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White Calling Wonder
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To know the nature of the Free Man, one must understand the gods, and their history.
Above and before all others, there are the High Old Gods, who are as gods to the gods themselves. Of these mighty beings, whose domain stretches across worlds and across the chaos between, the two gods of Wind and Water - also known as the gods of Breath and Blood - are the only two who are known to the people of the world with which we are concerned, the world that is known to its original inhabitants as Gede. Though some may offer worship to them, they have turned attention to the mortal races of Gede only seldom - and each instance of that at a time of great calamity. They did not create the world, though they lent it life. Gede was created, rather, by the God of Stone and the Goddess of Soil, known as the Old Gods, who then populated it with their children, the dwarves and the halflings. It was for them that it was created.
In the youth of the world, the Middle Gods arrived. Some, such as those who commanded the Sun and Moon, came from beyond; others were born from within the world itself, as mortal creatures were raised up to divinity by worth and wild magic. It was at this time that division began between the Wild Gods - the gods of trees and mountains, of sky and earth - and the Civilized Gods, the gods of truth and lies, of justice and of treachery. At this time, too the Fae were born, akin to the gods as beasts are to men. In time, the Fae began to prey on the mortal races; cities were razed, nations slain, children stolen and changed. From those lost from dwarves and halflings, the trolls and the goblins were made. In answer, the Civilized Gods sought to destroy the Fae, and in turn the Wild Gods opposed them. Thus did the Middle Gods wage ware upon each other, and, in time, a weapon called the Mortal Blade was forged. Created by the Civilized Gods, it was stolen and turned against them by their enemies, and the cut of its razor edge tore their immortality and their magic from their divine bodies. One after the other, the Civilized Gods fell to the earth of Gede, and they became the first of the race of Men. The Wild Gods stood victorious, and though the civilized New Gods would eventually rise to take the place of their predecessors, they dared not act. The Fae continued their predation, even upon the Men who were once gods themselves - from those stolen from that new race, the orcs and the elven races were made.
But one of the old Civilized Gods survived. The God of rogues and vagabonds, god of rootlessness and vagabonds, had fled from the divine fields of battle, and was hidden by the Wild Goddess of Shadow, who loved him. He concealed himself on the dark sides of Gede, the borderlands beyond the sky and beneath the earth, and there he changed. The Wandering God snatched up the essence of his fallen allies and took them on himself, becoming a god of many things. To those who fear and hate him, he is god of cowardice and deception: to those who keep him in their hearts, he is god of freedom and of revolution. He is a god of vengeance and rebellion, a god of subtlety and solitude. And from the edge of the world, his touch light on the strings of puppets that pulled the strings of further puppets still, he guided history, until finally he contrived to steal away the Mortal Blade itself, and to offer his own blood to the twisted slaves of the Fae that they might be free. Arming the one with the other, and granting them his blessing, the elves rose up and destroyed their masters. So it was that the god now known by many names completed the intentions of his fallen fellows, and saved the mortal races from the menace of the Fae.
The Hidden God, Him In The Shadows, the Free Man: whatever he is called, he deigns to accept the worship of the wild races he freed from the Fae. Scholars know him as chief god of the orcs, trolls and goblins, whom he encourages to earn their freedom and prove their strength and wits against the lands where the Fae once dwelt; the elves too, pay him their respect, as do some Men, though they accept the blessings of the New Gods as well. The Free Man is a ruthless deity, asking much and refusing those who fail to meet his standards; but for the Wild Races, he is the only god they have.
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