Prologue
In the beginning, there was nothingness and there was everything. Time, space, and energy existed in a uniform plain that permeated all of existence. The universe as it is known today began after billions of years when the three primordial properties began to manifest themselves as physical beings to create substance in their vacant universe. For a reason unknown, the fabric of the universe began to move and sway. This movement of the base fabric of time gave birth to the first Primordial being, which could harness the power of its creator. The movement of the fabric of time was not entirely chaotic as wave like patterns were scattered unevenly across existence. These waves allowed a second being to awaken, the Primordial of Light. Finally, in this movement, bunches of fabric coalesced, resulting in the creation of the last ancient, the Primordial of Matter.
The Primordials, however, soon realized that although they were the only beings in an infinite existence, their powers were not limitless. While each could manipulate and alter the aspect of the Primordial cloth from which they were born, they could not destroy it, nor create more. The Primordials then spent the following billions of years organizing the universe to lay a foundation upon which to build a truly beautiful masterpiece. Massive stars, black holes, and galaxies awoke from the haze of coalesced cloth.
Existence, now placed into a neat structure, was complete to the Primordials. The nothingness and completeness of everything in which they awoke had been manipulated into a fabulous array of time, light, and matter. The Primordials soon found out that their powers were even more limited than they could first imagine. They watched, half in horror and half in curiosity, as their creations were mutated and then destroyed by the very forces they used to create their structure. If left alone, they surmised, the perfect structure that they created would soon return to the even nothingness and everything by erosion against existence.
Believing their original work to have been finished, the Primordials felt that the maintenance of the universe should not be left to them, but to shepherds. Shepherds, who, like them, could not create or destroy the work of their masters, but manipulate it into the shape of their choosing, allowing for the work of the Primordials to be preserved and never annihilated.
Just as the Primordials were awoken by a shifting in the state of the fabric, the Gods were awoken by shifting in the state of the Primordials. From three creators spawned four children, all unaware of the process in which they had come to be, only aware that they existed and were left with three incredible tools: The Cloak of Time, the Crown of Light, and the Sword of Matter. Why four Gods were created to use three tools was never clear, but the Gods developed an understanding that it was to ensure one of them never became too powerful, for if one God were to harness the power of all three tools, they would become the master of the universe.
In the early days of their existence, the four Gods seemed to understand their mission: preserve the state of the universe and shepherd it into eternity. They would share the tools equally, each only ever allowed to hold one at a time to accomplish a specific task. Yahweh, most inclined to use the Cloak of Time, enjoyed reversing the decay of stars and maintaining his order amongst the solar systems. Yggdrasil, most inclined to use the Crown of Light, spent her time growing clouds of dust into nebulae, and nebulae into young stars, therefore ensuring the continued growth of the universe. Calypso, most inclined to use the Sword of Matter, spent her existence dictating the movement of celestial bodies as this movement allowed for a continuous cycle of existence. Satan, however, enjoyed nothing more than sewing chaos into the fabric of space and time. He viewed the role of shepherd as absurd and his siblings foolish for simply maintaining rather than creating. Satan would coax stars to supernova and black holes to swallow worlds, leaving only scattered pieces of a universe that was once perfect.
Tired of Satan’s lack of adherence to their code of ethics, Yahweh, Yggdrasil, and Calypso devised a plan to occupy Satan, allowing the three responsible Gods to continue the maintenance of existence. Their plan was to create a planet in which new beings would come to exist. Together, they created a world in which their life forms could flourish. Satan created a base layer, Hell, where chaos would reign, and wild villainous beings would ravage the landscape. Yggdrasil created a foundation to both conceal Hell and to form a base for all life to exist where perpetual growth could begin. Calypso then added a layer of ocean in which a perpetual cycle of life could be sustained. Yahweh, lastly, created the Heavens to shield the world from the harshness of the universe and to host the shepherds of the planet: humans.
The plan of the three faithful shepherds, however, was too effective. Satan was fully absorbed in the creation of his domain as was intended, but so too were Yggdrasil and Calypso, leaving Yahweh to manage the universe alone. Without assistance, Yahweh knew it was his duty to gather the tools that had been long forgotten by his siblings and use them to continue their original mission by crafting existence into his perfect mould that would last for all eternity. To his dismay, his three siblings quickly noticed that Yahweh had control of all three tools but were powerless to stop him. Yahweh, disappointed in the foolishness and irresponsibility of his brother and sisters, decided to lock them away behind Great Gates for the remainder of eternity, allowing him to fulfill his duty without distraction. He decided that he would craft keys to these Great Gates to allow them to open in the case of the redemption of his siblings.
As master of the universe, Yahweh combined the power of all three ancient Relics and attempted to lock his siblings away in their domains. Yahweh as he willed the Relics to his bidding, found he was successful in trapping his siblings behind Gates within their domain and leaving the keys to the Gates in his hand. Yahweh was quickly rid of his elation when he noticed there were four keys in his grasp instead of three. He was appalled to see that he was also locked away and that the ancient Relics were nowhere to be found. The tools, it seemed, had acted on their own accord to betray their master.
Seeing no other way out, Yahweh gave the four keys, along with eternal life, to four of his first humans. Known as the Gate Keepers, the first four humans sought to find the ancient Relics and unlock the Great Gates, allowing Yahweh to once again become the eternal and sole shepherd of existence. The humans, Yahweh soon realized, were imperfect and far from what he had intended in his original creation. As they scouted the Earth for clues of the Relics, all but the fourth became corrupted by the pull of the Gods. Adam fell into the influence of Yggdrasil and the false promise of perpetual growth. Eve was captured by the allure of Calypso’s continual cycle of life, and Cain by the call of chaos issued by Satan. Abel, the last, was the only human to revere Yahweh and to stay true to his original mission. Yahweh attempted to punish the Keepers for deserting his mission, but as they were beyond the bounds of his Gate and within the protection of their God, they were safe from his influence.
Abel found, though, that his mission was impossible to complete without the cooperation of his former companions. Each were independently trying to free their masters to let their God obtain the ancient Relics. The youngest of the four original Gate Keepers worked tirelessly to unleash his master from his accidental cage, but so did the other Gate Keepers. For almost six thousand years Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel sought to free their God, but something unexpected soon happened. Almost simultaneously, and as mysterious to all as was the creation of Yahweh’s Gate, the power of the Great Gates began to fail. Each God could feel the limits of their power growing, and the reach of their influence widening, but only the opposite could be said for the Gate Keepers. Their keys no longer could chip away at the enchantments of the Gates. Abel quickly reported this to his master to find that four new keys had placed themselves at the feet of Yahweh. As the true power of the Relics were beyond his understanding, these keys, Yahweh surmised, were intended to relock the Gates and continue the original purpose for which they were unintentionally designed.
With this revelation, Yahweh devised a plan for the new Gate Keepers to re-establish the power of the Gates and then retrieve the ancient Relics to allow Yahweh to destroy his siblings and finally become the true master of the universe. It is with the choosing of the four new Gate Keepers that the story of the Great Gates truly begins.
