User:Dabe/Prehistory

This article collects information regarding the conceptualisation of the game world of The Mana World.

the Universe begins to unfold

Somewhere in purgatory, past an web of mental energy, there once existed an empty plane of dark space. Nothing ever happened there and it seemed like it would stay that way forever. Then in the center of the darkness, the universe suddenly began to emerge from one immeasurable point of pure and boundless energy.

• 1,000,000 Years Ago - the Elements come in to existence

What began as a single point of energy, suddenly split in to four new energies, which immediately rushed outward to fill the universe. These energies, called elements, make up and give definition to reality. When elements are manacled together, distinct sub-elemental products can be created.

• 975,000 Years Ago - the Spirits & the Gods are created

The elements flew wildly about for some time, perpetually crashing apart and mixing together. During this period, every possible elemental product was eventually created and subsequently destroyed to such an infinite point, that the original four elements seemed to reform at the end of the cycle. Instead of repeating the chaotic transmutation that once again seemed inevitable, the elements began to coalesce uniformly in to four, separate masses. After a moment of stillness, an implosion of elemental energies revealed four condensed masses of pure elemental energy, each located at a fixed point, in what now seemed like very empty space.

What would eventually be called "Spirits" suddenly and of course, quite miraculously, came in to existence. Miraculous as they might have been, the Spirits actually possessed no overt intelligence, because they did not exist within the boundaries of the mental plane. They did however, have a certain unconscious purpose and intent; more of a natural aversion toward imbalance in the universe. Unfortunately for the universe, all of the elemental energy it would need to have physical substance was now on the outer rim of the mental plane. With no creative thought, there could be no conceivable future.

So, in an act of pure instinct, each spirit simultaneously expelled half of its energy toward the heart of the universe. The four streams of energy managed to remain tethered to each spirit, even after plunging through the dark void of space and puncturing the mental plane. As they blasted through the astral fog, in to conscious existence, each elemental projection became immediately self-aware and began to question their own purpose. With no one to instruct them, the new entities were left to devise their own understanding of the universe, beginning with the first linguistic associations; they called their creators "Spirits" and referred to themselves as "Gods".

the Dawn of Mortal Life

The Gods had little else to do but spend their time creating lower-lifeforms and of course, places for them to live. Despite the fact that the universe was now brimming with life, the Gods were experiencing an uncomfortable feeling, that their seemingly endless wells of energy, might be running-dry; the Spirits were in fact, almost out of power.

Because the Gods were in a way, the corporeal avatars of the Spirits, they shared a subconscious respect for universal balance. The Gods knew without fully understanding why, that in order for the universe to remain intact, the Spirits must always retain at least some of their energy supply. The only way the Gods could hope to reclaim some of this supply, was to begin sacrificing their creations, many of which were already becoming boring to them.

It is during this almost unimaginable massacre, that the Gods lost all fundamental respect for lower-life. However, even after the arduous task of deactivating so many lifeforces, there was still work for the Gods to do; husks of spent, mortal life now littered the cosmos. The Gods would either have to wait for the elemental refuse to decompose naturally, a process that could take millions of years just to begin, or devise an alternative strategy for recycling dead matter.

After a long argument, the Gods agreed on a small roster of creatures to reanimate and did so. The mounds of dead matter were then tossed rather carelessly toward the Spirits, where they were absorbed and immediately broken down to raw elemental energy, then redistributed evenly back toward the Gods. Well supplied for the moment, with fresh energy and a clean working environment, the Gods returned to their experiments.

the World is created

After another long stretch of time, the Spirits were once again running low on energy. During their last crisis however, the Gods had devised a preemptive solution for this impending situation. There were still many physical realms leftover from the recently eradicated creatures. The plan was to break all of these down and finally construct a single set of realms; a world.

The Gods once again combed their mortal ranks for the most stagnant and boring creatures, ending each of their lives without much thought and even less remorse. With a newly consolidated roster, all of mortal life could now be placed comfortably on a single world. Once again of course, there was the annoyance of gathering the recently deceased; a task which the Gods had grown to feel quite beyond performing.

the Sun & the Moon are created

Not looking fondly toward trip around the universe, the Gods became motivated to design a routine system to collect dead matter, faster and much more automatically than before. Since their normal creations seemed somehow ill-equipped to handle such an important task, the Gods developed two unique objects capable of filling their needs. One called "the Sun" was created by the spirits of Air and Fire, while a polar opposite called "the Moon" was created by the spirits of Water and Earth. When they were completed, both objects were placed in orbit around the world, where they would chase each other forever.

The Sun burned with such ferocity and brightness, that the black of the sky directly around it became illuminated to a light-blue. With this intense light came heat, which warmed the surface of the world as it passed. A number of environmental changes were gradually taking place because of this, but the Gods did not take notice. What was important to the them, was that this new heat served to bake any dead matter laying about, greatly accelerating the usually long process of decay.

The Moon on the other hand, was made to absorb stray energy. Emitting a much softer glow than the Sun, the Moon hangs about a dark sky, collecting the smallest elemental particles as it passes. The Moon then releases each particular element out toward its relative spirit, where it is again recycled, so each god can continue to play without the responsibility of cleaning up after themselves.

Mankind is created

The Gods were very pleased with themselves. They celebrated all throughout the first Day, enjoying the bright sky that it now offered. When the Moon arrived however, it ushered darkness back in to the sky and the Gods began to feel tired. As they drifted off to sleep, each god dreamed of life in the form of their favorite creature. The God of Water dreamed that it was swimming, like a fish. The God of Air dreamed that it was soaring, like a bird. The God of Fire dreamed that it was basking in an intense heat, like a salamander. The God of Earth dreamed that it was tunneling through the dirt, like a mole.

To their surprise, the Gods were suddenly jarred awake by four new beings, which they had each created in their sleep. These new beings, which became generally referred to as "Man" shared the mental potential of the Gods, but absorbed energy naturally through the environment, like the mortals. Like the Gods after their own birth, Man began to question its existence. In a way the Spirits were never able to, the Gods began to interact with Man.

The Gods gradually taught Man to manipulate the elements around them, mostly out of curiosity, to see how far their potential could reach. About the time that Man's collective power rivaled that of their creators, the Gods once again began to feel tired. Aware of this fatigue, Man approached the Gods with a collective request, that went something like this:

Talpan: Privacy is wonderful, but I am somehow starting to feel lonely.

Sparron: Yes, it would be nice to have someone new to spend time with.

GODS: We would like to do this for you, but there is not enough energy to make many more, like you all.

Ifriton: Then use our own energy to create them!

Tritan: Agreed; life is not worth living without proper company.

GODS: It shall be done. Farewell.

With that, not only Man but every mortal creature was divided in to genders, one called 'male' and the other 'female.' Through a process of reproduction, their traits would be randomized and bestowed upon a new life form, created in their combined image. In this way, each mortal was able to create life, without assistance from the Gods. Evolution would then take place over time, considering a species was able to survive from generation to generation.

the Age of Ancient Mankind

Under the inexperienced care of Mankind, the world eventually began to fall in to disrepair. With the Gods asleep, there was no one to consciously keep the elements segregated. Fire seeped too close to Earth, slow-cooking much of it to rock. Air and Water combined, forming fog and clouds. Essentially, the realms began to blend together. Instead of four segregated realms of pure elemental alignment, there was now one large realm of constantly changing structure, where all of the elements and resulting products were allowed to flow together.

the Gods Awaken

After many generations, the combined power of all mortal life finally rivaled that of the Gods, whom Mankind had nearly forgotten. One day however, the Gods finally woke from their long sleep, only to find their realms in complete disorder. Creatures which the Gods could not begin to classify roamed the world unchecked and uncontrolled, preying on one another to avoid starvation. Rather than rectify this problem, Mankind catered to its own whims. New ways of thinking had been adopted during the Gods' slumber; greed, jealousy, deceit.. These unattractive features made the Gods angry toward Mankind, which made them feel a mixture of attachment and betrayal towards their own particular version of Man. (i.e.: The God of Water still loved the Tritan and so forth with the other 3 Gods and Races)

the Great Conflict

The Gods attempted to make themselves known to the new and unfamiliar generation of mortals, but Mankind no longer believed in them. This disgusted the Gods, who now viewed Mankind as arrogant and illogical. Hopeful that they would be able to salvage something from the mess that had taken shape, the Gods attempted to subtly influence Mankind to "clean up its act". The Gods began by creating a language-barrier between each distinct culture. After that initial disruption, the Gods proceeded to feed Mankind false information, to distort their understanding of the universe.

the Gods are Banished

The Gods eventually created such a twisted array of misconceptions and falsehoods, that Mankind's civilization was nearly engulfed by war. The wars continued through the generations, until Mankind was almost annihilated. Finally, through the fog of war, four heroes emerged. Since each hero had somehow learned the truth behind the lies, the group was able to combine their knowledge in to a strategy, against the Gods. With the focused efforts of all of the remnants of Mankind behind them, the heroes were able to force the Gods in to their own energy supply.

The Gods put up such a defiant struggle, that their link to the Spirits became unstable. The Spirits then became unstable themselves and gradually began to drift toward the heart of the universe; toward the struggle. They drifted further and further toward the mental plane until much like the God before them, the Spirits burst through and for the first time, achieved conscious thought. Directly after attaining consciousness, each spirit smashed in to their relative god, changing suddenly in to a crystalline form upon impact. Each god was encased in a crystal, which came to rest at fixed locations, relative to their previous quadrants in space.

All of this expulsion of energy nearly destroyed the world, at very least, severely scarring its surface. The one supercontinent that had formed slowly over the years was split. Also, the Spirits were once like offshore energy wells, but were now physically part of the world; all of the energy in the universe was now within mortal grasp and without the Gods to directly feed off of it, the energy would be free to absorb... but the Crystals were still retaining all of that spiritual energy and for the moment, no one even knew that they existed.