The Melancholy of Nature

The story of how Nature came into being, and its disagreements with the Gods

At the very start of time itself, a triangular planet began to form. It suspended itself from a round ball of rock, and there it hung. In the future, it's inhabitants would call it Iter, but for now it is simply a Triangle in space, although at this point even triangles haven't been defined. Nor has space.

This Triangle had an inhabitant. It had always been there, and hadn't been anywhere else before it. Should a day come where the triangle would stop existing, so too would this inhabitant. Future inhabitants would call it Nature, but for now it is simply an inhabitant. It is not alive, and it also does not exist. It isn't here or there, it does not think or feel, but there is an inhabitant who's role will soon dictate everything to ever happen on this Triangle.

Life had begun to develop. Through a series of very lucky chemical reactions, beings had been created that could move, eat, reproduce, and most importantly, think. Not very much, but the foundations were there. Life had a goal, which was to make more Life. In the early days, it's limited thinking capability was entirely dedicated to the task, but as it became more and more complex, it started to think about more and more things.

At this point nature also began to think. In reality it couldn't do anything of the sort, but for our human brains we will have to imagine it as though it was thinking. It thought, fear. Unease. Life was going to take over, and the lovely Triangle that Nature had been inhabiting for eternity would be taken over by Life, Life that thinks. Nature doesn't think, but Nature does do, and do Nature did. Nature created Death. The first wave of Death didn't completely rid the triangle of Life, but Nature realised it didn't mind it that way. Nature had control now, and could destroy all Life at a moments notice. So Nature began doing regular Deaths, eventually settling on just giving all Life a set time to Live, but allowing it to do as much as it wanted during that time. Now the time of Life was limited, any Life that wanted to make more Life would, quite frankly, have to hurry up and get it done with. And so Life did, creating more Life and then Dying, while its offspring went and repeated the pattern. Slowly Life dominated the world, but Nature didn't mind so much anymore.

Then something else arrived. It was Alive, but it wasn't queit like the usual Life that Nature had gotten so friendly with. Nature thought Life could think, but these new Lifes were different. They could Think, and they could Think really hard. They could... make decisions. It was Life all over again, and Nature was scared. Nature tried to do what it had always done to Life, but there was one more nail for the coffin prepared for these new Lifes.

They could not die.

The Thinkers, which could not die, versus Nature, which required every living thing to die when it wasn't too busy. It was a war, the first that the Triangle had ever seen. Nature desperately wanted to kill the Thinkers, but the Thinkers were desperately unable to be killed. They persisted.

Then Nature had an idea.

So far, Death had been more of an act of courtesy from Life to the very gracious and generous Nature, rather than a full time business with a work schedule and taxes. Perhaps the Thinkers wouldn't die because Nature was too casual with Death. So that day, Death became a brick wall to which all Life was headed towards at full speed, with no way to slow down.

And it worked.

But not quite. The Thinkers still couldn't die. Whereas all other Life would hit this brick wall and shatter, the Thinkers would deform it, dragging its material like fabric through time and space. Like a steel ball dropped into taut spandex. Although it seemed they would continue living forever, the wall of Death did not break. It kept stretching with them, turning them into wonderful shades of Dead, but never quite killing them.

Nature did not mind however. As had been with the original Life, it was good enough. It did the job Nature wanted it to, and once again it could inhabit in peace. It would continue to inhabit for eternity, for the Thinkers never could overthrow it, despite a re-branding to Gods, and their creations of more Thinkers, only this time ones that could die, and were therefore not Gods. Nature knew them as Elves and Dwarves, and they were exceptionally well behaved, and so nature gave them surprisingly long lifespans in return.

In time, the Triangle became Iter, Elves and Dwarves became Humans and Gods became Old. Nature was never bothered again, which it seemed was a pretty good outcome as far as it was concerned.