The World of Grim
Side note: I hand painted this map. It is as big as I could make insert it on penana to my knowledge. If I am doing something, wrong someone, please message me.
I want to give a special acknowledgment to Foreverfic for taking the time and helping with the editing of this prologue. It has made the flow better. For those who have read it, the changes are subtle but there and all the better for it.
Prologue
From the Book of the Lost
Excerpt: Lecture on the Creation of The World of Grim
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The age of the universe is beyond our meager human understanding. It was created in the dawn of time from the loins of Order. The universe consists of three parts: the two lower planes and the physical realm where we exist. Order created the Planes of Chaos to contain its brother from doing any more harm after a war almost destroyed the two. They fought after the death of their mother the Void. Chaos wrongly accused Order of the murder of their mother. Order established the Demon’s Gate to keep the balance, allowing his brother to be able to send his messengers to do Chaos’s bidding, but Chaos himself would never be let free again.
Our plane was created to establish a balance, a place where the brothers could strive safely against one another for dominance. Like a pendulum on a clock, we are ever swinging to and fro, from light and dark, Order and Chaos. Worlds are created and destroyed across our vast realm in the battle between the brothers and their war to find who is the dominant twin. Order took his mother's, the Void, corpse and filled the emptiness it contained with a multitude of stars across her. He and Chaos would build and destroy worlds for eons before creating our little speck of dirt that we humbly live on now.
Our world’s age is not known, but we do know it is Order who created it. Order spun it into being, everything that exists, every animal, tree, and rock, on Mid-Winters day or as the world knows it Grim-Tide. It created the Over and Underworld in a single instant and set the laws of physics into motion, establishing time and the influence of natural law as it should be. The world was free of the corruption of sorcery and the ilk it brings.
Down in the Underworld, beside the Well of Souls, it created the caregiver for which the planet would be named, the Grim. This being would be its champion, one who would care for Order’s planet and when the need would arise, defend it from the influence of Chaos. Order instilled its idea of perfection on the being. Grim had high prominent cheekbones and long, dark hair with a hawk nose. He was tall, broad-shouldered and muscular. In him, Order implanted enough wisdom to begin his task. Order had delighted itself for eons in watching caregivers learn, and this one would be no different. The Grim would be, however, and Order would watch him learn and grow into a wise being.
Chaos began its work that day too. On the face of the World of Grim, life began to bud spontaneously. Chaos' souls are a dangerous lot. He chooses not to control how the souls that are delivered by his demons take shape. Banderlings, ogres, goblins, and yes, even dragons, walked the face of the World of Grim that first day because of the uncontrolled release from Demon’s Gate. Chaos looked upon the multitude satisfied with its work and retracted to itself like a coiled snake.
Order looked up from the creation of the Grim, with sadness in its eyes, at what its brother had done to his paradise. He knew the need for his caregiver to hurry and wake. Order gave a gentle prod at the mind of the immortal being laying beside the stones of the Well of Souls.
"Wake, my child" Order instructed,--light emanating from the water of the well. Through the well, the Grim could receive future instruction and guidance, if needed. Order would be there, a parent ready on the sidelines of this deadly game for dominance.
The Grim's glowing red eyes opened slowly as the being pushed itself off the hard rocky ground it found itself on. The immortal got to its knees looking around slowly in pure wonder at the Underworld where it found itself and the glowing well beside it. Order held its voice as it admired its creation.
“Who spoke to me?” Grim asked.
"Your creator child." The well emitted a white light once more and the Grim jumped back, tripping on a rock and, landing on the seat of his pants. The Grim shifted forward, put trembling hands on the side of the well, and gazed into the depths of the water, watching in rapt wonder.
“Then you are, Order,” the Grim said in awe.
"Aye, Child, and I have an important task for you too. You are to be the father of this planet; you are to be the Grim."
The Grim looked around the barren Underworld, seeing only the empty clutter of the cavernous rocks and stalagmites, and looked back the well confused. He drew in a shaky breath as he prepared to question the well’s task.
"I do not mean to be rude, but rocks and dirt do not need fathers. If this is what I was created for, then, it seems my task is complete already."
Laughing emitted from the well as blue and white light danced over the Grim's hands and face.
"Look up child, and see. This down here is but one side of the coin."
The Grim raised his red gaze through the crust to the Overworld. His eyes widened with amazement at the life contained in the upper realm of his world. Even the monsters created by the release of Chaos's souls amazed the Grim, and he envied the world. Order called Grim's attention back to the well below.
"Grim, the world above holds great beauty, but for you, it holds the greatest of dangers. You are immortal and can neither age nor die by conventional means, but time rules the Overworld. If you stay on the Overworld for longer than three days, you will perish. It takes a soul and a body to sustain yourself in the realm were time rules. You may go and live, learn, and love, but you may not stay. Take care of my world and keep it, this I command." The well glowed brightly and swirled, drawing Grim's glowing red eyes to it., "This well contains a finite amount of souls. You may use them to create life as you wish, but use them carefully. They are all you have and there will be no more created for this world."
The voice of Order faded, and the white light dimmed as the cavernous Underworld went quiet. The Grim turned his eyes eagerly toward the beautiful Overworld and exalted himself in the pleasures it contained. He spent his three days hiking on tall, virgin mountains that only his eyes had seen, riding horses across the broad plains as they raced each other for sheer pleasure, and swimming with the giant whales of the deep ocean. Regretfully, he returned to his Underworld and his studies at the Well of Souls, eagerly awaiting the two weeks until he could once more walk the face of the World of Grim.
The Grim continued in this pattern, study and play, for several millennia, till he became lonely. Yes, even immortals can become lonely. He reached into the Well of Souls and called seven thousand fresh souls out, then formed from stones in a nearby river bed, first-man. He gave each a soul so they could exist on the Overworld and for the first three days, he showed them how to run and play with the wildlife. Each he gave his blessing and then The Grim returned to the Underworld to continue his studies at the feet of Order.
Time passes quickly to a being who lives outside of its constricts. The Grim became engrossed in his studies and his first creation aged and died. Finally, one day in the far future, the Grim returned to check in on his creation. He called out to his people, knowing each one by their given name, but they would not move. They lay still on the ground, only a shadow of their former self. Panic set into the heart of Grim and he hurried into the Underworld, to the Well of Souls, yelling frantically for the voice of Order.
"Peace Child," Order tried to calm the frantically shouting immortal., "What is the problem. Has my brother somehow interfered without my knowing it?"
"No, Master., My creation, my man, will not move. They are somehow fastened in the spot where they lay. Why Master? Why do they look so different?"
Order chuckled at the Grim and the realization of the dilemma. "You have been away for over one thousand years Grim. Your man is a mortal thing and has perished as mortals do. Now you must fulfill another part of your role as the caregiver of this World. You are to be its ultimate Memory. Go and reap their souls and learn from them what they learned from their mortal lives. Wipe clean their souls so they might live again.”
And so Order instructed the Grim on the Reaping of Souls and Memory, and the Grim went forth and collected his people to him. He set the shades into the Underworld, building a city for them to match theirs on the Over. Then Order set to creating man over again, but this time, The Grim wanted to be sure they would not disappear from the face of the world yet again. He wanted them to persevere against the odds. He observed the planet as his master had created it and the order in which nature operated. The Grim realized his mistake then and took up some mud from a riverbank and created second-man. He imbued them with seven thousand fresh souls and breathed into them new life to dry them. Then he called them one by one, male and female, to him so that they would know that he was their creator.
The Grim sat and watched his creation meet each other and play during that first day, and he remembered the words of his creator unbidden, ‘should you remain on the Overworld for longer than three days you will perish,’ and he worried for his new creation.
He called out to his people for seven women, one for each thousand created, to be his wives and in that first night, he knew each in turn. They bore him the first fruits of second-man, heirs to the Throne of the Underworld, princes to the All-Father. The Grim brought their souls to them on the eighth day with pride and on that spot had a Temple built to honor the occasion. He declared that every two-weeks everyone should gather to hold a ceremony to honor his family and to bring their dead and babies for souls.
The Grim's wives handled the dead through the coming years and would come to be known as necromancers. Their names have faded into ancient history and forgotten, often wished to be cursed for what they brought into the world, but their sons' names are remembered with fear and trembling. Shale, Ferle, Lent, Baine, Mathis, Het, and Gremlin grew among the people with arrogance and pomp. Chaos watched and saw its opportunity to unwind from its coiled position and strike, sinking its teeth deep into Order. It released a deadly venom known as sorcery into the World by way of the seven brothers, promising riches and glory to all.
What the seven brothers found was intoxicating and deadly; they were no longer masters of themselves. They started practicing it, promising to use it for the noblest of causes and in the end, it consumed even the smallest of thoughts. On a seeming accident, the expansion of power was discovered when Baine killed a healer in the village where he and his mother lived. Enthralled with his newfound ability, he set off hunting anyone with a hint of power. His brothers, enraged, set to match him and it was a war for power. The population was forced to fight for the brothers or die resisting.
The Grim, caught in the Underworld during a two week rest period, was summoned to the Well of Souls to answer for his creation. The well glowed a fiery red with anger as the immortal approached.
“What have you done Child, for the destruction of every plane is upon us!” Thunder boomed around the cavernous underworld as the anger of the voice tolled.
"I have done nothing but ensure that my creation, our creation is provided for."
"You are and will remain my creation and will answer to me," the voice answered his arrogance with anger. "An immortal was never meant to have a soul, but you have seen fit to create seven of them! If they are allowed to come into immortality on their twentieth year, then they shall become deities!"
“Deities?”
"A deity, god -- something that should not at this point exist, Grim. If they are allowed to live then they will be for Chaos. They are already now an immortal soul, but their physical body has yet to pass to immortality. We can not erase the soul as with a mortal but we may yet use them elsewhere and salvage your disgrace. You must turn them to a reaper, so that they will be obedient and fully on our side. Chaos has entered into second-man now, and a balance must be maintained on my world. That means more work for you. You must now sit in Judgement over souls, maintaining the balance of Order and Chaos on the Overworld. I give you this River of Fate to help guide you by. It will tell you past, present, and all possible intertwining futures. Go now, Grim, and save this world."
The Well of Souls gave up the essences it contained, and they went to dwell in the city below. The well spilled over and formed a river that flowed between the Throne of Grim and the City of the Underworld. Order instructed him on the creation of reapers, and the Grim wept for his family. He rose from the overflowing well and hurried to the first Temple, calling his wives to him. The Grim instructed them in The Curse of the Reaper and laid it upon each for their sons.
They wept and put on black robes of mourning that are still worn to this day by the necromancers as a signal of the sorrow that is borne by every wife of Grim. The Grim took the power of Chaos and twisted it to Order and death, laying it upon the necromancers to aid them in the fight against their sons. Before he left, the Grim took two wives from among the many acolytes that served his family, and he issued them a new law. No necromancers were allowed to mother a child, Grim's or not. If she became pregnant, when the child was born, his head was to be bashed upon birth.
The wives left for the Battle of the Seven that waged not too far from the first Temple. The Grim left to mourn in the Underworld and await his family's arrival. The wives arrived as the seven armies met for the final time on that fateful day. Each brother, armed as such with their sorcery, flung what they had madly around the battlefield, but they were not ready for the appearance of the Purpose of Order. Caught off guard, they were subdued and turned into reapers. Each mother gladly becoming the reapers’ sacrament, for to keep the balance, for every chaotic soul to be damned so must an orderly soul. The mothers cried in ecstasy to be held by their sons on last time as they were borne to the Underworld. The War of the Brothers left second-man decimated and scared. To ensure that sorcery would never again hold sway the minds of man, Grim restricted the soul. It would refuse to co-inhabit another body to increase the owner's power if the sorcerer had borne any ill will against the soul. After this, the Grim went to the Underworld to sit in Judgement for what would surely be the rest of his days.
The People of The World of Grim
The Grim – Immortal caregiver to the world, creator of second-man, Champion of Order
Bethel – Mother Matron of the Temple at Tharpe, Damon’s Mother, later- Zealot of Grim
Marlin – Bethel’s lover, Blacksmith in Tharpe
Philian (Phil)- Proprietor of the Three Pigs
Fredrick – Cariline’s father, farmer, Leader of the resistance against the Temple
The Lady Thewar- Proprietor of the Second Home, second of the Resistance
Damon – Son of Bethel and Rascus, Seed of Grim
Faldo – Son of Victor, Nephew of Jen, later – Disciple of Grim
Cariline- Slave to the Temple, betrothed to Damon, Later- Necromancer
Rascus- Damon’s Father, Reaper
Jen- Second Necromancer at Tharpe
Isobelle- Third Necromancer at Tharpe
The Originals- The First Seven Original Reapers, sons of Grim Mathis, Baine, Shale, Lent, Gremlin, Ferle, Het.
Sedrick – Sorcerer of the First Circle, later Seed of Destruction and vessel of Baine
Vic- Soldier in the Temple Garrison
Wedge - Soldier in the Temple Garrison
Lucy- wife of Grim, Seneschal of the Underworld
Thomas – Sergeant of the West Garrison, Nephew of Bethel, cousin to Damon
Salina- Sister to Bethel, Healer, Sorcerer of the Fifth Circle
Master Delver- Lich, Head of the Council of Sorcerer’s at Salastar, most potent sorcerer alive err dead.
Wallace- Corporal of Western Garrison Later- Captain
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