The World of Cretus

The Date:  January 20, 1980

The Location:  Neu Ulm, Germany, in the U.S. Army

The Circumstance:  Our Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master - the best I ever knew - is reassigned back stateside, leaving the rest of us players in a quandary.

The Result:  I am asked to take his place, and I accept.  Thus is the beginning of the creation of my gaming world (now why fantasy writing world).

About Six Months Later:  I finally put a name to my fantasy world, and a creation story for it.


The Creation Story:  In the beginning (before what we on earth call the "Big Bang"), the Universe was all one, solid clump of mass and energy.

Out of this energy, the gods created themselves.  They took off in all directions, to create existences for themselves.

The gods tended to group themselves in clusters, groups we now call Pantheons.

One of these pantheons gathered in a portion of the vast universe and created a place for themselves, and called it Halosphere.   They used the nearly unlimited supply of mass and energy they themselves were created from to create their home, as well as several worlds.  Then they created many forms of life to inhabit these worlds to tend and care for.  Eventually, they created the 'intelligent' races:  the Fae (including Elves), Dwarves, Humans and more.

When humans were created, many of the gods delighted in them, and some were allowed to live in Halosphere, with the gods themselves!

One of the first humans to walk with the gods was a man named Cretus.  He is said to be a favorite of the goddess Galenda.  (There is even a sordid tale of how these two were one-time lovers.)

Cretus had a great desire to learn, and, at first, many gods readily helped teach him. 

But Cretus was a fast learner, an excellent student.  Many of the gods began to worry about his accumulated knowledge, and most discontinued aiding his quest for knowledge.

But not Galenda.  She even taught him to use the mystic energies to create things:  Magic.

As the centuries passed, Cretus' powers increased amazingly.  After a time, only the gods' magic was greater - and some worried greatly about him.

Finally, the gods voted to forbid teaching Cretus anything more.  Even Galenda had to abide by this decision; though she continued to be a friendly ally of him, even warning the other gods against harming Cretus.

Cretus, however, continued to learn on his own.  He visited the many worlds the gods had created, and continued to accumulate knowledge, and to experiment with what he discovered.

Then there came a time when Cretus did the unthinkable.

He gathered all the magic he could - a hair's breath away from enough energy to destroy him!  Then, in a location he chose as one well away from any of the other worlds the gods had created, he released all that energy, in a single, massive spell he had created.

The result was the creation of a new world!

But the spell had zapped Cretus of all his strength, and he fell to the surface of his newly-created world.  Had he not been pierced in his fall by a stone unique to this new world, he would surely have died.  The stone was Emerald Jade.  On this world, this stone is rare, and has great healing powers!

When Cretus eventually woke, he marveled in his beautiful creation.  But he soon discovered that no intelligent life had been created, and a plethora of deadly beasts had been formed!

Cretus spent the better part of a century trying to rid his world of these monsters, succeeding in getting rid of most, reducing their numbers to a "manageable" number.

Meanwhile, the gods were fuming!  They perceived the creation of this new world as a direct insult against them.  Thy decided to finally take action against the human Cretus!

But Galenda interceded.  She eventually had to threaten a war among the gods.  Her powers were great, and she had many powerful allies.  The other gods backed down, but forbade Cretus from ever returning to Halosphere.

Cretus remained on his world for many centuries following.  He created a cloud Castle for his residence, from which he could travel theglobe, observing his Creation.  But he eventually became lonely.  He finally petitioned Galenda to transfer some of those of the intelligent races to his world.

Taking pity upon him, Galenda took his request to the other gods.

Needless to say, the request was not well received.  But Galenda pleaded eloquently for Cretus, and in the end, the gods capitulated, with one caveat:  All the gods would be worshipped on Cretus' rogue planet.

Cretus was incensed by the demand!  He wanted nothing to do with any of the gods save Galenda.  But Galenda calmly explained to him that in no other way, would the gods agree to their charges being brought to Cretus' world.

He, too, capitulated, agreeing to allow all gods to be worshipped on his world.  And they still are, to this very day.


Next Time:  I ill begin to detail the kingdoms and major cities of the World of Cretus.  First, though, we will begin with a physical description of the world in general.