Ashes of Eternity.
It was one of the best-selling dark-fantasy books in the year 2031. The selling point of this novel became its norm-defying mechanics and how dark and cruel this world was. A world where each relationship between characters was made under the pretense of personal agendas.
Coupled that with the first-person narration where even the main character lied to himself about his motives and kept his main ambition hidden underneath a veil of hypocrisy, it tickled the fancies of many novel connoisseurs and young adults who liked non-cliche, yet kind of edgy main characters.
To truly understand Ashes of Eternity, we have to go around 3 eternities back in time.
Before all things—anything's existence, there was One.
A being without equal, without rival.
The first and only True Sovereign—Xeltharion.
He was not simply a god—he was existence itself.
The cosmos was not something he created; it was something he was.
His breath was time.
His shadow was space.
His thoughts were the tides of reality, shaping the very foundations of what would become the world—the entire universe.
But Xeltharion was not alone.
Beyond the veil of his dominion, there were others.
Sovereigns of other universes.
Entities as boundless and terrible as he was, each ruling over their own existence, each unwilling to bow. And when Sovereigns come across, none will bow, now will submit, none will negotiate.
So, the war began when Azhirath demanded a specific world in Xeltharion's dominion—his most prized possession.
The world that Xeltharion gave birth to and nurtured with utmost care and devotion.
And hence: Azhirath, Iltharys and Eonvath rallied their divine armies of Monarchs and marched towards Xeltharion.
No mortal could comprehend it. This was not a battle of flesh and steel, nor one fought in the skies or on land.
It was a war of concepts, of laws clashing, of existence itself unwrapping itself beneath the weight of their war.
Worlds ceased to be.
Time bled in reverse.
The very foundation of reality cracked as these sovereign beings waged war over a truth only they could understand.
Long story short, in the end, Xeltharion stood victorious.
But victory had its price.
Wounded beyond repair after being betrayed by one of his own monarchs—children he birthed and loved more than anyone and anything—his essence fractured. He was not a being of flesh, but of something else entirely—and when such a being is wounded, it does not simply weaken and perish.
It shatters.
And from its death, new life is formed.
And so, shatter he did.
And so, born were entirely different aspects.
His being splintered into countless fragments, scattering across his dominion. These pieces of him, once a whole, now became the ruling forces of the world in his absence.
Some were vast, impersonal, the very pillars of existence itself. But others…
Others remembered.
Now, a question.
Does pain ever fade?
The answer depends on context.
In this: pain never fades. Not when it belongs to a god.
Xeltharion's "death" gave birth to 'The Agonies' which were the echoes of his suffering, given form and sentience.
They are not mere remnants; they are gods in their own right.
Fragments of his being that could not forget the torment of his final war, and so they became suffering itself.
Agony of Burning Wrath—The Sovereign's rage at his enemies.
Agony of Shuddering Terror—The Sovereign's fear of his own undoing, of the abyss clawing at the edges of existence.
Agony of Weeping Silence—he Sovereign's sorrow, the realization of his own doom, the unbearable weight of all he had lost.
Agony of Harrowing Yearning—The Sovereign's endless desire to be whole again, to reclaim what was lost.
Agony of Gnawing Betrayal—The Sovereign's pain at the treachery of those he once trusted. It festers in lies, in broken oaths, in the sharp sting of betrayal.
But not all of the Sovereign's fragments were scarred by his malice.
Some simply continued their purpose. They are the Primordial Forces, the aspects of his being that govern the fundamental laws of existence.
Light, Dark, Time, and Space.
And then, there are the Essences.
If the Agonies are his pain, and the Forces are his foundation, then the Essences are his soul.
The truest, rawest aspects of his divinity, scattered across the world like dying embers.
Life, Death, Creation…and Destruction.
In retrospect to Agonies, there were boons, to balance the agony of the world.
All parts of Xeltharion had their own sentience, each one while distinct in personality, having the same urge to continue their duties, albeit a bit differently, and in a more biased manner.
After seeing how the monarchs of Xeltharion's universe were in a fray, these forces of him wiped them out, absorbing their essences clean.
As they did, a question was raised by the Essence of Creation and Destruction.
"What now?"
And so, while they pondered for hundreds of years upon this matter while their universe descended into a battlefield of mindless slaughter, another "sibling" of these forces took birth—the last part of the Sovereign—the youngest, who did not belong to any category, sowed his first seed of manipulation.
Everyone came to the consensus of granting every being the chance at their own powers, to make their own brigades of Monarchs who will be birthed by them.
But raw divinity, left unchecked, is chaos. To simply pour power into the world would have meant catastrophe—a land twisted beyond recognition, an existence where mortals were nothing but dust.
So, they forged a system.
The Codex.
A framework of divinity.
A means through which their—the Sovreign's, by extension—will could be expressed, their gifts bestowed, their influence shaped without destroying the very world they had inherited.
And so, the pawns, the rooks, the bishops, the knights, the queen and the King were all placed on the grand board of celestial chess.
And hence, as the other Sovereigns retreated to recuperate and heal, the long period of waiting for Xeltharion's essence started.