Pheniro

Throughout all of the universes, there are three absolutes:
-Our existence is absolute, born from the chaos of the unknown.
-Our existence and our understanding of our existence was designed by the Grand Architect, Etu.
-Etu is impartial to each universe.

Etu designed a being of great power and wisdom for each universe, and charged the beings to fill the worlds with life. Most importantly, the beings, called Creators, are to show the creatures and all manners of beings the way of the truth. Each universe was given a creator with unique traits that were evident in their creations. On the planet called Pheniro, the individuality of the Creator, called Venthiis, is shown by massive oceans, island continents, and immense mountains. To guide the life on Pheniro the Creator invented a staff that would imbue knowledge on a subject, but not force the creature to act on the knowledge. This ensured free will. For some, the knowledge would be used to help, while others to oppress and conquer. To further help shape and develop the world of Pheniro, the Venthiis asked Etu for a council of the brightest minds, and to extend their lives in order to maximize their effectiveness. For an age, this council was used to spread the knowledge of the pathway of truth without strife. Several millennia of peace and growth ensued.

A member of the council asked Venthiis to use the staff to imbue great knowledge on a young warrior prince. A great argument followed with several members of the council pitted against Venthiis. The members of the council questioned why Venthiis, already with immense power, should have the staff, and why it wouldn't make more for the members of the council. From the fall out of the argument, several members of the council chose to make staffs of their own design. The staffs were not nearly as powerful as Venthiis', but collectively posed a serious threat to the general order of the universe. Venthiis foresaw the eventuality of the members being able to enhance their staffs, and how they would join together to would be able to destroy Venthiis' staff, and poison the pathway of truth. So grave was the threat that Venthiis saw that the only option was to completely destroy all of the false staffs, and destroy the knowledge that the members of the council had needed to make their false staffs. The only way to do destroy such knowledge was to eliminate the originating source, part of Venthiis' knowledge base. Doing all of this would ensure Venthiis' ultimate demise.

Being of greatness and having profound knowledge, Venthiis imagined how the remnants of the council would rejoin and seek to destroy the staff though cunningness and guile. Venthiis received a vision from Etu. It was of the staff on top of a mountain at sunset. On one end was the sun, the other the moon. In between the two bodies were eleven stars in a straight line. Then the stars scattered across the sky to eleven different constellations made by Etu: the Builder, the Musician, the Keymaker, the Painter, the Mariner, the Rope Climber, the Librarian, the Scales of Justice, the Writer, the Protector, and the Helm. The Sun, the Moon, and each of the stars signified a component of the pathway of truth. Venthiis saw this and understood. Venthiis dismantled the staff into thirteen pieces as the vision dictated. The pieces were named, and imbued with the Creator's knowledge. The pieces bore the titles of: the Pheonix's Head, the Hammer Strike, the Easterly, the Skeleton, the Animator, the Guiding Light, the Forgemaster, the Weights of Fate, the Silver Tongue, the Aegus, the Horns of Silence, and the Snowfell. All were great artifacts that would imbue the true owner with extraordinary knowledge, wisdom and abilities in their field of study. Venthiis ensured that each artifact did not force the application of the knowledge it generated, so as to retain free will. True ownership was not based on mere possession of the item, but a devotion to the field coupled with a drive to serve the world with this great knowledge. Further, the allegiance of the artifact must be earned. Such great knowledge and power could not be stolen or possessed by ill means. Having dismantled the staff, Venthiis chose the original keepers of the artifacts, then sacrificed itself to stop the rebellious members of the council.

The locations of the pieces of the staff were given to an order known as the Knights of Gallifrey to ensure the safekeeping and protection of such great knowledge. The Knights were not told what the pieces were, but served valiantly and fiercely as custodians of the artifacts' locations. The leader of the Knights, a warrior named Ressa was entrusted with a manifest of the artifacts' true names and to whom the pieces belonged to. As with all things, that the pieces were passed along from the users, and that the Knights maintained the names and owners, passed from memory into the oblivion of legend.