The Visitor Arrives

In a time so far in the past years had no meaning. In a place where space itself choked with dust, there was finally light. An explosion of immeasurable power lit up the darkness, and seconds later a shock wave disturbed the dust that had drifted in passive contentment for eons. Darkness engulfed the dust once again. Millions of years passed as the dust gathered unto itself and formed a gaseous sphere that grew hotter and hotter, surrounded by a vast circle of dust larger than the eye or mind could grasp.

With a scream that went unheard in the cloud, a star was born. Light returned to the cloud of dust and was quickly absorbed into the gas, making it glow like a ghost in the void. Forces beyond understanding exerted themselves on the orbiting gas and dust, and they moved and collide together, sometimes destroying each other, sometimes clinging together in the maelstrom and forming something larger, which would gather more dust becoming rocks or ice, and so the cycle would continue until giant spheres filled the sky around the infant star.

The entire solar system was in chaos when The Visitor arrived. It was huge, the size of a dwarf planet and composed of an unknown element, full of the power from the explosion which sent it careening through the vast emptiness between the stars. Despite its size, The Visitor was traveling at incredible speeds, but it came too close to the largest world of this system, a gas giant thousands of times bigger and heavier than The Visitor. As if reaching out a vast hand it caught and slowed The Visitor, which finally settled into a field of young planets halfway between their monstrous cousin and the sun.

While not conscious itself, the sheer power of The Visitor gave it an awareness of what it was and its surroundings. Closest to the sun, it could see six massive worlds of molten rock, Worlds of chaos and fire, always destroying themselves and reforming in liquid fury. Where it was cooler, the rocks hardened and formed giant spheres, maybe forty in a sky so cluttered they frequently collided, consuming and destroying each other. Further out two giants lurked, the massive king that consumed everything in its path, and the silent queen who ate slower and grew more in wisdom than size. Beyond the rulers, in the frozen wastes, four ice giants roamed, smaller than the king and queen, made of the detritus of the solar system and kicked to rest in the furthest reaches within the mother sun’s realm.

The Visitor watched the ravening king feast on everything in its path, leaving destruction in its wake. It was going to drift into the inner system and eat everything there, including The Visitor, and there was nothing it could do to prevent this fate. The energy coursing through The Visitor grew agitated, and that agitation became awareness, realizing its potential demise giving The Visitor a sense of self.

The Visitor knew the giant couldn’t destroy it, but becoming trapped in its belly was a fate no better. As its awareness grew, the Visitor believed it might prevent this, but there was considerable risk involved. Perhaps the queen farther out in the cold sensed this, or perhaps she moved with an inscrutable Purpose all her own, whatever the reason she began to sing. It was not a sound, but a vibration through the void that tugged and pulled at the king. As if helpless before that siren’s call, the king eventually slowed and returned to the outer reaches to rejoin the queen.

The violence continued even as this strange romance between worlds played out. Crowded planets smashing into each other until most were little more than the dust they began as. The remains of these dead worlds drifted towards their sun, and eventually their weight became so great the massive super planets could no longer bear it, and they sank into the sun screaming in rage and agony as a fire even greater than themselves consumed them.

The ice giants fared only a little better. The largest and farthest world pushed out far beyond its brother’s and sisters, in an orbit that would spend tens of thousands of years in darkness. The other three jockeyed for position until one collided into another, knocking it on its side as it consumed half of the aggressor. Beaten and diminished, the small world drifted out to the edges and the others finally settled into place.

The Visitor watched this over eons, the remains from the previous destruction reforming into new worlds. The Visitor grew in size as it collected rocks unto itself, feeling the need for protection should another world seek to collide with it. And no sooner did the Visitor complete its task when another world collided with it. A glancing blow that melted both worlds, their cores combining, and their shells becoming one. Over time, the ring of rocks remaining formed a large moon, providing stability to both, and the solar system began to look more familiar to a modern observer.

While a human might call this world Myrmadon, The Visitor still saw itself as transient. It would orbit this star until the star’s death and then the Visitor would continue on. Time was of no consequence. Yet The Visitor felt an odd sensation when it felt other pieces of itself drifting in the void. It did not have a word for it, or any words for that matter, but the Visitor felt loneliness. The Visitor knew it was not complete.

Those pieces would miss the system entirely, and The Visitor was chagrined. The entire world trembled with its need and loneliness and The Visitor experienced another new emotion, despair. And in that despair something was born, a desire to no longer be alone. Sensing its own power for the first time, The Visitor exerted its will and drew the pieces toward itself.

Satisfaction! The pieces began to drift toward the system. It would take millions of years, but they would come. When they arrived, they bathed the infant world in fire. Most of the rocks remained on the surface, filled with the same power as the Visitor, but they were close, and through the layers of rock were a part of the Visitor once again. A new feeling filled the Visitor, comfort.

The Visitor knew this wasn’t all of itself; it was sure there were other pieces drifting beyond its senses, and still more in other directions. Even so, the Visitor was trapped by its sun, and for all its power had no means to propel itself away. As much as it pained the Visitor to consider it, after aeons of deliberation it decided to risk pieces of itself hoping to bring more here.

More time passed as the Visitor shifted its hot, molten insides, Larger rocks from the earlier bombardment were moved through the rock, positioned by a super volcano The Visitor formed from the world. The Visitor gathered its power unto itself and focused it on those rocks it had gathered. These massive rocks, these Emissaries, absorbed that power, and felt awareness blossom like a flower. The Visitor and the Emissaries regarded each other with new awareness. For the first time in billions of years, the Visitor was not alone, and understood the concept of others.

When the supervolcano finally erupted, massive amounts of crust were thrown into the sky, and these Emissaries were launched out into space at incredible speeds. Filled with knowledge and purpose, the Emissaries would find others of its kind, and bring them home. The Visitor felt yet another unfamiliar sensation as it writhed in pain. The eruption had caused considerable damage to its shell, and massive disruptions affected the entire planet.

A singular being that had been alone for billions of years did not understand concepts like control yet and did not exercise any as it created the Emissaries. As it poured its power and gift of awareness into them, much of it spilled out freely, infusing smaller nearby rocks made of its bizarre element.

As the supervolcano erupted, even more spilled out and over onto the surface, creating a shock-wave of its own. The power rolled out, infusing rocks already hot and liquid from the eruption, and cooler rocks flying wildly. The shock-wave infused them with power and awareness similar to the Emissaries, and thus, quite by accident, the Old Gods were born.