the great light, made her choice. And everything changed. She severed a half of her eternal soul, the very essence of divinity, a half of the divine spark and sprouted life across the universe. Even Sul'zhagul saw the wake of the outburst, but he did not know the cost of it. Nor he did understand it.

The first animals, plants and birds were born, the first fish and mammals. Conjoined with the flow of spellthreads and the magic of the Ilisarin, the life forms began taking shapes and images by their own rules, first being thousands, later millions and continually growing until life became so diverse and flourishing across everything there was. Broken and tired, Anaya believed that this gift was not the greatest one she could offer. She asked her children, the thirty-four gods to aid her thought, carefully weave the spellthreads of magic to give free-will - which was too hard for even a primordial entity. It was then that the first sentient species began to blossom.