In The Beginning
In the beginning, there was nothing. Nothing, but the Void. There was no life, no sound, and no light or dark.
But then there was. A light shined into existence, and so Raava, the spirit of light, order and balance came to be. However, unbeknown to her, her light cast shadows, and Vaatu was born. He became Raava's opposite, embodying the darkness and chaos of the universe.
If they had met then, Raava could have imprisoned Vaatu sooner, but he was cunning and chose to slink away, unnoticed by Raava.
Raava looked at the Void that surrounded her, and decided that would not do. She began to take this void, spinning it, weaving it into the fabric of existence. She was attempting to create another being, similar to herself. Her first attempts fell apart, crude and inelegant, but Raava continued to experiment. Eventually she created a spirit she was happy with. Its name was Eris, and Raava thought her a perfect pet to keep her company.
But while Raava wasn't looking, Eris looked away from her, towards the Void. The next moment, Raava realized Eris had gone. She had been lost in the Void.
It was then Raava realized that while she was powerful enough to survive the Void, her creations wouldn't be. So she thought to herself, I need a place they can stay, where they won't wander into the Void. So she took more of the Void, weaving in a different fashion, not looking to create life, but boundaries, boundaries to hold out the Void. She laid the foundations of the earth, filled the oceans with water, and anchored the sky to the ground. Finished, she sat back and contemplated her work.
This creation seemed more solid than her previous ones, and different. It didn't seem right. But it would serve her purpose all the same. She decided to create guardian spirits, spirits who would watch this world for her, and guard its boundaries for those spirits unwary enough to try and enter the Void.
(cough cough cough! Ahem, pardon me)
She created Baihu, spirit of the earth, to guard the world's depths. She created Agni, spirit of fire, to watch from the sky and light up the world each day. She created Tui, spirit of the moon, to watch during the night, and La, spirit of the ocean, to observe the world's watery borders. Finally she created Ashai, spirit of the wind, to watch everywhere the wind blows.
Once done, she sat back and began creating every spirit ever known. After a lot of work, she stopped, and observed her creations. To her dismay, she discovered that the spirits weren't happy with this world. They were pure spiritual energy, while the world had been woven so tightly, it had solidified into matter.
It had to be tough, to withstand the Void. But I cannot leave my creations unhappy. Raava said to herself. So she set to work creating a new world. As she had guessed, worlds made of spiritual energy broke up easily, sucked into the Void.
Raava looked back at her previous world and got an idea. She quickly constructed a new world, and overlaid it over the old. Her theory was that the solidity of the old world would protect the new. And she was correct. However, every now and again, the world began to slip, so Raava planted a tree at the very centre of the world. The tree grew incredibly fast, taking roots in both worlds. This tree was the Tree of Time, and it still holds our worlds together today. For the first world Raava created was our world – the material plane. And the second is the spirit world. All the spirits moved into the new world, happy with their new home.
(So wait hold on! If all the spirits went to the Spirit World, how come we have spirit wilds?)
(Well young one, some spirits still feel nostalgic about their old residences, and don't really feel happy about us humans walking all over it. How would you feel if I gave you a toy you didn't really like, so I gave you a better one and gave the first to someone else, and then you saw that person playing in the street completely happy?)
(…)
(heheheh. Now off to bed with you, Wan. I'll tell you another tomorrow night if you're good.)
(Goodnight Grampa. *yawn*)
(Goodnight my dear Wan)