Preface

 

WRITTEN in the Holy Scrolls of the Guardians:

Before all else existed, there were the three ancient elements: The Creator, the Destroyer, and Time.

The Creator, as was in its nature, created. Many wondrous things came into existence, all beautiful, all perfect. But Time revealed the flaws to the Creator, for all that was created was empty, sterile and unchanging.

The Destroyer abhorred the static, unchanging world, the stagnation repugnant. As was in its nature, it destroyed many of the things created to bring change to the sterility of the world. But Time revealed the flaws to the Destroyer, for once the destruction was done, the ruins remained as sterile and unchanging as everything else that had been created.

For reasons lost to antiquity, the Creator and Destroyer joined their essences together, and in doing so, gave birth to the core of the universe. Every part of everything held some degree of the nature of order and chaos. Where alone they were nothing, together a panorama of eternal change, of perpetual renewal and decline was produced.

Once the universe was made, it still felt like it was missing something. So the Creator and Destroyer came together once more and created the gods as caretakers, entities that were equal parts of order and chaos, immortal save by the hands of one of their own. In time, gods created entities to serve them that were a part of themselves as well the matter of the mundane world.

An enigma to even the Creator and the Destroyer, Time watched the ripples in its river. Seeing that those which lived oblivious to the river’s currents were vulnerable to certain predators, Time finally stepped into the world its siblings the Creator and Destroyer had made, whispering the secrets of the Guardians to chosen humans. Those chosen to serve Time itself would bear the blessed symbols that would mark them as Guardians of the balance between order and chaos.