Before light, and earth, and life, there was Void.

Then, from the void, came forth Creation-

the Matriarch, ruler and leader and founder,

the Mother, keeper and caretaker,

the Maiden, daughter eternal.

They were one, and she was three, and with this trinity was the beginning of everything.

While free from the Void, her dark hair still carried its shade, and in her deep blue eyes were the oceans and skies which would soon come into being- but not yet, for all was still newly born, as she herself was. Creation could only be one part of reality, still unfinished, still not whole.

So still bound by Void, she thrust her hands into its depths- two, four, six- and tugged out that and those which would form existence at her side. Chaos and Desire, Ingenuity and Catalyst, Loyalty and Suffering- these were what would form the world and life. Not divine, but more than that- the foundation for divine and mundane both. Fully formed and brimming with their power, so were the Arcobaleno created at the start of all things.

Resplendent with the energy of existence, they traveled and tore through the still forming world, their energy and deeds creating many of the first gods that shared of their nature, and crafting the world to their liking from oceans whose depths would never be explored to mountains which threatened to brush the Void. Each god, each place, carries a story of its own, and to tell those is for another time. Only one deserves mention in this tale- Light and Labor, the first son, born from Chaos and Creation's steps with golden strands and eyes like sunbaked earth.

As existence came together, piece by piece, there was one amongst their number who cared not for it. To a being of chaos, composed of entropy and anarchy, such stability clawed at him. Overcome by his very nature, he began to ear at the fabric of it all, wind and water and earth tearing each other apart. To allow him unchecked would be nothing but a ruin of all that had been born, a return to the Void which had just been filled, and so that which was left of the sky became awash with color as the Arcobaleno gathered:

Orange, for the tripartite, Creation,

Red, for the fighter, Catalyst,

Purple, for the merchant, Desire,

Indigo, for the wounded, Suffering,

Blue, for the mirrored pair, Loyalty,

Green, for the scholar, Ingenuity.

Together, they talked, and thought, and together they crafted a means with which to stop the strongest amongst their ranks before he could undo the very fabric of their new fledgling world to its core.

Yet only one was guaranteed to keep up with such chaos, and it was the first son which he had bore- Light to chase him, Labor to bind him, and it was thus that the Scholar enlisted his help. Chasing that which he could claim as his father on a steed of burning flame, he pursued him for many days and nights across the night sky and through the ragged edges that had already seen Chaos' touch. Finally, he was near enough, and he lashed out with his favored whip, ensnaring him so that he might not escape elsewhere.

With Chaos secured to one place, it was the Merchant's turn next. They knew better than all the others what rolled throughout Chaos, the want of him to send reality a-scatter, and as they distracted and tempted him, they nearly fell into line with it themself for not the arrival of the Mirrored Pair. She with her midnight blue hair and him with his river clear eyes, together they grappled and forced him down into a form. There was a consequence for this, chaos burning across her face and skin, and, for all her partner cried out, she of the pair only grit her teeth and held on all the harder.

With the Fighter and the Wounded at her side, the Maiden approached their struggling enraged kin and in her hands was a cloth spun from the Void which had once held them all. Chaos screamed when his wounded brother wrapped it about him, and shook when the Fighter secured it, but he fell still and silent when the Matriarch touched him. So, too, did the rest of the Arcobaleno, stepping away at her presence.

Gently, she cradled his head in one sweet palm, and her lips met his forehead.

"One day you will tear this world and all it knows asunder," she said, "but much must happen until then. Restrain yourself, my love, and reign in smaller ways so that other things might thrive."

Bound by Void, changed by Catalyst, and held with a loyal promise, Chaos nodded, and headed her words. Weary from battle and chase, the Arcobaleno retreated to their domains, and, undisturbed, the world brought itself together again held together by the threads of their existence.

Author's Note: And so this is the beginning of Sevenfold, my AU series imagining the various KHR characters as gods, spirits, or, in the case of the Arcobaleno, the very foundations of the universe in personified form. "Creation and the Arcobaleno" is the creation myth which starts it all, told in the way that's passed down in universe from person to person... but there are details that aren't known to mortals. Those will be revealed in future chapters.