The Dark Mage

Arc 3: Okami's Downfall

     It is said the greatest lie the devil ever told was that he didn't exist. How better to convince people to ignore your demonic influence except for them to believe your influence doesn't exist. Because if people know you exist and how you influence them, they can find your influence and destroy it, and without a physical body, you can't do anything in the world and are left with nothing until being consigned to the eternal fire where you belong.

     Likewise, there was a spirit that once oversaw the Kitsune clan for a very long time. But since then, it became prideful with its influence over the prosperity the Kitsunes had gained when they first began their civilization. And in its pride, though it not be a god, it influenced the Kitsunes to build many temples to itself and began to accept worship. It was known by many names: Mammon, Plutus, and for the Kitsunes okami Inari. And for this blasphemy, this spirit was kicked out of Heaven and in it's hatred for the God that made it, it decided to influence people to destroy themselves, preying on their own weaknesses and vices and became a demon.

     This spirit was filled with so much malice and hatred for God and men that it would never choose to change its ways made only worse that it was created with full knowledge of good and evil. And knowing that the Kitsunes had become wise in their understanding of the world, they would not follow after this spirit had it openly stated its desire to destroy them. So, the evil spirit decided to prey on their love for prosperity and riches and over time bit its immaterial fangs into their hearts and injected within them the venom of vanity and avarice. But the evil spirit made the venom act slowly so that it could enjoy the suffering it would cause those Kitsunes who had been bitten with it and so that it would not be noticed right away.

     And this evil spirit continued its reign of terror for centuries all while convincing the Kitsunes that it was helping them. Meanwhile, the knowledge it gave them seemingly for their own prosperity was interwoven with poison having taught through this desire for prosperity all manner of evil: slavery, oppression, exploitation of those most vulnerable, warfare, and so on and so forth, all things that promise prosperity but end in destruction. And this evil spirit enjoyed its reign of terror and bringing people to their own destruction. It had such an influence over the Kitsunes that they began to be associated with being its messengers and even rendered the 9-tailed philosopher Amenhotep's efforts in the 4th century BC worthless.

     The 9-tailed Amenhotep, then 8-tailed, was someone who was in contemplation of piety and began to ask questions amongst his own people. He asked many questions. What does it mean to be pious to the priests of okami Inari? Is piety pious to one god or some of the gods or all gods? What does it mean to be pious if there are many gods and not just one? And in his questioning, many of the priests of okami Inari brought Amenhotep before the Image of Inari who at the time was the 4th generation before the reign of Victor's sister. And before the Image of Inari, they brought all sorts of accusations against Amenhotep that he was corrupting the youth and teaching them to not make sacrifices to the gods and that he was an atheist, none of which were actually true.

     However, this particular Image of Inari was one of the few Images of Inari to rarely ever use the Keys of Prosperity and was therefore not strongly under their corrupting influence. So rather than execute Amenhotep immediately like so many other Images of Inari would do, he decided to instead hear Amenhotep's side of the story. The Image of Inari then asked Amenhotep, "What do you say in response to these accusations?"

     Amenhotep then answered, "I say I am a simple man who has questions about piety. And in my search to answer these questions, I have come to the conclusion that if we are to be pious that there can ultimately be only one God and we do not know Him. Such, I will call Him the unknown God whose presence is known throughout all that exists but cannot fully be grasped or attempted to in our temples and images. Therefore, because we can grasp okami Inari and control her through the Keys of Prosperity is to say that she is no goddess at all but another piece of this world and does not transcend it. Therefore, okami Inari is not worthy of sacrifice just as you would not make sacrifices to ordinary people. Therefore, if we are to make sacrifices, let it be to the unknown God who by virtue of His divinity is worthy of worship and sacrifice."