Soft music plucked on a string instrument permeated the courtyard from an open passage.  A soft breeze carried a pleasant lavender fragrance throughout the area.  A musician lost in their art would not have heard the soft scratching of quill to paper nor the soft breathing of the many people that silently watched.  Yet this was neither a typical musician nor a typical place.    This was a place of confluence.  An amphitheater where there are many roads that lead to only this destination.  One is of nature where a game path trailed through a lush green forest.  One of architecture both ancient and new where a paved road was beset by magnificent buildings of metal and glass, or simple structures of wood, straw and thatch.  There were paths of fire, water, wind and earth.  Paths of blood, of war, of conquest.  For every concept that people could conceive, it was represented by a path that led to this place.  

Each path led to an open portcullis in a massive curtain wall.  The paths continued beyond and inside led to a marble throne that sat atop an enclosed grassland depression. There was a throne for each of the concepts.  A throne for the manifestation of the concepts, or what most would call a lesser divinity.  Each throne had a path that led down the slope of the depression where it met with another flattened area where fewer thrones were positioned.  This pattern continued until at the base of the depression sat six empty thrones.  The gods of this universe were seated in the marble thrones that encircled the stage stared intently at the center of the confluence where a beautiful man with flowing wheat colored hair seated stage right plucked at a harp, and stared pointedly at a massive red skinned, multi armed, horned, and winged, humanoid being.  The massive being stared back with a baleful expression and crossed its four arms.  In center stage a stern woman stared down at a young boy who sat at a desk quickly putting quill to vellum.  To his right a small kitten rested atop a massive eagle both similarly watching the scene.   As the boy scrawled, the writing slowly lifted itself from the paper and began to transform into a three dimensional shape of the universe.  

The image moved through the many places of the universe at incredible speeds.  It passed by many planets.  Some were vibrant and full of life. Others were frozen wastelands or blasted fields of molten rock. Still others were massive spheres of gas. The view passed through solar systems both vast and small.  It plunged through the plasma between galaxies and danced through many  a nebula.  Then it stopped suddenly at a patch of darkness that was more than the nothingness around it.  It seemed to be a void that could devour all existence around it.  However, it was not actually consuming anything.  The boy sighed in relief then looked at the stern woman.  "I think I found it,"  he said in a soft but clear voice.

The stern woman's lip turned up ever so slightly and the surrounding gods cheered.  

"The game will continue."  The stern woman proclaimed as she stared at both the massive horned being, and the beautiful harpist.   She looked up at the many gods and her typically stern expression softened just a bit.  "Choose your side."  She waved her hand and one of the solar systems' sun's exploded annihilating the system. She then consumed the energy and with the help of the eagle and kitten they reforged it into something new.  A single ringed planet with several small moons orbited an orange star.  The planet was massive with two major continents connected by a small land mass and surrounded a smattering of islands.   The woman smiled proudly at the creation and nodded to the kitten and eagle then turned back to the gods.  "We will call this planet Gulva II. The supporters of Barnabus will start on the continent of Altus.  The supporters of Carthus will start on the continent of Veltus."  She looked at the young boy.  "How long?"  She asked.  The boy was staring intently at the darkness and grimaced a bit.  "There is a significant pull from the concept of time."  He said.  "It fluctuates slightly at the end of every calculation.  I would say twenty thousand to be safe."  

The woman shared his grimace then sighed.  "Well that will be plenty of time to create a defined history at least."  She turned back to two beings still glaring at one another on stage.  You will have twenty thousand years to create your people and develop their society.  Create a religion and set up whatever world gods you would like.  There is to be no direct intervention from either of you or your followers excepting the world deities.  They can indirectly affect the realm.  Your ability to create and maintain a people will determine the winner.  You will be allowed 10 summons each from this new universe once the twenty thousand years timer has lapsed.  The win condition is simple; global control.  How you use your summons is completely up to you.  Summon them all at once, or summon one and give it all the power.  Alternatively, you can choose to summon just a few.  I do not care.  The pool of power to summon and empower them can only be refilled by the people of this world.  So, choose wisely and let the greatest of us win."  

The group of gods cheered and grouped themselves up into their chosen factions.  Once they had completed this a clear line was drawn.  The only ones left out of the groupings were the woman, the child, the kitten, and the eagle.  After the groups quieted down the boy began to chant softly.  The woman laid her hands on the boy as the kitten crawled into his lap.  The eagle flew up and landed on the boy's head and a soft green glow flowed from its taloned feet into the boy.  Similarly, the woman's hands glowed a soft blue that flowed into the child while the kitten injected him with a dark brown glow.  Moment's later massive letters and glyphs formed a ring around the depiction of the void.  The boy, woman, kitten, and eagle slumped once the working was complete.  "You have twenty thousand years."  The woman said tiredly.  "Make the best of it."

In another universe a small void in space lit up as it was encompassed by a ring of glyphs and a being older than the multiverse stirred.  It looked into existence and chuckled.  "This game again."  It thought.  "It would be a shame if someone flipped the board."  It looked again into existence then added a single character to the ring of glyphs.  It then looked at a planet covered in snow and ice.  Where the last remnants of an intelligent species huddled underground awaiting the end of an Ice age.  The being found a a new born child and imbued it with the tiniest spark of divinity and a matching rune.  It chuckled to itself.  Messing with the insects was always amusing.  It sighed happily and thought a short nap was in order.  After all it had a few years to wait and watch the chaos unfold.