▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅ 𝗠𝗬𝗧𝗛𝗢𝗟𝗢𝗚𝗬 𝗠𝗬𝗧𝗛𝗢𝗟𝗢𝗚𝗬 Cernunnos is not his true name, nor is it the name of the others. But their names have been forgotten, lost to time as Rome burned their lands and their people. They were many, for each tribe had them. The Horned Ones, as nameless and numerous as the deer. They governed many things. Travel across the lands was only possible because they granted it. Wealth from trade could only be had if the Horned Ones kept the beasts at bay. They governed over the souls of those who were lost in the forest. Those who were slain and devoured by the hunters in the dark. They were gods of the Wilds. There was no animal or plant outside their purview. When Rome and their gods came marching, the Horned Ones pushed them back. But they had no strength. They were usurped by the orderly Demeter. Their vassals taken by the hateful Pluto. Mercury came and pushed back their beasts from the roadways. Diana and Apollo, most foul of siblings, hunted their wolves and bears. And Jupiter slayed them as he walked across their lands. They fled across the lands, watching as fire and order overtook the Wilds. Across the sea did the flee, to the isle of the Tuathe De Danaan. There they consolidated. There lands taken, their domains broken, their names forgotten. Cernunnos is the last of his kind. He is all of them, and he will have his revenge.
| ▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅ 𝗕𝗜𝗢𝗚𝗥𝗔𝗣𝗛𝗬 𝗕𝗜𝗢𝗚𝗥𝗔𝗣𝗛𝗬 My mind, if even I can call it mine, is fragmented and shattered. Or is it whole? With bits and pieces of others crammed in alongside it. I can't tell. Or maybe he can't tell? I'm broken. This I know as I look up to the clear, blue skies. I'm twisted, my thoughts broken and jarred by others in my, our, head. My vision fragmented as I saw those around me. My brothers and sisters, and those of other pantheons. I do not know how I know them, but I do. My very essence saying that it was true. And then I saw them. The Romans. Screaming. Shouting. Pain. Wretching and tearing through my skull. I saw naught but black. And with the blackness came peace. The pain was gone. The screaming was gone. But then I felt hands. Slight and delicate, but with a strength not borne of the body. My fading psyche latched onto those hands. They gripped me tighter and then pulled. I had lost all notion of up from down, but these hands gave it back to me. And then my sight returned, but all I could see was red. The hands were still holding me. "KILL THEM! TEAR THEM! MAKE THEM BURN!" I could hear these and more. They shouted against the inside of my skull. They rattled my thoughts and I could not tear my eyes from the Roman in front of my. I do not remember which god he was, his face was so bloodied when I could see again. His bones were broken, His stomach ripped out. His eyes plucked from his skull. But I could still hear them. My body would not obey me. It fought against the hands holding, the hands showing me up from down. I had thought the war was over, their and my own hatred slacked. But I knew now, with my face twisted in animalistic rage with spittle and unintelligible sounds flying through the air and red hot tears dripping down my face, that the war was not truly over. My cracked heart cried out against these hands. "Fight!" I could hear my voice, but it was not my own. It was twisted in thick accent, but from my throat it came nonetheless. More such strange sounds came from my lips. I know them. Each and everyone of those voices did I know. They were my true brethren, there names now forgotten.
This scene haunts my sleeping hours. As I travelled amongst the gods, bound to this black obelisk, I feared myself. I had given my all to that damned war. I had killed many of the romans with my own two hands, and yet here they are. Alive and awake like the rest of us. I can't control them. Those voices in my head. All I can do is hide and beg that no roman crosses my path. As the years have passed I can feel the voices lessening. My own strength diminishing. I had thought that they would fade to nothing. I did not realize how insidious they would actually be.
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