Greetings fellow readers. I am the Evil Eye Beholder, your host and storyteller for the tale you are about to read.
Today will be a bit of a teaser though as it is merely the prelude to a tale, that I am working on.
Now without further ado, let us proceed.
Disclaimer: I do not own Warhammer 40.000 or Goblin Slayer. All rights belong to their respective owners.
By the pick, and the laser, and the blasting charge of the miner shall our chains be broken. By the talon, and the fang, and the blade of the blessed ones shall our enemies be laid low. By the glad song of our souls shall the Star Children know us, and bring us the gift of final unity. - Anoymous, Genestealer Cult Codex (9th Edition) p.20
Prelude of the Star Children's song
In the ancient past when much less stars shone in the sky, the two factions of gods fought one another to determine who would rule the world. But gods of Order, Destiny and Light and the gods of Chaos, Chance and Darkness didn't fight one another. Instead, they wished to determine it by playing a game of dice.
However, there was no victor to this game. Whenever one side was close to victory, the dice would roll back in favour of the other. After an untold amount of time, the gods tired of their game.
So instead, they created a world and populated it with many races. Humans, elves, dwarves, lizardmen, padfolk and more. These Prayer Characters were for the gods to control. But the gods were not merciful upon their playground nor their creations even though they adored them so much. They created the Non Prayer Characters, monsters to pose a threat to the praying races. Goblins, ogres, trolls, dragons, undead, oozes and so many more. They created dungeons where they hid powerful artifacts behind the lines of monsters and traps. It was for those of the prayers, who rose up to be adventurers, to challenge these monsters and dungeons and either claim glory, riches and fame or fall into ruin and fade into nothingness.
The world was nothing more than a tabletop for the gods. For them to play with as they saw fit and get enjoyment out of the fate of their prayer characters, who's life they were constantly meddling with. Without obstacles and monsters to best, there was no need for adventurers. Without adventurers, there was no need for monsters to be defeated. And it was them and their actions that gave this world purpose by entertaining their makers.
This was the simple truth of that world.
But then something from outside this world and the gods' realm crossed the border. A sudden distortion of space and time outside the world's atmosphere allowed something from beyond to pass through. And immediately as this event occurred, all the gods could feel an overwhelming presence having its gaze linger on them. Or rather, they could not even tell if it was just one or multiple ones. All they knew was that whatever it was, it eclipsed them in terms of power and emitted nothing but killing intent and an endless hunger. Because of that, it could have been just one or half a dozen entities that were even more powerful than themselves. But as soon as this occured, it vanished, leaving the gods in a bewildered state of paralysing fear and shock.
Thus it was only understandable, that once this began to fade the gods immediately sprang into a panicked frenzy to figure out whatever it was that caused such existential dread to them. But no matter how much they looked, all they found was the vast emptiness of space with no traces of the space-time distortion left behind other than the memory and the feeling in the back of their minds. Denial was the only comfort they had to a terrible truth they all were clearly aware, so they concluded that whatever the presence was that looked upon them and their world had stayed on the other side. Whatever concerns were voiced out were simply silenced under the mutual consensus to just continue with their game and enjoy themselves.
Not long after this event took place though, a meteorite came hurling towards the planet. It was not merely a small piece of debris that floated through the void, but large enough that not only would it withstand the entry in the planet's atmopshere, it could also do a lot of damage to whatever region it would land upon. Unable to do anything about this natural catastrophe and too uncaring about the creatures on their tabletop to do so in the first place, they directed their attention to their game once more and at best moving some of their pieces away from where they concluded this cosmic event, even though doubts and fears still lingered freshly on some of their minds.
Soon enough, they would be proven right to have felt that way.