Hello all!
So because I am incapable of not having so many projects on the go that it's impossible to see an end coming any time soon, I decided to start a new multi-chap fanfic! LOL I hope to keep this one much shorter then the other fanfics I have on the go for Aveyond.
Now for the serious authors note part.
So something I have absolutely loved since I was a child was Greek mythology. I just loved the fantastical tales, and one of my favourites has always been the tale of Hades and Persephone. I was never particularly enamoured with the original telling of the tale, but I loved how many different versions and spinoffs a person could create and how many different worlds and translations of the characters came from one single story.
I've wanted to do my own version of the Hades and Persephone myth for a very long time, but with the amount of versions already out there I held off until I could find a more original idea for the remake. Then, last week, I came up with an idea.
I was thinking about how interesting it would be to see some of the iconic Greek myths, retold in an Aveyond style. At first it was just an idea to add to the "gotta write this one day" list, but this week I've been kind of stuck at home and it's given my already overworked muse a chance to follow random creativity paths. Thus, this was born.
I have decided to recreate the Hades and Persephone myth in this story, I'm bringing the original tale back to the very basics before building off of this in the Aveyond way. I'm so excited to share the first steps of this project with you, and I'm really looking forward to hearing what people think.
Once this story works out I hope to recreate a couple of other myths with other characters as the main ones, but at this point that's just a hopeful wish:)
Because I'm completely recreating the Aveyond universe this prologue won't be jumping right away into the regular story. I do need to lay a bit of groundwork for you all as the story progresses so the prologue will read just a bit different from my usual work. For that reason I'm posting the first chapter at the same time so that you can get into the story right away.
I'll stop rambling now and just let you read though. I truly hope that you all enjoy this story, and that it does the myth justice.
Prologue
Before the existence of Aia many believed there to be nothing, but it was not so. There was light, and there was darkness, and lending balance between was the great goddess. The light and the dark were living entities, masses with consciousness and thought, but even they could not match the goddess in intelligence nor could they fulfill her need for conversation and companionship.
The great goddess decided that she wished to create life and beauty, something vibrant to make her happy through the long days. So she gathered the dust of a thousand dying stars and with magic formed a world of her own. It was a world of brown earth and sea, a blank canvas for the goddess to paint her magic across. With every spoken word and swipe of magic greenery formed, trees and plants of all kinds forming acorss rolling hills and towering mountains.
Although her world now was alight with beauty the goddess was without anyone to share it with, and after looking upon her world she decided that she wished to bless others with the ability to live amongst beauty. So she began to create creatures. First were four legged beings she called animals, then scaled reptiles and feathered birds that worked along sea dwelling beings. Once that was done the goddess decided that her world was yet still too empty, and thus began to creation of the beings that could communicate and behave with the same kind of function and intelligence as the goddess herself. Humans, fairies, elves, vampires, dragons, darklings and orcs.
In that time, the goddess was content. She watched over her creation as they lived amongst one another and built themselves societies. It was her world, and she had called it Aia.
Then came the first death of her higher functioning beings, a human felled by a fall. As she watched one of her own a great pain pierced her heart, and for the first time in her existence the goddess cried. One great tear infused with her sadness and knowledge of death fell, dropping through the sky of Aia to land in an empty mountain area where it bled into the earth to create a destination for the drifting spirit. That was the first tear of the goddess, and it had created the underworld.
The next time the great goddess cried what fell was a tear of anger as she watched the first example of vicious and senseless cruelty among her creation. She had created two batches of elves at separate times, believing that despite their differences there would be a love between them anyway. Yet her latest group had proven her wrong, they lived for centuries yet they burned with jealousy against the first elves who had been blessed with near immortality. Seeing the cruelty and suffering of her creation angered and pained the goddess, making her wish for a place where they could live free. As the tear fell it landed on the camp for the outcast elves, sweeping them up and pulling away as it formed the next realm of innocence and happiness for the elves. This was the second tear of the goddess and it became known as The Vale.
When the goddess cried again, for once this tear came from happiness. The goddess who remained alone watching over Aia and the two other realms was gazing down upon her creation, when her attention was pulled by a gathering of women in white. She leaned down to hear their words letting out a gasp as she listened to them speak of their thankfulness to her creating them and how they wished to pay back the blessing. They knelt together, pledging themselves into the service of the goddess as priestesses to do her will of kindness over all of Aia. So overcome by the words of the priestesses the great goddess was moved, a tear of joy and gentle love falling to splash over the priestesses. They were gathered together as the tear formed a new realm, a place of serenity and peace. This was the third tear of the goddess and it became a place known as Aveyond.
The final time the goddess cried overtop of Aia was as she woke from a long sleep. Drifting in a dream of companionship with like kind, immortal and all powered beings so much like herself she was happy and satisfied, yet as she woke she found herself once again alone. The emotions of the Dream combined with her loneliness formed two tears of dreams, the first falling and splashing against a peaceful and secluded mountain clearing. A realm of dreams, both good and the reality of fears. This time however a second tear was quick to follow the first and as it hit the ground next to the portal to this new realm something rose out of the tear rather then a new part of the great goddesses universe. A woman, with hair like fire and skin as soft as silk. The personification of dreams, immortal and all knowing to be tied forever to the new realm. These were the fourth and fifth tears of the goddess, and they respectively became known as Talia the dreamer who served as guardian of the place that became known simply as dreamland.
Yet even with this, the goddess was alone and tired as she was pulled on by her creation. Her eyes fell back to the first entities to exist alongside her, darkness and light. They were tired, simply existing for nothing and so they came to the great goddess to offer themselves up to anything she might need. At first the goddess knew not of what to do with her oldest friends and companions, until one day the dreamer spoke to her. She prophesied of deities formed of the two original forces and the goddesses own hands. Balancing forces of light and dark to embody the forces on Aia and govern the world eternally to be her company as well as take the responsibilities of Aia so that the goddess could be happy once again.
So that is exactly what the great goddess did.
Thirteen deities: six formed of the light, six formed of the darkness, and one formed of both to be the perfect balance between.
Thus, the creation of Aia was finally complete.