For millennia, the crumbling towers of Thre-Thenta had been nothing more than abandoned ruins. Thre-Thenta had been a powerful stronghold, one of the capitals of the budding Threavok empire, but these days it was nothing more than a curiosity, an old relic studied by Skyan scholars.
In its prime though, Thre-Thenta was something else. Not just a powerful stronghold with a powerful military, but it was also one of the religious centres of the Threavok. Thousands of Threavok would travel to the city every week to pray and give tribute to the Thantophor, the Lord of the Dead. While some scholars believed that the swift decline in the Thantophor’s worship slowly doomed the Threan Empire, the majority of Skyavok these days see the city and its ruins as nothing more than a painful memory.
“So… why don’t you worship the Thantophor any more?”
Timik had asked that question about seven times now, and not once had he listened to any of the answers Kayen had given him. Everything from the Rethan invasions to economic crisis to the fact that Skyavok just grew tired of religion. But Timik hadn’t accepted any of those answers.
“Mate, he’s answered your question a bunch of times. Do you not believe him or something?” Kohra asked.
“Not really!” Timik grunted. “We have the same problems. We still worship the Allbirther. Other Temthans, anyway.”
“Just because the Temthans are idiots, blindly worshipping anything vaguely attractive, doesn’t mean the Skyavok want to fall down that same hole!” Kayen snapped. “Plus, you’re missing a key part of this. Thre-Thenta is a THREAVOK CITY, not a Skyavok one! Different things!”
“But you’re not rea-”
“DIFFERENT!” Kayen was on the end of his tether. “Why is this so fucking difficult with you, Timik?”
“Because you hide!” Timik tutted. “You are ashamed!”
“Yes, the Skyavok are ashamed of their past. We don’t like talking about it.”
Phovos rolled her eyes as her friends all bickered. They were closing in on the city now, its tallest towers peering out from the gloom.
“Why are you ashamed?” Kohra asked.
Kayen started bashing his head against the console in front of him. Had Kohra not been paying attention either?
“Because our worship of deities led to us enslaving the Rethavok. Before the Rethavok enslaved us, we enslaved them. And that is what we are ashamed of. So we push away things that led us down that path. Religion paved the way to ignorance and hubris, to believing that we were way more powerful than we were.”
“So basically…” Kohra thought to himself for a moment. “So basically you stopped worshipping deities because it made you violent. And you didn’t go back to worshipping them afterwards.”
“Yes!” Kayen gasped. “Finally you understand!”
“But you didn’t tear all these places down?”
Kayen blinked. “No, I guess not. I think the theory was that the Rethavok left the temples as reminders of our hubris. They may be big and thick, but they’re secretly into mind games.”
Kohra tutted. “I don’t know whether I should be offended by that, since I’m basically disguised as a Rethan…” He quickly changed the subject. “Are we slowing down or is it me?”
“We’re slowing down!” Phovos smiled. “Because we’re here…” Phovos’s smile quickly faded though. “Looks like someone else is here too…”
“Like who?”
“I don’t know…” Phovos whispered as they landed. “Let’s go and find out…”