Saturday Super Stories - Religion 108 Part 2

My name is Mercedes Whitman and I'm a hero on a foreign world. I am the daughter of two heroes, and was trapped on this Earth during an Event that sealed the way back home forever. They call me Black Sapphire when I’m out patrolling, and these are my Blogs.

“Without me you wouldn't even have made it this far.”  Wynn shouted over his shoulder over the sound of the wind.

“What makes you say that?”  Sapphire responded back at him.

“You aren't magick for one, and you never would have passed the trials of the Grandwood.”  He retorted.

“Trials?! Seriously?”  Wynn nodded back at her.  “What kind of trials are we talking about?”

“Magickal ones obviously, they test your skills and resolve, and each one is more difficult than the last.”

Sapphire sighed, “How many are there?”

“Different for each individual, I had eleven when I came here; a few of my friends were in the single digits.  They say each of the Proctors had triple digits and that’s why they lead us, they have the most skill and wisdom of the whole city.”

“Alrighty then we still should have tried to transport here, Conjuressa has a pod.”

Wynn stopped and glared at her, “You really do not understand magick at all do you?  This place is unfindable by science, it exists in another phase space, touching at least one another dimension, the astral plane.  You cannot just ‘jump’ here willy nilly.”  Sapphire’s eyes were sad as she thought back on Walter’s words.

“ We've already wasted four days and we aren't even close to our goal.”  Wynn shook his head.

“The Grandwood plays with time we haven’t even lost a full day yet, and we’re here.”  He pulled a branch from the path and the Mystic City of Sham’bala lay before them.  “Hopefully you don’t manage to piss off their leaders and we can find out why we’re here.”

Religion 108 - Part 2 “Old Testament”

From Astronomy 102 Part 3

"Those who came before decided that if they were to be the Deities of this new universe that they had forged on the bones of the one before, they must purge themselves of the traits that might affect their judgment. So my brothers and sisters and I were born. Each of us an embodiment of an attribute they found to be cumbersome.

"Eons passed and eventually some of us began to war with one another, this was a dark time for us. By the time everything was said and done, there were only a few of us left. The remains of my brothers and sisters evolved in the ether, and became what humanity has come to call the Star Force."

"The Star Force is the remains of dead Gods?” Spectacular was genuinely surprised and astounded. “Fascinating.”

"They who were slain were scattered apart; and some of their essence evolved into the Star Force and the rest of their life force became the stars that burn in the heavens."

The War of Sorrows itself erupted many years after we were created by Those Who Came Before.  It was fueled by Jealousy and Avarice as they mounted a two sided assault against all of us in a bid for the power that they were able to claim for themselves after one of us fell.

We did not know at the time that we could lose our essence to another.  Cowardice was the first to fall, one day he was just gone, and then some of the other, weaker entities were attacked and then the sides and the line were drawn.  Two leaders emerged and other powerful emotions picked their sides and some tried to remain neutral as long as they possibly could.  That did not last long.

The War raged for centuries and many of died or were consumed by the others, only a few of us remained active in the following years.  In this age I alone remain, because I alone need to feed on the universes Chaos.  Somewhere Hope is being rekindled, she grows within herself and will be reborn when the time is right and on that day the universe will feel her and once again feel her, for that was her true power.

I fear that day will not come soon enough, forces are constantly in action against Hope, and try to keep Hope at bay, but she cannot and will not be contained or shackled, Hope springs eternal.

But some of them lost so much of themselves when they died, what they had been was lost too.  There is not a Star Force for each of the emotional states that were purged, but some of the strongest have representatives.  I must also make the mention that some of the stars themselves became Star Forces, but these rare few were not powered by the emotions but they were pure, driven excellence, and they are the most powerful.

One of them is on your Earth now, the Dawnbringer, the king of the second born Star Force.

Excerpt from a Talk with Gods by Richard Reader aka Spectacular.

TBC in Religion 108 Part 3