Essays Index
History series: Part 1 - Pre-Earth | Part 2 - Ancient Earth | Part 3 - Pre-Classical Era | Part 4 - Classical Era - "Era of the Two Sisters" | Part 5 - Classical Era - Reign of Chaos

A brief history of the universe prior to Earth's formation. This is mostly original backstory for the Tree of Harmony and Discord, as well as the other gods whose actions led to the Equestria we know. For more detailed history on individual elements, see the Borderworld Pantheon and Locations series.

Pre-Earth:
The Pre-Universe:
The Borderworld's universe, henceforth referred to as Creation, exists as at least the second stage in a cycle of universes dying and being reborn. Much like Creation, the pre-universe had gods and organic life and magic, all of which were very similar to that which currently exists. It is even thought that the current universe's inhabitants are all, in some way, new iterations of that which came before. The major difference between the universes is that the pre-universe operated by entirely different laws of physics,

What exactly happened in the previous universe is a confusing and difficult matter to explain, but in simple terms, its gods warred with one another in a bloody conflict that eventually ended with them destroying their entire universe and everything within it. They artificially induced their own Big Crunch, compressing all matter to a single point and initiating a new Big Bang to restart time and begin a new universe, which became Creation.

Some of the gods of this pre-universe, taking advantage of its odd laws of physics and their own immense power, were able to survive these events and persist into Creation. However, their forms were altered, and they became the elder gods. The pre-universe's magic also survived in its own altered form, becoming a multi-dimensional, crystalline structure known as the Fundament of Magic. This would later become the source of all magic in Creation.

The Beginning of Time:
With the Big Bang, the newly formed Fundament of Magic was immediately shattered, breaking into three smaller Fundaments of Magic, each encompassing a different range of wavelengths on the magical spectrum. They were known as the Fundament of Order, the Fundament of Harmony, and the Fundament of Chaos, and they were the inception of the three different types of magic, each type originating from a different Fundament.

During the first nanosecond of the universe's existence, this magic created the very first gods, who were gods of time. The magic bled through the fabric of time and into the Time Void, the space where the timeline itself exists, and infused into it in several short bursts. Each burst of magic flooded the timeline with raw information, and formed spirits with what was left over.

These spirits, the newborn gods of time, consumed raw information until they became the first intelligent gods to be born in Creation. Meanwhile, the remaining raw information would later be dispensed back into the material universe again by becoming boostrap paradoxes. Afterwards, the gods of time began to develop civilization within the Time Void, giving themselves names and identities, and becoming philosophers, artists, and scientists.

Meanwhile, in the ephemeral universe, the outer gods began arriving from other universes, and the elder gods began their machinations, setting into motion plans that are still being carried out to this very day. Reality's Traitor would attempt to destroy Creation and resurrect the pre-universe, only to be stopped by a united force of time travelers from one of Creation's many potential futures, while the Orphaned Starchild attempted to destroy magic itself, to no avail.

All the while, matter and energy continued to spread outwards, forming stars, planets, nebulas, and other celestial formations, and the Fundaments of Magic traveled with them. They spread wild magic all across the cosmos, empowering stars, influencing evolution, and forming matter and other forms of energy.

Over time, the wild magic of the cosmos began to form new spirits, the first ones to come into existence since the gods of time were born. These spirits were countless in the early days, and many of them formed around psychic impressions of the basic elements of the universe, becoming sun gods, or water gods, or gods of planets or various minerals. The existence of these primordial gods enraged the Orphaned Starchild, who set out to annihilate them all. As many of them were unintelligent, feral spirits, the Starchild was very successful in this endeavour, and the gods of Creation were scattered and divided by its attacks, preventing them from ever forming a united pantheon.

Birth of the Eternals:
Eventually, the Fudaments of Magic stabalised and stopped leaking their energy, and the magic that remained in them was able to form into a trio of spirits. But these spirits were not formed around psychic impressions, as other gods were. Rather, they became the living embodiments of magic itself, the only three of their kind. This was the birth of the Eternals, and although they too began as primitive beings, their arrival was one of the most significant events in cosmic history.

From their births, each of the Eternals wished to cover the universe in their own type of magic, to spread their awareness and will as far as possible. To do so implicitly required the destruction of the other two types first, and so from the moment they met, the Eternals fought one another. Although their struggle was pointless, as all three Eternals were true immortals, and lacked the ability to destroy each other, their primitive nature prevented them from seeing reason. As little more than animals, the Eternals began a conflict which they would continue to fight for billions of years afterwards, known as the Eternal War.

Organic Life:
Eventually, the first organic life began to form on various planets across the stars, starting with microscopic cells. The numerous spirits of Creation were curious of this new phenomenon, including the Eternals and the gods of time, and so when complex plant and animal life started to form, they began inhabiting physical bodies. The vast majority of spirits found a preference for animal bodies, which were much more mobile and had greater sensory capabilities, and with the advent of their organic brains evolving greater levels of intelligence, the spirits themselves became more intelligent as well.

The first sapient animal species in Creation were called the great wyrms, giant wormlike beasts with draconic features and a natural ability to channel magic. Fittingly, the first sapient species in the universe became the preferred host bodies of the first sapient gods, and the gods of time claimed them for their own. From then on, the gods of time were the Great Wyrms of Time, or Timewyrms. Through studying and refining their magic, the Timewyrms later achieved immortality for their host bodies, increased their own intelligence beyond their previous limits, and modified their own appearances for the sake of individuality.

Meanwhile, the rest of the spirits of Creation finally began catching up. Though their new organic bodies kept dying for one reason or another, the spirits easily moved on to new bodies each time, and with each new life lived, their experience and intelligence grew.

For the Eternals in particular, this meant that their conflict escalated to greater and greater levels of sophistication. From the early days when all they could was fling raw energy at each other in their ethereal forms, now the Eternals could fight physically, and craft spells, and think up traps and tactics to get an edge on each other. Most importantly, once they were sapient beings, they could communicate, and convince others to help them in their cause. The Eternals worked out the specific emotions that created their type of magic, and invented ideologies and philosophies that supported these emotions. Through these ideologies, they attracted like-minded individuals, mortals and spirits alike, and from then on, the Eternal War really was a war, fought between three factions that steadily grew to fight their wars across the stars.

The Eternal War:
With organic life on the rise, more psychic impressions of concepts were created, with at least a dozen forming on every inhabited planet. These allowed for more new gods to be born, and so the Eternal War became a cosmic-scale conflict, as the Eternals moved from planet to planet, always seeking new allies.

As well, since the emotions of mortals were the primary way that new magic was created, it was in the interest of Eternals to make mortals feel the emotions associated with them. To this end, each new planet they found was also an ideological as well as literal battleground. Discord would fight for anarchy and/or freedom, trying to bring about a creative world of total chaos. Order would seek to dominate and unify, trying to bring about a cold world of logic and rationality. And the Tree of Harmony attempted to spread a message of peace and voluntary cooperation, empowering her allies and champions to defend themselves and each other.

The Eternal War became one of the great constants of Creation, and one of the most important facets of cosmic politics. Although elder gods such as the Orphaned Starchild would continue to present a threat to the many gods of Creation, the Eternal War still took precedence.

Eventually, even the Timewyrms would be drawn into the conflict, as Discord discovered the Time Void and traveled there to shatter the peace that had held between them since time began. The Great Wyrms of Time soon split into three primary factions based on which Eternal they felt the most affinity with, and fought against one another. In the course of this civil war, all three Eternals learned the art of time travel from the Timewyrms, and were named as Guardians of Time. After the conflict, the Timewyrms abandoned their original home to take permanent residence in the ephemeral universe, where most of them continued to fight for their respective Eternal. Most notable among the survivors were Paradox, Father of Thousands, who remains an ally to Discord even to the present day, and Agamarath the Time-Eater, who became one of Order's top generals.

In the course of the War, many significant events took place, as the fate of entire galaxies were decided by the three warring gods. Discord became allied with a god of animals called Hixelkicks after he conquered her planet, Chimeros, and she created many chimeric species to fight for the Forces of Chaos. Order, meanwhile, was the one to first imagine the equine form, and seeded countless alien planets with species a lot like the ponies of Equestria. Harmony, ever the peace-keeper, has always had less of a presence in the worst of the fighting, but has had more victories in the Eternal War than either of her two rivals.

By the time the Eternal War came to Mutter's Spiral, Discord had taken the form of a female chimera called Havoc, Order was a grey alicorn known as Borr, and the Tree of Harmony had taken the name Yggdrasil.