“Lady Epani, are you busy right now? Oh… Oh no…”
Elkay didn’t really like going to Epani for questions, but there was a question burning in his head right now and Epani was the only person who could answer it. Actually, maybe Ksini could have answered it too but…
The god of knowledge skidded to a halt. He may have been the god of knowing stuff, but he routinely had no idea what was going on inside Epani’s personal chamber, within the Castle At The Centre Of The Universe. And he had clearly just walked in on something… awful.
“You do know what knocking is, right?” Ksini hissed as she uncoiled herself from around Epani. What was more worrying though was that the room was nonsensically huge, and Epani was in her old space whale form.
“I… uh… sorry…”
“It is fine!” Epani seemed unbothered. “Ksini and I were just cuddling anyway. She gets awfully cold sometimes while flying across the universe and she warms herself up by wrapping around my permanently warm body. What do you need, Elkay?”
“Oh… um… are you sure?” Elkay stuttered.
Epani glanced at Ksini, then nodded. “Yes, of course. You are the god of knowledge, and right now, you crave new information, yes? And perhaps Ksini can assist in your question too.”
“Oh… Alright, I guess?” Elkay settled down, doubly so as Epani summoned a chair for her to sit on. “Admittedly, this question stemmed from me talking to Syksis and Maresia, talking about venoms in nature. But I found myself building on it somewhat.”
“It’s because I fucking hate insects…” Ksini paused. “Sorry. Got ahead of myself. What is your question, Elkay?”
Elkay hesitated a little. “Um… Well, my question was, the Twelve Races, alongside the many proto-races that didn’t make it to modern times or the space race, most of us are bipedal races, and the closest thing we have to an insect race is, well, the Vohra, I guess. I wanted to ask why we don’t really have anything insectoid that is on the same scale as vertebrate beings… Is it really because you hate insects?”
Epani glanced at Ksini again. “That is a very good question. I actually do not mind… some insects. All creations have some value. But in that sentence, the key word is creation. Ksini and I are Zontanians, we are creators. While we do not create full races directly, we guide life to grow the way we like it to. But we have obvious biases and not so obvious biases, so different creatures end up in different ways.”
“Funnily enough though, most local Life Goddesses are like us!” Ksini added. “We don’t like insectoid beings, we find them… a challenge to deal with on evolutionary scales. They can build nests and structures but it is hard to guide them into becoming creative individuals within their societies.”
Epani nodded in agreement. “If anything, we somewhat failed the Vohra early on. It took us a long time to help them into becoming individuals the same way the average Torr, the average Temthan or the average Skyan are.”
“Oh… Makes sense, I guess. You guide things to be more like yourselves…” Elkay thought for a moment. “But you mentioned “local Life Goddesses”, Ksini, and I know you have a… a brother, I guess, who has nearly the same name as me… Would that Elkay create the same creatures as you, if he made life?”
Ksini thought for a moment. “Hm… I don’t think Elkay-En or Phovos are actually capable or willing to create sentient life.”
“Hang on, who is Phovos?” Elkay interrupted. “Are we talking about the Ancient Warlord who ran the arenas?”
“Different Phovos…” Ksinis muttered. “Epani and I had a mother, someone called Kinisis. You have… somewhat met what remains of her.”
“Your mother is a Corruption?”
“She was a Life Goddess. She was killed, by Arkay and myself, and attempted to resurrect herself via a myriad of methods. Her last effort turned her into a Corruption…” Epani awkwardly explained. “But Kinisis also produced other kids. Elkay-En was made in a universe before Ksini and myself, and was given as a bribe to a Corruption to make it leave. We… do not know where Phovos came from, but she was born much later in the same universe we were born in, and we did not find out that Phovos was a Life Goddess until somewhat recently.”
“What does Phovos look like?”
Epani glanced at Ksini. Ksini grunted.
“She annoyingly looks the most like Kinisis did. Elkay-En inherited both Kinisis’s black and green, Epani and I were black at first but chose our own forms and colours to make ourselves more unique, but Phovos looks like a Temthan but with a Ksithan-like mane of hair. She and Elkay-En though both believed they were mortals though, and that makes it very difficult for you to make mortal life yourself.”
“Huh… But what… are there more Life Goddesses? Like, different types?”
Ksini quickly nodded. “There are. We actually belong to a specific type.”
“Those Mothers, yes?” Epani queried. “I think that is what they are called? Based on signals we have picked up.”
“Yeah. We descended from a pretty important Mother.”
Epani grunted. “Was Kinisis really that highly worshipped out there?”
“She’s one of the first four daughters of the First Mother, someone who is responsible for basically every Life Goddess in our part of the eternal void. I couldn’t find out if she was first, second, third or fourth, but considering what I saw when I was out there? Armoured Threanic-like beings, a myriad of Temthan-like beings and more? We all clearly think in ways similar to Kinisis and Kinisis also thought similarly to other Mothers.”
“Does that mean that, theoretically, there are Life Goddesses that make insectoid life?” Elkay asked.
“Oh, one hundred percent!” Ksini smiled. “I actually met a passing Life Goddess that was insectoid. Really, the only defining and consistent feature we all have is being sexy as fuck.”
“Are you including Elkay-En in that?” Epani asked.
“I mean, Elkay-En did look like a hot, muscular, sexy Skyavok…” Elkay muttered, before falling silent. It took him a moment to start speaking again. “Alright, I have other thoughts I need to deal with now. Thank you for the new information for the secret part of my library.”
“No worries!” Epani smiled as she and Ksini waved. “Speak soon, my dear.”
“Yeah… sure thing…” Elkay sighed as he got up, then awkwardly disappeared through a shadow.