One of the creatures created by the dreadful god of deception and nature stalked the wilderness. It was an enormous beast, standing over four meters tall, and it had a six-meter long wingspan. Its body was covered in azure scales, and its long body ended in a sharp blue tail that dripped a deadly venom. It also had a powerful paralytic poison it could inflict via its bite, or breathe outward as a powerful, widespread gas.
The beast had a crude sort of intelligence, but for its kind that was extremely rare. Even these wyverns who had been purposefully created and unleashed on different parts of the local wilderness were not intentionally gifted with intelligence. That would have made them too much of a threat for the Atlani, and their purpose wasn't to actually wipe out the rivals of the Terrans.
Its purple eyes darted about as it crept through the wilderness of the area where it was created. It had recently fed on a large gazelle, and now its bloodthirst was motivated by cruelty, not hunger. Each of its two legs kept it moving slowly, and surprisingly stealthily.
Its creator was watching it, but only in the sense that he was watching everyone. That said, he did actively enjoy watching the beast make a nuisance of itself. Althos, the powerful god who had created it and the dozens of other drakes and wyverns that now roamed the countryside, had created them to endanger the Atlani.
He was pleased to know the power the creatures possessed. He was in essence using them as biological weapons of war and he was delighted to know that they would be successful.
The grass beneath the wyvern's feet was crushed when the creature wandered over it. It was an enormous, heavy beast. And as it explored the wilderness of its birth, its creator reached out across a distance of several hundred kilometers with ease. The wyvern vaguely felt the intelligence of the god actively probe its mind, and learn about its cruelty.
The god wasn't judging the beast. He was instead probing it to see if it were deserved to become a leader among its kind, one who had the potential to be evolved into a true dragon, in the future. After a few minutes of exploring the wyvern's memories, Althos was satisfied with the creature and effortlessly awoke the beast.
Althos' potent powers washed over and seeped into the dragonkin. They changed every aspect of the creature, from its intelligence to its size, to even the deadliness of its poison. The creature's soul was touched by, kissed by, Althos. Back at the Terran colony Althos himself was enjoying his latest schemes and was content using his draconic creations as weapons he allowed to roam around and destroy mostly freely, but to the draconic creatures who experienced his touch, his power that washed over them was an utterly transformative, mind-warping experience.
This particular wyvern was made especially intelligent, and also as a result of that became especially fanatical to its awakener. The beast felt a profound desire to learn about the being who had imbued it with such intelligence and power. The creature's body wasn't left unchanged either, and the being felt power coursing through its already innately powerful muscles.
The wyvern gained new powers. While the beast was being changed by Althos' touch, it roared and unleashed a jet of fire from its maw, a power it hadn't possessed before. Now it was capable of unleashing two separate and equally dangerous breathe attacks. And its other key ability was the power to perpetually emit a transparent aura of nobility that caused it to be able to dominate unawakened wyverns and drakes, and lead them. That was the real power its mysterious lord had granted it, and the power that would one day allow it to become a terrifying menace to the Atlani.
The world of Ta Hendo was wide and mysterious. The more time I spent studying the world, the more aware of its odd mysteries I became. The first oddity of this place that I noticed was one that was especially closeby, which was why I had bothered to pay it any mind.
There was a group of Terrans not incredibly far from here. They were two hundred and fifty kilometers away, and their loyalties were to the Terran Empire, aside from a few of them whose loyalties were to no one and who seemed to be kidnapped Atlani, both men and women, who were mothers and fathers of some of the youngest of the current generation of inhabitants of this strange cultural offshoot.
They lived underground, and even at a glance, I could tell they were different from the Terrans I knew. Among other things, the subterranean colony of Terrans had female warriors, which my colony of Terrans did not. They also had Atlani who lived peacefully with them, though their Atlani were still unhappy about their conditions, they had just quietly grown accustomed to them. The Terrans here did not have a single Atlani person living in their midst.
This offshoot had been around for far longer than the colony I was protecting. I peeked into the minds of some of the subterranean Terrans and quickly learned that they had lived underground their entire lives, and I also discovered the root cause for their choice to live underground.
It was a sad tale that involved what should have been a routine trading mission, the "first that went around the world" which ended in calamity, both for the Atlani and also for the Terrans, well over a century ago. And yet despite the tragedy, the actual mission itself was well-known as an unsolved mystery to both military leaders, and also to historians of the Terran Empire, something I knew since I had acquired knowledge of Terran society and culture through my parasitic powers over memories and also my independent knowledge of the Terran Empire.
I chuckled as I realized that I had unintentionally solved a great mystery that had plagued scholars in the empire for over a century. It was wild knowledge to possess, and I decided to act on it. I knew that if I acted on this knowledge and used it to unite the colony and the descendants of the voyage more people would come to revere me. Especially if I did so within days of arriving at the colony.
I quickly gathered myself and set off to the central part of the colony. The central part of the colony was where most of the people who lived in the colony lived, and also where the organizational structure of the Terrans was most readily visible. It was also the administrative heart of the colony, and where Leon lived and worked.
Leon was one of the ten great leaders of the Terrans, he stood at the top of their military hierarchy and had nearly absolute power over deciding the defensive structures and tactics of the colony.
A few minutes after departing from my temple home I found myself inside a large stone building. Tracking down Leon hadn't been difficult as the elderly man was a polite, workaholic who was perpetually attempting to improve the defensive capabilities of the colony. He was inside of the central chamber of the large stone building, the part of the colony where laws were passed and decisions related to governing were made.
He was seating on a wooden chair and was hunched over various pieces of paper, each of which contained schematics, diagrams, or charts. His eyes darted back and forth from one page to another, and he was muttering quietly. Other people walked around the room we were in, including a woman I knew to be Leon's adopted granddaughter, a woman who appeared to be but a few years younger than me even though she was actually twenty years my senior.
At the moment I had the appearance of a heart-achingly handsome, Terran, man in his late twenties. This was the form I had chosen to use in my interactions with the Terran people. I was still almost too tall to be human, and I had light blonde hair that went down to the center of my neck. I wore the robes of Terran nobility, light purple robes that left part of my muscular chest exposed and covered up "private" parts of my body.
I walked into the chamber and confidently strode over to my friend. As I did I reached into his mind and filled him with knowledge of my powers over earth, with a special emphasis on my abilities that related to detecting life and other things that were hidden beneath the surface of the planet. As his mind filled with the knowledge I was giving him his eyes widened and he ceased his muttering.
He turned and looked at me abruptly even as I continued to walk towards him. As he did everyone else turned and faced me as well. I chuckled and looked back at them, my mind instantly filling with knowledge of their entire lives as I studied them. I didn't make them fall in love with me, though I could have. There was something rude about their glances, and a small part of me wanted to punish them for their decision to look at me in such a way. I didn't, but it was tempting to do so.
A second after he began to look at me he began to smile as his mind began to piece together possible reasons why I made the choice to share knowledge of my powers with him. His eyes began to gleam with curiosity, and I smiled at the man.
"Althos! My good... god! It is quite nice to see you!" Leon said, greeting me quite fondly. His voice exploded across the chamber, as I was still a fair distance away from him even as he spoke. I audibly laughed, a warm sound that was filled with delight and the sound of my laughter brought a smile to the faces of the people who were near Leon.
"Leon, my friend! I come with immensely exciting news!" I said, my own voice also exploding across the chamber even as I approached him. I sensed his curiosity and excitement surge, and I also sensed the others, his assistants, begin to feel some measure of excitement as well.
"You're coming to me with exciting news? My dear man, please come quickly!" He said, laughing as he spoke. He was a warm man, especially towards me.
He not only respected me on the basis of my divinity but also due to the ways that I had already empowered the colony and my willingness to fight alongside the men of the Terran military as their equal. I had, effectively, acted as efficiently as possible to gather his approval, and as a consequence of that, he had an extremely high opinion of me when one considered how long we had known each other.
I sped up my approach and less than a minute later found myself standing in front of the man. I had had time to consider how to approach him while walking here, and when I was in front of him I found myself smiling as I prepared to reveal a history-changing truth to the man.
"Everyone... please sit down." I said, to start things off. Leon was seated, but he was the only person seated. As I spoke I sat down myself, in a seat next to Leon. His granddaughter, who was a young woman named Lucretia, sat on the other side of the man. The man's other assistants sat down at other seats around the table.
When I studied them earlier I learned that they all knew the legends surrounding the lost voyage, the formal name given to the group of ships that went on a trading voyage around the world and never returned. It was one of the great mysteries that Terrans speculated about as children and used while playing with their imaginations with friends. That said, the others did not know that I had a thorough knowledge of the Terran Empire. So I decided to begin with that. I looked around and smiled at the people who had gathered around me.
"Since not all of you were at my speech earlier today allow me to formally introduce myself. I am Althos, the Eternal Emperor, and guardian deity of both this colony and the Terran Empire." I declared, speaking formally and authoritatively, while also revealing to those I had gathered here that I was a true ally of their empire. I watched them exhale relieved breaths, as though they hadn't known my nature as their ally until I spoke, despite Leon telling them a little bit about me.
"As a deity, I possess immense sensory capabilities. I also possess unimaginable power. And one of my sensory abilities allows me to know that two hundred and fifty kilometers from here are another group of Terrans. The... descendants of the lost voyage." I stated, speaking confidently at first and then speaking sadly at the end. I spoke sadly because I knew more than I was letting on.
When I made my claim, that we were just two hundred and fifty kilometers away from the descendants of the lost voyage, I felt the air get sucked out of the room, emotionally. Some of the people in the room had had guesses as to what I was going to reveal, but not a single guess involved that I was about to reveal that I had such extensive knowledge of the Terran Empire that I knew about the lost voyage, and also that the descendants of the lost voyage were so close to this colony.
Some of the people in the room blanched, and I already knew why. Some of them had great, great grandfathers who had gone on that voyage. That said, not everyone had the same reaction. One person visibly reddened and looked at me with anger in her eyes.
"How... How can you possibly know that?!" She asked. She was another of Leon's assistants, not Lucretia, but another one. She glared at me, and if looks could have killed I would have become a vestige then and there. That said, inwardly I chuckled. I turned to her and spoke.
"Juliet, I knew of this because of my power as a deity. Just like I know of your childhood pet, Cassius. He was a good, faithful hound, and he was also something that no one in the colony knows about. I am a god of knowledge. I know every thought you've ever had, every secret you've ever kept close to your heart, and so many more things." I told her, speaking simply and powerfully.
When I said the word "Cassius" I felt the fire that had driven her enraged response to me die immediately and be replaced with a cocktail of emotions including a sudden humility and even a healthy amount of fear.
A small part of me admired her ability to speak up after hearing something that she couldn't believe. That said, I wasn't lying. About any part of what I had just said. So if I was questioned I was happy to demonstrate my ability to know eerie truths as evidence to take my claim seriously.
"My words are the truth. We are a mere two hundred and fifty kilometers away from the descendants of the lost voyage. It's not a small distance, but our people are on the other side of it. They view themselves as Terrans. They have done what they needed to do to survive and to preserve their culture." I explained, and stated, knowing that what I was saying was the truth.
My words were met with silence as my companions took in the history-altering implications of what I had written. If I was right, or rather when I was proven right, this would upend contemporary understanding of Terran history, as it meant that one of the great mysteries of the Terran civilization was at last solved. After a few moments of silence I looked around and spoke up again.
"I am going to bring the descendants of the lost voyage over here. I will find and unite them with us. They are warriors, every bit as fierce as we are, and they survived here longer than we have, albeit under vastly different circumstances." I told the gathered peoples. It was at that remark that Leon looked up at me and spoke.
"So... It's really true then, isn't it? What you're saying? That the descendants of the lost voyage are in this region?" He asked, looking at me with a mixture of awe and uncertainty. I nodded at him, solemnly. His mother and father had been alive when the lost voyage took off. He remembered their tales, which weren't secondhand accounts but were eye-witness recollections of the departure of the first and only "voyage around the world".
This was a personal matter to him. And so to demonstrate the truth once and for all I decided to use my powerful magic. Well... not just my powerful magic.
I reached out across the vast distance that separated the colony from the descendants of the lost voyage. I did so effortlessly as my powers were potent enough to work across interdimensional distances. My power reached the mind of Spartina, the current leader of the descendants of the lost voyage, and as it did I made copies of every single one of her memories and absorbed them. And then I spoke to her.
Spartina, a powerful warrior and magician, was in bed when her mind was invaded by an unimaginably powerful being. Her bed was made of cow-skin and she had linens made of flattened and fused chicken feathers. She thought it was the height of luxury.
When her mind was invaded she awoke instantly and reeled from the power of the being who had made itself at home in her head. Her eyes became bloodshot and she felt her every cell screaming in fear at the power of the creature who had surged into her mind. Althos, even when he wasn't being hostile, was an incredibly powerful being so it made sense for her to fear him.
She was paralyzed with fear as she felt his mind invade hers and somehow she felt that she was being studied by whatever being was inside of her mind. To her credit, she was correct. Althos was indeed studying her. She was the first being who wasn't a vestige that he had met whose cumulative level was 40. Spartina was a level 20 warrior and a level 20 magician, which made her unbelievably powerful as far as mortals went. That was fascinating to Althos, who took a few moments to assess her memories before beginning to speak to her.
"Spartina Bubonus, my name is Althos and I am a deity. I have come to you to begin to unite you and your people with other Terrans." Althos revealed when he finally spoke to her. As he did his voice began to take away the fear she felt towards him and his power. He did that consciously, using one of his fear-based powers.
He had acquired those near the end of the three-year-long period he had spent building his own empire when he earned the second tier of influence over the domain of emotions and chose to acquire powers over fear.
Althos' powers over fear were one of the many greater secrets he kept hidden from even his more loyal subjects and worshipers, even the rare few who knew of his powers over love. He liked his powers over fear but preferred not to use them unless he deemed it necessary. In this particular instance, he had wisely deemed it necessary.
"Your people have managed to survive and some would say even thrive under your leadership and that of your father. That said, there is a colony of newly arrived Terrans who came to settle the southernmost point of the world. They are just some two hundred and fifty kilometers away from you. I lead them. I wish for you to come and unite with us." He told her while filling her mind with images of Leon, the colony, and the other Terrans.
Althos then began to fill her mind with knowledge of the particular group of Atlani that he and his followers were warring against. Spartina felt her heart glow red with rage as she learned that the Atlani were again fucking with Terrans, as they had fucked with her father and the members of the lost voyage.
Althos then revealed one more surprise. He created an illusionary projection of the group of people he was with, himself included, and projected it into Spartina's mind. He did the same for her and projected her into the minds of those he was physically speaking to. The god then smiled and spoke warmly.
"Hello Spartina. I am the physical form of Althos, and these are my friends, Leon, Lucretia, Juliet," The god continued to speak, introducing everyone. When he was done with introductions his eyes flashed for a second, becoming a dark scarlet color.
"I would like to formally invite you to return to the mainstream Terran empire. To come here... All of you. You, your daughter, your husband, and every single person living in your micro-state." Althos declared, using his authority as the new leader of the colony to make that declaration.
Every other person was too astounded by their ability to see each other to speak. All of the colonists looked at Spartina, and Spartina gazed back at them, amazed by the incredible mystical power that Althos possessed.
