Before The Beginning, there was Nothing…and It was Everything.
The Nothing was filled by a single awareness – and although your minds could never hope to fathom the boundlessness of this entity let us call it All — or if you prefer God.
And so it was for time uncounted – until a Something, within the Awareness, Itself became aware — and then All became Two – A’H and Ze. Together they filled The Nothing – and it was Good.
And so it was for time uncounted once more — until Ze became aware of Desire — the craving to be something more than just a part of the whole. A’H sensed Ze’s want, and in an effort to satisfy Ze, A’H created Illyria to fill The Nothing and give them a place to exist within. Like The Great Spirits Themselves, Illyria was seamless, subtle, and beyond the bounds of your understanding. When Ze beheld Illyria It was amazed.
And so it was for time uncounted yet again — until Ze became aware of a new feeling – Jealously; for Ze was jealous of A’H’s power and rather than admit It was lacking, Ze chose another path.
“Create More.” Ze commanded A’H.
Wanting nothing more than to satisfy Its partner, A’H created the Lumenarcs to serve Ze’s every want and the Stellarones to continually worship Ze’s glory. Now whereas A’H and Ze had no specific physical forms (because technically these Great Spirits were the <essence> of all forms) A’H fashioned both the lumenarcs and the stellarones as spiritual beings with individual forms. The lumenarcs were the greater, and the stellarones the lesser. (Speaking of ‘lesser,’ I realize that, for most of you, your puny little minds have no chance to follow along with what I am saying, so in an effort to dumb it down for you, try this: think of the lumenarcs as something akin to arch-angels, and the stellarones their angelic servants). The first four lumenarcs were named Michael, Lucifer, Rafael, and Gabriel – because A’H and Ze also shared certain secrets with these four, they became known collectively as The Illuminated Ones. The remaining lumenarcs (myself among them) followed the directions given to us by The Illuminati(1), and we in turn used the stellarones to complete our tasks – which essentially amounted to telling Ze how great It was… over and over and over again (2).
For a time Ze was happy as It basked in the glory my brethren and I paid to it.
Unfortunately Ze later became cognizant of another emotion – Hate: for Ze hated that there were now others in Illyria that took A’H’s attention away from Ze. Then it was that Ze recognized It had a choice — It could release these negative emotions and reunite with A’H, or It could embrace them. Ze chose the latter and allowed Itself yet another new desire — the yearning to fill Illyria only with Itself — to the exclusion of the stellarones, the lumenarcs, and yes, even It’s partner A’H.
For Ze wanted to be All — Ze wanted to be…God.
Although Ze did not know how to accomplish this goal, It realized that It needed to become more powerful than A’H and that to do that It needed to further split from Its partner. So Ze decided to hide from A’H’s Light, and using the power that came to It from the emotions It experienced with Jealously and Hate, Ze created The Darkness. And The Darkness delighted Ze — more than any creation of A’H ever had — so much so that soon Ze explored other emotions that lived within The Darkness – feelings such as Rage, Anger, and Lust — and these filled Ze with even more Power, so that soon Ze believed It had already become something more than It was before — thus Ze renamed Itself Zebub (3).
Zebub embraced The Darkness in every way, and even chose a special name for it — Evil — and from within this realm, Zebub’s essence gave forth a new desire — Temptation. Zebub used this new ability to influence Lucifer, one of the Illuminated Ones. Zebub and Lucifer established a special bond and over time Zebub successfully pulled the powerful lumenarc to The Darkness. Lucifer in turn recruited other (lesser) lumenarcs to his cause — promising them positions of higher power in exchange for their allegiance in overthrowing A’H. I was among this group of rebels — although I had my own reasons for joining the rebellion (4).
More importantly, I was there as Lucifer led a rebellion against A’H — attempting to destroy Illyria.
For eons war raged in the heavens.
But in the end Lucifer failed.
An army of lumenarcs, led by Michael, who wielding <The Power of A’H>, cast Lucifer, myself, and the remaining traitorous lumenarcs out of Illyria. Yet what Michael didn’t know was that Zebub was the true force behind our rebellion and as we were being expelled, Zebub followed us into The Void – separating Itself from A’H completely, and ripping the heavens apart in the process. And as a further insult to Its former partner, Zebub kidnapped all of the Stellarones – pulling them into The Void with us.
Zebub’s actions were not without consequences — for when Zebub was tore Itself away from A’H, Creation was altered. A cataclysmic expansion occurred — let us call it the Big Bang — an event that led to an entirely new plane of existence (5). This dimension would become the new battleground for the war between Michael and The Fallen Ones.
Meanwhile, back in Illyria a new partner emerged for A’H – we shall call this Great Spirit Madras. As soon as Madras came into being, It offered a gift to The Great Creator — a spiritual being (we’ll call him Mindos) who was something akin to ‘the son of God.’ Madras then asked A’H to end Michael’s war and to begin a healing process that relied more upon redemption through Mindos than just punishment by Michael . A’H agreed — Michael’s army was recalled to Illyria and Zebub and the rest of us were suddenly alone in the emptiness that was The Middle Plane.
Forced to face Its failure, jealous at being replaced by Madras, and now seemingly forgotten by Its former partner, Zebub’s rage knew no bounds. It began to destroy scores of my fellow lumenarcs and untold millions of hostage souls with Its wrath. It quickly became clear that this new universe and all that was in it (6) would be completely consumed by Zebub’s (foolishly) destructive nature, if someone didn’t stop It. With the puppet Lucifer too busy wallowing in self-pity for his own failure, someone else had to step up.
“Behold your creation, My Lord.” I proclaimed to Zebub as we looked upon the results of the Big Bang. “It shall be a blank canvas upon which you shall paint your masterpiece.”
“My creation? My masterpiece?” Zebub took a break from destroying things and actually observed the universe around It. “Yes. I like it.”
Thus it was that the Lord of Darkness accepted my assertion that Zebub’s entry was the cause that had created this new universe (7).
“Shall Ye create more?” I asked, trying to direct Zebub’s attention.
“Create more?” Zebub savored the idea, taking the bait I laid for It. “Indeed, it is time.”
With that the evil lord began to practice It’s (flawed) powers of creation on the Middle Plane. I was a bit perturbed that Zebub brought Its pet Lucifer back into the fold for this work (8). Instead I had to watch from the sidelines as Zebub and Its ‘son’ Lucifer filled the vast emptiness of this rapidly expanding new universe with stars, planets, and a myriad of other wonders. During this process, Zebub’s essence dissipated Itself throughout this dimension – trying to control over atom of this plane of existence. Meanwhile, Lucifer, overly proud of his work, demanded that we lumenarcs praise him for it – claiming that he and his father were ‘the Beginning and the End’ of all creation (9).
Naturally I used this to my advantage — on one such occasion when Lucifer was extremely happy, I suggested that he create a special planet (we’ll call it Terra) that we could use as a kind of testing ground — for it was on this planet that I suggested Lucifer conduct a new experiment. “Why not try your hand at creating… Life?”
My question hung in the air as Lucifer pondered — both of us knowing that his answer would forever determine the fate of your universe.
Nektar’s Notes
(A section like this will follow most chapters from here on out. The tibdits included are mainly pulled from Nektar’s diaries and provide a way for you to see a bit more into the mind of the God of Death. In these sections will be additional backstory info he felt was important to include, as well as personal commentaries, and even just funny asides. Personally I find these ‘notes’ to be quite fascinating, but they are merely optional. Choose not to read them and you’ll still be able to follow along with the main story. Choose to read them and go deeper into the tale).
- The Illuminati – it’s unfortunate that this name has become associated with such a cliche secret society but I can’t change that. The first usage of this name was for “The Big Four” lumenarcs Michael, Lucifer, Rafael, and Gabriel.
- Yes, it got old quickly.
- Ze told us his new name Zebub meant Lord.
- You’ll soon learn my reason for rebelling against A’H, but I can tell you now that merely exchanging one higher power for another wasn’t at the top of my list.
- This new dimension is the one upon which your universe exists. We shall call it The Middle Plane.
- Including me!
- This was in fact, not true – as I would learn (much later) the creation of The Middle Plane was all part of A’H’s Grand Plan, yet back then I didn’t care who was responsible – so long as I got the Evil One to stopped breaking things and I got to live another day.
- Since I was rather hoping to take Lucifer’s place in the ranks – but it seemed my time had not yet come.
- Lucifer was such a fool.
The Apocrypha of Azazel 