‘These are the four remaining Greater Gods,’ said Dominic, ‘those who survived the Chaos Wars when the Lesser Gods rose and the Valheru last flew Midkemia’s sky.’
‘What caused the Chaos Wars?’ asked Nakor. ‘Why did the Lesser Gods rebel against the Greater Gods?’
‘No one knows,’ said Dominic. ‘Mankind was young on this world, having fled to Midkemia from other worlds as the Valheru raged across the multiverse.’
‘The Mad God,’ said Macros.
Nakor said, ‘Who is he?’
‘The Unnamed,’ supplied Pug. ‘And the reason we’re here.’
Miranda said, ‘You said seven greater beings existed, yet you named only four.’
Dominic nodded. ‘Originally, there were seven. Besides the four we call the Builders, there were three others. Arch-Indar, the Selfless, the Goddess of Good, was she who drove every creative and positive impulse on our world. We think she sacrificed herself to ultimately banish the Unnamed from Midkemia.’
Miranda said, ‘So who is Ishap?’
‘He was the most powerful of all the Greater Gods,’ said Dominic. ‘He was the Balancer, the Matrix, the one whose ultimate task was to keep the other gods in their places.’
‘Who is this seventh god,’ asked Miranda, ‘this Unnamed?’
Pug said, ‘Nalar.’
There was a momentary silence and Pug said, ‘That’s a relief.’
‘What’s a relief?’ asked Miranda.
Dominic said, ‘Nalar is unnamed, for even to say his name is to risk becoming his tool. He has been cast out by the other four Greater Gods, to keep something of a balance, while we labor to return Ishap to life.’
Miranda said, ‘So you’re praying every day, trying to return the Greatest of All the Gods to life?’
‘Yes.’
Miranda said, ‘Have you anticipated how much longer you need to do this?’
‘Centuries,’ said Macros. ‘Millennia, even. Our lives are but passing moments in the age of the universe.’
Dominic said, ‘This is so. This is why those who worship Ishap are the self-appointed keepers of Knowledge. Wodar-Hospur, the God of Knowledge, also died in the Chaos Wars, and knowledge serves us in attempting to return the order of the universe to what it needs be.’
Miranda said, ‘This is incredible.’
Pug said, ‘I know. It means that what I’ve been living through - the Riftwar, the Great Uprising, this constant attacking by the Pantathians, all of which is apparently some plot by the trapped Valheru to gain their freedom - all of it is simply a ruse.’
‘By Nalar?’ said Miranda.
‘What would he gain by the destruction of the world?’ said Nakor.
Dominic said, ‘You do not understand the nature of the gods. No man does. It is his nature to do that which man calls “evil.” He is an agent of destruction much as Arch-Indar was an agent of creation. To destroy, tear down, and render all life to a basic form is as much a part of his nature as it was of Mythar, the ancient God of Chaos. But it is more, for while Mythar was mindless, Nalar has a mind, a consciousness. More to the point, a self-consciousness.
‘While the other Controller Gods were alive, all was in balance. And his tendencies to destroy and cause evil were kept in check by a mind aware of its own purpose, and by the forces of Ishap and Arch-Indar, supported by the other four, the Builders.
‘But during the Chaos Wars, Nalar went mad.’
Pug said, ‘Another name for the Chaos Wars is the Time of the Mad God’s Rage.’
‘Or perhaps,’ said Nakor, ‘it was his madness that caused the Chaos Wars.’
‘We’ll never know,’ said Dominic. Glancing around the circle of faces, he said, ‘Even so powerful a company as this is trivial compared to the might we’re discussing.’
‘We are candles to their stars,’ said Macros.
‘But a lifeless world is no problem for a god who exists for eons,’ said Dominic. ‘life is persistent, and eventually it would return to Midkemia, either arising in the lifeless soil and water of its own accord, or brought there from other worlds, and as it waited, the dead world of Midkemia would provide Nalar with an opportunity to escape his prison, for the other gods would be weakened. The Lesser Gods would probably die with the planet - they are agents who work between living beings and the Greater Gods - and the Greater Gods would be greatly reduced in strength.’
‘Why didn’t the other gods simply destroy Nalar?’ asked Miranda.
‘They couldn’t,’ said Dominic. ‘He was too powerful.’
Miranda sat back on her heels. ‘Too powerful?’
‘Yes,’ answered Dominic. ‘The entropic nature of destruction, the forces used by Nalar, are the most powerful in the universe. Without Arch-Indar and Ishap, the Builders could not destroy him. They could shut him away. He is entombed under a mountain as large as the world of Midkemia, upon a planet the size of our sun, in a universe as distant from our own as can be imagined, yet he is still powerful enough to reach out and influence the minds of his servants.’