The Beginning...
I would start with "Once upon a time..." but then you might think this is a faerie tale... And I can assure you that this is indeed no faerie tale.
But there was a Once, and Once there was a magickal world, borne from a Goddess both noble and sweet. She made the world with a loving hand and allowed Her creatures to roam with will and freedom. The world began to thrive.
The population grew. Free, yes... And fierce.
Many began to forget the Mother. Some began to disrespect and disdain Her. There were those that remained loyal and loving, but they were too few and far between for Her to see. So with a broken heart and a discouraged soul, She closed Her eyes to Her world.
With the Goddess no longer watching, the people grew savage and some even insane. The world grew dark and eventually it was torn apart. Half of the souls never made it to the other side, but the ones that did were strong. Strong enough to push on and work together to make the lands live again. Sounds like a happy ending, doesn't it?
Unfortunately, this is no faerie tale... this is not the end, nor is what follows very happy.
The Survivors...
Those that struggled to bring life back to the world were happy, glowing with the satisfaction of a job well done. The world thrived... Ever growing, ever changing in a constant state of evolution. The people adapted easily, keeping up with the progress of their nations. The realms grew mighty when tended to. Those that were unpopulated simply charged, growing wild with elemental power as they waited patiently for their turn to prosper. Worry was lost to the people, they had grown comfortable in their ways... Just perhaps, they had gotten a little TOO comfortable.
They let their guard down.
The goddess of old was a distant memory for some. There were those that never even knew of her existence. So the tales of Her twin sister were even less heard of, the knowledge of her just a faded fragment of ancient legend.
But in her time, she had been known to be everything the goddess was... and everything She wasn't. Powerful and strong, the twin beauties of lore; so similar and yet so different. The Mother was loving, warm and fruitful in her everything, and the Sister was cold, hateful and barren in her nothing. With the Mother no longer watching Her world, the Sister slipped in to spread her hate. Envy and rage crept into the souls that kept the world living, insanity ran rampant, so much violence and mistrust and so much hate. The elemental Essences, the very core of what the world was made of, could not withstand such a pent up attack of sinister energy. The ugliness of Nothing overcame Everything and overcame an entire world.
Celestia was lost. In the end.
The Rebirth...
Nothing.
No sight. No sound. No life.
In the beginning... There was Nothing. The great void of infinity that went on for eternity until it was Nothing again in the perpetual cycle of Everything. That was the Beginning and the End that cradled Light within it's Shadow, and life inside the Nothing. The Light grew, white hot and hungry as the Thunder shook the Nothing and the Shadow withdrew with a cold introspect that hardened into shards of Ice that glittered forever in the Everything. Bright and hot, Thunder struck and Flame erupted, burning to melt the sharp edge of Ice into the graceful fluidity of Water. The womb of the Nothing created, the stoic Earth was birthed from its embryonic depths to stir the gentle hand of Wind. And this was the Everything that formed Celestia, and She turned around and forged the world with Magick.
The Elements rose, they mingled and fought. Pure essence in a show of fabulous strength, each force fiercely claiming it's own territory. The Elements merged, and formed their mighty realms from pure energy and what little it could remember from a universal nostalgia, the essence of each Element seeking out it's own. So it ends, so it begins. The souls will prove that they are strong and Celestia will rise from the ashes like the phoenix of myth. Making myth into reality.
Happily forever after.
But nothing is forever and all good things must end eventually.
The Goddess woke to the world and felt that those of her chosen children had squandered the precious gifts she had bestowed on them with perfect love. So she broke and she took the divine sparks that she given and the world sank into darkness. She only thought that it would be what was for the greater good of the world, but her greater good was terrible in reality. Half the souls of the world grew thin for love and life, fading from this world for all their weakness; the strong that thrived wanted what was theirs and they rose to destroy everything in their path until they had it. Some defied her... Some stood by her... and in the end everything was reduced to broken bones, to ashes, to dust, to nothing...
...Continued... Somewhere...
(Thanks for every single soul who ever did lay foot upon this wonderful world. Celestia never would have been magickal if not for the magick that each of you brought to it.)
