Before the Beginning
The Keepers have existed for eons, maintaining balance across infinite dimensions. They are older than gods, older than creation itself. They do not ruleâthey maintain. They do not createâthey preserve. They do not interfereâexcept when they must.
"At some point we just have to accept that things 'exist.' Our story is based on the premise that a species called the Keepers exist in perfect harmony."
The Shores of Existence
The Keepers walk upon beaches where the sands are not grains of silicon, but entire dimensions. Each grainâa galaxy, a universe, a complete reality. These "galaxy sands" travel back and forth in the Waters of life and magic that the Keepers manage.
Their Oceans
While the Keepers themselves exist in perfect harmony, their oceans are a torment of disarray. The Waters churn with chaos magic, life force, creation energy, and entropy in equal measure. It is their eternal task to maintain balance within this primordial chaos.
Imagine standing on a beach where each footstep crushes and reforms entire civilizations. Where each wave that crashes brings new possibilities into existence and washes away dead realities. This is the daily existence of the Keepers.
Their Nature
What Are They?
No one knows the true form of the Keepers. Some who have encountered them describe beings of pure light. Others speak of shadows given consciousness. Still others claim they are simply the universe observing itself.
What is known: They exist beyond time. They perceive all possible timelines simultaneously. They understand the consequences of every choice before it is made. And yet, they allow free will to persistâperhaps because even they cannot stop it, or perhaps because free will itself serves a purpose they comprehend but do not share.
Their Limitations
For all their power, the Keepers have rules. Whether these rules are self-imposed or enforced by something even greater than themselves is unknown. But the rules are absolute:
First: They cannot create. They can only maintain what already exists.
Second: They cannot destroy. They can only allow natural entropy to occur.
Third: They cannot interfere directly in mortal or divine affairsâonly observe and adjust the Waters.
But rules, as any god or mortal knows, are made to be tested. And when a Keeper breaks their rules, the consequences ripple across all of existence.
The Challenge to Their Order
Within the chaos of their primordial seas, something stirred. Something that would challenge their perfect order. Was it Renaldo's creation that disturbed the Waters? Or did Renaldo himself emerge from a ripple the Keepers could not control?
The Keepers maintain balance, but they do not control destiny. Even they cannot predict what will emerge when chaos and order collide in just the right way.
What Do They Want?
This is the question that haunts scholars, gods, and mortals alike. The Keepers want... what, exactly? Balance? Harmony? Or do they want something more complexâsomething that requires both order and chaos, both creation and destruction, both life and death to coexist in perpetual tension?
The Uncomfortable Truth
Perhaps the Keepers do not want anything. Perhaps they simply AREâeternal witnesses to the unfolding of all possible realities, neither judging nor celebrating, simply maintaining the conditions necessary for existence to continue.
Or perhaps they want something far more sinister. Perhaps perfect harmony is not their goal, but their prison. Perhaps the chaos of the Waters is not a problem to be solved, but a test they are failing.
After all, if the Keepers have existed for eons maintaining balance, why does the War of the Gods happen? Why does Nexus shatter? Why does Apocalyptica exist?
Either the Keepers allow these things... or they cannot prevent them.
Meeting a Keeper
Very few beings have encountered a Keeper directly. Those who have describe the experience as simultaneously enlightening and terrifying. To be seen by a Keeper is to be evaluated at the deepest levelâto have every possible version of yourself across all timelines observed and judged.
Some who meet Keepers are changed forever, granted knowledge or abilities beyond mortal or divine comprehension. Others are destroyed, unraveled across dimensions, their existence deemed incompatible with the balance the Keepers maintain.
A Warning: If you encounter a Keeper, do not ask questions. They will answer, and their answers will change you in ways you cannot predict or control.