Our Twisted Little World (Under Revision)

Chapter 1: Deaths Message (Draft 0)

Intro

Look, I dislike having to acknowledge the existence of anyone that still has air in their lungs and fire in their heart, for any longer than I have to. So I shall keep this brief. 

My name is Death (yes, that one) and the following is a message to humanity, and a call to publicly disown your gods.

Death

Primordial Humanity, Homo Superior, progenitors of the bipedal races, and firstborn Children of the Devine. They were crafted from clay by the first deities of Sumer to fit one simple purpose: Survival of the Fittest. They were formed, by the first gods, from clay into a land that did not know me; a Realm of Creation that did not know Death. A corrupt and broken land created from an explosion of pure godlike energy that was quickly engulfed by the forces of chaos and the creatures of the once-great Tiamat. 

These Primordial Humans, chosen ones of the gods and divine arbiters of my justice, were granted many a boon to aid them in their grand Crusade for *Death* and *Equality*. Their Clay bodies gifted them with the maneuverability, strength, and stopping power required to take the glorious fight to the "unstoppable" Creatures of Tiamat. The Mighty Gods gifted them with the unity, compassion, and ability to procreate required to build and maintain population centers capable of sustaining and surviving an extended occupation. And I, most generous and grateful of all the divine beings, bestowed upon my crusading avengers a gift that is rarely given amongst mortals; the gift of extended life. I gave their infancy one-hundred of your precious Earth years, their childhood I gave one-hundred more, and I, strongest of all universal constants, forced Father Time to allow their adulthood to extend until their gods' given role was complete and their society was ready to embark on a new direction for that task. To allow Homo Superior the time needed to set up, perfect, and improve their people's place in this world and to boldly go into lands and scenarios that had not yet been treaded by creatures of their kind.

This unheard-of collaboration between the gods, and their mortal creations, breathed new life into the lands of Nam-Tar and strengthened the connection between myself and my new universe. 

Afterlife

Yet nothing lasts forever and, even under my protection, all things must come to their natural conclusion. This is why, after many millennia of brutal fighting, building, and improving, the Primordial Humanity had even brought the war between Order and Chaos towards its natural end. A victory never before seen in this realm. With that final victory, that epic conclusion to the war I was formed to stop in their sights, the self-proclaimed "Homo Superior" felt the need to look towards their future, to a time after the war. With that ill-advised look to a possible future, their certainty and hope began to waver. In this hypothetical future, this land that only ever existed in their Chaos fuelled nightmares, they saw a Realm in which they did not belong. They saw my gift as nothing more than a curse, extending their life beyond its natural end. They saw that curse as a mark of chaos, a reason for the Gods to abandon them. And they saw that Mark of Chaos as a reason for their end. Before their final victory, before they even had a chance to be proven wrong, they turned on the Gods, sealing their perceived fate.

The Gods in their hubris, in their divine stupidity, saw Humanity only for their mistakes and not as the helpless children that they had created. "To teach Chaos is to spread Chaos", they always claimed. Seeing their children turn on them, the mighty Gods wept. They wept for their mistakes, they wept for their failures, and they wept for their biggest fears finally coming to fruition. All except Enlil, for Enlil does not weep and he does not make mistakes. No, when Enlil saw that humanity had been corrupted he became enraged. In his fury, he recalled the pantheon to their Palace in the Heavens and, ignoring the council of Ea, declared an end to humanity altogether. The Gods then, bound by their loyalty to their king, descended once more from the heavens and, without my blessing, brutally added their creations to my eternal collection. Massacring the species that once held us so dear.

Enlil and his top generals ended up dying themselves during their unnecessary mass genocide, a small portion of Homo Superior managed to survive "The Great Flood", and the majority of the remaining gods that discovered this left the planet out of shame on a self-imposed exile. Eventually, New Gods took the place of the old, and humanity, in their essence, began to once more regrow and repopulate the earth in their new forms. The cycle of prophecy began anew and everything on earth returned to its natural order. The barbaric armies of Chaos were weaker and no longer had the control they once did. The Mighty Gods were more varied and thus prone to idiotic amounts of infighting, and Humanity, my Humanity, were no longer the Supernatural individuals of yesteryear. No, on that final day in Babylon, Chaos won. The Era of the Supernatural was over, and the Era of Humanity had just begun.

Rebirth

Over Two-Thousand Five-Hundred years later and things haven't improved. The Ingenious armies of Chaos, realizing that the Gods had slowly gone mad over the millennia, quickly disbanded and created small, “sleeper cells.” They learned better ways to corrupt Humanity, this time from the inside. The Gods, however, in this newfound insanity, didn't even try to stop them, Instead, they fell deeper into infighting, cannibalizing each other's power to build their strength and ripping apart their misguided followers in the process. Because of all this... Chaos, the Humans of today are nothing more than fallen shades of their superior, Primordial, selves. They no longer hold the grand prestige they once had and instead find themselves trapped in the center of a cosmic tragedy, as currency in a celestial board game that benefits from a cruel world that brings joy and slavery to its unassuming victims. Doomed to a fate worse than Death.

I myself, however, am not blameless for the unfortunate state that "Modern Humanity" finds itself in. In this unforgiving game of Souls, between Gods and Monsters, it's win or die. And we are not talking about a death of my design. No, in this game it is a death that is beyond my control. Because of this, I have been forced to adapt over the many years since that "final battle" in Babylon long ago, I've been forced to play their petty little game, and play it I have. 

I began my consolidation of power as carefully as I could, making sure to lacklustre the New Gods as much as I could to secure my power in a way that would leave my hands perfectly clean. I would wait patiently for the inexperienced Gods of the current Civilisation to falter in line with their previous generation and for them to start their pathetic attempt at an "Apocalypse" once more, signaling the end of the Cycle. 

Then once the Gods were at the height of their ignorance and infighting, expelling more souls than they could hope to collect, I would sweep in and harvest the ones they missed. Flooding the Realm of Spirits with apparitions aligned to me and me alone. The majority of Humanity would eventually fall, whilst a minority would survive. The remaining, living, Gods would come to see the "error of their ways", leaving the planet or passing on, and Chaos would grow just that little bit stronger in time for the Cycle to begin anew. 

Except for this time, this time it would not be the same boring, uninspired Cycle as before, it would be something new. Something subtly different. If Chaos could manipulate the game, then why couldn't I?! No, this time... this Cycle things would be different, it would be mine. Instead of simply watching them fumble and fall, resigned to my role of spiritual banker, doling out currency and property whenever they saw fit for me to act. I shall have a player of my own. I shall have a true avatar of myself. Someone to collect the unclaimed currency on my behalf, someone to build up my power and my churches, someone to rebuild my kingdom in the Great Beyond, and someone naive enough to be absorbed back into my being before the next "Apocalypse" began. So that I can begin MY Cycle unopposed. A true vessel for my great Purgatory.

This is a plan that I have enacted for centuries now, all as I build up to this, my final revenge. I started as nothing more than a perpetual observer, forced to rely on the kindness of lesser beings as I was too powerless and weak to control the Realm of my own making. Now I am multitudes stronger and I am more. I am the being that binds you to your life, I am the Reaper that collects your soul when that life ends, and I am the Revenant that ensures you move on when you choose not to. 

***

I am Death, trapped in a Universe that brings destruction and failure to others and I am coming for humanity. So renounce your unimportant faiths, and prepare to join my new world, or face the consequences, for I am not as merciful in my hatred as the false Gods that came before me.