Unrelenting Calamity

A Product and Protector of Life

       A blink of light. And gone. In that small blink that lasted only seconds, the spirit answered two questions she asked herself. She asked, who she was, and what her name was. Her soul answered, she was a product of life. If life existed, so did she. She was also the protector of life. Her duty was to make life thrive. And her name was Silva.

      Blink, blink, blink. As the first life fades in and out of existence, Silva fades in and out as well. Once life was solidified, she remained. She was able to see it. She called out to life. She could see it struggling. She tried to show it how to flourish. But alas, she was not powerful enough. Her power seemed to scale with the amount of life on the planet. She was the planet, technically, she could feel every part of it, the cool depths of the ocean, and the warm ground heated by the sun's rays. But she was able to manifest her own body.

      She cheered on and fended off death from the first life, encouraging cells to meld together into slimes. She was ecstatic. Her power grew immensely when the first slime hopped onto land, and to celebrate she grew plants all across the surface, with sparse trees to provide variety. As she watched her slimes joyfully hop across the surface, replicating and thriving, she was in pure bliss. Nothing could be better than this. Waves of serenity and calm flowed through her, everything was right with the world. She burst out in laughter, with each exhale her laughs filled the air, she was giddy. Her purpose had been completed! She felt nothing but pleasure and gratitude for the earth.

      One day, she felt anguish. There were lifeforms suffering somewhere. She searched the earth until she came upon the Slime God, ripping and assimilating organisms. Silva had none of it. For the first time, she felt rage. How dare this wretched being desecrate her paradise! With surges of power she ripped trapped lifeforces out of the slime, and the Corruption and Crimson were the results. She knew of the suffering of the souls trapped inside, and cast many spells to lessen it. The trapped souls thanked her, but she knew that they still wished to take over her world. She was pleased with her handling of the situation, but cautious of the future.

      Silva spent most of her time skipping around pastures and giving any slime she found a hug. Every part of her body surged with energy, and she wanted to diversify the landscape. She created chilling cold tundras, dry and hot deserts, lush and moist jungles. She fills the jungle with endless varieties of creatures, the desert with a select few, and leaves the tundra empty so life can fill it itself.

      Silva blesses the world with metals, and compresses lifeless stone into living moss deep underground. Stone succumbs to compressive forces and creates granite and marble. The pressure at the center of the earth creates the underworld. The clouds in the sky condense into walkable islands. Silva loves it all. Anything in her world makes her happy.

      She believes that the more she diversifies her world, the more her mission is complete. She creates vast cave systems to allow her beloved surface-dwelling slimes to venture deep into the earth, and populate the underground. She graces the oceans with sandy depths, coral and primitive fish. In one ocean, she discovers that there is already a massive depth filled with life, and she rejoices. Life had come about without her! She was succeeding!

      Suddenly, power flows into her like never before. With a surprised gasp, she embraces the power. Her body warms and begins to glow faintly. She had reached her full power. Vines grew over her body, glowing with life energy. Silva had fully matured, and become the true Spirit of the world. She christened the world as Terraria, and vowed to protect it until her last breath. With effortless releases, she created leagues of advanced organisms to inhabit the vast world that she had nurtured.

      The harpies to inhabit the skies, the demons to inhabit the underworld, the humans to inhabit the surface, the dwarves to inhabit the underground, the lihizhards to inhabit the jungle, the merfolk to inhabit the oceans, and the angels to inhabit the space around the world.

      Her previously giddy attitude had disappeared, this was no time to be naive. She was cautious, and had to keep an eye on the scourges of her world- the corruption and the crimson. She creates the wall of flesh to inhibit their growth, with an antithesis to the corruption hidden within it- the hallow. The hallow was truly an overcompensation, but so long as it remained inside the wall of flesh, it would be kept in check.

      One last thing needed to be done. The five elements of her Earth needed a protector. She could not do everything, and with a great portion of her magic she created five elementals. Brimstone, Cloud, Sand, Water, and Earth. These would serve as a physical manifestation of the planet's will, an extension of Terraria.

      With all of these things done, Silva decided to live her life in peace as the first Dryad, recruiting more humans with a natural affinity for the earth to be Dryads as well. She was ready to let the world fend for itself for a while.