On the Void & What it Means to be a Dragon (an excerpt)
[Yanzu's] imprisonment sheds a light on what the Void truly is and how it operates. For years it was posited that Yanzu was the creator of everything, even the Void, for he was the first to enter what would become our Universe and he saw it as Nothing. If you could ask the Princes what came before, they would raise their heads in contempt. No mortal could be trusted with the notion that a God such as Yanzu could be disrespected and pitied, let alone be seen as weak. Though even the Princes and their scribes call him names, he is still their Father first and foremost. At least, he is - in nothing but name. Indeed, their intelligences were formed by Yanzu, but as the Void would tell you (if it would speak, and believe me, it very well could), it was itself alone which formed the bodies of the Princes.
Yanzu would refuse to admit this. Not even Nezeshu could get it out of him (and she stole his throne!). If there is one thing known for certain about the powers of the Eightfold Law, it is that it is transcendent. It is present within all things, past present and future, and exists throughout time and space immemorial. Every God is born of the Eightfold Law, every Universe is born of the Eightfold Law, for Xaos abounds eternally throughout the threaded web of existence. It is multidimensional. To the Princes, this is simply a fact of existence. To Yanzu, it is a reminder of his past.
Yanzu is believed to be the oldest being in our Universe, especially to mortals, as he is the closest thing to a capital-G God, an archetype of supremacy and intellect, although his nature is closer to that of the demiurge in Gnostic cosmologies, if nothing else. Nezeshu would prove to the Stage of Heaven the truth about him. Lady Ruin ruins things best, as all she does. She revealed to the Courts that his Throne was built as a wall between Ordered Creation and the Void, for what lurks within the Void scares him. She had explained that, though his Power and Influence was great upon the Universe and the Courts, what was most true was his neglect and abuse. Indeed, for Yanzu bears the mark of an Absentee Father, a Negligent and Indifferent God. He was so ashamed of his children, the Princes, due to their hybrid nature and birth within the Void, and ashamed of himself, for allowing the denizens of the Void to course through him as they did - and so Yanzu forsake them. For years they have wandered and lurked our Universe, his Forsaken instruments of divine Will, and have carved a fortitude for themselves to keep without him. Thus misery was.
Was it not hatred that was emanated first throughout his Creation? Was it not wrath that emanated last? You need only to glimpse at the natures and offices of the Princes to see the truth. Yanzu’s genius is most troubled and scarred. What was it that he had seen in the Kingdom Outside, that Outer Nothing as we call it (for we do not have the eyes to see) that caused him to perish and descend as he did? Was the creation of our Universe a punishment carried about by a force even older than him and his brothers?
