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The Soft Serve Gestapo Gets Crowned!
Genesis: Chapter 2
The Gods & Demi-Gods
Written by: Eric Jones
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The four gods of Zoose looked down upon their land, and it was indeed good.
Egg shaped, but largely a pretty nice place to raise the children. The four
gods who were assigned this task of watching over Zoose were Mithra,
Genros, Chao, and Bob.
Each of the gods had been given a specific duty... Mithra was
responsible for giving shape to all of the creatures bodies, Genros was
responsible for instilling the creatures with reason and logic, while
Chao was responsible for emotions. Chao, in a fit of boredom, also
created his own personal race, who are known as the martians. It is the
only race that was not the collaborative effort of the three main gods.
As for the fourth of their ranks, Bob, well, the other gods weren't sure
why he was there...
Going forth and bringing life and light to the world was an easy task, but
there is a great saying: those who can, do, and those who can't delegate*.
-=-
*This is of COURSE excepting the great writers of existance, who did not
delgate authority out of incompetence, but merely because they had better
things to do than run the affairs of a universe. Like play intergalactic
pool.
-=-
The gods could most certainly not do most of the things involved in running
a planet, like interact with it's beings. Chao found them too logical,
Genros thought them too irrational, while Mithra generally just found them
noisy. Nobody knew what Bob thought.
And so, beneath the gods, were created the demi-gods. Beings whom held
dominion over a certain defined domain. Within their realms, demi-gods
pocessed great powers, granted to them by the gift of Bob. This gift was
the sceptre of power, the physical manifestation of the gods' power on
Zoose. There was a sceptre for each domain, for each demi-god.
These sceptres contained great powers, but also great limitations. The
gods, aware of the potential of petty bickering, ensured that these
sceptres must all remain within the boundaries of the realm. The
demi-gods could venture further, but without the powers granted them, and
only for limited times.
Not only a source of power, these sceptres were a kind of watchdog for
the gods. Any demi-god away from his realm for more than three days,
simply died. No one knew exactly what happened to them, and no one
wanted first-hand experience of it, either.
So, the demi-gods served the gods purposes, alebit reluctantly in some cases,
and helped the races of Zoose grow, develop, and prosper.
And things existed as such, peaceful and happy, for almost 10,000 years. Until
the demi-gods began to get restless...
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Genesis: Chapter 3
Mortals, and Eternal Boredom
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The demi-gods were constrained to one of the major continents of Zoose,
a large continent known as Zandar. Zandar was divided into 28 different
territories, each of which was ruled by a demi-god. And each demi-god
was constrained to his territory, which caused great boredom.
Their job was to act as a physical, visible god to the the creatures of
Zoose. Within his territory, a demi-god was allowed to claim itself to be
-the- god. A dreary, stressful job, especially as the ages passed.
True, there was the joy of seeing the smaller races develop. First had
come the Elves, lovers of the forest, and lovers of themselves. They
were the first race to create the mirror.
Near to the same time, the Ogre race began forming villiages based
around their shamanistic leaders. Of the races, the Ogres were destined
to be the ones most in touch with magic. This is because their demi-god
freely taught them the ways of the mystic arts.
Next came the Knomes. Unknowing of magic they were, but curious of the
world around them. They were the race that first invented the wheel.
Even this early on, bonds of friendship began to be set between
themselves and the Ogres. Both were mountain-loving races. Given the
few mountain ranges, many Knomes and Ogres found themselves being ruled
by the same demi-god.
Hundreds of years later, came the Goblins. Nomads and traders, they were
godless creatures. Or so the outside world believed. What the Goblins kept
secret to all was their fortress-cities. At the northern and southern
mountain ranges of Zandar, cities were burrowed into the hills;
camoflauged cities which none but the Goblins could enter.
What was also kept secret was their lesser folk, known as the
'Hobgoblins'. A larger, feircer, but ultimately less bright offshoot of
the Goblins, they were kept within the cities as protectors. Even though
there was no threat at the time, it was if the Goblins feared what may
happen in the future..
It was a millenium past the emergence of the Goblins that other races
began to make themselves known. There was the conniving, vicious,
cunning Kobolds; the cave-dwelling, pacifistic, musically-inclined
Dwarves; and the mortal incarnation of Chao, the Martians, creatures with
the lower body of a horse, and an upper body similar to that of the elves.
As was said before, all lived in harmony for almost 10,000 years.
Around this time, many of the demi-gods had started to go mad. Others
were simply bored, and longed for an escape from the territorial
boundaries.
One of the demi-gods, in a fit of exasperation, mistakenly found the one
possible escape from his duties..
----
Elf: Oh Fu'lyr, greatest of gods, I'm glad you helped cure the blight of
diseasye that plagued my villiage, but was there not a better way?
Fu'lyr: They were infected. I purged the infection. Kneel and grovel,
already.
Elf: [kneel, grovel grovel] M'lord, if I might ask... Couldn't you
have just taken the disease, without taking our left arm with it?
We can hardly serve you properly now..
Fu'lyr: [thowing his arms up] If -you- think you can do it. -You- go right
ahead!!
[Fu'lyr tosses the sceptre of power at the elf, who catches it, startled.
Suddenly, things change. Fu'lyr and the Elf glow, and the room whites
out from it's brilliance. When things have calmed down, Fu'lyr looks a
lot older, while the elf is floating in the middle of the air.]
Elf: Don't mind if I do!
[Fu'lyr begins kneeling and grovelling, mostly out of fear..]
----
And other demi-gods, hearing of this transferrence of power, began to
plan more carefully. From there, the age of the exchange of power
began. And the world would never quite be the same for it..
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Genesis: Chapter 4
A New Age
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And so the news of Fu'lyr spread among the demi-gods. Those of the
demi-gods with more cunning and forethought (which was most of them)
thought hard upon this discovery, hoping to find an escape that wouldn't
leave them old, powerless servants of the new demi-god.
But other news of Fu'lyr spread among the others, giving them more
ammunition for their plans.. The people of Fu'lyr's former domain still
worshipped him. Not believing the words of the newfound elven demi-god,
who was still trying to discover his powers, many of the people of the
domain had left, following Fu'lyr wherever he went.
And the new demi-god, Elowyn, deprived of followers, found his powers,
which he had yet figured out how to control properly, diminshed. For
the power of the sceptre was based on belief. And very few indeed
believed in Elowyn's being their god.
Using this knowledge, the other demi-gods abided their time for a while
longer. While the sceptre did indeed give them powers beyond normal
mortals, the knowledge gained over thousands of years of life were also
significant. Many of the demi-gods were confident in their ability to
manipulate the magic of their world without the sceptre, and without it's
limitations. To become an unrestricted god before the peons of the
planet! Ambition was high amongst the demi-gods.
Some demi-gods tried, and some of them were successful. They all tried
to find a successor who would be completely incompetant. But the magic
of the sceptre did not embrace the smart better than the stupid. It
embraced, whom it deemed worthy. Magic is, as magic does.
And thus, did some demi-gods attain their freedom from the sceptre, only
to find themselves imprisoned by their suprisingly magically adept
sucessor. Only a few of the demi-gods had the sucess that Fu'lyr found
himself attaining.
But it was enough. Religions were split apart, as some of the mortals
refused to serve their new god, defying his will and leaving for another
land. Others, suchs as the remaining followers of Elowyn, became zealous
enforcers of their god's will. They went out on the land with a
vengeance, and the wars began.
After a time, Elowyn did indeed come into his own, and blessed his
followers. His followers assimilated whatever Elves would join them, and
killed those that wouldn't. They created a vast army, which first swept
like wildfire across the forested lands, which were aplenty. Through
partnerships between other demi-gods, Elowyn ensured the Elves absolute
rule over the forests.
The Elven armies were fierce. In fact, they were the first army ever
assembled. In front of such adversaries, most of the other creatures
fled, or allowed themselves to be assimilated. The first entire race to
be assimilated was the Kobold race, who became the Elves' assasins.
While feircely fanatical, the Elves were also lazy in a way. All that
they saw, they claimed dominion over, but they did not necessarily
enforce this. They didn't like mountains, swamps, desserts - any place
deemed uncomfortable. And they especially had no desire to cross
waterways. The Martians used this to their advantage, finding sanctuary
beyond the great eastern river, on a small delta.
The dwarves were either converted, looked over, and otherwise driven up
to the mountain ranges beyond the northern deserts. Of the Goblins, the
Elves found them too few and too useful to kill. In truth, the Goblins
had expected this for some time, and for the entire time of the wars,
largely kept to their mountain-cities.
The Elves' only true adversaries were the alliance of the Ogres and Knomes.
With the Ogre's vast magic knowledge, and the Knomes' devices, the Elves
could not breach the defences of their mountain ranges. It was many a
decade, however, until the Elves gave up, and left the mountains alone.
A century passed, and the wars finally died down. Peace resumed, and
even the Elves calmed down, a bit. Trade flourished, as did the arts.
Swords were largely put aside, but all the races had learned their
lessons, and they all had armies now. Skirmishes were largely
non-existant, and usually only against a newly-appeared race, the Orcs.
But this race was known only to the Orges, Knomes, and Goblins, as they
were a race contained within the desert that seperated the Ogre and
Goblin Mountain ranges in the south.
And so, peace was largely a reality. But coming full circle, another
couple of thousand years have passed, and mortals are far less patient
folk than those that were created to be demi-gods are...
The year, according to Bob's calendar given to him by the writers, is
1000 BB. Nobody's sure what the second 'B' stands for, but the first is
'Before', since the years have steadily counted down....
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And that's the background to the world. The actual storylines I'm
splitting up into a few different stories. The ones I've already
planned are:
TSSGGC!:
The main story line, starting at 1000 BB, and working
it's way steadily forward.
TSSGGC! Presents..:
Introductions and mini-series of individual characters.
I'll probably start with these.
TSSGGC! - Chronicles of the Moon Kingdom:
I'm not telling, but I think you can guess from the title..
(incorrectly, mind you.. ^_-)
The Soft Serve Gestapo Goes Cyber (also TSSGGC):
Tales of the future of the world, focusing mainly on Jack,
the paranoid-sadistic Dark Elf.
If this strikes your fancy at all, please let me know, because I can
write a lot on this if there's interest. Otherwise, I do have other
stories to write!
- Eric