Speaking of stories...
The Creation of Kirth
“Let us create a world.” the rocky, soil coated one said. This statement was met with a general feeling of excitement and joy by the others.
“What shall it be like?” mused another, whose touch was heat and whose presence drove back the darkness. “Your realm is dark and solid. Only that which digs can live there. My kind can only exist in rare caves that are already home to our sister.” he said, gesturing to she who caused grass to sway and clouds to move.
“Indeed, I am needed for any life” she said, puffing up her chest.
“As am I,” said a fourth, who was deep and dark at her feet, but bright and glittering at her head. “What life can live without me within them?”
“Your touch is death to my kind,” the hot one replied, smirking. “And my kind live as surely as we do, siblings.”
“I, of course, respect my parents, and aunt and uncle,” said a younger one, body solid in some places and soft in others, within whom ran sap instead of blood, “but technically, of all of us, only my kind are actually alive.”
Her aunt deflated, “All that moves is alive.” she said sullenly.
“Is it?” the bright one laughed. “So clouds are alive? I’ve never spoken with them…”
“All that moves under it’s own power is alive.” the first said firmly.
“Bah, those statues your kind are so prone to getting trapped within are not alive! Nor are the decaying-yet-moving.” the dark and deep and bright and glittering one said, “I must, reluctantly, agree with my daughter, only she and her kind are alive.”
The flickering one smiled broadly, light dancing in his eyes, “Now, hold on. My kind could be said to live. They consume material, which allows them to grow, they can move under their own power, they reproduce, they even need the essence of my admirable sister.” he smirked, knowing that studies were lost on his siblings, “Truly, my kind are also alive.”
The others grumbled about this, but assented. They knew enough that their sibling was getting one over on them, but not exactly how.
“Let us create a world.” the rocky, solid one said again, “It will be a sphere, solid, made of earth, but with a surface upon which that which cannot dig can live.”
The others eagerly nodded, and one sister breezed, “Yes, I shall enshroud the world with air so that life may breath!”
“I shall fill depths in the sphere, and inside will teem all manner of life, and the waters shall allow further life!”
The one with the spark of science leaned forward, his light brightening his brother, “A cold place would be poor for life. I shall place within our sister’s shroud an orb of fire to heat the world, as well as veins of hard fire inside the sphere, with a large pool in the center of liquid fire in the center, to heat it from within.
“Yes, my esteemed parents and aunt and uncle! And the plants will cover the sphere, thriving in the waters and creating more air!”
“It is agreed then, siblings.” Earth said. “Fire, give me the inner orb.”
“Here, brother-earth.” he said, providing an orb of liquid-flame dripping embers. His brother grasped it in a fist of rock. As it burned and melted he created more around it, eventually creating a layer far enough away that it stayed solid., but hear and there, cracks opened and the liquid flame seeped forth. “Now, sister-water, fill the valleys, and cool brother-fire’s emulation of you.” he said, handing it to her.
Water grasped the orb and fed the deepest pits with herself. “Brother-earth, I am sorry, but there is no land remaining.” The solid one grunted as Water handed the orb to Air, “Sister-air, perhaps you can blow clear some land.”
The intangible one took the sphere, spinning air around it. “I cannot do much, only very tall and thin peaks can emerge from the waves.”
“As I feared,” Earth spoke up, “we cannot create a world on our own. We are too mighty for such delicate work.
“I thought this might be the case as well, siblings.” Fire said. “Perhaps we can create children,” he said, a blistering hand gesturing to Wood. “She herself is still mighty, but if we perhaps pulled from ourselves rather than joining together, we could create ones lesser enough to create the world.
And so the four retreated, letting the world hang in space after Fire gave it an orbiting sphere of light to heat it. They noticed that it heated it too greatly, and life changed much, but they decided to let it be for the time.
In solitude, Earth created three children purely from himself. He created Congelation, the tendency of things to become firm, Filtration, the ability for solid matter to remove impurities from the other matters, and Fermentation, the ability of base matter to create life as he reclaimed it.
Water delved deep into her realm and consulted her undines. With their inspiration, she created Dissolution, the ability of liquid to consume solid, Distillation, the ability of liquid to purify and concentrate itself by returning to liquid after fire has turned it to air, and Ceration, the ability of liquid to soften solid.
Air blew about the realms, spying on her siblings. She could not think of anything of her own.
Fire blazed in his home, digging inside himself and pulling from his spirit. He grinned as he pulled forth Calcination, his ability to burn all to ash in a flash of fire, Digestion, the ability to break down matter through slow and gentle heating, and Projection, the ability to transform and concentrate things to their purest essence through testing them with his flames.
Air continued to spy, and she found inspiration in Fire’s children. She decided that her children should outdo those of her siblings, that she might finally receive respect from them. She inhaled, then exhaled, letting some of her essence flow free. This essence touched aspects of her siblings, and created Sublimation, the ability of solid to become air without passing through her sister’s domain, Fixation, the ability of air to deny fire it’s burning, and thus make what is liquid and easily burned into solid that cannot, and Multiplication, a pale mimic of Projection, which merely increased a substance, rather than purifying it.
The four met once again, bringing their Processes. The twelve mingled and created great things, and thanked their source-parents for their creation. They were then placed on the world, and began to reshape it. Fermentation reached into the seas, full of dead life from the growing heat, and created new life. It joined with Digestion and gave the seas a rich thickness. Congelation took this thickness and formed it into a sluggish mass, which Fixation removed the volatility from, and made into new earth. Multiplication took this land and made 11 more masses. Earth, Water and Air watched in awe, and Fire in knowing, wondering approval, as the Processes pushed and dragged these masses into balance. Distillation absorbed excess land matter back into the sea, Ceration softened the rock into soil and freed up life to turn into the oldest ancestors of trees. Digestion baked the earth patches to be solid enough for life to tread it, but not so solid that life could not pull more life from it. Filtration and Calcination worked with Projection to purify the land, air and sea, while Dissolution and Fixation pulled up great masses of dead life, absorbing and solidifying them and make new life that teemed through the oceans.
Fire, unbidden and unseen, pulled the globe of light back, allowing the world to sit at the proper range. He then added heat to the orb and pulled it back farther until the world orbited it, and could begin to properly thrive.
The Processes looked over their work and were joyed. They had come together and left the art of Alchemy wherever they’d stepped. Soon life would produce the Mortal Races, who would find Alchemy, and make even greater things. They each retreated to the continent they’d placed and made for themselves a throne-table. And they sat, and watched as the world, which they regarded as theirs through enhancing, rather than their parent-sources’ through creation, grew.
Projection and Multiplication talked often though. They believed they could make the world even better. Multiplication wanted the world to teem with more life, more land, more water, and Projection wished to test it all and bring out the best. Their siblings told them that what they’d done was enough. So the two turned to their continents, endeavouring to prove that more could be done.
Multiplication’s continent was eventually weighed down by the mass of life and earth, and sank to beneath the waves. Projection is believed to have burned up his continent, and the Processes mourn the loss of two siblings, whose contributions to Alchemy must now be coaxed from hiding by the Mortal Races.
Not about the zodiac, but that one needs to percolate a bit, since I didn't actually have a story in mind when I was picking signs and such.
