In the beginning, all was quiet. Nothing but a void. Then a spark appeared. This spark knew nothing and was nothing. The spark sat there, looking at the void around it. It knew not what it looked at, but despite that, it could only call it one thing. The only thing the spark could name.
"Vacuus," the spark said.
Then, as if the void was waiting for this moment, it exploded into everything. The world was full of color and potential. Seeing the effect a name had on the void, the spark gave itself a name.
"Anima," the spark said.
Anima, once a spark of creation, now a being, wandered through this world full of color and potential. As Anima traveled through Vacuus, they realized that Vacuus needed something. Vacuus was just brightness and darkness, nothing more, nothing less. Then Anima found the word and spoke.
"Incrementum," Anima said.
When the word was spoken other things began to form from the potential of the world. Concepts of solids, liquids, and gases, as well as time and space. All of these things built on each other until the very foundation of Existence was set in place. Anima was satisfied, but they still thought Vacuus needed something. Then Anima, the first being, thought of what Vacuus needed and spoke.
"Form," Anima said.
The concept of this new name shook the world, shook Vacuus. Vacuus was formless from the beginning, it could never have a form. This contradiction split Vacuus in two. The split formed energy that took all the names that Anima had given to Vacuus and made its own Existence, and Anima followed this energy and was compelled to leave Vacuus, for it was nothing, emptiness. So Vacuus was separated from Existence and became what it was before Anima, before its name. A void, empty of everything.
And so Anima, now in the midst of Existence, knew what must be done. Anima knew that they alone couldn't inhabit all of Existence, so Anima was going to shatter themself into an infinite spectrum of consciousness. But before Anima did such a thing, they gave the energy of Existence a name.
"Magic," Anima said.
And after the name was spoken Anima shattered and spread throughout Existence, inhabiting every aspect and becoming one with all things. Existence grew from there and was filled with life and consciousness. However, as time went by nothing changed, and because nothing would change nothing would grow. The contradiction existed and Existence knew that something must be done. So Existence reached out for the thing that was given the first name.
"Vacuus," Existence said, "help me Vacuus."
'How could Vacuus help?' Vacuus wondered. 'How could Existence need the help of emptiness?'
"There exists a contradiction in me," Existence said, "speak a name to rid me of it."
Vacuus thought and answered with the only things it knew.
"Destruction, Decay, Anger, Wrath, Revenge, Hatred, Regret, Neglect, Fear, Betrayal, Conflict," Vacuus spoke to Existence.
Immediately Existence knew that what it had done was foolish. How could it expect anything helpful from Vacuus? Vacuus wasn't everything, Vacuus wasn't even anything!
"I was a fool to think I could ask anything from you," Existence said to the emptiness.
Vacuus knew that what it had said affected Existence and before Existence could block Vacuus out, it said one last name.
"Death."
Scared of the name, Existence blocked out Vacuus and left the memory of it fade away, forgotten.
"What did I give a name?" Existence wondered as things began to change as the contradiction was appeased and erased.
So Existence continued, trying to keep Order, a concept it named. To help this cause, Existence formed beings that would manage the names of everything. These beings named themselves Name Holders. And these Name Holders formed their own creations, giving them names. Eventually, the order was kept, and Existence continued to grow. Many years passed and the Name Holders made gods to oversee a planet, and those gods made creatures to inhabit that planet.
The gods that oversaw that planet were Life, Death, Fire, Earth, Water, Air, Light, and Darkness. Together these gods planned to mold the planet into their image using Magic. The world they would make would force variety and intuition from the gods. This world had to impress the Name Holders, otherwise what was their purpose? Anywho, the gods were about to have a meeting to discuss the distribution of each of their aspects of this world. Hopefully, they don't argue again…
—
"You cannot be serious!" a man's voice yelled.
"Why in Existence would you want to have the ENTIRE surface covered in water?" the voice asked incredulously.
"Well, I was thinking that maybe the creatures we make would enjoy it far more than some dusty old rocks." a female voice replied.
The two voices came from entirely different-looking sources. The man's came from a colossal construct made of stone, while the female's came from what looked like a kind of fish made of water. The gods of Earth and Water were both on a platform made of what appeared to be the stars. Surrounding the two squabbling gods were six others also on the platform made of stars. They all looked different from each other, there was a constant beam of light that had no start or end, a dark spot on that infinite beam of light, an almost silent and never-ending gust of wind, a ball of fire, a green mist, and a sickly mist with browns and reds and blacks.
"The creatures we make will mostly live on land formations Water," a genderless voice came from the green mist, "it would be unwise to cover the entire surface."
"When did we decide on that Life?" a male voice from the continual gust asked.
"Just now, Air," Life answered.
"Ha! I knew it was an unwise decision," Earth jeered at Water, "I can't believe someone would think that the creatures would want a planet full of water! Hahahaha!"
"Alright, alright, I know that was fun and all, but we need to focus," a man's voice from the ball of fire said, "we still need to get this planet in tiptop shape before the Name Holders come and check it out."
"Right, I'd rather not get scolded for being lazy," the dark spot agreed.
"Like you could get any lazier…" the beam of light snickered.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" the dark spot yelled.
"Enough." the sickly mist said, "focus on why we are here."
Light and Darkness stopped their bickering and paid attention, in fact, every god paid attention, for this was the first time Death wanted to focus on creating life. Since their creation, Death hasn't been the talkative type, barely responding when spoken to. This would have been only the second time Death started a conversation, the first being when talking to the Name Holder of Death.
"Um," Death was startled, they weren't expecting all the gods to focus so intently on them.
"Death is right," Life said, saving Death the embarrassment, "we need to focus on this planet."
"Alright, but where should we start?" Fire asked.
"We start with the structure to support our creatures," Life answered, "care to do the honors, Earth?"
"With pleasure," Earth responded as he focused on the barren planet.
And so Earth raised four continents, each with their own features to define them. The first land mass was almost completely encompassed by a giant mountain reaching as high as he could make it. The second land mass was a ring of land and in the center, a pit of deep shadow and no bottom in sight. The third was as flat and bland as possible, completely featureless. And the fourth was a land full of rolling hills. And so the terrain for the first creatures was formed.
"What's the hole for?" Air asked, full of mirth.
"I was hoping that maybe Darkness could live there instead of clinging onto Light like that," Earth whispered to Air.
"Oh," Air whispered back, "but what if Darkness doesn't want to live in a hole?"
"I don't really think she has a choice," Earth said back as he called to the water fish, "Alright Water, fill 'er up."
"Where in Existence do you come up with those strange phrases…" Water mumbled as she began to speed past the other gods and flew over the barren surface, placing water wherever she flew.
When all was done the planet, except for the four continents, was covered in water, but it began to freeze.
"Hey Fire, Air, do you mind saving the water I made, I would appreciate it greatly," Water said in dismay as she stared at the freezing water.
"I didn't hear the Magic word," Fire said as Air went to the planet.
"Magic word? What do you mean by 'Magic word'?" Water asked in pure confusion.
"Y'know, the Magic word, the one that starts with 'pl-' and ends with '-ease'," Fire said, drawing out each word.
"Fire quit messing with her and help me out, I need you to vaporize the water so I can catch it," Air said with no sign of amusement.
"Fiiiiine," Fire wined as he floated towards the planet, "nobody lets me have any fun," he mumbled.
The ball of fire slowly and painstakingly floated to the top of the mountain and dropped. The drop was so sudden and quick that it left a burning streak as it bore through the mountain and straight to the center of the planet. Nothing happened for a few minutes, the water that had turned to ice stayed ice and the surface was still bitterly cold. Then the ice started to melt and the water evaporated as the surface of the planet began to rapidly heat up. The ball of fire then shot out of the hole it had made, bringing molten rock with it. The lava spilled out of the opening and flowed down the side of the great ex-mountain. In the wake of the impromptu eruption, the fireball shot up to the other gods and plopped itself in between Earth and Water.
"Happy?" Fire asked.
"Well, it was…unexpected to say the least," Earth said bitterly, "I wanted that mountain for myself, and you went and made it a volcano."
"I had to get to the core somehow, would you have wanted me to go into the hole instead?" Fire asked.
"Yes, yes I would have," Earth said blankly.
"Oh, well, I can't undo what has been done," Fire said regretfully.
"Done," Air said abruptly as he floated up next to Water, "the atmosphere is complete and there are clouds in the sky."
"Looks like our job is done," Earth said to the green mist, "time for you to do your thing."
"So it is," Life said solemnly as it floated down to the planet and spread throughout the surface, covering it completely.
When the mist faded away, it revealed a lush and beautiful sight. The flat and featureless continent was covered in forests and fields. The ring was covered in beautiful flowers, the rolling hills were covered by multi-colored grasses and trees, and the volcano had a tropical outcrop on its edge. However, the most wondrous creation of all was the creature that inhabited these lands. The forests were filled with the small, scampering Mitis who hid their eyes from the sun with their paws, the hills were full of the elephant-sized Rapax who browsed the purple and blue grasses, the ring around the pit, filled with small winged creatures called the Flos, who played in the flowers, and the volcano housed the biggest of these creations, scaled and winged, were the Elemental Spiritus, who glided lazily in the skies.
These creations would be the foundation of the creatures to come. Now that Life had made its presence permanent, the other gods could make their own creatures as if they had the power of Life. Years would pass, and the gods would utilize this gift from their friend to craft their desired creatures.
Earth would make the Dwarves, small, sturdy, and fascinated with the strange stones around them; Earth made sure that they lived at a safe distance from the volcano.
Water would take charge of the sea creatures and even made one called the Duodecumus, an octopus-like creature with twelve claws instead of tentacles, and this was only the most notable of her creations.
Air would make the Elves and the animals of the sky; the elves were strange-looking creatures, tall but slender, strong yet thin, smart yet close-minded, and they had sharp knife-like ears that could hear like a rabbit and they had eyes like that of an owl.
Light, Darkness, and Death didn't create any creatures, but Light and Darkness did separate and went to guide the parts of nature they are named for.
While the other gods found their place, Fire made an interesting choice, he decided that he would make a race that could utilize his energy, the Humans; the humans looked and acted like how we know them, but they had a defining feature: a core. All the creatures the gods had made had cores, and they all could contain the energy of Existence, or Magic. But Fire was specifically designing the Humans to be able to wield his power for their own ends.
"Could you remind me why you're giving them your energy?" Earth asked Fire as they floated above the volcano, watching the Dwarves scurrying around the base of it.
"I want to see how they would act with an influx of power they can barely understand," Fire responded to the golem of stone, "this is purely research."
"I don't think that is the wisest decision," Earth said and then chuckled, "I'm starting to sound like Life."
"You? Like Life? Don't make me laugh," Fire scoffed as he stared at the horizon.
"Let's just hope they don't misuse your power," Earth said as he too stared at the horizon, where the sun was just setting.
"You and me both," Fire said solemnly and he stared at the sunset.
"You and me both..."