Life... what kind of life should I make? Obviously, I will make some humans, because I’m a... No, that’s wrong. I was a human. I’m a god now.

Is “god” a race? Or is it a title? Hmm... I guess it does sound like a title. Am I a human god... a godly human? Even if “god” isn’t a race, I don’t think I’m human anymore...

I looked down at myself. My skin was a golden tan, my hair was long enough that I could see its black color, and all my proportions looked normal... I looked human...

But what kind of human is bigger than most stars?

I shook my head and just accepted the fact that I was no longer human. It didn’t matter; I was still going to create humans in my world. And other races as well! If I was going to create life then I wanted all kinds of life!

But I can’t just jump straight to the sapient races. No, I needed to create ecosystems of all sorts to support them. I needed plants, insects, animals, fish, and even microorganisms. There were a lot of things needed to support even one human. If I wanted entire civilizations, then I needed an entire world of life.

Let’s start from the smallest. Microorganisms. Bacteria, algae, fungi, and... what was it? Proto-something... I shrugged. It's a single cell organism... I’ll let people come up with a name for it when they discover it later. So, what should I create first? Do I need to create them one at a time?

I tried picturing all the different types of microorganisms and Spoke.

“Let it be so.”

Bacteria everywhere, all of them serving a purpose. In the dirt, to help turn it into soil. In the water, to be a food source for slightly bigger things. Algae in water, to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, and to be another source of food. Fungi, spread across the land to be natural decomposers. I created spores of all sorts, from miniscule molds to massive mushrooms... the mushrooms won’t have anything to grow on just yet though. And the Proto-stuff, even if I didn’t remember its name, I still knew what they were.

Even these tiny creatures had their own divine sparks. They all had their purpose. They all moved with will... their will was even smaller than they were, and was just a small bundle of instincts. They moved sightlessly, only reacting if they bumped into another organism or something they could eat. They had no emotions, their will was far too small for that. But they moved themselves. That was special.

So far, the only thing in the universe that voluntarily moved was me. Seeing things wiggle around by themselves made me giggle and wiggle around like they did. Unlike the tiny things, my wiggling didn’t move me in any direction. In space, there was nothing to grab onto to move me, but it was fun to wiggle around. It was practically a dance!

I watched the little things for a while as they wriggled around, ate things, and grew their populations until they had spread across the world. The land was now able to provide nutrients for plants, and the oceans and lakes had algae and other organisms for insects and small fish to eat. It was time for the next step. Plants.

Plants is a very broad term. So many kinds of life, from towering trees to the smallest of lichen... is lichen a plant? Doesn’t matter, I’ll make it anyway! And just trees alone is a very broad category. Fruit trees, sappy trees, tall trees, short trees, flowery trees, spiky trees... There are a lot of trees.

I’ll start with the smallest and work up in size. First off, let's start with covering everything in grasses.

On all three supercontinents, the four normal-ish sized continents, and on hundreds of islands, I created grass to cover most of the land. Along the equator, there were some desert terrains that wouldn’t support that much grass, so I found some oases and put some grass around there. I created grasses of all sorts.

Seeing the land finally covered in green got me excited. If I can create whatever I want, then why did I just stick to things that randomly popped into my head? I should make up my own kind of grass. Who said that grass can’t grow in a desert? Who said that grass had to be weak? I looked at the desert. I shouldn’t go overboard, I did like the look of the desert after all, but I wanted to create something new.

I imagined a single blade of grass, extending maybe four feet upwards and six inches wide with a large bulb at the base to store water, with thin roots spreading deep into the desert sand. I made them grow in clusters of three to five, and made them rare to find.

High on the mountain tops, deep in caves, hidden in forests, I imagined grasses of all colors that had special properties of healing, grasses that were on fire, grasses that glowed, grasses that hummed the song of the wind, grasses that dripped gold every century, grasses with all sorts of abilities.

I didn’t stop at grasses, I created all kinds of flowers, bushes, vegetables and fruits, and trees of all kinds. I made the basic kinds of plants and extraordinary plants. Trees that attract lightning to store in its bark to protect itself. Flowers that would pulse its divinity to make flashes of searing light. Fruit trees that prolonged life.

I turned from the lands and went to the waters. Vast oceans and lakes and rivers of all sizes. They needed plants too, so I created seaweeds and grasses, kelp, and coral. I created plants that were bioluminescent. I created plants with long reaching vines with little bulbs at the ends that exploded seeds in all directions. I created a patch of gross looking plants, but would taste amazing juiced. I created sea plants of all kinds and with all sorts of abilities.

Still, though, none of the plants had enough will to really think... maybe a tree or two would eventually grow to be sapient, if kept alive long enough to develop its divinity. But there were no emotions, no thought, just an instinct to grow and procreate. Some plants instinctively used their sparks of divinity to enhance themselves or to create other special effects on their surroundings.

The world was beautiful. Covered in life of all sizes and all colors. Fields of flowers, grains, and grasses. Forests of all kinds of trees. Even the desert had cacti, and interesting plants. The only truly barren places were some of the sand dunes and tiny islands in the oceans.

I didn’t just create and place plants everywhere. Each plant had its own ideal climate to live in, so I tried to place them where they would grow the best. I created various biomes all across the world, none of them were the same. Some biomes were similar, like the savannah on the round-ish supercontinent and the savannah on the largest, more southern, supercontinent both were of similar temperatures and similar soil, but I placed a few plants to be unique to that biome.

Would they think that those continents used to be together and the world was once one ultra-supercontinent? I don’t think they’ll even think that those continents are super sized. It’ll be normal for them... It’s like I have three Pangeas. No, not “like”, I do have three Pangea-sized continents.

My thoughts trailed off as I watched the world thrive with life. Plants grew and spread across the land. Swaying in the wind... It was peaceful.

I closed my eyes and tilted my head back. I swayed slowly from side to side like the trees, enjoying the light and warmth of the stars, of Dopprimal, of life, and hummed in contentment.

Eventually, I opened my eyes. I had more things to do.

Now for insects... ew... Huh? Why did I think that insects are gross? Shame on you, past non-god me! Insects are vital to a stable ecosystem and are a great food source for animals... or will be when I create the animals...

Just to spite the me of the past, I created insects of all kinds. I put in just as much thought as I did when creating the plants. I created things that fly, things that creep and crawl, and things teleport... I created insects that are lightning resistant, fire resistant, things that breathed poison or ice. I created tiny insects and massive insects. I created insects that danced and insects that gave nice hugs. Insects that were flamboyantly colorful and insects that were camouflaged. Insects that ate plants, microorganisms, or other insects... some would even eat animals.

None were sapient and most weren’t even sentient, but there were a few insects that showed some basic levels of feelings... Some insects were sentient! That was amazing!

I watched as several fuzzy bumblebees buzzed explored the area around their hive. They buzzed from flower to flower, collecting pollen. When a bee came across a faintly glowing flower, it buzzed excitedly and wiggled its bum in delight.

I laughed at the sight and wiggled my bum in a copy of the bee.

It wasn’t just the bees that were sentient. There were quite a few species that showed signs of sentience. Some were just naturally sentient, while some only grew sentient after using their divinity in a way that enhanced their intelligence... if those insects lived long enough, they might actually grow sapient. Though none were sapient yet.

Speaking of sentient creatures, it was time to make animals!

There are just so many different kinds of plants and insects... maybe the normal animals won’t survive? No, I’m sure that they will, after all, I have many normal kinds of plants and insects too and they seem to be doing just fine.

With that in mind, I got to work. I started at the base of the food chain. What insects are growing too populous because nothing hunts them? What plant can be the base of a new food chain? What plants or insects have abilities that are potentially too dangerous and what can counter them? Like with the plants and with the insects, I worked through each biome, through each ecosystem, and tried to make everything balanced. Unique plants or insects required unique animals for balance. So I made all sorts of animals. From tiny to massive. From furred to scaled. From no limbs to many.

I made animals that used their divine sparks to create psionic blasts. Animals that phased through stone. Animals that lifted ten times their weight. Animals that had harder than steel scales. Animals that had claws that cut through almost anything. Animals of all kinds.

I turned to the waters again and made fishes of all shapes and sizes. From tiny minnows and krill, to giant whales and krakens and sea serpents. Sharks, crabs, octopi, mollusks, and everything in between. I made normal versions, and I made unique variants with strange abilities.

And the best part was that all of them were sentient to varying degrees, and some of them were even sapient!

... Can these goblins even be called sapient though?

Goblins, kobolds, ogres, orcs, fairies, imps, and other humanoid type creatures were all just barely able to be called sapient... or rather they are beginning to become sapient... they only showed enough intelligence that they were using clubs and sharpened sticks to hunt things. And they were smart enough that if they came across a bush with delicious berries on it, but then saw a bigger bush with even more berries on it a little bit further away, they would go to the bigger bush... Their intelligence was on par with monkeys... maybe only the tiniest bit smarter.

They didn’t seem to be capable of creating a language with any sort of grammar to it, or capable of any sort of conversation. I don’t think they’ll even be able to learn any language any time soon.

It wasn’t just humanoid type creatures that showed signs of sapiency. Many leader type creatures showed sparks of intelligence, as well as some solitary creatures.

None were even close to human level of sapiency yet, but I did see lots of potential for growth. There were many animals and beasts that could eventually grow into true sapience.

I can’t wait to see it!