Post by Rennat on Sept 5, 2014 21:20:59 GMT -5
Gaia's Wake: A History
PART I: The Fall (or, the End of All Life)
The First Day
It had been many years in the works: The Fall of the Earth. The Great Goddess Gaia had watched for centuries as Her creation, humanity, fell prey to the many temptations of the world. A world that had been poisoned again and again by malicious, outside force. In exchange for the free will of Her children, Gaia remained nearly powerless, became one with the earth. She warned Her children of their folly with raging volcanoes, whipping hurricanes, and opened Her maw with magnificent tremors; they refuted Her, unknowingly. There was nothing more that could be done. Gaia saw no choice but to end life entirely and return Her children to the realm of spirits.
The Second Day
Gaia rained upon the earth with a terrific meteor shower, not dissimilar to the ones she had presented as small wonders for Her children to gaze at in their infancy. The humans, already on the brink of war, abandoned their struggle to protect the land they had spent many years soiling. It was sad and also laughable, for they had willingly chosen this path to their own destruction. Knowing of their creator's presence may have hastened a recovery, but Gaia had created Her children to sustain the earth, and through the centuries they had deviated. They knew what was to become of them. Gaia was surprised at the perseverance of Her children. They dug deep into the earth where the destruction could not reach them. Gaia beckoned them to the surface with devastating quakes, but Her children were resilient.
The Third Day
Unable to witness their suffering any longer, Gaia blinked away what remained with storms of flame, outpourings of magma from the ocean floor, and beset the earth with horrific beings made entirely of fire. Her children prayed for forgiveness, to some god Gaia had come to associate with Her own divine form. She saw the innocent fall to Her new creations. She had never known there was Virtue left in the human. It puzzled Her to see the good deeds and charity that came from the conditions The Fall had produced. Gaia sat and watched as the humans held for their lives, doing what they could until the very last one fell. There was a sadness that hung over the torn land. Gaia banished the storms and magma and beasts.
The Fourth Day
The world sat, mostly dead. The burning had stopped at Gaia's command, but with nothing left to populate and sustain it, the world would surely perish, following suit of its inhabitants. The goodness that had been provoked from the humans, who fought courageously to defend what they had come to call their own, who fed and protected the weak when the world had gone to Hell around them... It had left Gaia to wonder the course Her children may have gone, had they been allowed to survive just a few decades longer. She could not keep the lives she had stolen; she had been unfair in Her dealings, or at least her sympathy convinced her it was so. She rested a day more, free of the burden of the world, but remorseful all the same.
The Fifth Day
Gaia made Her final decree to the humans she planned on restoring, planted in enormous trees called Yggdrasil (a name stolen straight from their own culture.) They would restore the land they had ultimately led to destruction, in return for their lives. At the end of the great ordeal Gaia set before Her children, the Virtuous would be handsomely rewarded, and those that gave in to their earthly Vices would fall far below the earth into the very flames that boiled its core. They would find peace, after suffering, for they would have chosen such a path consciously, and deserved no more merciful treatment. The earth remained as Gaia had left it: in ruins, charred, a few years away from becoming unable to grow life. The humans could rejuvenate their old broken world, left behind in Gaia's Wake. It would be called so, once they discovered their ruler's identity. Gaia set Her plan in motion.
The Sixth Day
On the sixth day, the children were Reborn anew. The humans arose once more, alive and well and free of any of their past transgressions against Gaia. Those that had done right by the world that sustained them and those with regret in their hearts were blessed with an advantage. The scum of society were also given a clean slate, but were not handed down the same advantage as their more Virtuous brethren. Gaia weighed Her children down with Vices, disabilities and weaknesses that would remind them of their inferiority and need to exceed their fragile, earthly forms in order to survive and ascend. A vice for every virtue. With the goal in mind to return the earth to the state it had been entrusted to them, the humans were given free reign. However, as there had always been, there would be those that would harness their Virtues improperly, potentially under the guise of goodness or under the influence of other, darker forces, the same that had led humanity astray in the past. And they, too, would find judgment or else destroy their world once more.
The Seventh Day
On the Seventh Day, Gaia rested in wait for the return of Her beautiful planet and Her once faithful children. Now that they were very much aware of Her presence, they were aware of their new life Focus. A new age would begin in Gaia's Wake, with all the nuances of human civilization past. Hopefully, with the memory of their mistakes behind them, the children of Gaia would be able to take an enlightened step forward.
PART II: Rebirth (or, the Second Chance)
Awakening
Suddenly, all humans awoke renewed and change. They were dressed in the clothes they wore during The Fall, but scattered across the land haphazardly. They could not age. Most humans were reborn in the vicinity of an Yggdrasil tree, providing them with all that living would require, as well as crystals that grew from their roots, which would assist them in turning back the hands of time. Humans no longer remember anything about the places they once knew or the names of people, though the memories remain as distant reminders of a past life. Desperately, many humans set out blindly to search for their lost loved ones. The ones with no one to speak of, or those intelligent enough to realize the task ahead of them, got to work on rebuilding the world.
Gaia's Decree
On the first night, as the newly Reborn lie worried and afraid in the soft grass that naturally grew near the Yggdrasil trees, a great fanfare was heard throughout the land. All humans heard it internally, a sound of vitality and vigor. They knew their purpose; to heal the land, to return it to what it had been long before man's thoughtless industrialism had sent it into decline. All humans knew that Yggdrasil meant safety, that its crystals could do wondrous things, yet to be discovered, and that there would be those who could use them to create warmth, chill, and influence growth. The bark and leaves the Yggdrasil could also be used to ward off beastkind, though weakened when separated from their trees. Where the moon had once been, there now was an enormous clock, one that would also take the place of the sun in daytime. All humans knew that the clock was a prophecy. The clock was not a usual one; it shed light and told the date. There were thirteen markings, similar to Roman numerals, and each one represented a day. On the thirteenth day, something would happen. The humans knew not what, only that the event was inevitable. They slept, more relaxed but very much confused. The people demanded answers to the sky, which would tell them nothing more.
The Thirteenth Day
When the Thirteenth Day came, something happened, just as the clock predicted. The sky dimmed, but still let off an eerie glow, like the sun behind a cloud. The humans had been busy building a tall tower with the magic they had discovered, one that they believed could reach the clock. It was omnipresent but not quite like the sun the humans remembered. It did not appear to be miles and miles away, but very big and very close. The tower was toppled immediately, like a force of nature had tipped it over; Gaia's power and presence was made clear. The humans had made such mistakes in the past, and Gaia believed them incapable of repeating them. Temptation had always been the flaw of Her children, but She truly believed they had learned. She beset the land with a myriad of creatures, much unlike the regular animals that flocked to the Yggdrasil. The human could not conquer this land so easily, believe it was their own to make and do with as they pleased, such as in past times. They would have to contend with Gaia's many other children, creatures the humans would refer to as monsters, aliens, demons. Any name that their culture had created for the unknown would fit. The humans returned to the Yggdrasil, where the creatures would not near, and got back to work on creating shelter and society.
Miracle, the First City
As months passed, the humans that had taken residence in the larger cities were quickly eliminated by Gaia's creations. The monsters laid claim on the human's former great thrones of activity. But, one group of humans refused to let their city, formerly Chicago, fall prey to the beasts so easily. In the three years that followed Rebirth, the humans drove the beasts away from the city's edge and forged a path to its center. Fortunately, a large Yggdrasil had been planted there, and no beasts would set foot on its blessed grass. The humans, who had forgotten about where they once lived, aside from what emotions and memories were left behind, came to call the city Miracle. It had taken months of carefully organized planning to infiltrate the beast-ridden streets and alleyways that had led to its center, and even now, Miracle was no more than a busy town square and an apartment complex. But, it had been a miracle humans could make contact with their ancestors in this way, colonizing the land they believed to be rightfully theirs. And thus, the name Miracle.