“Only one event in all the history of the Higher and Lower Realms created such a melding of fear and awe in the hearts of Gods and mortal men. The Year of Chaos Born.”

-The Time Codex

Chapter 5: A Year of Chaos, Begins

A flash, a bang, and the tree of us are standing on a plateau that I saw develop while in my state of hyper-time. We are of course in the Mortal Realm, as it will be the best place to base ourselves for the next year, and about as secluded as possible given that the realm lacks sentient life for the most part. I’m sure there’s a few of the idiots’ creations roaming around, but they should be easy to take care of. As my charges are currently incapacitated, I might as well make us a place to live. And- [Time Freeze].

*A moment later*

*Whew* I’m now leaning against one of the brilliantly green, jade columns of our new residence, a temple/dojo hybrid, with a center tower half as high as the plateau upon which it rests, fully fifty stories high.. My two new disciples have stopped muttering between themselves, and are now staring in slack-jawed awe at my creation.

“Well boys, welcome to your home for the next year, well five years if you take the time dilation into account.”

“”Time dilation?!”” It seems their mind hasn’t caught up to the fact that I can create massive structures instantly, or at least seem to.

“Come on, I’ll show you around, and after lunch you two can explain your mothers’ cultivation system to me.

*A while later, in the garden*

“Thanks for the food Uncle!” Gabriel is the more polite of the two, his brother still systematically looking away from me for some reason.

“Now can you two explain how the cultivation system, it seemed pretty open-ended when it was briefly explained to me before.”

Now Lucius speaks, “The system is slightly different for each race, but the ranks are roughly classified as Mortal, Renowned, Heroic, Legendary, Mythical, and finally Divine. When at the Mortal level of power, the Sinh-Lätt and the Sinh-Terr are practically identical, though the Sinh-Terr tend to be darker skinned than the Sinh-Lätt. When mana is cultivated to the Renowned level, their evolved features will appear, and most societies see this as the final step to becoming an adult. This usually happens, given diligent cultivation, at about fifty years of age, a tenth of an average mortal’s lifespan, given then never cultivate any farther. At the Renowned level, the Sinh-Lätt gain their first pair of wings, while the Sinh-Terr gain their tail and their first two horns.”

“Ooh, ooh, ooh! I know the next bit!” Gabriel breaks in, “The Sinh-Lätt supposedly double the number of wings when they ascend a rank, though none have currently broken through to Mythical status as of now. The Sinh-Terr, likewise, have no individuals that have broken through to Mythical, while we are supposed to gain four more horns at Heroic, two larger horns at the back of the head and our forehead horn at Legendary, two temple based horns at Mythical, and a second pair at Divine.”

I sigh, beckoning them forwards as I fall into a lecturing stance, “The ranks you have stated are correct, yes, but you are missing one crucial bit of information. The names of the ranks? They are quite literal. Most of your kind grow to Renowned at adulthood because by that time, enough people know of them for them to become known - or Renowned - which allows them to reach this stage. The same stands for the rest of the ranks. To be Legendary ranked, one must be a living legend. To attain Mythical status, one must be a myth spanning worlds. Even so, to become a Deity, or even reach the peak of Mythical you must go beyond these three worlds of yours, and become known throughout the Tale, becoming an integral aspect and pattern in its weave. With no mortals currently residing in the Mortal realm, funnily enough, there is no possible way for any form of life untouched by Godly hands to rise beyond a Legend.”

“But enough of that, not it is time to train. Come at me!”

*BOOM!* With a clash of fists, the training begins.

*Outside*

Well, I guess I can leave my avatar to teach those two nephews of mine, I have bigger things to do. This will also serve as my first test in the use of an avatar, though I have limited its power to about three times that of one of my nephews. Now, I should probably take a look at how the Tale has progressed, and catch up with my siblings seeing as how I missed the last meeting.

Leaving this Realm, I gaze at the changes that have appeared while I was in hyper-time, as the structure of the entire Tale seems to have shifted slightly. Whereas before all the Supporting Realms were arranged in a wider disk-like structure, now each pair of interconnected Realms have shifted to opposite sides of the Core Realm, each Realm equidistant from one another, forming a more condensed spherical shape. Each pair’s Divine Realm appear to have melded to the outer reaches of the Core Realm, the Mortal Realm I just exited from appearing much like the three others, elongated and reaching towards the Primordial Flame.

Shifting my gaze outwards, I see that my brethren appear to have attempted to create a sort of defensive shell of Primordial Chaos as a first line of defense against invaders, surrounding the Realms of the Tale. It does, however, seem incomplete, most likely caused by the lack of my assistance. Still, this is understandable. Examining the inner reaches of the Core on the other hand… Well that confuses even me and my innate understanding of the Tale.

The Primordial Flame appears to be affecting the entirety of the Core, as within the Primordial Chaos surrounding the Mortal Realms (I assume this is where all the extra Primordial Chaos not used in the shell went), there appear to be worlds within worlds, some half realized, almost dreamlike. As I go closer, I notice that the deeper I delve, the more my own power of Time is affected, while fluctuations of space and emotion wildly differ from world to world. As I examine them one by one I start to notice a theme, those with a more concrete existence gravitate towards the Mortal Realms, while those less so move towards the Flame, shimmering in and out of existence. I pull a small, tiny world to myself to take a closer look, before noticing something fascinating. This entire world is centered around the existence of one boy, almost as if he is the main character of his own- wait. I see now! How could I forget?! This is the Tale, it grows with stories and legends, as they grow so does it. Though this means extremely slow growth in the beginning, it has the potential to grow exponentially, more than any other universe type in existence! In fact, the Tale itself will become its own condensed multiverse.

And this is exactly what I hold in my hands, a story. That’s what they all are, and as each world becomes more and more fleshed out, it literally becomes a reality. For after all as the Keeper said, “This world is but a story, and all the stories are true…”

Lore soon moved on, leaving the boy-come-warrior and his world to drift away, never noticing the glimmer of grey light now contained in the God-touched orb. So distracted was he by his revelations, he even failed to notice that the boy was of a race never before seen,with four arms and charcoal skin, ashen hair now containing a hint of emerald green.

The story would soon drift on, given power by the acknowledgement of such a powerful being, then migrating towards the Mortal Realm of Light and Darkness. What would become of it, well… that’s a tale for a different day.