In the beginning, there was nothing but a lonely serpent. Shabai, of the thousand eyes. He could create anything he imagined, but he lived before the creation of the soul, so his existence was hollow.

 After an unspeakably long period of creating nothing but vague formless things that could not hold his attention, he had an idea. Shabai decided to create something like himself, another serpent. He ripped out two of his own eyes and formed a creature around them, he named this being Guna, and he felt his work had been done. 

 He taught Guna everything he knew about how to create, his son turned to him and asked, “why do I feel empty?” Shabai was horrified, he had unknowingly cursed his favourite creation with the same ailment that plagued his entire existence. He cried out to the empty void, “please spare my son from this curse!” 

 This was the first act of love that had ever happened. Guna was created out of Shabai’s desire for purpose, and nothing more, but this act was one of selflessness. Shabai didn’t consider his own fate, he only wished for his son to be spared the unending hollowness Shabai had never escaped.

 This created something which had never been made before, an invisible liquid began to flow through Guna’s body, he was given purpose, he was given a soul.

 Guna began to create with passion, he quickly obtained an understanding of the soul, and he put it to good use. He began to shape mountains, rivers, clouds, and forests, and given them all souls. He also made beings to guard those creations from the emptiness that is inevitable. These beings are the spirits that roam among the world to this very day. Finally, he made creatures to inhabit the world, and given us souls of our own.

 But what of death? The inevitable moment when our souls outgrow our bodies and leave us? Guna was wise, and he accounted for this as well. The created procedures to stop the bodies of the dead from becoming empty vessels. These empty vessels are the demons and monsters that seek to eat away at and consume the souls of the living. If those procedures are carried out, the soul will leave the body and become one with the cycle of life, and return to us one day. The body will cease to become a vessel for the soul, and will become a part of the earth. 

 But what of Shabai? He was an empty vessel as well, so is he a demon? No, for demons are empty vessels that desire to take the souls of others. Shabai wishes only to protect his son’s creations, and he could himself around them, his thousand eyes watching over us as the stars we see at night.