Ahuramna

Chapter 1(The Origin)

Arilone, the red world, orbited under two suns and covered in an endless sea of red sand. For eons this world has been home to countless species. Arilone supported intelligent life. The dominant beings in this realm are the Ariolians. The Ariolians are humanoid beings with pale skin and glaring eyes. 

Many nations and confederations existed in Arilone. They fought amongst themselves for many years, until the great emperor Sheam came into power. 

He united half of Arilone under his power, while the other half remained the same. Old and barbaric.

After a few centuries passed in tranquility, an incident changed the destiny of Arilone forever.

At first Arilone worshipped a large pantheon of 900 gods and goddesses. When the time of  darkeons had gone. Some of them represented the sky, some of them the forests, others represented different human emotions. But a reformer named ‘Ascleion,’ had started a movement which denied the existence of the old ‘gods,’ and followed just one god 'Ptor.’

And our story begins. 

It was a scorching day; the two suns were at their zenith. The big one ‘Combra,’ burnt the Ariolians with scorching heat, while the small white dwarf, ‘Zamora,’ was hidden just beneath the aura.

King Sheam the third was the ruler of the empire. Although the emperor denied the reformation

But they fell under the command of ‘Ascleion,’ as he had shown them a few of his occult powers which easily defeated the priests of the previous pantheon...

Today Ascleion’s followers increased in an alarming rate, threatening the old pantheon. One by one, many priests of the old gods were killed.

During this time the old god za’s high priest Sheyammobi was searching for shelter in this heat. He was terrified and running with all the energy he could. The angry mob was after him. He ran and ran along the highways of ‘Manam’ the capital of Sheam kingdom .He saw the temple of the god’s burning; the pantheon was gone, and all of a sudden this new creed had taken out the old ones. When he reached his house he saw that it was no longer intact, it had been totally devastated by Ascleion’s followers. He froze with fear, thinking of his son and his family; he saw a few pieces of fragmented cloth belonged to his son.

His wife used to wear an amulet that symbolizes she was the wife of the high priest; he saw that amulet hanging by the frame of his burning door. 

He understood that they were no longer alive in this world. He covered his face with his palm, as tears came out of his eyes, he felt undone, hopeless. His heart clenched with pain.

In his 53 years life Sheyammobi  never experienced so much pain. 

He heard the sound of the fanatics again, only this time Sheyammobi showed no reaction. He stood there as a statue to take the wrath of the fanatics, who considered him a heretic. Most people who worshiped the old gods had fled across the ocean, Orliesa,

Finding their home on the new continent. But being the high priest, he didn't flee like they did. He stood his ground in front of the new priests, and tried to make the people understand the true value of the gods. 

But the people didn't listen to him. Not even a single word he spoke made any change in them. They pulled the temples . Temples of the same gods and goddesses they worshiped a few days ago.

He watched them encircle him, their black faces had turned red from the anger and all reasoning had been washed away by zeal. 

They were content that they had caught the main cause of their problem. Sheyammobi just gave them a long stare, it seemed like time had stopped.

Then, at the most dire moment, a strange darkness crept out of nowhere. It covered the whole area like a fog Sheyammobi stood there with eyes closed and waited for inevitable.

But everything became quiet. He waited for a moment and then opened his eyes. He felt surprised as he was standing in the middle of nowhere. The angry mob had suddenly vanished; even the city was nowhere to be seen...

He was standing in the middle of the great desert; only sand was surrounding   him.

He had no clue how he was brought in here. His eyes felt almost blinded by the scorching heat of the desert .Even in this condition he managed to see a building not very far from him.

His mind still was puzzling over what had happened, but his body started to walk towards the building as he couldn’t stay in the heat. He asked himself “Who or what saved me from my impending death?”

Thanked Za for saving him but in his heart he knew it wasn’t za but something else; he knew that the old pantheon had lost its powers, so who or what had saved him today?

Then suddenly a voice said to him “call him and you will get answers.”

“But who??” Sheyammobi spoke, but then he realized that there was no one beside him. That voice  coming from  him.

He continued walking towards the building. When he came closer he saw that was the ruins of a temple. But not like any he had ever seen before. The carvings were different to the usual ones, and the language of the inscription was very difficult to translate but a portion of it was readable.

As a high priest, he knew many kinds of masonry techniques used to build a temple. He knew every kind of architectural style and construction method, but this was something entirely new to him, He began to read the inscriptions but he couldn’t understand much. The part he could read was, “This temple was dedicated to Darkeons the dark gods, who have not been worshipped by anybody for a thousand years.”

This was everything he could understand.  There was one name inscribed in that tablet. It was, “Ahuramna”

Sheyammobi’s eyebrows furrowed. He realized this wasn’t the right place for him to be.