In the beginning there were 31 sages that ruled the world. Benevolent and kind, they were declared to be, providing all that the world wished for. As time passed, and their power grew, so did their pride and desire to surpass all boundaries of knowledge – they began to create humans themselves. Humans, made not of earth, but of magic, designed to aid all who lived in the world.
And so they came to be known as gods.
Yet one sage, the god of wind, disagreed with this artificial creation. ‘These false humans shall only bring us grief’, he said. Until one day, he too, was convinced by the others and created a girl. But the being that he created turned out very wrong – far from being the ideal beauty he had imagined, she was born a deformed creature, without eyes, without arms, without a voice to communicate with any other than with her own creator. Yet she also held the power to control the greatest of magics, to be able to create things beyond measure, surpassing even the strength of the gods. And so, as much as her very presence reviled all the gods (except her creator), she came to be worshipped as the 32nd goddess by humans, and was reluctantly accepted into the pantheon by the gods.
With the metal arms given to her by her creator, she designed things lovely and grand – all attempts to win affection and acceptance by her peers, and to help the people who followed her. But her actions were quite often in vain. Amongst the many creations she made, the greatest she made were the Istalas, 31 in total, one for each of the other gods, orbs that would amplify their powers and aid them in their own forte. Yet her final gift made them only scorn her more, and in fear of her skills, the gods executed her.
And so came to an end the brief life of Io. But while she no longer physically lived in the world, her spirit lived on in her creations, aiding all and giving birth to many more new tools that advanced the world.