AN INTRODUCTION – THE TRAVELER
Welcome Readers, to Erth
Erth, as you will soon learn, is not too dissimilar from the rock you currently inhabit (perhaps a bit more unhinged).
In the interest of brevity, as nothing annoys me more than an “introduction”, I would like to skip the flowery bullshit and get to the meat and potatoes of our fantastical story.
Erth is climbing to its technological peak.
Our shifty little denizens have recently discovered things like saltpeter and astronomy.
The left-brained amongst them are creating operas and concertos while the right venture out into the vast oceans, where they are discovering new places and interesting new species.
The world’s potential is opening up to these burgeoning people.
Unfortunately for them, however, they have Gods; and as we all know, Gods bring war.
Lots and lots of bloody, meat-grinding wars.
Now some half-witted philosophers might argue that wars strengthen, ignite, and ultimately further the human-race but, as a student of this brand of Men, I would argue that war is the “step back” that happens after two steps forward.
Wars are hell but extremely fucking interesting to the parties not involved
Now, amongst all these God-States is a character who I think you will find particularly interesting – His name is Black Laaster and he is the fucking truth.
This dude is a stone… cold… killer… who comes from a LOOOOONNNNGGG line of stone-cold fucking killers.
Laasters have been running shit on Erth as far back as people can remember
This Black character is a sort of demi-god, (or demi-demon) whom most people on Erth avoid if at all possible.
A visit from a Laaster typically means that you’re either giving up your power or going to war.
The Laasters have more or less dictated policy on Erth since their benediction from Gaia a decision that She immediately regretted and which no other God has dared to do since.
Human are not meant to share in God’s power, and you will soon learn why
You will get to know Black very well because, in many ways, his bloody trek across our war-torn Erth is just about the best way to convey their story.
As for the rest of our cast of characters, it’s important to be educated on one other fella.
He is formidable power who goes by many not-so-clever names – The people in the swamps call him The King Snake – The mountain folk call him The Sorcerer (ugh) – The Duplicitous call him Deriven – but I personally like the tag that the Scyn came up with – The Red Philosopher
He is a brilliant and destructive force who has a particularly hardened view of the world
Whatever his name, he was a human of inconspicuous beginnings who, after acquiring one small piece of magic, put Erth on a crash course that amazes historians like me without end
Other than the fact that that he was defeated by Tien Laaster a couple of hundred years ago we will skip his story for now and focus on Black; the last of his line… the last Laaster
The last tidbit I would like to introduce is the Moah Stones (or God Stones)
These stones were, from the first moment they arrived, bad fucking news
Moah, like Gaia, is/was a God
I kind of hate calling them Gods cause they’re really not GODS!!!
They’re more like GODs
They’re powerful entities that move and change matter and energy with their thoughts and…. Fuck it, they’re Gods
Entities (or GODs) like Moah float through time and space and occasionally grab onto places like Erth; much in the way that a drowning man caught it rushing rapids grasps for riverbank to avoid drowning
Their time with Erth is fleeting, but their effect is great nevertheless.
These Gods interact with humans in severely limited ways; we can drill down into their substance and wax poetic with priests and scholars but what matters is that much like the harnessing of electricity would seem like black magic to your ancient forefathers, these “Gods” and their ways seem like magic to the archaic people of Erth.
These Gods used their tricks to build followings and that devotion served only to strengthen the Gods hold onto their Rock.
The drowning man’s grip tightened and the people of Erth slowly changed.
Of these handfuls of Gods was Moah
Moah was a God of pure love and un-ending spiritual flow and She adopted the people of the Mountain.
The worshippers of Moah received unending and unrelenting love, and because of that they became war mongering cunts.
They feared nothing, knowing that their God would always love them, and with that un-earned love they ventured out with fearlessly conquericity into the world
With ever more lust in their hearts, their big fat fuck of a King spoke the words that would forever disfigure mankind
“If you love us Moah, will you not give us what we ask?”
As a Being of giving and love, she refected that she would
‘Then we ask to be powerful like you, to share in your capacity of love”
Moah knew what they were asking and acquiesced to their demands
Moah gave them what they asked and Her gift cracked the world and re-jiggered humankind forever.
The King and his cronies would do what the all-powerful do and claimed in their books, lore, and propaganda that they “knew not what they asked”, but the truth was plain.
When humans see power, they want power; and in seeing God, humans cannot help but to want THAT power for themselves
With that act of pure selfishness, Moah was gone and her stones splintered out amongst the land
That fracturing and its world-shaking death rattle was so horrible that most immediately knew that this event could not possibly end in good
Man now had the “Power of the Gods” and the 2nd epoch had begun
Ok, I feel like we’ve kept this nice and short and introduced our protagonist and antagonist. Neither one is all that likable, but trust me when I say that they are both fucking powerhouses, and their story is going to create some absolutely brilliant conflicts
Now that we’ve set the stage, let’s begin shall we…
