In the Beginning

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Nothing.

The Void.

And the fabric of reality unrolls. The gods emerge from the nothingness, struggling for survival. They grow and change, developing, learning to use their powers. They believe themselves to be first and greatest, and make mortal life in their image, each god creating his own race to serve as soldiers in the great war.

But there was one who came before, one who pervades all the world, who lives in the hearts and minds of mortals and the darkness between the stars, deep underground and in the towering skyscrapers. Shadow, the embodiment of all darkness. Watching, listening. Sitting in the space between life and death, in the Darkness. Observing as the different species rise, developing technology and culture, learning about the world around them.

Then came the Rift.

The world was destroyed, ripped to shreds and devoured by the greatest tear in reality ever to occur across all the dimensions. The shards of divine essence, barely surviving, stripped of mind and power, were spat out into the raw Void. They grew once again, and developed into gods and Primordials, creating again a world from nothing, warring over its people and landscapes, forging their own realms outside the bubble of mortality.

Shadow, still alone, still in the Darkness, watches. The new realm is different, and there are some mortals who can manipulate reality. One in particular burns brightly, and opens the door for the first time. Shadow emerges into the world.

For the first time, he acts. Discovering powers like those of gods. Walking the world. Eventually, everything turns to dust, ended. Shadow turns his gaze to the worlds beyond the world. He summons all his powers, and rips open a hole in the world. The detonation shreds him, and only a tiny portion of his essence passes through. Enough that he is still a holder of great power, but now he is nothing to what he was.

He learns, refining his techique, having to rely on a vastly depleted reserve of energy. Eventually, he can transfer himself vast distances instantaneously by travelling through the Darkness, the realm that all shadows everywhere connect to.

He finds the Nexus, an intersection of the worlds in a far different manner than his home dimension. He enters, looking for a way to return to his essence. Searching, invisible, for months, but finding nothing.

Perhaps one of the inhabitants could help..? But they would end, and he would be alone again, and feel the loss for aeons... it would be better to leave them be... but he has no choice. Where to start..? Perhaps an inn...