Interlude 2

Nodon, God of Growth, and Edall, God of Justice, both proved to be worthy rulers of Jita. Nodon sowed the seeds of civilization and coaxed its roots to grow deep and strong. Edall pruned away the snarled and twisted vines that would threaten to choke out the rest of civilization as needed. Nodon would sow yet more seeds, and the cycle repeated itself.

One might argue that Nodon was overly kind, or that Edall was needlessly cruel, but the truth of the matter is that both performed very necessary functions which ultimately allowed civilization to bloom and flourish.

-excerpt from the Scriptures of Vine and Blade

The great hunger, the mass of madness, finally awoke in a haze of confusion.

Hungry?

No. Not hungry.

Strange. It had never known an existence without hunger. What was this? Flickers and flashes of dreams floated back up to the surface of its memory. Also strange. Sleep? Dreams? Both concepts were previously unknown, unheard of. Its many eyes blinked uncomprehendingly. What had happened?

FLASH.

Explosions. Ash rained down on an ancient city. Volcanic debris crushed roofs, killed inhabitants. The populace suffocated and became mummies encased in ash and pumice.

FLASH.

Thousands of skeletons poured from train cars and were herded into massive gray complexes. Thick black smoke poured from concrete stacks in the distance.

FLASH.

A wizened elder with black rimmed eyes and steady hands expertly chipped away at a sandstone wall, chiseling an epic depicting animal-headed gods.

Once the first image appeared, it was as if a dam had burst within its mind; more and more images flashed, faster and faster, flooding its consciousness and overwhelming its senses.

Yes, they were dreams. But also nightmares. Memories. Life experiences. All of it was experienced all at once, a relentless assault that occurred both in an instant and over many aeons. Civilizations rose and fell, flourished and then burned. Over and over again. It was both terrible and exquisite.

The great hunger, the mass of madness, understood now that everything it witnessed had been experienced by all those possessing soul energy on the pretty little blue and green planet. All of it had been absorbed in the Feeding.

What was more, it found that it could call up any of these memories at will and examine it in great detail. This quickly became a subject of endless fascination. In particular, it developed an intense fixation on gods and monsters, both real and imagined. The great hunger, the mass of madness, had neither been born nor created.

Monster? Or God?

Perhaps both.

But... what now?

What next?

In all its horrifying existence, it had only known destruction. What would happen, then, if it tried to create something? Did the gods create man, or did man create gods? It knew not. Perhaps it was time to find out.