Creation of a Myth

After the tragedy of the Calamity, many years passed allowing the humans to rebuild their lives, many returning to a primitive tribal system.  Of course, it did not take long before problems arose once more, as some humans believed the world should be rebuilt to its former glory, with cities and advanced technology, whereas others believed the Gods punishment was due to that very reason, and the creation of cities and technology resulted in a lack of belief.  Things soon escalated into a civil war of sorts, but before events could get too out of hand then strange things started to happen.  It all started at the site of one of the ruined cities, where two men- a father and son- and their dog were scavenging for items in the wreckage.

'Father... why are we doing this?' asked the younger, poking a piece of rubble with a metal pole as his dog sniffed around.

'What do you mean, son?'

'This salvaging- do you not fear for the wrath of the Gods again?  That is the reason why the cities were destroyed in the first place...'

The older man laughed derisively.
'Don't be a fool, boy- yes the Gods destroyed the cities, but that's because we didn't believe in them.  We've seen them now, we'll believe them forever.'

'Yes, but I haven't seen them- it happened before I was born.  In a couple of generations time people will just think it's a story, a metaphor for an earthquake or something.  It's a bad idea to rebuild the cities because things will go back to the way they were before.'

'I still say you're speaking nonsense Adam, keep looking for those goods- we could be rich with just one working cd player, especially if we find some audio books we can sell as historical records!'

The young man threw down his pole, causing his dog to stop and back off to the side.  A flock of birds cleared a nearby tree that had grown from the city's remains, and landed nearby to watch.

'I refuse.  Already you're talking of making money from a disaster, it's just not right!  It goes against God's will!'

'Hah, God's will, it took them thousands of years to do anything before- why should things be different this time?  Live for the present, make a bit of money now and the trouble our sons get into in a few thousand years time is their problem.'

The dog started growling at the tension rising between the two, as Adam's anger was rising- thinking about all the trouble his father had put him through in the past, and incensed at how he would be willing to inflict this misery on his descendants- his own flesh and blood.  His father had lived in a life of luxury before the disaster, and now he knew more about technology than anyone else in their 'tribe' he was abusing the knowledge for his own ends.  He would lead this tribe to ruin if he continued, and if too many tribes fall then so would the future of civilisation.  Adam reached for the pole he had dropped, anger in his eyes.  His father had to be stopped.

'What do you plan on doing with that, boy?  You would pick your god of destruction over your old man, who just wants to bring life back to the world?'

All Adam could do was let out a scream of rage as he charged at his father, tears streaming from his eyes as he held the pole in front of him like a spear.  His father didn't bother trying to dodge, merely reaching for something in his pocket.  The dog started to run towards them.

'Technology means progress kid, and progress means success.' said the father with a sigh as he pulled the trigger on his pistol.  As the shot rang out, the dog barked with a commanding tone, almost as if shouting 'Stop!' as he leapt between the two, grabbing the pole in his jaw and taking the bullet before falling to the floor and sliding into a pile of rubble.  Both men immediately ran to the dog's side, forgetting their rivalry for a brief moment.  Much to their surprise, the dog was nowhere to be found- instead lay a naked man, with oddly coloured skin that seemed remarkably similar to the dog's markings.  Adam was first to speak.

'What the hell was that?  You have technology that can turn animals to men?!'

His father was just as perplexed.

'No- it's just a gun... all they do is cause injury...'

The man that a moment ago was their dog coughed before speaking weakly.

'What... happened?' he said with the last of his breath.

All the two men could do was look at each other in shock, until one of the birds that had been watching stepped forward.  It was a large black raven, until the moment it too transformed into a large black man- a relatively smooth transition despite this being the bird's first attempt.  The other birds in its flock were also transforming, with varying degrees of success.  The raven twitched it's head a couple of times before attempting to speak.

'I... I think I can explain...'

The two humans were too much in shock to interrupt.

'I think... this is the Gods' work again.  Long have we ravens been associated with deities, so we have gained a sense for detecting when their magic is in the air, and there's certainly a lot of that here- more than even the Calamity.  I cannot speak directly on their behalf, but if I were to guess, I would say they do not want to risk the fall of humanity again- so upon witnessing a fight between father and son, and an animal's desire not to see either injured, they had to step in.  Causing my present form, and I'd guess similar has happened elsewhere- giving a voice to those otherwise unheard.'

'You... you can talk?'  asked Adam's father in bewilderment, as Adam stared at the other birds struggling with their new forms.  Some were phasing between human and bird, others had found a weird hybrid form.

'It is as much a mystery to me as it is you, as you were talking gibberish a moment ago but now I share your form then we also would appear to share languages.  This is a little too much to comprehend at the moment... we should return to our homes and see how things are tomorrow.  I would gladly accompany you to your human settlement though, as witness to today's events.'

Taking their humanoid dog, the humans agreed to take the raven with them and did indeed see that similar scenes of chaos were happening everywhere.  Cows, sheep and horses in fields were all varying degrees of human/animal hybrid and in a state of confusion, and the chaos only got worse when they returned to their village.  Some small humanoids were running out of a building with a fruit basket as they were being beaten with a broom, others were huddled together as humans cried in fear of them.  The two men and the humanoid bird entered the village, causing some of the chaos to lessen as the villagers and animals could see the dead dog being carried between them.  The highest priority would be burying the animal, and then they would try to make some sense of the situation...

...the consequences of which will be covered next week, when the timeline will be fast-forwarded a few more years.

Religious Musings

This following blog will be regarding religion, a touchy subject for many but I'll try not to offend anyone on my third post on this site...  Mostly this will just be speculative fiction, with lots of 'what if's.

These friday blogs are primarily meant to be annotations on my other blogs, particularly my wednesday blog, the last of which had strong religious themes that don't necessarily reflect my true opinion.  In reality, the gods in my story were used as a narrative device and I don't intend on them featuring any other time in my story, apart from perhaps next week when I explain the origins of the more fantastic races in my setting.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out that my story is set in the future of this world, and although I mention that humanity had lost it's faith, you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise at the present time when the news is dominated by stories of muslim terrorists, american extreme christians, and mayan prophecies; but as explored in American Gods by Neil Gaiman, many worship technologies and tradition for traditions sake rather than the core philosophies of respective religions and their origins.
It is implied that every God that exists or has ever existed is present in my setting, with appearances from the big bearded man in the sky to the warriors dripping with blood in the jungles, and everything in between.  However, if a god is truly omnipotent then they could easily manifest themselves as all of these at once, and could just be doing it as a point that no religion can be proved or disproved, so forget about the man and concentrate on the idea.  Generally a good idea for those that believe in goodwill to all men and being generally nice to each other, not so much for those that believe god must be appeased with regular ritual sacrifice.  I hope that this is the message that whatever god there is in reality wants to be conveyed, and the fact I just received a large tax rebate may enforce the fact that they approve of me acting prophet...  Although I am also ill at the moment as well as having cut my tongue on a throat lozenge, so perhaps not.
I also believe that the humans' response to this is entirely within the realms of probability.  I can't see everyone accepting that all religions are true, and there will be hundreds of people trying to dismiss it as some form of propaganda or aliens or something.  I see no flaw in the gods' method- surely everyone will unite in peace and harmony if they see that in a way, everyone's right so we can get on with life.  But humans are unpredictable, and we know it would instead cause chaos, which could well be why no gods have revealed their presence thus far in real life.  In my experience, atheists are stubborn and would dismiss it as a hoax, agnostics wouldn't know what to believe with everything going on, and believers wouldn't want to admit they wasted their lives believing in something false- perhaps making them the most dangerous, as they try to make up for the things they were forbidden to do in their previous belief system.
Another product of all gods existing simultaneously, or being one and the same, would mean that the 'evil' gods still exist too which is where the apocalyptic aspect comes in.  Think of all those blood-soaked jungle gods, Loki, Set, and the various destroyers all rolled into one and how they would respond to being ignored by humans- especially once the 'good' gods have allowed them to do as they wish.  I see the gods as wanting to create a clean slate, meaning exterminating the parasites currently infesting the planet- though those level-headed enough to believe the evidence in front of their own eyes would be spared, much like Noah (the similarities have only just struck me...).  In this new world, the animals without a voice would have their place as well- it has long been thought that those that can't object either lack the capacity to know what is happening, or don't care, but I do not believe this is the case which is why another fundamental theme of all my stories is giving animals a voice.  Not all embrace this gift, as you will see next week, but will those that learn of their new power use it as intended, to speak out against oppression and express their gratitude in words, or abuse it to take control as humans once did?
At this point, I feel the need to say that I'm not an insane animal rights campaigner, and that many animals look like they do enjoy being around humans (dogs, cats, horses etc.) and some look like they probably do lack the mental faculties to experience the pain that we would feel in their situation (cows, fish etc.).  But that doesn't mean there aren't exceptions.
I'm not sure what else I can add without offending people, so I'll leave with my own religious belief.  I'm not affiliated with any organised religion, as they have all done wrong in the past and any religion that worships 'human' prophets isn't for me- whether the prophet is Jesus, Mohammed, the Dalai Lama, or whatever.  There may well be a god or many gods, but they have a whole universe to run and probably aren't concerned with a tiny insignificant race on a small blue planet.  As it is, I'm content to believe that the universe just sort of happened, but am happy to speculate on the possibility of gods.

On wednesday next week, I will continue the origin story with how my fantasy races came to be, and friday I will hopefully enlighten you on real-world origins of some fantasy creatures and why I picked them for my novel.