Writing an entire universe poses certain opportunities and challenges that most storywriters don't face. There are certain limits to the plausible reality of a story that viewers tend to expect, which are then modified by conditions of the story - dragons fly, but we envision them in the same way that birds fly. But the gloves are off when an entire universe needs to be written.

What do we have left then? Sometimes, it is the most basic of stories that then converges to reform elements of a world in the future yet deeply rooted in our psyche. For me, myths become an essential foundation to begin from, seeking to draw in the common elements of the human experience that had been told and retold over countless centuries. And bringing them forth into the future, it reinforces this essentially timeless manner of drama.

The gods are seemingly omnipotent, but ultimately captives of the very emotions and drives they represent. Their struggles mirror those of humanity and the shifting flux of their defeats and triumphs represent the core frustrations of society seeking to find its center. The Black Sun, for example, becomes a metaphor of the eternal enemy inasmuch as death is - it is a foe frequently delays yet ultimately appears invincible.

The same sense of mystery dominates the planets and the relics of the ancient gods, from Oberon itself. He represents a seeming exception to the rules, the one god that seems to have defied the order of the universe and made it into a new one. Yet he is absent - no longer there to provide either guidance, punishment or challenge to the squabbling brood that he has left behind. He becomes a father and a king and blind deist absentee god all at once. What he is, or who he was ultimately becomes less important than what he has created.

Ultimately, all of the vast arcs are almost meaningless without the little things. Details, because when a player finds a very certain artifact that tells a story that no one else has discovered and provides a certain insight into the universe, or when player's avatar continues the universe into a new direction, it is these personal additions that guide the experience to become part of the whole. Everything else, like the myths of old, is really a backdrop, an operatic showcase, and the main hero of every protagonist will be himself.

That is you. Will you succeed in this strange universe of fearsome deities and dark entities, or be crushed underneath the heels of eternity?

Crushed under the heels of eternity! Definitely crushed under the heels of eternity!

Do I win? :D