Mythology: Ragnarok

Chapter 188 Popular Science: The Story of the World Tree

Here, I must explain the difference between the giants and the Titans. The Titans were originally a collective term for the humanoid elemental nature gods of the same era as Aio. Of course, although they were called humanoid, their appearance was nothing like that of humans. At first, the Titans united to fight against top-level beings like Aio and created the World Tree, which consisted of nine worlds, during that period. After Aio's death, the gods fell one after another, and the Titans began an endless civil war, eventually perishing in the infighting.

However, the creations of the Titans did not die. Their remains later gave birth to the first generation of Titans, led by Uranus, the Father of the Sky, and Gaia, the Mother of the Earth. They were also the first generation of god-kings recorded by the World Tree. This generation of Titans was comparable to Tiamat and Bahamut in both seniority and strength.

The first generation of Titans consisted of twelve, but to distinguish them, we prefer to call them the 'Twelve Titans'.

However, the story always unfolds in strikingly similar ways. Later, a brutal civil war broke out among the twelve Titans for power and status. In the end, Cronus emerged victorious and became the second-generation god-king of the World Tree. Here, it's also necessary to debunk a myth: when the story of the Titans was introduced to the mortal realm, it was somehow mixed with incestuous elements by lower beings. I don't know when the nonsense that Cronus was the son of Gaia and Uranus started. I solemnly refute this myth here: the Titans' method of reproduction is completely different from that of humans!

Basically, all beings associated with the word Titan are natural gods, nascent from divine power and extremely concentrated elements. As for why they are nascent, it is mainly because the War of the Gods shook the foundation of the multiverse, making it impossible for the universe to directly give birth to natural gods. Therefore, the first generation of twelve Titans were only born thanks to the vast foundation of the World Tree and the offerings of many Titan corpses.

The way lower life forms reproduce is completely different from that of higher life forms. This is a very basic common sense. However, many civilizations have ignored this basic logic due to their limited knowledge and all sorts of whimsical ideas. Even worse, some have used this way of insulting the gods to narrow the gap between themselves and the gods and have written many arrogant stories. Of course, without exception, these versions of the stories of these civilizations later suffered a devastating disaster when the Titans heard about them!

However, we no longer need to fear retaliation from the Titans for recklessly discussing incestuous versions of the Titans' rule, because most of the Titans have now been sealed away, as their rule was soon destroyed by the 'giants' they themselves created.

Because of their small population, the twelve Titans were particularly enthusiastic about creating life. The 'pseudo-Titans,' who looked very similar to them in the Prime Material Plane but had no divine power, were the Titans we know in a broad sense. Although the pseudo-Titans could rival the dragons created by Tiamat and Bahamut, the Titans were not satisfied with that. They wanted to create offspring who would inherit their divine power, not lowly wastes that had only the form but no god.

Soon their first creation, the first giant 'Hestia', was created. Of course, in reality, there was no story of Kronos devouring these 'children', but when the sixth giant 'Zeus', created by Kronos himself, was born, the story began to get a little out of control.

Zeus was incredibly powerful; he even mutated into a form of lightning power that the twelve Titans did not possess! Despite being a descendant, Zeus's strength was comparable to that of Kernos.

Later, as the giant race grew stronger, the powerful Zeus began to harbor his own ambitions. The children gradually began to look down on their conservative and unambitious parents, so Zeus launched another civil war. The giant race, with Zeus and their numerical advantage, finally defeated the twelve Titans and banished them to the underworld of the World Tree. The underworld of the World Tree is actually Niflheim. The souls of creatures that die inside the World Tree gather in Niflheim and are reincarnated. The World Tree is a perfect ecosystem built by the nature gods. It can be said that Niflheim is the Styx River of the World Tree.

So the twelve Titans were banished to Niflheim. As time passed, even they were eroded by the environment of Niflheim. Eventually, the twelve Titans were permanently frozen in Niflheim by the necromantic cold that was even more terrifying than absolute zero (at least for now, no one can release them), and Zeus became the third generation of god-king of the World Tree.

However, the story does not end here. Zeus, like his ancestors, was keen to create new life and expand the giant race. But soon, as the giant race continued to grow, a group of humanoid gods who were shorter than the giants appeared in the World Tree. The most representative of these new gods was called 'Odin'!

Even Zeus didn't know how Odin and the others were born. According to Odin and the others, they were created from the body of a giant god named Ymir after his death. However, Zeus couldn't recall his own race ever having someone with that name. In fact, Ymir was a marginalized figure among the giant gods, with little influence.

The giant gods, represented by Zeus, disliked and even discriminated against these weak new gods. As the conflict intensified over the years, Odin could no longer tolerate the oppression of the giant gods. The new gods also put aside their own conflicts and united to sound the horn of resistance against the giant gods.

Odin knew Zeus's power; in terms of divine strength alone, the new gods were no match for the giant gods. However, every cloud has a silver lining. Odin accidentally discovered the Well of Wisdom left in the World Tree by the ancient nature gods. The Well of Wisdom was actually more like a mid-range processor that the ancient nature gods used to store their wisdom and take care of the entire World Tree. There were three such processors in total.

Odin was fortunate, for he found the Fountain of Wisdom, which contained all knowledge and textual archives, exactly what he desperately needed as he prepared to rebel against Zeus. So Odin used his own eyes as the price to activate the Fountain of Wisdom and put himself into a state of suspended animation, so that his soul could temporarily leave his body and enter the Fountain of Wisdom to obtain all the wisdom within.

Thus, in the eyes of the giant gods, runes, artifact forging, and the hidden functions of the World Tree inexplicably appeared in the hands of the new gods and became their core strength against the giant gods. Moreover, Odin created a new system of gods to allow the new gods to overcome the congenital defect of thin bloodline and obtain acquired divine power that was no less than that of the giant gods.

Ultimately, with overwhelming numbers, superior equipment, advantageous terrain, and the compensation from the new divine power system, Odin finally led a group of new gods to defeat the giant gods. Afterwards, a Renaissance was launched, driving the giant gods to Niflheim. It can only be said that history always repeats itself in certain places.