text: When I was little, my father told a story. It was a story of ancient times, before him, before his father. Before man. A story of gods and monsters. A story of Titans. Long ago, when the world was cooling, the first beings rose from the primordial ooze that covered the planet. Beings of immense and immeasurable power. These beings, who called themselves the Elysians, thought themselves to be the Earth Mother’s will. They could shape her form with only a swing of their mighty limbs. She trembled beneath their every step. Their breathes would cause storms that raged for days. The Elysians were the firstborn children of the Maiden Earth, and thus were made to stand above all that would come after. Born to be gods. Not all the Elysians were content to simply rule over their sibling races, however. A powerful warrior called Havi felt that he should stand above the others. He felt that even among the Elysians, he was superior. He called upon his brothers and sisters, told them of his thoughts. Some called him mad, said that installing a monarch among them would only cause strife. Others of his kind agreed, though not all thought that it should be Havi who would rule. Slowly, over many millennia, a rift formed among the Elysians, the mighty gods. Where once they were equal and proud, this schism tore them apart. A bloody, gruesome war scarred the flesh of poor Mother Earth as the first of her children split apart. Three factions were formed, and three factions fought. The first of these groups were the Asrithi, rallied behind Havi in a bid to conquer and rule over all others. The Asrithi, in preparation for war, had studied magic in its purest forms. They could call storms with ease and would use powerful weapons to beat their opponents into subjugation. To oppose their tyrannical siblings, the Aurra’Maaz rose. Benevolent and wise, they sought only to reunify as equals, to maintain the status quo. Gifted with the magic of Creation, the Aurra’Maaz erected stalwart walls and hardy lesser beings to fight for them. They claimed to rule as a democracy, but the wise Elohyym served as their voice and the most respected among them. Finally, from within the ranks of the Asrithi came the Olymparate. Those Elysians who disagreed with the selection of Havii as the Monarch of Elysia instead allied themselves with a sky-king called Dyauss. Under his leadership they formed an oligarchy of kings and queens, with each choosing to specialize in a unique aspect of magic. Dyauss, the strongest among them, was said to be unbeatable in combat. The war raged for eons. With each clash of her children, the Earth wept. She would heave and tremble and shake and split. Great chasms scarred her flesh, so deep and wide even the Elysians dared not risk falling into them. Soon, only twenty-six Elysians remained of the thousands that had once lived. Nine were Asrithi. Sixteen were Olymparate. Only one of Aurra’Maaz remained. Unlucky Elohyym. He had watched his brothers and sisters die around him, cut down by yet more of his family while he only grew stronger. Where once his greatest strength had laid with the powers of creation, eons of loss had warped his mind. His infinite creativity turned toward more sinister powers, and slowly, ever so slowly, he lost himself to madness. Abandoning the name that the Earth Mother had bestowed upon him on his creation, he bade all that saw his terrifying Hex Magic call him by his chosen title, Luxilishan. Seeing what this feud had done to their eldest brother, Dyauss and Havii called a truce and attempted to reason with the mad Luxilishan. This, however, only ended in the loss of Havii’s right eye while Dyauss was beaten within an inch of his life. Luxilishan had proven stronger than both powerful brothers combined, capable of conjuring hordes of nightmarish creatures with a wave of his twisted and deformed hand. It was only through Havii’s quick thinking that nothing more than an eye and their pride was lost, as he was able to distract Luxilishan long enough for Dyauss to harness the power of the Rainbow Bridge to spirit the pair away. Even with his remaining siblings in hiding, the terror of Luxilishan did not cease. He instead turned his sights on the fledgling races that had managed to avoid extinction. He tormented these beings with his nightmare army, forcing upon them acts of malice and depravity. Havii and Dyauss, though not rejoining, knew that Luxilishan could not be beaten by either one of them alone and thus the Asrithi and Olymparate formed an alliance that against their wicked brother. The two factions conspired together to create a plan to split the power of the Mad God in half and combined their magic to create a weapon capable of doing just such a thing. Hephairon, the Olymparate forge master, created Gungnir and Astrapes for Havii and Dyauss. The two legendary spears would be able to cleave Elohyym from Luxilishan if used together. Simply splitting these two aspects, they knew, would not be enough. One would need to be sealed away from the other, to keep them from ever rejoining and resurrecting the Mad God. After a few centuries of preparation, the time finally came for the allied pantheons to face their twisted brother. The battle between the was brutal, twenty-five Elysians finding themselves losing ground against their eldest sibling. Havii and Dyauss were given no opportunities to strike as Luxilishan released wave after wave of monsters. In a desperate bid to turn the tide, Tywazz, the loyal lieutenant of Havii, sacrificed his right arm to bind Luxilishan long enough for Havii to drive Gungnir through the Mad God’s chest. Dyauss wasted no time using Astrapes to strike Gungnir with the sky’s fury, forcing the madness of Luxilishan from Elohyym’s form. The diminished Luxilishan wildly rushed towards his other half, only to be bound by Sheolus. The eldest Olymparate sacrificed himself to bind Mad Luxilishan, flinging the pair into the deepest of the Earth Mother’s pits and using his corporeal form to create chains that would hold the Mad God for as long as his own will held strong. On the surface, Havii, Dyauss, and the remaining Elysians stood over the weakened form of Wise Elohyym. He was emaciated and frail, though he also appeared at peace for the first time in eons. He pleaded that his brothers remain allied and leave him be. He wanted no more bloodshed between family. Ultimately, the other two agreed to go their separate ways and divide the dominions of the Earth Mother between the three. Elohyym was given the Southern Realms, a peaceful kingdom where he could rest easy and guide his people with a gentle hand. The Olymparate decided upon the Western Realms, a fertile kingdom of farmland and seas. They passed down the importance of strategy and philosophy to their people, instilling in them profound ideals of free thought. Finally, the Asrithi took the Northern realms as their own and created a hardy people, powerful and skilled warriors who held honor and glory above all else. The three kingdoms prospered and grew as the scars of the Elysian War slowly healed. Elohyym never really recovered fully, and eventually withdrew from his people entirely, only intervening when necessary while the story of his Mad half slowly found its way into their minds, giving birth to the legend of Elohim and Lucifer. The Asrithi eventually became known as the Aesir Gods, the Rulers of the Wild Norsemen. The Olymparate, after creating a stronghold atop their realms’ tallest mountain were renamed the Olympians by the people they protected. As time grew long and guilt ate away at the hearts of the Asrithi and Olymparate, they too withdrew from their people. They came to deem themselves unworthy to lead after the parts they each played in the torment of their own brother. Instead, they came together one final time to create a bloodline of champions, born of both factions, to protect the world from the same terrible fate they had set upon it. Once this task was done the powerful Elysians withdrew into their lofty homes amongst the skies, hoping that their final gift to the world would be enough. This was the story my father told me and it will be the story you pass on to your children when I am gone, for this is the story of our family. It reminds us of the terrible power we wield, of the destruction caused by unnecessary violence. We as the scions of Elysia of a duty to be protectors, a safeguard against those that would misuse power in any form so that the mistakes of our forefathers are never repeated. We are the last of those mighty guardians and when I die, you will be all that is left of us. My son, take heed of this tale. Engrain its lesson deep within your being. Once, there were Gods, powerful but fallible. Now only we remain, a final gift to a healing world. A safety measure to ensure the circumstances that allowed a being like Luxilishan to rise never happen again.