In the beginning there was nothing but a vast void in the middle of which rested The Black Sun. For eons this was the state of things, until The Black Sun grew bored and flexed his considerable power to give birth to the Earth, a place of empty waters and barren plains. Where the heat of his gloomy rays down onto the Earth, the first of his many children were born. His sons Baalkhan, Sharkhan, Topalkhan, Vittakhan and the Ekam Krsna (Black Ones) rose from the land, whilst his daughters Kalikhan, Marikhan and Jebelkhan rose from the waves of the sea.

The Black Sun was quick to assess the character of his offspring, and saw that many might threaten his rule if they were allowed to grow to adulthood. Sharkhan was a free spirit, who sought to live only by his own rules. Topalkhan was a diplomat, who wanted everyone to live not by The Black Sun’s paternal dictation, but by agreement, law and treaty. Viţakhan desired to organise society on the basis of merit and favours, with individuals taking leadership in the roles they were best at. For refusing to bow to his rule The Black Sun sought to devour his defiant offspring, yet before he could eat them he first had to catch them. In this endeavour he recruited the first born of his sons, Baalkhan, who cared for little save for destruction and fighting. So it came to pass that Baalkhan caught each of his three defiant brothers and passed them up to The Black Sun to be devoured in turn. The Black Sun’s other male children, the Ekam Krsna, he cowed into compliance with violence until they followed him unquestioningly.

His sons so tended to, The Black Sun confined his daughters to small islands throughout the seas of the world and commanded them to fill the Earth with life so that he might view a thousand sights and taste a thousand foods. He rarely visited them, save to mate with them to birth further children, which he either added to the ranks of the Ekam Krsna or ate depending on their temperament if they were male. Further daughters he left upon the islands of the seas, for he saw in them a gentle nature that was of no threat to him, and many he commanded to contribute to the work of creation. The Black Sun liked to watch the work he set his daughters to, for it pleased his ego to know that so much could be accomplished not by his effort, but merely by his suggestion and veiled threat. Thus it was that The Black Sun’s daughters gave birth to the animals of the land and the sea and the air, to the plants and trees of the forests and to the grain of the fields.

One day, Baalkhan grew curious as to where The Black Sun went when he departed from the sky and so followed him to the island where the firstborn of his sisters lived. Upon first sighting Kalikhan, he fell immediately in lust with her and knew that he had to have her. Yet The Black Sun knew that he had been followed, and cast Baalkhan away from the island, but not before Kalikhan had seen Baalkhan. Upon learning he existed, Kalikhan knew that Baalkhan would be the world’s salvation.

As punishment for his defiance, The Black Sun confined Baalkhan to a pit where he was to fight the Ekam Krsna indefinitely. Yet The Black Sun had underestimated Baalkhan, who managed to defeat enough of the Ekam Krsna simultaneously to escape what was to be his tomb, whereafter he quickly made his way to the island upon which Kalikhan lived, seizing her and absconding to the far ends of the Earth, away from The Black Sun’s prying eyes.

Almost immediately Kalikhan began to beseech Baalkhan to save her brothers and her children, those that The Black Sun had eaten. Baalkhan was uninterested, and sought only to mate with the woman that he had taken as his wife. Kalikhan grew pregnant and would later birth the sun itself, the bright rays of which would alight upon the ground to give birth to Vari and Tabeitha, the first of the Varic peoples, the first of mankind. Vari and Tabeitha bred and made plenty, with mankind initially prospering and spreading over time, until they came into view of The Black Sun. Unable to find Kalikhan and Baalkhan yet seeking to punish them, he could smell their influence on the humans and quickly grew vindictive, and so cut himself, allowing his blood to spill down onto the Earth. Where his blood fell more of his children sprouted up, the first of the dragons. The dragons possessed all of The Black Sun’s evil, and quickly set about slaughtering mankind wherever they could find them.

Horrified at the fate of her children, Kalikhan again appealed to Baalkhan, asking him to forge a better world for their offspring. Yet again Baalkhan was uninterested, wishing only to spend time with his wife. Only when Kalikhan threatened to return to The Black Sun was Baalkhan roused to action, unwilling to see his wife come to harm even if he cared little for his children.

Kalikhan and Baalkhan then returned to the island The Black Sun’s daughters were kept upon, seeking the aid of Kalikhan’s sisters. From Marikhan they learned the secrets of agriculture, and from Jebelkhan they gained knowledge of midwifery and of homemaking, the essences of civilization itself, which they then gifted to their Varic children. Kalikhan also sought out Marikhan’s daughter by The Black Sun, Tyrsakhan, who offered Baalkhan and Kalikhan a great vat of fermented grain.

Baalkhan and Kalikhan then conferred in secret, planning to overthrow The Black Sun. When the time was right they hatched their plan, prostrating themselves before The Black Sun and begging for his forgiveness, offering Tyrsakhan’s vat of fermented grain as a peacemaking gift. In his arrogance and belief in his own power, The Black Sun accepted the beverage and drained it quickly, only to quickly begin vomiting from the poison hidden within by Kalikhan. From his stomach sprouted Topalkhan, Sharkhan, Viţakhan and the other devoured sons he’d had by his daughters.

What followed was the Yuddhamitra, The Battle for the Sun, in which Baalkhan and Kalikhan contested for supremacy of the cosmos against The Black Sun and his loyal Ekam Krsna. Yet whilst these gods contested the heavens themselves, mankind was left at the mercy of the dragons, which set flame to their fields and feasted upon their children. Sharkhan saw injustice in this, and so ripped flames from the belly of a great dragon and gifted the fire to the Varic people, who used the flame to forge weapons that could pierce the dragon’s hides. Such weapons they forged that they began to arm the khans themselves, gifting unto the deities the tools they would need to defeat their foes.

The war waged for many cycles, yet in the end Kalikhan and Baalkhan stood triumphant, shattering The Black Sun into ten million fragments and scattering his essence throughout the cosmos. Reflecting upon the cosmos that was now his domain, Baalkhan’s heart grew disquiet. He had fought side by side with the brothers he had caught for his father to eat and would have left his children, mankind, to a miserable fate at the hands of the dragons if not for Kalikhan all but forcing him into action.

Baalkhan then gathered all the other khans before him and declared that his reign had begun. Yet whilst The Black Sun had ruled by tyranny, he said, he would rule by laws and by justice, whereby those that broke the laws would be punished. He then declared that justice had first been done against The Black Sun, and now that his father was defeated, justice was due to him, for he had done a great many wrongs against both his brothers and his children. And so raising a khopesh forged by the steady hand of the Varic people, he cut off his own left arm, the essence of which he took to form a home for the khans to occupy. Earth was meanwhile set aside for humanity and all the many beasts and plants placed upon it by The Black Sun’s daughters. Of the Ekam Krsna, some embraced the rule of Baalkhan and joined the pantheon of Khans, some even gaining the respect of the Varic people in turn. Others began to scour the cosmos for the essence of their father, seeking to put him back together such that a new war for the heavens could be waged, and themselves rewarded for their efforts.

Such was the forging of the world, and the beginning of the joint reign of Baalkhan and Kalikhan.