The Mad Emperor
This is a very short one-shot. It is supposed to read like a quick summary of a mythology, although it does explain some background of the man who discovered this knowledge (who lived, in this parallel world, during CK2's timeframe). Ancient, forbidden, and, most of all, horrifying knowledge....
And that's a wrap. Most of my (still upcoming) stories will feature mythology (artificial or otherwise) in some way. Also, comment on any allusions to actual works you can see! There are many of them...
Once, there was an emperor of Byzantium. He was mad, like downright crazy. He began to study arcane text
and discovered knowledge better left unknown. This is what he learned...First, some background on who the Mad Emperor was. His name was Konstantinos, and it is said that he fought
the Seljuk Turks to a standstill at Trebizond. After this, he began to study old Hellenic texts, and he realized how cruel man was. His faith was tested, and he began to read arcane texts. These texts told him a horrifying truth....
This truth was that few higher beings still cared for humanity, and none cared about their suffering. The few that
did care were Strife, Discord, and Hamatia (Sin). They wanted to worsen human suffering. Therefore, Konstantinos wondered how the more benevolent forces had abandoned humanity.
As it turned out, the world was created by Nothing, the second being, who sleeps until he wakes, and his
existence swallows all. The first being, it turns out, was Death. Death and Nothing birthed the Firstborn, which were Sophia (Wisdom), Night, Truth, Hamatia (who, in turn, birthed Strife and Discord), and Life. Death began to take lives and bring them to the Afterlife, which constructed itself around Nothing's sleeping form.
Hamatia chose a planet to corrupt, and the unlucky planet was Earth. It was being created by Life's firstborn,
the Demiurge, who was also born of Sophia. Hamatia took the form of a serpent and corrupted man. The Demiurge tried to save man, but that failed when its words were continuously ignored, and so it gave up. Strife and Discord then followed Hamatia in spreading themselves to Earth, and mankind fought amongst themselves.Meanwhile, Night birthed an untold amount of terrors, and these spread out across Earth. Soon, however, the
Demiurge managed to capture these and seal them in a jar. Hamatia, however, tricked a human into opening the jar, and she then killed the Demiurge.
After this happened, Sophia mated with Truth, and they produced Hope and the Shroud-Beings. Hope was
then imprisoned in the jar that Night's spawn were formerly imprisoned in. In this way, humanity lost hope.The Shroud-Beings figured that Earth was more trouble than it was worth. They were the Whisperers in the
Void (Knowledge), the Eater of Worlds (Hunger), the Instrument of Desire (Desire), the Composer of Strands (Intelligence), and the End of the Cycle (Destruction). They decided to pay attention to space-faring civilizations (or at least the ones that weren't getting corrupted by all the evils).Finally, Sophia and Truth ditched mankind, too. It took Life a little longer to leave, but, eventually, even he left
mankind. It was, thus, decided that mankind would suffer an eternity in agony. And amongst the other civilizations, Earth was given a new name, Hell...And that's a wrap. Most of my (still upcoming) stories will feature mythology (artificial or otherwise) in some way. Also, comment on any allusions to actual works you can see! There are many of them...
