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// They Who Do Not Exist 
// Story: Before Time Began to Flow 
// by Humanity 
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How much time has passed since the moment I was sealed within this accursed stone cell? Time means little to me with nothing to do but slumber, watch, and listen. Much of my strength has returned after thousands upon thousands of nights, but not quite enough to break these shackles. My fail-safe set upon the younger child of the illegitimate king and queen of this world proved fruitless as the Elements of Harmony twice over rendered her harmless. They have stronger wills than expected.

Still, I have not been biding my time idly. I have spent these past millennia letting my mind wander. Thinking. Planning. Remembering. Trying to recall something of the distant past that may prove useful to me when the fateful day arrives. And sure enough, there is something that indeed can provide me with vital aid when these stone walls around me finally come crumbling down.  

Nothingness.

Eons ago, during my reign, bold scholars sought to achieve the impossible. To create life out of just that. Nothingness. 

By some miracle, they succeeded. But even then, it was by no means perfect. While they were able to create life, it is simply not possible to create a soul from nothing. 

These soulless dolls… These…as they would come to be known…“nonbeings” physically resemble the creatures they are crafted to imitate. Yet they are still imperfect. No matter how self-aware they may become, they can never develop a soul. When they break, or as the more sympathetic observer would say, die, they fade back into absolute nothingness, leaving absolutely no trace of their existence behind. 

Nonbeings are nonexistent in the truest sense of the word, their creation and demise being equally cruel. They always begin as emotionless puppets, but are able to learn and develop identities of their own. But their unavoidable physical anomalies cause them to be easily identified from natural beings. They may seem to become like normal people, but they are empty inside. 

The creation of nonbeings is an act of sheer cruelty. The sight of them beginning life as barely more than dolls to their final moments of realizing that nothing awaits them beyond death… It is rather…entertaining… That expression of absolute despair.

The more I think about it, the more useful these nonbeings sound to me. Far more than any of Grogar's reanimated corpse minions from long ago. What if I were to craft one in the visage of another natural being? One of great power and skill. 

My time to escape this oubliette draws near. And I have seen the man I intend to mold my pawn to imitate. Nonbeings have a rather laughable habit of developing strong senses of identity in a vain effort to validate their pointless existences. And nothing is more convincing of one’s existence than memories. 

It will be my finest tool. The cornerstone of my return to power. For what better being to model a nonbeing after…than the man who slew a god?