Obviously the first commandment should be to not kill anyone... Wait, no, then what about self-defense scenarios? Or in cases where someone is about to kill a large amount of people and the only way to stop it is to kill?... So, the first commandment should be to not murder... Wait, no. Should I even make a list of things not to do? I mean, I want these commandments to be a moral statute. A guidepost for people to look at to know when they are doing something wrong. Teachings so that people would perhaps not fall into a life of crime. I can't list everything that's wrong or what could be wrong in the future. New technologies will be invented that will change societies forever which would just create a whole new list of wrong things to do...

The commandments that I create should be broad teachings that, if people try to follow them, would help people become the kind of person that doesn’t do the things that would have gone on the “do not” list. Already, I can see some feelings that cause contention and would lead people to do horrible things. Anger, pride, lust, and greed. Mostly in the humans... I haven’t even been able to speak to any of them yet. Mary is really close though...

I sighed, looking over my world. I’ve been sighing a lot lately. All these people to worry about. Oh, but what a wonderful thing, to have people to worry about! And what a new feeling! Worry. I’ve never worried before. To worry means to love. To worry means that you have someone or something in your life that you love and wish the best for. Isn’t that amazing? So, if I feel I must sigh, then I sigh. I let myself feel these new emotions and smiled at the novelty.

What commandments should I give? I didn't know, so I started an experiment of sorts. I thought about each and every person. All their likes, dislikes, how they think, their bodies and health. Every single thing that that person has done. It wasn't hard to do considering that I know their thoughts and minds and state of being better than they do. I took everything I knew about that individual and created a train for that person. Then I did that for each person. I set all those trains running and, in my mind, created a simulation of the world where a thousand years passed per second. Centuries were flashing through my mind, but I saw everything.

I was looking at a potential world. A world that would happen if everyone made the most likely choice at every decision. A world where I never made any sort of commandment, just personal suggestions like I'm already doing. Of course, after the current population died I was simulating people that hadn't been born yet so it was iffy. But if they were raised like they were most likely going to be raised, then it is likely that they will turn out as I simulated... It was complicated, but it should be fairly accurate.

The first few centuries were relatively tame in comparison to the millenia that followed. The humans, if they act as I suspect that they will, would start warring with each other in about fifty years, killing off the few people that would actually start listening to me. The wars hardened their hearts against me and it took another century for anyone to hear me again. The idea of religion rose in them and they formed their own, to justify their own ideals. They formed factions and suppressed each other due to their pride. The gnomes seem to be more chill than the humans, but even they will grow envious of their neighbors and steal and murder. Eventually they turn out to be similar to the humans. They never really did form a religion, but they did have their own superstitions. The harpies would formalize the religion with the Speakers of Creun leading them, but factions would form as more and more would ignore my words and say their own. Some harpies would start actively fighting the Speakers leading to war. Same with the naga and the beastkin, they'll formalize a religion and those that don't follow it will fight them. There would always be factions that split off to do their own thing. Giants were very chill in the beginning, focussing on their farming, but they too formed their own tribes. They fought at first over farms, but many got a taste for power. The elves were all very long-lived, even in comparison to the giants, and their royal family maintained a familial relationship with me so they were able to stay peaceful within their own race. As time went on though, and races expanded outside the circles of white stone pillars, racial wars were waged. The beastkin were on the same continent as the elves and they fought viciously. The fairies were ageless, it turned out, and Fae led her race away from the warring humans and naga and went across the ocean to the elves, who welcomed the fairies gladly.

For millennia, I watched the simulation play out disgusting wars and atrocities of all kinds. For millennia, I watched as people of all races slowly but surely lost the ability to hear me, even among the elves and fairies, people couldn’t hear me anymore, which led to civil wars... Even Fae was assassinated. It was horrible. Wars, murder, cultish sacrifices, enslavement, rape, oppression of all kinds, and so much more.

I was shaking. Tears dripped down my cheeks as I watched, vanishing into the universe. This isn’t real... This isn’t real. Just focus.

Of course, this was only a mental simulation. It may or may not happen. Also, it was without me doing anything differently, so things were going to be different for sure. The main reason I did this in the first place wasn’t to try and guess what was going to happen, but to look at people’s motivation for turning violent and doing other things that I didn’t want people doing and create commandments to guide people away from that bad future. But even so, after a couple more seconds, I couldn’t bear watching anymore and canceled the simulation.

I took a shaky breath and wiped my eyes clean. It wasn’t real. It will not be real.

The main thing I didn’t like was the violence. Intentionally causing harm to other people. So, obviously, I need a commandment for that, something that guides people away from doing violence. From what I’ve seen, pride is the main cause of violence. When people feel that they are better than someone else and when that someone else acts equal to the prideful person, the prideful person becomes violent. Another feeling is anger. Pride can lead to anger but pride could lead people to do bad things without that person becoming angry. But anger mostly leads to violence. What causes people to get angry though? Stress from their responsibilities, feeling slighted by others, feeling disrespected, and feeling powerless were the main reasons.

But what can I say to help people with that? It seems like a lot of those problems will be solved if everyone treated each other respectfully, as equals. So should I say, “All people are equal in my eyes, so treat each other as you would treat yourself?” Would that work or should I say something more firm? “I created all people as equal and love all. Love one another as I love you.” That does sound more official... But it doesn’t cover everything. What else?... Stress. A lot of stress could be solved by talking it out with someone else right? Should it be a commandment to talk to me? I mean, I am pretty impartial and I do know everything that is going on... Talking it out with me would be good for them, and I could give advice on what to do if they need it. Kinda already do that though... Also, a lot of people can’t hear me... I guess even if they can’t hear me, they could still pray to me and vent.

Pray? That’s a new word. Praying means to talk to a god. But there's also a reverent feeling to the word. Do you have to worship a god to be able to pray to that god? Or is praying an act of worship? I guess praying is kind of an act of recognizing a god as a higher power... but that doesn't matter to me. What matters is that people talk to me. It doesn't matter if they worship me or not, if they try to speak to me then I will hear them. Why would I ever ignore someone trying to reach out to me in prayer? Crazy...

Anyway, they might not hear me at first and think I'm ignoring them, but maybe if they start praying to me regularly they’ll start being able to hear me. So the second commandment could be, “Pray to me daily and lay your troubles before me. I am with you and will help you.” That should relieve some stress.

From the simulation though, I could tell that these two commandments weren't going to cover everything... Sure, pride and anger were kind of covered but bad things happen from other emotions as well. Lust, this one causes people to sleep around. That's not particularly bad by itself but sleeping around causes a lot of other issues. Single parent families. Lack of responsibility from both the father and the mother. Causes men to fight over women, and women to fight over men. Adultery, which leads to anger and violence. Lust also leads to manipulation. Women using their bodies to manipulate men into getting what they want. Men withholding due payment or using threats to manipulate women to give them their bodies. Rape... one of the most horrible things that I could think of. Lust could drive people to the extreme act of forcing themselves onto someone else. Lust is not love. Love is a pure emotion, it is selfless. Lust is carnal and selfish.

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It really would be better if everyone didn't sleep around whenever they pleased and just stayed with one person. I don't really care who they pick but they should pick someone and stay with that someone... unless that person turns out to be abusive, then they should pick someone else. "Do not give in to lustful feelings, instead wait until marriage with somebody you love. Be faithful and loyal to your spouse. If your spouse is not faithful or is abusive towards you or your children you may divorce and find a new spouse." Yeah, a lot of people might not like that. But honestly, if you love someone enough to have sex with them, then why not marry that person? If you do love that person but don’t want to marry... then is that really love? If you don’t love that person and you just want to have sex then that’s just lust, so why wouldn’t you go find someone to love instead?

Almost all other bad things that happen all revolve around greed, envy, gluttony, and slothfulness. Envy and gluttony are kind of just greed except it’s aimed at different things. They all have their different nuances of course, but they’re basically just indulgence. Desire for more. More pleasure, more everything. A want for more. A need to indulge in more. Whether it is food, money, or something that someone else has. It is a selfish desire to possess. Sure, it is good to go out and achieve things, but one shouldn’t let their desires rule their lives. Slothfulness is the complete opposite of that. It is a complete lack of desire. A lack of willpower... or should I say Will?... to do anything. Slothfulness leads to depression and suicide. So there needs to be a balance. People need to master their emotions, not be a slave to their whims.

This also applies to pride, anger, and lust. Not letting these emotions rule you... I guess the first three commandments never did mention pride and anger, but I was really clear on lust... Oh well, this fourth commandment should take care of that. Let’s see... “Emotions are yours to feel and experience, but do not let them control you. Master them and control them so that you may experience the greatest joys of life, which is building loving relationships with your family and friends.”... No. That’s not it.

I mean, I like the last bit saying that relationships are the important thing. But the first bit makes it sound like it's okay to be prideful, angry, lustful, greedy, like it’s okay to feel those negative emotions so long as you are in control of yourself. But it’s not ok. Yes, it is natural to feel those emotions but you shouldn’t linger in them. You should purge them as quickly as you can. They are like poison to the mind, the longer they stay the more likely you’ll snap and lash out with one of those emotions. Also, that commandment doesn’t really mention anything that would help with slothfulness... So what can I say? “Purge the negative, refine the positive, be the master of your emotions. Act consciously to improve yourself, but never forget that the greatest joys of life come from loving relationships.” Yeah, I like this one better.

I feel like something is missing or that something is off here... What is it? Should I say something about revenge and justice?... I don’t talk about that at all, but I feel like the people themselves would form a government of sorts that would handle justice... If they follow the first and fourth commandments then they should be fine. For justice at least, should I say something about revenge? That seems like a negative emotion, so that should be taken care of in the fourth commandment. So what is missing?

I tried to think of what it was but I couldn’t. Nothing stood out as wrong, and I couldn’t think of anything to add that wasn’t “Do not” commandments that should all be covered by what I already had. Man, doing this god stuff is hard. There were so many things to think about. It was great! I got my commandments now so that was that. I did kind of want seven commandments to match the number of races I created, but oh well... four is a good number too.

Now that I had my commandments, I sent a transmission of divinity to every single living thing, and to every spirit on Corprimal, saying, “I, Creun’losinu, the creator of the universe and of all life, have made four commandments for you to follow. Let these commandments be the rules that you live by. The first is this, ‘I created all people as equal and love all. Love one another as I love you.’ The second is to ‘pray to me daily and lay your troubles before me. I am with you and will help you.’ The third is ‘do not give in to lustful feelings, instead wait until marriage with somebody you love. Be faithful and loyal to your spouse. If your spouse is not faithful or is abusive towards you or your children you may divorce and find a new spouse.’ And the fourth is to ‘purge the negative, refine the positive, be the master of your emotions. Act consciously to improve yourself, but never forget that the greatest joys of life come from loving relationships.’

“I give these commandments so that you may look to them as a guide to your life. Seek to understand them and apply them to your lives.”

As soon as I finished talking, all of the divinity in the universe rippled. As if each spark had heard what I said. Uh oh... what was that? Why did that happen? Please don’t tell me that everyone is going to be forced to follow those commandments, messing with their Will is the last thing that I want to do... I waited, but it looks like people aren’t being forced to do anything.

With a sigh of relief, I watched their reactions. Most people couldn’t even understand me, but those who did were a bit confused. The humans and gnomes, of course, all couldn’t hear me. Little Mary, however, did feel something and looked around confused.

The giants could all hear me but just shrugged and went back to what they were doing, except for a handful of giants. They memorized my words and went to their families to ensure that they all followed my commandments.

The naga’s Devout were starting to gather near Krado, the “head” of the Devout that took the responsibility after Gana died five years ago, to talk about these new commandments.

The harpies... I could only scratch my head at what they were doing. The harpies could hear me... well, about fifty percent could at least, most of the rest just felt that I had said something and only a small percentage couldn’t actually tell if I said something. But still, the harpies, even those that could hear me perfectly fine, all went to the Speakers of Creun, or as some call them The Wind Whisperers, to ask what I meant. It was like they willfully made themselves confused about what it was I actually said. I mean, if that was how they wanted to do things then that’s their choice... At least the Devout of the nagas all understood what I said, they were just meeting because they wanted to talk about it with other people... I’ll have to talk to them about that later.

The beastkin that could hear me all visited the shrine that they had made in the center of the village to pay respects and to say that they’ll follow the commandments. The leader of the village, Fakin, gathered everyone in the village for a meeting and announced the new commandments to everyone, because he knew that a lot of people couldn’t actually hear me. That was nice of him.

The elves were confused, but the four of them stopped what they were doing to gather together.

“Father,” Fael called out, “We are a little confused... Have we done anything wrong that you felt that you must give these commandments?” the other elves nodded along with Fael’s words.

“No, my son, you’ve done nothing wrong. You, Mael, Kael, and Sael are all amazing people and I am very proud of all of you,” I said, transmitting the words to all the elves so they can hear. “Remember what I said about creating other people in other parts of Bri?”

It took him a second but he did remember. “Yes, I remember. Humans, beastkin, nagas, harpies, gnomes, and giants... Then did they do something?”

“Not yet, but eventually they will. They already have hundreds of children. They are short-lived compared to you, the elves, so they will reproduce faster than you. However, with each generation, less and less people are able to hear my words. I saw a future that was... horrible and disgusting to me. So, I am giving these commandments to the world in hopes that that future does not happen.”

“Horrible and disgusting?... Father, what did they do?” he said, shock filling his voice.

“I don’t want to speak of it, let alone think of it. But I cannot forget it. I will make sure that that future doesn’t happen.”

“I see, I won’t ask about it again. We will do our best to follow these commandments, and we will hope that your other creations do the same.”

“Thank you...”

After chatting with the elves for a bit longer, I chatted with Fae, who had the same questions. I assure Fae that it wasn’t just for her but for everyone to follow. She was a good and joyful person and we chatted daily anyways, so it wasn’t as if she had to do anything different.

Even as I was chatting with the elves and Fae, hundreds of prayers were already being said and people were trying to understand what exactly it meant to love others as I love them and what it meant to master their emotions. I could only smile. The commandments were already working.