The Primals

There are powers in the cosmos beyond even the greatest star-empire, forces barely comprehensible to mere mortals. They are known by many names, but the most common translation in English is Primal: the First Ones, wielders of the Primal Power, spawned by the very creation of the cosmos itself.
In truth, the Primals are not the first, although they are effectively immortal by human, even planetary, standards. Not all beings who have claimed to be Primal—such as the Curator—truly are, and some beings that may or may not be Primals (like the mysterious Time-Keepers) remain silent. Humans have had only the barest glimpses at the nature and agenda of these beings.

ASCENDED AND INCARNATE

Primals arrive at their exalted status in one of two ways: ascension or incarnation.
The Ascended were once mortal beings, but their monomaniacal obsession with their particular purpose in life eventually allowed them to tap into the Primal Power. They ascended from mortality into cosmic godhood, becoming Primal. Some of the Ascended shed their mortality before the Earth’s solar system was even formed, so they recall little (if anything) about their mortal lives. All that matters to them is their purpose; otherwise, they would not have ascended, so those who hope to find understanding or sympathy for mortality in the Ascended are often disappointed.
The Incarnate, according to their own claims, were never mortal. Instead, they began as ideas: concepts, archetypes, even philosophical movements. Over time, these complex constructs of thought, belief, and custom took on a life of their own. The Primal Power coalesced around them, bringing into existence a being, the literal incarnate form of that idea. Even if an Incarnate is destroyed, they claim, the idea survives and simply coalesces into a new form, given time.
Of course, it is possible the Incarnate are simply Ascended who have forgotten their true origins, or choose to conceal them for some reason, just as it could be the Ascended are Incarnates who believe they were once mortal (or wish others to believe it). Functionally, there’s no difference between the two types of Primals, and no real way of telling one from the other. Indeed some Primals—notably the Trickster—regularly change the story about their origins.

THE PRIMAL POWER

All Primals wield what they call “the Primal Power”, “the Power Primal”, or “the One Power.” It appears to be a kind of zero-point energy, drawn from the very fabric of the universe itself. For all intents and purposes, the Primal Power makes its wielders like gods, able to shape reality to suit their whims. Primals have, in the past, altered space and time, destroyed planets, and re-ignited dying stars (or caused healthy ones to go supernova).
At the most basic level, the Primal Power makes all Primals essentially immortal and invulnerable. Many of them have existed for millions or even billions of years and they are capable of shrugging off virtually any force less than another use of the Power Primal against them. They quickly recover from any harm they do suffer, and can survive in any environment, including the depths of space.
Primals can communicate with any being telepathically, making it appear they are speaking the subject’s own language. They can likewise alter their appearance at will, often looking like a member of the viewer’s species, and sometimes doing so for all of the viewers present, so that a human sees the Primal as human (or at least humanoid) whereas a Grue sees him or her as Grue-like and a Jerreid as reptilian. They can also disguise their appearance or simply become invisible to most known means of detection.
The Primal Power grants a wide range of energy manipulating effects, from simple bolts or arcs of destructive force to subtle restructuring of matter at the atomic (or even quantum) level. Primals can move objects using telekinesis or force manipulation, create warps through hyperspace, and rearrange inanimate matter to create virtually whatever they wish.
The main limitation on the Power Primal is the focus and will of its wielder. The same obsession that grants Primals their power also limits them. Outside of their “area of interest” Primals can do very little. Of course, many of them are largely unaware of this, since it never occurs to them to ever do anything outside of their obsession. The primary way for a Primal to expire, according to the Primal known as the Game-Master, is for them to lose interest in the focus that maintains their continued existence. Without such focus, a Primal wastes away and disappears.

KNOWN PRIMALS

It is difficult to say exactly how many Primals there are; the cosmos is vast and, given the tendency of many Primals to shapeshift or otherwise disguise themselves, it is hard to say with certainty who is who. What’s more, other beings have been mistaken for Primals (particularly creations of the Preservers like the Curator, Collapsar, and Mentor) or have masqueraded as Primals, such as Omega, who is a cosmic entity of a different order. The following are some of the Primals that have had previous contact with humanity.

CELESTEON

The “Great, Cosmic Throne” and “The One Prime.” Some refer to Celesteon as “king” of the Primals, although that term has little meaning, as they all treat him as a peer rather than a sovereign. Celesteon is a living manifestation of cosmic order. He (or she, for Celesteon is beyond gender) is the great starry heavens given voice and form. Celesteon treats all life in the cosmos as his children and seeks to nurture and create wherever possible. Celesteon is largely a passive force, felt in the motion of the stars and planets, but largely content to set things in motion and flow with them. Only when the cosmic order is threatened does Celesteon take notice, and the few mortals who have ever communicated with him have related tales of stars that spoke, whispers from nebulae, or shifting constellations that seemed to form an ancient and wise visage in the blackness.

THE GAME-MASTER

A Primal obsessed with all forms of games and contests, and known for occasionally wagering on their outcome. The Game-Master typically appears hooded and masked and, in the past, has appeared to be blank nothingness beneath his outer garments. He sometimes hints at the idea that all existence is merely a game, controlled by even greater forces from “outside” the cosmos, or even the Omniverse, where “our makers roll the dice of our destinies.”

THE GREY EMISSARY

Cloaked, hooded, and faceless, completely lacking in color other than a uniform grey, the so-called Grey Emissary claims to be an “agent of balance” in the cosmos, and takes a hand in righting what he sees as imbalances. The Emissary does so without compassion or concern, and many of the “imbalances” he seeks to correct are excesses of life, civilization, and order, just as often as chaos, cruelty, and destruction. The Grey Emissary, like many Primals, often employs mortal agents, offering them power or particular rewards. He can be a valuable ally, but a completely unreliable one, as he is concerned solely with his particular ideas of cosmic balance, and not personal ties.

THE NORN

A shadowy, often insubstantial female figure in a hooded, flowing robe, the Norn sometimes shifts in appearance from youthful to aged, but typically maintains an ageless maturity. She claims to be a force of Fate or Destiny, the “rightful” purpose or direction of the universe—all universes, in fact, although she is maddeningly vague about how that direction is determined. She appears only in times of great crisis, when “the fate of the cosmos” is at stake, to attempt to put things right. She does so by offering advice and sometimes choosing champions to intervene on her behalf.

QUESTOR

Questor is concerned with truth, both the revelation of facts and knowledge as well as larger cosmic truths, and the quest to find them. Questor travels the cosmos and the many layers of reality gathering knowledge and piecing together elements of “the great cosmic puzzle” to better understand the nature of all things. He is obsessed with this quest to the exclusion of all else, and prefers to remain uninvolved except in cases where the whole of reality (and therefore his quest) may be threatened. Even then, Questor is more likely to point mortal agents towards a useful truth than he is to simply reveal information unbidden. Sometimes Questor’s truths can be harsh, but necessary. Questor appears differently to different people, always as someone they trust, although his behavior quickly makes it apparent he (or she) is not that person. Questor’s true appearance (if any) is one truth he has kept to himself.

THE TRICKSTER

A Primal concerned with little more than playing elaborate pranks and con games, the Trickster is a being of pure deception. Sometimes he claims to have swindled the incarnation of trickery out of the role, allowing him to ascend; other times he says that he is that selfsame incarnation, and has been since the beginning of time. The Trickster’s appearance likewise varies and he can change it at will. He has considerable ability to reshape reality, his sole limitations being that he cannot read the thoughts of a sentient being, nor usurp their free will. Thus his various schemes involve ferreting out what others want—or fear—and getting them to accede to his wishes.

THE TIME-KEEPERS

As the Norn is to Fate, so are the mysterious Time-Keepers to the flow of history—past, present, and future. This trio of masked and robed figures presides as a kind of “cosmic tribunal” over temporal matters and have taken it upon themselves to appoint “guardians” of different periods of history, as well as the time-stream in general. The time-lost hero Dr. Tomorrow is their agent in the 20th and 21st centuries on Earth.