Great Gods and Heroes of the Ages

The gods are at war to decide who's at the top and who's the least important.

It's a battle of life, death, fame, infamy, and glory.

In the end, what God will be on top?

While this is going on, the Heroes have been given many more quests than usual. Many Heroes are now making a name for themselves, making it harder to stand out...

War. It wasn't an attractive concept to the patron Goddess of Flowers. Certainly the popularity and love would be nice, she wasn't vain but being loved was something she desired, but she didn't know if she could fight particularly well. Currently in her human form, a crown of flowers in her hair, she kneeled in the forest clearing that had come to be associated with her. She was beside a pond in the clearing, grazing the water with her fingertips and causing a few water lilies to appear, enlivening the water.

The Goddess sighed softly, but smiled. Certainly there was a way to accomplish her goal without fighting. if popularity was all it took to become one of the Seven, surely she could gather more followers easy enough. She'd just have to work on increasing the beauty of places with her flowers, especially in poorer, more infertile or run-down areas. Surely that would help build her following.

Smiling, she laid down on her back in the grass, flowers appearing around her and some of their petals floating into the air.

Rosalie was singing to herself as she strolled through the forest. The forest had given her signs that she would come across something that would set her on her task of becoming a Hero.

She did not know what kind of task she'd be given however, nor did she know what kind of thing would give her the task. She hoped that it would be the Goddess of Flowers, the one she occassionally prayed to as she watered her garden...

However, she had no clue that she was about to meet the actual Goddess of Flowers. She thought she'd maybe be sent a messenger, but she had no clue that the lady laying down in the clearing was the Goddess herself...

Sortine looked out at the world, and enjoyed her worship. It was not just her own fanatical cult that worshiped her; while men and women turned to other gods in times of piece; it was her that they inevitably preyed to when they're neighbors marched towards them with pointy weapons.

Of course, they almost always prayed to the more peaceful Gods after surviving battles; but she knew they'd go back to her when it was time for the next battle to start.

And even during times of peace; that group of barbarian raiders that worshipped her were always getting ready for another war.

And now there was to be war in heaven. She smiled, relishing the battle to come.

It didn't take much for the Goddess to realize she was being approached. With the field full of flowers, all it took was the girl's foot brushing against one as she walked for the Goddess to know the elf was there. Lifting up, the Goddess adjusted the ring of flowers that sat upon her head, somehow still quite alive despite the fact they weren't connected to the Earth.

"Greetings." Her voice was light as she looked at the girl coming into the clearing. Her blue eyes lightened with recognition when the girl got closer. She knew of her more devoted worshippers well. This one prayed to her every time she took care of her garden, and as her thanks, she prevented many of her flowers from wilting and dying from anything due to being out of season.

Her name escaped her, though..

Alud trekked slowly through the dark cave atop a forgotten mountain that was his home. Simply entering it caused mortals pain. As he looked out upon the world, however, he saw something that he didn't like.

Hope.

He saw it in the land, in the air, in the... flowers... trees.... animals and people...
He'd personally give away all this hope...

"For a loaf of Bread..." Alud rasped.
---
Bread was outside the clearing that he knew was associated with the Flower Goddess. Such beauty...

...sickened him.

"They must hurtsees, yes yes yes..." Muttered the goblin, madly. He took his daggers to the flora, even tearing up flowers and weeds with his teeth. On the trees he carved "PAIN" over and over, a mantra of doom.

"PAINSEES.. PAIN PAIN PAAAAIN... HURT" He spoke to himself, and to his god. His voice grew louder. "YOU WILL SUFFER, FOOLSEES!" He was cackling out his words now. He drew one dagger across the back of his arm, groaning pleasurably. "Yes..." He hissed.

Rosalie was so surprised by seeing the goddess... she forgot her place. But she quickly kneeled down, "Milady, it is an amazing honor to meet you," She said, her head down.

"I- I am Rosalie, of the elves, and I-" Suddenly something came to her attention. The trees were crying, the flowers were sad, "M-m-Milady, is there... someone else here?" She asked, looking towards where the Goblin would be.

From the heavens, Sortine watched as the village of Gidon prepared to be raided and pillaged again, and sighed. It made her sad to see a once proud people roll over and die like that.

She looked at the people that had conquered them in disgust; these were a people that still worshipped her brothers, and refused to consider a female war goddess as something worthy of their reverance.

She looked down at the human she'd selected in the village, and smiled. These idiots were about to learn to fear the goddess...and probably women in general.

She held out one of the magical swords from her armoury. This one was beautiful by human standards; but was the least valuable weapon in her collection. However, for the humans, it would do nicely as a legendary weapon.

She threw the sword at the village, and grinned in anticipation. She was about to get another war.

--
Sarah, meanwhile, was gathering wheat for them to load into the hidden tunnels; so that the Clamidians wouldn't find it. She hated the Clamidians as they had killed her mother, and paralyzed her father; but there was no way to fight them. They had warriors; they had weapons, they had an army.

Nothing short of a deus ex machina would be able to help them, and she didn't think she was going to get one.

Her opinion changed rather rapidly as a sword fell from the sky and landed in the ground next to her; nearly giving her a heart attack.

On the sword, were the words: "If you have courage in your heart, draw this blade and slay your enemies!"

She pulled the weapon out of the ground, and examined it. It was a beautiful sword; so well polished that she could see her reflection in the blade. She wasn't going to allow those Clamidians to find such a weapon; so she began thinking of places to hide it.

It was obviously the War Goddess' answer to her prayers; but she couldn't tell who was supposed to find the blade. Surely it wasn't meant for her...

--

Sortine put her face in her hand, and sighed. Humans could be so thick sometimes.

Jace was travelling around, looking for possible quests that may turn into deeds. Finding the 'holy grail' turned out to be a dud, as the so called "Holy Grail" was really just the cup of the Moon Goddess' and Ocean God's Daughter, Oceanus, and the cup had no magical properties whatsoever. In fact, Oceanus turned the cup away as she had found one that was much more useful.

He hadn't gotten a Deed out of it because the Goddess turned him down. had she taken it, Jace would have gladly accepted it as a Deed and been one step closer to being an immortal.

Right now, he had heard of wars out in this direction. He thought that maybe he could help some people fight the war, but he wasn't too enthusiastic. His magic was best for fighting just one or two people. A whole army of well trained soldiers might be a bit much for him as is, no matter how strong his magic was.

He stepped into a village and found that it was in fact very poorly defended. He felt sorta bad for it, and started wondering if there was any chance at all of him helping them out.

Dahlia, too, had felt the pain in nature shortly after the girl's arrival. Frowning, the Goddess stood, her simple white dress giving way to her more elaborate one as the more.. docile.. human disguise gave way to her slightly truer form. "I believe there is, my dear Rosalie." Her irritation vanished a moment as she looked over at the girl with a kind smile, hoping to relax her. Reaching out, she gently lifted the girl's chin, encouraging her to stand.

"Let us take a look at this disturbance, shall we?" Turning back toward the source of the pain, she began taking gentle steps toward it, though you could tell from her slightly tense posture that she was not pleased.

It didn't surprise her when she saw who it was. It was Alud's disgusting little goblin henchman. She strode toward him purposefully, reviving the torn flowers with a wave of her hand, and causing large ones to burst from the ground and head toward Bread's face with the force of a strong punch. "You disturbing little creature. Why is it that you love to kill my flowers so? I will not stand for it!"

Bread was struck by the flowers, and flipped backwards onto his feet.

"Beauty..." Hissed the goblin, "Beauty is liesees... there no good in world, no good! Only pain forever, beauty shortsees!" Here, Bread cackled. "Make you hurtsees, flowers diesees, and painy pain friend forever!"

Bread's laughter ceased with a sharp cracking noise, as the goblin seemed to simply vanish. Under the guise of his Ring of Pain, the now invisible goblin ran like mad away from the Goddess.

Meanwhile, Sarah was staring perplexed at the sword that had fallen from the sky.

She had tried to give it to her uncle; but it had suddenly become heavy and caused him to fall over. But she picked it up, it was light again.

After that, she had tried giving it to pretty much everyone else in the village that she knew; always with the same effect. She wondered briefly whether or not she had some kind of magical super strength that she wasn't aware of, but shook the thought from her head.

Her ability to lift the blade could only mean one thing: that she was destined to carry it to it's true owner.

--

"...I picked her cause she was supposed to be clever. Why isn't she acting clever?" muttered Sortine.

--

At that point, Sarah heard a voice speaking to her.

"You're the person that's supposed to weild the damned thing!" yelled Sortine, making sure that Sarah was the only one that could hear her.

"....me? But I'm no warrior...." said Sarah.

"Oh, don't give me that 'wah, I'm not worthy of this cause I'm so meek and stuff' crap," said Sortine. "You're my champion, and I'm a god so I know how to choose people! So get off your ass and go do badass things you idiot!"

"....if you say so," said Sarah, deciding that arguing with a Goddess was a bad idea.

Rosalie was startled to see the goblin vanish like that.

She wasn't sure what to say though, so for now she decided to stay quiet and wait for her Goddess to make the first move. She was absolutely certain she was to be given a quest from her and knew that speaking first to a Goddess isn't necessarily the way to do things. Seeming too eager might cause a misunderstanding...

Dahlia huffed, staring ahead at the spot where the goblin had vanished. "Don't let me catch you in my clearing again!" She called out after the creature, her irritation showing plainly on her face.

Turning on her heel, she walked back toward the main part of the clearing after covering the carvings on the tree with flowers. She waited for Rosalie to catch up before she sat back down on the grass, motioning for the elf to join her. "Rosalie, I'd like to thank you for your dedication. I wouldn't have blamed you for fleeing from that. .rather irksome.. goblin, and yet you stayed."

She smiled at the girl. "This combined with your devotion to both your garden and to me has touched my heart. I'd like to make you my champion, if this pleases you."

Rosalie had sat next to the Goddess, thinking it very very rude to ignore this offer from the Goddess. She was begining to appreciate that this Goddess was rather... humble. Something she was told is very rare in Gods.

She blushed a little at the compliments, and when she was told she'd be her Champion this filled her with such glee she'd never be able to properly express. "Milady, I appreciate the offer a great deal! I'll gladly accept!" Her face beamed at the goddess.

Dahlia couldn't help but just look, absolutely ecstatic, when in the presence of a mortal so devoted to her. It made her heart swell with joy, and she couldn't help but shower her new Champion with affection, reaching out to wrap her arms around the, admittedly quite taller, young woman. "I'm so happy! I finally have a Champion of my own!"

Reaching up, she made a small flower appear in her hand and she tucked it into the elf's hair, behind her ear. "There. Lovely, Rosalie." The Goddess continued playfully holding onto the other woman, a ring of flowers forming around where they were sitting unintentionally. "Hm. As my new Champion, are you ready for a task~?"

Rosalie gasped slightly at the hug but hugged back, a little embarrassed. She was suddenly aware of the fact of how beautiful the goddess was but she tried to hide her awkward little blush.

As the flower was placed into her hair, she smiled shyly, "I'm flattered, Milady,"

At the question, she nodded happily, "Of course! I'll gladly go on any task you have for me!" She swelled a little with pride at this, because she was truly feeling fearless at the moment. Somehow the situation as a whole was making her feel 1,000 times better than she normally does.

Sarah, meanwhile, stood on a crate of wheat.

"Excuse me, everyone, I have an announcment to make..." she said. "The goddess of wars...um...wants us to fight the raiders,"

"Yeah...good luck with that," said a random person in the crowd. "I'm just going to hide underground and let them take what they like. You know. What we usually do during fall,"

"...but then we'll barely have enough food for the winter," she said.

"Sarah! GEt down from there!" said her uncle. "The War Goddess has probably sent a champion; and has sent that sword so that you may give it to that champion when they arrive. Until then we should lie low, and...."

Sarah growled.

"SHUT UP!" she said, shocking the crowd.

"I'm sick of this stupid attitude!" she said. "If you want to hide, fine! I'll defend this town by myself!"

Jace stepped up and listened to the ... not so inspiring speech.

For now he decided to listen to her. He wanted to hear the story of the town, and see if they deserved any help from him or not.

Just as Sarah was losing the attention of the crowd, the sword began to glow. She started to get angry; her speech got a bit more passionate.

"If you're all too cowardly to fight, perhapse we should just sit underground year round till we rot away to nothing!" she said. "Perhapse we shouldn't even bother making them come all this way but deliver our food, supplies, and children to them!"

That one struck a nerve; the raiders were known for their...treatment of children. This was why young boys and girls were kept out of sight at all times when the Raiders came to collect their "tithes" as they called it.

"Every year they raise the price! It's only a matter of time before they bleed us dry and decide we've outlived our usefulness to them! Are you going to wait till then to fight?" she said.

"are you going to wait till they catch YOU'RE child outside the shelters and decide to keep them as a spoil of war?" she asked.

"Are you going to wait till they've slaughtered your family and burned down your homes?" she asked.

The villagers were muttering now. They realized that she had a point.

"You'll probably say that we don't have weapons; we'll make weapons!" she said.

"We don't have soldiers? We'll train soldiers!" she said.

"They have superior numbers?" she said. "Well then, we'll just have to kill them till they find themselves outnumbered!"

Several villagers started to cheer; suddenly they started to feel courage. Suddenly they started to feel like they could take on anything.

Sarah held her blade into the air.

"This weapon was given to me by the goddess of war herself! She believes that a handful of villagers can take down the Clamidian army!" she said. "So who are we, to disagree with a goddess of war?"

That one had done it. The villagers were ready to fight. Sarah smiled.

Now I just need to find out where to get weapons, get military training, and kill...roughly 50 enemy warriors to a ratio of one of my warriors. she thought.

Alud frowned. "Sortine... she is trying to start a war on purpose, and gain strength... perhaps I can see to it that this little... hrm... PEST... is taken care of. BREAD!"

The small goblin appeared in front of his master, impaled upon a spike but alive.

"With this cursed pain, I command thee... go and inform a group of Raiders that the villagers they extort are planning a... sneak attack, of sorts. That they have many soldiers and weapons coming, and will destroy them if they are not defeated quickly. Go, now, and ensure that they only know pain..."

"Yes, yes master!" Cried Bread in joy.
-----
Bread appeared as if from nowhere in front of the Raider's camp, and ran like mad towards it, waving his arms above him. When he actually got in the camp, he started shouting:

"Raider peoples, bad news, bad news! I was trading weapons in the town that yousees always getsees money froms. They stole weapons! All weapons! Planning attacksees, they are! Hit first, hit first!"

The Clamidians stared at the strange, ugly little creature before them. Unfortunately for Bread, most of them didn't speak the language he was speaking. They had a translator who knew all the languages from this region; but unfortunately, he was currently ill; feverish in fact.

He was currently in the sick tent, ranting about man eating midgets.

Their leader, Lord Crujabish, raised an eyebrow at Bread.

"I don't know what it's saying, but it's really fuggin' annoying," he said. "Lets kill the damned thing and put it in a cooking pot,"

Jace couldn't help but feel inspired along with everyone else. He was even cheering a bit.

But his magical sense started to tingle, and it occurred to him that the blade was the reason everyone was getting inspired. He laughed a little, before making his way to the front of the crowd, "Missy, that was some speech. Might I have a word with you?" He asked, gesturing over to the side.

"Sure," she said, stepping off the crate. "What do you want?"

Jace smiled as he led her over to the side.

"I know that you need to protect your village, and your speech I believe was truly brilliant," He gave her a little smirk, "So I've decided to help you. From what I can tell, defeating this other army seems like it'd be a great Deed and I am one in search of performing noble Deeds,"

Bread realized suddenly that they could not understand him. He contemplated his master's order for a moment, and came to a conclusion - they must know only pain.

Slipping on his ring, Bread vanished, and a second later three men fell by blades that could not be seen. Quick as a jackrabbit the invisible goblin massacred everyone he could find in the Raider camp.

Dahlia smiled at the pure eagerness that her new Champion had. it revived her hope for mortals when she met someone like this, and she was glad that she had come to see her today. She was also quite the lovely young woman, who had a very enchanting embarrassed face, and that certainly made the situation even better.

Standing up, she lightly placed her fingers under the elf's chin lifting her head up to look at her with a delicate touch. "I'm so happy to have such a loyal Champion. Now, for your task, I would like you to travel to the village of Gidon. it is one of the most.. dreary little villages I have seen, and the people aren't the most.. cheerful."

She gave a pitying sigh. "Therefore, I would like to give them my blessing, and hopefully encourage them to prosper. Will you do this for me?"

Rosalie tentatively looked up into the eyes of the Goddess, savoring the moment. She couldn't help but notice the Goddess' beautiful face.

"Very well, Milady, I shall go bring happiness to these people in the form of flowering plants," Her smile widened slightly at the prospect. She would be visiting new lands! She had to be excited.

After watching the Goblin slaughter several of his men, Lord Crujabich walked towards the Goblin.

"Cowardly creature! Strike me if you dare!" he said, taking off the chest plate of his armour.

Bread grinned, jumping at the foolish human. Several seconds later, the still-invisible goblin discovered that his opponent was apparently immune to being stabbed. Startled, Bread leaped backwards and faced his opponent.

'Invincible? Unhurty hurt? No, no, cannot be, cannot be! Then how... how?' Bread thought to himself. Scowling, standing as tall as he could, Bread removed his ring.

"HOW YOU NO HURT?" Bread said, in his best human.