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The Universe begins with one world.
One world, soon to be many, but as of now only one. One world for the gods to inhabit, these gods that are older than humanity. A world brimming with life, a world brimming with love. The gods are her caretakers, but they wish for more, and the World gives it to them. The World gives them humanity, such curious creatures for the gods to admire and love. But still, they want more.
The first World is magical, for it contains all there is in the universe. Every plant, every rock, every animal, and even humans are divine. The first human gods ascend from that first magical generation, and many more follow as civilization develops.
Humans invent religion, and some gods take to it more than others. Purity and Corruption are human concepts, but they reject the mortality from which they came and take on the form of stags instead. Aeor and Exor become far more powerful than they should by virtue of the humans who place their faith in them, and they are the first to choose human champions.
Still, many gods want more than this world, and so the World asks the Universe to provide. Other worlds spring up out of nothing, and the First World loses some of her magic, but she doesn't mind; she loves her gods, and there is plenty to spare.
While the gods bless mortals for their own selfish reasons, the World gives her gifts indiscriminately. The people of the mountains shape their magic into a system of runes and incantations, and they live longer lives than most. The people of the forests shape their magic into a sort focused on intent rather than ritual, and their harvests are always bountiful. The people of the ocean adapt to the sea, the world granting them scales and fins for life in the water. To the mortals she loves most, those who take care to walk lightly and who respect the earth from which they came, she gives wings.
Most of the gods are long gone, but there are some who remain. The stags grow in power each year, the tension between the two gods building. More once-mortal gods ascend, filling in the gaps in the world.
A goddess and her brother live together in the ocean, and the World watches them with interest. There is nothing special about the younger brother besides his sister’s blessing; just an ocean dweller who came from a small, damaged egg. But he is kind, and he asks for nothing. His sister is a queen, and he is one of the people, seemingly incapable of any unjust cruelty. There is nothing special about him, aside from the fact that he is loved. The World, seeing this all but immortal child, finds that she loves him too.
The stags wage war, and the ocean remains safe from the fight, but not from the aftermath. The remnants of corruption seep into the water, and infect the salmon in the rivers, turning them into Exor’s puppets. The ocean dwellers quickly discover the contamination, but not quickly enough to prevent the younger sibling from becoming ill. The seablings meet their ends separated, the Ocean Queen on land desperately searching for a cure, and her brother quietly sick in the depths of the ocean empire.
Gods are not meant to die, but the Ocean Queen does. She is a different sort of god, tied to her people, and removed from them she is mortal once again. Her soul passes on, as does her brother, but they will return someday. The World knows it.
With Exor temporarily banished from the realm, civilizations begin to rebuild. A young man with a great deal of knowledge starts a kingdom in the desert, and the people shape their magic to harness the power of lightning. The desert is an advanced society, more technologically driven than any other empire. It is their king who leads the charge, who takes the role of an academic more so than a ruler. Pixandria is ruled by a council, anyway, so it’s not as if the king is much more than a figurehead and respected founder.
But like all mortals, the king dies, and progress slows. The First World begins to wither, as gods move on and civilizations die out. More worlds are created, and the magic that made the First World so special is drained, to go towards making more and more worlds for humans and gods to inhabit.
And so the world sits empty.