Before the Journey
— A Chronicle of a World That Was Whole —
Before there were gods, the universe already knew balance.
Earth did not need rulers.
Life moved, adapted, failed, and continued without witness or decree. Extinction was not a tragedy instead it was a mechanism. Survival was not heroic but yet it was necessary. The world corrected itself without asking permission.
Humans were fragile, but they were many. They endured through cooperation rather than strength, through memory rather than instinct. Animals were perfected by function, bound to cycles they did not question.
Above Earth, far beyond the sky, the constellation worlds turned in silence.
Eighty-eight worlds, each home to a single form of life and all was refined until nothing was wasted. No creature there struggled against its nature. No planet ruled another. Purpose was not debated. It simply was.
This was not peace.
It was simply how things were.
Time moved forward without record. Ages passed without meaning. The universe existed without interpretation.
And then, elsewhere...
Something grew restless.