A Setting Concept
A fantasy setting concept I thought this morning. Could also work for a hybrid like Destiny I think. Games could be done in various ages, civilizations of old age could be discovered, even a game that spans millennia where players are Planar beings could be pulled.
The First Age
In the wisdom available to this author, a divine being existed at the start and brought order to Reality. Myriad of realms were created. In some, life happened and life evolved in a number of ways.
The divine being, called Order (It’s not known by this author if Order is the actual name of this being and the word derived from the name or if the word Order was founded by mortals and attributed to this being), set a rule for the emerging creatures that had free will. Some say this was the natural extension of Order’s resolve while others argue it was a way to measure and later judge the creatures’ choices. Few will even say the divine being was simply obsessed with the concepts of order he enforced upon the world. According to this rule, following every selfless or virtuous action by a mortal, a celestial being would come to life in the High Realm. The more impactful and heartfelt the action, the more powerful the being would be. A magical, extraplanar being, the Celestial would then do their best to spread the virtue upon which they were created for. The same would hold for sins, with each sin creating a demon in the Nether Realm that lives to spread that sin.
Each Planar created this way would add to the life force of the mortal, extending their lives and those who are the most virtuous and sinful would lead longer lives. In fact, through use of magic, mortals found ways to drain the Planars they created to extend their lifespan considerably. This wasn’t a common practice though. The demons would resist being drained and the sinful would need bigger and bigger sins to create demons that are powerful enough to grant them enough life force, but it also meant they needed to be strong enough to overpower these demons. Many had perished in their quest to immortality. On the other hand, the virtuous would not choose to drain the life of another being and they would rather leave a powerful celestial in existence as their legacy. However, sometimes the celestials would sacrifice themselves for the virtuous to live on.
As sins provide shortcuts and many mortals find it easy to be selfish, the demons would almost always outnumber the celestials. However, as being selfless requires more exertion of self, the celestial beings would be more powerful. In the end, there was an indeed an order to things through this balance.
The Age of Antinomy
After millennia, something happened. The universe, created in Order’s vision, sought balance. There was balance in virtue and sin, life was balanced with death, but order itself was not matched. And from the heart of the universe, a new being came to be: Chaos. Unlike Order, which actively sought to change things, Chaos was calm and observing. It took a look on the universe and interfered with one thing that changed it all.
From then on, every virtue would instead create a demon, dubbed the Indulgent by some. These demons would live to spread the opposite of whatever the virtue they were created upon. An act of mercy would create an relentlessly cruel demon. An act of great generosity would bring forth a demon of unspeakable greed. Similarly, every sin would instead cause a celestial to come to life, dubbed the Repentant. These celestials would live to repent the sins they were created upon. Following whimsical violence, a celestial would come to life that seeks to protect others of harm. An act of wrath would create a celestial of mercy.
The sinful mortals would create enemies to the sinful and the virtuous would bring life to beings that spread the things they opposed. The sinful would find it even more resistance to prolong their lives as celestials were more powerful and the practice almost disappeared completely. There were groups that found it acceptable to drain demons and the rituals became more common across the virtuous, but the majority still shunned it.
The demons of old, now named the True Demons, found the Indulgent to be impure and lesser. The Indulgent tried constantly to prove themselves to be better. The True Celestials, meanwhile, thought the Repentant to be corrupt, born from evil and the new generation of celestials worked hard to prove themselves true.
The Age of Seeking
Millennia passed again and Chaos observed that things had still found a balance, even with Order seemingly not being around. This wasn’t the outcome he sought. Chaos made a slight adjustment.
Now, every sin would create a celestial, but this time focused on bringing an end to this sin, including their creator. Dubbed the Punishers, these celestials would use even sinful ways to do what’s needed. Virtuous actions would create demons that would be known as the Corruptors. These demons, as the name suggests, would do their best to corrupt the mortals with the virtue they were created upon, including their creator. They would even act virtuous to gain the trust of mortals if that’s what they needed.
A long time has passed since and while the universe is more chaotic, a different kind of balance is found. As the universe is interfered with, Order is unsatisfied with the outcome. As balance is found, Chaos can’t find satisfaction either. What comes next in the cosmic game, we do not know.
