There was a beginning.

Everything had a beginning. Even the gods, the world, even the Eternals. Their consciousness was born out of dust and burning material as the universe bloated out into being. Space was created, stars were forming, planets started to pack together with rocks and stones and metal.

The Eternals formed shortly after the first planet settled down and life was forming. Both looked like a different version from now, glowing and smiling. They loved each other from the very beginning for a few eons, before they saw the world of Koria, already settled down, growing forests and meadows, surrounded by great lakes - later called oceans - and disturbed by rivers. But most of the world was empty, there were only a few bacterias and no animals or people, not even fish.

And here we begin...

"What do you think?" asked the beautiful Eternal Life as she hold out her hand with the small crawling beings on her palm. They had dozens of small little legs and were nearly invisible, but they were many.

"For what?" asked the large skeleton with its six arms and the blank skull. His eyes were glowing blue as he inspected the small creatures.

"To feed on the plants in the oceans and be the food of the large animals I have in mind."

"Oh." The skeleton nodded. "They are cute. Lets do it. I'll create an afterlife for them."

"Do we really need an afterlife for every species?"

"Yes." The eyes of the skeleton switched colour to green and then back to blue. "For everything we create there has to be an afterlife, so I can guide them to the next stage of being, which is my purpose."

"Your purpose is to guide beings into oblivion?"

"Or the next life, yes. I thought I made that clear in our first eon."

"You did, but I wasn't aware that every species has to get their very own afterlife."

"I could lead them to the Great After, but that wouldn't be any different to their actual life just in eternity. Getting eaten over and over again without peace. So I would create an afterlife for every species so they can rest in peace."

"I see." Life smiled and placed the small beings with utmost care into the big lakes, where they began to feed on the plants in the salty water. After a few moments she had created big grey and black fish which feed on the smaller beings. Death sighed and created another afterlife. And another one and another one...

Time passed and Life filled the entire planet with different beings of existence. Flying, swimming, running, feeding on each other. The Eternal Death created an afterlife for every being on the planet and they were satisfied for thousands of years. But only for this small span of time until Life grew restless and she wanted to create another species.

"You...what? I mean, I can see why, but don't you feel we have enough species already?"

"What?" smiled Life, kissed his forehead. "Afraid of more afterlives?"

"No way, my love." answered the skeleton and Life thought, he was grinning at her. "Let us go to work. I will assist you."

"You?" She smiled happily, kissed him with love and affection, before Death built a working table out of bones and skin and Life gathered resources from all of the Creation, layed them out on the table and they started designing.

They crafted the Rule of Two which means two arms, two legs, two hands, two lungs. Not everything made sense so they had a few iterations, but the design with the Rule of Two in mind made a lot of sense and so they sticked with it.

What came out after a few hundred rotations of the planet was to the likes of both. It had a head with two eyes, a nose with two nostrils, two ears, sometimes two organs like lungs or kidneys. Five fingers and five toes, hair on specific parts of the body and a brain made out of flesh and salt.

Life gave them love, hope, compassion, a free will and the possibility of giving birth, so they can experience the Wonder of Life on their own.

Death gave them the horror of dreams; he gave them despair, sorrow and loss. He gave them the capability to endure loss, death and mind-breaking horrors.

In the end Life gave them a soul and Death created an afterlife for them, more beautiful than for the other species.

"They are perfect." whispered Life full of love and Death nodded approvingly. "Lets make more."

"More?"

"Yes! I wanna have more. You can't leave them alone, they need friends."

"Well, if you want. Lets do it. But let us see how your creation fits into this world. What are we call them?"

Life chuckled, kissed him again, her entire figure suddenly blooming up like a flower in the spring.

"We call them..."