God and the Devil.
The Pure and the Fallen.
The Light and the Darkness.
Good and Evil at its most base.
The story is familiar even to those who have no religion. God
created us all, but, before He got around to making the lowly
animals of the earth, including we men, He made perhaps His most
perfect creations: the Angels. Beings of Light and Beauty, these
Angels were his companions in Heaven and they would do just as He
asked for they loved Him desperately. Then again, perhaps it would
be more true to say that almost all of them would do just as He
asked. There was one, just as there always is, who loved God more
desperately and more deeply than any of the others, but this one could
not debase himself to bow to His every whim. This one, called Lucifer
by name, had Pride beyond his love for God and this Pride forbade him
from seeing himself as anything but equal with Him. Now, this
naturally strained the relationship between the two, but it only
reached its breaking point when God thought to create little flawed
lives which He chose to call Men.
At first, these men were an amusing distraction for the Angels.
After all, what to make of such fragile and stupid creatures as
these that seemed to live by nothing but senses? Still, Lucifer
soon found that he was quite jealous toward these new creations
and, with his golden tongue, he soon twisted the hearts of other
angels toward these stupid and base things. With a violence untold
in their beauty, these angels descended upon man and, with sick ease,
they managed to slaughter the lot.
Quite naturally, God was sickened to see that His angels, led by
His beloved, had performed such deeds and He knew that He would
have to punish them. So, with a heavy heart, He banished them to
a far corner of the World and, once there, He put them under a
Holy Seal so that they'd be forgotten to all. Thinking that the
tragedy would be in the past, He recreated His beloved men and,
this time, they thrived. Making the world their own, these silly
little creatures grew ever more confident in themselves and their
sciences. They claimed fire and, with it, their lives grew more
comfortable. Necessity gave them the inspiration to form sharpened
blades so that they could hunt and protect themselves. By rounding
the rough edges of a stone, they found that they could use this
strange new shape to move things much more easily. Similar finds and
inventions only gave them further confidence and, through this, their
cultures and societies only grew. Finally, as they came to modern times,
they found that they had no need to believe in a being called God.
After all, what did this non-existent deity ever do for them? Where is
it written that it even exists? Science cannot prove it, so it must
not exist.
So, the world grew in science and, underneath the incredible new
finds, chaos slowly began to seep into everyday life. Violence and
crime steadily rose as desperation started to move the people and
it seemed that there was no such place as a safe haven any longer.
Of course, the need for safety drove those strong enough to search
for it and, led by a young man called Prometheus, they went out to
find it. For years, they searched without any success, but, after
many passed years, they finally came upon a place that was incredible
to the cynical eye.
It was a natural wonder. Lush green ran as far as the eye could
see and it was only broken by patches of vibrant wildflowers in
colours even beyond the imaginations of the greatest artists.
Trees as old as time stretched their branches to a sky of vibrant
blue and wildlife of every kind wandered their paradise completely
free and unafraid. Thinking that they'd found their home, the
wanderers settled here and, as was human nature, they began to build
a new life for themselves. Setting himself as their leader, Prometheus
declared this their New Eden and, for quite a long while, the life
the settlers lived was idyllic beyond anyone's greatest dream.
Still, this Prometheus had ideas of his own as to why he set these
innocents wandering. For, long ago, when God had sealed those who
had betrayed Him, He had the misfortune to miss one of Lucifer's most
loyal friends. This hidden one chose to mark himself as a human and,
hiding among God's favored creations, he bided his time until he could
find and free his sealed friend. Of course, the time had finally come
when the world began to crumble under the chaos caused by man's own hand
and, leading those willing, he soon discovered the resting place of
the Seal. With a notable lack of fanfare, he broke the Seal that had
bound Lucifer for aeons untold and, as he died in his friend's arms,
Prometheus knew that he had served his appointed role.
Free once more, Lucifer returned to God, but, rather than being
Prideful and seeking vengeance, he returned humbly as a lover who
had known that he had done wrong. Still, even at this, God was not
so willing to forgive the great sin that His beloved had committed
and, in His Divine Wisdom, He chose to make a wager with His fallen
angel. This wager was that each would assume a human form and return
to the New Eden that Prometheus had founded. Once there, each would
position himself as the head of a gang and, in this position, they
would vie for the souls of the humans living there. If God reached
one hundred souls first, then Lucifer would again be bound and sealed,
this time forever. If Lucifer reached one hundred souls first, then
God would take him back into Heaven and he would once again be God's
favorite. The wager set, each took their human form and, before long,
a great change had come over New Eden. Clubs where one could satisfy
any temptation rose seemingly on every street corner and from these
seemed to pour the very dregs of society.
And so the battle for souls began.
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