by John Belliston
Few things are definitive in the Soup of Fate. Flavors
muddle and combine in unexpected ways, but the hatred between Tlal, God of the
Angry Heavens, and his brother Daikado, God of the Angry Earth, is one of few
certainties. Within Tiala's womb the brothers grew. Their bodies and
spirits expanded, as did their rage. When they exited their mother but before
they breathed their first breath, the two began to fight and tear at each
other.
Daikado came first, rocky skin hanging in thick plates over his
fiery flesh beneath. His wide toothless mouth and stunted limbs made him look
like a huge, fat toad made of obsidian, burnt stone, and molten rock. Jagged
horns jutted from his brow and framed his smooth granite eyes. Tlal slipped out
in his brother’s wake, a long slender serpent with sapphire scales and four
short limbs ending in terrible claws. A line of ivory horns along his back
crackled with electricity and ominous clouds formed and reformed constantly
around the length of his body. His long and prickly beard travelled far down
his neck, nearly twice the length of his long, toothy mouth.
Their teeth and claws were already buried in the other’s
flesh at the moment of their birth. They screamed with such shattering violence
it drew Ishari from her new child. Throughout the horror of Mar’ies fratricide and
the Ice God’s exile to the mortal plane, they did nothing but stay locked in
their bristling, destructive embrace. It took all the Gods an age, as mortals
reckon it, to finally pull the brothers apart.
With the help of Tiala’s Lullaby the two young gods calmed
enough to separate and were forced to swear temporary truce. One at a time each
of the other Gods came to talk sense into the twins. Each deity tried to find
the reason for the brothers' rage, but all each brother said was, “When his
blood runs dry, his flesh is cold, and his bones are ground to dust, then I
will tell you.”
The strain of the song made Tiala’s voice falter, and with
its soothing magic cast aside the Brothers flew back into their battle. Claw
met tooth. Flame met lighting. Volcano met hurricane. Trickery met brutality.
Every weapon was attempted and exploited. At one point or another they dragged
each of the other gods into their conflict, until in an annoyed rage, Nhoj, the
Apathetic King and the Chaosgate of Void, cast them to the mortal plane.
Their new status as outcasts only escalated their conflict
into complete and senseless war. Using raw elemental force and all-consuming
hatred they created the Kado and the Lalt. These powerful minions went forth
and gathered together armies of mortals in the names of their creators and set
them upon each other.
Rivers of mortal blood flowed in tribute to their hatred. Tribes
tore themselves apart with their fanatical devotion to the Earthquake and
Hurricane. Families were divided and slaughtered by the rampage. Even the
Dragons were not immune to the dread charms of the Kado and the Lalt, and they
joined the hordes with similar abandon. The Brothers showed no remorse, no
mercy, and no concern for anything but the taste of the other’s life’s blood.
They only broke apart long enough to order their worshipers into the next
bloody conflict. They grew drunk on mortal adoration.
The other gods stood in horror at what the brothers inflicted
on the mortal plane. Ssita, Queen of the Gods and the Chaosgate of Creation,
called her siblings and children about her. She demanded a solution. They were
silent, until the Oldest spoke. With his bare hands he stirred the Stew of
Fate, and as the God of Fate, he could see the solution. The Gods would create
a barrier against their own interference. It would act as a Seal against the
Gods and as a prison for Tlal, Daikado, and Mar’ies.
Focusing more power than they ever had the Gods forged the
Seal. Seven elemental temples were created, each in the place where its
opposite element was most powerful. They would use the conflict to bestow much
more energy than they would on their own. The three prisoners would act as
anchors to the mortal plane, holding the Seal in place. Mar’ies would be
trapped upon his frozen throne on the north pole, Daikado trapped deep in the
center of the planet, and Tlal living within a permanent hurricane on the south
pole.
Out of love? Out of interest for their experiment? No mortal
mind can say, but they know they are protected. If only from the Gods.
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