In the centre of a flat dirt plain, surrounded by the homes of the gods, there stood a great silver castle in the sky. In this castle were a great many secrets, such as hidden rooms, their walls made of jet-black rock and lava flowed from wall, ceiling and floor. And within one of these rooms there was god. His skin was red, his eyes yellow and his face sharp. The god’s name was Damon, God of Evil and he had hidden himself away from the other gods and willed it so that no being, god or otherwise could get close to him. This was because Damon was sulking.

Of course, he would not describe his actions as sulking. In his mind he was seething, or perhaps plotting, something that conveyed his rage and plans of revenge, something that implied he was completely in control, like he still somewhat believed he was. But to any outside observer, it would be hard to describe his actions as anything but sulking. He felt humiliated after Naturum’s contract reveal performance, felt trapped by the contracts power. And he hated that.

And so, he moped, raged, planned the elaborate deaths of the 5 other gods and desperately searched for a loophole found within Naturum’s contracts. And then a thought struck him. Oh, of course! That was what is wrong with Gods words at the start of creation! Damon’s moping was gone and immediately it was replaced by his typical arrogance and smug satisfaction.

“I am in control!” he thought. “And I was always in control. The last few hours, well, that was just a blip, barely notable, a minor setback in the grand scheme of things. I am a genius!”

The smug dismissive smile that had become the very icon of his face once more appeared, now emphasised by the unapologetically cruel features of his more archetypically villainous form. Several miles away, Loma was using his omnipotence to send messages directly into the mind of Rizzleritchensteineonizziism and after a brief moment of planning, Damon did much the same, connecting his mind with one of the other limited number of beings within this small universe. It was time to put his schemes into motion.

On the edge of a flat dirt plain, bordering the ring of the gods and the beginnings of a new country, there was an island, floating in the sky and connected to the soil below via a colossal iron chain. Upon this island was a city, majestic and complete with mighty spires, parapets and in its centre, a great domed temple. Within this temple was a stage, theatrical, large and placed before thousands of seats and upon this stage there was a god. Her skin was gold, translucent and featureless, her clothes a rich blue. Her name was Aomy, Goddess of Civilisations and she was curled up in a ball, almost shaking. This was because Aomy was panicking.

She’d started making humans an hour ago and for the most part doing so had been easy. Well. Somewhat easy. The actual making of humans was easy, because, well she was a human, all she had to do was use her god powers to make a bunch of them appear. There were of course complications like where should she place them? In what numbers? How should she handle aging and so on and so forth.

To answer the first two questions, she had decided that she shouldn’t go overboard with numbers, she wanted humans to be able to grow into their lands and not immediately get overcrowded and thus, humans had been created in small, village to town sized clumps spread across this new land. As an added consideration, Aomy ensured that as Loma created new lands, more humans would automatically appear in these rough same proportions.

To answer the third, she had already been pretty confident in how to go about ageing her creations, making them be created at age 20, with all the maturity that brought because, well, she didn’t value human survival that highly if they were all created as babies. She had also ensured that for the first twenty years of their life they wouldn’t age, because it really wouldn’t be fair on these original humans if they had a twenty-year lower life expectancy than all the humans that came after them.

The most difficult part of her creation of humanity so far was deciding what knowledge to give them. It was really something she should have asked Scientia about, it was his job to provide the other gods with knowledge when they needed it, but Aomy had felt too awkward to directly ask the other god for help, so she continued ahead, gifting these humans with whatever her god powers had decided was an appropriate level of information, for medieval people, in fields of agriculture, construction, blacksmithing, tailoring, hunting, language and a whole host of other areas of expertise, as well as the knowledge that for all future generations, they would be born with next to no knowledge and would have to be taught.

It had been almost fun in a simple way, brainstorming everything humanity needs to get a good start in building a thriving civilisation. She’d even gone out her way to advance some knowledge beyond the medieval age. She really hadn’t wanted her humans to not realise that they should probably be consistently washing their hands and brushing their teeth and heavens forbid they thought that leeches solved all medical ills for hundreds of years.

But well, for Aomy, the fun had now stopped, and everything was no longer simple. For there was one field of knowledge that Aomy would never give her people, that she thought she’d never have the right to give her people, or else the humans of this new world would never know true freedom. She would never give them morality.

If there was one thing above all else, that Aomy believed harder and more passionately than anything, it was that the greatest strength of sapient life was its ability to change. Thus, she would never create beings beholden to a set of values, no inherently good races like the metallic dragons of Labyrinths and Legends and definitely none that were inherently evil like the orcs of Lady of the Rings.

For, while that may make for interesting fantasy, this was the real world, and she would ensure that all the people she made would be allowed what she considered to be free will. Besides, she was human, she had the ability to change, and her moral compass had changed throughout her life. Who could say that her ideals were the true good, who could say she knew what true evil was? Best for her creations to struggle with these concepts themselves and best they could reach their own conclusions.

And yet, despite all this, Aomy had suffered due to the problems of civilisations on Earth. Laws, attitudes and negligence, many enforced by those she would consider immoral and wrong had caused people, both like and unlike her, incredible amounts of pain. Aomy had vowed that to the best of her ability she would not let the sins of civilisations both past and present be repeated in this new world. This was why she had taken the role of Civilisation goddess in the first place.

But, if she could not make humans born already ascribing to her way of thinking as that would compromise their freedoms then how would she ensure that the civilisations of this new world were as fair and equal as she could manage? Well, that was simple. She’d have to convince them herself. She would have to make a speech.

This was the cause of Aomy’s fear, the reason she was curled up in a ball, and the reason she was doing so on a stage. Here she would project her image into the sights of all the humans and make a grand speech to persuade them of her beliefs. In other words, public speaking. In front of a ridiculous amount of people. With really high stakes. Aomy curled tighter and tighter into her ball, her will to continue procrastinating rising higher and higher. This, truly, was her worst nightmare.

She had already been lying here for hours and she was really beginning to lose hope that she could ever uncurl and get on. She basically knew what her speech should be now, but it was like there was a great block in her mind preventing her from getting on, no matter how much she tried to persuade herself she should.

It was somewhat like how she procrastinated work in general really, although perhaps, with the strength of this fear, the block had been somewhat turned up to eleven. Maybe she should try her methods of escaping procrastination on Earth? They rarely worked but she supposed it was better than nothing.

Maybe she could go for a walk, clear her head? She’d been holed up here for so long and she hadn’t realised how much she wanted to see the fruits of Loma’s labour, see what this new country looked like in person. If her god form had had a mouth she would have smiled, even if it would have been faint. In a flash, she teleported herself to a random point of this new land.

Immediately, she was blinded by how much brighter it was out here than in her dark theatre, but once she was able to see, she felt a great awe at the vista before her. By chance she had appeared in the north, close to the edge of what Loma had created so far.

She stood at the edge of a cliff, and because of that she could see miles of landscapes before her. Mighty hills and mountains, the bases of which many covered in thick forests, a grand lake shimmered a radiant blue in the distance and even the grass she stood on felt magical, seeming to be far more vibrant and green than could be found on Earth. Above her was a beautifully blue sky, almost empty save for the beginnings of the first clouds forming on this world.

A red kite swooped past her, closer than any bird of prey had flown past her before and she watched, entranced as it flew behind her and up past a second incredible cliff. Despite its familiarity, it was a landscape that could never be found in the UK. It was majestic. It felt like someone had taken England and added a touch of magic.

Or maybe Aomy never left the confines of urban areas much. Either way, the healing effect this had on her soul could never be understated and she began her wander through this incredible bit of countryside, staring up at the cliff, and staring down at the view below her. And then she stopped and squinted. Was that someone up on the cliff? A vague silhouette could be seen. Then, Aomy’s heart skipped a beat as the figure jumped.

The silhouette had been just above her when she noticed it, so when the figure fell, she began to make out the shape more clearly. She saw impossibly blue and spiky hair, a fairly handsome face and the cockiest and most self-confident grin she had ever seen on a person. They collided with the ground with a thud, but their body was undamaged. They must be an immortal.

“Wassup!” the immortal cried and began to excitedly run over to Aomy. “You don’t look anything like anything I’ve seen before, what the fuck are you? Oh, sorry bout the rudeness but to be fair, kinda on a mission by the gods to review their shit so I kinda gotta ask bout stuff, so I can understand enough to review it! How cool is that by the way? Bet your existence ain’t nearly as cool as mine!”

Aomy immediately tensed. She had no idea how to talk to this person, she hadn’t been prepared to talk to anyone yet! After an awkwardly long period of time Aomy mumbled “Um, I’m Aomy. And errr, I’m a god. Goddess. Of civilisations.”

“My apologies!” The wild immortal immediately dropped to one knee; head bowed. “I must profess my sincere apologies, almighty one. Had I known your identity, I would never have been so discourteous! I offer myself up to you now, as your most humble of servants, Zachary.”

Oh god, this made it even harder to talk to him! “I, er, you, ah, don’t need to talk to me like that. Um, keep it up around Damon and maybe the other gods but around me, please be as casual as you like.”

“Thank fuck!” cried Zach. “Then call me Zach. Nice to meet’cha by the way! I’ve been meaning to send the review bout that village I found. Glad I didn’t yet, cos I woulda had no idea who to send it to! Civilisations all like, villages and towns and shit right?”

Ah, right, she hadn’t sent her information to the immortals yet, they were still relying on Rizzleritchensteineonizziism’s limited and out of date information. She resolved to send them the information once she finished talking to Zach. “Um, yeah” she murmured.

“Radical. Hey why not send it right now, face to face and all that? Alright, here’s what I got! Really honoured that you shaped them like us. We musta made a killer impression right, to make two species that look like that in a row, right? Hair’s lame though, spice it up like ours!”

“Oh god, he’s gotten completely the wrong idea” thought Aomy.

Zach carried on, oblivious to his obliviousness. “Anyway, they’re hella cool. You should meet Clive by the way. What a legend! Definitely check out that village if you got time”

Aomy hesitated for an unreasonably long time. “You don’t happen to be able to give me directions?”

“Right up that cliff basically. Pretty scenic if you’re the kinda guy who likes that sorta thing. For me, it just gives me this incredible urge to leap. Speaking of, that cliffs been tempting me all conversation and I think I can’t resist the plunge. The adrenaline’s just incredible! See ya!”

And with that, Aomy saw him take a running start before leaping recklessly off the edge.

Aomy felt like she’d have to take a long nap before regaining the energy that interaction had drained from her, but as she walked across the scenic plateau, she felt herself reach her usual lack of energy. It took her a longer while to convince herself to head to village, but eventually she persuaded herself to visit. Besides, she was curious.

There was a moment of panic where she wondered if the cliff stretched right around the mountain and some humans had accidentally spawned in a location they couldn’t escape from but after half an hour of walking she breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the cliff fade to a relatively traversable slope.

By the time she reached the village, it would have been sunset, had she been walking in a world where sunsets happened. It had been built overlooking the cliff, albeit far enough away so that even children playing sixty feet from the village would be in no danger of falling from the edge.

Behind the village was a forest, which many villagers were still chopping down, in the process of getting enough wood to build enough homes for every member of the village to be able to sleep, even if they had to sleep in cramped conditions. The bustle of people moving from place to place was so focused and the conversations they were having so engaging that it was only until Aomy got really close to the village that anyone noticed her.

But, when one person noticed her, everyone noticed her. A young man saw her, his eyes widened, and he dropped to one knee, head bowed, in the same position as Zach had been when he realised Aomy was a goddess. The people around him saw him adopting this position, glanced around and when they saw Aomy, copied the man. It was mere moments before the village were silent, everyone turned to face the civilisation goddess in positions of reverence.

With all the shock it took too long for Aomy to realise what was going on. They recognised her! Of course they did, Aomy hadn’t adopted any disguise or anything. Her mind raced. What the fuck could she say to these people?

After an uncomfortably long period of silence, a wiry man ran through the village and threw himself to her feet, tears in his eyes. After an even more uncomfortable period of silence while Aomy struggled to find a good way to phrase the question, “Why are you crying?” the man spoke.

“Thank you o’goddess! Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!”

More silence. Eventually Aomy managed to stutter “Um. For what?”

The man looked up at her, a wide smile hidden beneath his tears. “For creating us! For the incredible gift of life!”

“Um, it was nothing” came Aomy’s thoroughly underwhelming reply. His words did make sense to Aomy. By the time humans were aware enough to comprehend their own existence, they’d already gotten used to being alive. But these people, born fully formed? It must have felt miraculous.

Another person, a woman, threw herself to Aomy’s feet next to the wiry man. “Thank you so much!”

“Um. For life?” Aomy mumbled.

“No, for giving us all this incredible knowledge. Who knows how many of us would die without it!”

An incredibly burly man came next, hurling himself before Aomy as the others had, although no tears filled his eyes. “Thank you.” Aomy let him finish. She had no idea what to say. “You created us all together. You are to thank for being able to meet all my friends.”

And then person after person joined them.

“Thank you for placing us near such an incredible view!” came one voice.

“Thank you for making me the hottest in the village” came another.

It took some time but eventually all the villagers that wanted to personally thank her said their piece, leaving Aomy, now surrounded by people, once more awkwardly in silence. It was then, that another person strolled over to her. They were bald, androgynous and while their eyes held tears within like many other villagers, they also held a spark of exceptional intelligence that most other villagers lacked.

They stood facing her a while, as if appraising her, before saying “You’re a person, just like us.”

If Aomy had had a face she would have blinked in shock. “Um. Y-yeah? Well, a person given a lot of power, but yeah.”

They nodded. “I thank you too Aomy.” They dropped to one knee, the position they held before, but they did not throw themself before Aomy like the other villagers had. “I thank you more than words can convey. I thank you for life and I especially thank you for your knowledge. I offer my life to you, not in an act of blind reverence but as one human would to another who has done more than save their life. What is your will?”

“My-my will?” stuttered Aomy. “Like, what I want?”

The person nodded. Aomy thought for a moment and then continued. “I want everyone to be equal. Equally happy. And. And I’m going to announce my will to all of humanity soon. In a big speech. Until then, treat your fellows with respect.”

The person nodded their head again. “I will ensure that your will is carried out. Goodbye Aomy”

“Did they say goodbye because they knew I would be too socially inept to leave the village otherwise” Aomy thought as she winked out of the village and back onto her stage. She briefly transformed back to her human form to reveal tears streaming down her face.

Yes, the whole experience had been embarrassing as hell, but she had just been so moved by all the people who had loved her, so reassured that she had done some good for this world. Her gratefulness was beyond measure, even as her doubts tried to persuade her that most likely, most humans would not think as they did. She would get to writing that speech now. And she would endeavour to never let those people down.