Prologue
The goddess awoke to find her world in flames. She had thought for sure that this time the creatures of Earth would get the true meaning of life. How mistaken she had been. The world she had left to the humans, had turned into a warzone and a cash grab. She could feel the explosions of war and the greed of the humans as a tingle on her skin. She could feel the cries of nature as every last tree had been cut down to stubs and as the waters go more and more polluted by the minute. She could hear the whimpers of her beautiful, innocent animals captured and abused. Or Animals longing for food because they no longer have their habitat to hunt or gather. She could feel in every inch of her body that Earth had not succeeded this time. She quickly got up and walked over to her cosmic window to see the damage herself. She could not believe her eyes. There wasn't a green spot left in the earth and all she saw was smoke and fire. Upon closer inspection, she saw humans being cruel to other humans as well. They were forced to work as slaves and treated like dirt. She saw children crying and hungry, unable to eat when there was plenty of food to go around. She saw chaos. She was sick to her stomach. She had trusted the humans and they had failed her. She then thought to herself, what could she possibly do. How could she fix it this time? She contemplated for a long, long time. She then decided, she was not fit to take care of this world anymore. She was at a loss and didn't know how she could help she had exhausted every idea she had. She decided she would find a person or creature to take her place. But, how would she choose the next god or goddess? She had to choose a worthy successor, after all. She couldn't just leave it to a random creature. She then decided that she would first make some adjustments. As it stood right now, only a human would have the intelligence to ascend to her throne. So, she added more creatures. She kept adding and adding until she had created 12 intelligent races all over the Earth, each with its own culture, morals, and traditions. She then cultivated her Earth giving it back every last plant the humans had taken. She even added her new plant ideas. She gave back some of the animals that had been killed off. She also restored extinct animals. She added new animals as well. She then edited the human's memories of history and whatever else. She wanted everyone to have a chance in this new world whether they had been evil or not. She tweaked her Earth down to the finest of details then decided that it was good enough to be the new modern world. She then had to determine her trial to find the next God or goddess. She wanted the successor to have many virtues. In her eyes, they had to be kind, smart, brave, fair, truthful, peaceful, moral, creative, selfless, polite, honorable, and generous. For those were the traits of a worthy heir, in her opinion. She thought about how she could find someone of such traits. She thought, and thought, and thought. Eventually, the idea came to her. Why not use trials. Simple yet effective. She brainstormed trials for each virtue. She then installed her trials all over the Earth. She smiled down at her Earth and was confident that at least one of her creatures would have all 12 virtues. She then suddenly realized that she had used a great amount of power this time. She was absolutely exhausted. Saddened that she would soon have to sleep for another millennium to regain her strength, she got up and returned to her bed. She glimpsed back at the Earth one last time and smiled fondly. She knew a worthy creature would take her place and when they did, she would finally be able to rest indefinitely. She then gave in to her fatigue and fell into a deep, deep slumber once again.
