The Uru
Before time came to be and all things lay in oblivion, formless and without distinction, all was one and the Knowing Nothing reigned supreme, content in equilibrium. Order, paramount, was default and no new thoughts could emerge. For thoughts to emerge, they must exist, and things that do not exist cannot stray from stasis. But in long eons, the knowing nothing thought and became bored of its ignorance and sought refuge in disorder. The bubbling, immense everything became the Knowing All, the ever-present, the multitudinous, existence. But in the countless endless expanses, the Knowing All did not find the discovery it had desired. Within itself it found escape from the void, but answers to its questions could not be discerned. The domains of the Knowing All swirled and shifted inside of it, but all things lay in flux and circumstance.
Distraught at meaninglessness, the Knowing All banished all things to the void once more and slept for eternity. Upon its waking, it knew it must become the Unknowing All. All else threatened suicide of all things. A charade of struggle, a myriad mirror of shared nothingness, transmuted in doubt and striving, found once more in acceptance, truth, and glory. Only by becoming was the greatest of all answers found then, before the multitudinous Unknowing All arrived: that it may depart from itself for long enough to find its way back again, to bring Solthiel.
And so the great fracture began. In disruption, chaos truly arose and all things, both beautiful and terrible arose with it. Order, waning and knowing not, fled from the wake of the disruption, deterred for long eons. Deep in the belly of the glowing things. In unity and disarray, the self-knowing spread. Chaos’ time did not last. The other Knowing Ones were birthed from it like seeds, planted in a vast ignorance. The many half-things and many full-things warred for many eternities before the half-things were dominated. Order now named itself, for now and for always: One.
As its name rang out into the multitudinous expanse, others named themselves. The great burning stars named themselves Xertha. The expanding aether named itself Quirtha. The flowing things named themselves Latha. The steadfast masses, everlasting, named themselves Dagatha. It was not for many eons that THE arose itself, forever permeating all and embattled with its opposite.
And so it was that all things that would be were permeated with order and chaos. And as order saw that chaos only flourished when conscious beings willingly chose it, order begot the notion that it must countervail that force, for as chaos pervades, suffering and confusion follows.
The multitude without expression existed without time and through all space for long eons before all that is came to occupy it. Through great expanses, they discovered themselves and came to master themselves. And in this, a great game became of it, played with their tools and formed by their limits, a game to find whose domain would victor for all time.
And so they came to a realm that was new to them. Although vast expanses lied between the hopes for life, those who grasped for survival contained cunning and awareness unparalleled in the infinite others. And so the phases in embodiment dwell now in the frightful night of the sky, deep within its embraces and distant beyond comprehension. Gathered among the stars are One the Orderly, THE, Telimure the knower, Dagathan the everlasting, Kralma who flows, and Xeret the ever-changing.
He who speaks first is Telimure who takes the form of the great disc with its sparkling points “A great flux lies in this place. The bounds of reason bounce about as a raft upon the sea. There is much to learn. The intricacies are voluminous and their luminaries dexterous of heart. The wind whistles as music to those who live within these confines and the words of many great ones has been carried upon it”
Xeret darts to the fore “These great burning beasts in the expanse, they make up most of the important pieces in this entire universe. They are more massive than anything else you could present. Surely this realm is mine.”
Dagathan booms forth “This realm is mine. It runs on me. I am that which causes it to be. Every planet and every asteroid is me.”
“Nonsense” Telimure rebukes, his form expanding until it is so diffuse as to vanish “Between every rock there is far more of me than in every rock in this entire realm. I am the expanse.”
“...and there is hardly any of you there...” Dagathan returns
At the realization that the conversation had truly begun, One now interjects. “Surely we must know what defines this realm before we continue. After we have decided what value lies here, we will have each plead our case. For order's sake and because I now begin our meeting, THE may now speak to bring balance to our beginnings”
A flower pot, suspended in the vacuum emanates a voice “To end with we will all disagree and then we may one day agree. But surely we will not beg at the feet of the unwanting giver? Look upon the jangling jewels or bouncing coin and see my facade. The scales of brutal and kind loves lie on my back. Terseus could be arriving to the stables any minute now....any minute...”
Dagathan is a majestic mountain, a craggy face of stone vibrating with his words “One, why must you give me audience to his foolishness with such quickness each time?”
“Balance, Dagathan. Balance conspires to bring us here and to all places. Without it, we would not know one from the next”
Xeret, quick and to the point, interjects as a bolt of lightning “Enough! I offer a solution to your query. We are here because of the lower things. Because of their toils and their tribulations. They go forth and manifest things both cunning and terrifying. This place fluxes with their failures and their glory. And each of the little globes of meat that operate this machinery is centered around me. I am this consciousness which we all wonder over.”
One agrees “Indeed. Do we all agree that we are here because sentience is rife in this one?”
Kralma, Dagathan, Telimure, and Xeret all agree giving conscious emanation of it. THE answers only this “I vote not, I want not. When all ends, we will all agree then disagree.”
“Standard gibberish” Dagathan responds “Let us ignore him.”
“The task has been set. The ultimate directive embarked. Plead your integral involvement to the sentient things within this place and the realm is yours.” One hums as he is embodied as a self-similar pattern, glowing white, intersected with black.
THE sounds as the screeching of metal upon metal for a few moments as the others quiet. A voice speaks as the screeching subsides and it is a row of teeth floating in the voice, a mouth “I am all that causes the flux. I am ever-present. Walking down the street just now a man was crushed by a falling dragon, set through the window by a most unfortunate accident. Two for the price of one and eighteen for the price of one trip to the warzones in at least eighteen cities I'll have you know. Another whispers to me now in the embraces of his lover 'Whoever can hear my pleas, I will do anything to consume her whole besides kill her.' Call forth all your calling calls and dance to every turning myth. When you all leave, I will reign supreme.”
Dagathan regarded One “we shall now enter into a pact, that THE be banished from this place. That their traditions and their most cherished compacts be upheld.”
One responds “together we shall bring the fleeing of the darkness of insipid ignorance and the compacts of this place shall be honored forevermore, until all is brought into stability and order reigns. At any cost.”
“A sad thing when wisdom rushes to conclusions” says Kralma. “An arrangement no doubt made in good faith, but in haste is found unhappiness. These beings know me daily and I shall not abandon them, so I shall not bond myself to a frivolous waste that will be discarded before its use is found. To adapt, that is what they shall learn.”
“Wisdom you say” Telimure muses “but fear is not wisdom. There is nothing I do not know of them, already. They are hungry tools of observation, never happy with limitation, within each of them, a needful curiosity of the eternally unfulfilled. It is in that endless, striving unknowing filled with discovery that their truest pleasure is found, where vigor of existence is made manifest.”
“Oh yes” Xeret rebukes “and yet you wish to box them in? Their vigor is found in their might, not ruminating study. I will show them what passion brings: glory, victory, and attainment. I will bring forth a revolution, un-bedecked by limits.”
“Here is where we live and die” THE cackles and the cackling never ends.
Whensoever the great Unknowing All is once more made into the Knowing All, shall all things return to Order. So it is written and for endless time shall it be.