Apostles of Doom

Tom shook his head, not being able to comprehend these sorts of time scales. “So exactly how old are the gods?”

Phaestus barked a laugh. “That is a very complex question. It depends on which gods you are talking about — not only pantheons, but meta-pantheons and specio-generational pantheons. Then, when you consider the nature of time, it really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”

“What do you mean? I’ve been talking with Tamarin and Erestofanes, but I’m not still not clear on this,” Tom said.

Phaestus shrugged. “In the grand scheme of things, time is an artificial construct that only exists in Midgard — the Planes of Orc or Man, as one would have it. The Elemental Planes have no concept of time. The Outer Planes are reflections of Midgard so they have time, but it’s not absolute. The Astral Plane is even weirder; time there is subjective and relative to the person or spirit in the Astral Plane.”

“I have heard and read some of this, but I am not sure how, if time in the Outer Planes where the gods live, is all relative, a reflection of Midgard, then I am not sure what this means for them or how they evolved there if there is no fixed time,” Tom said.

Phaestus shook his head. “No, they did not come from there. None of the gods did. All of the gods, of whatever specio-generation, evolved or were created on the material planes and then migrated to the Outer Planes. That’s why they are so focused on the material planes. They really can’t give up their fascination with materiality.”

“So you evolved there?” Tom asked.

Phaestus grinned. “Evolved is a complex term. Evolution is a process that happens to a species, not an individual; however, for animanic beings, mana wielders, there can be forced or controlled evolution; induced living mutation, if you will.”

“I am getting confused,” Tom said.

“Welcome to the club.” Phaestus grinned. “We — and I mean most of us who are interested in studying such things — do not know who the first gods were. We believe they were some species, or multiple species, that did evolve and learned, or developed the ability to harness mana and animus. These beings subsequently created many other species, such as the Sidhe, some of whom eventually grew or evolved, or became newer gods.”

Tom was going to need time to think that through. This was quickly spiraling to a bigger, more complex conversation than he had intended. “So I think I am getting off-topic from my original question,” he said. “How old are the current gods we are dealing with, such as you and your family?”

“I have multiple families.” Phaestus grinned and winked at him. “However, I get your point and will answer the slightly broader question first. The current specio-generation of gods, those that are mostly humanoid and that we interact with the most, are less than a billion years old as a whole. And that includes the Titans; the Olympians are perhaps half that age.”

Tom shook his head. “Are you saying that you are half a billion years old?”

Still grinning, Phaestus said, “I don’t actually know.”

“What do you mean?” Tom asked.

“I think I am a few hundred million years old, although obviously I don’t remember all of that time. However, there has been a ‘me,’ if you will, extending back that far.”

“A ‘me’?” Tom was completely lost.

“My core animus, or a contiguous and continuous regeneration of it. Meaning a pure, single strain of perpetually regenerating-slash-recycling animus that has maintained a continuous consciousness over that time period,” Phaestus said. “I just do not have concrete memories spanning that entire time. Much of it has been lost in the recycling process, if you will. Older and older memories sloughing off like a dragon’s scales as new memories, or scales, are formed.”

Tom sat silently for a while, trying to digest that. “That seems rather daunting, frightening even, and I think I mean that in an existential sense.”

Phaestus grinned. “It does, but it’s not that bad. That’s the beauty of the Phoenix Cycle.”

Tom nodded. “Tamarin and I talked about that a bit.”

“I suspect that the Phoenix Cycle is the one key thing that makes gods possible. If a being can master the Phoenix Cycle, they can keep going for a very, very long period of time. It is the ultimate regeneration, rebirth.”

Tom nodded and then paused. “But wait, isn’t that just reincarnation? Your other pantheon, the Nyjyr Ennead, are proposing to do exactly that.”

“Sort of,” Phaestus said. “The processes are similar; however, reincarnation is simply the repackaging of animus in a physical, material, body or form. When we typically talk about the Phoenix Cycle, that is a rebirth or recycling of the animabody, the entire animus collection.