This mountain was ancient. So ancient that it had eroded and flattened over the years, into a plateau. Yet somehow, while the top eroded, the three tectonic plates underneath continued to push the mountain up, and it was the highest peak on the planet.
Of course, the Thraki had built a temple there. That was what Thraki were known for, building temples to their beloved deities on nigh inaccessible places. But the Point of the World temple had been unused for a while. Ever since the Thraki had learned that their highest god had betrayed not just them, but the entire universe. And because of this betrayal, the Thraki had become even more isolated, but also listless. They didn’t know what was safe to believe in any more.
What stung worse though was that they’d been warned. The Twelve Anew had been reporting inconsistencies for a while. Their leader, Dalosisaar, was a Thraki, representing both the air and skies that the Thraki embodied, but also unity. And the Thraki had, rather ironically, not exactly accepted him or been united amongst each other. Many thought Dalosisaar was a pretender, a false prophet, wanting to take away from the worship of the Mighty Dragon God of Time. But time and time again, Dalosisaar had made honest reports on what the Whenvern was like, and it wasn’t until the official statement from the Allmaker herself came out that the Thraki realised they had been fooled.
The Whenvern had not been a pure, holy being. The Whenvern had been a monster hiding in plain sight, sucking up the Thraki’s worship to stop him from killing the younger gods, because he was incapable or unwilling to better himself. The Thraki were just a means to an end for him.
And since the Thraki were a superstitious, religious race, this fact ate away at them. While the Whenvern’s many holy sites weren’t destroyed, they were swiftly closed off and abandoned, with some fearing that the Whenvern could re-manifest from worship alone. Holy relics though, mostly the winged hourglass emblem the Thraki used to denote their deity, those were routinely gathered up and melted down, the materials purified before being reused for something more valuable. All the while, many wanted a new god to worship, but no one wanted to risk worshipping what was now considered to be the Corrupted God. And at the same time, there wasn’t much of a desire to worship the Allmaker either, since she was not like the Thraki. Worshipping the former Life erpent, the new Time Serpent, The Thraki wanted their own god.
Today though, at this now abandoned temple, there was a brief spark of life. The colossal, ancient leader of the Thraki, Archmage Vokulunaax, swiftly flanked by his left-hand dragon, Lokmahro, had arrived at this temple. They wanted to make amends. Which was why they had invited someone else.
Dalosisaar appeared larger and more powerful today. Being the most powerful of the Twelve Anew, being their leader, he could make himself slightly bigger. he was also accompanied by those little gold and silver swirls of godly energy. He and the Mages’ Circle, the elite rulers of the Thraki, had never gotten along. They were why he was considered a false prophet. But as Dalosisaar landed at the perch on top of the temple, where the Whenvern Himself would routinely sit and watch ceremonies dedicated to him (and much more regularly in the last year of his existence), Vokulunaax immediately knew what he was about to say made some form of sense.
“Archmage Vokulunaax, Deutermage Lokmahro, greetings.”
“Dalosisaar, welcome…” Vokulunaax grunted. “You look particularly… holy today.”
Dalosisaar didn’t respond to that comment at first. He closed his eyes, hiding a white and blue glow, remained silent for four seconds, then opened his eyes again.
“You want me to be your god.”
“We were wrong to push you away. We were wrong to call you a false prophet. We went against your teachings, against your unity. And now we are suffering because of it.”
Dalosisaar sighed. “I don’t want to be your god though.”
“Why not?” Lokmahro asked. “You are a Thraki who ascended. You are the best of the Thraki. You are the best of the New Gods.”
“I don’t want to be worshipped. I was made into a deity because I was humble, because I was willing to give everything, including my own life, for the greater good. To accept your worship would go against that.”
“You deserve praise for your actions though!” Lokmahro countered. “You deserve our worship. We ought to learn from you. And by having you as our true god, we have someone to look up to.”
“That is why the Thraki are suffering right now…” Vokulunaax sighed. “We had a god to look up to, a gold standard to try and reach. It turned out we were reaching out to an uncaring, blackened soul who only used our worship to feed his ego. As a race, we seek to better ourselves, to reach to a gold standard, to make ourselves godly, while pushing away what we consider to be bad beings, false prophets. The holy… the… the Whenvern was the false prophet all along, and now our collective spirit has been shaken.”
Dalosisaar thought for a moment, then also sighed. “I hate that you need me in that way.”
“It is… not a good look…” Vokulunaax admitted. “But change takes time and small steps. One can hide evil with ease. It takes genuine strength to become good. Some of your fellow Anew can attest to that. What we request is that you be our stepping stone. Be our target. And once we reach it, we can perhaps move on from theological beliefs into… I do not know. Something better, at least.”
More thinking, followed by more sighs. “Alright, fine. You’re right. Belief in a higher power is embedded in us. We might as well make a better use of that.”
“Will you come back to us, allow us to do a ceremony for you, to reintroduce you as our new god?” Vokulunaax asked.
“I will. But I want time to consider how I want things done. I need to… do some research myself before I confirm anything.”
“Thank you…” Vokulunaax bowed.
Dalosisaar grunted, then shook himself down. “It’s fine. But I have other duties that must be dealt with first.”
“Very well. Speak soon, Dalosisaar.”
“Speak soon, Archmage, Deutermage.”
With one last grunt, Dalosisaar nodded a farewell, then opened up his wings and took off, soaring into the sky, but with a lot on his mind.