All worlds have believers, and all believers create gods through their worship. Aeth was no different. And, like all other gods, the gods of Aeth drew their power and vitality from the worship of their believers. It was natural, therefore, when Aeth shattered and its pieces spiraled into the Aether, that the gods would capture Aeth’s fragments and preserve their worshipers on the largest of them. The gods that survived the Shattering then began the task of restoration.
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The summons came from Ygg, First Among Mountains, but it was Yog, the Hill of Hallows, that met the other greater gods’ delegates at the Edge of Aether. Yog stood motionless before the swirling cosmic sea, a broad manshape with skin of coal and eyes of fire. Umi, the Marsh of Mindsight, stood to Yog’s left, a womanshape of skin and scale and shifting blues. Ezu, the Desert of Desire, a gaunt and stretched manshape of pressed sand with eyes of sunlight, stood to Yog’s right. Behind them, between Yog and Ezu, was Ood, the Meadow of Meaning, a womanshape of twining vines wreathed in verdant sprigs and colorful florets.
“We have answered Ygg’s summons,” said Ezu.
“But for what purpose?” asked Umi.
“Ygg has decreed that the time has come to harvest the Shards,” answered Yog.
“What makes Ygg think this?” asked Ood.
Yog nodded toward the Aether before them and raised a hand. Four large, irregular expanses of land emerged from the celestial sea and began to slowly revolve around a central point, surrounded by a violent and churning cloud of smaller chunks of land. “Ygg has bound the largest Shards of Aeth into the Great Fragments: Aethos and Aethyl, Aethûn and Aethex,” Yog said. “Usi and Evo have tuned and stabilized the Fragment Gates. And Omu has now opened the Ways Between.”
“With the Ways Between open, the Fragments can be joined,” said Ezu.
Yog nodded. “Yes.”
Umi said, “Ygg wants the lands of the unbound Shards to seal the joins.”
“Yes,” said Yog.
“Gathering these lands is the work of simple harvesters,” said Ood. “Why does Ygg call upon us?”
Yog again raised a hand, turned it slowly. The four Great Fragments that floated before them broke apart and reformed into four clusters of terrain: one of swamp and lake, one of desert and mesa, one of meadow and forest, one of hill and mountain.
“The land alone will not seal the joins,” Yog said. “Ygg requires the harmony in the joining of like things and the synergy in the joining of unlike things to bind the Great Fragments together.”
“Swamp flows into wetland, lake into sea,” Umi said. “These are the harmonies of Water.”
“Desert drifts into wasteway, mesa into tableland,” said Ezu. “These are the harmonies of Terra.”
“The harmonies of Plant,” said Ood, “are rooted in meadow and forest. Meadow sprawls into plain, forest into timberland.”
“The harmonies of Stone echo in hill and mountain,” said Yog. “Hill rises into ridge, mountain into sierra.”
“Simple harvesters would strip the Shards bare,” said Ezu, “without regard for harmony or synergy.”
“This is why Ygg has summoned you,” said Yog.
“Then Ygg wishes us to create a new thing,” said Umi. “A new kind of harvester.”
“Yes,” Yog said. “We must create reapers.”
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After the delegates shaped their reapers, which they called rayna, it remained for the First Ones -- Ygg and Usi, Evo and Omu -- to place within each rayna the smallest of stars and attune their forms to the Aether. With this attunement came life and differentiation, will and purpose. And control over the cosmic fires that burned within their bellies... and an intimate affinity for the celestial sea between the worlds and the Outer Dimensions beyond its reach.