The Greatest Sin [Progression Fantasy][Kingdom Building]

Finding ancient histories upon Arda is a challenge because of how much we precisely know. The field of archaeology has been no doubt reliant upon the crutch that is ancient Divinity, but likewise, it exists forever corralled by it. How many historians of this time are able to say they have independently found an ancient artefact? It is only because magic is highly reliant upon artefacts that I have had to delve deeply through the archives to find ways to push my subject.

Yet as I delved, I have discovered one pattern that I can now undeniably prove, and yet that seemingly no one has taken issue with even as they say they are researching the myths of old Arda. Almost every single archaeological expedition in the past thousand years has been directed by Arascus, by Fortia, by Maisara, by Iniri or by Helenna. It is almost impossible to overstate the amount of influence this small clique of Divines wield, and yet I cannot even say that it is because of some evil scheming, or wish to control and rewrite the past by them. No.

It is a much simpler and sad reason instead. This set of Divines are the only ones that truly care about writing history in the actual sense of sitting down and legitimately putting in the hard effort of recording events as had happened. Every major archaeological discovery ever made can be credited to them, and is, because at the start of every piece of text, there shall be a line devoted to them; I have read something to the effect of ‘This research team thanks Goddess Fortia, of Peace, for pointing us in the direction of the Battle of Kial’ or some other alternative far too many times to count.

And I have come to the realisation that Arda is inept at recording its own history in a medium that is not reliant upon the crutch of ageless Divinity. All the greatest discoveries made my humanity are not discoveries whatsoever. They are merely one of the Divines already mentioned in this text deciding that it is time humanity was ready for a piece of knowledge they have not shared yet.

When there is something that is truly not known on this world, it is hidden from the masses. By ‘masses’, I mean any who are not part of the decision making clique of the most powerful Divinity: the group that saw the Age of Heroes as a purging of the competition. There are plenty of mysteries on Arda, I have written upon them extensively. I am certain that I am not the first to think these thoughts either. They are not revolutionary questions. They are simply unsolved, and because they are unsolved, no one is given the chance to solve them with the wrong solution.

How many discoveries has humanity actually made? Independently? Free of Divinity? Not progression of technology or society, but rather discoveries of the past?

- Excerpt from “The Issue of Archival”, written by Goddess Elassa, of Magic.

Kassandora sat with her father. He was in a poor mood. That was no surprise. Fer had broken one of the few promises the family had ever gotten her to make, which was not to drink the blood of one too powerful. At least back with Baalka, Kassandora had made the call. Kassandora looked into her glass of whiskey and swirled it around, just to see how the light would bend within the liquid. It was different when she made the call, they had been in the Jungle back then. There was no way out. “You shouldn’t be too mad with her.”

“With who?” Arascus asked slowly. The God of Pride had taken off his coat and was sitting with a glass of whiskey in his large hands. “I’m not, she’s just annoying.”

“I meant Fer.”

“I’m not mad with Fer.” Arascus said with a sigh, he drank his glass, then reached down to pour himself another from the bottle. “I’m just disappointed.”

“Why? She did well.”

“Not with her, with myself.” Arascus said. “I should have never let it get to a position where Fer had to drink Maisara’s blood to survive.” Kassandora took a deep drink from her own glass. She was glad that Arascus had called her over. Now the planning was done, Esberian Reclamation was in motion, and there was no work to distract herself with so the failure of that planning was fully unavoidable.

It was a fucking embarrassment, a stain on Kassandora’s good track record, that she had thought those three alone were enough. Olephia should have been sent, or another Divine that wasn’t simply tough in the fashion of the big three but devastating in the fashion of Irinika or Anassa. If Leona had still been alive to exploit that total lack of certainty, the battle would have gone far worse. “I know.” Kassandora said.

And of all the things Arascus could have said, he always chose the right thing. “We’ll do better next time. Close call now, we don’t need calls like that again.”

“Cheers to that.” Kassandora replied. She hated being cheered up by being told she tried her best. She was in the business of war, there was victory or annihilation at stake and nothing else. If her best wasn’t good enough, then she should step down and let someone more competent take command. Too many lives depended on her judgements and her calls for them not to be correct.

“Cheers to that and cheers to not being around Ciria.” Arascus said. Kassandora rolled her eyes. This was such a self-inflicted problem she struggled to even sympathise with the man. And generally, if he had an issue, then she would be the first to try and fix it.

“Why do you even need to spend time with her?” Kassandora asked dryly. She herself did not understand it. Arascus worried far too much about Ciria when the obvious thing to do would be to simply leave her be. She couldn’t generate any issues just by running her mouth about.

“I don’t like the idea of her disappearing or running loose.” Arascus replied dryly as he put his feet up. “That’s all I have to say on it, she’ll go around, she’ll start talking, and then it’s not good for anyone.”

“I cannot conceive of a situation where she makes any sizable gains.” Kassandora said. “At best, she’ll find a few miserable little souls that would be troublesome sooner or later.” That could even be exploited. Those troublemakers could be removed quickly.

“Mmh.” Arascus said. “I don’t think she’s revolutionary material either, but I don’t want her making Imperial zealots because she’s so annoying.” Kassandora blinked, then looked at her father, then back down at the table. She had not thought of that. It wasn’t even… Well, with how Ciria argued, Kassandora could not imagine the Goddess of Civilization changing anyone’s mind. Much less changing anyone’s mind when they were in the Empire. Ciria could talk all she wanted but ultimately, no amount of moralising thoughts could change the reality of the matter which was that the Empire was simply better to live in than it had been before.

“Why not?”

“The point of the Empire is to be lean and efficient.” Arascus said. “The only real way it can spiral out of control is if it speeds up beyond what we can hold together.”

“Such as?”

“Imagine if the population was calling for an offensive into Arika right now.” Arascus said and Kassandora stared down at the table. That was the sort of thing only her father knew to catch. What if the population was calling for an offensive right now? Well, it would be a disaster. They had a plan, as long as the landbridges were held and Ainai protected, then they would not be pushing into Arika.

“I didn’t think of that.” Kassandora picked up her glass of whiskey and leaned back on the chair. The world outside rumbled as Ciria got started on yet another ICDT tower. The strike on Rilia had also been good to actually calculate and see what happened when multitudes of ICDT towers landed in a region. They would not have to cover Arika in its entirety to cleanse it in one swoop. Kassandora and Fortia were already working on blueprints for the most effective layouts of cleaning the desert.

“And it’s just a waiting game.” Arascus said. “Have you given any thought to the Space Doctrine?”

“The obvious solution is to drop meteorites from orbit.” Kassandora said. “I’ve not ran the maths, but I don’t see any reason as to why we should bother developing space-to-ground weaponry when you just….” She motioned with her hand and slapped her knee. “The engineering is the difficult part, get us into space first.”

“Alright.” Arascus said. “Understood.” He sighed. “What about…” He trailed off and looked into his whiskey. For once, Kassandora actually saw the God she considered her father hesitate before continuing, as if he was unsure of what exactly to say. “Of Empire?”

Oh. Of course. “I don’t know.” Kassandora gave her honest answer. Just as he didn’t know, neither did she. What exactly was there to say in the first place? She had thought about Of Empire, Helenna and Malam had tried to run an investigation, the two had failed utterly with Alice. The only person who was any sort of lead would be Allasaria.

And Allasaria was off in Paraideisius most likely, negotiating for that world to join the war. The only other lead would have been Leona herself and the Goddess of Luck was long since dead. Yet that did not stop the phantom of Of Empire looming over the small room that was a refuge from Ciria. Kassandora didn’t event want to think about the Divine. She preferred it be a God. Then Arascus could have a son, and nothing would change.

A Goddess of Empire would be worse. Ever daughter-Goddess of Arascus had already mentioned it to Kassandora when they discussed it between themselves, but what position would a Goddess actually take? Empress? Surely not. But surely she had to. An Of Empire could only become an Empress. And then that would mean she would get the one position in the family that had been forever empty and that no one had the stupidity to even joke about: Mother.

Kassandora pushed the dreaded thought out of her mind. They would cross that bridge when they crossed it. The pair sat in silence. One bottle of whiskey, was finished. Another was began. Outside, the world shook as Ciria got on her with her work. The sounds of trucks passing by, bringing more material no doubt, both for Ciria and for her husband Halkus to keep on with the work.

A knock disturbed their quiet contemplation. Not from Ciria, that woman made her displeasure and disrespect known through proudly showing off she was allergic to the basic concept of knocking. But another Divine, Kassandora recognised the knock, Arascus must have too. “It’s Paida.” He said.

“It is.” Kassandora agreed.

“Come in!” Arascus shouted towards the door. Paida opened it a moment later. The woman had returned from her expedition underneath Aris. Kassandora would have recalled her from that job a long time ago, but Arascus said it was her capital, and her responsibility to chart those tunnels. Apparently, it would be as good for her to lead that expedition.

Ultimately, Kassandora hadn’t even bothered to argue. Who was she to try and discuss with Arascus on what was and wasn’t good for people? Paida came in a black Imperial coat, a suitcase in one hand. Her yellow hair was tied back in a tail and she looked mighty happy with herself. Those purple eyes were practically shining. “Hello hello?” Paida said. “I hope I’m not interrupting.” Kassandora looked to Arascus as the Goddess of Rancais gingerly stepped into the office.

“You’re not.” Arascus said. “We were discussing business and having a drink. What about you?” He asked. “Helenna has given a report that you’ve missed the succubi when you went down into the tunnels.”

Paida closed the door behind herself, she had come in a uniform and a suitcase. So she had brought something then. She wasn’t here empty handed. “The Aris Catacombs are vaster than we predicted.” Paida said. “Even in the mapped regions, there’s multiple entrances to the deeper regions. We’d need…” She shrugged, those purple eyes, the same colour as the famed wine from Rancais calculated for a moment. “Well I don’t even know. I want to say ten thousand men to cover everything.”

“It’s a post-war issue then.” Arascus said. “Arika takes priority.” Paida nodded as Arascus leaned forward, brought out a glass from the cabinet by his side of the couch, and then poured Paida a drink. “Come, sit. We’re drinking to celebrate victory in Esberia and to cope the fact none of us like Ciria.” He said. Paida stared at the God of Pride for a moment, then swallowed her own spit nervously, then finally sat down slowly.

Kassandora saw the chance. Maisara would only argue forever. She herself had already grown tired of bullying the girl, Arascus didn’t want to deal with the Goddess of Civilization a moment more. But Paida? Paida was a Divine of this age, was she not?

Kassandora raised an eyebrow. From Arascus to Paida and back again. Of Rancais’ excitement made the air almost palpitate, as that Goddess tried to pretend she wasn’t obviously excited. She opened the suitcase she had brought with her and started to bring out the images. Kassandora stared at them in half confusion, it was made worse by the sheer giddy energy of Paida right now, the Goddess of Rancais was acting as if she had discovered something she knew she wasn’t supposed to discover. As if she had found her mother’s secret cigarette stash.

Arascus simply stared at the images that Paida presented. Pillars with poems written on them. Then mosaics of gemstones, of metals and of rock carvings in the walls. All of them were some variation on the same theme. A great tree, a Divine on a throne. Those two cut down. A crowd around them, most likely those who had cut them down them. And then Paida, with a grin so wide it was farcical. “I assume you know what this is.” She said. “I want to know too.”

Kassandora looked at Paida, then at Arascus. Of War had not the slightest idea of what this could be. The tree? They had no male Divine of nature ever. Maybe during the Age of Monsters… but then with Iniri, her demesne included trees and forests. It was just impossible. And from those drawings, that Divine on the throne was obviously not Iniri.

And Iniri did not even have a throne in the first place! Kassandora knew her father well enough to know when he was hiding something. She rarely pressed him when he did, there was no need to be that bad a daughter, but generally, she could tell. And right now, Arascus told the complete truth. “Paida.” He said slowly. “I have no idea.”