In the beginning…
Before light and dark, before reality and unreality, before existence and nonexistence, before all and none — there was an endless expanse of primordial potential. Eternal and constant, with no origin nor ending, preceding and outlasting everything. A spectacular, infinite dance of concepts.
The conceptual sea roiled and churned, and from its potential sprung infinite multiverses. Sentience manifested, granting form to several particular concepts: Justice, Truth, Love, Balance, Creation, Authority, Thought, Curiosity, Humor, Absurdity, War, Time, Stupor, Access, Art, and Chaos. These concepts gradually separated from the sea and emerged as the Pillars. Upon their emergence, the Pillars gave names to themselves, attained self-awareness, and developed personalities. Many endeavored to extend their influence; this, they accomplished by creating avatars of themselves.
The avatars served to carry out the work and will of the Pillars — their Oversouls — throughout every reality. Most established themselves within those that already existed, while others with greater ambition chose create entirely new ones by their own power.
All was a masterpiece of perfection, whole and transcendent. However, this was not to last, for a plague of corruption spread like wildfire. What began as a harmonious dance of many concepts transgressed into a cataclysmic schism between order and chaos. This bred polarity, which bred conflict, defiling the perfect pattern upon which everything was constructed. True stability could never be restored.
The Pillars were left with naught but ruins beneath them. This was not at all what they had intended, yet regardless, this was all that remained. Determined not to allow the corruption to spread any further, many repurposed their avatars as a means to retain what remained of stability, and enforce a semblance of structure. However, there were others which adopted their own selfish goals, descending into petty power struggles which continue up to present.
