It all began with a Book. A Book which contained every wonder and beauty the heart could desire. The Book lay alone, floating aimlessly in an unending void until the miraculous occurred. The Book opened.
With the opening of the Book came the reveal of the first two words of the great story; Destiny and Time. The older brother Destiny held the honor of reading the Book and his brother Time turned the pages. Soon the void filled with Matter and Energy, galaxies and stars, comets and planets, asteroids and moons. Destiny read these words from the Book, these perfect ideals now reflected in the unending expanse. Time marveled at these achievements, watching each new creation with the wonderment of a child. The perfect words of the Book now manifested within their imperfect yet beautiful reflections.
Time turned the pages of the Book with excitement, awaiting the new wonders his brother’s voice would bring. From the Book emerged the great planet Adam, the planet of life and the Shining Star Melody, the giver of life. With wide eyes and bated breath, Time watched his brother read the word of Life and the planet Adam filled with wonders. The ground sprouted vegetation, greener than anything Time had seen before. The sky teemed with feathered creatures, creatures that moved without command. The surface of Adam birthed mighty behemoths that roamed across the vast planes and little beasts that hid within the bustling forests. Another great marvel rivaled Adam as the water of Oceans flowed forth, covering the surface of Adam and revealing yet more wondrous creatures. Eve, the word which brought forth the oceans, housed beautiful shining life which swam across her ample waters.
Destiny’s voice commanded these wonders and Time’s gentle hand watched over them. Destiny read the words of Justice, honor, peace, love and they were so. The Universe the Book had birthed was good.
Yet no thought existed in this universe save for the minds of the brothers. They would speak for millennia on the wonders the Book had brought forth, but Time always wanted more. One day, as Time watched his brother read a page of the Book, he noticed a word unspoken. Time, endlessly curious, went through the Book and, though he could not understand the words, found many words that had gone unspoken. Still unsatisfied with this mystery, Time turned the pages of the Book all the way back to the first unspoken word, and the word gave him a sense of excitement the likes of which he’d never felt before. Time turned the pages of the Book back to where they had been and sought out his brother.
Destiny rebuked his brother for his curiosity and demanded he purge that word from his mind. Though Time pleaded for an explanation, Destiny offered none save for a single warning; that word will spell your demise. The warning struck fear into the heart of Time, but the fear could not outweigh his curiosity. Centuries went by as time wrestled with the overwhelming urge to solve the mystery of the word. The wonders of the universe that had once brought him joy seemed dull and stagnant. The animals he once marveled at because of their autonomous action suddenly appeared quite mechanical and insipidly predicable. Time could no longer quell his curiosity and a plan began to take shape.
Knowing his brother would not be deceived so easily, Time spent centuries crafting his plan. Soon the plan began to take shape and Time knew the moment to act had arrived. When Destiny read the words of the Book his mind fell into a trance and he spoke exactly the word which followed. Destiny did not go into this trance immediately, but would first skim the page before him, a practice Time now understood served to prevent the forbidden words from being read accidently. With that in mind Time memorized the exact order in which the forbidden word appeared and practiced constantly while his brother was away flipping the Book to that exact page. Time flipped ahead in the Book until he discovered a page with a nearly identical layout as the page housing the forbidden word. In the next couple of years, Time memorized his brother’s cadence and became confident he’d have no issue predicting when Destiny would arrive at the desired location. When the page Time had chosen arrived, the plan went into action.
Destiny skimmed the page as he’d always done and cleared it of any words he refused to speak. As he read down the page Time waited beside him anxiously. Counting down the seconds, Time held onto the Book nervously and waited for his moment. As Destiny approached the section of the page Time desired, Time, without hesitation, flipped the Book to the page housing the forbidden word, just as Destiny read the previous word and, before he could break his trance, Destiny spoke the word he’d sworn to avoid. The word read; humanity.
The anger of Destiny roared across the universe, but Time held firm in his convictions. The brothers watched as human beings slowly populated Adam. Time marveled as these creatures possessed a quality the likes of which he’d never seen, they were free. Destiny’s voice did not control their lives, his will did not decide their fates, he could only watch as Time had. Wanting to avoid his brother’s continued wrath, Time descended onto Adam to watch the humans go about their lives. Disguising himself as a human, Time walked among them, asking questions, listening to stories, marveling at the Wondrous and foreign endeavors they undertook. Discontent with living in shelters formed naturally from Adam’s surface, the humans chose to make their own shelters. Unhappy with foraging for food like the other animals, the humans planted and grew their own food. Unsatisfied with facing animals armed with their own strength alone, humans crafted weapons reflected from the great Form of weapons. It wasn’t long before the humans overtook Adam and emerged as the dominant species.
All that Time witnessed from the humans wasn’t good though and soon Time witnessed the dark side of freedom. The humans warred against one another, they treated each other with violence and contempt alongside love and mercy. For every good thing the humans did there was an evil the humans embraced equally. One day, as Time wandered Adam, he came across a young man attempting to broker peace between two feuding cities. Time, intrigued by the young man, followed him as he went between the two cities, begging each to lay down arms. The young man spoke passionately about the lives that this feud had taken and the significance of human life. This young man sparked hope in Time’s heart and he found himself believing again that freedom was a blessing. Soon the young man’s mission was complete and the two cities laid down arms and wrote out a truce, with the young man as their moderator.
The young man grew old though and soon came the moment when Time would come and return him to the Book from which he came. Time despised this aspect of his job now more than ever before. Something struck him though as he entered the home of this dying old man. If Time, who possessed immortality, converged with this man just as the two feuding cities had, then his immortality would become the man’s immortality. Wasting no time and refusing to ask his brother’s opinion, Time converged with the man and became the first word to take on flesh. It wasn’t until the convergence had finished that Time realized his mistake. Two souls could not live inside the same body. The soul of the man Time had so admired had perished leaving only his body, the body in which Time now resided. Racked with guilt, Time restored the old and decrepit body to the young and virile state it’s possessed when Time had first laid eyes on the young man. Feeling that this appearance best honored the young man, Time took up the mission the young man had left behind in death and began fostering peace across Adam.
Destiny witnessed all of this and his anger against his brother only grew. The action had not surprised Destiny, as he’d read all of this in the Book long ago, but his knowledge brought him no comfort. Time’s rash action had opened a door that Destiny wished would remain closed.
The perfect words of the Books, untainted ideals whose reflections populated the universe, began to see humanity as if for the first time. If Time could converge with a person and take on flesh, why couldn’t they? Latching onto humans through their reflections, the words took on human form and took the name Forms. With their newfound humanity the Forms gained something new, something they’d never possessed before, freedom. Adam and the universe with it fell into chaos. The trees, rivers, lakes, animals, ocean, planet, stars, and everything that had once been a mere reflection, moved with a mind of their own, the mind of their Form. The delicate ecosystem Destiny’s careful words had crafted fell to pieces and the humans found themselves overwhelmed by the free new world that surrounded them.
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Time could not believe what he’d done and he begged his brother for help. No being save for Destiny held anything close to the power of Time, but his power meant nothing without the knowledge necessary to fix the mess he’d made. Destiny needed Time as well, now that the Forms had converged, he could no longer control them as he once had. The Brothers met together with Matter and Energy, the first words Destiny had read. The two sisters loved their father Time and uncle Destiny dearly and wished to help. They’d crafted a beautiful temple from which the brothers could conduct their business and to which they could bring the other Forms. Time thanked his daughters and took their advice, summoning all the most powerful Forms to the temple. Once there, Destiny offered the Forms an ultimatum; once a Form has left the Book, Destiny need only speak their true name and they will be immediately returned to the Book along with all of their reflections. Eve, the Form, of Oceans, if she were returned to the Book, would see all of her oceans across the universe, dried up and barren. The Forms feared this solution and asked Destiny what he desired from them. Destiny promised that he would refrain from returning them to the Book so long as they signed his Covenant.
The Covenant of Destiny, as it was commonly known, asserted that the Forms were to maintain their natural patterns at all times. The oceans must follow the law of the tide, the mountains must remain stationary, lightning must strike when the weather calls for it, etc… Destiny allowed that the Forms could pursue their own desires on top of this, but they are never to cease their original jobs. The Covenant continued on, commanding that the Forms never drive another Form to extinction. Forms may rival over territory and defend or protect themselves and their reflections, so long as they do not wipe out a Form entirely. Finally, and the rule that Destiny stressed above any other, the Forms are not to have children with the humans. Time, Matter and Energy were tasked with enforcing these rules, though the fear of being returned to the Book was enough to keep most Forms in line.
Lower Forms, those limited to the boundaries of Adam, returned home while the higher Forms, those that inhabited multiple worlds or were bound by no worlds, remained in the Temple with Destiny and Time. Great thrones were crafted for the higher Forms and they watched over their reflections as well as the rest of creation from their beautiful home at the edge of the Universe.
On Adam, the Forms began to find a balance with one another. The resources were plentiful and each was able to provide for their reflections without issue. The humans, once powerful and dominant, found themselves in awe of the Forms and worshiped them as gods. The Forms protected and provided for the humans and there was order and peace on Adam as there was in the heavens.
The peace was not meant to last. Time performed his duties admirably, even the job of the grim reaper. All reflections must one day perish, every human will return to the Book, and it’s Time that takes them to this end. But Times loved creation, he loved each and every living thing and, though it was his duty, he despised each and every second of it. As he drew closer and closer to madness, resenting himself more with each passing day, he happened upon a woman cast out of her home, cast from the protection of the Forms. She had rebelled against the control of the Forms, not wishing to live as a slave and declared she’d live by her own strength. This declaration had now brought her out into the wilderness where she would soon perish. Admiring her conviction and not wishing to see her die, Time took pity on her and built a lavish home for her to live in. He approached her under the guise of a kind stranger, inviting her back to the house he’d built for her. She introduced herself as Lilith and thanked him for the assistance. She attempted to leave, but Time, knowing the fate that awaited her outside those walls, convinced her to stay.
Time lived with Lilith in the house for three years, utilizing his position as Time to exist in multiple spaces simultaneously. Thus, Time could live as a companion to Lilith while still performing his duties as Time. What Time could not account for and what he wished desperately to deny, was love. Lilith won over Time’s heart and soon, unable to stop himself, Time broke the covenant he’d made with Destiny.
Lilith gave birth to quadruplets, Time’s children. The four boys possessed powers that were once held by Time and Time alone, the powers of death. The four children took the names, Pestilence, Plague, Famine, and War. Ashamed of his actions, Time hid what he’d done from his brother and raised the children in secret. When the boys had reached six years of age, Destiny, who knew all, appeared at their doorstep and confronted Time. The argument between the two shook the very fabric of reality. Time had defied his brother for the third and final time. Destiny took the Book and vanished, never to be seen again. With Destiny and Time separate, no new words were read from the Book and the universe ceased to expand. Time wept at the loss of his brother and decided that he needed to find him and make amends.
With Time gone the Deaths were raised alone by Lilith who taught them to be strong and kind. The other Forms discovered Time’s sin and located the children in order to kill them before they could wreak havoc on Adam. Through Lilith’s sacrifice, the children managed to survive and escape their would-be assassins. A great anger emerged within the brothers and, when they had grown enough and mastered the powers their father had passed to them, they began taking out their rage on the world.
With famine, plague and pestilence abounding, once limitless resources became scarce. Forms, once free and kind, fought desperately for survival. Human beings, once treated with kindness and mercy, became sources of food and labor. Forms turned on each other, using the humans as soldiers in their cruel and violent wars. Time, still searching for his brother, did nothing to stop this pain.
After centuries of conflict War slaughtered his three brothers and disappeared. Though none of the Forms knew War’s motives, they were pleased to see that Adam began to flourish again. Despite the resources returning and need for violence waning, the humans never again received the merciful and kind treatment they once had. The Forms had grown used to seeing the humans as fodder, as lesser, as slaves. The humans continued to labor beneath the Forms, being abused for entertainment and occasionally as a delicacy.
Fifty years after War’s disappearance, he returned under a new name; Sheol. With his brothers gone, Sheol had somehow done the unthinkable and stolen his deceased brothers’ abilities making him the sole Death. Sheol rallied the humans against their Form oppressors and began a hundred-year war that forever changed the landscape of Adam. The humans, now armed and fueled by Sheol’s madness, broke Destiny’s covenant further by driving many Forms to extinction. The largest and most vicious reptilian Forms were wiped out entirely and more would have followed if Time had not returned.
Time arrived and pleaded with his son to stop this madness. Sheol refused and turned on his father, but Time’s power proved too great. That day Time buried his four sons and finally gave his wife Lilith the burial she deserved. Time returned to his duties, once again becoming the Universe’s grim reaper.
With Destiny gone and the Covenant broken by Time, the other Forms began to stray from the rules. Though the ever-loyal Matter and Energy kept peace for the most part, the Forms could not be stopped from having children with the humans. Soon continents were born of Adam and Oceans born of Eve. These mortal children sought their own freedom and desired to manifest themselves across Adam. Yet they found no place uncovered by either ocean or land and so the continents defied the oceans and the oceans defied the land. A war raged between the two until Adam and Eve retracted themselves into a small ocean and continent no larger than an island, thus allowing their children to become the continents and oceans that now cover Adam. These six continents and seven oceans maintain an uneasy truce, a truce kept honest by Adam and Eve.
This is the state of Adam, the world the Book made to house all life. The Book is filled with stories of the amazing achievements of humans and Forms alike. Destiny and the Book remain hidden, the higher Forms sit in their temple, the lower Forms roam Adam, the humans seek liberation and Time watches over creation pledging to never again interfere and hoping his brother may one day come home.