The light from the sky, the water from the sea, the ice from the mountains, the fire from the rock. Volcanos, clouds of dust, rivers of flames beneath the crust of the ground, hot and cold air flowing, mixing, life springing from the soil. Leaf, bark, wood, fruit, things turning into beings, creatures that crawl, rise, dive, and fly. Energy everywhere, churning, changing. From the original mix of their environment rose the GUARDIANS, the first sentient life forms to emerge from the chaos of creation. Unlike those that came before, they were able to navigate the world with ease, give name to things around them, dominate other types of creatures, harvest resources, shape the landscapes.
From their minds came the first words, the first ideas, the first questions. They had risen above all other life. Nature had given them more importance and more power. They had been entrusted with the world. There was no threat for them, no shortage of things to eat, of places to explore, but with infinite possibilities came the first law. The Guardians were not to do as they pleased. They were not to seek pleasure or comfort. With their abilities, they had also received a burden. Protect the world, keep the balance. Do not seek dominance, but perpetuation.
Over time, Guardians developed the language to label and to explain, learned to respect their fellow living creatures, however small or insignificant, to bury their dead, to promote harmony and value purpose. The second law was to observe and never to judge. There was no good or evil, just what was, and what was not. Nature breeds, nature kills, its hand gives all and, in time, takes everything in return. Each living creature has a role to play, and boundaries to respect. There shall be no meaningless killing, no excessive number of offspring, no extinction of life, or exhaustion of resources. Things shall remain as they are. That was the mission of the Guardians’ Elder: the MATRIARCH. The life-bearer that oversees all things, corrects all unbalances. She was not meant to be a ruler, but a warden, a manifestation of nature itself, destined to maintain all things at their right and proper place.
Thus came the Guardians. The first of the many factions. The mother of them all. The original beings. They valued balance, harmony, peace, time was their ally… but they did not understand progress, chaos, or rupture. In their naivety and stagnancy lied their downfall.
Thousands of sunrises, millions of sunsets, balance maintained for a semblance of eternity. An endless string of Matriarchs came and went like waves crashing on the same shore, barely changing its shape. Yet the salt in the sea eats at the rock, one invisible bite at a time. And just like the ocean, the race of the Guardians slowly shifted. Some were born with more questions in their minds, some needed more guidance to accept the basic laws of balance. And once in a lifetime came a different breed of being. One that was never satisfied with the answers that were repeated. One that pretended to understand, but that did not accept. These Guardians were not to find solace in others because their condition was to be alone, solitary in their understanding of the world. They seek more from life than the simple repetition of itself, but they could not communicate their yearnings, or emulate their curious minds. They had to lie and to keep their true colors a secret from their peers.