Villainess

A World Before Time (1)

  The beginning beheld madness.

There were very few amongst people that could be called people. That could take on "I" or "thou" for the rest were taken by darker things. Amongst this endless sea of maddening uncertainty, there were even less the Goddess could save.

The Goddess is merciful.

Her sacrifice offered these damned men a choice. She lay before them life and death—reason and chaos. They could regain their senses, abandoning magic to live forever as people...Or they could cling onto their dark arts, choosing to forever endure insanity. They would lose themselves to the unknown. Gradually transforming further away from nature, until they craved the flesh of man.

Be wary of the unknown.

So, of the millions that had been led astray, a handful returned with great sorrow. A faceless desire haunted their sleepless nights, casting a dark shadow over the rising sun. Their hearts, trapped in an intangible grief, could not love fully nor feel fully. Their lesser nature was bound and tied to that desire. And so, they lived as tortured existences—mastering the art of discipline. They were the best of them.

Others had lost themselves completely to the dark. Their lusts overcame them, and magic ran wildly through their veins. Chaos found meaning in them; it became a new reason for they had abandoned their humanity. In wanting that which betrays nature, they were rejected and chased to all corners of the world. The rest of us moved on without them.

You shall know the disciplined as "searchers", for they seek what they can never find, and the others as "damen" for they are certainly damned men.

         —  An extract from the Holy text recounting the Myth of Magic.
Year 40