Before there were stars, there was hunger.
Before there were worlds, there was greed.
And before the universe existed…
there was them.
There was no sky.
No ground.
No light.
Only an endless expanse of silence.
It stretched infinitely in every direction, a perfect void untouched by time or form. No matter, no energy, no movement.
Nothing.
And within that nothing…
something stirred.
At first it was only a thought.
A faint disturbance in the emptiness, like a ripple in water that did not exist.
Then came awareness.
Not eyes opening.
Not breath drawn.
Simply the realisation of being.
'I… exist.'
The thought echoed through the void.
But there was no sound to carry it.
No mind but their own to hear it.
The being lingered in that awareness, observing the emptiness around them.
It felt wrong.
Too quiet.
Too empty.
As though something should have been there but had long since been erased.
Then fragments of their memories returned as broken images.
A city of towers forged from glittering metals, their brilliance casting long shadows over the districts of calculated sustained poverty below.
Market grounds overflowing with resources, decorated not only with banners or lanterns, but with rag-clad beggars and their constant pleas for help..
Ships crossing the oceans laden with trade and conquest, their hulls driven forward by rows of bloodied slaves chained to the oars.
Voices shouting numbers with the same goals in mind; profits, expansion, more.
Always more.
The fragments grew sharper.
A throne surrounded by mountains of wealth.
Planets stripped for their minerals.
Civilizations bent beneath a single will.
Entire worlds devoted to accumulation.
And beneath it all, a single, undeniable truth.
Greed.
It had defined their existence.
Every decision.
Every victory.
Every empire.
More territory.
More power.
More wealth.
Never enough.
Never satisfied.
Even as the final world withered, as oceans dried and the skies turned grey with ash, as their civilisation collapsed under the weight of its own excess.
They had still wanted more.
The final memory came at last whilst the same silence permeated the void.
A dead world beneath a dying sky, its cities hollowed by abandonment and resources exhausted.
With nothing left to claim or to take.
And for the first time in their existence…
they had been empty.
Then came death.
The being drifted within the void, contemplating the memory.
But something felt different now.
Their former body was gone.
No flesh.
No bones.
No heart.
They had once possessed a form.
Now they possessed something else.
Something greater.
They stretched their awareness outward.
It spread endlessly across the void covering the infinity.
As the being realised the fundamental truth that had led to its existence.
There were no stars, galaxies, atoms for it to peer at but it could see one this that existed beyond the void in its own self a single truth that would always be .
The realisation came quickly.
They were alone, they were truth, the absolute.
The first and the last.
The only.
The driving force behind all existence.
It wasGreed.
Something ancient stirred within their mind.
The void itself seemed to acknowledge their presence.
As though it had been waiting.
For them.
Understanding dawned.
In their mortal lives they had taken endlessly from the universe.
Now the universe did not yet exist.
And they alone possessed the power to shape it.
A strange feeling emerged within their consciousness.
Something unfamiliar.
Something dangerously close to amusement.
If a universe did not exist…
they would simply have to create one.
The being focused their will.
For the first time since awakening, the perfect silence of the void trembled.
A faint spark flickered within the darkness.
Small, fragile but real.
The first light glowed gently, suspended within the endless emptiness.
The being observed it carefully its being sensed a beginning. This was the very first object in existence and its first act of creation.
For a long moment they watched the tiny light drift in the darkness.
Then a thought surfaced from the depths of their memory. A truth carried over from their former life.
Greed had destroyed a universe once before.
And now… greed had become its creator.
Greed looked upon the first light and spoke their first words its creator god.
Though there was no air to carry the sound and no ears to hear it.
The void itself listened.
"Let there be light."
And the darkness obeying the command of its master began to stir.