In the beginning, before Time, there were the Primordials. These two entities embodied powers with many aspects. One embodied order and creation, the other chaos and destruction. Balanced they were, in the Beginning; balanced they were meant to be. Until one day, after One had begun to cast her lot with mortals, a minor dispute between the other Primordial and a Mortal King led to the death of that same King. The first Primordial became furious; ever since then, both believed that they were destined to destroy each other, clashing repeatedly while never achieving decisive victory over the other, their battles woven over a vast, featureless plane of existence. Finally, One loomed over the Other, a massive spear in her hands, ready to be brought down over the other's head. Only the sudden appearance of a new figure in the white void stayed her hand.
The victor looked to the newcomer, clad only in a black robe and hood, and carrying a massive scythe. "Who are you?" she called.
"I am the end of suffering, of life, of all things. I am the light at the end of the tunnel, the reason for existence. I am a visitor in all households, welcome or not. I am Death, and all will know my blade." The fallen brother struggled anew, trying once again to dislodge his better, when Death spoke again. "Be careful who you slay, however. For beings as powerful as yourselves, one cannot exist without the other. If one dies, so shall the other, in the same circumstances. If you slay him, he will slay you."
"How is this possible?" asked the victor, turning away from Death as she sneered at her brother in hateful disgust, "he'll be dead."
"No being of great power ever truly dies until I reap them." Death spoke again, his voice cold and unconcerned as he continued, "If I reap one, I must reap the other. Without balance, there cannot be existence. When a hunter is wiped out, the prey overpopulate, and when prey is extinguished, the hunter starves."
The Victor stood up and removed her foot from her brother's throat. "If that is how it must be, than I will cast him out of this plane, imprison him within an existence where there is nothing, there can be nothing, and will never change. I will move another plane between him and I so that we will never fight again; he will never destroy another creature of mine again, and this existence will constantly draw him back to the hole he crawls from. And, as befitting his nature, I shall call it the Void, and warn all of Creation against it. His filthy lies and rotten plots will never harm anyone again!" As she spoke, she made it so.
A blackened pit opened under the brother, and tenebrous clouds snaked out and latched onto his wrists and ankles, dragging him under as he writhed and kicked, spitting curses at his sister even as he and his voice faded into the black. The hole closed behind him, and then reopened under the other Primordial, this time a deep, galactic violet in color. She floated down through of her own accord and, waving her hands, began building a wall throughout this plane. Unlike most walls, this wall was broken, uneven, and rocky; not unlike a belt of asteroids, or a planet's rings. The beings that inhabited the floating mountains, however, were the real deterrents. Giant, unspeakable monsters called Kaiju; each the size of the asteroids they walked upon themselves, with claws, teeth, spines, and all other manners of sharp protrusions.
She looked upon her newest creation, with the Void below it bubbling and writhing, working hard to contain its prisoner, and saw that it was good. Opening another hole, this time above her, she floated upwards into an ornate and highly decorated throne room. Evidence of two thrones existed, but only one remained. Upon it sat a beautiful woman, wearing a black dress with gold filigree, and she wore a black lace veil over her face. Tear tracks ran down her eyes, and her guards stood at attention behind her, giant polearms at the ready.
"Did you kill him?" the woman asked, face twisting in rage as she spat out the next sentence. "Did you kill the monster that murdered my husband!"
"Gjallathinius's death will solve nothing. I have imprisoned him within a dimension of my own making, and then built another one on top of that. Should you choose to create this world of plenty you've been speaking of you'll have plenty of protection against further… incidents, High Queen Leyanna," said the Primordial, her armor disappearing into golden light and her spear shifting into a knotted wooden staff.
"What about justice?"
The Primordial's eyebrow quirked. "You would have me kill my own brother?"
"But that's what you set out to do, Aela!"
"I was persuaded of the error of that line of thought by a mutual acquaintance."
With a snarl, the High Queen launched up from her throne, sword drawn, causing her guards scattered around the room to draw their weapons as well. "Treason!"
The Primordial only laughed. "You presume to levy charges against me? You dare to defy your creator?" As she spoke, her armor returned, her staff turned back into a spear, and she grew several feet, now towering over the smaller Astrals. "If you would so foolishly do battle, then to arms! I fought my brother only moments ago and subdued him, he that would end all of Creation. Fight me and lose! I'll take you all on without a second thought!" she spat, her anger now seeping through as she spoke, "enjoy your freedom from Gjallathinius, because this is the last time I will help any of you, and if I find out my Brother has been killed, I will come down here and slay his killer myself. If I find any of you practicing the same dark magics he invented, I will smite you from above. Besmirch my good name any further, and I will wipe you all from existence!" As she shouted her parting words, her golden armor glowed brightly, briefly blinding everyone in attendance. As they looked back up, Aela, their Goddess, was gone.
She appeared in a bright white castle, and Aela strode into the main chamber, a massive room with ceilings high enough to contain skies, columns taller than mountains, and a throne at the back wall, large enough to make any Astral or Mortal king weep in envy. Here she sat, poised, observant, should anything go amiss in her world. Unfortunately for her, the prison she created for Gjallathinius worked well, but not well enough; though his spirit and body were locked away, his mind was free to expand outward, finding Astrals and Mortals alike to pull under his sway, while the strength of his prison also hid his movements from her. When he finally struck, it would likely be far too late….
Time passed. Weeks, then months, years, decades, then centuries, millennia, even epochs and eons; Aela's warnings slipped from memory, and she was immortalized even more through works of art and religious teachings of the Astrals. Mortal minds eventually forgot about her altogether as the old died, the young stopped caring, and whole universes were snuffed, created, and reset at the whims of the Astrals. Eventually, the Astrals reorganized their laws, further segmenting them, cementing them into more and more separate rolls, until eventually almost no Astrals would collaborate on any project, preferring to pretend that they were the Lone Deity of their universes.
During this time, Gjallathinius, who at that point had begun calling himself the Void, was completely forgotten. The Astral contingent assigned to patrol Convexity, the realm between the Void and the Mortal realms, stopped patrolling, and the Kaiju left to guard the Void began a series of infighting, threatening the other creatures who would come to call the timeless, endless universe home. Then, even worse, the Astrals forgot about Convexity in general. The Time had come; The Void would come calling.
He found the perfect host when the first Astral Twins were born. Unlike the Astrals, who carried a mix of Creation and Destruction, these Twins split the power. The older, Gareth, knew Creation; while the younger, Ambrose, knew only Destruction, making him the perfect vessel for the Void. Through a cruel twist of fate, Gjallathinius mistook the older for the younger, and planted his evil seed in Gareth's mind instead. The infant's inherent goodness fought Gjallathinius to the bitter end, but eventually jealousy over a mutual love interest with Ambrose would lead to the fall of Gareth. But to understand the Fall, one must understand the Rise.
A/N: So. Nwe year, new me? Maybe? I'm sorry I've been so absent. And that I've been doing this story an injustice. No excuse, other than moving, new job... ahem. Anyways, Happy/Merry (insert every Holliday I've missed in my extensive absence)! And Happy New Year! Hope y'all all have a great MMXIX!