Kazren nodded to Jago, stretching out his wings for all to see in their full expanse. "This is not armor that I wear, friend Jago, but a tomb: A silver sarcophagus to hold the body of a dead man, a body only given a facsimile of life by the divine science of the Gods." Kazren bowed his head, folding his wings back into ready position. "A long time ago, I was called Preserver Kazren Alash, and I served no Gods before man. My range covered settlements north of the Whitestone Rifts, east of the Godseye Ridge, and south west of the Waste of Bloody Tears. I lived in the way of my order; always traveling, always teaching, always learning. I did good with that life, but it was short life." Kazren shrugged his shoulders, contemplating the fire while still keeping an eye on Jago. The thought of his death no longer caused Kazren pain or even discomfort; it had become a part of him as surely as any scar. "One of the settlements I frequented was attacked by a blessed servant of a dark God, a man whose greed for glory made him attempt to enslave the entire populace. I arrived in the midst of his mass conversion, and he struck me down before I could even speak. There was no glorious battle or contest between us, just of flash of divinity that destroyed me as surely as a boot destroys an ant. It was a simple, fast death, and yet... It brought me no rest, no resolution to my ills, no fulfillment to my duties." Kazren paused for a moment of emphasis, gauging his audience. "I died, and I was Returned by Rennahn, Goddess of Justice. She pulled me from death, and though I was too broken to imbue with life, she fashioned this silver tomb to hold me between living and dying."
Kazren spread his hands, the simplest story of his death told. "Death can be a beginning to many things, but it is only the end of a life. Nothing less, and also nothing more. You wish to change the world, to make one without the Gods, and yet, as I said, the very action will raise your ideologies as Gods. Should you succeed, you create a world without class, without structure, without order. A world where what a man can do is limited by his physical capabilities, not the morality of his culture. The power of the Gods and the powerlessness of the people is an injustice, but if you birth your new world in the blood of the old... The child will be a monster, with a temper of the selfish savagery so peculiar to mankind's darkest side," Kazren said, letting his voice grow cold. "You say the settlers have no honor, no future, but they try! They are afraid; of Gods, of Nature, of You. Yet, these people continue. Is it honorless cowardice to plant the same field you've seen burn under the holy fire of Gods, freeze under the temper of the storms, and run red with blood of kin slain by Raider guns? No! Cowardice would be to run, to hide in holes and pray for another moment of life. These settlers you kill, that you call honorless, they have hope. Many have nothing more than a fingernail's grip on their existence, and the rest have lost even that, but they still hope!" Kazren shook his head, collecting himself. "You can kill champions, I have no doubt that you can stop raiders, and you wish for a new and better world. Yet you torture and kill when you could police and protect, you bring about a kingdom of pain and demean those who still believe! Tell me, friend Jago, when you had the man we found tortured, when you or those under you mutilated his body and desecrated his flesh while he still lived, what made you different from the Gods you despise? You stood over him, you stole his control, you claimed authority over his life, and you did as you wished despite his struggles. I believe that you want to create a better world, but can you not see that you are breeding the worst kind of Gods, that you yourself are becoming a dark God, with each bloody step down this path?"
((And I just made a lot of names up. I'll change them if you mind, DH.))
Author
Topic: Elysium - A World of A Thousand Gods (Chapter I) (Read 15961 times)