As the orange Edenian sun sets over the horizon, the city of Argolaneum, the capital of the realm and stronghold of the royal house of Aquikar, stands alit with ceremonial bonfires and lamplights. The city is remarkably centered underneath a mountain drop with a huge waterfall network streaming gracefully from the mountain side, cutting the city into three major island districts. The water from that system pours down into a large lake below the city surrounded by lush foliage. In fact, the entire city is nearly covered in green fields and beautiful gardens spread across, a civilization enhanced by its own Garden of Eden. In the anterior and central part of Argolaneum are the residential neighborhoods, marked with thatch roofed housing, agoras, and small Greco-Roman-like incensed temples dedicated to the local Edenian Gods of Old before Argus. As one travels up toward the center, the small buildings give way to larger marbled domes housing the city's ancient university, libraries, local government buildings, open-domed sport arenas, and much larger temples dedicated to Argus. That area is where the main waterfall stream cuts this central district in two halves, standing above meters of raging waters near the edge of the canyon. But the most famous landmark in the city, at the far right of Argolaneum and the final island, is the Royal Palace. Standing magnificently, three domed pagoda towers hold together a two-story building while two adjacent fountains spout out in front of it. The palace stands 45 degrees from a large waterfall, underneath which its waters are converted into smaller streams through a remarkable technologic feat of irrigation that ends in seven waterfalls falling harmlessly off the palace bluff. The waterfall spray could be felt if one was to cross the large narrow stone bridge leading to the palace.
The fires in the city are not flames of celebration. The massive vigil commemorates the first anniversary of Queen Sindel's death, former wife of King Jerrod Aquikar. Yet the lights still burn as signs of mourning and prayers to the gods, to allow her soul's incorruptible and safe journey into the Edenian afterlife on this single day. At least she died happily in her newly revived realm, even after the events of Onaga's invasion and Armageddon almost annihilated the existence of it once again a year ago. However things have gotten better. The tyrant Shao Kahn fell by the hands of Sindel's daughter Princess Kitana along with her allies, the latter now rules her rightful place as Queen of Edenia. She was a child raised in the darkness of Shao Kahn's reign, but in the end defied it and became a light for a period in the realm's history. New Edenia, a true testament to its survival. Since her coronation, Queen Kitana has been working to boost up Edenia's defenses. She's enlisted Edenian and Outworld refugees, veterans from the Battle of the Wastelands, to train young Edenian men and women in the art of kombat. She ordered the construction and installation of traps like in the Edenian underground system to drown enemies, flaming boulders from the mountain bluffs, punji traps, and heavy artillery in the city walls, looted from abandoned Red Dragon outposts that shoot arrows, acid, and explosives at their enemies below along with additional artillery donated from the Outworld Defense Agency. Her second-in-command Jade oversaw these projects, completed in quick succession. Kitana made herself known as an impressive and cunning diplomat, winning an alliance with the Moroi Empire by presenting Shao Kahn's head to Vaeternus's General Nitara much to the vampire's satisfaction, giving refuge to Reptile's people lead by Matriarch Khameleon in the Edenian jungles, and delivering the properly embalmed bodies of Kintaro and Sheeva to King Gorbak for funeral in lava despite Prince Goro's betrayal, reinforcing the Edenian-Shokan alliance rather than defiling it altogether. Surrounded by potential invaders amidst a civil war, Outworld's self-proclaimed "emperor" and veteran of Kahn's invasion of Edenia, Reiko offered to make an uneasy pact with Queen Kitana to prevent future conflicts between Edenia and Outworld called the Reiko Accords. Edenia could not afford to fall again a fourth time, either through deception or conquest.
The citylights did not go unnoticed by a lone figure standing with his arms crossed atop a lower bluff overlooking the city. The masculine figure had a black silhouette from which the only thing glowing was its yellow eyes, plumes of fire emitting from them along with a tattoo of a dragon glowing yellow on the left side of its face. The body armor around his chest glimmered a golden luster with a center red gem in the middle though it had some rust from his last battle. He wore black pants and boots with yellow linings along with black armguards. His goatee had grown a few inches with some emerging grey streaks, followed by some stubble on his cheeks and underneath his chin since the battle of Armageddon a year ago. His centurion haircut grew bushy, sticking out in the front while his hair in the back grew thick and covered the upper half of his neck, obscuring the former close-shaved hairstyle. Taven, a son of Argus continued to stare at the city under the glare of the sun as Protector-God in name only. Yet within this imposing figure laid so much sadness and guilt reinforced by his weary eye wrinkles, clothing stained with dried blood from battles years ago, and memories no mortal would endure bearing. A lone relic from Old Edenia, a period long forgotten and obscured by Kahn's purge of its older habitants replaced mostly by its youth who had little knowledge and recollection of the heritage of their great realm along with the multitudes of diverse Edenian peoples who lived outside of Argolaneum prior to konquest.
Armageddon had not solved the issue of saving the realms as both brothers slew the firespawn Blaze at the same time while their parents and dragon mentors including Orin and Caro were gone from this world. His brother Daegon, manipulated by Shinnok to kill them and hunt down Taven was imprisoned in the Netherrealm, and Dark Raiden was still alive, a loose cannon wandering to destroy whatever "threat" he saw to Earthrealm. There was no doubt on Taven's mind that Dark Raiden wanted to avenge his loss to the demigod at Kahn's palace and was only biding time before striking his realm. As much Taven despised the Elder Gods for placing the burden of Armageddon unto his family and ruining them to the end, he despised Dark Raiden more as another Shao Kahn who could destroy Edenia the moment Taven disappears; a repetition of events in the past.
A week ago, Edenia's warriors were invited to an Outworld tournament hosted by three Chaosrealmers to determine who would be the ruler of Outworld among warring factions like Reiko, Skarlet, Mileena of the dying Tarkartan race, Ermac, a charismatic Osh Tekk warrior named Ko'atal, and the Lin Kuei who relocated from Earthrealm to establish a stronghold in Outworld under Grandmaster Kuai Liang, along with a host of their allies. While Fujin was busy investigating Raiden's whereabouts in Earthrealm, Taven as a god volunteered to accompany the General as an observer to prevent any cheating in the sacred tournament of Mortal Kombat and look out for potential allies and threats to Edenia. Taven himself used it as an excuse to get out of Edenia to lessen his brooding for a time, as well as satisfy his own personal vendetta against Kahn's veterans, to make them pay for Edenia's downfall like his bloody purge from realm to realm of the last Red Dragon forces after Daegon's downfall. It turned out that the tournament was a farce, the chaotic hosts had a bigger plan to reawaken their Chaos God through blood sacrifice. However most of the kombatants fought and defeated them, preventing their god's rise to power. Once the dust settled, Reiko blatantly accused Taven and Jade of rigging the Outworld tournament and ordered his men to kill them. Taven, enraged by this accusation made by a slayer of Edenians, used this as an opportunity to break the rules of onlooker and unleash his fire god powers near its fullest. The presence of godblood within him overrode the conditions that weaken Protector-Gods when visiting other realms outside of their assigned locale, a reason why the Elder Gods feared the induction of demigods as Protector-Gods. Taven killed all of Reiko's men, damaged most of Kahn's Fortress, and went after Reiko in a fiery rampage. His allies Sub-Zero and Ermac tried to restrain Taven and reason with him, but the demigod merely smacked them aside, breaking some of their bones upon impact. Taven attacked Reiko viciously who stood no chance against the Protector-God as the latter beat him to a pulp. Taven would have killed Reiko if it weren't for Jade's intervention on Taven's behalf, comparing his actions to Dark Raiden's. Rationale returned to him and Taven powered down before giving Reiko a final warning to slay him if he attempted to breach the Accords next time.
This wasn't the first time Taven went berserk. In the Battle of Armageddon, after receiving his godly essence from Blaze and overseeing Daegon's banishment, Taven turned and attacked the Forces of Darkness arriving at the top of the pyramid in nick of time. He injured Shao Kahn and Quan Chi slightly and pushed them off the Pyramid for others to fulfill their vendettas on them, before he noticed Raiden fighting a duplicate of Shinnok in the valley below. Seeing through the illusion and remembering Shinnok's manipulation mentioned by Daegon before their fight, a furious Protector-God Taven teleported himself to the Netherrealm, found the real Shinnok attempting to leave in order to finish his scheme in Edenia and did battle with him. After a long battle that nearly obliterated the entire realm, Taven remembered killing Shinnok with his bare hands by ripping out his head and spine out of his abdominal cavity in a bloody and fiery rage: an act Liu Kang and Raiden failed to do in Shinnok's last war with Earthrealm. Meanwhile, Dark Raiden finished off the clone, putting an end to Shinnok's schemes for good. Taven at the time was convinced that killing Shinnok would finally bring honor back to his dead family and Old Edenia and bring peace to his state of mind, but as time went by, Taven started feel uneasy about his earlier excuses. Shinnok mocked Taven's nature during their battle, claimed that his only purpose for living was to be a half-breed weapon borne from Argus and Delia along with Orin's magik, to be used as a soulless weapon by the Elder Gods against their enemies who had the illusion of having a spirit. As a consequence of reproduction, demigods had no literal souls unlike gods and mortals to downplay their potential for being overly powerful in the afterlife so when one dies, their body rots and their consciousness dies out into the void. An empty existence to say the least. In other words, Shinnok cackled with glee that his former "son" Daegon's nature was predestined and that it wouldn't be long before Taven would too become a bloodthirsty killer and abandon his fellow Edenian mortals before going the path of the Thunder God. Shinnok's last words before he was killed were that Taven should have been his heir to the Netherrealm throne instead of Daegon, cracking his last laugh.
Taven contemplated all of the events that occurred and gave a heavy sigh. He then took out his large round flask filled with sweet spring water from Edenia's rivers and gulped it down his dry throat. He barely visited Argolaneum only to meet some old friends. The rest of the time, Taven was either secluded to an old Edenian mountain cavern, finding solutions to Armageddon through old Edenian texts, traveling to Earthrealm to visit Delia's Temple to pay his respects to her memory and greet his old friend Sub-Zero (who recovered from the rampage in the aftermath and solemnly forgiven Taven; in addition, Sub-Zero personally donated Delia's Church to the demigod on behalf of their friendship once the Lin Kuei left Earthrealm altogether), or training inside one of the obelisks Argus erected throughout Taven's quest to further enhance his pyromancy and swordsmanship.
How can I be Edenia's Protector if my own people thought me and my family abandoned them to Outworld years ago? Daegon was always better at being the political leader, if he were sane. I'm just a fighter...The people of Edenia have lived for ten thousand years without a Protector-God, they can live ten thousand years more without me making them uncomfortable. My only concern is making sure Raiden and Daegon are not major threats... My father is a bloody fool. The Netherrealm won't contain Daegon for long. He'll find a way out using Blaze's power someday and when he does, he'll burn Edenia to the ground in order to get to me. Queen Kitana knows nothing about my brother and what he's capable of. I'm the only one who can stop him. As for Raiden, he'll be tough but I killed gods before. Dark Raiden will be no different, Taven reassured himself.
If the mortals want my "protection," the best I can do is stay away from them. The less associated I am with them, the less they'll be enthralled in my "war" against Daegon and Raiden. The mortals can pray to other gods; stopping Daegon and Raiden is something I have to do alone."
"Lord Taven?"
The weary demigod barely looked at the provoker, but from his godly powers, he could sense it was an official messenger loyal to the Edenian Knights, wearing a Greek loincloth and tunic plus some sandals.
Great, Taven shortly growled to himself, reminiscent of a dragon, an unusual sound to come out of a man. I hope she's ordering my extradition now so I can leave this city and be done with her.
Taven did not trust Kitana the moment he laid eyes on her. Even from the day Taven stood atop the pyramid of Argus, eyes and body ablaze with the firespawn's power, glaring down into the assassin's blue eyes while holding Shinnok's severed head in his left hand, Kitana gave him a bad impression. He never expressed his hostility openly towards the Queen, but he made no effort to hide his discontent about her whenever Jade mentioned her friend from his nonverbal cues. Taven barely interacted with her except when he showed up randomly a week ago to coldly announce his departure to the Outworld tournament with Jade, the latter whom went in Kitana's place as being Queen preoccupied her time. Taven knew Kitana's reputation and his simple general analysis of her was enough to satisfy his mistrust. She was raised under the barbaric warlord Shao Kahn as his personal assassin and disgustedly his own daughter, but now she'd suddenly turned against him, killed him, and suddenly restored the realm of Edenia and became its ruler with the initial help of a dimwitted Shaolin monk she seduced. If she could easily backstab Shao Kahn, there's no telling how deceitful Kitana could be to Edenia's Protector-God. However, her dying mother Sindel seemed to be the same person Taven knew her as. She was a personal friend to his mother Delia and the queen was always happy when the Lady of Flame brought her boys to visit her and Jerrod, someone Taven also greatly admired. Unknown to most Edenians, Taven remembered his secret visit to Sindel a few days before she died and despite her constant coughing and being stuck to her bed, she was happy to see Delia's son come over. While most of the Edenians told her after the invasion that the gods have abandoned them and that the sons were dead, Sindel kept praying that that they indeed were alive and would return to restore Edenia. In Sindel's eyes, Taven's appearance at the pyramid and his return as Protector-God was a confirmation that her friend Delia had answered her prayers. Regardless of Daegon's absence, Sindel was satisfied nevertheless. The dying queen had faith that Taven would be a good Protector and told him not to blame himself for not being present to save them from Shao Kahn's invasion. She also plead with Taven not to judge Kitana harshly from her history and that she and the mortal Edenians can help Taven overcome his demons from the events that had conspired. Taven, despite being happy to talk to Sindel after thousands of years, sadly told Sindel that it was too late for him.
"I told you not to call me that. I'm just Taven," said the demigod in an annoyed tone.
The messenger went on regardless of Taven's objection. "The General would like to request an audience with you."
Taven gave a small grin to himself. Whew that's good news.
Of all the Edenians that he have known from his previous life, the only closest thing who is alive today was Jade. If she hadn't survived Armageddon, Taven would have sooner plunged the sword through his abdomen and ended his misery earlier. He met his childhood friend, who had been half his age at a later part of his life before Kahn's invasion. A majority of Taven's visits to Argolaneum had been to meet his friend in her barracks off-duty to chat and laugh about the events of the day. On the flipside, Jade was the only Edenian to visit Taven in his cavern to check on him, not excluding four random visits by the Wind God Fujin, a family friend from Earthrealm. Whenever she was around, Taven's mood always seemed to be happy for once, taking his mind off the burden of being Protector-God. It was amazing how Jade managed to survive from her captivity as a gladiator, to being a bodyguard, and then a rebel fighter. Now she was the tough yet very beautiful General to Edenia's armies. Taven couldn't be any more proud of that fact.
"Thank you for the information. I'll be down there in ten minutes," said Taven. He then tossed a small bag to the confused messenger who caught it just as it was about to fly over the cliff.
"50 platinum koins for your payroll, 5 ruby koins not to alert my presence to the Queen. Got it?"
"Of course my L...Taven."
Taven groaned and then disappeared in a plume of flame, leaving the young courier to stare at his bonuses.