All across the southern continent there is fear, anger and confusion. A god has fallen from the sky.
Faith in the goddess Adoundra is a minority believe, with at most one in twenty a follower of her tenants. Her priests teach focus, abstinence and a life pursued with vigour. If Adoundra deems you worthy, then on death a follower’s soul is taken to her plane of existence for an external afterlife. The religion is rare in its monotheism and its youth, being in existence for only eight hundred years. The world is in the early stages of an industrial revolution, with enquiring minds poking into the mysteries of reality.
On a bright summer’s day, a meteor streaked across the sky. All the continent saw its flight before it came crashing down at the centre of the city of Skyeloch. The blast utterly destroyed a park and the hundreds of people within it. In the crater rescuers found a middle aged woman. With white hair and pale blue clothing, her face matched exactly to the idols of Adoundra. All those who claimed to have dreamed of the goddess find her likeness to be true. As the woman has not yet regained consciousness she is hospitalised in the bastion, away from public view.
Great Strife
Adoundra has entered the mortal world to defend her people. From high in the heavens, she has seen that something dark and sinister is moving against humanity. An outsider or a hell god of the other pantheons, it cannot be left unfought. Her arrival was intended as a call to arms for all her believers but she was not fully prepared for the mortal realm. Whilst here she is powerless and her arrival gravely injured her. All she can do for now is reach out into dreams, to give some warning before it is too late.
Divine Politics
The high priests have spoken. The other gods have cast Adoundra down. Her crimes are hypocrisy and hubris. She demanded of her followers that they follow strict standards, standards that she herself did not live up to. Her monotheist teachings claimed her as the only god and the source of all divine action. The hypocrisy angered the moral gods and the gods of justice. Her hubris angered prideful and powerful. The sentence is to live amongst the mortals she has betrayed until such time as she dies a mortal death. The followers of Adoundra have been left dumbfounded. Some deny it, saying the woman is not their goddess. Others are working to accept it and are trying to move on with their lives. A few are talking about violent revenge, either against the other gods or against Adoundra.
Time Off
Even the gods can become tired and fatigued. Receiving her followers prayers and watching over them in judgement and guidance has, after eight hundred years, exhausted Adoundra. Collapsing, she fell. When she awakened she found herself amongst her followers but free from her responsibilities until she chooses to return to them. That a god should show such weakness offends many, both mortal and divine. The knights of Skyeloch are going to have a difficult time keeping Adoundra safe as she rests. The task is not helped by her curiosity for the mortal life previously unknown to her.
Image Credit – Perseid Meteor Shower over Silicon Valley by Wilson Lam – CC-BY-NC-ND-2.0