Cosmology of the Wibblyverse · 8:07pm Aug 16th, 2020
So I finally sat down and typed out a more-or-less complete history and explanation of the various gods of my AU. For your reading pleasure, I present it now to you. The entries are set up as follows -- The name of the entity is given, followed by their relative age, domain, various nicknames, and sexual and gender orientation. There then follows a few humanizing tidbits of information, the names of any minor gods who fall under their auspice, and a segment on their role in Equestrian history.
Entropy
Most Ancient (Deceased(?)): Entropy, Chaos-Aligned Darkness Domain. Deity of Destruction and Corruption.
”The Destroyer”, “You Cannot Run Forever”, “The Inevitable One”, “The First and Last”, “The Only”, “The Extinction”, “The Beast in the Pit”, “Nothing”.
Agender and Asexual.
Fast Facts!
Favorite Color: No
Favorite Author: No
Favorite Song: 4’33 by John Cage
Minor Gods
None
Entropy was the only God. Entropy was the only thing. There was nothing else, and they reveled in that. Or, well, they didn’t revel. They just were. And then the universe started, and there were things everywhere, including one very annoying younger sibling named…
Discord
Oldest: Discord, Chaos-Aligned Light Domain. Deity of Creation and Transformation.
“The Creator”, “The Unpredictable”, “The Cosmic Jester”, “Eris”, “Life-Maker”, “The Arc of Eternity”, “The Flesh-Shaper”, “Oh God It’s Them”, “Shift and Shine”.
Pangender and Demisexual.
Fast Facts!
Discord has created many things. They created the ki-rin in an attempt to make a literal drakon-equus, for instance, but not all of their attempts were as successful. A partial list of creatures Discord made which have gone extinct:
- Spring-tailed lemurs -- shuffled off this mortal coil
- Algebraic scorpions -- X-scorpions, though I can't tell you Y
- Transparent songbirds -- joined the choir invisible
- Infinitely-crumpled evergreens -- pining for the fjords.
- As for the One-eyed, One-horned, Flying Purple Pony-eaters, they starved quite soon after Discord created them, due to the fact that Discord had severely overestimated the amount of flying purple unicorns with eyepatches
Minor Gods
None
Discord and Entropy were locked in battle as soon as they knew one another. They were anathema to one another. Discord created stars, planets, creatures, and Entropy consumed them all, corrupting them and draining the life out of them. Entropy hated all that was not them, all that did not belong to the infinite nothingness of the eternal void before the universe. The only thing that Entropy couldn’t destroy was Discord, and Discord couldn’t destroy anything at all, let alone the avatar of destruction.
But Discord wanted their creations to continue, to flourish, even if only so they could have fun toying with them later. So they devised a plan, and made the biggest star they had ever created, a beacon that could be seen from one end of the still-expanding universe to the other. It was irresistible. Entropy came to it like a moth to a flame and reached out to snuff out its light. It was then that Discord hurled a planet at their back, sending them into the heart of the star. Entropy’s fatal touch collapsed it, turning it into a black hole from which Discord was forced to flee before its terrible gravity consumed them as well.
And there the remains of Entropy stay, unable to reform or to cohere enough to break out of their tomb. Only their power remains, directionless and weakened, but inevitably breaking the entire universe back down into the void.
Oh, and one other thing came from Entropy’s imprisonment…
Omega
Second-Eldest: Omega, Order-Aligned Death Domain. Deity of Transition and the Grave.
“The Grim Reaper”, “Terminus”, “The End”, “Binky”, “The One Who Waits”, “The Guide Through the Desert”, “The Smiling Skull”, “Mr. Bones”.
Male and Bisexual.
Fast Facts!
- Omega is often willing to play a game with souls as a stake, but he is terrible at chess. This has led to rather embarrassed ponies playing Hungry Hungry Hippos with the embodiment of Death.
- His cloak is not actually black, but very very very very very dark violet.
- He has something of a crush on Celestia.
- He has the other three Horses of the Apocalypse over for dinner every Thursday. They also have an O&O campaign going. Pestilence is the current Oubliette Overlord, and Omega plays a dragon sorcerer.
Minor Gods
- War
- Pestilence
- Famine
In another life, Omega was the pale horse of his own universe’s Death. He remembers these times only faintly, but with great fondness. He can recall a great grey landscape, stalks of grey grain waving in a nonexistent wind. He can recall a flat world on the back of four elephants on the back of a turtle. He can recall a kind master, a generous Reaper, and a young woman who gave him sugarcubes. He can even recall his previous name, but he won’t say what it is because it’s rather embarrassing.
When it was Omega’s time at last to pass on, his master entreated his own master that the horse be allowed to live on in some way. And the great Death of the multiverse, Azrael, saw that a new position had opened in a distant universe which had only recently settled on growth and expansion rather than collapse and decay, and gave his assent.
And so it was that Omega became the first alicorn, overseeing the reaping of souls when it was their time to pass on, the last face that any soul would see before learning what lay beyond.
But for death to exist, there had to be life, in the form of…
Celestia & Luna
Third-Eldest: Celestia, Order-Aligned Light Domain. Deity of the Sun, Day, and Growth.
“Sol”, “Life-Bringer”, “Heart of the Star”, “Everbright”, “The Burning One”, “Our Lady of Growing”, “Elder Sibling of the Heavens”, “The Coronated One”.
Female and Pansexual.
And
Fourth-Eldest: Luna, Order-Aligned Darkness Domain. Deity of the Moon, Night, and Sleep.
“Selene”, “Rest-Giver”, “Peace of the Moon”, “Evernight”, “Ink-Drip”, “Our Lady of Recovery”, “Younger Sibling of the Heavens”, “Ms. Ravenwing”.
Female and Bisexual.
Fast Facts!
- Despite their obvious height difference, which leads some ponies to assume Celestia is much older than Luna, they were actually born only twelve hours apart. Celestia will never let Luna forget it.
- Celestia’s love of cake is well-documented. Less well-known is Luna’s equally ravenous love of chocolate. She can eat a ton of it, it never affects her figure, and Celestia is very annoyed about that.
- Celestia invented surfing.
- Luna’s favorite weapon is a metal baseball bat, enchanted so that it will never dent, tarnish, or break so long as its wielder lives. Celestia kept it in her room every night that her sister was banished for.
- The royal sisters once had a prank war that went on for nearly two centuries, and was only ended by the Griffish invasion of Equestria.
Minor Gods
- Light (C)
- Dark (L)
- Medicine (C)
- Sleep (L)
- Heat (C)
- Cold (L)
Gods can die. Or rather, physical vessels can be destroyed. Celestia and Luna have worn many faces, been many genders, possessed many aspects. Two things alone are constant -- they are always siblings, and Celestia always the elder. Celestia’s original form was known as Sol, and was male. Luna’s original form was called Selene, and was female.
Their current aspects are only a little older than the Unification of the Tribes. They were considered outcasts by all three tribes for their inherent unity -- the pegasi banished them and the unicorns had a bounty on their heads, and the earth ponies only put up with them because Chancellor Puddinghead liked them. Were it not for the intervention and teachings of the Doctor (The Rising Night), it’s possible that they would not have become such wise and benevolent rulers as they are today.
Harlequin
Fifth Eldest: Harlequin, Chaos-aligned Emotion Domain. Deity of Desire and Vice.
“The Tempter”, “I Want It I Need It”, “Let’s Be Bad”, “Diamonds”, “Self-Care Queen”, “The Patchwork Dancer”, “Wish”, “Everchase”.
Pangender and Pansexual.
Fast Facts!
- Harlequin created the changelings and the sirens, and is responsible for any number of other magical artifacts bouncing around Gaea.
- They also started a chain of weird magic shops that disappear the next time you go looking for them.
- Harlequin claims to be a ‘sexpert’, but if there’s a degree on their wall, I haven’t seen it.
Minor Gods
- Sloth
- Wrath
- Envy
- Lust
- Pride
- Avarice
- Gluttony
As soon as life arose, so too did Desire. At first it was nothing complicated -- the desire for food, the desire for reproduction, the desire not to be consumed. Then life started to get more complex, and Harlequin’s power grew. They became the originator of the genie in a bottle, the fairy godmother, and all manner of other magical mover and shakers. Their power was to fulfill desires of all types, but they were more than happy to twist around the words of those they thought undeserving, and make their dreams into nightmares.
Harlequin begat the changeling race, the shapeshifting emovores that feed on feelings and can become whatever they think will best evoke that response. They also created the Crystal Heart as a conduit for their power, a seed given to a band of roving and desperate earth ponies looking to survive in the Frozen North. That seed grew into the Crystal Empire, ruled for many years by the wise and beautiful Princess Amore. Today, we know her as…
Cadence
Sixth-Eldest: Cadenza mi Amore, Order-Aligned Emotion Domain. Deity of Love and Virtue.
“Amore”, “Civilization-Mother”, “I Love You”, “The Open Gate”, “Colony”, “The Endless And Unbounded Sea”, “Our Lady of Welcoming Arms”.
Female and Pansexual.
Fast Fasts!
- Cadence has had many lovers over the years, with Shining Armor being the newest. When they die, with their consent, she can absorb their essence into herself so that they need never be apart. When she does this, hints of their fusion are retained, such as the purple highlights on her wings.
- Cadence is considered to be the goddess of community and civilization, for in order to build a society, one must be able to care about the needs of others.
- Cadence served as an assistant to the Third Doctor during his time in Equestria, not too long before she became Twilight Sparkle’s foalsitter. It was, admittedly, something of a demotion, but one which she was thoroughly happy with.
Minor Gods
- Community
- Wisdom
- Moderation
- Fortitude
- Prudence
- Courage
- Justice
Amore has also had many faces throughout history. This is more common in alicorn than draconocci, because chaos gods don’t like taking full physical meat bodies as much. It’s harder to do weird stunts with them. She grew out of Harlequin’s enhanced power, as desire was joined with affection. Selfishness became selflessness, and ponies grew from individuals to clans to cultures to civilizations, because working toward a common good was now a viable goal for all.
For many years she reigned in the Crystal Empire as Princess Amore, a sort of official advisor to the royal family. She was said to have been killed by Sombra during his rise to power, but the reality was that she disappeared much earlier than that, during the reign of his father. To this day, nopony is sure of how it happened, but the rest of the pantheon felt her passing. She did not return to the mortal plane for decades, during which time King Sombra’s reign of terror grew. In desperation, Celestia made a pact with another member of the pantheon to restore the goddess of love to them so that she might retake her city. It went terribly wrong and forced others in the pantheon to leave this plane of existence. This angered many, none more so than...
Mentiad
Middlest: Mentiad, Order-Aligned Knowledge Domain. Deity of Science and Fact.
“The Scholar”, “The Ceaseless Vigil”, “I Know You”, “Enigma”, “Lord of Lightning”, “Dweller of the Ivory Tower”, “Eyes of the Storm”.
Male and Asexual.
Fast Facts!
- Mentiad is endlessly curious and will research a new phenomenon for days on end. He once spent three weeks without sleep trying to discover what ‘skub’ actually is before Luna was forced to knock him unconscious for the sake of everypony’s sanity.
- The lightning in Mentiad’s mane glows and sparks when he’s excited or frightened, and fades and dims when he’s tired or sad.
- Mentiad lives in the Platonic Realm of Forms.
-Though he has access to the collected knowledge of the universe, he is not omniscient -- even he can only retain so much information at a time. He is, therefore, always looking for new mysteries to solve or things to learn.
Minor Gods
- The Nine Scholastic Muses
- Thought
- Memory
- Mathematics
- Research
- Logic
- Language
- Craft
- Science
- Curiosity
The epitome of the ‘absent-minded professor’ archetype, Mentiad existed as soon as the brain evolved beyond the ‘stimulus-response’ stage. His domain is an archive of all knowledge, a realm of historical records, scientific inquiry, and mathematical perfection. Of course, since the brain is not, as of yet, fully able to explain why it does all the things it does, it leaves him a little scattered and neurotic.
Mentiad was the last of the pantheon to remain on Gaea, aside from the royal sisters, after the slow culling of its members through war, infighting, and corruption. He chose to leave voluntarily after warning Celestia and Luna that the age of the gods had come to an end, and that they too would be wise to depart and leave the denizens of the world to sort out their own affairs. This was in part due to the departure that came immediately beforehand, that of his best friend and partner in scholasticism...
Screwball
Sixth-Youngest: Screwball, Chaos-Aligned Knowledge Domain. Deity of Art and Creativity.
“Queen Muse”, “I Am Not Who I Am”, “The Unfinished Creation”, “The Brainchild”, “Inspiration”, “The Mind-Twister”, “She Sees Beyond”.
Female and Asexual.
Fast Facts!
- Screwball’s signature propellor beanie is kept constantly spinning as her mind whirls with thoughts.
- Screwball is a perfectionist who will rip through the laws of physics to achieve her visions.
- Her best friend is her dog, Screwloose. Her best non-dog friend is Mentiad.
- Screwball was the only one of the gods to leave completely peacefully during the Age of Abeyance.
Minor Gods
- The Nine Artistic Muses
- Comedy
- Tragedy
- Dance
- Song
- Visual Arts
- Prose
- Poetry
- Theatre
- Architecture
Screwball is the daughter of Discord. They are her only biological parent, using ‘biological’ in a fairly loose sense of the phrase. She sprang fully-formed from their head, thanks to a truly desperate attempt at a migraine cure. She was born from Discord’s own maddened creativity, and they doted on her intensely.
For many years, parent and daughter were partners in chaos, painting the town a rainbow of colors together, even after a friendship blossomed between the two divinities of knowledge. Mentiad and Screwball were dear friends, sharing as they did so much overlap between their domains. Language, history, the ‘soft sciences’, and more were part of both of their portfolios. Even in music can math be found, after all, and science can require leaps of innovation and creativity as much as art.
ORB
Fifth-Youngest: ORB, Chaos-Aligned Death Domain. Deity of the Afterlife and Revival.
“The Crossroads Dealmaker”, “The Great Beyond”, “The Perfect Mirror”, “Judgement”, “The Oath”, “Smuggler”.
Male and Straight.
Fast Facts!
- ORB is pronounced with all capital letters.
- ORB won every Kentucky Derby, but was disqualified for not confining himself to the requisite dimensions and also not having legs.
-ORB was not the original chaos god of death. There was another, once, named X. X was a bird skull with feet and he just disappeared. He vanished, and now ORB is here. This is not a joke or a goof, somehow all mention of X in my documents vanished and all is now ORB. I think that ORB may have eaten him and stolen his jaunty top hat. I need to remember X. Was X even his name? Did he really have a top hat? Is ORB replacing him even in my memories? Oh my god what is
-ORB is an avid gardener.
Minor Gods
- Reward
- Ritual
- Punishment
ORB came into existence with the advent of organized belief systems. While the rest of his pantheon exist independent of worship, ORB became sort of the God of Religion. This was very annoying to Mentiad, God of Science, who felt that the whole thing was in rather poor taste and couldn’t even be proven empirically. ORB then pointed out that Mentiad himself was pretty solid evidence, to which Mentiad primly replied that anecdotal evidence really wasn’t good enough.
Mentiad’s argument may have been somewhat influenced by his personal distaste for ORB as an entity -- he was obnoxious and tricky and slept around a lot. How this was possible for a smooth sphere made of a glasslike substance to do remains a mystery that everyone is happier not solving.
ORB eventually became known as the Lord of the Afterlife, although this was more PR than anything else. Omega, the Reaper, shepherded them across the veil, and ORB just sort of took them to the appropriate afterworld -- less the Lord and more the Real-Estate Agent of the Afterlife. Of course, as ORB was and remains a gambling man, shyster, and general tricky bastard, he became rather well-known for his habit of ferrying souls back to the mortal realm for the right price -- they could be won in a game, bought through a contract, or even summoned by rituals he seeded out into the world. It didn’t much matter -- in the end, every creature came to him, one way or the other.
Twilight Sparkle
Fourth-Youngest: Twilight Sparkle, Order-Aligned Magic. Deity of Unity and Bond.
“Vespertine”, “The Bond Engineer”, “The Ties That Bind”, “The Friend You Haven’t Met Yet”, “Lady of the Constellations”, “The Beekeeper”, “The Map of All Heavens”.
Female and Bisexual.
Fast Facts!
- Vespertine chose her name as she wished to become known as a mediator -- a bridge between different points of view as the evening is a bridge between day and night.
- Vespertine was known as ‘The Beekeeper’ because she kept bees. Go figure.
- Although Vespertine and the other Elements were theoretically equals, it was considered to be an accepted fact that she was the leader of their coterie.
- The Tree of Harmony retains the ability to use the image of Vespertine as an avatar for itself.
Minor Gods
- Generosity
- Honesty
- Kindness
- Laughter
- Loyalty
Twilight Sparkle is the new incarnation of the goddess Vespertine, who was born from the Tree of Harmony, the eldest of six entities who together formed the Elements. The Tree of Harmony, it should be noted here, is not technically a god -- it is merely an instrument of the universe, which is a fancy way of saying nopony knows where the fuck it came from or what it’s doing there, but sometimes it’s actively helpful? Other times it eats creatures or forces them through deadly gauntlets of their worst fears. It’s a fucked-up tree, is what we’re getting at here.
It is also worth noting that the Elements of Harmony are older than many of the other gods on this list -- how many is unknown, though it is best guessed that they came into being after Discord and before Amore. However, they did not have intelligences or personalities of their own at this point, and so were not yet truly gods any more than the tree was.
The Elements of Harmony served as intelligent peacekeeping devices for many years, serving Harmony as it commanded. They were not good, nor evil -- they were just very, very harmonious. But then came the point at which it was no longer possible for everything to be harmonious -- one could be kind but not honest, or have divided loyalties, or countless other paradoxes. The Elements were stalled out, unsure of what to do, and nopony cared for them enough to help them -- they had, unthinkingly, done much damage to the world in their quest for Harmony. They might have stayed forever in stasis...
Sunset Shimmer
Third-Youngest: Amity, Chaos-Aligned Magic. Deity of Redemption and Repair.
“Amity”, “The Phoenix-Mother”, “The Reignited”, “Your Past Is Not Today”, “Lady of the Hearth and Home”, “Finder of Family”, “The Brazier of Beautiful Repairs”.
Female and Asexual.
Fast Facts!
- Amity and Vespertine were in love before Vespertine truly understood what love meant, were friends before such a concept could be defined by her programming.
- Amity and Vespertine shared a plane of existence, living together in a cozy little cottage at the edge of a grassy cliff, where it was always a warm summer night with the wind in the trees and the stars shining bright overhead.
- Amity was the first god to ascend, not merely to be born.
- Amity created the first phoenix as a symbol of herself.
Minor Gods
- Shared with Vespertine
...Were it not for the intervention of Amity, the mare who would ascend to godhood by helping the Elements break free from their programming. It is unclear how she achieved this -- it is only known that it took many years of effort on her part, that she ascended as a direct result of her actions, and that she and Vespertine and the other avatars of the Elements were friends and lovers for many years.
They faded from this realm with the advent of the Age of Abeyance, fully disappearing around the time of the Siege of the Crystal Empire -- theorists suggest that the infighting of the other gods forced the Goddesses of Magic and the Elemental Minor Goddesses out of this world. The Elements left behind their original husks, full of power but needing outside intelligence to properly direct. Amity, having no such husk, left behind the egg of the phoenix who would in time become Philomena, Princess Celestia’s much-loved pet.
Chrona
Second-Youngest: Chrona, Order-Aligned Time. Deity of Clocks and Destiny.
“The Watchmaker”, “The Web-Weaver”, “The Itsy-Bitsy Spider”, “Time and Tide”, “The Golden Weave”, “I Have Seen The End”.
Genderfluid and Bisexual.
Fast Facts!
- Chrona has appeared in many faces throughout history, but retained roughly the same personality and memories as ever. Some have speculated that there is communication between incarnations of the goddess, or that she has some mastery of the Time Lord skill of regeneration.
- She has uniquely terrible taste in clothes through all her incarnations.
- Twelve unique faces have been recorded, but others have also been theorized.
Minor Gods
- Past
- Present
- Future
Almost nothing is known about Chrona, save that they were born far in the future. One might expect that they would have been the oldest, given how long time has been around, but when you’re a deity of Time, beginnings and endings have very little bearing. She says this is when she sits in the timeline, and we must take her word for it.
The only other certain fact about Chrona is her tie to the mysterious artifacts known as the Tools of Fate, supposedly stolen from a trio of parasite goddesses many years in the past. Or future. Or whenever.
Paradox
Sweet Babiest and 30 Over 30,000,000,000 Media Luminary: Paradox, Chaos-Aligned Time. Deity of Chance and, well, Paradox.
“The Lost One”, “Before the Beginning and After the End”, “Butterfly Effect”, “Time’s Titan”, “We Make Our Own Destiny”, “The Infinite Potential”, “The Endless Fractal of Choice”.
Female and Demisexual.
Fast Facts!
- Paradox collects relics from alternate histories. Her favorites are posters for movies that were never made, books that ended up with different endings, and different versions of the Pona Lisa.
- She still struggles with separation anxiety as a result of being raised via bootstrap paradox.
- She wears thirteen watches. None of them show the correct time, or anything that would ever be considered the correct time.
- She has a cat. His name is Superpaws, and he’s a Schrodinger’s cat. That’s like a Cheshire cat, but not really.
Minor Gods
- What Might Have Been
- What Could Be
- What Would Have Happened
As little as is known of Chrona, only slightly more is known of Paradox. She never knew her parents -- her first memory is of herself floating alone in the Time Vortex. She wandered for many years, with only herself for company, by which I mean her future self coming back through her life to teach her of her powers.
She built a domain in the Vortex, a shelter for lost time travelers known as the Hilbert Hotel, a vacation spot with infinite rooms, a pool, and WiFi. She claims to do vital work on the timeline, but no one really knows what that entails.
Neat
Oh, I do love a good cosmology.
I Z.
I suspect that "Ms. Ravenwing" is less a divine epithet and more a pseudonym for when Luna wants to take a night out on the town.
In the ocean or on the surface of the sun?
This may be my favorite explanation for Cadence's feather highlights.
Describing Mentiad as the "Middlest" makes me want to see a divine version of MBMBAM. And considering that said podcast already seems to exist in your Equestria, that could get especially silly.
I am equal parts intrigued and horrified by ORB.
Are you sure it's not a god? That's pretty divine caprice right there.
Vespertine and Amity present some intriguing questions about whether Celestia recognized her students when they first met in this incarnation. And Twilight's past life being an AI makes all kinds of sense.
Delightful pile of world building. Thank you for it!
5336910
Entropy's favorite genre of music is jazz, because it's all about the notes you don't play.
I feel like she started doing it on the Sun, and then eventually realized that, hey, those ocean waves look actually pretty similar to what I've been doing up there...
"Hello, and welcome to My Old One, My Old One, My Old One, My Old One, My Old One, My Old One, My Old One, My Old One, My Old One, My Old One, My Old One, My Old One, and Me, an advice show for a harmonic era. Or, if you prefer, MOOMOOMOOMOOMOOMOOMOOMOOMOOMOOMOOMOOAM. I am, as you have certainly guessed by now, your oldest Old One, Discord."
Honestly, so am I.
... Well, there are gods and then there are other things, and the line between them can get pretty weird sometimes. The deer are fey, Ba'ast and Anubis and their lot were long-lived aliens, and the Tree of Harmony is... some other thing that should not be messed with.
Not Sunset, at least not immediately. She worked it out a few years before Sunset's betrayal. Twilight was easier to spot, because she was anticipating it after Sunset.
And, you're welcome!
Fascinating stuff. I always love seeing well fleshed out worldbuilding like this.
Fun (non-canon) fact: ORB is responsible for the 1990 Nintendo Entertainment System video game Orb-3D. Nobody knows why he made it, not even ORB himself. After playing it, Discord flung it through space, time and dimensions to Earth, because humans are the only species stupid and stubborn enough to willingly play Orb-3D.
ORB is just really concerning in general. I'm half expecting to come back to this blog in six months to find that half of the gods have been replaced by ORB wearing different hats.
There are things I could say about speculating the true nature and origin of the Tree, but instead now I'm imagining it running a Youtube prank channel.
EXPOSING CHILDREN TO TRAUMATIZING DEATH TRAPS (GONE WRONG?)
This Chrona... second youngest, huh? Makes her seem like some kind of... Timeless Child, wouldn't you say?
Fun (non canon) fact: Paradox owns posters for the third, fourth, fifth and sixth Peter Cushing Dr. Who movies, as well as one for Daleks: The Ultimate Adventure. She also owns nineteen different versions of Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, including one where the last book is inexplicably a version of C.S Lewis' The Dark Tower instead.