The Book of Amascut

[myriadbeautiful]

The Book of Amascut

Chapter 1

There was a time when the Kharid was a lush land, full of life. Tumeken, the Sun, blessed the land with light and the fire that motivates life from the sky above, and the mighty Elidinis, the river, blessed the land with water, which carries life. And life sprung up from the rich earth, nurtured by the two lords of life.

And it was at this time that Elidinis carried all manner of creatures to this land, creatures that would drink from her waters, and wade in her waters, and enjoy the fruits of the land and the hunting on the land, and thus become fruitful and be hunted themselves. And it was at this time that Tumeken brought his chosen people to these lands, and never did they see such wonders as those Tumeken and Elidinis had created here. Tumeken and Elidinis saw it fit to adopt forms like the non-human creatures as well as human-like creatures, so that they could be with their people, both known and unknown. Tumeken adopted the form of the high soaring falcon so like them he could watch over his land and fly to his people with speed. Elidinis chose for her form the river-horse, placid-looking and bountiful, yet rabidly protective and deceptively powerful and deadly.

But as there was life, there was also death, for deathless life is unnatural, selfish, dangerous, and unholy. The gods themselves pay a great price for their immortality, yea, even the lords of life have paid for the sin of undeath. And Tumeken and Elidinis wanted their children to know what they had lost, so their two children became lords of death, guardians of the underworld. There was a son, Icthlarin, ever loyal, eager to please, and constantly seeking approval, so he adopted the form of such a creature: a jackal-like dog. There was also a daughter, also, Amascut, fierce and handsome, with a discerning eye that saw all truth, for it was the fiery Eye of Tumeken. The Eye is Tumeken's justice and judgment upon his people, and so great was the Eye that the Lioness had a spectacular mane, despite being a Daughter of Tumeken and despite being a Lioness. All who gazed on her red hair knew that their god in the sky gazed back.

And so the Kharid was peaceful and prosperous. Outside the Kharid, other gods and other peoples walked, either making eachother prosperous or terrorizing eachother. The Kharid had rich forests, with excellent timber, and traded with foreign lands. The people of the Kharid ventured into the seas and islands of the southeastern seas and made good trade; they traded with the bird-like men of Hallowvale who came in ships over the northeastern seas; they traded with the pointy eared giants and midgets who came in ships from the west; they traded with the occasional strange creature from the Crystal Kingdom who traded with the Mehkmets, including men-like birds from lands they claimed were north of the pointy eared giants. And so trade enriched the Kharid, both by the way of the sea and by overland routes that went through the lands of the increasingly prosperous Mehkmet tribe in the northern Kharid. But all was not well, of course there was disorder in the order and there was evil amongst the good and there was life and death. It was Icthlarin's role to conduct souls to the afterlife, but before he could do so, souls had to pass before the fierce Eye of Tumeken. To those worthy, exceptional souls, Amascut offered them rebirth by weaving a new life from the remains of an old and spent body. To those unworthy of even the afterlife, Amascut destroyed them utterly, devouring both body and soul.

The Mehkmets of the north, though they had become prosperous because of the pass they guarded, were also in the most danger, for most lived north of the pass, the door to the Kharid. Further to the north monsters stirred, so monstrous to become gods themselves. Adventurers, blessed with the fierceness of Amascut and her knowledge of life and death carried the wrath of Tumeken and his fiery Eye to the north. These were the first slayers. And so the safety of the Mehkmets and the safety of the rest of the tribes in the Kharid were won.

But this safety ended shortly after slayers started reporting back that a new monster had been borne into the world. A king of monsters, a Dark Imperator, an Empty Lord, who had sacrificed one of the mightiest god-beasts of the north in order to bring in twelve legions of demons to the land. A sickening aura that demanded loyalty, yea, even devotion, which pacified even the most nefarious of the demon lords and the most chaotic of the demon slaves. Warrior-priests and priestesses of the Eye and the Lioness's Wrath added their strength to the warriors of the Mehkmet and volunteers from the other Kharidian tribes in preparation for the coming storm.

The Kharidian Pantheon weren't alone in preparing. The Lord of the bird-like men of the Hallowlands to the north-east not only fortified his western border with this new Dark Empire; in a move to protect his Holy Island in the South Sea, he invaded the Crystal Kingdom, for he feared it would be a weak buffer. Myriad and beautiful were the towers of the Crystal Kingdom, but they were weak and delicate, as were the inhabitants. The Crystal Kingdom was shattered and only a few creatures made entirely of light survived, but these too disappeared as the Lord of the bird-like men fortified the shattered ruins, declaring himself the Lord of Light who would drive away the Darkness. The Eye saw this, and she passed judgment, but the Wrath of Tumeken, the true Lord of Light, would be stayed against the pretender. For now, perhaps, both Lights would burn together against the growing Dark. Still, trade with Hallowvale started to sour.

It was at this time that Icthlarin, ever loyal, eager to please, and constantly seeking approval began to worry, for as strong as Tumeken and Elidinis made them, as blessed they were with the knowledge of Amascut's way of the slayer, would Tumeken's people stand a chance against the demonic legions of the Empty Lord? Would they not be like dry pine needles before the breath of the dragons, guided by the Dark Imperator's new dragonriders? Would they not be like grapes, crushed and juiced to reward vampyres loyal to the king of monsters? It was at this time that Icthlarin began worrying that he and his sister, Amascut, had been banished to the Underworld as a punishment; banished from defending the Kharid with their own divine power. It was at this time that Icthlarin craved his own people, not in order to overshadow his father's people, but to protect his father's people and to regain Tumeken's praise. He knew, from his all-seeing sister, that the Empty Lord had gained his powerful allies on other worlds strung across the Universe, many from worlds that were universes themselves. He entreated his sister to help him to find his people, the Kharid's new protectors, for she was the best judge of souls. Amascut, seeing the wisdom in what he said, agreed, and they both abandoned their duties in the underworld in order to search the Universe for help.

They came across many worlds. Many empty, many in ruins, many, to their great dread, somehow incomplete. For what god is so powerful as to create a world, even an incomplete one? They meet many peoples, many unwilling to fight on a foreign world for the benefit of a foreign people, some seemingly touched by the Empty Lord or the pretender Lord of Light. Those few willing to follow Icthlarin and Amascut into war were either judged too weak and frail, or too evil to bring back. It was at this time that Icthlarin grew wearied of Amascut's judgements, for no-one they met was good enough for her. They were about to reach the end of the Universe when they arrived at one last world, an ash-covered, smog and lava-filled hellscape. Lightning raked the sky and the ground, searching for life to snuff out. Yet, there was life, sentient life. A civilization of hardened warriors yielding both enormous physical and magical strength, and with frightful strategic intelligence. These, finally, were the people Icthlarin sought out, but Amascut could not judge them. When the two gods approached this warrior tribe, she realized why as Icthlarin told them of a war taking place far across the Universe on a world much more green and much less deadly than this one. The warriors had no souls, they were like the gods themselves; instead of having a soul, they had divinity. The divine warriors argued the merits of leaving their home to fight a war that wasn't theirs, and their words quickly became fists flying through the air, and blades tearing through armor, and profane magic spells. The Eye saw, then that these warriors had not given up their souls for divine power, they were created that way. Created after the shadow of the Dark Imperator himself.

In the shadow of the volcano that loomed over all of them.

Amascut warned Icthlarin of this, and of her deep misgivings. But Icthlarin heard no warning, only praise for the dark warriors' power and potential. Amascut looked to the volcano in desperation and in fear, for what would create such fearsome things? Possibly the destroyer of such things, as well. Two of the warriors who had objected to leaving were killed, one in a ritual that restored the living to beyond their former power and health. The warriors had resolved to leave with Icthlarin and Amascut and made preparations to do so, but Amascut walked away from the warriors' village and up the mountain.

And there, on the slopes, she found more creations, more shadows. These were no longer shadows of the Dark Imperator as the dark divine warriors had been, but they were living nightmares. The Warrior Goddess had no trouble with banishing the nightmares with the fiery light of day but as she did, the mountain and the Dreamer in it stirred.

When Amascut banished the last of the Dreamer's nightmares, the Dreamer opened her eyes.

And wailed.