Before Mainspring was The Progenitor, who said "exist" and thus made the land, the sea, the air, and the gods. This is the tale of Mainspring's first year through the eyes of the mortals the gods created and guided through the empty land; the gods' intervention in this year was guided by the rules of a game from another world, called The Quiet Year by Avery Alder. You know how these things can be, where three walls are strong but the fourth easy to break. Following The Progenitor's moment of creation, Mainspring was empty, without plants or animals or mortals. Together, the four gods made unintelligent inhabitants to serve as resources or challenges for their eventual mortal creations: The craftsman god of Fire, Nahor, made forests of trees to grow straight and strong, providing shade, shelter, and lumber. The nurturing goddess of Water, Kuna, made schools of water-creatures, varying between tiny and huge, scaly and leathery, predator and prey. The communal gods o...