DIVA/META: Remapping the Stars #1

[deucexm]

I did mention I needed to rewrite some lore; here it is.
Likely the first of two parts, and some context for other stories too!

Remapping the Stars: A DiVerse Alpha Meta-Thing
by Felix

Whenever something is being brought into fictional existence, as a writer, there
are two big questions for me to ponder.  First, WHY is it happening; what is it
connected to, past or future, that causes it or needs it in a causal way?  And
second, HOW shall I go about implementing it - in this case, within the context
of the DiVerse as a whole?

The answers become even more interesting when they touch on the DiVerse itself.

WHY, indeed, does the DiVerse exist?  Because I wanted a fictional universe all
my own, entirely original (borrowed concepts aside), with which to create all
the stories and characters I could ever desire - and weave them into a single,
unified whole.  Because I love a good story, and the longer it goes through the
ages, the better.

HOW, then, should I do this?  Well... if the DiVerse is to contain any story I
could conceivably write - or want to write, more accurately, because there are
things I don't particularly want to write - it must have a consistent framework
of laws and rules, things that make the universe behave in an understandable
way; and it must also have a method of /overriding/ that framework, one that
makes sense in its own way.

The biggest 'HOW', the vehicle by which this is accomplished - the very backbone
of the DiVerse in many ways - is magic.  All kinds of magic were woven into the
DiVerse's fabric upon its creation, and even more have been added since then;
all for the sake of the Story of Stories, the tale of a universe that holds all
other tales within its near-limitless expanse.  Magic is its beating heart; even
in the non-magical tales it lies beneath the surface, serving as the core that
powers all else.

And at the pinnacle of all magic lies the Divine Language, the power to rewrite
reality itself with a Word.  Such was the nature of the Dream - that Dream now
lost, but not forgotten.

THE DREAM ERA

Before anything else was, there was the Source.  Then the universe began, and
with it the nine Deities of the Pantheon; and with them, the Dream.

If physical reality may be considered a 'coarse' form of existence - which is to
say, the aether or aetheric plane is a 'finer' or more 'true' or 'real' form of
reality itself - then the Dream was a level of Reality even closer to the pure
Truth of the Source.  As such, control over the Dream allowed control of more
mundane reality, just as control over the aetheric plane even today allows
control over the physical; but the influence the Dream exerted was greater by
far.

In the Dream Era, civilizations flourished across the universe, the Pantheon's
cherished garden.  Many - but not all - were served by localized restructurings
of Reality, supporting their wisdom and strength.  A Deity might take a favored
artifact and, by accessing the Dream, grant it the power to produce unlimited
energy (as Tieria did with the Arc of Infinite Tangents); in this way, the
mightiest of empires possessed wellsprings that never ran dry, in defiance of
natural laws.

>From the heart of each civilization grew inventions and designs of staggering
power and complexity, for good or for ill; and without limits upon their
designs, the stronger civilizations made war upon their neighbors and took for
themselves what they desired, leaving lifeless planets and extinguished stars in
their wake.  But ever were the planets reborn, and the stars reignited, for the
Pantheon would not suffer the flowers of their garden to wilt and die.

What then may be said of the individual souls?  The smallest of glittering
jewels, the tiniest of dewdrops gracing the flowers of that vast garden?

The Goddess of Death says this: that they were trapped.  Trapped by the
Pantheon's desire to maintain a grand design, unable to truly self-determine;
for every death would invariably be followed by a rebirth, whether the memories
remained or no.  This, despite the soul's protestation that the cycle had gone
on too long, that they were /tired/, that surely there must be something
/more/...

But in the Dream Era, there was nothing more than an endless cycle of death and
rebirth from which naught could escape; neither soul nor star nor starless Void
- nor even Deity - were given leave to cease their Being, and rest from the
constant press of Existence.

And at some point in the restless, cyclical Dream, a Nightmare emerged.

It may have been formed from the combined agony of the souls eternally bound to
the Dream; it may have been called forth from an unknown reality; it may even
have existed in the depths of the Dream all along, waiting to be given a Name. 
But whatever its origin, the Nightmare had but one purpose: collapsing all
possibilities into a single future, the absolute ruin of the universe and all
within it.

It very nearly succeeded, too.  For the Nightmare - the Enemy of all things -
was subtle, and patient, and slid from place to place and time to time, inciting
mistrust and hatred and violence and destruction - all from within the deepest
part of the Dream.  It would have remained unnoticed, had not the Goddess of
Destruction Parvait taken a personal interest in matters.

Of all the Pantheon, only Parvait saw the corruption that had taken root within
the depths of the Dream; or perhaps she was the only one willing to act upon the
knowledge.  And act she did - confronting the Nightmare's machinations at every
turn and confounding them.  And when that was not enough, when she remained
outpaced and outmatched by the tireless Enemy, the Goddess of Destruction
employed the most desperate of stratagems: first entrapping the Nightmare within
her very form, then dismantling the Dream itself, corruption and all.

By Parvait's sacrifice the universe was granted respite from the Nightmare,
though only for a relatively short time.  And without the Dream, the universe
entered a new state of existence; a new era, with new rules.

NEXT: THE COSMIC ERA