The Game Commences

So Pickle had done a right number of Sa and Fa alright. Back and forth they went for thousands, tens of thousands of years with over ten great human empires rising and falling during the course of it all. The fifth empire was the biggest and conquored all of the other worlds in creation, putting the Sopensen, Abysmal, Simsaur, Middle Folk and all others under their heel.

Needless to say Pickle's siblings were not happy. They began to complain, but quietly at first, respectfully. Fa didn't listen so much but Sa listened patiently to their cries and began to work up a destiny for their children as well. And for a while that worked, but Pickle was wiley and it was humans that kept coming out on top. It was Pickle's era after all and he had right of way. He was the one that had the power, that was what had worked for the others, and now he had his day in the sun.

And what a long day it was, but eventually even gods get tired of their games. By now, all of the prophesies had been fulfilled, and the old ones didn't really work any more. So many heroes and dark lords had risen and fallen that it just bored Fa and Sa, though Pickle tried many times to get them to rediscover their interest, it couldn't hold forever.

So eventually they decided they were going to put the game away, that prophesy and destiny wouldn't apply any more and that they'd retire for a while and let things run themselves. And Sa and Fa's other children grinned with anticipation. Oh there was going to be payback alright. A whole lot of payback.

And so the final wrap up of prophesy and destiny began, with Fa and Sa wanting to tie everything together in one great big bow with a nice ending. There was only one slight complication to their plans.

It is very very hard to kill a god. The Hila Monster was still out there, not quite dead, lingering around creation like a leech that sucked life rather than gave it. And she meant to destroy all of creation. And she had idea how to do it too.

But Ob wasn't dead either. And he had watched with great sadness at the games his mother and father played. He tried to stop them, but he was so weak, they couldn't hear. No he only had just enough power to give humanity a tiny chance at free will. A long shot in the dark at best.

And so begins our story.

Sa and Fa Come to an Agreement

Sa would write prophesy and Fa would carry it out. Whereas Fa would set what everyone's destiny was meant to be and Sa would carry it out. They were happy and beamed with joy at the prospect at working together yet occasionally confounding each other.

Pickle was merely content that a third great and mighty human empire came and went, lasting several thousand years. Fa and Sa had taken a while to come to their decision whilst more time was passing for humanity. This empire was more glorious than all the rest, having learned some of the secrets of magic from the Simsaur and some of the secrets of science from the Abysmal, though the world collapsed yet again.

And there was darkness in the land.

Sa and Fa get to work

And so a group of heroes arose and put together the first empire. It took a lot of work but they built it to span across three continents. They built roads and buildings and all kinds of neat things. But then there came a prophesy about a child overthrowing the king and restoring the just rule of the people. But neither Fa nor Sa knew whether the prophesy was true. They realized that the rules that they had set up for this thing.

Pickle scratched his head and realized that this was going to be a problem, especially when the First Heroes went nuts and started killing each other to keep the child from being born. Soon enough, they were all dead, and neither Sa nor Fa knew whether or not they should enforce the prophesy.

Pickle suggested that they make a special bloodline the recipients of the true prophesies. He thought that maybe Sa could make the prophesies and Fa could carry them out. Sa wasn't sure what she was supposed to be doing with Destiny whilst all of this was going on, and so they realized that somehow Fa had to decide something about destiny.

While they were trying to figure out what to do, the First Empire fell down around their ears.

A Gift to Fa and Sa

I have decided to go with the Folklore format. I think my principle inspiration for this came from North American Indian mythology which has the feel for what I’m looking for at this point. And so without further adieu…I will start.

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Pickle was a clever fellow. He looked around at his six brothers and sisters and saw that all good things must come to an end. He didn’t want that, and he couldn’t stop it, then he figured he’d make his time last as long as he possible could. So the first thing he did when he popped into the world was sit down and think.

He thought and thought and an entire Turning took place before he finally decided what to do. The mountains had worn a little, and the Sopensen had shifted. They’d long since left the Green world behind, spreading out into their own little tribes, occasionally fighting amongst themselves. That left the whole world wide open for whatever Pickle intended to do.

So Pickle made people. They weren’t as smart as the Abysmal, or as powerful as the Simsaur, or as evil as the Bleyoki or as good as the Sopensen or as humble as the Middle folk. They just were. They were all different from each other, and they began to build villages and make the world their own.

But Pickle was smart, he was. And he knew that as long as things were interesting, Fa and Sa were going to sit up and take notice. So instead of giving his people some kind of power like the others had, he tried to make things interesting for Sa and Fa. He created two ways of looking at the world, trying to make people important.

To Sa he gave the keys to Destiny. She could see all of the things that all of the people were doing at the same time, and by tweaking things just a little, she could make things happen. Occasionally bits and pieces of what Destiny was supposed to be spilled out so people could se it, and if everything happened the way it was supposed to, amazing things happened.

To Fa he gave the keys to Prophesy. He could mainly watch what people were doing from way up high, but he also had a Focus. That Focus could do whatever it took to make a Prophesy come true, but the thing was, that no one except Fa really knew what that Prophesy meant, which meant that it was entertaining to Fa just to see how people would fall all over themselves trying to figure it out.

Pickle gave them both out at the same time, and boy was he right! Fa and Sa took to the game like nothing else that they had seen before. They started caring about People more than they ever had before. Oh, they’d never been callous, but they had let the world take its course. Now they were trying to shape it, and make things happen. But when Destiny and Prophesy started conflicting, weird things started to happen.

Sa and Fa had a mighty fight, arguing like they never had before. But the fight wasn’t all bad, because it was the first fight they’d ever had, and they realized how much they loved each other. So they made a deal. Sa wielded Destiny during the day, and Fa wielded Prophesy during the night. That way they were both happy. And they loved each other more than ever. And they loved Pickle more than any of his other siblings because of it.

And boy did he make his brothers and sisters jealous! But that is another story.

The Seventh Age

I shall be taking a different approach to outlining this era. This isn't like the Iliad or the Odyssey where I want the feel of mythology or epic poetry, but rather the feel of ancient eras and forgotten lore...more like legend (which might seem arbitrary but it doesn't to me.) The key is recording this in a way that I feel captures the idea of what I'm trying to do, with the rise and fall of empires, and the trickiness of the seventh patron of humans, Pickle.

More details to come.