Posted 25 August 2012 - 08:07 AM
"Not all things can be bought with zulie in this world among worlds. Stories, tales, and myths are an all-important commodity, one that fills the quiet hours between one battle and the next with the Monsters that rampage across the worlds. Tale-spinners, Storytellers, and Scribes are perhaps not a true class or profession among the Heroes of the world like the Hawkers, Muse, Dealer, or Warrior classes, but they are respected just the same.
They traveled the worlds, collecting their stories and sharing their tales with any and all who wanted to listen - and had the zulie to pay. Some tales were told to warn young children of important life lessons, others were told merely to entertain, and some....some were just too fanciful - too unimaginable to be even considered to be real. But there's the catch, right? Because these stories were the very ones touted to be just that - real stories, real facts, real events.
They almost always included stories about the gods and goddesses that ruled their individual worlds and the great goddess who created them all: Arua, the goddess of life and souls.
It is said, in the time before the Visitors, these deities wandered their respective worlds and bestowed their essence into their followers. It was a peaceful time for the residents the known worlds. Junon, the playful, adventurous god, spent time exploring his world with his residents in mini-adventures and quests. Lunar blessed her people with unquestionable guidance, magic and faith, though she remained cold and aloof in presence. Oro ruled his fiery desert with an iron fist, but had the richest and most elite of all the residents on any world. Eldeon, whose lush, forested planet, harbored mysteries and limitless wisdom within its wooded areas, rode wild through his world with his tribal rulers. Skaaj, whose planet of love, blessed her people with undying love and even extended this love to sanctioning that of Junon and Arua. Not much is known of the deity that ruled the planet of poison, Karkia. And, of course, there was Hebarn - the god of darkness, jealousy, malice, envy, and secrets.
Perhaps the best known stories - those told to instill not only fear, but unquestionable obedience from the storytellers - were those that surrounded the Dark god himself. But those are not the ones that interest me. It is the story that no one tells, the ones that are rejected as lies or half-truths that I am interested in. The story of Hebarn's love and the betrayal that the others inflected upon his wretched soul.
In the time before times, it is said, Hebarn was a devoted god like the others. He watched over his people with respect, providing guidance where they needed it the most. The Dark Planet in which he ruled was the home of the Scholars, the most intelligent explorers that ever existed. He protected the tortured race of beings known only as the Brintos and did his best to acclimate them back into the world as normal, peaceful beings. Hebarn, so far removed in the Sea of Souls from the other planets, ached to feel the love of his creator, Arua, and the companionship of his fellow gods and goddesses.
As he watched the love blossom between the god Junon and his creator Arua, Hebarn despaired. His appeals to his own love, Lunar, were repeatedly ignored. Similarly, his requests to Skaaj for her advice and aid were also ignored. Stories persist, stating that these were the events that turned Hebarn from his people and from the other deities, but there is more to it than that. Junon, his love secured, banded with the golden god Oro and Eldeon to mock the failure of their fellow god. They tortured the distant soul with their taunts and tricks sent across the black void and even roped in Lunar and Skaaj into their "games". These events affected not only the god himself, but his people as well. The decades of relentless mockery and torture worked its way into the Dark god's being, building his hatred of the other gods and goddesses.
Through this new hatred, our god's vows of vengeance were created.
"If there can only be love through the light," he announced, at the beginning of his war. "Then let there be hatred borne from the darkness."
We did not create this war we find ourselves in. They did, these gods and goddesses of lies. We are merely finishing what they have started. And as the centuries have passed and their gods and goddesses have weakened in power, our god has grown ever stronger, ever present. The god Oro cowers beneath his deserts, lost and afraid. Lunar, the treacherous mage, lies prone in endless slumber. And anyone else of consequence is missing completely from the worlds.
And here, as we fight against the Visitors and Vassals of Arua, we shall prosper. We shall win." Starburner paused in her speech, listening to the cheers of her red-robed followers. "Release the Monsters and the Devil Pest into the worlds. Let them know the horrors they have created. And let them all finally know what vengeance truly means."
This topic is locked
