24.2 The First Deities.

In the breath before Genesis decreed the start of this brave new age, three Omnipotent deities of opposing tempers were brought into being. Their precise mandate was beyond mortal comprehension; when the first mortals walked the land, they were there, and have been there since.

When the grandfather clock of Genesis was still rewinding through the 850th year and the buds of plants were returning to seeds, already the first divinity came into existence. Osiris, the god of death, rose out of the Deep, wielding the fair sword of retribution. "Genesis, before you may set time in motion, there must be balance in the lives of mortals," he intoned. And so blessed with existence by Genesis, Osiris, adorned in the black of the Underworld, surveyed the yet unfrozen view of mortalkind for his first victims.

The clock, around the year 830, was just about to stop, it is said, when Orthwein, the god of fate, appeared with something in his right hand. They were the silken strands that bind the minds and souls of men. He challenged the arbitrary nature of death, coming betwixt Genesis and Osiris. "To all things must come reason and divine providence," he replied. In him, mortals found fear, for Death had a more pleasant face.

And then came the last of the three, in that moment between tranquility and chaos when Genesis would set the clock at the 820th year. Solontus, god of the stars, formed from the blackened heavens. A single tear dropped from his cheek and spattered across the sky. He spoke: "There must be inspiration and drive in Man. His creations amidst the brutality you propose will help him find some solace." And thus, the Heavens were bespecked with stars as a monument to his compassion.

Then, the grandfather clock bonged. The rest is history.