The flood had ended.
Waters receded, clouds broke, and sunlight spilled over a hollow, broken Earth. The world was quiet—but not at peace. Beneath the calm surface of the seas floated the silence of the dead.
Noah and his family lived. The animals lived. But all else had perished. Not by accident. By command.
God stood alone above the waters—not as a presence in the clouds, but as a force heavy with sorrow. His will had been done, but in its wake was something new. Something unspoken.
Regret.
"Was there no other way?"
"Had My judgment drowned more than just sin?"
He looked upon the drowned faces, the lifeless hands once raised in prayer, and felt the weight of His power for the first time. Creation was meant to be nurtured. Loved. Yet His justice had turned into destruction.
That day, the Almighty understood a truth no being had dared whisper: Even perfection could lack.
And what He lacked—He now feared.
So He did what no one believed possible. He turned inward, reached deep into His own divine essence, and tore Himself into seven parts—each one forged from the virtues He knew must never again be absent when judgment is passed.
From this sacred act were born the Archons, vessels of the Seven Heavenly Virtues:
- Avile, the soul of Humility, who bowed his head even as he descended from the heavens, bearing the sorrow of his Creator.
- Obil, the child of Gratitude, whose first words were of thanks—for existence, for breath, for the chance to serve.
- Kael, born of Diligence, whose eyes burned with purpose, forever in motion, never at rest.
- Vale, guardian of Patience, who moved only when needed and spoke only when silence failed.
- Elyen, the heart of Charity, whose palms never closed, for she was made to give, endlessly.
- Mael, the embodiment of Temperance, walking with measured steps, holding back even his breath to not disturb balance.
- Tovar, the spirit of Chastity, cloaked in stillness and silence, shielding purity not just of body, but of thought.
They were not gods. Not anymore. They were something else—divine, but fractured. Powerful, but bound.
And with their birth came a curse.
"You will not walk among men as saints," the voice of the Creator whispered through them. "You will suffer. You will bleed. You will be tested not by your virtue—but by its opposite."
So the divine punishment was set.
Each Archon would endure a trial through the flaws they were meant to cure:
- The humble would face pride.
- The grateful would lose everything.
- The diligent would be brought to apathy.
- The patient would be tested by urgency and rage.
- The charitable would suffer greed.
- The temperate would taste excess.
- The chaste would be surrounded by temptation.
"Only through this," God said, "can you serve what I once destroyed."
Thus began the Cycle.
The Archons would be reborn across generations—into villages and empires, into kingdoms and slums. They would know joy, love, heartbreak, war. They would feel hunger. Loss. Hope. They would live and die, and rise again—century after century.
Some would forget. Some would remember in fragments, in dreams and flashes.
But their Virtue would remain. Silent. Guiding.
And so, they scattered into the world of men—not as rulers or prophets, but as children.
Born of women. Raised as brothers and sisters. Sent not to lead, but to learn.
Yet not all of Heaven approved.
Mikhael and Gabriel, the last archangels who remained close to God, stood before Him as He prepared the Splintering. They pleaded.
"Let us protect You from this grief," Gabriel said.
"Let us bear the burden," Mikhael begged.
"Do not forsake Yourself so utterly."
But God was silent. There was something in His eyes the angels had never seen before. A pain deeper than divine logic. And when the act was done, and the Archons born, He vanished.
Heaven was never the same.
In His absence, Mikhael and Gabriel assumed the sacred duty of balance—mediators between the realms of Heaven and Hell. Watchers of the Archons' journeys. But their hearts were heavy.
Even Lucifer, ruler of the fallen, was taken aback.
He, who had once rebelled to claim freedom from divine order, now watched with morbid fascination as the Creator Himself broke apart.
"Is this guilt?" he wondered.
"Or weakness?"
"Let us see how long His fragments endure before they crack."
And so he waited—not with armies, but with patience. Waiting for the first virtue to fall.
The age of Archons had begun.
And the balance of God now walked among us.