Before there were humans, before there was life, before there were planets, or stars, or even the universe itself:

There was nothing.

Well, nearly nothing.

There were gods. Lots of gods.

Some of them powerful, some of them weak. Some of them were good, and some were even evil.

There were human-like gods, animal gods, gods of the earth, gods of water, and gods of everything you could think of and of everything you couldn't think of. There were many gods.

For quite some time, nothing of interest happened.

But eventually, the gods did what gods are best known for: They created.

What did they create?

Universes, of course

Some gods had created multiple universes, some only created a single universe, and some worked together to create a single universe, sharing it between themselves.

There were universes. Lots of universes.

And each universe was given its own set of rules and laws, set down by the gods that had created them.

Some of the laws that we are familiar with were: the laws of thermodynamics, or Newton's laws, or the conservation of mass and energy.

Most other universes had similar rules, but sometimes there were small differences, like in one universe gravity might have been a little stronger, or the properties of certain elements were different, for example.

And sometimes there were big differences. For instance, some had entirely new fundamental forces, or some had different types of matter or energy, or even none at all. And some universes were constantly expanding ones, like ours, while some were not.

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Oftentimes universes had laws that contradicted the laws of other universes, but each universe was separate, so even if there were some conflicting rules, it did not matter, as the universes never came in contact with each other.

Then the gods filled the universes with matter, with energy, some even with magical matter or magical energy that behaved very differently from normal matter or energy.

Over time, most of the universes had began to form life in them.

Plants, animals, humans, insects, fungi, and all other sorts of life began to grow and evolve in the universes.

Some universes even had creatures like unicorns and dragons and elves and all variety of magical beings.

Some of those universes had their life guided by its gods, as if the life within had a set destiny or clear path, a 'fate' some would call it.

And some did not.

Over time, lots of universes had humans and human-like creatures in them, since there were lots of human and humanoid gods.

As time passed, the universes with humanoids began to form civilizations in them. Kingdoms and countries rose and fell. Wars were fought, revolutions took place, and lots of people died. At the same time, many lives had been saved: Demon kings and liches and super villains and tyrants and all sorts of baddies were defeated. (or weren't defeated, in some misfortunate universes)

Lives were lived, and history books grew long. The people in those universes had led varying lives; some were happy, some were not. Some died as kings, some died as peasants. There were heroes, villains, merchants, farmers, movie stars, adventurers and many more. All sorts of lives had been lived.

In some universes, the technology level of the humanoids had advanced a tremendous amount, and it's people began to explore the stars in their universe.

In others, technology never advanced much, and its inhabitants eventually died out, either due to their own doing, or due to some external force, like a giant asteroid crashing into their planet for example.

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But eventually, the gods became satisfied with themselves, as they had created universes, created life, and watched the life grow and evolve, learn and adapt, create and procreate, kill and eventually die, doing everything that life could possibly do, and even more.

And over time, a very long time, as each universe had its life slowly flicker out, the gods fell asleep, content with themselves, knowing that they had done what they had wanted to: create. And one by one, each universe became quiet, and dark. And each god began to sleep, never again to wake up, as they had all done everything they had wanted to do.

And a very, very, very long time went by like that.