Silence of the Gods
It has been less than a year since the mortal servants of the gods first passed among the homelands and wilds of Norrath and her strange sister Luclin. They came with warnings, speaking of a shift in the world, but I cared little for their words. That Marr’s strong voice and the bellow of Zek were silent in the ears of their elect caused me little concern.
Perhaps my brother’s comments on his recent inability to discern our Lady’s will of late should have caught my attention. But he was young in the eyes of the Koada’dal, and to my mind inexperienced as one of Tunare’s holy warriors. I knew little of the tests our Goddess might set before her holy ones. To my shame, neither did I have any desire to become more enlightened.
A maiden appeared before the hall of Felwithe’s defenders. In a voice quaking with fear, she spoke with great sincerity of the need for sacrifice. Her grief at the offense she thought our people had committed against our Maker was obvious. For why else would Tunare turn from her clerics and paladins if not in response to our mortal greed for wealth and power? So she proclaimed to any citizen who came near.
I disagreed most heartily with her statements. Always have I known Tunare’s presence around me, and she yet lingered in the lands of Norrath. How could any elf not feel our Mother’s blood moving in veins of rock as life-giving streams? Or not sense her heartbeat in that of her creatures? Was it even possible to ignore her voice carried on the wind that blew through the leaves of the Faydark? Even I, ungifted as I am, could hear her voice.
Nonetheless, I parted with what I could spare. For who could deny their mother gifts in praise of her care? But once I had departed from white-pillared Felwithe, I soon forgot the matter.
Morden Rasp and the powerful from across Norrath journeyed deeper into new found Taelosia. Word filtered back thru the Wayfarer Brotherhood of strange and fearsome beings and ancient magics. Perhaps inspired by the stories of places and creatures obviously chaos-touched, priests belonging to the Order of Discord began to proclaim their knowledge of a place of purest chaos, where Discord ruled the land. Meanwhile, the sages in New Tanaan speculated about the silence of the gods, but it was only a lesser topic in their endless debates on the universe.
Some pointed to the long prophesized waking of the Sleeper as a possible source of disruption, the long awaited changes coming to pass. But I ask of you, who but the Dragon Queen would care if he flew the skies once more? It is a concern for dragon kind and no other, for they have declined in grandeur. But Kerafyrm’s challengers among the other races of mortal kind have become numerous since his day …and deadly.
I wasted little time worrying about what I considered trivia. I had won passage past the gods themselves, and the mysteries of the elements fascinated me more. I took little note of the shifting of the world until the disquiet had spread among many of my friends and comrades. The priests had been worried for months; even sagacious Lueinu had expressed concern. Now the same doubt took up permanent residence in the halls of Kithicor’s legion. I saw nothing amiss, as the planes of power where I preferred to dwell were as yet unaffected. Those who had remained closer to home sent word that something was… off, though they knew not what.
Finally, for
my own peace of mind, I decided to appraise matters myself.
To this day, I am surprised I escaped with my absence unnoticed by
Jethal. Our lord and master hunter
was deluged with other worries, and I took advantage of this to slip away.
Stepping through the doorway created by my magic, I glanced around my
childhood home. At first glance all
seemed familiar and in its proper place. The
The wind… I heard it rustling though the leaves of the Faydark as it always had. But I no longer heard the sweet voice of our Mother beneath it! With every sense and several spells I searched for any sign of the presence I had known all my life, my panic growing with every step. From the long deserted druid ring near the dread Mayong’s fortress to the ramshackle camps of the orcs, nothing could I hear but an unnatural stillness. Not the tranquil silence of Quellious’s peaceful home, but instead the eerie calm of a summer day before lightning splits the sky. The presence of the Mother of All, first heard in my own mother’s heartbeat, was simply… gone.
The future is coming fast upon us, and for the first time I realize mortals will face it alone. The world is changing, and the looming catastrophe brings worse than the anger of the Warlord or the fleeting terror of the Faceless. Tunare has withdrawn her hand from our lands. And I fear.
A/N Don't own any of Norrath, including places and people and any other Sony property, this is just a bit of fan fiction, so please don't sue. Thank you to Jethal and Lueinu for letting me use their character names. The legion mentioned is the Erollisi Marr guild Legion of Kithicor, a truly excellent bunch of people (uhh, when they say they're chaotic good, they MEAN it). And thanks to DB for reading over this, appreciate it man.