Where to start? Gods there is so much…actually, yeah, let's start with the Gods. This is something that I had to go through a lot of hell to learn, but given your nature, you'll have no issue digesting the information.
So, the Void. Most everything that is known about it is from you, but now I can give you a little bit of history.
There are many different things that make up the Void, you see. Naturally there are Void Creatures, primeval entities that have existed before time as a concept was even thought up. Your Great One's are a version of these creatures. However, that is not all.
There is also Nothing.
Which is to say that there is a thing called Nothing. It is very confusing, so I'll give you an example. That white mist on the Hollow Mountains? That's Nothing, at least, that's how it represents itself.
There exist creatures of the Nothing as well. However, their power varies drastically. While Void Creatures seem to be all god-like, perhaps equivalent to the Unholy, those of the 7th Rank. Hell, some might be even stronger than that.
In any case, Nothing Creatures are even more diverse. They exist in a weird limbo of being powerless and all powerful. Since they are Nothing, they need to be seen or heard in order to manifest. The thing is, it seems that once they do become 'something', the strength they wield could very well reach the level of gods.
Of course, even then there are weaker ones. I once encountered a Nothing Creature right here on the Forgotten Shore, I kept my eyes closed and didn't respond to its whispers, so nothing happened.
Meanwhile, an Awakened Devil evidently saw the thing, since I heard the battle ensue. And yet, for some reason, the Devil managed to survive. Perhaps it was due to the nature of the being witnessing it that the Nothing Creature was unable to kill such a weak creature, or perhaps some Nothing Creatures really are just that weak, though I doubt it.
There is nothing to be done when considering such creatures, it is far too perilous to ever study them.
The only reason I myself have an understanding is because I traveled the distance of the Hollow Mountains in order to get her. There were plenty of Great, and I believe some Cursed creatures as well that fell in that place. Meanwhile I just managed to sneak by through hiding and being insignificant in comparison.
Anyway, I'll explain later why Nothing is so important.
For now, consider the final thing from the Void.
Since the Void contained everything and Nothing, it was only natural that something truly different was born from it.
That something was "The Flame". From what I have gathered, it can also be called "Desire." You already know about that, I believe. What you don't know is that there were 7, not 6 beings that were born of the Flame.
The Sun God, The Beast God, The War God, The Storm God, The Heart God, The Shadow God, and the Dream God.
Indeed, that weird rule of 7 that pops up all the time is due to reality being born from 7 gods.
Now, you are wondering where the Dream God is, and why no one has ever heard of him.
Well, it's a rather distasteful story.
You see, the Flame and the Void were, by nature, opposed. While Nothing existed in a strange limbo space of not necessarily working with either concept, it was not active in its meddling.
So it was that the Flame and Void had a war. At this point, The Gods were the most powerful of Void beings, at least, that's my conjecture. Despite this though, they were greatly outnumbered and stood no real chance of eliminating the Void.
Instead, they used the dwindling Flame of Desire to create a cage. They created and used concepts such as time, space, and death to act as threads for the net that caught all Void beings and their realm of existence. Furthermore, they also bent the Nothing to their Will, further guiding their construct.
However, something disgusting occurred. I am not sure how exactly it came to pass, perhaps the other Gods tricked the Dream God, perhaps he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time (so to speak), but the end result was undeniable. The strongest of the Gods was trapped in the Void, acting as the bulwark against the Void.
Once again, it is unclear if the Dream God merged with the cage or if his essence simply influenced it, but whatever the case, this unique situation of the Flame being defiled by the Void led to the creation of a new concept.
Corruption was born, and so too was the God of Corruption.
Now, it is worth noting that before this transformation occurred fully, the Dream God ripped some of the concepts that he ruled out of his being and threw them out of the cage and into the new realities being made by the 6 gods.
This was the birth of the Daemons. While they were once mere Sacred creatures, they grew to Divine Titans, and then something beyond them, only slightly weaker than the 6 gods.
There were 7 of them, of course.
The Demon of Choice.
The Demon of Hope.
The Demon of Dread.
The Demon of Imagination.
The Demon of Repose.
The Demon of…what was it? Ah, yes it was the Demon of Oblivion. That one is hard to remember for some reason.
And finally there was the Demon of Fate.
These 7 gods did not immediately oppose the 6 that ruled over existence.
Or rather, the 6 gods who became existence.
This is another odd bit of knowledge that is hard to understand. At the level of the gods, their bodies became Realms. The Dream Realm is the forgotten and corroded body of the Dream God.
However, the Gods are dead now, somehow. I'm still not sure how that happened, despite all that I've learned.
In any case, their bodies, those Realms, still endured and life continued in them.
However, the Dream Realm and the Forgotten God grew stronger and thus the Realms began to be consumed, stitched together to form the Dream Realm we know today.
The Storm Sea, for example, was the Storm God's Realm. I have a few ideas on what other areas once belonged to the civilizations of other Realms, but nothing concrete.
There is an exception though.
The Waking World, the place where we are all from. It is not an exception to these rules of reality. It too is the body of a dead god. In our case, we come from the Realm of War God. Quite fitting, I think, given the fact that the Supremes that were supposed to lead humanity turned to war in a matter of a few years.
Ah, I've been rambling.
Let's rewind a bit.
The God of Corruption was not dead, and despite carving out the Daemons from his being, he retained his Will.
And what a dreadful Will it is.
It is because of his essence that Corruption leaks into our world, spreading and infecting everything it touches.
It is because of his essence that the world, all worlds, are doomed.
At the moment, he is slumbering, but once he wakes, the Forgotten God will show the realms true despair.