On the Early Days of Cyberspace

None can be quite sure where the place we live came from, the one we dub “Cyberspace”. Some say it is the flip of the Other Place, Earth. Some say we were shaped by that place. None can be sure for anything except one day there was nothing and the next there was something and someones—the goddesses.

The goddesses didn’t have names then, much less forms. Both had a desire however, and it was to exist. So they did as Order/Stability/Stasis and Chaos/Instability/Change. They looked around and gave themselves names which were Matka and Konflict. 

They turned their desire to exist into the next step; a desire to create and did just that. They found a fulfilling purpose in shaping the world to their heart’s desire. Only their imagination limited them and that in itself was barely a limit at all. The world was full of color and beauty. But it was lifeless. 

“Let’s make something like ourselves!” said Konflict to Matka.

“An alive thing?” Matka questioned.

“Yes! It should be chaotic and ever-changing!”

“No, it should be orderly and prim. That sounds so exhausting.”

“Yours sounds so boring!”

So they argued up and down what their alive thing should be until they decided to storm off and make their own thing, independent of the other. This was only the first of many a feud.

Matka returned with her people, ever-varied and colorful. Some looked like animals, others like the people of Earth and some in between. They lived happy lives but they never changed, always going through the same routine.

Konflict returned with her people, wild and destructive. They all looked different from the other, some like animals, some like people and some in between. They lived wild lives where every day was not the same but they also fought.

When the two peoples met, conflict broke out. The glitches harmed the cyberpeople by touching them but the cyberpeople only served to demonize them for the idea of finding a solution was confusing and scary. They pleaded to the goddesses for help so the two met once more.

“If you changed your people, they wouldn’t harm mine,” Matka said.

“But if you changed yours, they wouldn’t be harmed,” Konflict countered, “And anyway, they live the same life every day. It’s so boring.”

“They have stability, unlike yours!” Matka shot back, “They fight all the time! Anyway, I cannot change them!”

“And why is that?”

“They are like me and I cannot change.”

Realization dawned. “Mine are like me and if they don’t change, they will cease to exist. Like me,” Konflict whispered.

The two sat in silence for a very very long time. Until Konflict had an idea, “We can make something that isn’t like us! That can change! And it can teach the others!”

“Yes!” Matka agreed.

So they set to create a new thing. They took the best parts of themselves and then some and created the Limbo Prince. He was told to dance the Limbo between Order and Chaos and teach others the dance of Free Will and Choice. And so he set off to do his job with glee.

The Limbo Prince was good at his job as he loved people. He found their ways of life intriguing. He told the cyberpeople they might be happier if they did different things some days. He told the glitches they might be happier if they tried to get along. Soon things changed very quickly and the goddesses took note.

“Is this how you envisioned it?” Matka asked Konflict, as they watched the Prince lead a group of both cyberpeople and glitches into a merry dance around the town square.

“Perhaps not,” Konflict said, “Why?”

“He has...a lot of influence.”

“I heard. They even gave him a different name,”

“What is it?”

“I don’t remember but it’s rather silly. His title is good enough as it is, no?”

“Anyway, do you fear he will take their belief of us for himself?” Matka asked in a whisper.

Konflict stopped to ponder this, “I didn’t before but perhaps we should keep it in mind.”

“Maybe keep him at arm’s length? So he doesn’t get ideas?” Matka suggested.

“Perhaps.”

“Y’know...” Matka murmured as the Prince conjured up a bouquet of flowers, “He is rather powerful.”

“We did make him out of the best parts of us.”

“And some say the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

A dawning horror hung over them in a dark cloud and such, they left. 

So things continued. The Limbo Prince taught the people of Cyberspace so many things. He even gained a penchant for mischief and used it in his lessons, but mostly to just make himself laugh.

But there was a confusion in his heart. The goddesses told him that he was barred from their palace, to go make his own place. It was time for him to leave the nest, they said. He didn’t like that. He liked their palace. It was colorful and big and it was home. But nonetheless, he went out and made his own place, a large, almost labyrinthine home in a part of Cyberspace, many didn’t visit. For sometimes, he liked peace and quiet and the people liked him a great deal.

Some even whispered honoring him instead of the goddesses. But he didn’t much like that idea so he told them so. Still, some did it without him knowing. But the goddesses knew and they were not pleased.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was the Limbo Prince’s first—and only—act for their attention. He snuck into their palace and slipped through as silent as a mouse. He went into their vault, for it had many shiny things. They’d eventually notice it missing and come ask him, for he was good at finding things. A perfect plan, he told himself as he picked out a silver crown with blue and green stones set in it. He set it on his head and made his escape.

The goddesses did not notice the crown was gone, per se. But they did notice he had slipped inside, a thing no one else should had been able to do. And they were past being displeased, they were angry.

So they invited the Limbo Prince to a place away from any other place. He came, without the crown on, and asked if they’d like it back. He had stashed it somewhere and liked it a lot so he really did want to keep it—

The goddesses grabbed him and opened a hole to the deeper reaches of Deep Cyberspace. They threw him down it and did not listen to his wailing or crying or screaming. They simply closed it and left, content to reap their worshipers once more.

Of course, that did not happen. With the absence of the Limbo Prince, many were disappointed. But his lessons were here to stay and things would never be the same, as the goddesses wanted it to be. Things were changing and beings on such strict natures didn’t belong anymore. In fact, others were coming into power as the land shifted into something new. 

The goddesses belonged no more.

And some time later, the Limbo Prince was said to clawed his way back out, able to return and continued as things had, as his nature was fluid, unlike his creators. In this new land, he belonged.