The Final Life

And that was how the tale should have ended.

When Odin died, all our continents thought they’d lost a leader and king. What surprise was it, then, to see Allfather rise from the dead! The First told us he’d created a heaven, but only for those strong few who climb his stairway after their demise. Things were never the same, for we created guilds to strive higher, and each worked to gain power. This was ten thousand years ago.

Then the Second rose two millennia thereafter, taking half of Ya’ab for his own domain. Sklaver forbade entry, saying beasts were more worthy than men. He brought myths and magical creatures to life, dragons and lycans and monsters of dreams. Things were never the same, for the magic of his abodes changed the very stuff legends were made of.

Last came Pyro the insane. The Third went wild with flames, taking the very orb that gave us light. We were plunged into darkness. All his own Firefaery guild could do was create an everlasting sun over half the world, splitting us into night and day. Seventy hundred years have passed since then. Things will never be the same, but the world has moved on.

We worship the Unchained, all Three. We pray to them, for they are the only gods we’ve seen. Still, we would not wish for a Fourth. We fear the chaos such an entity would bring, for we know that He would change everything.

From “Broken Shields and Lost Minds: Life in the Time before Odin Allfather”, author unknown, published by the Grand Cross guild in northern Ya’ab.