The state of the world before the corpse blossomed is hard to gauge, the only remnants being dilapidated artifacts of societies long dead and hushed rumors spoken by some of the elder undead. What is known: at one point, Ammon was born in the World Above, and at one point, something dragged him deeper into the earth, into the Below.
The Above was once a shining bright land, so beautiful that countless wars were waged over even the smallest sections of it. Kingdoms spanning continents that each housed their own unique biomes and ecosystems, oceans bursting with life and waters that flowed with the ebb and wane of the Void above it all.
In contrast, the Below was a place shadowed away from the light above, a cavernous world deep underneath where the earth ceased being fertile. The Below acted as a counterpart to the land Above, mirrored in ways and contrasting in others. For one, the capillaries and caves that housed the societies of the depths were hardly fought over as much as access to necessities were, the dark of the Below so deep that light itself was a forever dwindling resource.
Many undead dedicate their eternity to researching these old civilizations and structures, trying to piece together the broken shards of a world long gone. Structures of mass civilizations, abandoned and overgrown by flora and fauna are contrasted by hardly touched battlefields, weapons discarded where bodies fell and were promptly reanimated. Dead languages on old scrolls, archaic technology, and lost works of art are constantly being found by the remaining dead, and often these pieces of the old world will influence the new and growing one.
The elder dead tell tale of a war that raged so strong and so steadfast that it hardly lasted a single turn around the Void's star. The war began in the Below-- wherever Ammon was dragged to. He learned, through unknown means, how to wrangle life and death as two separate blades. The depths of the Below were carved through with these blades, ancient and unseeable horrors destroyed in an instant, brought back in the same breadth. The Below became the nest in which he burrowed, deep in the earth, where his army grew as if endless maggots in an ever-expanding hive.
This expansion became so pervasive that it eventually broke through to the Above, and Ammon saw the light once more and opted to take it for himself. The undead erupted from the ground in a mere night, and the Above was taken for the dead shortly after. Though, even with the beauty of the Above in his total control, the man afterwards still sequestered himself away in his nest Below.
Theologists and archeologists alike will often argue about Ammon's motive for the war on the world, his endless power stretching across everything as if a growing mold. Some theorize it was due to the maddening intent behind the control over life and death, something no mortal man should have access to. Others theorize he was sane, and all of it was planned, in order for the corpse to blossom as it has.
Once the end was complete, there was a great silence across everything, the world coming to something akin to a total halt. According to some elders, here in his empty kingdom is where Ammon truly went mad. Others argue here is where he found total peace. Regardless, the man had nothing to do but make-- and make he did. He crafted empty cities with a wave of his hand, crafted bodies of mutated and stitched together flesh with a strike of lightning he brought down himself, crafted horrific inventions that still leave the remnants of his army speechless to this day.
He recorded much of this, though often disorganized and across walls and cave systems, scattered on stray papers left about. It is not uncommon to come across a fragment of Ammon's research carved into discarded bones or in the form of walking abominations built to house what he knew. The artifacts of Ammon are more valued and precious than anything that lingers of the previous world, and investigation into them will always be ongoing.
Eventually, the research was culminated into something final, perfect, and pristine: the angel. This thing, golden in radiance yet simple in form, was made to house the maker's soul in purpose, but beyond that: it was made to live. The angel was the maker Ammon's first and only creation to be given permission to grow, and as his soul was placed inside to power the angel, his body lived on to tend to its growth.
In an event that is referred to in many ways, ranging from designations such as "The Ultimate Betrayal" to "The Kind Release," the angel killed Ammon. It is unclear to this day how it was done, but the remnants of him are carefully guarded and continuously inspected by scholars, scientists, and researches alike. What is known for sure: the body was made to bleed, and the angel cupped its hands around the wound it made and absorbed the last living blood until it had its full.
When the angel killed Ammon, it blessed its brethren with choice. It shared with them the blood that spilled from the maker, and it led the dead forward into the flowers.