"Before Creation, there was the Crack."
10.8 billion years ago, the universe was silent. A still void. No stars. No time. No light - not even darkness.
Then it happened.
A rupture tore the nothingness. A cataclysmic explosion, infinite in scale, erupted from the unknown - not born, but detonated into being. The Pulse.
From this divine singularity, a swirling rift of possibility emerged: the First Crack. From it stepped nine beings - entities of thought, energy, and divine will.
They were not born. They were revealed.
They called themselves Primordials.
The Ten Primordials
Each Primordial embodied a concept - not a metaphor, but the literal foundation of that force:
Kaiser - Strength
Savitar - Momentum
Hephaestus - Technology / Creation
Thanamira - Spirits
Nocturne - Shadows
Moara - Curses / Voodoo
Poseidara - Ocean / Flow
Voltraeus - Black Lightning / Rage
Aegriya - Barriers / Protection
Artemis - Intelligence / All-Knowing
These ten formed the Pillars of Reality, harmonizing to shape stars, forge laws, and split time into manageable threads.
But then came the Eleventh.
The Arrival of ARAE
Another Crack.
From it emerged a broken being - mangled, bleeding, his body burned by the fire of ten collapsed realms.
He spoke only once:
"I... am Arae."
The Primordials welcomed him. He bore no memory of his past. His presence was tragic - mysterious.
They healed him. They trusted him. They invited him to join the divine table.
It was their gravest mistake.
The Curse of Arae
As Arae healed, so too did his memories. And what he remembered...
...was vengeance.
Not against the Primordials as they were now - but as they once were. For he remembered another war. A war forgotten by all, even time. And in his final act of silent fury, Arae cursed them.
A whispering sickness took hold of the gods.
Paranoia.
Betrayal.
Madness.
The universe trembled. Reality began to crack.
And so began the First Calamity.
The Madness of the Divine
Primordials fell like stars.
Kaiser fought Savitar in a brutal clash of muscle and motion both left comatose, broken.
Hephaestus and Poseidara shattered the Skyforge Citadel in their battle of metal vs. flood.
Nocturne and Voltraeus annihilated a dimension in their stalemate of shadow and storm.
Thanamira and Aegriya clashed in a war of souls barrier vs. freedom.
Each duel ended not in victory but ruin.
The Two Who Remained Unbroken
But two did not fall to the Curse:
Moara, Primordial of Voodoo
Artemis, Primordial of Wisdom
Moara could not be cursed for her very being was a labyrinth of layered hexes, paradoxes, and sealed hearts. Arae's madness dissolved upon touching her.
Artemis did not resist the curse. She endured it. She faced every twisted whisper with clarity, logic, and names of her fallen friends her mind a citadel of flame.
Together, they acted.
The Seed of Salvation: YGGDRASIL
In the space beyond space, where time dissolves, they met beneath a silver eclipse.
Moara bled her cursed blood - the essence of every rite, every malediction. Artemis offered her purest thoughts - distilled into divine geometry.
Together, they forged a Seed.
They planted it into the corpse of a dying star.
From it grew YGGDRASIL - the World-Root. A neural tree that would become the spine of existence.
Its branches cradle galaxies. Its roots drink memory. Its bark defies death.
They wove into Yggdrasil a failsafe: every 1,000 years, if Arae's influence rises again, it will awaken the Cycle of Chosen.
Ten souls. Ten echoes of divinity. Bound to Yggdrasil. Forged from its fruit.
The Return of Sanity
With Yggdrasil's birth, the madness began to wane and injuries begin to heal.The Curse loosened its grip.
One by one, the Primordials awoke from their delirium.
Hephaestus, groaning beneath scorched metal, murmured, "What... have I done?" Savitar sat in stillness for the first time in eons. "I fought Kaiser? I nearly... killed him."
Moara stood over them all. "You're lucky Artemis still believed in you."
Thanamira wept beside the spirit-rift she had opened. "How many souls... how many did I doom?"
Together, bruised but united again, the Primordials decided - they needed to contain Arae forever.
The Creation of Purgatory
Poseidara raised her trident. Hephaestus raised his hammer. Together, with the help of all surviving Primordials, they forged a prison not of matter - but of fractured realms.
"This world shall not be bound by order or chaos," Artemis declared, her voice echoing across planes. "It shall be... Purgatory."
They cast Arae's sleeping body into this abyss. Chains of logic, voodoo, and spiritual flame sealed him inside.
Thanamira spoke a solemn vow: "Let no soul cross into Purgatory and return unchanged."
And so, Purgatory became the hidden fracture of existence - a plane where broken gods sleep, and unspeakable beasts breed.
In sealing Arae, the Primordials paid a final price - They could never again interfere directly.
Instead...
They would create The Universe.
The Universe Blooms
From the remnants of the fractured divine battlefield, they shaped reality. Stars were lit from old embers. Planets formed from shattered weapons. Life began first simple, then vast, then sentient.
And watching from above, the Primordials let it grow.
"Let the children of dust and soul decide the future," Artemis whispered.
Moara turned away. "Let's hope they don't make the same mistake we did."
The Cycle of Chosen
In each cycle:
Ten mortals are reborn with shards of Primordial power.
They awaken after a fracture in the realms.
They inherit divine tools, called Calamity Weapons.
Their souls are bound to Yggdrasil, granting regeneration and temporary immortality.
But this cycle is unlike any before.
Arae is not sleeping. He is watching. He has learned. He has agents.
And now...
A boy named Shojiro Momo witnesses the sky split open above Tokyo.
And so begins the final Cycle.