Gaia

Prologue: The World That Was

AN: Hello, lovelies!  Strap in because we're about to have a Creation Story!  Yeeeeeehaaaaw!

...Yeah, I don't know why I turned into a rodeo cowboy for a moment.

Moving on.

This is all important information that sets up the story, so please don't skip it just because BTS isn't in it, yet.  They'll show up in the next chapter.

Comment, vote, you know the drill.

-----

Excerpt from the writings of the Book of the Gaia, dated A.D. 1820

The world was created in a day. A week. A month.

It was created by a man. A woman. By the combination of fire and ice.

There is only one God. There are hundreds of gods. There is no God.

They walk amongst us. They live above us. They live on a plane of existence too vast and complex for our minds to truly comprehend.

They built us. They birthed us from their flesh. They thought us into existence.

How we came to be varies entirely depending on who you ask.

-----

In the beginning, there was darkness. That much is true.

From the darkness, a spark of intelligence formed. There was no premeditation or divine plan in place; it was merely a fluke, a serendipitous gathering of elements that somehow gained a conscious thought.

Eons passed as the consciousness floated through the void of nothingness. Eventually, a new concept formed in its awareness: It was lonely.

No one knows how it came to be that the consciousness learned to form the nothingness into somethingness, but from this urge to no longer be alone came the world.

First, it formed the universe, laying down the foundations of the planets, the stars, moons, and cosmos. Then it brought forth the creatures of the land and sea, fashioning each in ways that would allow it to thrive in its environment.

As it experimented with shape and form and function, old versions were wiped clean and replaced with new creatures. The world was constantly destroyed and reformed until, at last, it was pleased with what it made.

Yet, even with the new playthings it had formed, it was not fulfilled. The more time passed, the less satisfied it became.

It was when it saw how the creatures it created grouped and paired that it realized that, although it had created such a marvelous world, it had nothing like itself to share it with. It was true companionship it lacked, and it was another like itself it craved. But to share existence with another would require a physical form, and it was merely a consciousness with no tangible manifestation.

Leaving the world to itself, it launched into the most complex undertaking yet: to create a form it could take, and then place itself within that vessel.

It drew from its previous creations, crafting a body it felt would stand out from the other creatures. Soon, it settled on a form that was satisfying. It was ready to transcend into what it felt would be a true existence. With the task of the vessel completed, it had one last task to undertake. Before it could occupy its body, it needed to make itself a partner.

Knowing it was a conglomerate of elements, it gathered each and tried to fuse them together to create its equal. Every attempt of combining the elements that sparked its own existence ended in failure.

In desperation, it separated the elements and tried again, treating each as an individual instead of part of a whole. The result was seven beings with which to share existence.

It crafted seven more vessels, splitting them evenly so that there would be four of the male and four of the female. It chose for itself a female form, having given females the power of birth. It felt that, as the creator, it was the most appropriate choice.

And, thus, the Gaia and her guardians were born.

From the mother of the world and her disciples, others were born. The first offspring were gods in their own rights, sharing the powers of creation and destruction wielded by their heavenly parents. With each generation, however, the powers dwindled until each new descendant was a mere mortal creature.

Those that retained the gifts of their creators rose above the mortals, proclaimed gods by their descendants as they spread across the globe. Many crafted worlds for themselves outside the realms of the mortals that worshipped them. Others chose to remain on the Earth, walking amongst their worshippers.

Gaia and her disciples were of the former group, falling into a long-awaited sleep in a heaven of their own creation. The Olympians, the latter.

Centuries passed and unrest came to the world. At its center were the Olympians. Not satisfied with what they had, their thirst for power and indifference to their subjects disrupted the natural order.

One man's slight to Poseidon drowned an entire peaceful civilization, but the Gaia did not awaken.

A child's refusal to offer gifts to Hephaestus turned Pompeii to ash, yet the Gaia slept on.

Wars broke out, famine ravaged the lands, and the Olympians did nothing to quell the turmoil, too wrapped up in their own selves to do more than toss more fuel into the fire when they felt inclined.

A cry for help rose from the people, a plea to any who could hear and would come to their aid. Many of the divine beings from other civilizations watched helplessly as the Olympians punished the mortals for their audacity to seek other gods. The Olympians were some of the first born; they were too powerful to oppose. There was only one who had the power to put a stop to their tyranny.

It was the desolation of Damascus that woke the Gaia.

Horrified by what occurred while she had slept, she descended upon Mount Olympus in a fiery rage. Despite being their ultimate creator, not even she could kill them. Instead, she threw them into a dark realm that would serve as their prison for their crimes against not only their own children but the children of the other gods.

Though her actions brought an end to the Olympian's antics, it caused great turmoil among the other gods. In secret, the powers from every corner of the world gathered to share their fears. If a single entity could imprison an entire pantheon, then she could do the same to any of them. It was too much power for a single being to possess.

Knowing they were limited by the inability to kill a god, they devised another method to keep her power in check and preserve their own existences and freedoms. Using the gifts they had cultivated throughout the centuries, they managed to trap her and extract her consciousness from her body.

This consciousness, the Soul of Gaia, they placed into a mortal infant. The hope was that by killing the mortal, they would be able to kill their creator and safeguard themselves from sharing the same fate as the Olympians. The mortal died; the Soul did not.

As her Soul entered a cycle of death and rebirth, she became lost among the mortals. Her disciples, desperate to find her, followed suit, discarding their immortal bodies one by one until they, too, were absorbed into the continual pattern of birth and death and rebirth.

And so it has been for centuries.

It is said that one day the cycles will catch each other. And when all eight are reunited, the Gaia will once more awaken.

And she will seek her revenge. 

-----

AN: Dun dun duuuunnnn?