Faith of Myths
Chapter 1: The Prophecy
In ages long past there was whispers of a Prophecy, A Legend, A Myth, It was called many things by many people, But the Prophecy remained the same in all tongues, Many lived to worship the Prophecy, waiting and wishing for the day it would reveal itself to them, Other more arrogant people dismissed it as an old tale to scare little children or inspire young adventurers. One thing was sure though, The Prophecy had an effect on every living creature no matter how small, large, intelligent or dim witted as everyone had heard of it. The routine of the Prophecy after some time just felt normal to everyone, they just either followed it, everyday waiting for it to come, or they just dismissed it and forgot about it, forgot about the people they saw waiting for the beginning, to them it was normal. The routine was normal until one day, one day something changed; the shift in the balance of peace was disturbed.
The Gods are not as they are imagined, Everyone believes they sit on their great Golden Thrones in their Great Halls drinking ale and singing while summoning great adventurers and rewarding them with Holy Relics, Weapons and Armour when they do something so incredibly inhuman that it attracts the Gods attention and it pleases them, Of course to please a God like this is near to impossible, Only 1 known person in old legend has ever done so, A Hero known in the old legends as Vampyre, He is said to have found the entrance to the underworld and faced the Guardian of the Gates, There was a great battle between the two in which none held anything back against the other, After many hours Vampyre cried out to the Gods as he held his blade in the air, readying his final blow, The Gods answered Vampyre and sent down a bolt of pure Holy Magic which entered Vampyre's blade as he struck it deep into the Guardians heart, Vampyre roared out in relief as he saw his sword enter the Guardians body, He grasped it harder and held it there along with his invigorating roar for what felt like an eternity, He withdrew his blade from the chest of the Guardian and fell to his knees in exhaustion. He suddenly felt Holy Magic wash over him as all the Gods in the Holy Kingdom turned their gaze to him to put their combined magic to heal Vampyre of his wounds as Vampyre's wounds were not made by any mere mortal Man, or where they made by a Demon and most defiantly not an Unholy Guardian. It had turned out the one he was facing was not the Guardian of the
Gates, he wasn't even at the Gates of the Underworld, The Great Gates he saw before him were the gates to one of the God of the Underworlds 'Vinance' Throne, and the opponent that stood in his path was no Guardian, It was Vinance himself. Vampyre had killed a God. No mortal or Holy Guardian had ever achieved this, and only few gods have had the strength to slay another.
Vampyre was summoned by the Gods as he lay on the floor in Vinance's Great Hall, He awoke in the Holy Kingdom at the Throne of 'Eversoul' The God of Holy Armour, She awarded Vampyre a full set of Mythspectral Metal Armour, Mythspectral is a rare metal only found in the Holy Kingdom and can only be smelted and forged by the Gods, The Armour was infused with Holy Power and could not be broken or even scratched by a blade made by any mortal, For it was the Armour of the Gods, Therefore it could only be challenged by the Weapons of the Gods, After his return to the mortal world Vampyre disappeared and hasn't been seen since, Legend says not only did the Gods give him the Armour but they also granted him everlasting youth and he still resides somewhere, watching and waiting for the Prophecy. Others say he went back to the Underworld to challenge a God who was trying to break free and enter the mortal realm bringing with him an army of thousands containing the most evil and terrifying things imaginable lead by a regiment of a hundred Unholy Guardians. He cut through the Gods army as the God sat on his Throne waiting for Vampyre to fall, But Vampyre cut and cut, getting closer and closer until the God had no choice but to fight, They locked in a magnificent show of skill as Vampyre challenged the God of War 'Groudon' The fight between the two went for hours, Vampyre's great Armour was scratched and bent and beaten, Groudon's skin was bruised and torn as Unholy Immortal Blood flew out, They both charged a great blow and striked, They both landed their blows deep into each other's chest simultaneously, Groudon let out a great screech piecing deep into his army as they looked up in disbelief as they watched their leader and the great God of War, The Undefeatable, Immortal, Unchallengeable Groudon fall to his knees in front of Vampyre and the fire leave his eyes.
Vampyre pulled Groudon's dagger from his chest and turned to face the army. Even though their leader was dead they would not let Vampyre leave alive as he had now killed two Gods and was a threat to them if he was to return healed of his wounds, They reformed the line and in a strange gesture of respect they let Vampyre pick up his blade, turn to face them and tighten his Armour, Vampyre let out a deep breath and looked up at the wall of Demons and Guardians blocking his path out, Vampyre grasped his sword tightly and let out a great roar as he began to charge. Now this version of Vampyre's story has two endings, One is he cut through many, defeating over half of Groudon's great army but fell as he was overwhelmed by
the Guardian regiment defeating over 70 of them before they took his life, The other ending is he took Groudon's Dagger and wielded along with his Great Sword to cut through the army killing only what was needed until he reached the Great Gate and cutting through the Gate itself, As soon as he had escaped the underworld and the Gods watched as he was dying on the hard stone rocks, shivering in the icy rain beating down on him. At that point they did something no one could have foreseen. The Gods, who in another version of this story gave Vampyre everlasting youth, did in a way make him immortal but not in the way of everlasting youth so that Vampyre could stilled be killed by a mortal blade, They made Vampyre so he could only be killed by a God. What the Gods had done was used their Divine Intervention to changed the very structure of Vampyre's body, His skin was soft yet as hard to break as Mythspectral, He never aged and his mind moved faster than any other, His battle tactics where unmatched, He had become a Legend, He had become a Myth, He had become a God! Vampyre's location is still unknown even by the Gods, Either his lifeless body lies in the Underworld as a trophy of revenge for the Gods he killed or he still walks the world hidden from the gaze of everything mortal or otherwise.
But apart from drinking, singing and awaiting Heroes the Gods have problems of their own, You see the Gods are at constant war with the Underworld, The word 'War' can be misunderstood, For example when people hear war they think of great battles over land or over wealth or even over pride fought by all classes of heroes from Warriors to Mages, Even the skilled healing of a Holy Hand is essential to winning a battle. But war doesn't always mean this, A war is not always fought with weapons, The war the Gods find themselves facing many times over are a War of the Tactics with the Underworld, The Gods of the Holy Kingdom and the Gods of the Underworld are constantly trying to outthink each other to get one move ahead in the inevitable 'War of the Gods'. This 'War of the Gods' is the Prophecy many are waiting for, All who follow it train everyday against all manner of beast to ready themselves for the day the veil between the Mortal Realm, Underworld and Holy Kingdom breaks, Giving all the freedom to walk amongst others doing as they will, The Gods of the Underworld will want the destruction of the Mortals to pave the way for their battlefield with the Gods of the Holy Kingdom. At the beginning of time there were 12 Gods of the Holy Kingdom and 12 Gods of the Underworld. Now due to the escape of 'Psycondemmed' The Underworld God of Madness at the end of the 2nd Age and the Heroics and pure skill of Vampyre there now are 10 Gods of the Holy Kingdom and 10 Gods of the Underworld. Psycondemmed killed 3 Gods of the Holy Kingdom by tearing out every strand of sanity from their mind, turning them against each other until one killed the others and Psycondemmed ripped out the heart of the remaining God and took it back to the Underworld. After Vampyre's Gift from the Gods to
receive their power their numbers increased to 10 again making them even with the Gods below. Psycondemmed had a use for the heart which is unknown by anyone, even the other Gods of the Underworld don't know what use it has but they are far too intelligent to challenge or even indulge in conversation with Psycondemmed, Although he is consumed by madness he has a brilliant mind and will use it on anyone, Even his fellow Gods if challenged, They know his mind sees something they do not so they leave him to unlock the mysteries behind 'Sensether's Heart'.