Hello, Star Child
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The Creation "Myth"
The true beginning of all things is in itself, a myth. We as mortals cannot properly comprehend anything that does not have a beginning and an end, and this hang-up is part of the mortal condition and was put into mortals by the only two beings that can fathom eternity. A mortal may even claim, that they are immortal, they will live forever. But even they had to have a beginning of some sort, hence he is not eternal. He is never eternal and never will be eternal, for his creation at its core is fundamentally finite. The word "eternal" entered into common use as a word only the two Eternal Beings could truly comprehend, and/or to describe them from the mortal mouth.
Let's get to know our mother, eh?
In the empty space, there were two beings. And they explored one another, for there was nothing else, not even light, to guide their curious fingers across one another's body and faces. The male curled his mouth into a crescent on its back when the female pleased him in some way, with her physical contact on his body (
). She mimicked the facial expression, and added her own, the crescent shape on its belly, to indicate that whatever action inspired the front laying crescent, should stop immediately (
). And thus, communication and consent were established. And the pair saw that it was good.
The male and the female had always existed and embraced one another, and it was good. Nay, it was the best. In all of forever, they had never been so close, and so someone who is scrutinizing this might say, "Well their relationship had to begin! So they too need things to begin!" Well, they created the art of "The Beginning" and made use of it first. But when it comes to existence, this pair of beings had always been there in the endlessly vast empty darkness.
Emotions made the female's heart hammer in her chest, and when she went to her male partner, terrified of the strange sensation, he reasoned away her unfounded fears, gently. And these traditional traits were good.
As their embrace became more and more passionate, and frequent, it seemed their union ushered from the female new life. All sorts of new life, nothing like they, themselves. So they decided to decorate the endless void with planets, moons, and trillions and trillions of stars spread out as far as anyone's eyes could ever follow. And it was good.
It seemed no planet was born equal, no planet suitable for every walk of life, for indeed there were thousands of species spread across what was now being called: "The Mortal Realm" Normal on one planet, was a horrible barren death sentence to those not from there. Time, on a mathematical level, was an invention of the one being known now as "First Father" and functioned the same across The Mortal Realm, but what might take a week for a certain insect to evolve into a butterfly, another insect was born, lived, procreated, and then died. All walks of life had their own natural hourglass, siphoning time from one sand pile above, to the one below... only to be turned around to start over.
Soon, First Mother realized planets were getting crowded. So unlike themselves, they needed to make sure everything had an end. Before mortals, it was easy to just have bugs make more bugs, and birds make more birds, etc, but as evolution marched forward, and the introduction of the mortal soul came about, First Mother could see very clearly, that the mortal soul could not just decay into nonexistence. Bugs and other creatures had no such spiritual element to their makeup...
First Father and First Mother were but children watching an ant farm work, curiously giving it a poke here or there, rattling it when the action seemed to dwindle, and even removing obstacles the ants could not, to allow for them to perhaps prosper better. That was a metaphor to explain, that they were just the ones who got the ball rolling, and it was up to the sciences that First Father laid intricately into place to dictate the course life should take. Now, as explained above, every world in this vast Mortal Realm was completely different in the way of how slowly or quickly things were accomplished...
Where was I? Oh yes, the mortal soul, and the hourglass. Faced with the problem of overcrowded mortal souls, First Mother designed the process by which souls are to be cared for. She divided the area she had made with Father, making the Mortal Realm where all the living would reside. Only the living were allowed there. Anything undead was strictly forbidden, evil, unnatural, and would incur the wrath of the gods!! Then, she made "The Space Between Where Mortals Ought Not Be". In The Space Between, was a current of sparkling clear fluid known as "Aether", where mortal souls would return and join up with the other souls of the departed. The veil between The Mortal Realm, and The Space Between is very thin, so don't be alarmed at a sudden cold chill, or a surprising whiff of your dead grandmother's perfume... They're never too far away, and they are surely not suffering... Anyway, this "Sea of Souls" gently floats like a lazy river, and looks exactly like the night sky: inky black with too-many-to-count sparkling shimmering stars, all surrounding a stone structure. The sparkling aspects of the water, come from the finite and unique aspects of every individual. All in all, First Father and First Mother only really made about twenty-five hundred thousand individual souls (and yes, that's for all of reality!), and in The Space Between they float, knowing that in the stone structure was an hourglass for each soul. Death occurs when the sand runs out of each hourglass, all a quarter million of them! That is when the soul is ushered to the Aether. This Aether protects the souls that swim in it, as well as keeps any mortal from getting to the hourglasses and messing everything up!! Nothing living can taint the Aether, thus, for a mortal to be sent to The Space Between Where Mortals Ought Not Be, all aspects of that mortal will dissolve like sugar into the blackest coffee (poor Xeddre!) So, First Mother goes down every other day or so and upturns an hourglass. With the top half full, the soul is freed from the Aether, and it reunites with a not-quite-yet-born fellow mortal. Now, First Mother did not want to burden the Mortal mind with limitless lifetimes to get confused with, so the Aether often cleanses the soul of its past (sometimes not as thoroughly as others, and it is true in this realm that a haunted gaze is akin to a soul that has lived many lives!), while it swims, waiting for the upturn to their hourglass... and that is how The Space Between Where Mortals Ought Not Be functions!
Above, and protected by The Space Between Where Mortals Ought Not Be, is "The Realm of The Gods" --see, there are many gods, with many jobs, who have made many things in many places! It was as if First Mother and First Father, invented paper and crayons, and other powerful creatures used such materials to fashion mortal life in their own image, and with their own morals. However, The Sciences First Father put into the infrastructure of the universe were unbreakable law: the one and only Truth! But as long as they played along with The Sciences and its many rules, they were free to create as they pleased, and even intervene with the Mortal Realm at their leisure to punish or reward their flocks. The paths between the three realms were tricky when it came to moving between them. Gods could enter the Mortal Realm, and Return to The Realm of the Gods with relative ease, skipping going through the aether, for there is nothing there but souls and hourglasses, and the structure that houses the hourglasses is where First Mother is only allowed, albeit for only a small amount of time. Mortals cannot go anywhere. Mortals can only go to The Space Between Where Mortals Ought Not Be when they are disembodied souls from the dead. Mortals are NEVER to ascend to the Realm of The Gods. You hear me? NEVER!! (There is a rumor though, that such a feat can take place...) First Mother and First Father found that this added a great "unexpected" element that kept the two old gods on the edges of their seats as they watched over all that they had created. And it was good...
Many many many other walks of life were drawn into the religion named: "The Old Way" which praised and worshipped the main two Creator Gods above all others. And over time... even those not handcrafted directly by the Old Gods, worshipped them in droves! First Mother and First Father looked at one another and they expressed crescents on their backs. "The stars glitter endlessly across your scales, my love..." He said.
"I'll be sure to give them a bit of vague guidance." She returned. And it was good.
...but it wouldn't be good for long. Over time, First Mother lost her ability to show off a crescent shape on its back. First Father began to show the crescent on its back at all times, while First Mother's options of expression became more and more limited as time went on...