Old Gods
The Old Gods of the First World were an ancient race, whose destruction led the way for the Gods of Earth and other planets as well as the Fourth World of Apokolips and New Genesis.
History
Origins
Around 18 billion years ago, the Old Gods originated from GodWorld (also known as Asgard or Urgrund) during the "First World". About 3 billion years later, the "First World" slowly segued into the "Second World" as the humanoid lifeforms on Urgrund attained godhood, thus becoming the Old Gods, in which these beings reached a peak of immense power and ushered a golden age of cultural and scientific advancement.[2]
First among the Old Gods was Olgrun. Olgrun was immensely powerful, creating many worlds and bestowing wonders upon them. He was also wrathful, and in his rage slew his own beloved daughter. Eventually, the other Old Gods rose up against him, and warred against him for an age. Unable to truly slay him, they instead shattered him into seven god-aspects, hiding these aspects throughout the multiverse within devices meant to protect the aspects from being claimed by the wrathful and unworthy. Amongst these devices was the artificial planetoid that would one day become known as Warworld Prime, which contained within it the aspect known as The Fire of Olgrun.
The Old Gods left a warning, carved into the walls of the planetoid:[3]
- If the god-aspects of Olgrun are found and joined by one who is worthy, he will be reborn as the hero he was meant to be. But if they are found by one who is unworthy... mighty Olgrun will return in all his wrath and fury, and will return creation to the darkness from which it was born.
Destruction
After 10 billion years of this golden age, Urgrund fell into war. At the heart of this conflict was Lokee, god of mischief and bastard son of the chief god Wotan, who became the first god of evil.[4] The conflict between the forces of good and evil escalated until Ragnarok came that saw GodWorld being torn asunder in a great explosion where the gods perished.
Legacy
The energy unleashed by the explosion of Urgrund spread across the universe, generating what later became known as the Godwave which seeded worlds with the potential to eventually bring forth gods of their own. Such a world was Earth, which produced its first own such gods 35,000 years ago after the Godwave made its first pass over the planet 40,000 years ago. This was the beginning of the "Third World".[2]
About 4.8 billion years ago, the remnants of GodWorld would eventually create two separate planets: Apokolips and Galactica[5], the world that would become New Genesis. About 30,000 years ago, the denizens of the planets would eventually obtain Godhood and traits mirroring that of the Old Gods, but would be split in terms of moral alignment[2]. New Genesis became dedicated to peace and goodness. Apokolips developed into a cruel, warlike and oppressive culture. The "Fourth World" began when these New Gods attained godhood and repeated the history of the Old Gods as New Genesis and Apokolips waged war against each other, causing the hostilities to remain to the present day.
Although the Old Gods are long believed to be dead and gone, recent events transpired that have shown some of them have survived their racial extinction. The largest group of surviving Old Gods are the mindless beings known as the Dreggs, who live below the surface of Apokolips. Arzaz and the Nameless One, each other's opposite number, were the only Old Gods who remained free to roam the galaxies. Following the events known as Genesis, Arzaz and the Nameless One were imprisoned in the Source Wall. Several remnants of the Old Gods have also posed significant threats. Mageddon, a sentient Old God war machine, had the ability of turning people into hostile savages by unleashing negative emotions in intelligent minds and was destroyed by the combined efforts of all of Earth's heroes and including every human being temporarily bestowed with superpowers. Gog, an Old God who escaped from the destruction of the Second World and landed in ancient Africa, threatened Earth's existence until being defeated by the Justice Society of America and what remains of him was embedded in the Source Wall.