Toggle (rasputin) creation mythos

You know, I used to be really good at naming things. Now I suck at it; I'm afraid to name characters and places because naming something gives it permanence, and names are harder to change than any other detail. Meh.

I think Silverlock would qualify as neutral evil in D&D terms; he's got a number of antisocial personality traits, but he operates within the laws of society for negotiable values of "society." (He was a model slave until Gannet stole him; he's completely devoted to the Guild. But he feels that Rothcaran and Shaivhen laws are gentle suggestions at best.) He's very rarely capable of actual empathy; things like remorse and guilt are purely academic concepts to him (much to Blaine's irritation).

Anyway. I also realized, in D&D terms, he probably started out as a bard and then multiclassed to sorceror and assassin. And that just burns me inside, but it's not like D&D has a geisha or companion equivalent class. So, bard. (This is entertaining, because he's kind of tone deaf. Great sense of rhythm, though.)

I vaguely feel that I should work more on the villain part of the story- villains have always been my weak point, because they end up being faceless and cliche. But, as this is only a very vague feeling, I will instead discuss more backstory.

Creation Myths: Because they don't actually need to make sense.

The Toggle world hatched out of a giant egg; the thing that laid the egg nurtured and cultivated the universe until it could support life, and then it laid three more eggs. From the first egg hatched a multitude of creatures to fill the land, the sea, and the sky- creatures that ran and slithered and swam and flew. The very first of these creatures to escape the egg were dragons (of course), and they spread across the land and watched over the lesser creatures as an elder brother or sister does its younger siblings. From the second egg hatched a multitude of creatures that walked on two legs and spoke in many tongues, and they spread across the land and lived in relative harmony with their elder siblings. From the third egg hatched a multitude of creatures to fill all corners of the plane with the faces and voices of Men and the bodies of Monsters; these half-breeds filled in the spaces between their elder siblings, and the creator was pleased to see her children thriving.

The creator laid a fourth egg and hid it in the dark wilderness, and built a tower around it to keep it safe. She left it there and kept watch over her other children.

The Men built cities and Monsters built lairs, while the Demi-Beasts settled between them, and there was peace and prosperity. There were wars, of course, as civilizations grew, but they were small, brief skirmishes, involving no more than a few species, if that.

That was the First Era, which took place mostly before recorded history. Some humans and dwarves settled in the mountains to the south that would eventually come to be named the Reichen Mountains, and built a city there. The creator settled into the city and watched and waited, and when a war broke out that involved all of her children, she declared her allegiance and fought alongside the Men and Monsters of her city against the others that threatened its walls.

She was not all powerful when it came to waging war; creation was her sole purpose, and for every one of her children she destroyed, she destroyed a piece of herself. But not long after the war broke out, the egg within the hidden tower hatched.

A dragon noble and her gryphon retainer were fleeing the armies of the enemy when they came across a young human woman in the middle of the uninhabited forest. The only thing she had on her to identify herself was a signet ring. They took her back to the city in the south, where she was clothed, fed, given a sword, and sent out onto the battlefield.

She came back with the head of the enemy commander; the king of the city gave her a noble house, and the dragon who found her adopted her into her clan. This was Rianna DeLavrey, who became the general of the Men and Monsters who fought on the side of the creator. People called her a god of war, but even with her aid, the fighting raged on for years.

(Christ, I'm wordy. And dumb.) Anyway. The city withstood a siege for a good long while, but eventually the walls broke, and the place was overrun. The creator sacrificed her life to save her daughter- up until that point, Rianna had no idea who she was or where she'd come from. With the creator's death, all the potential of creation was set loose on the world- and that much untamed potential is incredibly destructive. Psychic cancer everwhere. Rianna took her closest companions (the gryphon and the dragon, a few fae, the royal family) and fled back to the forest where she'd been hatched. The tower had been made to contain excess creative potential; the inside of it was practically dripping from the leftover energy of Rianna's birth. Rianna opened the tower, creating an energy sink that drew in all of the wild potential of the creator's death.

The creator was reborn in the tower; acts of sacrifice and rebirth hold great significance in this universe, so she came back with the ability to lay down the righteous smackdown on her children. She split the universe in half and banished all of the monsters and demi-beasts into the hole and sealed it up. Then she laid another egg. Three things hatched out of it: the Aetherial Plane, and two androgenous beings made of creative potential, one to represent the past, and one to represent the future. Their names are currently up for debate; most people just refer to them as the Twain.

The creator kicked everyone out of the tower and went to sleep; Rianna locked the doors and told the two godlets to keep track of the Aetherial Plane and the Rift. Then she went out into the world to help people rebuild and whatnot.

The royal family of the destroyed city in the Reichen Mountains built a new city on the coast, around the tower, and swore to protect it at all costs. Rianna was sort of like, "Uh, whatever," since only someone of her race could open it, and the thing is indestructible.

Rianna's signet ring is the key to the tower; it gets passed down to the most responsible woman who carries Rianna's legacy every generation. (Rianna's legacy being the gene or what-have-you that lets her open the tower.) The tower is only ever opened to end an Era, when the balance of creative potential goes awry. The creator is less of a sentient entity than an unconscious imaginative power sink at this point; when the tower is opened, it draws in all of the Godhead, chews it up, and spits it out in a more palatable form. Or just in more pieces, as that's what chewing things tends to do.

Jump forward to the Fourth Era, where Ayanna DeLavrey is the current head of the family. She's about twenty years younger than Silverlock; the DeLavreys tend to live human lifespans, but the women who carry Rianna's legacy are healthier and age better than the rest of the family. Ayanna's mother, Ninaya DeLavrey, had a hard time producing an heir with Rianna's legacy; as a result, Ayanna has a lot of bastard half siblings. (Traditionally, the DeLavrey women never marry; they bear children out of wedlock and then adopt the heir.) Aya was the only girl to carry the legacy; she has a half-brother who also carries it.

The children who don't inherit are usually exiled or foisted off on foster parents with no one the wiser; the DeLavrey family has a number of retainers whose sole purpose is to deal with these children.

Anyway. I said I wasn't going to give Silverlock a sister, but he's half convinced he's Aya's brother. If she knows, she isn't telling; the only person who would know is Ninaya, and she's definitely not telling, if she even knows. (She had at least twelve children, and didn't acknowledge any of them except Aya and the son with the legacy; it's more than possible that she had the rest sold to brothels.)

And, now that I think about it, they probably haven't had sex, so I wouldn't even have to worry about the incest. This has more to do with the fact that Silverlock is terrified of her than the fact that she really just isn't interested. (Terror aside, I think he finds her lack of interest partly insulting and partly a blatant challange. *sigh*)

So really, he wouldn't get anything out of being a DeLavrey. It would just be horrible indulgent of me, which is why I shouldn't do it. >_< Augh. Really, it's a bad idea- he'd be related to all of Aya's half siblings, and he's probably slept with several of them. And incest is never a good idea. I know this. I've read the first few books of Angel Sanctuary.

But anyway. Eggs everywhere, and the creation/rebirth thing means there's an Easter-equivalent holiday, complete with candy eggs. The creator (who had a name, but she doesn't really need one anymore) probably tried to hatch a universe several times before she actually succeeded; I imagine all the unsuccessful universes were delicious. Scrambled, sunny side up, omelettes, served raw over rice...all the other godlike entities in the void ate well for ages.

...AUGH.