Rebirth and Second Chances

Chapter 247: Doom

"Do you know anything about the temple?" I asked Gloria.

Bob and Sieph had finished examining the silk air dome the bell spider had woven. They had chanced upon one of the pearls we would need for the quest we just received. We were delighted when we got the System prompt letting us know that we didn't need to collect enough pearls for each party member. As long as we were grouped, the pearls would treat us as a single entity.

The necklace that Gloria wore giving her control over so many barrier shields may have worked for us too, but we would have had to kill her and hope it fell as a loot drop. She had allowed Sieph to borrow it to test if its magic could be shared before we were certain that it wouldn't work, something we should have realized when adding her to the party didn't facilitate a System prompt.

"This area was once part of an island chain claimed by the Z'exl tribe," she answered. "A race of Murlocs that were decimated when the Lamia, a people the Murlocs had considered allies, invaded.

"The reason for the Lamia to invade, to disavow eons of peace is unknown, but whispers of dark Gods and ritual cultists have proliferated since they attacked. Grandfather believes there might be a kernel of truth to those who believe that. He is certain that something evil was involved.

"The temple was protected by a conclave of priests and priestesses. People that had spent their lives perfecting their healing craft. They were ill-suited for war, and Totem Priestess Xz'Xtl realizing there was no way to save her people, embraced forbidden magic to gain vengeance.

"Where there is only rumor and supposition that the Lamia dealt with dark powers, there is proof and evidence that Priestess Xz'Xtl embraced those dark powers completely in order to deliver retribution. She made a sacrificial totem using her blood, tying her life force with a life totem, and placing it as a trap. When destroyed the totem would release the energies to summon the Great Destroyer X'Xz. The God of her people that the Murlocs' considered the bringer of final judgment.

"To summon Him, was to summon doom, and when the Lamia finally overran this temple, killing everyone that had retreated from their attacks, and destroying that innocuous life totem, the doom that was fueled by her blood and life's energy was activated.

"Her actions were desperate, filled with despair and anger. Our teachers warn of the twin-edged blade her actions unleashed. X'Xz answered that summons, and His wrath was fierce to behold when he saw what the Lamia people had done. He sunk the island chain, making sure no future generation of people would be able to exploit the riches that were found there.

"The changes to the archipelago required a massive shift in the tectonic plates. Earthquakes and devastation spread across the planet, killing indiscriminately as the island chain was sunken.

"That was what my people have labeled the First Doom," she explained.

"Not satisfied with the devastation the earthquakes had made, He cursed the Lamia people, changing their shape. He removed their legs and replaced them so that they would forever slither around on a tail. If they would act like snakes, betraying friends and allies, He would have their appearance fit their actions.

"His curse was magical, in nature, a divine change to the very genetic structure of the people it affected. All Lamia from that point forward were born part snake, part Lamia. He constructed the curse in such a way that any attempt to break or lift it would result in extinction.

"The changes to Lamia civilization and society were profound. Their outward appearance was monstrous, and no other race or people would deal with them. They had to find grottos and caves hidden and isolated to survive. Their once flourishing society was broken and crushed.

"Our people have labeled this the Second Doom.

"The Murloc had been a peaceful people, pacifists that eschewed fighting and war. They were a people given to crafting, able to survive on land and in water, they were masterclass foragers, able to find, harvest, and nurture even the rarest of plants or ores.

"X'Xz furious at the inability of his people to fight back, even the Totem Priestess had been able to do nothing but sacrifice herself to summon Him, splintered the smallest fragment of his Divine continence and injected it within the Murloc that survived and still existed elsewhere.

"He gave them the skills, talents, and magic to make war, unleashing a plague upon the surface world, and the Murlocs that had no idea what had occurred here was driven insane, lashed by his will to destroy and make war on the Lamia.

"This was the third Doom.

"A Doom that has continued to this day. The surface remains at war. The peace was broken thousands of years ago. Our people believe that the only way this final Doom can be resolved is the extinction of one race or the other.

"The Sunken Temple remains, now guarded, no longer a place of worship for the Murlocs, instead, it is a place where reverence and ceremony are conducted annually. A place that marks the changes to the Murloc people, and their loss of innocence

"Their leaders are required to make a pilgrimage to these grounds where they are anointed by their priestesses, baptized in the blood of their kills, and reborn as rulers of warriors. Until they have been sanctified in this place, their right to rule remains tenuous at best. Once anointed though, there can be no other challenges, the people satisfied that the new leader has been acknowledged by the God X'Xz," she finished.

"The Lamia Gods allowed this?" Thutmose asked.

"X'Xz's actions that day did not only affect the mortal world," Gloria continued, her words filling with despair and pain. "His action created a schism, a rift between our world, our people, and the Divine.

"His actions that day resulted in the fourth and final Doom. The Gods, no matter what race, were denied to us from that moment on. The Universe sealed every God away, in order to stem a battle of the Divine. X'Xz's actions angered the Lamia's Gods and as they unleashed their first attack on the Murloc's Gods the world began to crack. That moment would have been the end of all, except some agency intervened to cast the Gods into exile.

"But that agency spared no Pantheon, every God was sealed, their Divine might was restrained and our connection with them severed."

"No people, even those not involved in the conflict, could commune with the Divine from that point forward. The planet was saved, life continues, but our people consider this to be the greatest Doom because it severed our connection with the Goddess Namaka. Our Great Goddess of the sea, she who had given life to the mer-people."

I hadn't recognized the God X'Xz, his actions and domain seemed to closely align with the Sumerian Pantheon, but there was no God by that name that I knew of. The closest I could think of that shared the same characteristics was Ningirsu.

But Namaka? That name I recognized.

Grandfather had insisted that part of my education be focused on learning about the other Pantheons that shared our Universe, and Namaka was one of the names I had encountered. She was part of the Polynesian Pantheon, who with her sister Pele was responsible for shaping the world, dividing creation between the two of them, one responsible for the oceans, the other responsible for the volcanoes needed in creating land.

I wasn't certain how grandfather would react to this piece of knowledge. He was already concerned that Bob and Gloria's offspring might result in further sanctions for the Tuatha de Danaan. Perhaps knowing that the Gods of this world had been banished would allay his fears.

And maybe he could use this information to gain concessions from the Polynesian Pantheon. To restore these lost people should engender some goodwill, if nothing else. I wasn't entirely convinced that grandfather's concerns were legitimate. The multi-verse was too vast for this to have been the first time a new race was birthed in this manner.

But it was grandfather's nature to worry. I think he received experience gains and skill levels for that skill. It was probably something he gained when he leveled up and reached Rank: King.

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