《Agratall: A worldbuilding project》


 The Beginning

    The Beginning


    ¡°A mindless being, an entity without much thought, existed for an indefinite time. In a space without space, a place without time, the only things in existence the creature itself, all things that once were and to be, mere concepts. But something changed somewhere along the line, something within the thing itself. It thought, and it thought only once: To not be alone.


    This mere thought was the creation of the fractured and tortured multiverse known as Agratall. The entity¡¯s body was made into the space itself, and the spaces between spaces. It¡¯s will was made into the various creatures to float within those spaces within spaces, now known as the void, and it¡¯s mind made into the odd thing known as time. It¡¯s soul, however, was left exposed. Left out for a feast for the creatures it begat. If it knew surprise, this would be it, for the very creations it had made had turned on it the moment of their birth. The entities within the void feasted and ate and ate and ate, consuming the soul of the nameless thing. In turn, those that feasted gained power, and the more they feasted the more power they gained. Soon enough, the last of the nameless thing was eaten, and all turned to chaos once more as the beings it once created sought to fight amongst eachother.


    In the void they fought, for unknown times, in undefinable spaces, and still they do and forever they will as long as there is at minimum one. However, as the beings in the void fought and consumed and multiplied, some also became curious, capable of thought and possibly sentience. These few capable of reasoned thought soon became the apex predators, the best at hiding from predators, the best at being the predators. They fought less, and delved within themselves. What they found there was something they were intimately familiar with-- afterall it was the very first thing they ate-- a soul. An amalgam of having an identity, possessing a minimum intelligence, and a core of power, was what made up a soul. Most of these beings with souls went mad at the thought, and consumed themselves, creating something in their own self-destruction.


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    However many did this form of self-destruction is unknown, but what is known is that by the destruction of their own soul was the creation of new realms, of new worlds. The most reasoned and least maddened-- or possibly most mad and least reasoned-- of the entities in the void still left with souls slowly grew in power and domain, their very thoughts influencing the very things that are around them. In some way, these beings are to gods to the normal voidlings as the gods are to the mortals in most realms. These few beings that came into such power only knew to expand their power, in the few ways that only they know. Some created a realm or many realms without using their soul as a catalyst. Some continued their self-discovery, becoming far beyond mere sentience, beings capable of thoughts unknown and maddening to any mortal who dares seek them out. Others went and devoured and consumed their lesser brethren, of those a portion decided to become many, others to further themselves. Whichever way they went matters not, as in the end, as all things do, things changed.


    After a point in the void, that unknown place without clear meaning in time or space, a tiny portion of the void¡¯s denizens became so potent in their power and domain that they, by accident or on purpose, fractured reality itself. These fractures spread and spread, fractures so extensive they separated portions of reality into new realities outside this one, or consumed unknown millions of billions of realms. A few fractures end directly inside realms, corrupting them and turning them inside out, so that those realms spread ever more cracks and breaks into reality itself. This fracturing of the very fabric of existence continues endlessly, as endless as the infinite multiverse is.


    The void gods, and the other eldritch beings of similar power lent their power to either further the cracks, or to become part of these cracks. Some decided to repair the multiverse, others deciding to simply glue it back together. Then there were the mad ones that tried to gain power from the cracks. Most failed, but the few that succeeded had started the first of an infinite many wars by the creatures of the void. This first war had luckily happened before the current era of stability in Agratall, allowing us to document and learn from these wars[...]¡±


    --An excerpt from one of the most sold texts in all of Agratall, The History of All That Was and Likely Will Be made by The Historian

 The Chaos Realm

    The Chaos Realm


    ¡°The Chaos realm is the first of the major realms. It was created by an elder lifeform in the void forcing energy into one of the cracks and manipulating it. The crack, full of energy, changed and became a realm. This was the first realm with spatial dimensions, if a bit twisted to modern sensibilities. Various void lifeforms rushed to it, but could not survive. Their bodies, previously made of pure, dimensionless energy could not survive the conditions of this newly formed realm and perished. The ''flesh'' of their bodies formed the ground and sky of this realm, their souls condemned to wander for eternity within it. The being that created this realm, over aeons, manipulated the very nature of the realm. The denizens of this realm, and even the very land turned hostile. Everything killed eachother, but nothing able to fully die. Death unknown, but violence common.


    [...]Most attempts at expeditions to the Chaos Realm almost always end with tragedy. The few that survive speak of the horrors of the realm, the lack of people, the lack of viable food and water, the literal oceans of blood, the craggy land that seems to try to kill at every twist and turn, the nonsensical way space turns in on itself, and of course, the creatures that live there. The things that live in Chaos seem to only know how to kill, a departure from the early days of the realm. Three prevailing theories for why death is possible now is that the being that made this realm either got bored, could no longer sustain whatever changes it was attempting, or completed the goal it had to set to go about. The exceedingly few who have been able to see (and survive) contact with the chaos denizens always speak of four things: The massive souls they have, the way none of the documented creatures look the same, the lack of intelligence of the creatures, and the endless bloodthirst they possess.


    Only one sample of a chaos creature has been recovered, and current theories suppose that the massive souls they have is because they consume the souls of every kill, the way their digestion works lets the souls they consume grow their own soul, endlessly. This is not unlike certain Abyssal species or certain Demonic spells. Based off of examinations, the creatures entirely lack internal organs, instead being purely made of a single material. This material appears energy-malleable and full of potential, the specimen likely able to change parts of its body entirely by will, capable of subtly transmuting different parts to be more or less flexible, thus mimicking the muscle and bones of Middle Realm creatures without the need for the parts themselves.


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    Biologists and historians alike posit that whatever conditions the original Chaos Realm may have had, has changed to such a degree that the creatures living in this realm can no longer be stationary lest they be a target (explaining the lack of plants), and they cannot not be flexible lest they be an easier target. It may be that all remaining lifeforms there now have similar biologies to the single remaining sample, and possibly an example of convergent evolution or the only ''species'' (if Chaos creatures can be divided into such) that have survived.


    [...]Interestingly, attempts at studying the flow of souls between realms has indicated that the Chaos Realm is a massive soul sink, able to capture souls but not able to release them. Perhaps this is the real reason the Chaos Realm was made. Or perhaps, according to some Cults, the creature that made it screwed up.


    [...]Current Anti-Chaos Treaties in the Middle Realm, enforced by the Spiritual, Celestial Realm and even Demonic Realm, severely limit summoning of anything from the Chaos Realm. The few times things from the Chaos Realm have crossed into the Middle Realm, inconceivable damage has been caused, and entire civilizations have ended, continents destroyed, and in rare cases, all life gone extinct. Or at least, in the timelines where that happens. The main timeline is free of such summonings, purely on account of the form of enforcement the Chaos Treaties take. [...] Any further discussion on the political side of the Chaos Treaties is outside the scope of this book[...]¡±


    --A series of excerpts from The History of All That Was and Likely Will Be, from the chapters "Creation of the Chaos Realm", "Creatures of the Chaos Realm", "Studies of the Chaos Realm", and "History of Various Policies regarding the Chaos Realm" by The Historian