Timestamp: 2nd of Summer, 514 AV
When Shane woke up his room was entirely pitch black. He couldn't see a thing. This was, in fact, differing from the norm. He had, of late, been tinkering with how he set his fireplace. It would burn at least in embers until after he usually woke. However the fire must have completely burnt out and yet still he felt tired.
He knew why. He'd spent many long hours of the night in feverish dreaming. He couldn't quite get the boy's visage out of his mind. He didn't even know his name. Some boy had died in his arm. Some fresh faced youth who had sworn himself to uphold the sacred vows of the temple. How could that happen?
Shane's body still felt as if it slept. It was completely relaxed. His eyes were open but they stared unseingly at the roof of his apartment. His body was sleeping but his mind was as awake as it could ever be. He was caught in conflict. Shane's mind was in disequilibrium; out of balance, out of sync; disequilibrium because of this singular gnawing concern that didn't seem to quite add up. It didn't seem to be able to fit within his mind. It was as if his mind was made up entirely of square thoughts and this thought was a circle. It didn't fit anywhere. There were spaces and wobbly bits and it didn't make sense. How could this happen?
If the Gods controlled all forces and knew all things then how could an alter boy who might one day be a priest, an agent of the Gods, be killed in such a stroke of fate? It didn't make any sense to him because it seemed so darn senseless. For a brief moment the ludicrous idea of rival Godly assasination passed through his mind. Surely the Gods didn't work in such a way sabotaging each other's servants by overtly manipulating the forces of fate. Then again there had been a time when the Gods had descended from the Ukalas to do battle right here on Mizahar tearing the world asunder and casting the relatively tranquil citizens of Mizahar into a post apocalyptic nightmare.
It was hard for him to take on this knowledge. It went against anything else he had ever learnt of the Gods who were meant to be kind and benevolent in general. It made him think odd thoughts about the purpose of mortality. The Gods had their divine plane where everything was exactly as they wanted it to be. A peaceful paradise according to what each God believed a paradise to be. What was the point of Mizahar? Shane was reminded of a game. It was almost as if the Gods sat up their in the Ukalas looking down upon Mizahar as some kind of game board where all living things were the pieces for this grand game.
It hurt Shane's head to think about it like that. He couldn't imagine it. He couldn't believe it. It was kind of a neat idea and it seemed to make sense but that didn't make it truth. Surely there was more to life than being a piece; a pawn. Shane just couldn't believe that it could be so. That life could be so meaningless. Yet, he saw no more evidence to the contrary than there was evidence that life could mean nothing more than simply serving the Gods as well as you can until death.
Shane realised that his own life; what he had pledged his life to; was built upon that same principle. Success; wasn't success ultimately measured in not being reborn a failure over and over again? Was the ultimaate success, beyond simply making one physical life more comfortable than another, not to be taken into your God's Ukalas to live out an eternity of peace?
Sitting then, in the silence, the strangest idea that Shane had ever thought popped into his head. The Ultimate success is to not only become a God but the God that all other Gods worship. To become God among Gods would be to achieve the ultimate form. No longer bound by mortality; no longer bound by fellow God; God among Gods can do anything, be anyone, live anywhere. Everything that exists bows to God among Gods.
“God among Gods.” Shane whispered to himself. It was almost as if he didn't want the Gods to hear him utter such a thing. The idea captivated him so much that he forgot all about the altar boy crushed by the cart.
That was Lhex's domain, Shane reckoned. It was he who was said to be fate itself. It was Lhex who was said to pick the destiny of every mortal being. If anyone was God among Gods it would be Lhex, Shane decided, after all he had never heard of Lhex bowing down to another God before or another God challenging Lhex. Then again, Shane admitted, how was he to know the affairs of the Gods? Clearly he was too unimportant to be mixed up in any of that stuff.
When the boy slipped back into his mind again it suddenly fit into place. In a moment of epiphany Shane suddenly realised why. He realised why there was such senseless death. Lhex was God among Gods. No God would ever question or defy he who was God among Gods. Lhex could do whatever he so wished to whomever he so wished. The mystery of the altar boy struck down in the prime of his youth in such a random way was suddenly solved. The answer, he could not believe, was so simple and it was an answer people had known for years. People so often blamed these things on Fate and when Fate was the instrument of the most powerful being in the universe everything, including the cause for the greatest good and greatest evil fell into place. The world was random. There was no divine plan. Mizahar was both a Godly game and not at all. The odds weren't rigged in anyone's favour. Even the luckiest man in the world could be struck down by a lightening bolt or an arrow intended for another person.
Shane sighed. His whole body seemed to sigh with him and sleeps embrace found him. Equilibirum: restored.
When Shane woke up his room was entirely pitch black. He couldn't see a thing. This was, in fact, differing from the norm. He had, of late, been tinkering with how he set his fireplace. It would burn at least in embers until after he usually woke. However the fire must have completely burnt out and yet still he felt tired.
He knew why. He'd spent many long hours of the night in feverish dreaming. He couldn't quite get the boy's visage out of his mind. He didn't even know his name. Some boy had died in his arm. Some fresh faced youth who had sworn himself to uphold the sacred vows of the temple. How could that happen?
Shane's body still felt as if it slept. It was completely relaxed. His eyes were open but they stared unseingly at the roof of his apartment. His body was sleeping but his mind was as awake as it could ever be. He was caught in conflict. Shane's mind was in disequilibrium; out of balance, out of sync; disequilibrium because of this singular gnawing concern that didn't seem to quite add up. It didn't seem to be able to fit within his mind. It was as if his mind was made up entirely of square thoughts and this thought was a circle. It didn't fit anywhere. There were spaces and wobbly bits and it didn't make sense. How could this happen?
If the Gods controlled all forces and knew all things then how could an alter boy who might one day be a priest, an agent of the Gods, be killed in such a stroke of fate? It didn't make any sense to him because it seemed so darn senseless. For a brief moment the ludicrous idea of rival Godly assasination passed through his mind. Surely the Gods didn't work in such a way sabotaging each other's servants by overtly manipulating the forces of fate. Then again there had been a time when the Gods had descended from the Ukalas to do battle right here on Mizahar tearing the world asunder and casting the relatively tranquil citizens of Mizahar into a post apocalyptic nightmare.
It was hard for him to take on this knowledge. It went against anything else he had ever learnt of the Gods who were meant to be kind and benevolent in general. It made him think odd thoughts about the purpose of mortality. The Gods had their divine plane where everything was exactly as they wanted it to be. A peaceful paradise according to what each God believed a paradise to be. What was the point of Mizahar? Shane was reminded of a game. It was almost as if the Gods sat up their in the Ukalas looking down upon Mizahar as some kind of game board where all living things were the pieces for this grand game.
It hurt Shane's head to think about it like that. He couldn't imagine it. He couldn't believe it. It was kind of a neat idea and it seemed to make sense but that didn't make it truth. Surely there was more to life than being a piece; a pawn. Shane just couldn't believe that it could be so. That life could be so meaningless. Yet, he saw no more evidence to the contrary than there was evidence that life could mean nothing more than simply serving the Gods as well as you can until death.
Shane realised that his own life; what he had pledged his life to; was built upon that same principle. Success; wasn't success ultimately measured in not being reborn a failure over and over again? Was the ultimaate success, beyond simply making one physical life more comfortable than another, not to be taken into your God's Ukalas to live out an eternity of peace?
Sitting then, in the silence, the strangest idea that Shane had ever thought popped into his head. The Ultimate success is to not only become a God but the God that all other Gods worship. To become God among Gods would be to achieve the ultimate form. No longer bound by mortality; no longer bound by fellow God; God among Gods can do anything, be anyone, live anywhere. Everything that exists bows to God among Gods.
“God among Gods.” Shane whispered to himself. It was almost as if he didn't want the Gods to hear him utter such a thing. The idea captivated him so much that he forgot all about the altar boy crushed by the cart.
That was Lhex's domain, Shane reckoned. It was he who was said to be fate itself. It was Lhex who was said to pick the destiny of every mortal being. If anyone was God among Gods it would be Lhex, Shane decided, after all he had never heard of Lhex bowing down to another God before or another God challenging Lhex. Then again, Shane admitted, how was he to know the affairs of the Gods? Clearly he was too unimportant to be mixed up in any of that stuff.
When the boy slipped back into his mind again it suddenly fit into place. In a moment of epiphany Shane suddenly realised why. He realised why there was such senseless death. Lhex was God among Gods. No God would ever question or defy he who was God among Gods. Lhex could do whatever he so wished to whomever he so wished. The mystery of the altar boy struck down in the prime of his youth in such a random way was suddenly solved. The answer, he could not believe, was so simple and it was an answer people had known for years. People so often blamed these things on Fate and when Fate was the instrument of the most powerful being in the universe everything, including the cause for the greatest good and greatest evil fell into place. The world was random. There was no divine plan. Mizahar was both a Godly game and not at all. The odds weren't rigged in anyone's favour. Even the luckiest man in the world could be struck down by a lightening bolt or an arrow intended for another person.
Shane sighed. His whole body seemed to sigh with him and sleeps embrace found him. Equilibirum: restored.
Credit to Skerry
Philosophical thoughts are the thing. 
Just to keep this in mind in your future threads.
