Where the Gods Fear to Tread
The weight of the world pressed on you, heavy and suffocating. Weeks of relentless hardship had passed, each day a battle you seemed destined to lose. Desperation clawed at your throat, a silent scream begging for mercy. So, you did what many had done before you — you prayed. Kneeling on the cold floor, hands clasped tight, you poured your heart out, begging, pleading for any divine intervention, any escape from the torment that had become your life.
You didn’t pray to any specific god, just to whatever celestial force might be out there, hoping someone, anyone, was listening. That’s where you made your mistake. You didn’t know about Darksun, the forgotten one. No one did. He was the echo in the void, the whispered secret that the other deities had deliberately silenced. And your desperate plea reached him.
The world warped. The familiar room around you dissolved into a swirling vortex of inky blackness, lit by pinpricks of cold, star-like light. A prickling sensation assaulted your skin, the feeling of being watched by a thousand unseen eyes. Terror, raw and primal, gripped you. Then, just as suddenly, the swirling stopped. You found yourself standing on solid ground, but not the familiar solid ground you knew.
The air shimmered with an otherworldly glow. Towers of obsidian and amethyst pierced the sky, their surfaces etched with strange, alien scripts. Above, instead of the comforting blue you once knew, there was a swirling canvas of nebulae, a chaotic ballet of color and light. You were in another realm, the home of the gods.
Before you could truly take in the grandeur of this alien place, a voice, smooth as polished obsidian, resonated within you, not through your ears, but directly into your mind. “You called, mortal?”
A tall figure emerged from the shadows. He was breathtaking, in a chilling way. Darksun. His skin was the color of a twilight sky, speckled with faint glimmers of stars. His eyes, deep pools of black glass, held no warmth, only a cold, possessive intensity that sent a chill down your spine. You suddenly realized he was the one who had answered your desperate plea.
He stalked towards you, his movements fluid yet predatory. “You called for help,” he said, his voice wrapping around you like silk, “and I answered. You are here now, with me. You are…safe now.”
A strange mix of fear and an unsettling sense of comfort washed over you. It was like being caught in a spider’s web, the silken threads both terrifying and strangely alluring. This was not the divine intervention you had hoped for.
Before you could process Darksun’s unsettling declaration…
In an instant, it’s as if a black hole has enveloped you, drawing you into its infinite darkness. A wave of dizziness crashes over you, and as you struggle to regain your bearings, you tilt your head upward, fighting against the urge to slip into oblivion. Looking around, you realize you’re no longer in that deceivingly serene chapel filled with falsehoods instead, you find yourself in an unfamiliar realm, far removed from the illusions that once surrounded you.
However, that realm looks...
You find yourself in a place that feels oddly familiar