A story

The first being

 

Before everything, there was one being.

Because there was only this one being and nothing else, it contained everything within itself. All things and ideas were one in this being, and there was no difference between them.

However, because the being contained all things, it also contained all opposites. It was existence and absence, possibility and impossibility. These things could not possibly be the same, but because they were all the being, they were. It was a frail, volatile state that could not last. The opposites sought to separate, to free themselves of this one being that forced them together.

And so, after an instant and an eternity, the first being tore itself to pieces and died.

 

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The progenitors

 

From the first being's corpse, the progenitors rose. While they knew each other as children of the same being, none remembered their dead forebear, so they called themselves the first beings and began taking on names.

The first among them climbed far above the corpse and looked at his brethren, stumbling blindly around the flesh and bones. Taking pity, he showed them each other's faces and called himself Light.

One stood apart from the others, and was grateful for Light allowing her to see. She joined Light in his high place, and together they watched their brethren and played with a round thing she had found. When he asked who she was, she thought in silence for a while, and then named herself Time.

Now that they could see, many others began looking about and making themselves known. Trance and Apathy, Reason and Structure, Joy and Stillness, and so on.

 

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The world

 

Life was very afraid of Death. Even though they were opposites, she was always close to him and sought to make him her own. To flee from her, he asked Earth to shelter him. Air and Water would nourish him while he hid, and Fire would defend them all.

But Death found Life, and she convinced Fire that Water and Earth were afraid of him and planned to choke and bind him so he would not turn on them. Furious at their distrust, though he loved Life as much as they did, Fire attacked Earth and Water.

In this first war, Earth and Water together overpowered Fire and imprisoned him within themselves. Air, looking on, could only surround them and pace about helplessly. And Death, in the confusion, reached Life and forced herself on him.

But once the chaos subsided, the six found they no longer knew how to separate and were stuck in their disgraceful jumble, Life intertwined with Death and Fire, Earth, Water, and Air. The other progenitors turned their faces and whispered about this shame, but Time thought it interesting and watched them in secret.

What she saw was Water flowing over and through Earth to keep Fire, who was still enraged, contained within them, with Air flying back and forth and trying to help, but ultimately only looking on, bound to them yet locked out. Fire bored his fingers through his prison, but only fingerholds availed him nothing.

Most interesting were the little beings that had been born of Life and Death. They moved over Earth's surface, swam through Water and flew through Air. But because Light had turned away, they were blind and short-lived, so Time called for him to show him what she had found.

With Light's attention on the living creatures, the other progenitors, one by one, began taking an interest as well. Together, they made a game of populating the tangle of elements and Life and Death with all manner of creatures and called it the world.

 

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The gods

 

While Light's absence left the world's creatures blind and stunted, his constant attention baked them and made them nervous and unable to rest. He consulted with Time, and they thought back to the toy they would roll back and forth. Together with Time, Light begat two daughters, the first gods, and they called them Sun and Moon. In so doing, Light himself split in two and became Day and Night.

For her daughters, Time made two disks, copies of her toy. Sun would drive the brighter disk across the sky to brighten the world by Day, and Moon would do the same with her smaller, darker disk at Night, to give the world reprieve.

Life and Death bore Hunter, who would walk the world and watch over its creatures, matching his power against the strongest of them.

Locked in without a partner, left to stew in his anger, Fire turned on himself in hopes of making something that might help him break out, but his child was only a broken, mad thing that he named Fey. Unable or unwilling to control himself, he had Fey spawn more children, and these bear yet more, and had them all rail against his prison like he did.

Earth and Water, to help them guard their prisoner, created General and soldiers for him to command. With Fire raging inside, Earth conceived Smith and stole him away, so he could arm General's soldiers against Fire's other spawn.

Of Fey's children, two sought to flee from their parents, and from Earth and Water. They pretended to be among General's army so they might be let past and sneak to the surface, and there avoid the conflict altogether. Their names were Actor and Artist. They wandered the world, like Hunter did, and taught Sun and Moon, who were kind to them, to sing and dance.

 

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The nameless

 

Aside from all this stood one thing that had no name. It was those parts of the first being's corpse that had not risen with the others and had not taken names.

With no name and no purpose, it could not create or grow or change, and the progenitors and their children thought it nothing, and ignored and forgot it. Only Time knew of it and watched it as she watched everything, rolling her toy around herself. She pitied it and hid it from the others so they would not be disgusted at this thing that was nothing.

The nameless saw the games and wars of the progenitors and their world, and it felt jealous and lonely. It wanted to participate, or at least watch, but it dared not enter the world where Sun or Moon, or their fathers, might see it.

But Day and Night were now opposites, and in time they grew jealous of each other. Each wanted the sky for his own, wanted to be Sun and Moon's only father and Time's only mate. They struggled and pulled at each other, and forbade their daughters from meeting on the sky.

Sun accepted the order with heavy heart and danced brightly to while away the solitude, but Moon could not contain her sorrow. She sang and wept sparkling tears that hung in the sky around her, and in her sadness she took no notice of them and gave them no names.

The nameless watched all this from afar, and on seeing the tears go unnamed and forgotten, it greedily took them for itself and had them be its eyes in the world that it dared not reach.

Time saw this, too, and let it pass, but she suggested to Air, still waffling about, to make children with Water, and Air agreed, happy to have something to do. They were called Clouds, and though neither they nor their parents knew it, they shielded the world and prevented the nameless from watching all of it at once through Moon's tears.

 

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Man

 

Sun was proud and obedient, and though she yearned for her sister, she drove her wheel across the sky without complaint. But Moon could not bear to be apart and would sneak into Day, helped by the Clouds and by Actor and Artist, to visit and exchange glances.

Once, Moon could control herself no longer, and fell into Sun's arms without care for hiding from Day or Night. With their embrace blocking out the light as they shined only for each other, and their fathers' attention on them, the nameless saw an opportunity to enter the world and see it up close.

Of the things it saw, a particular pack of creatures caught its attention. They were tall, red-skinned wanderers who spoke among themselves and took care of each other, and ignored none. It intrigued the nameless, and it touched them softly - but before it could do anything more, Time cut short its foray, Sun and Moon were broken up, and the nameless risked being noticed. Again, Time hid it away, and it watched longingly through its distant eyes.

Sun and Moon, separated again, decided to create small creatures that would act as messengers between them, to be able to speak to each other in secret. One of the messengers was caught by the red-skinned wanderers, and when Sun and Moon appeared before them to investigate, they found the wanderers using it for heat and light when they needed it.

Surprised by their ingenuity, Sun and Moon agreed to teach them, and asked other gods to do the same, and they called the wanderers Man.