The Gods of Antheros

This is the story/mythology I came up with to explain the creation of my fantasy world Antheros.  This is kinda part one of two.  I'll probably post the second part tomorrow (maybe).  I've attempted to write it kinda like a folk tale/creation story.  What follows describes the creation of and a brief telling of the first two ages of Antheros.  Part two will describe the third age.  Any story I write that takes place in the world will occur during the worlds fourth age.  

In a time and place long forgotten three brother gods were born. Even though these gods were brothers, the three could not have been more different.

The first-born god named himself Evera. He was wise and benevolent, and had a love for all things, especially his brothers. Shortly after his birth, Evera set about to create the stars and suns to shine light and heat on the blackness of space.

The second god named himself Deinous. He was born in Evera's shadow and quickly grew to be very jealous of his older brother, which made him cruel and unforgiving. He hid it well, however, as Deinous was guileful and clever. Above all else Deinous craved power. Deinous' first creations were black holes, hidden in the black of space to steal the energy from Evera's stars

The youngest god named himself Antheros. Antheros was unlike his brothers in that he had both the capacity for benevolence and cruelty, or neither if the mood struck him. Antheros was wild and at times prone to flights of fancy. He loved wandering the depths of space where he created strange and beautiful things like nebulas, comets, and asteroids.

Antheros' brothers often scolded him for his nature. Evera would lecture Antheros the importance of order, and would complain of the odd shapes comets and asteroids took. Deinous would lecture the importance of power, and would often point out how Antheros' creations lacked any true purpose. Antheros did not care, and continued to do as he wished.

One day Antheros created his first world. He made the world round, but left its surface uneven with tall rocky mountains and deep chasms that he filled with oceans. He also added deserts, forest, plains, swamps, lakes, rivers, icy tundras and deep jungles. He set his world to spin so that he could sit and watch it.

It pleased him greatly this new world of his, but still he felt something was missing. He decided it needed more activity, and so Antheros was the first of the three gods to create life.

He filled the world with all manner of creatures. Birds were made to fill the skies, animals to roam the lands and fish to swim the seas. He gave each creature freedom to do as they wished and allowed them to run wild.

He put his world in orbit around one of Evera's suns to keep his creations warm and feed them energy. He created hot and cold and dry and wet weather, because his creatures all preferred different kinds of climates to live in.

As a final touch he gave to the plants and animals the ability to adapt and evolve. It was an ever changing world, much like Antheros himself. The world was so much like the god that he gave it his own name. This began the First Age of Antheros.

For a long time Antheros did nothing but enjoy his creation, he would watch it or take the form of one of the many creatures that dwelled there and would run along with them.

Eventually Antheros began to wander off to create other things in the universe, but he would often return to check on his favorite creation and see what had changed in his absence. He was always delighted at what he found.

While Antheros busied himself with creation, his brothers Evera and Deinous had spent most of their time competing with one other. They would each try and out do each other as they created stars or lifeless gas planets with beautiful swirling patterns or rings, and then would spend ages bickering about which one had won.

A rift had begun to form between the brothers, and even though Evera still loved his brother, he realized they would never see eye to eye. He had even begun to understand Deinous' cruel nature, despite his carefully weaved lies.

Deinous outright hated Evera by now, and even though he would never admit it, he knew his brothers creations were always more beautiful and impressive than his own. This only further enraged the younger god.

One day Evera and Deinous stumbled across Antheros' world. Antheros was absent at the time, so the brothers studied the world and were impressed, but found several things they felt were wrong with it. They both began to imagine ways they could improve the world for their wayward little brother.

However, Evera and Deinous were unable to to agree upon how best to fix the world, and so instead it was decided that they would each create their own world to prove to the other god who's idea was better.

Evera's creation was perfectly round and white, it's surface was left clean and smooth. Beneath the surface, he build a beautiful crystalline city that he filled with various types of angels and archons, that he arranged in an orderly hierarchy. He loved his creations, and made them to love him as well, and this was their primary purpose to love and serve their lord Evera. Angel's would know nothing of free will.

Deinous created a world that was as perfectly round as Evera's, but he colored it red instead of white. For red was a powerful color; the color of heat and flame. Beneith the world's surface he constructed a temple and keep that were a testament to Deinous' power. It was constructed of a strong black metal, and was filled with several effigies and statues of Deinous. At the center sat a great throne made of gold where Deinous could sit and be worshiped and catered to by the demons and devils he had made to serve him. He bred the creatures to be as cruel and as manipulative as he himself was, and they lived only to do their gods bidding.

When they had both finished they found they could not settle on whose design was best, because neither was willing to concede defeat to the other.

Instead they decided they would hold a different contest. Evera would send his angels, and Deinous would send his demons down to Antheros where they would battle each other. Which ever side came out victorious would win in the name of their god. Whichever god triumphed would name themselves ruler of Antheros.

The pristine worlds made by Evera and Deinous were then set in orbit around Antheros as twin moons. Shortly after this several portals were torn open in the skies of Antheros. Out of some flew Evera's majestic and beautiful angels, and from others poured hordes of Deinous' foul demons. Together they blackened the skies.

The war between the angels and demons had begun. This marked the start of the Antheros' second age.

Caught in the middle of the war was the creatures and animals native to Antheros. Many creatures would be killed to the point of extinction.

The lands suffered as well. Forest were razed, oceans boiled off and ice lands melted. Fertile Plain lands and jungles were scorched or flooded in the fighting. The worlds beauty faded in the conflict.

After three centuries of fighting, Antheros' beloved planet had become little more than a charred husk. And still no victor had been decided.

It was about this time that the god Antheros returned to check on his creation. He was greatly angered by what he found. His brothers' conflict had ruined his world, and when he asked them to stop the fighting and leave his world in peace they both ignored him.

If they would not leave willingly, Antheros would force them he decided. From the ashes of his world he created the eight Dragon Lords, into whom he poured nearly half of his power. The Dragon Lords were made so powerful as to almost be gods onto themselves. He granted them them incredible strength and speed, and taught them the secret language of magic.

He named them Jormungandr, Hafgufa, Landvættir, Ratatoskr, Fafnir, Eikpyrnir, Nidhogg, and Hildisvinir. He then released them to his world.

The first thing the dragons did was use their vast powers to close all the portals between the three worlds. They then rounded up every last angel and demon on their planet and flung them through space back to their homes. They had thrown the creatures so hard that when they hit their respective moons they left craters all around the formerly pristine surfaces.

Jormungandr, who was the largest and most powerful of all the Dragons then laid himself around the top of the world where he bit his own tail forming an Ouroboros. The other Dragons then took places around him and cast a powerful spell that encircled the Antheros in a protective barrier separating world from its moons, and making it so that Deinous and Evera's servants could never set foot on the planet again.

Once the spell was cast Jormungandr began his great slumber, and it is through his power alone that the barrier is held.

The Seven remaining Dragon Lords then divided the world of Antheros into eaqual parts for each to heal. Hafgufa the second most powerful dragon was given the seas, rivers, and lakes. Landvættir was given the plain lands to make fertile once more. Raratoskyr took her place in the deserts. Fafnir went to the mountains. Eikpyrnir went to regrow the forest, and his twin Nidhogg took the Jungles. Hilidisvinir the smallest retreated to the swamps and marshlands.

Antheros himself took up residence in the planets core where he rested to regain his strength.

Evera and Deinous whom had also found themselves weaked after the battles followed Antheros' exampled and retreated within their own worlds where they too would rest, but while they rested each brother also planned and plotted. They had both decided the contest was not yet over, but had simply changed form, and now it seemed as though their youngest brother had entered the game. Whether he had wanted to or not.

This would begin The Third Age of Antheros, or as it is more commonly referred: The Age of Dragons.