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Post by *~Ellieeee~* on Aug 3, 2008 19:00:43 GMT
Life and Death Gods and Demons Fact and Fiction Good and Evil Truth and Lie What do we do when the divisions in the world become blurred? What do we do when we can no longer tell what is right and what is wrong? Who do we follow when the world is out of sync? Part One: Beginnings: Harmony?Where can we begin but with the beginning of the world, else it’s the seedling years following? The manner of creation may be a subject of debate, but in all myth and legends, during that juvenile existence, one this is certain. Or rather, two things…
Life in balance is made in opposites. Good and evil, Gods and Demons, but most importantly life and death. If no one ever died, then there would be no change, no fresh blood; the world would be come stale and from there, stagnant. Similarly, if no more were given life to then eventually there would be no more left to die.
But, though this may seem like aimless waffling to you, the significance of it will change your life, and the lives of every equine and every wolf in this world…
What happened in the hundred years after this land was created, found, or formed depends on whom you ask; the Divine will tell you that there was chaos before their Gods and Goddesses came those who follow the Heart of the Wild and the Realm of Death will tell you something very different…
“We were the salvation. Before us there was no order, no law, only chaos and violence. We brought structure to a barbarian world. Without us you would still be living in dirt holes. But first, let me introduce my fellow divine beings and myself. I am Ouranos, God of the Equines and this is my beloved mate, Gaia, Goddess of the Horses. Our carnivorous companions are Tor and Fenris, God and Goddess of the Wolves.
Together, we brought order into a chaotic world, law to those who had none. Is there anything wrong with that? Before us, as far as the eye could see was mess and disorder. When we first arrived there was nothing but stallions fighting stallions, mares against mares, wolf on wolf…
The night we glided down from the mountains, the moon was shining so brightly: silvery orb hanging silently in the sky. But the land below was in turmoil. We couldn’t see any order, any meaning. Folk of all species were dying and living, with no obvious meaning to it. What possible horror could those in the thick of it have felt? And the source of it… That thing was the bringer of chaos…” - Ouranos, Horse God
Ouranos and his comrades were Gods and Goddesses from far off lands. When they looked down on this rugged land, they saw anarchy. But whoever said that mayhem couldn’t have a pattern hidden within its depths? Ordered chaos. That was the way of the world. What they, in their blind arrogance couldn’t see was a heart. The Heart, as a matter of fact. The Heart and The Realm. I should explain…
The Heart of the Wild was, and still is, a force to be reckoned with. It is the pure power of the wilderness and the provider of nature and growth. It makes things grow; it gives life to everything. But on it’s own the world would overflow. A stagnant pool of existence, more and more diving in, but none ever leaving. Quite simply, overcrowding would suffocate the population while keeping them alive.
However the Heart has never been alone. It may be natural to suppose that its counterpart would be its enemy but that is false: it is a counterpart , keeping balance. For every life that is given, another is taken away. It’s the way things must be to keep the world turning. This subtracting force was christened the Realm of Death.
So here we are, with a Heart and a Realm in perfect equilibrium. But as you may have noticed, there were four who did not see the symmetry. Four who did not see the genius of a Heart and a Realm, four who would destroy it and bring about their own regulations, thinking they were doing good, but really only sickening the earth on which they stood…
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Post by *~Ellieeee~* on Jan 5, 2009 19:04:46 GMT
Part Two: Separation and Division When the Gods and Goddesses looked down upon the land and saw only disorder, they knew something must be done. It was so different here to what they were used to: there was no definite leader, no controlling force. They wolves ran wild and the horses did what they wanted. The only tiny bit of comfort was that there were herds with leaders and packs with alphas (to the Heart and the Realm, for animals to arrange themselves in that way was the most natural thing in the world).
For day after day, night after night, month after month, they plotted. From what careless tongues had divulged, the Heart and the Realm could never be destroyed; their power was too great. But did that mean that they were untouchable? Was there a way for four heavenly bodies to destroy those who had been the sole conductors of life and death for hundreds of years? Obviously they found a way.
No one knows how it happened. One moment the earth was turning as it had always, and the next there was a new establishment and the world was expected to bow before beings that claimed to be divine. Were the Gods stronger than the Heart and the Realm? Or was there some underhanded skulduggery involved? I think the latter is more likely, but don’t let me influence you decision.
Either way, they were trapped and separated from each other. The Heart was trapped deep in the mountains, an impenetrable fortress of rock and ice. No on could escape and no one could get in, or so the captors thought when they sealed the prison with some strange force. As an extra precaution, the Gods and Goddesses charged several horses and a number of wolves with the impossible task of guarding the Heart from those who might seek too free it. It is worthwhile to note that the selected few were not told anything of the Heart, or even why they were there; the Gods did not want to corrupt their minds with such thoughts. The irony is profound, as you will discover in these next few moments.
Once again, the Gods had underestimated nature. The Heart was not a physical object, and so it sneaked out of it’s hiding place, snake like. I must mention that it could not escape entirely – the Gods spells prevented that – but it leaked through enough the trickle into the soil around and into the minds of those sent to guard it. Under the Hearts influence, the guards turned wild, wilder than anyone had ever been before.
Over generations, this wildness was diluted, but still restlessness remained in the decedents of the original few. These folk soon came to be known as the Wild Ones. Tempted by their anarchic ways, many left the Gods lands and joined with them. If one wanted to be picky, then they could say that they were not True Wild Ones; they did not have the blood of the Heart running in their veins, and had merely chosen that life. But one could also argue that a choice is more powerful than being born into something. There has never been a ‘True’ Wild One that has rejected their wandering life.
For the Realm of Death they needed something different. It needed to be trapped as far from the Heart as possible: under the ground. Locked away below the feet of the living, the Gods needed someone to guard it. Hadn’t they learnt their lesson from the Wild Ones? Those poor gullible males, tricked into living under the earth, a stallion and a wolf were trapped into protecting the world above from the influence of the Realm. Oh conceited Gods, will you ever learn? Though the Realm has never truly been a force of evil, it has never been the warm cosy sort either. It poisoned their minds, turned them into the evil the Realm was believed to be. Those two rose up to challenge the Gods, under the names of Inferno the Lord of Fire and Wolfbane, the Curse of Wolf-kind. The Gods took a surprising length of time to realize that they were the young brutes that they had sent to trap the Realm.
Meanwhile, far above in a world controlled by four Gods, everyone, wolf or horse, was made to make a choice. Capitalizing on the creation of these “Devils”, the Gods preached that if you did not follow their way to the light, then after death they would be hunted for eternity in a place they called “Hell” where the Devils lived. Everyone who did not run to the Wild Lands (roaming lands of the Wild Ones) made the choice. Some chose the Light; others wanted the power promised by the Dark. Lights and Darks, the good and the bad, everyone was separated and thus, divided.
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Post by *~Ellieeee~* on Jan 12, 2009 18:20:34 GMT
Part Three: A Symphony of War Whenever there is division, there is tension between the sides. Perhaps it would have never erupted into a bloody war without help, but if it hadn’t, then we would all still be trapped in rigid order. Is that a good thing? War is an act of destruction, and all acts of destruction begin with one single power.
The Realm of Death is not just death – it is all destruction. The Heart, on the other hand, is the power of life: constructive, you could say. Naturally, it is beyond the Heart’s power to take lives. So even if that is its wish, it is the Realm that pulls the soul into its cavernous arms. So for this very reason, it was the Realm working through its Devils that was the maker of this war. Like a conductor conducting his orchestra, a chess player moving pawns, the Realm of Death dictated how the war folded out. Of course, the key players had no idea that they were working for the greatest destructive force ever; they were under the assumption that they were working for the Devils, but more importantly, for themselves.
So here is how the music of war unfolded.
A brutal stallion, who when by the name of Amarak, was stupid and power-hungry, and that’s without the help of the Realm. He was a typical bad guy; all he wanted was to rule the world, have as many mares as he wanted, and to feel the blood of his enemies washing his limbs. But that alone is not enough. To impose your will upon everyone you need brains. Knowing that he had to handle Amarak’s ego with kid gloves, or risk him exploding in anger and ruining the plan, the Realm did not order him around (through Inferno). Instead, the Heart gifted Amarak with a sister, and then a nephew. The Realm then influenced Amarak to murder his sister in front of his young nephew, Malo. Remember that, and the sway it would have had on Malo.
Malo was gifted with the intelligence that Amarak lacked. For years, Malo was able to plant seeds of war in his kin’s head. An army was gathered, and a herd strengthened with fresh blood and a rigorous regime of fighting practise. The Realm had the perfect war machine, albeit one with a slightly blunt head. It was time to fire up the engine.
And that’s what happened, literally. A fire sweeping through the forest Amarak had made his home forced him to cross into the Light lands: when better to start his invasion? I shall spare you the gory details, but know that many died, and those that were not murdered were imprisoned and enslaved. Amarak was on top of the world, almost. Once the pesky Wild Ones were gone, he would be the sole King of the world. But like a workman sharpening his tools, the Realm simply whipped him off.
At the height of his triumph, Amarak was cut down by his own nephew. Amarak, first and last King of the World. Malo was now the Emperor, but that wasn’t enough for him. The Realm had long been priming Malo for this moment – it was so close. He stormed the Wild Lands, and found that many didn’t give a hoot, so long as he left them alone (Were these the True Wild Ones?). He was so close, but unknowingly he was being assisted. The Heart had concentrated its power on the boarders of the Wild Lands, keeping the Gods at bay, but they couldn’t be held for long, nor driven back – the full power of the Heart and the Realm were needed.
As Malo freed the Heart from its stone prison (no one has ever found out how he did it, only that he though it would destroy the Gods and make Inferno the only supernatural being) a chain reaction took place. The rumble that preceded the blast cracked apart the foundation of the earth, loosing the Realm of Death onto the earth once again. With a blast that could be heard and felt all over the world, a colossal force was released. It was directed at the Gods’ heavenly home…
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Post by *~Ellieeee~* on Jan 19, 2009 16:58:08 GMT
Part Four: Out of SyncImagine, for a moment, being locked up for thousands, if not millions of years. No escape and only tantalizing contacts with the outside world. You’ve been watching the world through a key hold; you know what’s going on, but the picture is obscured. You are isolated from those you are linked to; you have no contact with the only one who can even begin to understand you.
And then, all of a sudden, you are free. What would be top of your list of things to do? Revenge? Reunion? Think about it. Which is stronger: anger or love? Well, after thousands of years of imprisonment the thirst for vengeance was as powerful as the desire for water in a desolate desert. Noting would stop the Heart and Realm form eradicating this blight from their domain. The Gods and Goddesses would wish they had never set eyes on this land, they would crumble beneath the combined forces of the Heart of the Wild and the Realm of Death… beneath life and death…The operative word being would…
Separation had taken its toll on the Heart and the Realm. They couldn’t seem to work together any more. They couldn’t work together as they had done, without need of thought; they were out of sync.
As the explosion of power left them, several things happened almost simultaneously. The discharge did indeed blow the Gods and their Mates back, but not quite into oblivion. It did restore their natural “disorder” to the world, but only to half of it. When two humans are out of sync they might have the occasional squabble, or go through times when they don’t speak. But the Heart and the Realm are not even close to human. They were not strong enough like this to destroy their common enemy.
All three sides of our story gathered their followers around them, and each plotted. The Heart and the Realm both wanted to oversee the destruction of the Gods and their followers (the Foirfe – it’s meaning: The Divine). But they both wanted to reconcile, but for some reason, they just couldn’t (was it because the Foirfe were still at large, covering one half of the world?). The other half was divided between the Heart, the Realm and those they who followed them. The Saoirse were the peoples of Freedom, influenced by the Heart. The Thall were the animals that held allegiance to the Realm.
You may say that this is no better what was happening before, only with a different name. However there were a few crucial differences: It was two against one. Though the Saoirse and the Thall often skirmished, their intent was the same. But crucially, the difference was that this time, the world was out of sync.
The effects of this simple problem were immense. Why? Because when the Heart and the Realm released that explosion of power, it did not all disperse. It lingered on in the air and that… that caused change. Simply: powers. The equines and the wolves absorbed small portions of the powers that the Heart and the Realm held. Not good… or very good…
Of course, the powers were not distributed evenly. Some had more than they could control, other’s had none at all (and that in turn drove some to the Gods in bitter jealousy).
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So here we are. In a war torn land, with some gifted with the power to destroy, and other’s gifted with the power to create and no one working together to forge a better future. The Gods want the land back under their command and the Heart and the Realm want them obliterated but cannot work together to reach that goal. This place needs healing. Will you be the one to do it? Or will you just tear it farther apart?
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