Book of Nihilo

1   Once the world was nothing but the Mist – a swirling, intelligent unknown.
2   The Mist knew itself to be alone and, for a time, was content in this way.
3   Eventually it realized with each passing of the sun, it would grow thinner.
4   One day it would be gone.
5   This was an event it could not allow to pass with apathy.
6   Once passive, the Mist began to act.
7   It was from those actions that we were born.

8   First, the Mist dug into the ground to form several millions of tiny creatures, each encouraging life around them.
9   Then it formed something larger, hidden in the dirt.
10   The Mist used the tool of its own destruction and, with the help of the tiny organisms in the soil, the tree grew.
11   It was wider than any tree we have ever known, and it hid the Mist from the burning light.

12   The tree would not survive alone, so the Mist grew seeds for the tree and spread them.
13   As its children grew, hidden water in the dark below fed the tree.
14   To encourage the water, the Mist made fungi to draw the water up into the tree’s roots.
15   The fungi were selfish and eager to grow, keeping what water they could for themselves.
16   Though they would never work together, they could exist together.

17   The Mist knew it was not perfect, but it loved its creation for its faults rather than hate them for its own failures.
18   The Mist made more seeds of many different kinds, filling the once-empty world with colour.
19   Though it had the shade of trees to hide beneath, it grew thinner with every seed.
20   The plants could spread themselves, if only they had a way.

1   The Mist formed itself once more, creating swarms that burst from its centre.
2   The newly rendered insects flew to propagate the trees, flowers, and other plants.
3   Admiring its work, the Mist realized a problem – the insects were far too plentiful.
4   With so many tending to their eager work, stems and branches began to creak with their weight.
5   Unable to simply remove them, the Mist took form once more and reached itself out to hang caretakers between limbs, in flowers, and under the soil.
6   The spiders were intended to guard tired plants with their webs.

7   A single bee did not heed the threat and, instead, became caught within the web.
8   Furious to have been defied, the spider descended on the bee and became overwhelmed with ravenous hunger.
9   It fed upon the bee and spread its new knowledge to the other arachnids.
10   The Mist was saddened by this, knowing the spider was still fulfilling its purpose in an unintended way – a lesson it hoped it would never need to learn again.
11   For a while the Mist was content, but it knew now to keep a closer eye upon its creations.

12   The spiders faced the same problems as the precious insects did, with the web-weavers threatening to outgrow their former charges.
13   The Mist regretfully knew what it had to do.
14   It formed the first birds to soar and dive and catch the cunning creatures that hid high.
16   The Mist watched, curious to see how these new creations would work.
17   The birds did as the Mist had hoped, but the reptiles saw the birds as greater prey and snapped them out of the sky.
18   The Mist was dismayed, but the birds did not take well to being eaten by their brethren.

19   The feathered ones fought back, chasing some of the scaly lizards to the oceans where the Mist could never enter.
20   Seeing its creations driven from their home to die in the ocean, the Mist took pity on the reptiles.
21   It saw potential in the water that land could never offer, so it gave the reptiles a second chance.
22   They could be creatures that could walk both land and sea, to be messengers to those placed in the ocean’s depths.
23   The exiled lizards agreed.
24   The Mist twisted their forms and, in doing so, learned much of the oceans and what could survive within.