"...Aah Vark, or some say Varkun, do you hear our prayers?"
—Zeta Varkanus talking about Vark.
Vark or Zetus, the First Mage, used to be the titan of life and magic before Varkanus. He created the flow of the Weave and arcane magic itself, and many of the first spells. When chaos birthed Aethys, she was given to Vark as a daughter for him to tutor her. However, he coldly used her instead to create Vismancy, the arcana of the soul. Eventually, his 'children', the attendant Varkanus as well as Aethys turned against him and killed him, splitting his soul into two halves forever.
The titan Vark is famous for having penned the Black Scrolls of Vark, legendary artifacts of arcane knowledge sought after to this day.
He was created by his parent Elder Kosmos through Chaos alongside his brother Rhos, and is a half-brother of Tempos and Dimensus. Varkanus took over his role as the new god of life and magic. While Varkanus' original name is forgotten, he gets his name from Vark himself: Varkanus simply means ‘Vark’s Attendant-God’ in Omnikarn. In the modern day though, this simply means that his name has been forever taken over by Varkanus and few mortals even remember the word 'Vark' ever being attached to him.
This account is said to have been written by the god Gunian as recorded history... Even if it might seem embellished, which it most certainly is.
This is a story of siblings, but before that, you need to know about their parent.
In the primordial times, there were no mortals. All who existed were the first gods, the primordial deities. Some perished, some survived, most forgotten. Not much happened in this period, it was all a bit boring really. The primordial beings created the foundations of the cosmos, not a planned structure—but simply whatever they wished to do. And some, wished to have children.
The children of the primordial deities, not proper children and made from their essence instead—were called the Titans. One of these titans was named Vark. To which clan did he belong to? Where did he come from? Who were his parents? Different people would tell you different things. Some claim he was a primordial being himself, but identified himself a titan. Some claim he was the son of chaos himself, where some claim it was Elder Kosmos.
Back in the beginning, when people died, they simply did just that—they died. The concept of an afterlife did not exist, not really. Oblivion was a terrifying void, chilling even the titans. Vark was the first to take the concept of life, and make a lesser, but no less important form. He is mythologized to have created the first mortals, in the heart of oblivion, the planet Gigarion. Over the years as the mortal civilizations of the first era prospered, they gave different names to the titan of life. Zetus, Varkun, Varkos, Varkus. And while the gods were cursed to oblivion, he gave his creations the blessing of the afterlife. A god’s soul, to sustain itself after death, was an impossibility then. But these smaller souls... They need not perish. Death simply became a pathway to an eternal life for the mortals.
Vark himself was forever curious, much like the mortals he made. They were an experiment, and his next one created arcane magic. Magic, stems from life, and belongs to life. In the early days, he was revered as a benevolent figure, more of a creator than any creation god. But curiosity is not always positive. One who is eternally curious lies in the gray realm, not all their actions can be considered in black and white.
There was once a minor god named... Well, no one remembers his name. He was a minor god of... Well, no one remembers that either. He was... Plain. Face hidden under a hood, but he had a face. He had hands, he had feet—a boring person. A young soul devoid of purpose, he found himself serving Vark. The titan had many followers, but took a liking to him. The young god grew up not as a god, but simply as one of Vark's attendants. He would follow him, write down his notes, remind the eccentric titan of his work, clean his tomes, and speak for him when he would not himself.
All bad things stem from an idea of a good deed. It is the sort of vague statement that you'd assume has some deep meaning, but it is simply the description of the events that unfolded in this early civilization.
"Varrrk, I have a task for you." Chaos spoke, part of the fabric of reality himself. Vark and his attendant stood in the temple of chaos in the realm that will one day shatter. Vark listened silently, tapping his foot, and irritated that he'd be summoned away from his experimentation. "To serve souls in the afterlife, I have created a goddess. Since you created it, I thought best to leave her in your care, to learn." Chaos vanished then, and where he stood was a young girl. People have forgotten what she looked like originally, long ago. But eventually, the Tritons would name her Aethys, the golden goddess of souls. Vark took her to his workshop, in the deepest reaches of the cosmos.
"M-My lord, if she can serve souls, th-then surely she must be able to control them?" The attendant asked Vark. It was the simple sort of question that normal people wouldn't ask, but he grew up under the gray influence of Vark himself.
"Precisely, my dear ███████." Vark replied to his attendant. His name had been forgotten by others, but his master was good of memory. "I will teach her the ways of the world. But... Perhaps."
A spark of curiosity can lead to many things. Inventions can change the world, in good ways or bad. But often, once the box is opened, it can never be closed again. Magic comes from life. Life comes from souls. So if there was a form of magic that could control souls, it would be invincible. And perhaps, if one strong enough such as him was to use it... If he could manipulate a godsoul, perhaps oblivion could be prevented for gods such as himself. And so the experimentation began. Aethys was subjected to many forms of sorceries, to hone her powers. Many mortals had their souls melted into goop, corrupted beyond recognition—turned into creatures of the void, Acribii. The acribii were discarded, thrown into the voidal realms to fester.
There are people you don't leave your children with, for different reasons. To his attendant, Vark was the kind of fun parent who would teach him pranks, get him a tattoo, maybe give him a taste for blood. For Aethys, he was the kind of parent that would use her as simply a tool for his own greatness, with no regard for her own health. Through his experiments, Vark created many dark and forbidden sorceries, locked away as the black scrolls of Varkun. Eventually, after hundreds of years of this—he perfected it. Vismancy, magic of the souls. This was the box that would never be closed again.
The soul is a fragile thing, even if it's sturdy enough to withstand death. Mess with it often, and it cracks—and eventually shatters into oblivion. For mortals, their souls would never crack unless they meddled with soul magic. For gods, their souls would crack easily, never to return. It seemed as if the stronger the soul, the easier it shattered. That is the distinction between mortals, minor gods, and gods themselves. Consider an ant. A regular ant, on a planet with nothing but ants. Most if not all ants are content with their way of life, but one among them seeks power. Becomes a sorcerer, gets stronger, creates a cult of personality. Maybe the queen ants aren't happy that this mage ant is suddenly the center of attention for all the ants, and try to have them killed. But they survive, becoming the one true leader ant. A simple mortal, but the weight of their soul would have increased. They'd have become a minor god of ants. There is no distinction between a god and a mortal, simply power. Some mortals are known to have ascended into godhood, much like the ant, and one can assume gods can descend into mortality too. Those that did died and were forgotten. That's what mortals were good at, really—dying. It's in their name.
But curiosity was never ending. Vark had perfected soul magic, but it was still impossible for him alone to harness the power to control the soul of a god, any god. He wished to escape oblivion. Immortality was not good enough, unless it came along with invincibility.
"Aeth." The nameless one spoke to the young goddess, huddled in her room. A dark place, where only she shone as golden light. "It's time."
Children are a product of their parents. Theirs was Vark, perhaps not biologically but there is an old adage along the lines of nature versus nurture. They were essentially siblings. Neither enjoyed each other's presence, but preferred it to Vark's. Both were nameless, but one was eventually named. Later on, the divine court forbade gods from having children with mortals. Demigods running around with magical powers with the mental instability of mortals were becoming a problem. While gods could be regulated by divine laws, their spawn could not be. Eventually their half-mortal children either died heroes, or had to be put down. But this came about with a general under-the-nose feeling of 'Just stop having children at all'. Whether gods had children with mortals, or with other gods—history had proven again and again that honestly, it never worked out. This is another example of it not working out.
Vark himself was one titan, he could not harness the godsoul himself. But his two foster children could, and used his own invention of vismancy against him. It happened at night, but it wasn't that dark, nor stormy. You really wouldn't call it a dramatic day in which history would be written with thunderous timing, it was just another regular day, perhaps that's why it worked.
The two combined their powers, combining their souls just this once, and never again. Two gods would be able to do what one titan couldn't. With their own essence, Aethys forged the golden blade, Godsbane—the sole weapon that overrode all soul magic. Oblivion. And the attendant poured their essence not into a weapon, but into his body. Transforming and disfiguring into a mass of tentacles under that cloak, the cloak he would never take off again. Fused as one, the siblings were as strong as an Elder. Using the strongest vismancies, they ambushed their master in his sleep. Partly because perhaps they could not face Vark while he was conscious, out of guilt if not fear. They split Vark's soul into two halves, sustained by its own godsoul. It did not shatter as it would've, partly because Aethys had now learned to control souls herself.
The siblings split apart for the first and final time, and instantly turned on each other. The attendant warped her psyche, and she plunged the sword into the chasm of his face. Neither perished, and both got what they wanted. The attendant absorbed the blood and souls of all the beings Vark had experimented on alongisde Vark's own blood, and became a proper and true god—Vark's successor. Aethys became the goddess of souls, her aspects split in two. She hid away Vark's souls forever, never to be found again. Vark got what he wanted. He would never perish, he would never attain oblivion. His soul forever in a state of undeath, split in two and channeled into orbs.
"Varkus kol ye, ze arius?" The lady Jakuna asked her own attendant, in Omnikarn. //"Who killed Varkus, my angel?"
Her attendant, the angel Vertum, bowed in the great hall of the newly founded Ikariyus. The lady Alphus was present, along with many important Omniborn figures. She was fairly close to Vark, and very much displeased. "Varkus-an, ze ethai." The angel responded. //"Varkus' attendant, my sisters."
A lot of murmuring and arguments later, they had to accept that the title had been passed. The first of many times the attendant would cause controversy among the other gods. Jakuna sighed. "Varkus-an v godus, kaxxx." //"Unfortunately, Varkus' attendant is a god."
And then he was given a name again. Not one he was born with, not the one that was forgotten. But simply what he was referred to by the others, for they did not know his name. 'An' in the language meant attendant, and the '-us' signified the name of a god. And thus...
"He must pay." Alphus finally spoke up.
"Varkanus."