At the beginning of the world, there was always the House. First came the Gods-from-Stone, and they were followed by the Gods-from-Light. It was the First from Light, [[The Spark]], that encouraged the other Hours to join him in a grand expedition into the worlds beyond the House they had always known. He was followed by the Gods-from-Stone [[The Maker]], The Mirror, [[The Butterfly Hatching]] and [[The AnvilElder Sister]], as well as his fellow GodGods-from-Light [[The Apple-of-the-Eye]]and [[The Caladrius]]. In the Histories they discovered the Fair Folk, who were amazed and awed by the strange beings so far beyond themselves. Upon discovering these creatures so beneath themselves but fascinating and precious all the same, the Hours chose to follow him dedicate themselves to the education and development of new forms of life. For a time, the Hours equally shared in their mentorship and in exploration some cases parentage of the Fair Folk. But as the Fair Folk began to gravitate to the worship of the Butterfly and the Elder Sister, the inspiration came to the Spark and the Maker to create for themselves their own race to nurture. Using the shared form of most Fair Ones as a model, the Maker sculpted without rest for six days straight. On the seventh day, the Maker's creation opened their eyes. In the loving embrace of their father, the First Men were born. The other Hours at first were split on these strange world outside , fleshy creatures their brother had created. They had no magic, no inherent power of their own. They could not store the power of the Hours like the Fair Ones could, nor did they know how to come and go from the Hours' House as they pleased. Where, therefore, lay the Value of these man-creatures? But what man lacked in power, they more than made up for it in their fathers' gifts. Like the Spark that inspired their creation, they possessed an insatiable hunger for knowledge and discovery. And like the Maker that had always crafted their flesh from clay, they soon learned they had endless potential for improvement. They demonstrated the ability to craft and invent new tools for themselves, just from what they had seen the Fair Ones use.  And when that failed to impress, humanity demonstrated its ability to ''evolve''. Like the clay that had spawned them, humans could be reshaped and molded in the Hours' images in ways the Fair Folk could not. After a thorough examination by the Spark and the Caladrius, the Gods-from-Light proclaimed that humanity might someday reach heights comparable to the Hours that spawned them. This spurred the interest of the other Hours, who with few exceptions chose now to embrace the newborn race as their own. The Fair Folk, some with goodwill, some with resentment in their hearts, came to be knownas the Cousins of Humanity. Upon finding  As the Hours experimented with and laid the foundations of the society of their new race, they made a saddening discovery. Where first it had been assumed humanitysimply did not know how to enter the House, these the Hours dedicated themselves eventually realized the First Men were totally incapable of it. Born from the clay of the Histories, their flesh did not possess the ability to cross the Sea of Sleep and enter the Mansus. It seemed that never would they be able to join their gods and masters in the education wondrous House they could only imagine from the tales of the Cousins and development Hours that had experienced firsthand. The Hours sought to harness the power of [[Knock]] the Principle of these strange Travel and interesting Opening, to bestow the First Men with the ability to pass into the House. First they implored the Butterfly Hatching, whose primal nature ruled over the Rupturing of the World's Skin. But she rebuffed them. The Butterfly wanted only new forms sensations, new wonders. She would not burden herself with the repetitive task of lifetearing holes for humans to pass through each time they wished to come and go from the House. Many Besides, the other Hours began saw the damage her power and idle whims could inflict on the fabric of reality. It was obvious: to rely on her was to court disaster. But humanity's potential attracted the attention of another, chillier Hour of Knock. The Dolomedes, the enigmatic Hour of Balance and Exchange, was at last lured from its lair in the Hall of Silence by the newly created Value the Maker had wrought. The Great Spider offered the First Men a bargain: it would weave between the material worlds and the House a great bridge. Through its power humanity would, for a few hours every day, be allowed to appear during leave behind its bodies of flesh and ferried across this time, among them bridge to explore the House of the FNORDGods. All it asked in exchange... was themselves.

The discovery Now and forever the First Men, their children, and the lines of humanity attracted all the attention of children born down through the ages would surrender the enigmatic Hour of everlasting life the DolomedesMaker had bestowed upon them at their creation. They would be susceptible to injury, who they would age and be made a rare excursion from its domain on [[The Moon]] to investigate this strange new worldbear the marks of time. Humans were astounded and awestruck by And, at a time the existence of such strange and powerful beingsFerryman found convenient -or should they suffer sufficient bodily harm- their physical bodies would perish, and began revering them as godstheir spirits would reside in the House forever. They yearned to Some would be able permitted to visit wander the halls and experience the plane of existence be with their new patrons originated from firsthandgods forever. But no matter how hard Those whose souls had taken on qualities of interest to the Spark tried to inspireSpider, nor how fervently the Maker sculpted its subjectshowever, a way could not would be found to allow creatures as fragile as humans to travel from their realm to Claimed by it, and would reside in the MansusHall of Silence forever.

The solution to Some Hours balked at this problem was found in deal. Others approved. Some bade the DolomedesFirst Men negotiate a better deal, who for the loss of one's immortality was no trifling thing. None were given the first among the Hours chance to possess dominion between opening and joining placesargue their piece. Humanity begged The First Men's decision was unanimous. The promise of the great spider to use its power to let them visit the Mansus and it relentedHouse's wonders, of spending an eternity there, on one conditionwas a temptation they could not resist. Always partial to collecting things of value and curious about humanity itselfBefore any protest could be raised by their mentor-gods, the Dolomedes agreed to bridge the mortal realms and the Mansus on the condition that mortals it deemed worthwhile through "weighing" their souls would one day be taken away to reside with First Men accepted the spider in its domainSpider's Bargain.

Humanity accepted the spiderSome say humanity's terms, and a bargain was struck. First, the Dolomedes agreed to weave a great bridge over what became known as greed that day planted the sea seed of sleep to the Mansus[[Grail]], allowing travel between the worlds for lesser beings. Second, to maintain of a balance and to signify that mortals were but visitors in the realm Principle of the gods, their bodies would remain behind in the mortal world while their spirits explored its halls. Third, to prevent overcrowding and to ensure mortals did not linger, they would only be allowed within the Mansus for limited time each night. Finally, humanity agreed that when the spider deemed their "time had come", they would go quietly with Desire so strong it fully into the realm of spirits and leave their bodies behind forever. Some would go to the Mansus forever, while those who were "weighed" and found to be of value would go to the domain of the spiderovercomes all reason.

For quite some time , all was well. The disappointment half of them bore for the First Men's willingness to bargain away what had been gifted them aside, but all were satisfied with the promise humans continued to show. As the spirit of these experiments and expeditions Gods-from-Light predicted, with their newly-formed connection to the mortal world changed abruptly however when House humans could be remade in the image of the Hours set forth "improving" mortals.  Empowering them with slivers of their own power, it was the Hours found that a mortal mortals could be made into beings that were quite above the humans they once were. Now bearing a being that sliver of power themselves, they regained their indefinite lifespans while retaining the ability to cross between the worlds. These beings would both not become the first Long. Both Hour and Long rejoiced at this discovery. An end to age ! Soon, no longer would humans need fear being Claimed by the Spider. While humanity celebrated what they saw as the end of a great danger and pass dedicated itself as a whole to and from Ascension, the Ferryman was watching. And it was not pleased. With the limitless patience of the unfathomably cunning, it bid its time, crouched in wait for the perfect reason to enforce the Mansusterms of its Contract as it saw fit.  The first cracks in the heretofore steadfast relationships between Hours formed when would form not long after the Maker attempted to make created its first NamesName. From the Long, a man of impeccable character emerged. A will of iron, a cunning like no other, and a creative mind primed to invent. He was the ideal candidate, and it was with pride both Maker and Spark elevated him, to the point his name carried almost as much reverence as their own when spoken. ----  One of it's mortal followers actually murdered her sibling in a bid to take the great honor for herself, and was cursed with the wretched form of [[The Cuckoo]] for her trouble. After this incident, the Hours became more wary of mortals and the Maker went so far as to never make Names again.