First Emperor

Divine Destiny

In the beginning, there was a time of gods. Coiled Antiquity, the deity of creation burst forth from his egg with the crash of a thousand thunders, and for eighteen thousand years, he grew in size, forcing the heavens up away from the earth. When he finally crumbled and decayed, the pieces of his body formed new building blocks of matter, the substance of stars and worlds.

Under heaven, the first creatures had the heads of men and the bodies of snakes. Among their descendants were the people of an iron ship, which fell from the sky when heaven refused it entry. They had fought with the Duke of Thunder, a winged creature with fiery eyes. These were the days when there was still a ladder to heaven, when the snake people quarrelled in the factions of Water and Fire, and ancient deities perished in terrifying conflicts. One fell, burning, into the Evil Water, another disappeared, only to flicker unexpectedly back into being on other battlefields, his body a mass of flame. In the aftermath of one battle, pieces of the sky itself fell to earth, scarring craters deep into the ground, and setting fires across the mountains. The stars tilted and the rivers changed their course, but a goddess repaired it all, and all was well once more.

Her journey to the sky, however, attracted the attention of other gods, who soon descended to the earth themselves. Among the five godly factions, two half-brothers caused the greatest conflict, until the land lay littered with the victims of their war. Weapons, said the ancient stories, floated on blood, while bears, leopards and other creatures fought beneath their flying banners.

The survivors turned their backs on the nine heavenly cities, preferring to dwell in five earthbound forts, subsisting on `eye-meat', a living thing grown in a vat without a skeleton, from which flesh could be plucked, only to regrow as if by magic. As time passed, they managed to cultivate the local soil, and began growing fruits and grains. One, so it is said, interbred with local, human women, and soon hybrids of gods and men began to flourish. Life spans began to shorten. Their descendants no longer lived for millennia, but mere centuries. After a few generations, it was rumoured that the gods still knew the secrets of immortality, but that they were keeping them secret from humans. Favours to the gods, it was said, might be repaid with rejuvenation, but none could be sure.

When another earthly war broke out among the gods and their descendants, the ladder to heaven was destroyed, making it much more difficult to leave the earth. A new weapon was unveiled, a drum that rumbled like a thousand thunders, shining like the sun and the moon, harnessing the power of lightning itself. Its mere sound could destroy half an opposing army. In time its master, the Yellow Sovereign, brought peace to the lands under heaven. During his reign on earth, the Yellow Sovereign oversaw the flowering of civilisation, the development of writing and agriculture, the building of houses and the invention of many items that humans now take for granted. He was an enlightened ruler, and his younger days as a warrior ensured that no battles needed to be fought in his later centuries.

The Yellow Sovereign called his people to assemble a great device in memory of his victories and achievements. When it was completed, a metal dragon flew down from heaven, and the Yellow Sovereign announced that it was time for him to leave. The dragon could only carry the Yellow Sovereign and seventy of his closest companions. Other gods were left behind, much to their anguish, as there was unlikely to be another visitation from heaven. The Yellow Sovereign's own daughter was left behind, supposedly because of the heat within her body. Another deity, a warrior who could gather clouds and make rain, was also abandoned in spite of his service to the other gods.

The Yellow Sovereign and the other gods did not return, and the people of the earth were left to fend for themselves. In time the magic faded, the lifespans shortened further, and the people under heaven forgot much that the gods had taught them. Earthbound kings clung to rituals and protocols, and aspired to return. A legendary ruler protected his people from the day ten suns appeared in the sky. An ancient queen somehow flew to the Moon. The best of the rulers convinced their peoples to work for the common good, taming the unpredictable rivers and irrigating crops. It was, like all most vaguely defined dreamtimes in myth, a Golden Age, where humanity flourished and great deeds were done.

As the time of legends passed into human history, thinkers like Confucius asked, if these people of ancient times were so godlike and perfect, why did everything fall apart?

This is a true story.

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Excerpt 2: The Emperor and the Assassins