“Congratulations!!! You have been selected out of 10 ²³ other souls to be promoted to godhood!”

I wake up to this voice yelling, I look around panicked, with no memory of where I am or what’s going on. I reach to touch my chest to make sure I can feel my heartbeat, as I do I realize I can’t feel my arms, or my legs, or even move them! A memory flashes through my mind and I calm down.

‘Right, I’m a soul, no body anymore. Wheeew, that was a panic attack. Still, where on earth am I?! What was that voice, wait…? Who am I? Where is this? How did I get here? What the hell is going on?! Right, that voice that woke me up just now, what did it say? I’m a god, was it? That leaves so many more questions! Ah right there’s that thing, amnesia, I lost all of my memories? They seem to be slowly coming back though, okay, deep breaths calm down. Wait, right, soul, no body, can't breathe. Calm down me, look around… There’s nothing, where the fu-’

“Ah wait, stop stop stop!!! Gods absolutely, positively cannot curse! It has rather severe repercussions. I’ll explain everything so please, calm down and relax. Give yourself a few minutes to try and remember some details please, I’ll explain your rough situation in the meantime. Wheew that was close, you almost cursed.”

I try to speak but no sound comes out at all.

‘Right still a soul, no body, no body things. So did that voice read my mind? What is that voice?’

“Ah sorry, I was so excited about being chosen as the helper for a new god I forgot to introduce myself. I am as I said, a helper. Helpers are special entities that act as intermediaries between mortal souls and the gods. See most mortal souls cannot handle the aura and power in a god’s voice let alone be in their presence. We can read the thoughts of mortal souls, you, as I said, have been selected out of a lot and I mean a lot of other souls to be a new god! This involves a lot of different things, but we’ll get to that later, for now, let me answer most of your questions.

It can be wrapped up pretty quickly, you have been in the afterlife for a while. You will temporarily not remember anything while the memories of the afterlife are cleanly removed from your soul. You’re still a low-level god, I think, can’t tell you the big secrets yet, sorry. Now let’s address this cursing issue, your uhm, your soul? Yes, your soul has been imbued with the tiniest divine spark. Cursing is an absolute no-no. If you curse you can cause famines, floods, plagues, global disasters, even the destruction of your own creations, I think that's everything. So at least until you have a firm grip on your divine power. Absolutely no cursing! Now before I pour on any more information I’ll ask you for your name, if you don’t remember your old one that’s fine. Simply rename yourself, you would have to anyway to choose your god name.

This name is incredibly important, you, you uh, cannot frivolously choose one!”

‘So you can read my mind, I’m a god now, no cursing, I’ll get my memories back after the memories of the afterlife are gone and I need a name? What the heck, my memories can just be erased?! That seems like a violation of my rights! What the heck?!! Explain that first please then I’ll play along!’

“Ugh, it had to be someone from earth, fine, your memories can be erased, yes. But only because the god(s) of your universe have said so...I think. Only they can do so, and only because you haven’t developed your divine powers yet. It’s not possible for anyone but the god(s) from your universe and soon enough not even them, okay?”

‘Okay, fine then no cursing, I’ll get my memories soon and I need a name then, was it? How should I choose a name? Also, why the stutter?’

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“Good questions! To choose your name, think deeply about the language you remember, think about language, and focus your mind on recalling it. Do any names or words from your languages resonate with you deeply? The stutter I’ll have you know is your fault! The high gods suddenly felt like hosting a lottery and didn’t tell anyone, even us helpers beforehand! I had to cram so much information to be a God’s helper it’s nuts! You’d be stuttering too if you were me trying to remember everything!”

If I had eyes, I would be rolling them as I laugh, instead, I pause and focus my memories on language and names. I remember a language I created on my own in my old world for fun. And start thinking deeply about it. Eventually, a word resonates deeply in my soul, and I feel what I think is my divine spark quiver when I recall the word.

‘Octet.’

As I think this word to myself my divine spark quivers with great intensity, causing the surrounding void to ripple around me. The ripple that comes out from my divine spark is like an ocean wave, spreading out in all directions simultaneously like a sphere. As the ripple continues to expand outward rapidly it starts to change shape and forms into an octahedron. I begin to feel a tingle as if the octahedron is a part of myself. I can tell exactly how large it is and as it grows memories begin to return to me. I start to remember my old universe, how my race knew very little about how it actually worked. About the scales we knew about, and I can’t help but compare my own expanding space.

‘What...Is this? Is this… My universe?’

I sit in awe as I feel it expanding out, remaining a perfect octahedron as it grows further and further. If I had a body right now my jaw would be wide open, and I’d be spinning around to look at this new place expanding around me.

“Yes, this is your universe if you want to call it that. Among the god community, it’s called a domain though. While gods are powerful outside of their domain and can exert their powers in the heavens properly, their true power can only be exerted in their domain. In here you can create, destroy, set laws, let the domain decide the laws for you, anything you want to do. Right now, your domain is expanding based on how well your chosen name resonates with you. The greater the resonance the more you will integrate with your divine spark and the more divinity you will have. I think that’s what the documents said anyway. 

Oh, see looks like yours stopped expanding, the name you chose reeaaaally seems to have good resonance too. This is about 50 lightyears if we use measurements from your old universe, by the way I had to learn an unimaginable amount of information from your universe! Still 50 light-years that’s not bad at all, most new gods haphazardly choose a name and only get 2 to 15 light-years. Yours is enough to fit ehhh about 10 solar systems comfortably? I think. For now, let’s wait for all of your memories to come back and I can explain more, or you can try to experiment. If you choose that, then let’s start with giving yourself and me bodies yeah? That should give us both time to consolidate our memories.``

‘How do I form a bod- Oh wait, there are some memories coming back to me. Hmm, an old movie I watched when I was younger huh? Okay, I think I know what kind of body I want, in line with my name and my domain form I’ll make my body an off-form octahedron. The eyes should be to the side and be able to see in all directions, two of them for perfect depth perception. The surfaces should have vibration-sensitive organelles along the inside to be able to hear. I’ll give nostrils behind closed-off “mesh” gates at the tip of each triangular face… I’ll have it so one of the faces can open up to eat and... Wait, can I use pocket dimensions or compressed space for the inside of my body?’

“Uhhhh good question, give me a second… Y-yes it looks like you can, feel free and experiment. Wait first you’re really going to go with a body like that? You don’t think it's… off-putting?”

‘If I had a head, I'd be shaking it right now, so what if the body is slightly unconventional? I’m going to let my imagination run a little bit here. Now I’ll make this face my mouth I suppose, and I’ll make the inside of my body a pocket dimension. This way I can store a large circulatory system, a stomach, and other essential organs. Ah, right I’ll leave space for later in case I need to or want to add things later. Wait can I alter this body later?’

“Yes, the body you're making is just a vessel for your ‘soul’ until you achieve full divine conversion. Once that happens, I believe you can just reshape your soul and use it to interact with the world around you in whatever form you want. I’ll have to get back to you on that one.”

‘Okay then back to building a body. Spare space check, five senses check, essential organs check. Hmmm, I don’t want this body to produce waste, that doesn’t seem very god-like, does it? But how do I go about making a body that is 100% efficient and produces no waste? Is that even possible?’

“Oh my, you, you’re a god now! You can do anything, this is your domain, make it so magic is a thing, and your body can convert matter into mana through some special organ and store the mana in another one or something. Be careful though remaking laws isn’t all that easy once you’ve made them, it takes quite a bit of divine energy.”

‘Ah thanks, I guess I’ll put off making this body until I have my universe all planned out then. Say is there any way to expand my domain or anything? I have a rough outline of what I want to do in mind, but I don’t think this is enough space.’