The Destroyed Universe (Pre-Existence)

The Genesis of Time and Creation

Time is a rather inert— immutable part of existence that began like all great things, from the smallest of origins. before the beginning of Time, there was nothingness. Then came the first flicker of creation, an anomaly that vanished as quickly as it appeared only to be reborn, casting off sparks of light like fireflies piercing the night illuminating the Void . As these first twinkling lights faded, something survived of each that became drawn together by unseen forces coalescing into the first proto-verse . With it was forged an artifact of unimaginable power later to be called the Creation Matrix , the very Eye of God burning with the brilliance of a million suns giving birth to the lifeforce of existence. A manifestation of this power was the Great Maker while another was Chronos where the Creation Matrix served as an eternal blueprint shaping the foundation from which all universes would be born.

But where there is Creation, there are also forces of Entropy , Corruption , and Decay gnawing at the fabric of existence. With them came an even greater aberration, an unquenchable all-consuming cancer antithetical to all existence called OBLIVION or Un-Creation. Awakening from ancient slumber, OBLIVION destroyed an untold number of proto-verses in a process called the negation , whereupon, sensing nothing left to devour, it withdrew once more into eternal slumber. Each destroyed proto-verse became reborn because of Bennu , the Phoenix Force, the embodiment of reincarnation and vitality in all things. Yet, to everything, there came an end where these spent energies would no longer be capable of reincarnation. Whatever might have survived within them became cast off into the void nourishing OBLIVION as it slumbered.

In the vastness of time, the Creation Matrix ignited once more and the first true uni-verse would be the reincarnation of these proto-verses forming into dimensions and realities. From this would also come a cosmic Devourer called the Shayāṭīn who formed as if from the very heart of OBLIVION destined to become the Némesis of existence. OBLIVION shattered this first universe leaving behind a lingering Darkness that enveloped the Shayāṭīn like a womb, preserving its existence where it would take on a new form evolving beyond what it once was. As new universes arose from the void like a phoenix rising from its own ashes, they too fell to OBLIVION’s insatiable Hunger feeding the Darkness, which expanded ever further. Yet, with each cycle, the design of reality grew stronger, refined by the echoes of past destruction until the birth of a universe that seemed everlasting, perfect in its design.
But even perfection bore a fatal flaw: it remained bound to the cycle of reincarnation within the physical universe are finite or mortal endlessly recycling their vitality (the soul). Another manifestation of the lifeforce of the universe itself now came into being called Tia as Order prevailed against Chaos creating a universe where galaxies collided and reignited birthing nurseries for new stars and endless possibilities. Amidst the forces that shaped this universe, there also arose an embodiment of pure destruction and disorder known as the Dragon Force. As a force for destruction, it was not a power for creation although the universe has a way of recreating itself. Opposing yet entwined with it was another force—the Serpent Force, a power of duality akin to Darkness. It could corrupt, yet it also embodied intellect, wisdom, and healing for those who could master its mysteries.

Beings emerged that sought to wield Entropy's power, not to destroy, but as a means of self-preservation parasitically feeding on the vitality of others. They did not feed upon the flesh, but more directly upon the soul to halt their decay and sustain themselves indefinitely thus becoming the first true vampires. As the curse of vampirism spread, it infected higher beings and shaped the history of countless civilizations. Éshr̥ Déiwo was such a creature traveling from world to world consuming not only the living beings upon them but the very Mother Goddess or life energy of the planets themselves. His powers became elevated to that of a cosmic power and witnessing his growing power, other celestial beings sought his annihilation only to have him prevail against them wielding powers acquired from the Dragon Force.

Compressing the gravitational forces of a supermassive black hole , they created an object of tremendous power and lured Éshr̥ Déiwo to a world called Devus 7 hidden within an empire of ten star systems. There they would use its power to merge with the planet in such a way that when they impaled him upon a golden rune-covered stalagmite close to the planet's core from which he would never escape. Bound by ancient powers beyond measure, his consciousness became trapped in a prison of nightmares Éshr̥ Déiwo was unable to escape. Such was viewed as a fitting punishment as he had destroyed so many worlds and the lives upon them ending them before their time was to end in the natural progression. Devus 7 would give birth to the Mother Goddess Pṛthivī who would bring life and fertility to this ancient world while summoning star dragons to dance and dwell within it sun to rekindle it.
The Shayāṭīn watched with fascination as universes came and went learning that he could influence them and shape their destinies from the Darkness that had become his prison. Yet, this last incarnation of existence seemed different than the rest. It continued to expand as universes, realities, and dimensions echoed across a Multiverse unlike any other. Throughout existence, the Eye of God became the foundation of belief, its legend echoing through the Multiverse as many saw in it the essence of the stars—the Creative Force or Light. Yet, it had been shattered and scattered across Infinity , ensuring that no single being could wield its boundless power as prophecies warned that if the pieces were ever reunited, madness would consume reality, and all existence would be undone. Yet the Shayāṭīn desired nothing less than to replace the Great Maker and to remake existence in his own image and if this be madness, then he would embrace it!

The definition of mortality was physical matter because it was finite and natural while the vitality of the soul, the Bennu, was metaphysical and everlasting. It persisted through endless reincarnations until it also succumbed to the relentless withering of Entropy. Not all souls followed the same path: The most wicked were claimed by the Darkness and reshaped into its agents while the purest ascended, becoming architects of creation serving the Creator. The rest cycled through existence, their essence gradually diminished until only embers remained that would be cast into the void, where they nourished OBLIVION in its eternal slumber. As the war between Darkness and Light intensified, the Shayāṭīn whispered into the minds of the weak and the power-hungry, manipulating them, turning them into pawns in an unseen battle seeking his escape.

Only Devus 7 survived to begin recovery having been abandoned save for exiles who worshipped the dragons. Billions of years passed, and the Shayāṭīn, burdened by the weight of eternity, tore fragments of its own memories away, casting them into lesser beings who became his avatars. These early avatars became gods among mortals, shaping civilizations in their wake. Among them was Maban whose descendants forged a vast galactic empire that he ruled because wielding powers of the Dragon Force unlike any before he had done. As the founder of this empire, Maban feared his own inevitable end and sought immortality without succumbing to the evil of vampirism. Instead, he would draw power from the worship of mortals sending small amounts of their vitality to him that wouldn't harm them or make him into a vampire but rather, it would make him into a dragon god.
Maban would beget an incestuous lineage that better preserved his life energies through his descendants as even with worship he still needed to replenish his flesh. He would devour newborn offspring at birth after exhausting himself in battle with the survivors fighting among themselves as demigods until a sole winner would be proclaimed God Emperor. At some point in time, Maban abandoned the mortal universe to wage war among the others to be called Gods. But the God Emperor continued his worship even as they expanded his empire to encompass four galaxies. Other avatars possessing fragments of his memory would find their way to intermarry with the God Emperors where each subsequent generation inherited the memories and power of their predecessors. As they grew more god-like, madness gained greater control where none were as powerful as the God Emperor known as Shén dì who wielded unimaginable might.

His younger sister momentarily opened a doorway into the Dark Universe becoming possessed by Shayāṭīn only to be defeated when she fell against Shén Dì who struck the Devourer down. Without a host, the Shayāṭīn was cast back into his prison leaving a Seed of Darkness planted within the bloodline of the God Emperors. Growing stronger with each passing generation, their lust for ultimate power likewise grew as they amassed vast libraries filled with arcane knowledge. As one God Emperor ended their existence, another would take their place through violence and bloodshed as the Seed of Darkness grew within them. Yet, prophecy spoke not only of power but of destruction foretelling that when the ruling family perished, so too would the universe itself! Those being ruled believed this as they worshiped the God Emperor and the Dragon Gods thus increasing their power.

Their faith held that the God Emperors were truly immortal and that the end of one was only a rebirth of a single soul in a new body. But there were those who rebelled—who claimed the imperial myths were mere illusions, fabrications they believed the God Emperors had forged to bind the empire to their will. Then, at the twilight of the empire, the last heir was born. They sought hidden truths, believing the ancient texts concealed the key to absolute power. Then came a megalomaniac beyond reckoning who drained the energies of dying stars ensuring none could challenge his dominance until removing the Darkness from himself and reshaping it into his companion the Empress. She was a powerful woman named Aisha ' Azza who possessed a terrible beauty, a corruption so evil, so malevolent, that it could never be fully destroyed any more than it could be understood.
Where the God Emperor had made himself all but impervious to his enemies, he had made a mistake in thinking to create a queen that was an embodiment of himself. She possessed power and guile gaining a piece of the Eye of God which she transformed into a dagger with which she slew her husband... then took his head and power into herself. This was the final play in a long game where she had been made pregnant by her husband creating the next God Emperor within her. The child whispered to her influenced her, and shaped her thoughts bending her to his will. She gave him a name, one that would echo through eternity in dread and ruin... Shayāṭīn! The new God Emperor was born in silence having instead possessed his mother to speak for him. Her own spirit became cast out to be reformed as an entity called Isfet , a being who seemed to be the antithesis of life, an anti-life who seemed to kill for the sake of killing.

No omens marked his arrival. Fate had delivered the ultimate destroyer, yet nothing about the child seemed extraordinary. None could have foreseen that within him lay a soul crafted by hate for the most sinister of purposes. The new God Emperor would be shown first in his mother's arms and then strapped to her back carried by her as she entered the Great Library seeking what he wished to know. Many civilizations had mentioned the Eye of God, at least what seemed to be its pieces reshaped into various objects of tremendous power. Having inherited his father's power, Shayāṭīn had escaped his prison in a body specifically created to contain him where earlier he existed more as spirit making him vulnerable. When the boy was old enough to undertake this task for himself, the spirit of Isfet possessed her body once more becoming more of a protector fully independent of himself.

The first piece that became revealed to him was the dagger his mother had slain his father with. Still covered in his father's blood it became transformed in Shayāṭīn's hands into a glowing crystal embedded in his chest. Using the knowledge of the Great Library helped lead him to the next piece and then the next while his family ran his empire possessing great power in their own right. The God Emperor rewarded them for their loyalty but his mother was everpresent so that if they betrayed his trust, he could punish them just the same. These members of his family would become monstrous and twisted into the first Demons most of which were further transformed by the destructive power of the Dragon Force. After immeasurable time had passed, the God Emperor had completed much of the Eye of God not knowing that a champion had been chosen to acquire the rest to oppose him.
After an age of violence and destruction, the two enemies finally confronted one another shattering worlds and causing stars to erupt with devastating fury between them. In the end, the God Emperor's armored enemy proved more powerful because his alliances with other powerful entities gave him the upper hand. Had the God Emperor completed the Eye of God, the outcome would have been different but that didn't happen. Still, before his half of the object was taken from him, he unleashed its power one last time as he fell laughing defiantly as his enemies were unaware of what he had just done. It would not take long for them to learn as it was as if the entirety of existence shuddered because where the great powers of the universe had defeated the God Emperor... there was no power in all of existence that could stop OBLIVION!

In their hubris, the great powers had believed that the greatest threat they faced had been the God Emperor. They had let down their guard to recover and celebrate with his defeat. While some were aware of OBLIVION, they had imagined the multiverse had made itself immune to its destructive presence and that it would slumber for all eternity. Only now did some begin to raise the alarms and while the Eye of God was now reforged, it was yet incomplete. Another cosmic power had taken it upon themselves to conceal pieces of the Eye of God hoping to stop the God Emperor if all else failed. But now that OBLIVION had awakened, the hunt for those missing pieces began in earnest as the one who had hidden them had been destroyed by the God Emperor's hand. As the stars began to disappear, the great powers began to disappear with them as they sacrificed themselves to stop OBLIVION barely doing anything to slow it.

The last of these great powers would gather on Devus 7 attracted to it by the power once created by them to imprison Éshr̥ Déiwo. Within it lay a piece of the Eye of God, the final piece, that completed the Creation Matrix wielded by the most powerful being that had ever existed within this multiverse... and it would not be enough! Rising to meet OBLIVION, this champion wielded greater power than the Great Maker itself and the Light Universe which had formed in opposition to the Dark Universe. With all this power, OBLIVION proved equal to the challenge shattering what remained of this multiverse and even the Eye of God itself. The heavens wept shards of divine radiance, raining devastation upon the last stronghold of existence. Many of the survivors fell, struck down by its fragments and bombarded by its power with each living soul being penetrated by the smallest of fragments as the Eye of God's power.
The Light Universe then surrounded what remained of Devus 7 and its solar system within a Cosmic Egg encircling the planet within an impenetrable barrier that not even OBLIVION could penetrate. Chronos had interceded wielding the Staff of Worlds, a Caduceus of pure chaos entwined by personifications of Fate and Destiny to aid in it's creation preserving himself, what survived of Tia and the Light Universe. Within the wastes given off by OBLIVION as it fed, something would survive as the Dominion of the God Emperor had not been destroyed. Rising up from where he had fallen, Shayāṭīn would survive upon a destroyed world hidden within the waste of a destroyed universe! The Netherverse formed from this Chaos becoming twisted and crushed by unimaginable forces until becoming something different than it had been... and thus would be formed the creation of Hell !

Whatever had been living would become pressed into the fabric of this nightmarish Netherverse having nowhere else to go and as if it were an endless plain of suffering seeking new energies to dull the pain. Although they could not foresee the destruction of their universe, those cosmic forces that had defeated the God Emperor had foreseen his possible resurrection. While they had removed the Eye of God from him, its power had forever altered him granting Shayāṭīn even greater powers. As he stared out across the chaos before him, the God Emperor felt only rage but if this was all there was, then it would be his! But the very power that he possessed now bound Shayāṭīn whose powers had transformed him into an enormous Red Dragon —the true form of the Shayāṭīn— choosing to sleep quiescently and only waking occasionally.

When OBLIVION could sense nothing left to devour, it returned to the eternal unconsciousness of slumber and the passage of time seemed frozen with no way to measure it. The Netherverse would survive as Darkness and Chaos influenced its development like a twisted mirror from which many Hells would be formed within it. Thus would begin the Demon Wars as for untold eons disorder ruled the Netherverse until a form of discipline began to prevail upon the evil within its expanding boundaries. Devus 7 would survive within the Cosmic Egg as Chaos and Disorder surrounded it proving unable to penetrate it from beyond. What survived of Tia also lay within where she would become transformed into something much different from what she had been. She would become the ultimate Mother Goddess and when the time came, she would erupt forth from within the Cosmic egg giving birth to a new universe.  

As Tia screamed from the unimaginable agony, she would be torn and left ravaged by the experience. From her came forth Aeon , a manifestation of the life force of this new universe who became the Great Maker dwelling within the recreated Light Universe. In fact, this new universe was seemingly a universe of light and the first life within it was of a different order feeding upon itself with some forms becoming much greater in size. These were sentient beings not yet spaient taking on different forms during this period one might compare to life within a vast ocean of light until the light began to disappear to be replaced by dark energy . Only then did beings from dimensions not destroyed by OBLIVION discover the new universe although some among them were most assuredly aware something had changed within existence.

As dark energy spread, the first stars began violently exploding into existence before tearing themselves apart just as violently. This churned the early universe evolving it into something more recognizable but not yet familiar as stars collapsed into black holes giving birth to the first galaxies. Tia would be reborn as a dark incarnation of Bennu forming the Realms of Death from the surviving dimensions that had not been destroyed by OBLIVION. She would take Chronos as her consort using the last of her life energies to create their child Aion so named after the Great Maker before her own final transformation into Mistress Death . As the early universe became transformed from energy to physical matter, she would combine the Realms of Death into a dimension all its own abandoning Chronos and their child who would become an avatar to its namesake.

As Mistress Death, she had become something that had never quite existed before preserving and renewing the vitality of the once-living so that they might be returned to the living universe unburdened by memories of their past lives. The first of these would be denizens of the Netherverse and Dark Universe but there would be others yet to come. Devus 7 was reborn within this new universe as a nexus world that eventually became known as N'vāṇa . Its ancient sun was reborn having also been spared destruction and been surrounded by a subdimension often seen as a World Egg. Within this subdimension existed destroyed worlds and stars into which one of the first and most powerful of the Elder Gods called Götterdämmerung would be imprisoned after attacking Aion. Unique within the new universe for other reasons possessing power from the Destroyed Universe that would attract beings to N'vāṇa seeking it out.