Bad End: The After-Story
The heroes are dead, but we ain't pulling the plug.
TL;DR and rundown at the bottom. Character sheet templates and such will be put up if this gets sufficient interest.
In time immemorial, long before even recorded history, beings that the modern day could only call “gods” reigned at the peak of the world. Among these beings, there stood three kings, three sovereigns who had reached the peak of power. They could shatter continents, manipulate the elements, and warp the very fabric of reality itself. These three kings claimed dominion over all the world, and in this power they stood secure.
...that is, until champions among humanity rose up. Perhaps due to blessings from the heavens themselves, these champions appeared and waged war upon the kings. The kings’ followers became a sea of corpses, and at long last, those three rulers were struck down at the hands of the champions, their existences sealed away forever. In their absence, though, records were destroyed and knowledge lost. Indeed, it took millennia for mankind to become as advanced as it had been under the reign of those fallen tyrants.
Nonetheless, mankind lived on in an ordinary fashion, as the tales of heroes and monsters drifted from history to legend, and from legend to myth. Mankind grew complacent, ruling over the animals of the world. The arcane air of the world dissipated as the need for it vanished. Magical arts were lost and forgotten, and the world kept turning as it always had.
The year is 2018. The date is January 2nd.
The modern world has risen. However, it was in this year that an archaeologist who delved where no man should. Treading into a forgotten cavern, he awoke the gods of old.
Arising from their tomb and effortlessly slaying their discoverer, the kings soon ascertained what had occurred, that they had been sealed away and awoken in a new era. They noted the lack of magical energy in the air of the world, they noted the odd structures that littered the landscape, but above all else they felt it.
They felt that there were those who had inherited the destiny of the champions who had once bested them. The karma that tethered those kings and those champions cried out, names and faces flitting through the minds of the kings. An absolute fate beyond absolute fate- mankind would again create champions, and those champions would defeat the kings once more.
These future champions became their priority. They could not allow that destiny of defeat to come about. They could not allow their rule to crumble once again.
After obtaining rudimentary knowledge of the modern world, the kings sought to amass something resembling their armies of old. Gathering weak-willed men under their banner with honeyed words and promises, they formed their plan of attack to attend with these damned champions, and claim their dominion over the world once more.
...The year is 2018. The date is January 5th.
“Uh, yeah, boss? So, we looked at your plan, and it seemed kinda dumb and just looked like it’d give these kids as much time as possible to get stronger, so we just sorta sent Ken and Bill to shoot ‘em. They were twelve, so it was pretty easy. Anyway, we’ll be taking that twelve bucks an hour we were promised now.”
“...what are ‘bucks’?”
“Eh? Whaddya mean ‘what are bucks’? You know, dollars, money, moolah, currency, dough. You trying to weasel out of paying us or something? Says right here in the employment contract. We did the job, so fork it over.”
“...how infantile, to be so blinded by avarice. You have merely served your betters, as is your prerogative as an inferior being. There is no reward to be had; being permitted to serve us is reward enough.”
“...you serious? Hey, Paulie, you hear this clown? They ain’t payin’ us.”
“I hear you, Phil. Sounds like we’ve gotta take drastic measures about now.”
“Unionize?”
“Unionize.”
And so it was to be, that after vanquishing the heroes, a new conflict would arise.
Megalomaniacal gods versus a henchmen union.
Who will live? Who will die?
Fuck if I know.
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