At the dawn of time, there were 3 gods. A god of light and order, a god of darkness and chaos, and, the elder of the three, a god of balance and clockwork. The younger gods were in constant conflict. Reality itself would have been torn apart had it not been for the power that the elder god held over them.
It was a careful and deliberate balance that the clockwork god had to manage. There cannot be order without chaos and there cannot be chaos without order. This principle was engrained in the mind of the Elder god and yet it appeared absent from the gods with which it was entwined.
Following millions of years, the clockwork god shaped the universe to their liking. Planets and solar systems spinning around each other like gears, everything on time in perfect synchronization. But the younger gods still fought. The clockwork god had no choice but to treat them harshly, they couldn't stand their bickering and they couldn't let them ruin all that they had made.
It was the only thing that made them stop fighting. It was clear that they hated it, but the clockwork god was glad for the peace and quiet after a millennium of arguing and infighting.
The forced peace gave the younger gods a chance to talk.
They both hated the elder god, imposing their power over them whenever they saw fit. This was tyranny. The clockwork god was too wild and erratic for the god of order and was too strict and organized for the god of chaos. Since both felt absolute disdain over the elder sibling they both shared, they put their differences aside for once.
Individually they stood no chance, the god of clockwork could counter anything that each god had. However, they had never fought them two to one. Together, they forged a chain made of both chaos and order, both dark and light, a perfect balance that would be able to hold even a god as powerful as the elder god.
They devised a plan. The god of chaos naturally would serve as a distraction while the god of order could sneak up from behind and throw the chains around them.
They would tie up their sibling and throw them within the confines of their own realm. The Clockwork Realm was an unreachable place, if one got lost in there then they would never be found. The perfect place to imprison a god.
They enacted their plan and it went better than expected. The clockwork god went down easily, hardly resisting the chains that were wound across them. With the clockwork god simply accepting their fate, the younger gods emerged victorious. The clockwork god left them with a final warning that balance was a delicate thing, and it would be restored no matter what.
At first, they celebrated, they had overthrown their despot and were now free to do as they liked. They had complete reign over the universe, to rule it as they saw fit, not some self-appointed king.
This was where the arguments came back.
Although they finally had control over themselves, that also meant there was no mediator. With no one to settle down their fights, the two gods devolved into utter violence.
They were perfectly balanced against each other. Their fighting could only result in stalemates. That is, unless, the god of order hadn't kept some of the chain. The chain would provide the god of order with just enough of an advantage to gain the upper hand.
With one fell swoop, the god of order threw the god of chaos across the universe so hard that when the god made contact with a planet, it struck with such a force that it split the timeline into multiple parallel timelines, with the god of chaos split up between them.
The god of order had not only taken out the only being that could control them, but also duped and betrayed their enemy to help them do it.
After this, an age of growth began like no other. This was when humanity was born.