The Balinor Chronicles: The Celestial Herd
Chapter Forty-One: Stars
When it gets dark enough, you can see the stars.
Lee Salk
Stars…In your multitude…Scarce to be counted,
Filling the darkness with order and light.
You are the sentinels, silent and sure,
Keeping watch in the night, keeping watch in the night.
Javert in Les Mes
All souls find a place to reach upon their deaths. It is the fate of all things. But you must believe your soul will reach there. Elsewise, you need the help of a god. The Herd has both those things.
Indeed, it would be quite hard for them not believe the in gods' existence, given their heritage and the crystal bridge that linked their worlds together. And what would the blessing of The Supreme Ruler be, if he had no power after death?
In the beginning, there was nothing.
Shortly after the beginning, after the gods had finally put the worlds to order, there was darkness. The gods tried to fix the darkness; they made stars, but these pinpoints of mere light gave off only the weakest glow and which rarely touched the earths. The gods hung the shield of a fallen warrior in the sky, but it was too tarnished to reflect the light of the Immortal Realms brightly and had irregular phases.
So in the middle there was darkness as well.
But as some Unicorns fell in battle, and as the magic that protected their Valley waned and resulted in old age, the Herd began to die. The Supreme Ruler, using his power as their patron, lifted their souls up above the living, to light the skies. But The Dark One, ever antagonistic, reached out and scattered the bright remains across the sky in a wide band of brightness.
Just as they followed him in life, the souls of the Rainbow followed Solaris' namesake in death. From their final resting place, the Herd took their names.
Even to this day, the souls of the Celestial Herd still run as the brightest stars.