Divine beings like ourselves don’t often have confessions to make, but this is ours: we fell in love with humanity, and it was humanity that paid the price.
Our kind doesn’t usually concern itself with the creatures of earth; to us, their lives come and go in an instant. But for Asheal, Asteraoth and I, that’s exactly what became so fascinating: their fragility, their curiosity, their eagerness to experience so much in such little time. The more we watched them, the more obsessed we became with their many human delights – and the more we wanted to sample them.
Our decision became inevitable. We chose to rebel against the heavens. We chose to fall.
In the forms of beautiful women – adorned in luxurious textiles that clung to our human forms as closely as shadows – we revelled, we ate, we drank, we indulged in any number of deadly sins. We left bewilderment and broken hearts behind us, as the humans we touched were forever changed, and they didn’t know why.
You must understand: we didn’t intend to cause them harm. Not at first.
It was Asheal who decided to take our influence further. She was drawn most to those humans whose ambition and hunger for power went beyond normal curiosity, and she convinced us to teach them our divine secrets – the arcane arts, the ways of warfare, the ability to harness raw power from the natural world. Things that humanity should never have known about. Things that they could never truly control.
It didn’t take long for the earth to spiral into chaos. War raged across every land, on a scale that humanity had never before seen. It seemed as though entire nations were filled with fire, while others cowered in darkness. Apocalypse loomed with the coming dawn.
Fear and remorse – two very human emotions, but Asteraoth and I felt them both in the face of the horror we had created. While Asheal revelled in the chaos, we turned away, hoping to return to the heavens and forget what we had done. But the way is closed to us. Our rebellion is not so easily forgiven.
It is clear what we must now do: if we ever want to leave this earth, we will have to right the wrongs we caused – and either convince Asheal to join us, or stand against her in divine battle…
