The Secrets of Eternity and Reality

Part 1: Birth

"For lo! So was the world fashioned

From those primal elements

By enlightenment and divine grace.

Yet this lifeless, barren landscape

Elements primordial and inviolate

Brought displeasure in its solitude

To its creators divine

For sole they were, and so remained

For at the moment life burgeoned

From the depths of the Void

At that first moment of unity

The gods would lose their control

Despite their enlightenment and divine grace

But therein lay the choice

Between the power

The sadness of solitude

And the chaos

The uncertainty of life

And the gods, enlightened and gracious

Chose life over emptiness

Chaos over control

Happiness over sadness

And they reveled in their creations as they lamented the passing of control

For thus departed the world's future

Into the limbo of evolution

The gods waited, as years passed into decades

Decades into centuries, centuries into millennia

Millennia into eons

Waiting, waiting for a being to impart their Secrets to

And when humans appeared, the gods rejoiced

At last, a being with a soul

At last, a being that could shape the world

As the gods themselves had done so long ago..."

-Excerpted from The New Scharan Edition of The Talentariad, lines 1-33

Translated from the Maiyari

AN: Welcome to The Secrets of Eternity and Reality. The story you are about to read is a rather mature PG-13, for it will contain mature subjects such as love, death, murder, insanity and others that would spoil the story, not to mention some tasteful violence and the occasional bad word. If you don't consider yourself mature, keep reading; perhaps you can broaden your horizons and your mind in one fell swoop. If you do consider yourself mature, congratulations.

If, however, you don't believe that you are capable of digesting such subjects, you have a splendid choice on your hands. If you continue reading do so with my blessing, but you take full responsibility for any and all broadening of horizons and views, voluntary or not. If not, there is a surfeit of high-quality stories on fictionpress.com; your enjoyment lies elsewhere.

For those who choose to continue, welcome again and enjoy.