The Age of Virgo
The First Age, called the Age of Virgo, saw the birth of the eleven dimensional cosmos, and the creation of one hundred twenty alchemical elements, the building blocks of all the material features of the Physical Plane.
12,900 BCE
Innumerable one-dimensional strings, each a mere 1 × 10-35 meters in length, vibrate in the Primal Dimension, creating the ethereal ‘foam’ of the deep end of the Ethereal Plane.
Vibrations resonate in the Integral and Thermal Dimensions, forming the elementary whirling torus particles of the Elemental Plane.
The Elemental Forces within sub-planes interact to produce larger quantum particles, which emerge from the Elemental Plane, travelling through the bordering Ethereal Plane, ultimately appearing in our Physical Plane.
The Elemental Plane’s Dimensions Three:
Integral, Primal, Thermal: X, Y, Z.
Pure Energy, or Matter concentrate.
Pure Cold, and Heat. Sublime, or condensate.
And thus, the Elemental Planes are trussed,
Between the Fog, and Fume, and Draft, and Dust.
Between Miasma, Magma, Mist, and Mire,
Pure Realms of Air… and Water… Earth… and Fire.
Pure Elemental Fire dims and glows,
Pure Elemental Earth both fell and rose,
Pure Elemental Water ebbs and flows,
Pure Elemental Air unbounded blows.
The first atoms of hydrogen, then helion, emerge and spread throughout the Vertical, Horizontal, and Lateral Dimensions as material alchemical elements form. Alchemical elemental clouds, called nebulae, materialize. Scattered atoms of lithium and beryllium appear as these nebulae grow more dense. These elemental clouds propagate throughout the cosmos. Soon, the first stars are born, creating yet more elements. The first atoms of boron, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen appear throughout the cosmos. By 12,000 BCE, larger stars form, and bring into existence even more elements.
Sub-natural Elemental Forces
undergird all alchemical sources.
Urthe’s alchemical Elemental Plane,
One Hundred Twenty names in this domain.
Hydrogena, the daughter of Water;
and Helios, the son that Fire did sire;
and Lithos, to whom Earth had given birth;
and Beryllia, the heiress of Air;
coupled and coupled and coupled again,
One Hundred Twenty names in this domain.
Earth mixed with air brought us Boros, the night.
Fire mixed with Earth brought Carbos, the mighty.
Fire with Air: Nitrogena, the naughty.
Water, Air: Oxygena, the haughty.
Water with Earth, Fluorina, the flighty.
Water and fire gave us Neos, the light.
These in turn coupled, and coupled again.
One Hundred Twenty names in this domain,
Sodos, Magnesos, and Alumos
Silicos, Phosphoros, and Sulfuros
Chlorina, Argos, Potassos, Calcos…
Urthe’s alchemical Elemental Plane.
The death of stars creates new, heavier elements. Asteroids and other rocky bodies begin to populate the cosmos. Great collections of stars aggregate around enormous black holes, creating galaxies. Some stars explode in supernovae, producing some of the heaviest elements. Propelled by detonations, or thrust by collisions, or drawn by gravitational pull, comets, asteroids, and other bodies travel without purpose throughout the cosmos.
The “Silver Wheel” Galaxy takes shape. The star Solus, one of many, is formed within the Silver Wheel, and attracts enough rocky matter to begin to form planets in its orbit. The Inner Planets: Icarus, Nimbus, Urthe, Ferrus, with a ring of asteroids dividing them from the Outer Planets: Imperius, Dominus, Cronos, Hera.
The Clash of The Elements
Sub-natural Elemental Forces
undergird all alchemical sources.
Twisting the multidimensional strings,
quick to create multitudinous things.
Rarely in space do such bodies collide:
but when they do, neither one will abide.
Yet sometimes, in a billion destructions,
Forces, combined, make hybrid constructions.
- Fire rushes in to claim the creation of a new world of flame.
- Earth counters, and contains Fire within a lodestone shell.
- The shell proves too thin, as it melts, sinks and congeals into a molten ball in the belly of the flames.
- Earth doubles its efforts, packing on ore, thick and heavy, struggling and shifting over an unquenchable Fire below.
- Earth keeps Fire pinned down, but Fire continues to squirm and buck with violent volcanic outbursts.
- Water, treacherously sensing an opportunity for surprise dominance, rushes to cover the sprawled Earth.
- Water rises and falls, pulls and pushes, but discovers that Earth is much too rough to completely subdue.
- Water lays low and holds its ground, succeeding in covering most of the new world’s hot, rocky surface; however, a large patch of Earth still retains prominence.
- Invisibly, Air rolls over the world, here slow and silent, there rushing and roaring, always acting as an aloof instigator: stirring up Water, looking down upon Earth, and snuffing or stoking Fire.
Four Forces—Fire, Water, Air, and Earth—
battle to stalemate and make the world, Urthe.
10,750 BCE
Beyond the stars, the nebulae, the galaxy clusters—gigaparsecs past the observable universe, towards the infinite direction in the Existential Dimension, lies the Astral Plane. Further still, beyond the Astral Plane, spanning the Moral and Fundamental Dimensions, lies the Spiritual Plane.
Fundamental, Moral, Existential skeins
weave three dimensional Spiritual Planes.
From Chaos to Law, from Evil to Good,
Souls tasked to tell if they did what they should,
then finally rest in the sempiternal:
The Seven Heavenly Realms Supernal?
Or, perhaps, Three Hereafters Eternal?
Or, gods forbid, Seven Hells Infernal?
The Ages of Urthe 