Legends of Terranis

In the beginning, there was nothing. Or at least, that is the general consensus amongst many wizards and scholars of ancient history. There are of course others who believe that “nothing,” cannot exist, and there had to be something. These scholars of course propose that the universe exists in a perpetual cycle of life and death, and that this universe will also one day come to an end. Wizards well versed in chrono-scrying have never been successful in seeing what was before, lending creedence to the “nothingness” theory.

What has been seen, however, is the unequivocal beginning of the universe as we know it. It began, it seems, with an explosion. No, not like that of a wizard’s fireball, or a keg of dwarven black powder that got too close to a flame, but one of such scale and magnitude that it reached all corners of existence, scattering dust and energy particles all across the cosmos. For how long the universe remained in this state is unknown, chrono-scrying is difficult to maintain for long periods of time when attempting to look that far back. What is known, however, is that at some point, some of this scattered energy coalesced into individual forms of consciousness, which one day became the first gods…

The being was awake.

At least, that was the best way to describe its state of existence, for it had no body, nor senses of any kind to determine where, or what, it was. All it knew was that it was aware. Aware of its own existence. But what was existence? It wondered without words, for it knew none.

Without the concept of time, the being had no way of knowing how long it had been since it first became aware, but it was beginning to feel something about its situation. It could not describe the feeling, but it was unpleasant.

The being would one day know that sensation to be “boredom,” which lead to another sensation: frustration. It was frustrated at its own existence. Was this it? Surely there must be more, why would it exist if there was nothing else? It began to reach out, using its mind to search for…anything.

Finally, it found something. Physical feeling. That of its own formless body. And with that discovery, it also found that it occupied a space. With excitement, the being quickly began to send out more mental signals, taking in as much information about its surroundings as it could. It learned that this space which it occupied was vast. And there was far more in it than the being could currently see. Within this space, the being found something else. Not similar to itself, no this was different. Solid. Many solid things in fact, simply floating in place.

Curious, the being realized that it wanted to be closer to these things. But how? It had never moved from its spot, and had no way of knowing how to change its position. It fought hard, trying everything it could for what seemed like an eternity, until, much to its own surprise, it was there. Without knowing fully how it had achieved it, the being had moved itself next to the floating objects.

Overjoyed, the being momentarily abandoned its quest for the objects in favour of practicing its newly discovered ability. Moving to and from the objects became easier and easier with practice. Finally satisfied that it would not forget how to move again, the being at last returned its attention to the objects. It mentally poked and prodded them, feeling their textures, their mass, how they moved all around each other. It realized something: it was now sensing the objects with a new form of sense. Sight? The being could see these objects for the first time, every lump, every crevice. It was incredible.

Entranced by the objects, the being barely registered at first when it reached out and touched one. Not with its mind, but with a…hand?

The being recoiled at first. What had it done? How had it reached out with its own body to touch the object? Now more curious than ever, it again reached out to touch the object, this time, grasping it firmly. The new sensation was incredible. Touch! Feeling! How wonderful this all was! The being found it could move the object that it was holding all around, irrespective of its own body’s position in space.

The being was so enthralled by these new sensations that it did not notice its own grasp growing tighter around the object, until the object crumbled under the pressure.

Horrified, the being quickly reached out with more hands, trying desperately to put the object back together in its original form. As it held all the pieces together, it concentrated hard on remembering what the object had looked like only moments before. The being began to notice a new sensation, a tingling, pleasant feeling emanating from the smaller objects. The objects began to glow, faintly at first, but as the tingling sensation grew stronger, so too did the glow grow brighter. When the tingling and the glowing reached what the being believed to be their apex, it released them, and the tingling stopped. Slowly the glowing light died down, and what remained was a new object. Similar in size and shape to the original, but different. Intrigued by this new ability, the being went to work, fusing the objects together to form a much larger mass.

Proud of its new handiwork, the being sought out more objects to fuse together, moving across the cosmos, turning aimless small objects into larger, more ordered, beautiful ones.

As it gazed upon its creations, the being suddenly became aware of something else that had appeared. A faint, twinkling light, far off in the distance. Entranced, the being sped off toward the light, and as it grew closer, the light grew larger. Much larger. The being realized that this light was immense compared to anything it had ever created, and from it emanated that same pleasant tingling sensation. The being simply stared at it, mesmerized by its radiant glory.

Then it sensed something else. The being became aware of another presence, one like itself. Terrified, it turned its attention to this new arrival. It too glowed with a radiant energy, and the being felt its fear simply melt away. It knew that it could trust the other one.

The two beings stared long at each other, both taking in as much information about the other as they could. Neither one made any moves for the longest time, as neither one knew how to proceed. Then suddenly, the radiant one extended a hand forward, and the being, hesitant at first, extended its own hand, and touched the other.

Information exploded into its mind. It learned that the other had experienced existence in much the same manner, but that, instead of being drawn to the larger floating objects, it had been intrigued by the much smaller particles, forcing them together until they formed the immense balls of bright, tingling energy that were now scattered as equally as the beings own creations.

In turn, the being shared with the radiant one its own experience, and the two agreed upon a common alignment. But they wished for more. They wanted an easier form of communication, as they could only connect upon achieving physical contact. They struggled with their senses, many still unknown to them, until at long last, the being spoke through its thoughts:

“Hello” it called out to the radiant one. A pleasant feeling poured out from the radiant one, as it returned the greeting.

“Hello” it replied. Then it continued “I…am…Alvendarr.”

Without truly understanding what it meant, nor thinking of its reply, the first being spoke in kind

“I…am…Vallahaatu.”