Gods & Demons

type=book

title=Gods and Demons

subtitle=Little Treatise for the use of the Mystics.

author=Acidrik Fenlapanse

Where do gods come from? For the Eleven aren't unique. They're not the only ones, far from it! Truth is, they are swarming everywhere around us. They are often completely ignored by mere mortals. Hel Munster, in one of his famous booklets, the Diis Ignotis, estimated them at one thousand eight hundred and twenty four. This famous theorist of the Quadramental Breeze upholds they're coming down from the Universe to the World of Ten thanks to this magic breeze. Naturally, just like all the other philosophers of deities he's never been able to prove it. Among the ones he registered, we can count some noticeable ones: the god of the edible mushrooms, the god who puts Moskitos to sleep on Summer nights, the god of the exciting dances for marsh worms (exciting for fish that is), as well as gods who seem essential such as; the one who extraordinarily increases tenfold the strength of a hit or the effect of a spell, the one who can make trees grow faster, the one who uses remains of monsters to make very useful implements, beautiful trinkets

and items which will facilitate all your adventurer projects.

Well, a multitude of gods, always on the watch, ready to fly into the first living being's arms who will give them just a drop of attention (it's all they need at first). But the actual aim is to change the above-mentioned attention into genuine FAITH. Indeed, a god's début is quite modest. Though they really want to be renowned for whom they are - divinities with huge powers, they have few means: intuitions, signs and voices. But their followers must believe in them... and it's a long way to go!

For instance, let's talk about the goddess Sacrier... She wasn't born yesterday... She succeeded to impose herself upon the tight circle of the ever so much useful gods... When she first started to rise, a simple observation could be made: the World of Ten was a world of suffering.

A whole range of suffering: pain, devastation, torment, torture and so on (the weird thing being the other gods did not notice it before). Yet, when gods are looking for believers, the idea is simple: to make a name for yourself, you've got to innovate. And the goddess Sacrier understood it!

She chose a Lumberjack apprentice. He was handling his axe so well that it never landed twice in the same spot. His ten fingers were not enough to count his injuries... Every day the goddess would come next to him, teeny and invisible. She waited patiently for him to be very edgy and to scream with pain or anger. This day finally came. While he was holding his head with his bleeding hands to hit it against a trunk, she whispered in his ear:

If before hitting a tree,

He had a faith leading his body

A great share of adrenalin

would be flowing!

In one go, you'd climb the hill

driven by your only will,

You'd become a wonder

as a wood chopper,

And split in two

every log you bump into.

The Lumberjack apprentice followed the piece of advice the voice gave him. His axe fell. His fingers were unhurt, and the log split in half from top to bottom. He then heard the voice inside his head:

Don't count yourself among the sufferers,

Take action and inflict fair penitence,

It's the only way you'd execute at a good cadence!

Sacred are you cries, Sacrier!

As the voice he heard was a female voice, the Lumberjack believed in a goddess called Sacrier. Everyday, he made blows rain down on his

fingers, head, arms and his strength increased tenfold. He started to chant prayers of his own creation: 'Joy of receiving, pleasure of giving' or 'to offer one's right cheek, to hit with a straight left'. At this point, the goddess Sacrier knew he was ready to become a prophet...

During the terrible Winter provoked by Solar's death, the Lumberjack went to preach in the countries. Peasants had been suffering so much that they carefully listened to the stranger who promised them to replace their suffering by a new strength. In less than a week, he had spread his prayers round as others would do with germs. Believers soon became a legion. The goddess was added to the Pantheon. From now on, the World of Ten would be called the World of Eleven...