Nothingness, endless nothingness as far as the eye could see and beyond what the mind could imagine. The never ending darkness of nothingness. That was all the being in between knew, they had lived for eternities here in their realm of emptiness. They were devoid of thought and purpose, lying in wait for something to disturb their existence. Their mind neither bored nor exited, sad or happy and not calm or angry.

They like the realm they inhabited were empty.

Then there was.

A hole in the emptiness, filling it’s surroundings in a mass of energy, time and space. But more importantly than that, purpose and potential. The being in between shifted for the first time in it’s long existence, it reached out to the hole and began molding. It shifted the raw existential potential from its primal state and with natural ease started organizing it.

First came the shapes, the squares and triangles at first, but then the being grew creative and expanded upon them. Shapes beyond the understanding of the mortal mind filled the emptiness around the hole. Penrose triangles and spheres made of folded squares galore.

And in this madness the being in between grew bored, it had made all of the possible and most of the impossible shapes. So it changed the laws of reality, the potential flowing out of the hole no longer formless but taking the shape of ever changing shapes.

The being was satisfied as it watched the endless shapes start to grow from the hole, forming an endless jungle of mind breaking geometry.

As it watched it’s creation it decides it would keep it, forever a monument to the beginning of it’s existence. it would be the Abyss.

As the being in between continued watching its creation it realized something, some of the Abyss had gained consciousness. Primal as it was in its ability to control the potential these new beings were restricted to the simpler dimensions.

With such restrictions came the beings realization that these beings were not as immune to death at it. in fact they were outright fragile.

This discovery lead to the beings next project, it would make a new layer to its realm where these beings could exist.

It once again shifted the potential, this time to change the outer layers of the Abyss. This new layer was more controlled, there were less impossible shapes and there was now even colour. It slowed down the expansion of the Abyss and changed the potential so that the edges would always shift into the rules of the new layer.

And final to finish of the layer the being created a weak shield around the Abyss, a threshold that only living entities could cross. The final touche made it observed its new creation, it named it the Void.

The entities born in the Abyss were slow to notice their new sanctuary, but once they entered it they were ecstatic, at least those with minds complex enough for emotion. They wandered their new layer in wonder while their ever changing bodies adapted to fit their environment.

Some of them grew slower, some gained more control over the potential, some grew more corporeal, some lots all tangibility and nearly all of them gained some sort of coloration.

The being watched once more in wonder at the beauty, before more beings were born. These beings were native to the Void and far less powerful than those before them, but what the lacked in ability they made up for it variety.

While those born in the Abyss tended towards coulourless blobs of madness that warped the potential around them. These new entities were coolourfull, wild and most of all they were limited. Unlike their predecessors most of their forms were corporeal.

Once again this fascinated the being as they observed the beings of the Void interact. It wanted more of these limited creatures, so it started on its next layer.

It took the edges of the Void and altered them to be more like the interesting beings he had seen, this created an almost shell like structure around the Void made from thousands of solidified platforms. But this layer was boring the being realized, the beings of the Void did not travel there as it restricted them and since they had solidified the potential enough it didn’t spontaneously spawn creatures anymore.

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This new layer was a disappointment, the being was about to remove it to start again when it realized it could just create the beings themselves! They didn’t need to rely on chance.

This new change was instantly put in motion as the being drew from the consciousnesses of the dead beings (or souls) from the lower layers as fuel. As they watched they saw the first being crawl their way out of the ground, this one was fully material and looked like an some sort of tentacled horror.

Watching the births of it’s newest creation the being was once more pleased with it’s work. The new life being born followed a few rules that the previous ones did not. Most interestingly when they were born from fragments of beings of a being of the Void their body was made in their image, this meant that there were now fractured into hundreds of new races.

But even more interesting was that when the souls of those born in the Abyss were drawn as fuel their soles were powerful enough to resist being used up, constantly healing and growing to try and survive the pull.

And in these locations the creations of these new races was permanent, resulting in vast groups of these beings living on the same area of the fractured layer. Or the Rift as the being named it. these patches or spawn points also changed the environment to be similar to be similar to the nature of the Abyssal creature it was made from.

The being saw endless fields of fire and spires of ice forming on the Rift, With this change it added another in turn. the potential that escaped through the previous layers, minimal as it was, was caught in the beings net and slowly started slowly growing more layers of “shells” where the same rules apply as in the first Rift.

When enough time had passed that nine levels had formed, the being was once again satisfied and changed the growing aspect to regenerating in case some of the stronger Abyssal Beings tried anything.

The being in between truly enjoyed watching it’s creations live, it had gained quite a fascination with the Rifters though, their corporeal bodies allowing them the freedom to do anything from eating to build tools as the most intelligent races had started doing. they had even formed some tribes. though they didn’t tend to last that long.

Now that it had completed it’s third creation it needed inspiration for another, something more limited and more fantastic! But first it was time for something long overdue, it’s name no longer reflected upon itself. The Being in Between he was not for he was more than a simple being and it was not in between something either.

So it’s new identity would be The Creator among Layers, for that is what it is.

To create something new the Creator began thinking, it was not creative it knew how to do but not what. How could it gain more knowledge to draw from.

In it’s mind it simulated what would have happened had it not intervened with the potential, what would have happened had it done things differently, fragments of its consciousness going back in time as well as far out into the nothingness to seek inspiration.

And eventually it found its inspiration, far away, outside of the nothingness and in another Creators realm(who agreed to let it have the inspiration) there was as the natives called it a planet. And on this planet there were millions of species each and every one unique in their own way.

It kept the planet in a bubble of frozen time so the creatures on it wouldn’t die from age.

It taught the Creator many things, measurements of time, length, temperature, as well as concepts far beyond it’s original mind like loyalty and compassion. And last but not least, imagination, the beings of this planet had new ideas all the time! whenever it was in need of ideas in the future it could simply search them for answers.

It was called Earth…

And it’s next layer would be modeled after this planet. It began by forming the ground, a thick shell around the ninth level of the Rift half the width of the previous layer began to grow. filled with minerals and caverns the new layer soon looked like a gigantic desolate moon.

Next was the sun, though misleading in name since the creator had no love for the giant balls of fire, instead it commanded the outermost layer of potential to form a film around the realm that would light up for twelve hours before going dark for the same amount of time.

Next it transformed more of the potential into gravity, allowing the new natural law fall into place. The Rifters were initially uncomfortable with the pressure but would learn to adapt in time.

For the Earthly races to survive it though it would need to adjust it a bit… after a few different combinations it decided to just redirect it further out into its realm, so that the farther you got from the center the higher the pull would be. This would also stop them from trying to leave it’s realm as easily as the could have left their previous home.

And lastly was the atmosphere, the creator once again transformed the potential into gaseous substances and large patches of clouds who’s rain would form the oceans. However with the remnant energies from the dead Abyssal’s in the Rift the environment above the major spawn points would be predetermined.

Already it could see a few deserts, glaciers and mountains forming.

It would be called the Orsus, the fourth layer of many more to come.

The final step was here, and the creator slowly added the creatures native to the earth. First the micro organisms, the algae and the single cells life. Then after leasing them settle for a few years of human time it added the larger plants, once again giving them a few years of adaption time before moving on.

Next was the criers, the insects and pest. Followed quickly by larger animals to keep their populations to reasonable amounts after some of them grew to populous. after that there were the herbivores. For whom a grace period of almost a century was allowed before the predators were introduced.

The creator watched on in fascination as the creatures grew and adapted to their new environment. But there was one creature left, the Humans. they were the creatures that were responsible for most of it’s new knowledge. So it wanted to do something special.

Searching through the minds of all humans it found something appropriate, magic. Many dreamed of it, more wished for it, and then there were those who prayed for it. Though they called it blessings in the last instance…

It began with creating another film/shell, this one located right around the hole from which the potential came. This one had a very simple job, it would simplify some of the potential to allow the humans, as well as any other species, to use magic.

Finlay after introducing magic to the world and waiting a few centuries before it could make it to the surface, it introduced the humans. But not before connecting itself to them, forming a link that would allow it to see them on a deeper level but also for them to learn faster and give it more ideas.

It also connected a simpler connection to the other species of Earthlings, but until they gained sapience it would be pretty limited, it had no need for the inner thoughts of a dog. There were though several species on the cusp of sapience, so a push in the right direction meant more ideas in the future.

As it shifted its body to observe the now understandably panicking and naked Humans… should it have let them keep their clothes? Observing the Humans gathering together and once again forming their societies it relaxed and enjoyed the show.

The next layer was going to be very interesting…