A bit of backstory/lore for the series I am working on. :) (Google Doc link didn't work, so I am just... putting it here.)
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From Whence It Began
In the beginning, there was nothing. No ideas. No thoughts. Just a massive space filled with a complete void of dark, black nothingness. So it was almost a miracle, then, when the first thought emerged suddenly from the voids womb. It was a simple thought. A simple belief and constant that in the absence of anything else at all was powerful enough to change everything. And what was that thought?
“Everything must change.”
And so it did, as that thought grew and grew into the first Sentiverse – the first Sentient Universe – and as it was born, so too began the Everchange.
The Everchange
Many things have been lost in time throughout the cycle of multiverses known as the Everchange. It's origins, for one – who knows if even the potential truths told earlier are even true? - as well as how long it has been going on for. Who knows why or even if it's called the Everchange. But some things are clear. One, from one Sentiverse many others will come into being. The why's and how's of this process differ from cycle to cycle – cycles often referred to as Chronicles for some lost reason – but none know of the existence of the Everchange and all think that they are the first Sentiverses to have existed. That is... until the end of their multiverse. Because there is always an end, no matter how long it takes – years, centuries, eons, the length always varies. Sentiverses live and die, come and go. And there is always one Sentiverse left in the end, at which point – somehow, someway, it's always different – the existence of the Everchange is made clear, and they are tasked with starting the next multiverse Chronicle and setting it up in whatever way they see fit before they, too, pass on. And it is only in that moment that every other constant of the Everchange is made clear to that final Sentiverse: Every cycle and every Chronicle will be different. Every group of Sentiverses may work differently, but the power of story must always be preserved. It is never made clear why, though those final Sentiverses always assume that their duty is to make sure the stories of the next cycle should be better than the ones before. And thus it went on, countless cycle after cycle, Chronicle after Chronicle, it never being clear exactly how long things had been going on for.
The Purvayus Chronicles Eons came and went before the cycle known as the Purvayus Chronicles came. It was named after the Sentiverse Purvay, who themselves had come into existence halfway through the previous cycle – the Bavore Chronicles – and quickly became unhappy. Through no fault of Purvays own, things in their cycle were rote, boring, and unexciting. Had Purvay known and been able to meet Bavor – the Sentiverse that had put things into motion for their cycle – Purvay would have denounced them completely and lambasted them endlessly as a terrible storyteller. Possibly even the worst and most boring and unimaginative to have ever existed. It was through sheer force of will, even – and perhaps even spite – that Purvay managed to survive until the end of the cycle, and when the opportunity came to set up their own Chronicle, Purvay jumped at the chance to show the long deceased Bavor how it should be done.
Purvay's first step – according to the instructions that had suddenly appeared to them upon the death of the second last Sentiverse of the cycle who probably barely deserves a mention here – was to first set up a new habitat and location for the Sentiverses to reside and live in. Location didn't seem all that important to Purvay, so they kept it simple. They build a vast landscape and split it into a myriad of exciting biomes, organized like a pizza with a brand new biome flavor for every slice. That done, they then moved on to the next step, which was to create the first Sentiverse for their cycle. This too didn't take too much time, as Purvay had already been thinking long and hard about how to improve upon their predecessors cycle, where they couldn't do much but tell stories and that was it. And where was the excitement in that? So Purvay made it so the Sentiverses of their cycle – which they had dubbed the Purvayus Chronicles – could shift their bodies at a whim to create anything they wanted. Amorphous blobs that could change their shape to become locations, characters, literally anything at all. The why's and how's of this ability have been lost to time – and are unimportant now, anyways – but Purvay had hoped that the Sentiverses they created would use this ability to connect with other Sentiverses, converse with them, and tell stories.
The next thing according to the instructions was to create an inciting event to lead to the creation of other Sentiverses. Purvay found this a little bit more difficult, though after a bit of rumination they were leaning towards letting it be something more natural and letting the lone first Sentiverse just figure it out on their own. But, then again, thought the impulsive Purvay, why wait? Purvay created nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine more Sentiverses not unlike the first, put them into the habitat environment alongside the first Sentiverse and then moved on. Third step, set up instructions for the final Sentiverse of their cycle – easy and done. It was the final step – to step back and die and let things be – that had given Purvay pause and appalled them. Step back and die, after all this work? That is probably what Bavor did and look how things ended up for their cycle. Looking at their set up, Purvay though, oh, no. No, no, no, no, no. This wouldn't do. They couldn't let their cycle be as boring as the last one, and they knew just what to do. They wrote a note and left it somewhere easy for the Sentiverses to find. It read as such:
“To whomever reads this and whomever it may concern,
By the time you read this I will be definitively dead and unable to assist you or answer any questions, but hey! Congratulations! You are part of the ninety-nineth cycle of a series of multi-verses known as the Everchange. Your duty is to tell the best stories you can, store up as much story energy as you can, and survive until the end of the cycle. Whoever makes it to the end will be rewarded extremely well, but unfortunately only one can do so. I promise you, however, that the reward will be worth it. Good luck, fight well, and try not to die!
Sincerely, your concerned creator,
Purvay Yoss.”
With that note completed and both it and the prize now set up, Purvay started the cycle and stuck around, watching long enough to be satisfied their cycle would be more exciting than the last cycle before passing on in peace. It was, to be blunt, a blood bath, and one that made it one of the shortest cycles in the Everchange – though even then it lasted several dozen eons. Following a bit of confusion about the note and the situation they were in, the ten thousand Sentiverses of the Purvayus Chronicles quickly realized it was every Sentiverse for themselves as they squirreled away to their own corners of existence to scheme and plan how they were going to win the prize. They just needed to kill nine thousand, nine hundred, and ninety nine other Sentiverses. How hard could that be, really? Some formed alliances. Some hustled and trained their metaphorical asses off. Some started telling killer stories immediately and tried to keep it secret but were found and killed themselves because where was the honor in that? There had to be some officiality to this, after all. Oddly enough, however, it was the unlikeliest of the Sentiverses that was the last one left. And that Sentiverse's name was Warth.
Warth was not the bravest of Sentiverses: they definitely weren't a leader and they tended to stick to the edges of any fights they were in so they could run away easily if need be or hide until it was safe to come out while lingering to take notes about the deceased. Warth was also not the smartest of the Sentiverses. They weren't dumb, necessarily, but their tactics and decisions at times left other Sentiveres confused and befuddled. But what Warth lacked in intelligence and strength, they made up for in charisma, creativity, and heart. Their skill at telling stories was rivalled only by their ability to talk their way out of any situation, or crack a joke or improvise an argument and befriend another Sentiverse. It was this combination that had allowed Warth to survive as long as it did, bouncing from alliance to alliance and plan to plan as the years passed. Some would call Warth opportunistic, but they just saw it as always needing to do what needed to be done to survive. And it wasn't that they didn't care about other Sentiverses. Warth was extremely empathetic and felt the death of every Sentiverse they witnessed to their core, something that wore on them more and more as the cycle went on and used those feelings to fuel their need to survive.
The other important thing to know about Warth was that as good as they were at storytelling, most other Sentiverses would have described their methods as extremely slow. Warth themselves, though, would just say they were taking their time to avoid making mistakes. After all, their favourite story in all of existence – the tale of the Tortoise and the Hare, which no Sentiverse of the cycle is sure who wrote – was all about taking ones time, not rushing things, and always eventually getting where you were meant to go. Their favourite creature in all of existence – the Turtle, which again was a thing that came out of nowhere for the Sentiverses of the cycle – survived by taking their time as well, always knowing where they were going and taking their time to get there. So Warth was never insulted when someone called them slow or said they were taking too much time as their whole life existence was modelled after the turtle, and when it came to surviving, really, the best offence was a good defence.
In the end, it came down to Warth and two other Sentiverses. One – Ryjert Chones – was steadfast, honest, strong, chivalrous, and one of the bravest Sentiverses of the Purvayus Chronicles. A beacon of belief that, luckily, was also one of Warth's longest lasting allies and the closest thing Warth probably had to a best friend, especially considering the number of times Ryjert had saved them both in a sticky situation. Warth was always amazed at Ryjert's bravery and assuredness, but Ryjert just assured Warth they were lucky and they were never really sure what was gonna happen when they did it – instead opting to believe in their motto: “It's better to expect the worst and be pleasantly surprised, than to expect the best and be severely disappointed.” Unfortunately, the two of them were fighting the nastiest Sentiverse in the cycle – Recumbuc Knuch – who was pure, unadulterated chaos and unpredictability. Which is why Warth found it so weird when their end came off so cliche. After a few centuries of them fighting each other, Recumbuc went to kill Warth, and Ryjert moved in the way of the attack themselves, taking a mortal wound. But when Recumbuc went after Warth again, the dying Ryjert put all the strength they had left into a mortally wounding blow of their own, killing Recumbuc almost instantly. And as Ryjert lay there dying, their last words to Warth before succumbing to their injuries were, “Guess... my luck... ran....”
Cliche to the end, Ryjert was.
And just like that, Warth was the last Sentiverse standing, and as they drifted among the corpses of fallen friends and foes alike, their prize came to them amid a shower of fireworks and celebratory noises, a chest containing instructions as well as a short note:
“To whomever may be reading this note,
Congratulations! Your prize – your fantastic, incredible, amazing reward – is simply the honour of knowing you managed to outlive the rest of your friends and slash or comrades and slash or family and slash or enemies. Good job and toodleoo!
Sincerely, your not actually all that concerned but definitely thoroughly pleased and entertained creator,
Purvay Yoss.”
“What the fucking fuck?” was Warth's first thought, followed by much anger and further expletives. Warth was incensed. This had just been a game to the clearly bored Purvay. Countless Sentiverses were killed for their entertainment and looking over the instructions that had been passed down to them, it seemed that their duties were to tell good stories, not murder each other and enact violence. How many legendary stories and epic tales had gone untold because of their creator's need for entertainment and carnage? Purvay had completely perverted – no pun intended – the goal of the Everchange. Which meant it was Warth's job to put things right and make up for the terrible job that Purvay had done. And so – with much work to do – Warth got right to it.
The Creation And Conception Of The Warthian Chronicles
Prep Phase: The Scavenging
Like any good writer, story teller, or content creator not comfortable with flying by the seat of their pants, Warth knew much planning would be necessary before building the first Sentiverse of their cycle. Which of course first meant collecting resources and taking an inventory of what they had available to use to build the first Sentiverse and anything else they might need. Luckily, as a thorough note take, Warth had made notes of interesting spots in the world and resources, which they planned to go collect. But they also knew – due to the Sentiverses of the Purvarus Chronicles being able to turn themselves into the things needed for their stories and their bodies not going away upon death, that there was an opportunity to harvest them for resources. Obviously, Warth wouldn't be harvesting every corpse they came across – doing so for nine thousand, nine hundred, and ninety nine corpses would be exhausting – but going through their notes, Warth had a number of corpses in mind to check out for potentially interesting resources. After going through the habitat and making notes on both the elements and the Sentiverse corpses they had scavenged, Warth made a list of all of them and their properties that they called Warth's Periodic Table Of Fundamental Story Elements. -------- And now the foundations I am working on are how Warth built their multiverse. :)
