2023 Week XXXIV.

 Hello Internet,

School starts this week, and I am not entirely sure how this blog will continue or what it will look like.  In lieu of waxing philosphical about that, I instead will post something I have been working on for fun.

Normally, I keep to a writing schedule.  Admittedly, as the last week has been going on, I have been writing less now than I have in years.  This is both good and bad.  It has taken a lot of stress off of me, but I do miss words.  Sometimes, I keep projects just for fun.  With this (hopefully) being the schedule I can look forward to for the next few years, here is one of the things I have been doing in the lead up to school to keep my sanity:

Worlds Within

 

In the beginning…

1. There was me.  Within me existed nothing, not even thought.  There was only infinite darkness.  Then, within that darkness appeared the First Thought.  The Seed of Light.

2. When Light and Darkness met, they clashed, and their warring gave birth to the building blocks of creation: raw, undiluted Elementa Chaos—absolute potential.

3. Born among the Chaos were the Primordials, the first beings and first thoughts, and as they rose.

 

-The Six Primordials-

The Six Primordials were Neram (Time), Visayam (Matter), Katai (Story), Ninaivu (Thought/Memory), Kanavu (Dream), Irappu (Death).

 

4. Surrounded by Chaos, the Seed of Light sprouted and began to feed.  Feasting on the raw Chaos around it, the World Tree grew healthy and strong.  Its winding roots dug deep into the darkness, while its gleaming branches crested like a crown around it.  Everywhere it touched, it imposed Order onto the Chaos, and the Elementa Wilds were born.

5. Within the World Tree, the Chaos absorbed turned into liquid Ambrosia.  Endowed with the magical potential of the Chaos but given Order by the World Tree’s light, it not only grew the World Tree but was a powerful substance in itself.  Within the World Tree’s bark, this Ambrosia solidified into chunks of Amber, which were buried deep within the tree.

 

-The Colors of Amber-

White, which was empty Ambrosia that could be filled with any color; Red Ambrosia, which possessed infinite energy; Orange, which allowed moment across vast spaces and even between worlds; Yellow, which could mold, change, and transmute solid things; Green, which could house and amplify the natural energies within lifeforms; Blue, which endowed its users with vast knowledge, understanding, and amplified magic; Purple, which was the most powerful and most rare; Black, which was inert and useless.

 

6. The Primordials, born from Chaos, lived well within the World Tree’s light but they felt a stirring in their hearts.  Chaos demanded change, and though the Wilds were untamed, they were beings of both Light and Darkness, of Order and Chaos, and they set about their own work.

7. Neram watched their siblings’ work.

8. Visayam noticed that the World Tree’s light was dimming at it grew and solved that problem by building a massive sphere of light called the Cosmic Core from White Amber.  Visayam placed the Cosmic Core at the crest of the World Tree’s branches, and the branches obscured the light so that it looked like trillions of stars to those looking up from the base of the tree.

8. Katai used the light of the Cosmic Core to fashion the World Forge.  Using the Ambrosia within the World Tree’s bark and the ambient Elemental Chaos outside of it, Katai used the Forge to create Proto-Worlds within the World Tree’s trunk, roots, and branches.  Once lit, the Forge would work on its own.

9. Kanavu hollowed out a section of the World Tree and molded the raw, liquid elemental Ambrosia within to fashion the Ambrosial Womb.  Then, they implanted one each the colored Amber within the semi-solid Ambrosial wax to gestate into the first living creatures: the Niram.  Then, Kanavu slept.

 

-The Niram-

The first of the Niram were known as the Mutanmai, the Prime, and they were born from the initial six pieces of Amber places within the Ambrosia Womb.  The Mutam were named: Civa (Red), Aran (Orange), Mancal (Yellow), Paccai (Green), Nilam (Blue), and Uta (Purple). These seven led their people, the Niram, in building the first city at the base of the World Tree: Maram.

 

10. Ninaivu watched their siblings and recorded their works.  Beneath the World Tree, in a bowl of Darkness hollowed out by the tree’s massive, winding roots, liquid Ambrosia had gathered.  There, Ninaivu kept their secrets and their knowledge, an any who drank of the waters there would be endowed with the knowledge of all that was, is, and will be.  This became known as the Well of Knowledge.

11.  Timid Irappu marveled at the work of their siblings and asked Neram what wonders they would wrought.  Neram pointed to a section of the World Tree which had dimmed, died, and rotted and indicated that it was their hand which set into motion the turning of the Wheel.  Irappu regarded this spreading darkness with great sorrow but understood Neram intent: all things that are must grow, age, and die.  Irappu, using black amber for the body and Darkness to animate it created the great serpent Nidhogg.

 

-The Nidhogg-

Though often thought of as evil, the Nidhogg served the purpose of eating away the rot at the roots and the branches of the World Tree.  In doing so, it returns the stale, useless worlds back to the Chaos, which the World Tree would then feed on and forge new Worlds from.

 

I. The First Cycle:

1. Maram thrived under the care of the Niram led by the Mutan, the Prime.

2. Gradually, the Prime took spouses and had families of their own.  They had their own children and raised them among the people.  Exposure to the Wilds around the tree led members of the Niram to develop magical abilities.  These Niram were called Vellai (White), while those without magical powers were called Karuppu (Black).

-Civa was the most zelous of the Mutam.  He was tall and strong.  Civa married a Vellai woman named Curiyan, and together they had two children, a daughter named Cerise and a son named Kal.

--Civa had boundless energy and protected Maram from the dangers which the Wilds would conjure.  Civa was strong and brave and well-respected by his community.

-Aran was restless and never stayed at home.  They frequently explored the Wilds and always knew their way back.  Sometimes, they would pass and find Proto-Worlds to explore.

--Aran took a wife named Katal, and together they raised two children: Sienna, a daughter and a son named Tannir.

-Mancal could hear the World Wood sing when they touched it and sought to work with it.  Through their deft hands, they stripped the bark of the World Wood and fashioned it for use.  In time, they eventually wove the World Wood blade Balmung, which was soaked for a time in liquid Ambrosia that bled from one of the World Tree roots.

--Macal took a husband named Vanam and had four children with him: their eldest, Tankam (Gold); their second, Karru (Wind); daughter Puyal (Storm); and daughter Curiyan (Sun)

-Pacca nurtured the Niram and took to their care like a parent to a child.  Using their powers, they healed wounds and cultivated the land to feed their people.

--Pacca took a wife named Cutar (Flame), and they had five children: eldest Viridia, second, Katu (Forest); third child, Emeris; fourth child, Valkkai (life); and daughter, Pu (Flower).

-Nilam was studious and spent his life studying.  He wrote laws into existence and forged magic, and he drank daily of the Well of Knowledge.

--Nilam took a wife named Oli (Sound), but they had no children.  Nilam did take on an apprentice, however, named Ceru.

-Uta was the most powerful of the Mutan but also the most detached.  Once Maram was founded, Uta left to climb the World Tree and look out on existence from its branches.  There, she meditated for an unknown period of time.

--Uta never took a partner but did leave an apprentice named Endess who would someday follow in their footsteps and leave Maram, but not until the Niram of Maram began to quicken and fade.

3. As the World Tree began to rot and the Niram became more divided, eventually the Karuppu began to quicken.  Sustained by magic, the Vellai did not age so quickly as their siblings and a great divide formed between the people.  Using Balmung, Civa could protect the Niram from the Wilds but could not protect them from themselves.  To stave off a war from within, Endess left with the Karuppu to find a new home.  Once they did, Endess left to seek her old master, Uta, who had disappeared into the tall, world-spanning branches of the World Tree.

--The Karuppu would eventually find the Realm of Beasts, where Ragnarok slept.

4. Tragedy after tragedy passed, and the Niram who remained within Maram grew weaker.  Only the Mutam seemed abled to stave off the natural decay of time while their children and partners passed around them.

-Civa’s children died one by one until only Cerise remained.  Desperate to save her, Cerise used forbidden magics to sustain his only living child.  Cerise, by consuming the souls of those around her, could survive forever, but she was cursed with an endless hunger.  Civa, to right his wrong, sealed his immortal daughter away and then left his blade, Balmung, unattended as he went into hiding in penance for his crime. 

--Cerise became the first Immortal.  Cerise, the Soul Eater.

-Aran returned home to Maram only to find the remaining Niram seek or aging.  All of the Mutam had left, and Aran was alone.  With nothing material to tether them down, they returned to wandering the Wilds and the Darkness beyond them and grew ever more detached from the Worlds.

-Mancal watched as their workings faded and crumbled with time.  Desperate to protect the remaining Niram after Civa’s disappearance, Mancal disappeared within the World Tree and forged from the wood there and the steel outside of it an infinite army of hollow machines that would not age.  These became the Immortal Platina, the Queen of Blades and her Soulless Legion.

--Platina was desperate to give Order to the Chaos around her and so sought to conquer all worlds.  Mancal realized their folly and fought to seal Platina and her Legion away.  Mancal died in the effort, and now Platina waits to rise again.

-Pacca’s child, Emeris, joined Mancal in their fight to push back the Legion and suffered a grave wound.  Pacca, desperate to save her child, drew on the magic of the land and left the Wilds around her barren and unable to sustain life.  With the magic put into Emeris, Emeris lived in a half-life, a ghost whose only thought was of battle and became an Immortal: Emeris the Warsong.

--Pacca sacrificed her life to seal Emeris away inside of a emerald blade that, when wielded, would endow its wielder with incredible power at the cost of their sanity as Emeris’ spirit takes over their body.

-Nilam, always detached, did not participate in society and cared only for knowledge.  Ceru, his apprentice, was not so detached and sought a way to reunite the Niram.  Thinking to grant the gift of magic to the Karuppu, Ceru dove deep into the Well of Knowledge in hopes of finding the source of magic and rose changed.  Fearing the power Ceru carried, the remaining Niram sealed them away.

--Ceru became an immortal: Ceru, the Rune Forger, and crafted a series of powerful Runes which were still found in the world.  Runes were not sentient but had a sentience unto them.  They created … of runes that derived their powers from the Amber from which they were first wrought: White, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Cosmic, Black, and Silver.

White, Red, Orange, Gold?, Green (Verdant?), Blue, Purple (Cosmic), Black, and Silver.

--With many of the Mutam missing or dead, Maram struggled to survive.  Sienne and Tannir left Maram to seek Aran and bring them back.  On their journey, Tannir was lost.  Unable to find her way back home, Sienne began forging tunnels within the raw Chaos around her and became an Immortal still seeking Aran.  She became known as Sienna of the Living Labyrinth.

--Endess, after finding a home for the Karuppu, returned to find the Vellai dying and sought to find them a home but failed.  Disillusioned, Endess sought out Uta and found Uta dreaming.  Within the dream, Endess found two worlds bound within the dream.  This pocket is where Indigo takes place.

--Of the remaining Vellai, one returns to Maram to seek a way to save their people.  Their name is Solis, and they find Ceru’s White Rune, which they use to forge life from the raw Chaos, but the life they forge is without magic, so they abandon them and disappear into the Wilds to keep forging life in a desperate attempt to return what they have.  The life Solis forges dies without their creator to sustain them.  Slowly, Solis’ body withers away, but their spirit remains and lingers, waiting to find a new body to inhabit.  They become Solis, the Life Forger.

--One of Solis’ created, Tenebris, forges a magical mask to try and sustain itself.  Unfortunately, their body is already fading before they can finish it.  They put it on just in time to sustain their spirit within the mask, but their body has collapsed.  Now, anyone who wears the mask is endowed with magic and the knowledge of Tenebris, but their bodies collapse over time.

-EL-

This is about four pages worth of notes.  I've always been fascinated with the idea of creating a massive multiverse out of all of my works ever since I first played Kingdom Hearts.  This is something like that, though it has become something of a story in and of itself.  I don't know what narratives will take place here, but it is good fodder none the less.

Thanks for reading...

Sincerely,

RWS

P.S.

-Short Rest-

-Short Rest Schedule-

1. The Color of Magic/Free Play/Critical Role Campaign 3

2. Batman Vol. 4/Marvel’s Avengers/Seven Deadly Sins

3. The Emperor and I Vol. 4/DnD5e/Gargoyles

4. Fables: Animal Farm/Xenogears/Firefly

5. My Hero Academia Vol. 17/Free/Young Justice

6. Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers Vol. 1/Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origins/Voltron: Legendary Defender

7. Book Break/Dragon Age II Athen Hawke/Dimension 20: A Crown of Candy

-Books-

0. One Piece 1087

1. Discworld/The Color of Magic reread

2. SJ/One-Punch Man Vol. 22, Punch 106: “Orochi vs. Saitama”—106 100% (5—5)

3. DC/Justice League Vol. 1: “Origins” 100% (6—6)

4. SJ/The Emperor and I Vol. 4, Ch. 36: “Emperor and the Documentary”—38 70% (15—20

5. Fables: Animal Farm 10—10 100% (5—5)

6. SJ/My Hero Academia Vol. 17, Ch. 157: “Infinite 100 Percent”—157 100% (10—10)

7. PR/Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers Vol. 1/4—4 100% (5—5)

8. MF/Soul Eater Vol. 3, Ch. 7: “Uncanny Sword (part 1)”—9 25% (2—4)

9. Marvel/Ultimate Spider-Man 3—13 15%

10. SJ/Boruto: The Next Generation Vol. 11, No. 40: “The Invisible Jutsu”—43 0% (1—4)

11. World of Warcraft Chronicle Vol. 2

-Games-

0. Stardew Valley

1. Persona 4 Golden 4% (3/84hrs)

2. Marvel’s Avengers 0% (0/52hrs)

3. DnD5e/Movie

4. Xenogears ??% (?/66hrs)

5. Write Night

6. Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origins 80% (24/30hrs)

7. Dragon Age II Athen Hawke 2% (1/48hrs)

-Shows-

1. Critical Role Campaign 3 Part I Ep. 5: “The Threat Between the Walls”—11 (Level Up to 5) 18% (5—11)

2. Anime/Seven Deadly Sins Season 1 92% (23—24)

3. Disney+/Gargoyles Season 1 62% (9—13)

4. Rewatch/Firefly 35% (6—14)

5. HBO/Young Justice 42% (12—26)

6. Cartoons/Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 7 8% (2—13)

7. Dimension 20: A Crown of Candy 8: “Deep Bleu Sea”—19 37% (8—19)

8. Movies 13% (2—8)

-Anime/.hack//LIMINALITY “The Case of Yuki Aihara”

-Owned/Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

-Netflix.

-Disney+/Bambi

X2: X-Men United

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

-HBO/My Neighbor Totoro

-DCAU/Batman: Mask of the Phantasm