Book I
The Origin
The Origin.
The restless cosmos, infinite possibilities and streams of time decorated the oblivion stars, destiny and fate were one of a kind; both concepts foresaw the awakening of something extraordinary. Battle is the natural order of existence to settle any given issue, even nature itself battles for supremacy over the other. Hence, why gravity holds objects down, despite objects carrying weight and matter. There has always been a profound sense of superiority. When this superiority multiplies and collides, battle is brought about.
When existence is strewn with ceaseless battles, the collective energy of supernatural force and power collide continuously with each other from across the cosmos, collecting into a single condensed point that once laid within the center of existence. Boundless energy, infinite density, the seed of every Myth and every World. It stirred. A scream with no sound, a rupture came to endorse creation with its light, pure and unshaped, a fire that sunk into matter. Sacred flames caused causality itself to bend a knee, and thus a "world" which lacked all identity came to be.
AVORIA & Avoria.
Within the center of expansion, a figure was said to form. The shape and curves of a woman, no goddess dared to compare. Her figure held the beauty of destruction itself, the beauty of a singularity; unable to be perceived for longer than an instant, yet shifting the perception of what the mind desires in such a short time. A vessel known as "AVORIA." Her body alone was endorsed by an infinite light, one that would never burn out even when shrouded by the deepest darkness. AVORIA was the collective desires of the forces that shaped the world which lacked identity, the ideals both good and bad which manifest as her and only her. Her existence, beyond the laws of creation. AVORIA was a puzzle with infinite pieces; every time she'd place the last, another part of the puzzle remained incomplete. This missing piece manifest as her own desire, the desire to become something, the desire of the sentient world that never was. This cosmic realization allowed her will to become absolute, shaping her creator, fusing with it, so that the desired and desireless become one. The world that never was, the world that lacked all identity became Avoria.
Influence.
"Karma" is the fundamental understanding of morals. Said to be a cosmic force that enacts objective goods or objective bads (centered around the understanding of the masses). This cosmic force came to fruition many times, be it the past, present, or future. It is that same cosmic force that would help to shift the world of Avoria into a neutral state. Where Karma amassed, the world itself began to respond. Lands twisted or bloomed to match the resonance. Forests turned to gardens or graves. Cities rose in harmony or fell in madness. Karma became the invisible brush that painted Avoria in its ever-changing hues.
Book II
Avoria
Effectively a blank slate, an empty world, devoid of any self or identity. A realm so immeasurably vast, that it is both intertwined with the expanse of creation and entirely separate all at once. Its size is not contained, rather, creation must adhere to its continious growth. The fragments of Lady AVORIA blessed the bland existence facets of life and identity, though rudimentary. It had never been a defined world, the future foretold it never would be, as completion implied end, and infinity was endless.
As new beings presented themselves into the world, the ones with the strongest desires, the strongest beliefs, influenced reality, forming the first lands. Naturally, Avoria adhered to the those with the desires which reached furthest, all substance have this intrinsic ability so long as they are within its boundary. Avoria, however, could never be manipulated in its entirety. Even those who sat upon the Axiom Throne could never manipulate Avoria, only The Cradle. And those who did not sit upon the throne could only add to Avoria, but never take away, or reshape. Though, as desires clashed, so did the additions to the world, structures formed and broke down, blood staining the streets which seemed to both crumble and hold themselves together at once. The fragments of AVORIA then formed law, one that grounded all to its fundamentals by force. Ones desires cannot be invalidated, but overpowered as the essence of these desires clash directly.
Desires allowed for the outcomes, the fundamental essence to change so long as those connected to those desires desired the same. Technological advancement is born solely because of the desire to advance, hence why the endless areas of the world are so vastly different from one another, they adhere to different minds. Though, all areas must evolve in some right, and as time passes, they do. Evolution of the lands is a natural occurance every century. Without this evolution, lands will decay along with the desires that brought them forth. They will begin to shatter like fragile grass, returning to the Chamber of Dreams.
Many beings entered Avoria, many with the ability to reshape exisence at a whim, the grandest of powers at their very fingertips. So, the question remains, why is it that one who can manipulate all of existence cannot then mannpulate Avoria in its entirety? Simply put, all beings within Avoria operate under its own abstract existence present within its infinity, separate from one "total" existence. One that can only be truly redefined by AVORIA herself, and the fragments that remain of her. In other words, the only reason one with such immeasurable power cannot manipulate Avoria in its entirety is because their desires are not strong enough.
The infinite landscapes then advanced, while the inevitable toll of death made its rounds, the desires, the beliefs, they never left. As such, decay never swept the lands unless those desires were forcibly erased from existence. Many kept these desires oingoing with their own, and the fusion of ideas formed modifications of the lands. The Twilight Empire had not always been the Twilight Empire, but the Starfall Empire. Many such cases also applied to Avoria's infinity, as a world can never grow if stagnation was an option.
Interlude
The Storyteller
She leaned back onto the cushions of the red leather-coated booth. She crossed her leg over the other, balancing a glass lazily between her fingers. The lights of the bar danced across the rim, a smile creeping at the corner of her lips.
“Where, oh where do I begin… Avoria.”
The name left her tongue with the sweetness of honey; a fondness reserved for elderly lovers reflecting on the many years of their marriage.
“You know, everyone always expects some grand answer. I’m not sure how to tell them I was just in need of entertainment. I took advantage of the circumstances that presented themselves in the cosmos—it was all just good timing, really.”
She giggled gently, her breath lightly fogging the glass she would soon come to press her lips against, taking a sip of wine.
“Before Avoria, there was only the concept of possibility embedded into this… endless expanse of stars and planets that spanned forever. That’s right! Don’t look so surprised, infinity is real. It’s an endless sea of roads that have never been walked, and some won’t ever be walked. Infinite stories waiting for someone to tell them! Infinite endings waiting for their beginnings. I suppose, in a strange sort of way, that makes me a little like that fellow…”
She came to a halt, the expression on her face shifted from a lazy smile to a confused furrowing of the eyebrows.
“Mm… Big muscles. Very serious—carries something important on his shoulders. A mountain? No that wasn’t it… The sky, perhaps? Mm… No, no…”
When the name had returned to her mind, she snapped her fingers with a proud smile that through the alcohol she could at least somewhat remember somewhat important figures.
"Ah! Atlas. That's his name. That’s right… I’m a little like Atlas, taking a very small portion of the burdens infinity holds by telling you this story… Well, anyway. Somewhere in the center of that ‘endless sea’, there was me. A simple woman, one with a lot of power, to say the least. So! I wondered. ‘What if?’ What if I created another world? A heaven that far superseded alllll my others, with the exception of my own home."
The absentminded twirling of her glass stopped, the glimmer in her eyes paired well with the mischievous look now in her eyes.
“What if a world could become more than a world? What if existence itself could learn to dream? What if ‘possibility’ had a home of its own?”
Her head shifted, gaze resting gently upon the viewer. Her lips parted, the soft breaths of a laugh that smelled like a tinge of alcohol and plum. She set the glass down to the table atop a coaster lined with gold and platinum, uncrossing her legs and leaning a tad bit closer.
“So I made an avatar. A fragment of my own soul that manifested into its own being. AVORIA, I called her. All in capital letters. The first reflection, the first dream—and the first answer to the question I myself hadn’t fully answered. AVORIA was beautiful. No, no! Not because she was perfect. Perfection is boring… Perfect things have nowhere left to go. No, what made her so beautiful to me was that she was incomplete.”
She smiled fondly, her fists supporting her chin and head. Her voice went through a balmy, reminiscing tone.
“She wanted. She desired, even. She looked at existence and saw it as infinite puzzle pieces. And eventually… she shattered. Now—before you start imagining tragedy, understand something, ‘kay? Not all breaking is destruction, necessarily. Stars break, worlds break, people break. And from those broken pieces, new possibilities are born. So, AVORIA fragmented. And each fragment was one of her desires… which in truth, were really just mine. But I didn’t have the ability to correctly express it then. Those fragments became Gods. Architects, caretakers, fools, visionaries, tyrants, saints, monsters—Every divine being that helped shape Avoria was, in one way or another, a fragment of a greater desire. A piece of a woman who was herself a piece of me.”
There was a silence that seemed to follow after that, the viewer looked at her with a blank stare and blinking eyelids, with an expression that wreaked confusion.
“Complicated? Good! After all, if it were simple, it wouldn’t be Avoria. Soooo… those fragments built. Creating oceans, raising mountains, invented concepts; giving structure to things that previously had none. Yes, that’s right. They taught existence how to exist. And Avoria began to grow, but—that’s the part everyone gets wrong! What do I mean? Well… They think Avoria is a world. But that isn’t the case at all! That’s different. A world is a location. Avoria is a living, growing identity. A dreaming one, at that. Every forest, every river, every kingdom, every myth—they’re all a part of Avoria learning what it is. And even still, after all this time…”
She laughed softly to herself, a hand covering her lips while tremulous, drunken giggles escaped their fleshy containment. It surely took her a moment to retain her composure, but she did.
“It still hasn’t figured it out. Do you know how many worlds I’ve seen? How many universes? Realities? I’ve watched infinities become finite. And still… Avoria fascinates me. Because it surprises me. Imagine that, a creator surprised by her own creation.”
“Or perhaps that’s not the right way to say it. Maybe Avoria was never my creation, and maybe I was simply its first dream. Maybe AVORIA dreamed of me in the same way I dreamed of her. Maybe we’re both just stories pretending to be authors. Maybe… neither of us truly came first. And honestly I don’t think either of us cares. That’s what makes it so beautiful. Possibility! The possibility that tomorrow brings something nobody has ever imagined. The possibility that, somewhere out there, beyond the furthest edge of the furthest realm, a new story is being born. The possibility that existence still has secrets left to reveal, despite it constantly being broken down at an informational level every other day. And Avoria harbors ALL of it. The noble, the wicked, the glorious, the absurd, the miraculous, the tragic—the beautiful. It is a sanctuary for every story that could ever be told. It is the home for every possibility that’s too stubborn to die. My greatest accomplishment wasn’t creating Avoria. It was allowing it the freedom to become something I couldn’t have predicted. Greater than a purpose, greater than world… Though, between us? I still think I’m prettier… What? You think just because it’s technically my child I’d lie? Consider again who you’re talking to.”
She winked, giggling again. She took her glass back into her hands, taking another sip. The conversation fading out.