Overlord

This article is a WIP created during World Anvil Summer Camp 2022 and contains incomplete sections. Please stay tuned!

Overlords are immortal beings who run the Eros Zone. They alone harness true creation magic...and magic of destruction.
The Ardalu people gave the Overlords their title in the first place, having nothing to call the imposing rulers of an entire galaxy when they arrived in Luridity. It is a title of honor which they themselves used in their society, before they took to the stars. Some who know of the Overlords' existence are respectful to these beings largely due to necessity: they need the magic the Overlords harness, in order to continue their existence. Hinata and the Ardalu are respectful as certain agreements have been made between them. That, and a certain acknowledgement of agelessness in a Galaxy with settled populations still so young.
Humans, Kynd, and other sentient folk know nothing of the Overlords...and they likely never will.

Luridity Galaxy's Creation

• 500 Million Years Ago: The Overlords spring forth from Aethrelia. They are of magic, without physical form.



• Shortly Afterward: They begin forming consciousness and over centuries build understanding of Self and individualism as well as a language they use amongst themselves.



• 450 Million Years Ago: After developing needs and wants and the urge to create with the magic at their intangible fingertips, the Overlords discover Art. They shape extant particles and space dust into patterns, 2D and 3D shapes, spheres. Planets, asteroids, space phenomena and star systems take refined shapes over millions of years of Overlord fidgeting.



• 300 Million Years Ago: As planets are formed, so too is life, an intriguing discovery the Overlords study closely. Life on many planets begins to evolve independently, without their influence.



• 50 Million Years Ago: The Overlords continue to be fascinated by life, but grow tired of watching. They create more complex forms of life, particularly on planets where life has not grown as fast, interesting, nor varied as others. Terrain nearly everywhere is rigorously altered as this process continues. Flora and fauna fill the Galaxy.



• Hundreds of Thousands of Years Ago: The Overlords tire of shaping worlds and instead try their hand at sentience to see if they can create more of themselves...but in reshaping an existing creature to this effort, they make Hinata. A mistake, they feel, and one they try to unmake. Hinata is trapped between reality and magic and the Overlords pretend they never made the attempt.



• 100,042 Years Ago: The Ardalu enter Luridity Galaxy. Allowing them to settle in the Ehjing Zone, the Overlords exchange space on one of their worlds for a chance to study sentient life. The Ardalu fix Hinata where the Overlords could not, helping her acclimate to existence.



• In the Intervening Years: The Overlords learn about social constructs and morality. They attempt to create a number of sentient species. This time, instead of only magic and Aethrelia, they apply what they learned from the Ardalu. They create the Owners in the Eros Zone, beings with a similar capacity for magic as the Overlords yet with a physical form like the Ardalu. They create the Oracles, another species with a physical form--they're getting rather good at that by now--capable of magic, but the Overlords impose heavy restrictions on them, preventing creation magic and requiring them to channel their power through special crystals before it will work. Many other creations are brought to life, reduced to dust, brought to life again. The process eventually creates Kynd of all kinds. All of these creations are distributed across the Galaxy, seeding the star systems with people and inviting society to emerge on liveable worlds. Toward the end of this period, the Overlords place Owners in charge of certain worlds, and all of the Kynd on them.



• 513 Years Ago: In perhaps the biggest shift to Luridity Galaxy since it was formed, the HMS Copulatory Imperative enters Luridity space. It is immediately intercepted by the Overlords.
  Practice with the Kynd has given the Overlords a great deal of knowledge in genetics, and their observance of rudimentary technological developments has given them ideas. They didn't understand it when the Ardalu arrived, but now? They see the new ship's appearance as a chance to not only incorporate new types of sentient life into their Galaxy but also a chance to incorporate new technologies.
  Initially they handpicked the human travelers by hand and released them onto wilder worlds, keeping others to experiment upon. During their experiments they discover extranatural abilities could be made simply by tinkering with human genetics. They quickly realize that while these creations are much weaker than anyone capable of actual creation magic, they are quite a lot more powerful and unpredictable compared to other non-magical creations. Thus, the Overlords attempt to seal them off in the Meta Zone star systems. The rest of the humans, mimicked and magically created without the extranatural capabilities, were molded and altered for useful traits and the Overlords' interests. They are seeded as the Kynd were, some placed as dominant species, others as minorities.
  The Overlords decide that to make the observations comparable to what they have already done, they also want to "reset" those worlds already populated with sentient life. In doing so, they intend to start humanity on a more even footing with their predecessors. To make up for the Kynd's loss of progress, as well as to see how different technologies take shape, they also plant various types of technology in minds across the Galaxy: biotech, cybernetics, steam-powered technologies, electricity, and many, many more.



• 475 Years Ago: The second generation of Owners are created in the Eros Zone. These Owners manage parts of worlds instead of entire planets, and are able to more freely use magic to produce "miracles" on a local scale. They are revered as demigods.



• 255 Years Ago: The Collision devastates the Eros Zone, and the Overlords lose so much magic in the process of atomic resurrection they will never again create on a Galactic scale.

Loss of Power

Following The Collision, the Overlords are mere shadows of what they once were. Brutal amounts of magic flowed during and immediately following The Collision in a sweeping attempt to rebuild an entire Zone of the Galaxy and its people. They succeeded, but with the power spent so quickly, the Overlords were effectively drained.
Everything the Overlords restored changed. The Owners they'd created to rule worlds lacked most of their former abilities and no longer regenerated their power on their own. Human and 'kynd in the Eros Zone were born anew. Some changed forms entirely, while unique extranatural powers appeared among the population as they began fresh on reshaped worlds. New species of flora and fauna emerged and gained abilities they never should have had. And it didn't stop there: the Overlords' efforts effectively redistributed the magic of Aethrelia to every corner of the Galaxy, though to much lesser effect than what occurred in the Eros Zone.
Currently they oversee only the Eros Zone and every 10 years must rotate their watch over the planets under their care in order to maintain enough power to slow down additional catastrophes. When they rotate out, they enter a rest state in order to regain there power, though it only restores to a much lower level than the wealth of magic they had access to before. Because they can no longer cross the vast distance to the center of the Galaxy to do so, they recover instead in a moderately tangible voidspace at the edge of one of the Eros Zone's star systems.
Even now, the Overlords have not been able to charge more than a small fraction of their full capacity during rest. The Owners speculate that at the current pace, it might take billions of years for the Aethrelia to recover enough to overflow magic to the Overlords once more.