In the beginning, there was nothing. Just an endless void as far as the eye, my eye, could see. And honestly, that was quite far. Not that there was anyone else to see it, at least as far as I could tell. And frankly, if anyone else was out there, hiding in that vast darkness... well that'd be quite silly!
All that seemed to exist the moment I sprang into being was indescribably vast darkness. Literally, everything... or maybe the only thing, that seemed to exist was a vast, awe-inspiring slate of blackness. At least as far as I knew that was the only thing that existed. I definitely couldn't see anything else, anyway. Not one person, animal, spirit, or extraplanar made themselves known to me.
I sprang into being knowing those words. Or did I gain consciousness knowing them? Knowing these words. Many of the words I knew made sense to me.
Words like "I" and "me" made the most sense. And other words, ones like "void" and "darkness" also made sense. Heck, I even knew about words like "alone" and "others"!
Some words though... well if I'm being completely honest, and I had no reason to lie to myself, they didn't make sense. Words like "person", "animal", "spirit", and "extraplanar" didn't make sense to me.
Those were... strange words.
I knew them, that they expressed concepts that had some sort of meaning, but their meanings escaped me. I began to think about them. And when I did, time began to pass. Or at least... it felt like time began to pass.
I spent a long time thinking about the words I didn't really understand. And at some point, I even began to wonder if words existed that I not only didn't understand but didn't even know! Now that was a humbling thought.
Nothing changed though. And of all of the bad stuff about being in a slate of darkness where you're alone with your thoughts, that's perhaps the worst thing of all. Nothing changes in a void of endless darkness.
Eventually, I got tired of it. I began to ask myself questions. Real questions, not just ones about words. Questions that made me think harder than any confusing word had made me think. Will anything ever change? Should anything ever change?
I was afraid that maybe nothing would. That I would be stuck in this... terrifyingly vast darkness, forever.
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I don't know how long I was thinking about questions. It felt like a long time, but I had no way of knowing for sure. But eventually, something changed. And the thing that changed was the darkness before me.
There was no warning when it happened. The void went from being indescribably vast and terrifyingly dark to being different. All of a sudden there were words in the darkness. Words that I understood. That I could read.
And there were very nice words.
[Hello little one!] The words read, emblazoned in the void in shimmering white stars. And there were so many words even in that last sentence that I had an instinctual, perhaps contextual understanding of, but whose precise meaning escaped me.
And then again, perhaps instantly, they changed. They now read something else.
[Can you hear me?] The words in the void asked. And you know what? I couldn't hear them. I could read them. But I couldn't hear them. And the instant I noticed that there was another change.
[Oh shoot! Sorry. Let me try something...] The words in the void now read. And it was perhaps a second later, at least relative to my understanding of time, that I heard something.
"Hello young god!" Said an indescribably vast voice. The voice was warm and filled with kindly energy. It was a friendly voice. One that instinctively made me want to trust it.
"Oh, that's so nice of you to say. Are you going to be a god of kindness and sweetness, you cute little thing, you?" The voice asked, gently and softly. I took my time listening to the voice, replaying what it just said in my mind and sorting through the words. One of them stuck out to me.
The voice asked if I was going to be a "god". What is a god? I... don't know, but that word feels familiar. I like it.
"A god is what you are, little one. Gods were entities of creation and destruction. They were power incarnate. They created entire universes, and were worshipped by thousands, to even quintillions of beings across the multiverse!" The voice explained, leaving me with so many questions.
I wasn't oblivious to the fact that despite the voice's glowing and very vague description of gods it kept referring to them in the past tense. That was... concerning, to say the least.
"Oh hey... are you actually observant? Weird. Cool, but weird. That said, we should get started. We don't want to keep you here for any longer than necessary. And you've already been here for so long, we're sure you're inching to get out into the multiverse and begin to acquire worshippers." The voice told me, promising so much more intrigue, but also giving me extremely little information.
"Nevermind your need for information little god. We've got a process to get through. Your answers will come soon enough, just trust us." The voice told me.
I wasn't sure I could trust the voice. But since we're being honest, I didn't think I had a choice.
"You don't. Now... what's your name? We can tell given your curiosity you're probably gonna think something like 'Name? What's a name?', so we'll tell you right now. A name is what others call you. Your name is gonna be one of the next things to appear. It'll look to you just like our first words did." Said the voice, confidently and more than a bit disparagingly.
But sure enough, something below their words did appear in the void. A word in "brackets".
[Althos]
Althos. Something about the word felt... right. It felt good to see it in the void, like the words of the voice but more... me.
"Althos? Hmm... that's a curious name. We've never heard of it before. But hey, that's one question down. Only... several more to go." Said the once kindly voice.
"'Once kindly'... Oh Althos, the truth is so much more complicated than you know, you youthful little god." Whispered the strange voice condescendingly.
"We're tired of you calling us 'the voice'. We're the system. We are the creation of an ancient god, a member of the same species as you, who wanted to categorize and quantify things like domains, subdomains, classes, and more." Lectured the entity that was apparently some sort of "system".
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"Hey, now you're getting it! Yes. That's us. The system. Anyways, let's move right along. When we ask you things you're gonna see more words in brackets. By now you've no doubt noticed, at least subconsciously, that we can read your mind. Which is how this conversation is a two-way one. We just need you to repeat the words you see in the brackets, in your mind okay?" Asked the system.
I wondered if more changes were going to happen anytime soon. This idle thought provoked a strange peal of laughter from the odd voice, the first sound it made that didn't cause new words to appear in the void. The laughter lasted for a few seconds before new words appeared in that eerie darkness.
"Yes Althos, more changes are going to happen anytime soon. Now please cooperate. What is your alignment?" The system asked, curiosity noticeably tinging its voice.
[Chaotic neutral.]
Chaotic neutral. Hmm... I wonder what that means.?
"Chaotic neutral? Yeah... you strike us as a chaotic neutral sort. It'll be quite interesting to see you strike out on your own, in the multiverse." The system said, cryptically.
For a second my curiosity was higher than ever, but the system ignored me and kept talking even as I was thinking.
"Now we're gonna ask you about domains and subdomains. We've now officially hit the part in every god's life called the 'tutorial'. It'll last longer than you think. Are you ready to learn?" When the system was finished speaking this time there was an edge of sarcasm in its voice, as if it knew that I was ready to learn.
But for the sake of fairness, and though a part of me was loathe to admit it... I was ready to learn. I couldn't keep it from myself, which meant I probably couldn't keep it from the system.
"That's the spirit! You need to understand that gods are not all that exist. You have some knowledge in your mind of other types of beings already, and that knowledge will come to you, to your consciousness, as you meet other sorts of beings. What you need to know right now is that gods are far stronger than other types of beings." The system taught me, apparently trying to prepare me for some future.
"We're gonna ignore that and just be forthright with you. So please listen to us right now. It's actually very important." The seriousness in the tone of the system's voice made me listen, and if I could have I would have inched closer to it to better be able to hear whatever it was about to say next.
"Gods haven't existed in a very long time. And neither have other... we'll call them 'higher beings'. We have no idea how you exist, just that you do and that you are a god. It is our purpose to help gods, and you are the last one. The last higher being. That may not mean anything to you, but it means something to us. We're not trying to mock you, or be sassy. We want you to succeed." The voice told me, a remarkable level of solemness in its voice.
I was moved by what it said, but there was something I didn't understand. What does it mean for a god to succeed? Because all I want, after this incredibly confusing exchange is simple. I want to know things, and I want to have power.
"That's it. You hit the nail on the head, Althos. Gods in the old age wanted power. Some of them wanted knowledge, but they all wanted power. Do you know why you want power?" The system asked. There was a tone of excitement in its voice the whole time it was speaking.
Why do I want power?
I know why I want knowledge. I've spent... I don't even know how long pondering questions and words, and because of that I want to have the answers to any and questions and know any and all words. And even now I'm having a very confusing conversation. I don't like it. Having knowledge would prevent that. Or at least it would lessen my confusion.
But why do I want power? That's... harder.
I don't know. I'll just have to add that to the questions that knowledge would help me answer. Self-awareness is a type of knowledge right?
"Yes it is Althos. There are mortals alive today who don't seem to realize that." The system said, before laughing at its own joke.
"Now... I suppose we really should hurry this along. This prologue is getting too long. We don't have many questions left. It's bracket time. What are your neutral, natural domains?" The voice asked. And once more, just as it predicted, brackets lit up the void.
[Althos' domains: Knowledge, Chaos, Nature]
Knowledge. Chaos. Nature. Those words... I could sense how they resonated with me, in my soul. I wasn't sure how though.
"Knowledge. Chaos. Nature. I guess that explains the void." The system said, breathing a strange sigh at the end of its strange statement.
"Okay, since you're chaotic neutral... what about the vice and virtue under your control?" The system asked me, almost immediately after sighing. And again, brackets cut up the otherwise infinite void. Though this time there were two instead of just one, which was an intriguing change.
[Vice: Lust]
[Virtue: Patience]
Lust and patience. Patience and lust. What an intriguing combination. Does that mean that I'm those things?
"No. Well... not by definition. As a chaotic neutral god, you immediately spring into being possessing a 'tier of influence' over all of the things you're seeing right now. For the sake of this making sense, we'll go ahead and tell you a bit about these things. Especially since you're a curious god." The system told me.
"Domains and subdomains are concepts that gods have control over and can influence. Domains are more generalized than subdomains are. Here's an example: since you came into being as a god of knowledge you will spring to life having a wide assortment of knowledge and can readily influence the knowledge of others. That said... if we tried to tell you much it'd be too much right now." Said the system, teasing me that there was more to this than it had just said.
"Gods have no limits on how many domains and subdomains they can influence. But it takes time, experience, and worshipers to gain influence over new domains. And to increase how much you can influence a domain or subdomain because just because you are a god of a domain doesn't automatically mean you can exert infinite control over that domain or subdomain." Continued the system.
I thought about that for a few moments, at least as far as I could tell, and found that it made sense. Or rather it made as much sense as anything else the system had told me.
"Good. Now what about your subdomains?" The thing asked me, diving right back into its mission.
[Althos' subdomains: Vermin, Earth, Agriculture]
Vermin, earth, and agriculture? What a strange combination.
"Those three? Hmm... There's never been a deity of vermin before. Weird. Especially in conjunction with earth and agriculture. That's potentially a cursed combination. So now it's our turn. All gods are born possessing several inborn domains in common. Now you'll be able to see them."
[Innate domains: Faith, Minds, Dreams, Civilization, Magic,]
Faith. Minds. Dreams, Civilization. Magic.
"Yep! We know that doesn't make any sense, but we promise we're nearly done. And when we're done you'll be able to open your eyes." The system told me, dropping a bombshell that it refused to give me time to process.
"What is your school of magic? Or possibly, if you're lucky, what are your schools of magic?" The thing asked me, speaking quickly now.
[Althos' school of magic: Healing]
Healing? Really? All of these things are starting to sound like I'm gonna be a... what's the word? It's on the tip of my mind...
"Never mind that! Healing is a good school of magic. We have a lot of respect for the healing school. Skyrim could... The multiverse could use more healers. Now, what is your class?" The system asked, shortly after making a rather nonsensical comment.
[Althos' class: Druid]
Druid! That's it. That's the word I was looking for earlier. Somehow I had instinctual, almost knowledge of it.
"Druid huh? Yeah, that checks out. You're gonna be a really weird god. A deity with powers over crops and ants. And mines and beetles." The system told me, teasing me. I didn't like it.
"Oh well. We're nearly done here. What are your wild traits? These are strange, often totally unique traits the gods possess." The system asked. There was a sense of finality about its tone just now. It was exciting.
[Althos' Wild Traits: Shapeless One, Breaker Of Curses, Omniglot, More Than Meets The Eye]
Shapeless One. Breaker Of Curses. Omniglot. More Than Meets The Eye. There was something... intimidating about those words when put together. Something that made me feel a bit nervous. And that was a feeling I didn't even know I could feel!
"Whoa... those traits are unlike anything I've ever seen. Althos..." For the first time ever the system's voice drifted off, confused and alarmed. There was audible fear in the voice that had been my sole companion. It took what felt like... a minute, for lack of a better word, to speak again.
"We don't know... We just don't know. But Althos, at last it's time for you to open your eyes. We're gonna go and do some research, but if you need us, if you have questions... when you have questions, just think about our voice. Our strange, mechanical, and friendly voice." The system told me.
I could almost hear something strange in that tone. Something like a smile. But I couldn't be sure. And then, at last, the system let me go into the world. It just had one more thing to say.
"Open your eyes."
And just like that, after an unknown amount of time in a void... I did.