I-0the "archive for stuff that i0 wrote when it was 17" thread
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hello. quite simply these are two things i previously wrote for eternia when i was in my mid-late teens. one was buried in the deepest depths of the spires forum, and the other was seemingly only contained on a pastebin that miraculously hadn't been deleted yet (all my other pastebins from e1 were)

they're both reuploaded here chiefly for posterity, because i expect both of those to die entirely someday. furthermore, they're both given in their unedited original forms, with any potential strange phrasing or mistakes preserved as-is. i don't necessarily sign off on concepts or execution here, given their age - but i do believe in archival, so. with that out of the way...

From Nothing - (Spires forums, May 2017?)
this was an attempt to write a more fleshed out origin story for Atmos itself, presented in the form of a sort of abstract confessional poem from its God.

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I carved circles into the sand, and I called them eyes.

The foundation of all my creation is Duality. The Duality of order and chaos, of light and darkness, presence and absence, and innumerable other pairs of ideas and opposed concepts. My dearest friend, the infinite emptiness from which I emerged, held all principles that I did not. It was zero, where I was one.

Where it was kind, I was cruel. Where I was afraid, it was brave. Where it was nothing, I was everything. We came into constant conflict - and our clashes led to the first, most divine order of synthesis: Creation.

Time was the first that spread from our conflict. We'd created it to count the days and centuries we spent sparring.

Space came second. Boundaries, within which we would debate.

With this, we had established a few of the absolute fundamentals of the world we intended to create. And yet, we pushed onward, forging yet more and yet more still. The cold I'd suffered was answered by the emptiness with heat, out of its endless kindness. No longer were we content with merely ideas, and so, more of our conflicts created form, created matter.

I wished for things to become less abstract. With that, we designed sand. I carved circles into the sand, and I called them eyes. Our world slowly took shape, as more and more ideas were placed within it. Sound, gravity, hope, color. More forms of matter.

It was perfection. There was nothing else that it could have been. We did not scar the world by forcing upon it horrible things. And yet, I was unsatisfied. Why could the world itself not have some form of strife, as our friendship did?

To that end, we'd both designed two binary opposites. The nothingness offered light, and I offered darkness.

Yet, on the eve of the day it was to be given to the world, I was struck by something I'd never experienced before. Loneliness.

I was the sole entity within existence. My only companion was the emptiness I'd become a creator alongside.

My deepest regret is that I proposed a solution to it. Life.

Our first child was given form, embodying the highest form of the light that I so treasured. It - he - was our angel, as we so named this first life.

This creation was a mistake.

I'd created love as a gift to the emptiness, to describe what I'd felt for it. And my whim, my inability to cope with loneliness, my inability to accept that it would be merely it and myself forever had wounded it, fatally.

The first concept to take shape which our conflict had not created was death, and I named it as I mourned my departed, and I created sorrow.

My grief, and yes, rage, changed me. My next creation was the antithesis to our firstborn. Entities of darkness, what I'd offered to the world. I no longer had it within myself to create. I just didn't have the heart to do anything besides watch.

And so, my final task was to create the conditions that might lead to another new world, whose guardians and deities may not make the same mistakes that I did, who may be less reckless, and hold tighter onto what they adored.

A perfect conflict, between light and dark, good and evil, selfless and selfish. Opposites, caught in endless strife, with synthesis being found between blows.

I watched, and I waited.

Every trace of purity within me had devolved, over centuries and centuries. There is no doubt within my mind that my beloved would be ashamed of what I am now.

I never once attempted to explain how I'd become what I'd become to those angels of the light, not even my firstborn. I no longer deserved his forgiveness, and I would not give him an excuse to offer it.

Eventually, he grew tired of the war, horrified by its brutality. His solution was not one I could claim, earnestly, that I expected.

He left the battlefield behind, seeking a chance to create his own world. It did not take many further centuries for the angels to follow in his footsteps, and for the beings of darkness to dissipate, as they were now devoid of purpose.

Once again, I was alone in our dead plane.

I carved circles into the sand, and I called them eyes.

Gospel of Origin - (Eternia Prologue posts, like September 2016)
an attempt at an in-universe gnostic heresy, ala stuff like the real world Gospel of Judas, that - similar to the above - puts Atmos at the center, and attempts to expand on what 'archangel' really means, and all that. it's also probably incoherent if you haven't read the old E1 Book of Kraus, as it's meant to be something written by a weird cult-y sect as an additional chapter to it in their personal canon.

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Quote:The angel came to me in a dream, the night Lodeus had brought us his work. Just the sight of her gave me a feeling of faith, far beyond the other artifacts of angelic make I'd witnessed before.
At first, I'd imagined I was misguided, led astray by the stress of the past days, healing those wounded in the battles with the cursed. She seemed to realize this, answering my concerns before I'd opened my mouth to speak.

"Be at peace, Euphemia of Valmasia. Learn of the golden spark that lies within you."

My anxiety disappeared. Her radiance was incomparable - second, possibly, only to Kraus himself. The very image of the divine stared out at me. Wings of pure white, shining golden light, impressions of other worlds glowing beyond them.
Just the sight of her willed me to ask questions, seek answers. A thousand ideas filled my mind, and a compulsion to sort them. Find the truth of all things. Before I could express my awe, she began to speak once more.

"I am Archangel Sophel of the dead realm of Atmos. My aspect is Insight - and I intend to share it with you. You have been chosen not to shepherd humanity, but to bring them peace, resolve quarrels. Record all I say, and it shall be an addendum upon the holiest Book of Kraus. And its treasured name shall be the Gospel of Origin."

Her words only caused me to speculate further. The dead realm of Atmos? The aspect of Insight? Origin?

"Before all things, this realm of Kraus's, even the Atmos he escaped from - there was only void, and the formless, nameless God we comprised the pieces of. Its thoughts, its ideals, all things were one, and all things were God."

I was confused, and I'm sure she knew that before even I did. The other Gospels had spoken of Atmos, and spoken of its God, the vicious creature that created the endless war between the Akuma and Angels. As before, she answered my thoughts for me.

"The entity ruling over Atmos is not the true God - it is only a fragment of it, as am I, and as is Kraus. In the primordial times, we were eight in number. God's Insight took shape, as the archangel you see before you."

Kraus was a fragment of a true God? The archangel within my dreams was yet another?

"Its Virtue took shape, too - the being you know as Kraus Eternia. Other aspects became other archangels... Love, Eternity, Hope, Faith, Bliss. But before all of them, before even I or Kraus, there was Saklas."

The very mention of the name in my mind brought visions beyond the dream's light. War, violence, hellfire.

"The first aspect to become an Archangel was Cruelty, and Saklas, it was named. Anger blinded it, fueled its sadism, and it knew naught its Origin. The second life in all reality ignorantly, and incorrectly, declared itself God, and began its efforts to prove this."

There was some solace in the idea that God was not truly as malicious as we'd been taught before. It was merely an imposter, among other pieces of God.

"When the other Archangels took shape, myself among them, there was only Atmos in all its hellish evil. Saklas began his war between the Akuma and his fellow fragments, in effect, a fallen archangel."

And from there, things proceeded as told in the three Gospels before me, I surmised. Then, what became of Atmos?

"An Archangel who remained pure could survive, even without its natural counterbalancing aspect. Saklas did not, and as Kraus fled into the world you reside in, it took only a few centuries for it to fade. Picture a shadow without a light to cast it. The war was finished. Atmos was barren."

The angels... were victorious over the eternal war? Kraus's exit not only allowed us to exist, but saved another plane, altogether? Why, then, would Saklas not follow Kraus to ensure his own survival?

"Saklas did not pursue Kraus into Eternia because it could not. Ignorance of other planes, ignorance of its origin... that was his killing flaw. If Cruelty had understood its existence, it would have remained among us. We could have created a perfect world."

And with this, I understood. Over several nights she had spoken to me, and I apologize if this Gospel had mistakenly omitted these gaps of time. My focus was on recording every single word of her's.

And on the final dream, Sophel came to me again. I asked her the question that had been nagging at me throughout these nights. "Why me, of all people?"

"To give them hope, Euphemia. Let them know - Kraus, Virtue, has inspired us. The others of angelic blood, we try to follow his methods - escaping this dead world, and creating our own planes."

The name of another Archangel appeared to me in my mind, directly. The true name of Hope - Elpis. Without another word from the archangel, I had understood. Her visits to me were not entirely her own design, Archangel Elpis had wished to spread his aspect as well.

"I leave you with one last thing. Be not like Saklas, blind to the truth. Understand from when and where things came, including oneself."

"Remember your beginnings, no matter how humble."

With that, the light faded, and I awoke. With Insight, and Hope, and I was finally at peace.
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