POV: The Dollens, children of Heath.
Date: Þórri 23rd, 798 AD. (Alt: 4th February, 799 AD.) Location: Götaland (Ancient Sweden.)
Everyone was in Den stora kupolen (The big dome,) the giant dome setting a new interactive game show that would present a new 'cosmic avenue' for the people's choices.
He sat beside Valyria and Goldie, all 3 of them having their food of caramelised apple circle cutouts and carbonated drinks ready, the scent of the sugar playing to their noses. After a small talk, the scene goes dark, meaning it was ready to play the advertisement.
"What sort of game do you believe Papa has made?" Valyria asks her brothers, but both of them shake their heads, not knowing of anything specific. The 3,955 people of mixed species sitting along, the children were also there due to the 'non-gory' nature of this showing. Overenergetic with the fact in knowing that Heath himself had made this new game. There were even Adal, Arnfinnr and Rod there too, unlike the previous showing of the first game released upon the Internet.
The magigraphic (Magic holographic) light plays, soon leading to Heath's voice to speak. "I have seen the infinite. Priceless, yet equally flawed." A switch, it turned to a view of a gigantic extraplanar supercluster, slowly zooming in perspective to every seat in equal measure.
"The many worlds untouched by life, a tapestry for hands anew." A droll plays, examining the many stars which die and are birthed from nebulae every millisecond, pictures of new novae expanding, the contracting of material to smaller constructs, from small asteroids that crash into each other, forming magmatic dwarf planetoids, to these respective larger creations crashing the same way. The first worlds' interactions time sped up in show. From standard terrestrial to metalloid planets by the centre and edge of the habitable zone. . .
To the Jovian giants that are stabilised in close tidally locked orbits, opposites being pushed out, thousands of examples were shown per moment, images that make scales incomprehensible to mennska (Norse humanity)'s minds. "Join me." The scene turns to normal speed, a solar system in full view.
The scene closes in, a world marred by volcanism and a toxic atmosphere. Meteors and planetesimals scar its surface with pocked craters, crashing into it through its slowly forming ringed accretion disk. Explosions of a magnitude greater than any imaginably known. It slowly lifted, a world forming in full view in front of a chaotic sun that unleashed many flares of differing electromagnetic and chemical forces. The ring and debris cloud dissipated, either crashing onto the world or being blasted into space, leaving only a few micropieces in orbit.
It calmed upon the outside of the globe's clouded-over air space, appearing a replica to Venus in external reaction, but now the camera went below, soon finding a landscape that showed the chaos of creation.
Supervolcanoes explode across the many continents that follow the continental shelves' pyroclastic splits, the crust always in movement, affected by the growth of lighter rock that is spewed within the slowly growing gravitational and tectonic pull. The music's build-up in trumpeting and wind-blown echoes makes to mark every destructive set, a symphonic drum that blasts the viewers with a sight of brooding fiery colours that would be even more lifeless than Múspellsheimr itself.
Terrain edited itself over countless generations, slowly cooling while following magnificent events per note of the tune. Higher lands of softer crust formed, with grand cavernous valleys that, once the temperature cooled enough, began to be filled.
The torrential rains stormed, enough water forming to create the first puddles, then the seas, then the oceans, its incredible growth in size leading to instability, with it soon overflowing and flooding the major landmasses close to sea level with megatsunamis that led the rocky territories to be eroded in giant swathes in this speed up. It temporally slows down, this time, with the view of a soul in the water, guiding the first macromolecules into joining at a rate faster than it would naturally, amino acids and peptides galore, it self-conjured.
RNA as a structure was made progenoidal, stabilising in droves, forming moving structures that were given the first instructions by this 'creator' on how to procreate, living under extremophile conditions and readying as proteinase-like lifeform, it was best resemblant to prions or proto-viruses, given the chance, it mutates!
Complex chains formed, shells of a grander size slowly specialising to the first form of single cellular life in stages, the prokaryotes. The leftover protein chains that were competing for resources also formed the first viruses, a few millennia after multiple FUCAs organisms. The prokaryotes' incredible distances between each other as they grew from the primordial sludge of chemicals in the oceans, became parts as Archaea, which then led to the symbiogenesis of mitochondria for the universally identifiable first eukaryotes.
The music began increasing in pace, the acceleration of chemical combinations leading to avenues of life left unseen being taken, from the chemovores that stayed near the hydrothermal vents, the first phagovores were born, eating other cells for themselves as sustenance.
It split, the chemovores slowly growing ways to earn new energy sources, they inched, moving closer to the surface, the Great Oxygenation Event occuring, the simpler, more chemically stable porphyrin-based chlorophyll for plastids began the atmospheric cleansing, slowly driving itself upwards while consuming the many greenhouse gases that then quickly paved the way for faster chemical pigmentation of the green kind, leading to a mix of purple and green colony mats in the oceans, leading to the hydrosphere we know of today.
It was a slow process, the heat and habitability of the surface world slowly calming in turn, it took millions of years, more taxonomically distinctive creatures forming and countering previous ones, the clades of photovores, herbivores, carnivores and necrovores now filling the oceans in blankets too great.
The land was empty, that was until the first carnivorous and necrovorous creatures turned. They became multicelled, dozens, hundreds of them joining together into colonial vails that began sharing and dispersing resources within themselves, forming structures that soon entrenched with breathing and waste release through spiracle tubules that allowed more efficient channelling pathways for life to grow. The first creatures, Namacalathus-like, soon furthered to dozens of new twin-species of differing colouration and intent.
Next came many that evolved covergently, the photovores were made into the forced stage of new oxygenators, algae that covered the edges of the hardened rock beaches over distances beyond the horizon, slowly wearing them down, eroded crevices to then be planted.
Embryophytes soon dotted the shores that are washed along, rooting into the deadly earth and clinging for a life thought impossible to achieve. Thousands of years pass, slowly furrowing in as the greater rains and roots helped to break the top rock into gravel, then to powder, giving tread for the cyanobacteria to turn it to soil. The Great Boom of life developed, hundreds of millions of years passing in blinks under a stable ecosystem. No moon upon this alien world, leading to life to diverge from our own incredibly. Yet in some ways, it was still too comparable.
The dead covered the more hospitable land in eiderdown covers, the necrovores soon burrowed the land in cellular fashion, escalating the major habitats, the decomposers that could reach the top layer of dead bloomed, allowing life-bearing chemicals to be unlocked and given for the cycle.
Of the necrovores, they split eugenically, creating the detritivores. And from the detritivores, the fungi were made. Prototaxitic structures dotted the mass corpse-covers in sprouting 'mushrooms' of burgeoning height. It truly became livable and fertile to the primitive denizens of this world. And to force this, the world-bearer struck in view, leading to the first 'trees' of sorts. Hollow-cored, they bundled up air pressure within themselves through their xylem, its epidermic cuticle matrix turning compromised when fully matured and flowering out with a burst of air to launch and propagate more of their cavity's seeds at high speeds.
It split from uncountable mutations, some keeping this structure while the more stable version externalised to a more leafy canopy that would drop the seeds instead, a slower, but more stable spread that would mean they could produce more of themselves over time. No longer a suicidal shell.
Gastropods, molluscs and arthropods in that order began spreading themselves, also leading the way for the first flying arthropods that would work symbiotically with certain plant species, to decrease the needed genetic material and to deal with any excess leftover consumable material, they turn into a carpet of greens and purples that cover the topography in verdant and violetant streaks. The animals grow vastly, the largest of crustaceans below the waterline reaching sizes even greater than a maðr (Norse person)'s.
And the hand worked again, the rate of intelligence was murky, forcing the arthropods from 100s of millions of years to 100s of thousands of years of evolution, annoyingly faster than our own realm. The first neuronal clusters that was >≈ 500,000,000 in sequence formed, cat-esque in intelligence.
Focused further, they are guided through touched instincts to develop pattern seeking on overdrive, critical thinking in spades and self-awareness from the first dashes, the best mutations that would allow for maintaining it cast in, forging a new species of 5-limbed creatures. 2-legged, 2-armed and an elongated muzzled snout of great flexibility that could be used to grab objects. Imagine the megasloth, but as an anteater. Their many minds grew to have thoughts of existentialism, greater than its base.
"Good." Heath's voice was heard, soon reaching a magic number. ≈ 35,000,000,000 neurons. The Age of Enlightenment launched: The Prehistoric Age rolled through, their use of sticks allowing for the enhancement of their survivability to break the earth and hard fruits, removing now vestigial weapons from their forms.
The Fire Age was brought along not long after, the cooked nutrients allowing for more resources to be focused on the brain's neurogenesis. This guide appeared more often, in visions or in person, both as a friend and a saviour in their times of need. ≈ 50,000,000,000 neurons, the Stone Age began. They cleared massive fieldings of land to create nesting grounds and communities that would otherwise appear advanced in this primitive world, using resources in hunter-gatherer tribal societies that would slowly rotate in nomadism within their environment's whims, huts made of mud, sticks and leaves as new shelter.
≈ 65,000,000,000 neurons, they excelled their understanding of the hand's many wants. Their technology advanced at a much more rapid pace than expected, from cobbled bricks to clay, and clay to adobe. This species was more unified in all manners thanks to that light.
These separate communities were brought together by the voice, describing every action done by their faraway neighbours, ways of travel and commerce were brought up. And greater tools and technologies were shared, agriculturalism flourished, the otherworldly knowledge enhancing their intelligence by leagues and bounds. ≈ 90,000,000,000 neurons, even more than a human's average 86 billion that had formed over thousands of new generations. The planet was unified, all under their singular immortal ruler.
It tasks the many branches of science to be discovered, these new creatures that appear closest to the tapyric 'Villagers' of the 'Minecraft Realm' pre-viewed by Heath now guiding themselves to a global civilisation that works in tune with its environment.
The Copper Age, The Bronze Age, The Iron Age, The Steel Age, The Paper Age, The Communication Age, The Industrial Age, The Electrical Age, The Radio Age. The Digital Age. And finally, after a thousand years of this creator toiling. . . The Space Age. An epoch of satellites formed high above their heads, the 'Villagers' altered the swept countrysides while maintaining ecological growth, farms created grand dreamlike arrangements over rolling flat lands, and this multicultural, singular societal construct had become harmonious, having required tedious care and growth.
The faith provided greater power, soon allowing the Being to look further into the many other worlds that had naturally formed in this solar system. The grid of space stations allowed for the first careening of interstellar planned rockets that reached the next world.
It was even faster than the previous, there were multiple planning rover probes that scanned the dead celestial body, good underground spaces capable of housing and protecting the colonists from the radiation of their stable star. Multiple trips were made, rather than centuries, it only took decades. The first colonial society stayed below this alien rock. Growing in numbers until creating a grand populous that numbered in the millions. Asteroids and meteoroids were harvested and brought to both worlds and stripmined, no longer using their world's own.
Slowly, a new plan formed in the now multi-statutory governor. To create a grand satellite network that spanned multiple spheres of influence, now creating a cornucopian halo with thousands of living habitable (O'Neill cylinders,) in a horizontal plane to the star's own.
In a fuelled, tidally locked manner, it allowed for billions of potential inhabitants to live upon both of these superstructures. Many percentages were used for science, and others were used for energy generation. The hand was always kept first, seen as the ultimate answer for their society, as it had done for aeons. There were always traitors who hoped to become their own cultic idols, but they were dealt with just as quickly. The distances and communication between planets allowed for new thoughts to bloom, other beings were artificially ascended, and new synthetics were constructed.
The Singularity Age, all were enhanced in turn with greater discoveries, many hurdles covered along the way with speeds impossible compared to the previous. The asteroid belts were mined and new technologies for living were beginning to be tested:
The Planetary Apotheosis projects, all who had lived in the setting were transferred upon the stations or other non-converted globes, excess metals that allowed for the creation of geodynamic electromagnetic fields around the planet to be jump-started in half a century, the second world was made to be the same size as the first with the additional resources, creating a pre-habitable, rocky scenery that led to the creation of stable tectonic activity, furthering this, ice from beyond both planets were shipped, forming the first dead oceans.
The hardiest of plants were implanted afterwards, and other icy bodies, such as the moons of the gas giants that had naturally collected enough, were used for the synthesis of artificial oxygen and greenhouse gases, which were then transported to fit this now breathable aether.
The second world was beginning to take shape, historically and managerially catalogued. Everyone's sight of a perfect society playing out before them. It was beautiful. The first implanted insects and bacteria were swarming its every inch now, and the oxygen generation was enough for the previously maintained underground buildings to finally be surfaced. "And there will be so much more in the vastness." Heath spoke, voice endless in their heads. Showing sights even greater, breaking the minds of all within.
A (Dyson swarm) that worked in a close orbit. An economic spatial transportation system between parts of the solar system, a greater understanding of quantum devices that allowed for controlled entangling, and instantaneous communications that allowed for easier travel in an environment's knowledge of obstacles and calculations to supersede them.
"Become greater than this, my friends." Heath talks to the viewers, showing interstellar travelling techniques and even more imposing shows of power. Entire globes split into districts of ecumenopolical growth, gigacities that have been made purely for people, for food production or for the generation of necessities. It was no longer recognisable. "Go above your boundaries, find your likeness." The show of two completely different sapient species was visible, diplomatic ties in view, with two souls in the background in unison.
"Or your anathema." The showing of grand stellar battles became clear with ships of two different sides attacking each other. "It is your choice." He spoke in their every ear, as if thumping into their souls the heart of the matter. The very objective Gods in that digital galaxy duking it out with attacks capable of destroying brown dwarf stars in hyperspace.
The sight of such a titanic scale frying their brains with imagery beyond what they already could handle, many cried from the spectacle. For who would not want to be a true Deity of a new creation? "And once you find your path." Heath continued, leading to the showing of galactic Pantheons or sole dominion rules over entire star sectors. "Go further beyond!" Heath screamed, for the step next in their society being the very alteration of the stars themselves. Matter decompressors that removed excess mass, taking heavier elements from their convection core for use in their civilisation.
And the provision of Hydrogen and Helium to extend their lifespan, turned truly:
ETERNAL.
That is the title of the game, and of a phenomenon upon a realm that had not even formed its first way of cross-country communication without it taking months of boði (Messenger) courier runners. Every person who had viewed this ad brought their minds to the forefront of what is possible, breaking their classical mentality.
The show ended, the lights in the dome turning on with giving everyone the chance to readjust their vision. Many stayed in their seats, contemplating the greater universe, and of the one they would soon put their very essence into the infinite. "May the stories you create be timeless." Heath now says with a physical body upon the central stage. All individuality nought for their sight locked onto the man in front of them, who came up with the combination of many ideas from his home realm.
"Now, everyone, before you leave. There will be a special announcement." He continued, gaining the attention of all in the megastadium. "The first to create a planetary civilisation will be given a monumental prize even greater than the hovercopter." He shows it off.
A Uni-pod, unique in any known circulation, its trimmed edges made of *Dyḗusium and its internal structure formed with celestial bronze as a base, there were additional features added in: "An age-circulator. Unlike the normal Uni-pods that are capable of maintaining and even helping your body grow with its autodystrophic musculoskeletal systems, it will be similar to my own abilities in how I had aided you in the past, it will keep you in your prime, without the need for me." A device that keeps you immortal? *'I need it.'* Was the thought of thousands.
"May the best creator win." Heath flew, now warping away in a cloud of theatrical smoke to then increase the size of the DNA medium server to the size of a two-story apartment room. Expanding from the few ronnabytes to many quettabytes.
"And with the efficiency of the program. This should be all it needs." Heath talked to himself, truly smiling at the creation of a true digiverse.