1 Open Your Eyes (1/2)

In the beginning, there was nothing. Just an endless void as far as the eye, my eye, could see. And honestly, that was quite far. Not that there was anyone else to see it, at least as far as I could tell. And frankly, if anyone else was out there, hiding in that vast darkness... well that'd be quite silly!

All that seemed to exist the moment I sprang into being was indescribably vast darkness. Literally, everything... or maybe the only thing, that seemed to exist was a vast, awe-inspiring slate of blackness. At least as far as I knew that was the only thing that existed. I definitely couldn't see anything else, anyway. Not one person, animal, spirit, or extraplanar made themselves known to me.

I sprang into being knowing those words. Or did I gain consciousness knowing them? Knowing these words. Many of the words I knew made sense to me.

Words like ”I” and ”me” made the most sense. And other words, ones like ”void” and ”darkness” also made sense. Heck, I even knew about words like ”alone” and ”others”!

Some words though... well if I'm being completely honest, and I had no reason to lie to myself, they didn't make sense. Words like ”person”, ”animal”, ”spirit”, and ”extraplanar” didn't make sense to me.

Those were... strange words.

I knew them, that they expressed concepts that had some sort of meaning, but their meanings escaped me. I began to think about them. And when I did, time began to pass. Or at least... it felt like time began to pass.

I spent a long time thinking about the words I didn't really understand. And at some point, I even began to wonder if words existed that I not only didn't understand but didn't even know! Now that was a humbling thought.

Nothing changed though. And of all of the bad stuff about being in a slate of darkness where you're alone with your thoughts, that's perhaps the worst thing of all. Nothing changes in a void of endless darkness.

Eventually, I got tired of it. I began to ask myself questions. Real questions, not just ones about words. Questions that made me think harder than any confusing word had made me think. Will anything ever change? Should anything ever change?

I was afraid that maybe nothing would. That I would be stuck in this... terrifyingly vast darkness, forever.

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I don't know how long I was thinking about questions. It felt like a long time, but I had no way of knowing for sure. But eventually, something changed. And the thing that changed was the darkness before me.

There was no warning when it happened. The void went from being indescribably vast and terrifyingly dark to being different. All of a sudden there were words in the darkness. Words that I understood. That I could read.

And there were very nice words.

[Hello little one!] The words read, emblazoned in the void in shimmering white stars. And there were so many words even in that last sentence that I had an instinctual, perhaps contextual understanding of, but whose precise meaning escaped me.

And then again, perhaps instantly, they changed. They now read something else.

[Can you hear me?] The words in the void asked. And you know what? I couldn't hear them. I could read them. But I couldn't hear them. And the instant I noticed that there was another change.

[Oh shoot! Sorry. Let me try something...] The words in the void now read. And it was perhaps a second later, at least relative to my understanding of time, that I heard something.

”Hello young god!” Said an indescribably vast voice. The voice was warm and filled with kindly energy. It was a friendly voice. One that instinctively made me want to trust it.

”Oh, that's so nice of you to say. Are you going to be a god of kindness and sweetness, you cute little thing, you?” The voice asked, gently and softly. I took my time listening to the voice, replaying what it just said in my mind and sorting through the words. One of them stuck out to me.

The voice asked if I was going to be a ”god”. What is a god? I... don't know, but that word feels familiar. I like it.

”A god is what you are, little one. Gods were entities of creation and destruction. They were power incarnate. They created entire universes, and were worshipped by thousands, to even quintillions of beings across the multiverse!” The voice explained, leaving me with so many questions.

I wasn't oblivious to the fact that despite the voice's glowing and very vague description of gods it kept referring to them in the past tense. That was... concerning, to say the least.

”Oh hey... are you actually observant? Weird. Cool, but weird. That said, we should get started. We don't want to keep you here for any longer than necessary. And you've already been here for so long, we're sure you're inching to get out into the multiverse and begin to acquire worshippers.” The voice told me, promising so much more intrigue, but also giving me extremely little information.

”Nevermind your need for information little god. We've got a process to get through. Your answers will come soon enough, just trust us.” The voice told me.

I wasn't sure I could trust the voice. But since we're being honest, I didn't think I had a choice.

”You don't. Now... what's your name? We can tell given your curiosity you're probably gonna think something like 'Name? What's a name?', so we'll tell you right now. A name is what others call you. Your name is gonna be one of the next things to appear. It'll look to you just like our first words did.” Said the voice, confidently and more than a bit disparagingly.

But sure enough, something below their words did appear in the void. A word in ”brackets”.

[Althos]

Althos. Something about the word felt... right. It felt good to see it in the void, like the words of the voice but more... me.

”Althos? Hmm... that's a curious name. We've never heard of it before. But hey, that's one question down. Only... several more to go.” Said the once kindly voice.

”'Once kindly'... Oh Althos, the truth is so much more complicated than you know, you youthful little god.” Whispered the strange voice condescendingly.

”We're tired of you calling us 'the voice'. We're the system. We are the creation of an ancient god, a member of the same species as you, who wanted to categorize and quantify things like domains, subdomains, classes, and more.” Lectured the entity that was apparently some sort of ”system”.

”Hey, now you're getting it! Yes. That's us. The system. Anyways, let's move right along. When we ask you things you're gonna see more words in brackets. By now you've no doubt noticed, at least subconsciously, that we can read your mind. Which is how this conversation is a two-way one. We just need you to repeat the words you see in the brackets, in your mind okay?” Asked the system.

I wondered if more changes were going to happen anytime soon. This idle thought provoked a strange peal of laughter from the odd voice, the first sound it made that didn't cause new words to appear in the void. The laughter lasted for a few seconds before new words appeared in that eerie darkness.

”Yes Althos, more changes are going to happen anytime soon. Now please cooperate. What is your alignment?” The system asked, curiosity noticeably tinging its voice.

[Chaotic neutral.]

Chaotic neutral. Hmm... I wonder what that means.?

”Chaotic neutral? Yeah... you strike us as a chaotic neutral sort. It'll be quite interesting to see you strike out on your own, in the multiverse.” The system said, cryptically.

For a second my curiosity was higher than ever, but the system ignored me and kept talking even as I was thinking.

”Now we're gonna ask you about domains and subdomains. We've now officially hit the part in every god's life called the 'tutorial'. It'll last longer than you think. Are you ready to learn?” When the system was finished speaking this time there was an edge of sarcasm in its voice, as if it knew that I was ready to learn.

But for the sake of fairness, and though a part of me was loathe to admit it... I was ready to learn. I couldn't keep it from myself, which meant I probably couldn't keep it from the system.

”That's the spirit! You need to understand that gods are not all that exist. You have some knowledge in your mind of other types of beings already, and that knowledge will come to you, to your consciousness, as you meet other sorts of beings. What you need to know right now is that gods are far stronger than other types of beings.” The system taught me, apparently trying to prepare me for some future.