A long time ago, there was only darkness. No one knows how long that was all there was, just that there came a time where there wasn’t just darkness.

Instead, there was a palace, filled with sleeping gods, floating in the void.

One by one, they awoke, knowing who and what they were.

What wasn’t known was the current order in who had awoken.

Most were of the opinion that Life and Death had to be the first two – or perhaps Time or the twins, Chaos and Order.

But they weren’t.

Long before any of the others woke up, there was Hope. She wasn’t much of a god, not compared to her siblings, but she was first to awaken for a reason – all that would not be known for many years.

She watched as her siblings made planets and worlds, first keeping them together before separating them along the parallels, unable to be visited except for by the gods.

She watched as her siblings made people and other living – or not so living – creatures to fill their worlds.

She watched as her siblings experimented in the worlds, twisting the lives of the mortals to fit what they desire.

And she was unpleased.

She was the first to awake, that was true. What was also true was that she was the only reason the others were.

Hope woke up in a dark world, all alone. No one had disturbed her slumber; nothing had changed in their rest. Except her.

She explored the palace in the void and was the first to create.

Stars filled the void, turning darkness to light. And then came the first worlds. The dreamings.

Her siblings did not know what had happened while they slept.

Only she watched as billions of people lived and died. Even separated from the worlds, her siblings’ domains held true.

But not quite.

Death never learnt of the dreamings, not one of them passed in his hands. Life never saw their names in his books. Nature never saw people and planet work and live as one. Chaos and Order never saw their aspects at peace.

Hope’s dreamings were like her, filled with hope and opportunity. And the will to put it into action.

Eventually, the dreamings were ended and the other gods had their slumber disturbed by Hope.

But she never forgot her people. Her siblings did not know about the names carved into her heart and mind – the remnants of the dreamings clinging to her.

She did not mourn her people – for she had hope and she knew she would see them once more, in the worlds that her siblings had created. For it is Hope that makes a soul.

But the way they treated her people infuriated her. The gods looked down on all the people they had made, humans, monsters, animals and everything in-between.

And the gods never noticed as she left the palace in the stars, they had long since let their eyes drift off Hope.

But her people, they would recognise her if they saw her, as she walked freely among her people on the new worlds her siblings had created. And she inspired hope in them like they did to her, hope that despite the will of the gods, they could do anything.