1.00: The Beginning

Many thousands of years ago, the night sky glowed red over southeastern Europe. A great body descended from the heavens, wreathed in burning storm clouds. People watched its arrival from miles away. Some were immediately gripped with terror, others were stricken by a sense of awe or wonder. Many even made pilgrimages to the place where they thought the mysterious object came to rest. No man or woman found more than a massive scar in the Earth, channeling a river where once there had been none. The people waited for the end to come, but it didn’t. They waited for their gods to come, but they didn’t. With no written words to record the event, the strange occurrence had been nearly forgotten when the Primordial Titans emerged from the underworld.

They were beings unlike any the world had seen before. They were shape-shifters, sorcerers, and monsters of every description. Some were giants, others smaller than men. Some were as pleasant to behold as the most beautiful of women and men, while others had skin covered in thick fur or scales. All were dangerous. They flew across the sky on bird-like wings or in strange horseless chariots, wielding arcane weapons that could smite a man with a crackling bolt of light. The most powerful among them needed no weapons – they commanded storms, earthquakes, wildfires, tidal waves, plagues, floods, and more. Their favor brought prosperity, their enmity destruction.

They declared that they were gods, taking up the names of those entities the people of the land already worshiped. Many pious men rebuked their claims, but all found their skepticism answered with flames and claws. Heroes went forth to confront the monsters, but could do no harm to them – weapons of stone, wood, and even bronze were useless against them. One man stood against them with a sword forged from metal that had fallen from the sky – he alone was able to make one of these gods – the Sky-Father himself – bleed. Unfortunately, his bravery and skill were rewarded with not more than a gruesome death, as he was slowly cooked before his people by the Sky-Father’s lightning.

After their emergence from the underworld, the Sky-Father’s people spread to every corner of the Earth; some helped the humans, some abused them, and some simply hid from them. The king and his family raised a great city, Knossos, on the island of Crete, from which they ruled the people of the eastern Mediterranean.  The Titans lived longer and bred slower than their human servants, but with time, those who’d first emerged from the underworld faded away, their legacies passing to their successors. Among their human servants, there were no books to record names, no pictures to record faces; the humans had only the memories of those who lived to see the changes, and few lived long enough to see very much. The Sky-Father, Malanginui, became Ranginui, Esege Malan, Marduk, and eventually Oranos. His lover, the earth mother, Coatlinuku became Cōātlīcue, Papatuanuku, and eventually Gaia. Morgania, the war maiden, became the Morrigan, Mania, Xipe Totec, and eventually Hekate.  Mbomxolodur, the fire bringer, became Mbombo, Lodur, Xolotl, and eventually Prometheus. Over a dozen such legacy-bearers ruled from Knossos, surrounded in their sparkling city by brothers, sisters, children, grandchildren, and beloved pets.

Some of these self-proclaimed gods were wise, others were foolish, and too few were those who could see the difference.