A Universe before Tibia?

This is one of the articles that was submitted to the Secrets of Tibia 3 contest and won the 5th place. It was written by Kantarzus.                           

A Universe before Tibia?
 

Certainly one of the most wonderful things about Tibia is its rich history and mythology. The game presents an infinite number of possibilities to expand its content.

We know that the concepts of dimensions, parallel universes and different planes of existence exist in our wonderful game. However, I was surprised by a discovery, a true secret, difficult to swallow, but present in the game.

I've always been fascinated by Tibia's stories involving ancient civilizations and also by the concept of Necromancy. Ankrahmun is a synthesis of both things, and that's why I started investigating this dark and mysterious city. Everyone loves the Serpentine Tower, and sees the mysterious items it houses as something wonderful. But the true wonder of the Serpentine Tower is the knowledge of its Tothdral guardians.

I started talking to Tothdral to find out more about Ankrahmun's beliefs and secrets, and behold, I came across the following surprises:

Kantarzus: Tibia

Tothdral: This world is only a shadow of the worlds that have been. That was long ago, before the true gods fought each other in the godwars and the false gods rose to claim their heritage. 

So were there other worlds before Tibia? Why false gods? And is this War of the Gods that he refers to the same one narrated in Genesis?

Let's continue:

Kantarzus: False gods

Tothdral: The self-styled gods were nothing but minor servants of the true gods. They steal the soul of any mortal foolish enough to believe in them. They plan to use the stolen souls to ascend to true godhood                     

Kantarzus: Godswar

Tothdral: This war brought about the end of the true universe. That which is left now is but a shadow of former glories, a bleak remainder of what once was. The true gods perished and their essence was dispersed throughout the remaining universe. 

Remaining universe?

All very surprising, so according to Tothdral, the gods of Genesis are false gods, who fought a war in worlds prior to our current world known as Tibia, which is nothing more than a shadow of these... A very peculiar doctrine... From this I decided Seek information from the guardian of the Ankrahmun temple to see if you could get more information on this topic there:

Kantarzus: False Gods

Rahkem: The so-called gods are just the weakest of their kind. They are pitiful remnants from the terrible godswar between the elder gods which tore the universe apart. 

Once again the mention of a universe that was destroyed. And more:

Kantarzus: Tibia

Rahkem: It is likely that our world is a part of one of the dead true gods or one of their manifestations that somehow escaped destruction. We must assume this is all that is left of the original universe. 

We have strange things here. First, by all indications, Rahkem and Tothdral seem to believe that all gods are false, even the gods initially described in Genesis. They also believe that before these gods, in another universe there were much more powerful true gods, but they perished in an ancient war. However, Rahkem associates Tibiasula as being one of the true gods… Strange, right? But is there support in Tibia's Genesis to conceive this?

I went to check what is said about the origin of the elder gods and Tibiasula in Genesis to see if there is room for Tothdral and Rahkem's statements: Let's see:

“In the beginning there was only a big, gaping void. It was everywhere and nowhere.

In this emptiness two powerful entities appeared who were eventually known as the elder gods: Fardos the Creator and Uman Zathroth who combined in himself two unequal halves. One of these halves was Uman the Wise, a benign god who was gifted with divine intellect, while Zathroth the Destroyer was the other, darker half. These were the two halves of one single enigmatical entity, and even though either of them was perfectly capable of acting on his own just as if he had been fully independent, they were not. They were bound together by an eternal bond that could not be broken, and their destiny was one.

Nobody knows where the elder gods came from, or whether they had always existed and eventually awoke from the slumber of infinity. But somewhere along the way they decided to create a universe.

So, according to Genesis, no one knows where the elder gods came from, but one of the hypotheses would be that they simply woke up and created, mind you, A UNIVERSE, because the text describes A Universe and not THE Universe?

Furthermore, if the gods AWAKENED, (as is the name of this chapter “The Awakening of the Gods”), can we ALSO understand that they were unconscious, inactive, perhaps forced to do so by the War of the Gods in this ancient Universe?

But then let's continue, what does Genesis say about Tibiasula?

“To this day, nobody knows precisely what it was that caused it. Perhaps the power that had been spent lured another entity out of the void, or it might be that it simply awoke another divine entity from its slumber. Some even claim that in some mysterious way the power that had been spent by Uman and Fardos actually created a new entity. Whatever the truth may be, a new goddess stepped out of the void like a new-born mermaid from her shell.”

Now! Then Genesis itself considers the possibility that Tibiasula was another divine entity, and that she woke up from her sleep! So it is possible that Tibiasula is a remnant of the TRUE GODS just as Rahkem says!

Rahkem also reveals to us that the False Gods also suffered the consequences of the battle that destroyed the Universe before Tibia, and what he tells us reveals why Uman and Zathroth are Siamese:

Kantarzus: Uman

Rahkem: The beings Uman and Zathroth merged forever in the blaze that followed when the last of the true gods perished. 

Amazing how Ankrahmun reveals secrets, isn't it?
 

Okay, so far we have discovered surprising things about this concept that there was a Universe before the current one, however, we are limited to Ankrahmun... Would this be just a particular belief of the Ankrahmunians, encouraged by Pharaoh Arkhothep to consolidate the worship of himself and promote the eradication of the worship of the gods, which he sees as competitors to True Ascension?

It was then that when studying the Prime Artefacts, Galthen gave me the answer!

Let’s read the book written by Galthen:

Prime Artifacts (Donated to the royal library of Bounac by the venerable knight and scholar Galthen)

“Among the many magical items I came across during my travels, there were a few extraordinary specimens. Of all the bizarre magical creations only a handful would cause instant harm and even fewer corrupted body and mind in a manner that was not reversible or could be countered with spells or proper gadgetry. However, some were of a peculiar malevolence, not just charged with wickedness but "made" of chaos. According to my experience, there is no such thing as good or evil. Those are relative terms, derived from human evaluation and expectations. Based on the moral compass of individuals, rather than facts and meticulous research as dictated by a proper academic approach.

There are destructive forces in place in this world that can be harnessed to create impressive relics of might. Some artefacts, however, are rather pure and seem to originate from a time and space even before the world as we know it even came to existence*. I dedicated my life's work to finding and neutralizing these artifacts which I call "prime artefacts". Their origin or purpose is unknown, their power to distort and corrupt is unfathomable. Yet I am convinced that the ultimate consequence of their influence is purely destructive.”

So, Galthen also confirms that there was a space and time before our world! What's more, some of the Prime Artefacts may originate from this Ancestral Universe! This would explain why they are so powerful…

So, we got the answer that yes, there was a universe before Tibia! But given the current events involving Variphor, and Tibia's path towards destruction as Lugri, and other NPCs claim, the question that remains is, will there be a Universe after Tibia?  

I hope you enjoyed!

Until later.

Kantarzus - Astera

References:
Genesis - https://www.tibia.com/library/?subtopic=genesis
Galthen Book: https://www.tibiawiki.com.br/wiki/Prime_Artefacts_(Book)