Rise of the Lions (1)

As Tristan was about to tune in to the "human channel", he had noticed that both Cedric and Sofia seemed a little uneasy.

"Are you two, ok?" asked Tristan with worry

Both of the siblings looked at each other with a lone drop rolling down their foreheads.

After a few moments of communicating silently through their eyes, Sofia turned to Tristan.

"Y-yes father, we are both o-ok." said Sofia in a slightly shaky tone

"Are you sure? if there is something on your mind that is troubling you, then you can talk to me, you know that right?" asked Tristan with a worried tone

After a few moments of contemplation, Sofia finally spoke what was on her mind at the moment.

"T-to be honest, Cedric and I were a little shaken and quite honestly scared of your reaction when you saw the "First Humans" and all of the atrocities they had committed."

When Tristan finally processed what he was just told, he was a little confused and surprised since he had no idea what happened that could've affected his two children like this.

Tristan sat there thinking for a few minutes going over what had happened and trying to find what would have shaken the two gods so much.

Sure, he had killed off a whole species but that was for the good of not only the planet but humans themselves.

And sure, while his method of getting rid of them was a bit archaic, they deserved it, in all ways possible.

Tristan just couldn't allow them to live and keep a good conscious, not only was the exploitation of the weak and the rules of the jungle prevalent, but mass murder, mass genocide, mass slavery, and mass r*pe was extremely common.

In all intents and purposes of the word, humanity truly needed a reset, and Tristan just so happened to have that reset button be represented by a major cataclysm.

Seeing that he was thinking about what could them have so shaken, Cedric spoke up to clarify and speak about his feelings on the matter.

"F-father, the reason Sofia and I are uneasy is due to the massive aura and pure unbridled rage that was radiating off of you when you saw the human continent."

"It is safe to assume that every creature no matter how intelligent felt that wave of aura and wrath that soon came with it." said Cedric surprisingly well composed

The second Cedric finished speaking, it was like a light bulb went off in Tristan's head.

He is the God of Creation! of course his feelings would radiate within a powerful wave of mana and pure power.

Tristan had also gotten very proficient in his divinity lately so he was able to pick up on Cedrics surface thought of his worry that he would be punished by Tristan due to the incompetence of the "first humans".

"Sigh, I am truly sorry that you both had to witness that, if there's anything that can get a true rise out of me, it is the incompetent and inhumane ways of humans, not only them but any species that will crop up from now and later." spoke Tristan as he went to comfort Cedric and in Sofia's case give her a nice warm hug

"And Cedric, don't worry, I had no plans for blaming you for those idiotic "first humans", the only people at fault are themselves."

After a few more minutes of reassurances and talking to his children, Tristan finally got them to settle down and he finally started the "t.v".

...

On the planet of Saxonia, there lies a giant continent.

Within this Continent are its inhabitants, the humans.

Off the south-western coast of the continent lies a "small" island by this world's standards.

Although there are many different little islands and chains surrounding the continent, there are two major differences between those and this island.

Firstly, the size is incomparable between them.

The nameless island off the coast of the continent, had a surface area of 10,000,000 squared kilometers, or roughly the size of the United States of America, maybe a little bigger.

The second major thing is that this island, unlike the others, is inhabited by humans.

Although they do not know exactly how they got there, humans have been living there since their earliest ancestors.

Initially, there were only roughly 1 million humans in this vast area, but over time that population grew.

But our first story takes us back to the very beginning, with a certain white haired, electric blue-eyed man.

...

All the way back in roughly 10,000 AC (it's actually 25,147 AC for the Terrans but time rewind happened on the other continents so, yeah) There was a small tribe of stone age hunter gatherers.

This tribe was led by a unique looking man by the name of Lyrick.

If you went back in time and asked the whole tribe and Lyrick included, nobody would be able to tell you how they came to existence, nor the reason why Lyrick was chief, they all just knew that was how it was.

For the first few years this new tribe had been having a relatively hard time trying to survive.

The tribe had initially been located within a forest, but they had no idea where to go and how to get out of the forest.

So, for the first few years of their lives, they spent it constantly on the move, trying to find a good place to live, while also fighting for their lives against the fauna of the forest.

But thankfully, after a decade of fighting they finally did it, they reached the outskirts of the forest and for the first time in their lives, they saw an open expanse of plains and rivers.

Now I know what you are wondering, "Why did it take them so long to get out?" and my answer to you is, because.

I'm just kidding, the reason it took so long was due to the sheer size of the forest, the forest they were in was roughly the size of Texas.

That's right, Texas.

Now, back to our new primitive friends.

The tribe now known as the Tribe of Likon, which in their language literally translates to, Tribe of the Forest, have started moving north while following a river.

They kept moving up the convenient river all the way until the hit a lake which had several other rivers flowing into it.

Seeing this open but still nicely wooded area, Lyrick decided to establish the first village of his people here.

Due to them being "placed" there by a higher being, which was unknown to them, the tribe numbered a grand total of 2,000 people: 1,000 men and 1,000 women.

For the first few weeks, the tribe under the leadership of Lyrick, started collecting wood and created stone tools to help them.

Due to the humans having zero knowledge about mana and aura, they had only elbow grease to rely on.

Since they were more focused on surviving rather than creating a gender hierarchy, the whole of the 2,000 tribals who were all conveniently the same age at 30(20 before the migration) got to work scavenging and chopping down trees so they could make primitive huts.

There was a lot of basic knowledge that was in their heads that they had no clue as to why it was there, for example, the tribals knew how to fashion stone tools and weapons, and create primitive wooden huts, and they could talk, yet they had no writing, metallurgy, and had no clue where this information came from.

Due to most of the tribe's people getting married during the decade of migration, (which they don't understand how they knew this concept), the number of huts needed was almost halved.

Lyrick himself had taken a wife but had refrained from procreating until they had a safe home.

As time passed, the once empty grass patch next to the lake and a forest, had now filled up with wooden huts and the beginnings of what seemed to be farmland.

After 3 months had passed, the tribe had finally finished their housing and had gotten their new fields squared away.

Years of growth and prosperity with the occasional beast raid past, Leon had now grown from a young man, into a strong tribal leader, as did most of the people of his tribe as well.

Lyrick was now 57 years old, while that may be old to us, you have to remember that for humans of the Saxonian breed, they lived a little past 200 years.

By normal human standards, Lyrick would be about 25-30, but one thing that set them apart, was the slow aging process.

A Saxonian human didn't actually look elderly until their last 15-20 years of life, when a human started to grow frail in Saxonia, then it was an indication that they didn't have much longer left.

Now that the tribe had officially cemented itself in their area by building crude palisades around the village, Lyrick felt it was the right time to settle down and start his lineage, so at the young age of 60, Lyrick and his wife Alica had their first child.

After the announcement of Lyrick's first child, a celebration was thrown due to it being a son.

Although there was a relatively equal standing for both men and women in the tribe, it was still slightly better to have a son as a first born since they will become an extra hand to help in the fields as well as another skilled warrior as long as they are raised right.

It was even more auspicious due to it being the chief's son, although they were almost completely equal, there was still some growing idea about male superiority, however it was purely due to the discrepancies of physical strength.

In the Likon Tribe there were many female warriors who could go toe to toe, and some can even beat most men, take Alica, Lyrick's wife for example.

Early on in the forest, Alica set herself apart with her ability to think on her feet and her splendid skill in combat.

But that wasn't the case for every female, the tribe learned early on that the male body just seemed to be more streamlined for physical labor and fighting.

That doesn't mean women weren't respected and need in the tribe, quite the opposite.

Both genders had their main roles in the tribe, for example, if a woman was a warrior she would stay as one until she had a child due to the stress it brough on the body.

After the birth she would then be the main caretaker of the children and would train them as they grew up, that is, if the women were a warrior before, not all women of the tribe became warriors.

When the fields were first established, most of the people who worked them were in fact women, this was due to a large number of the men going out to hunt and explore the area around them.

But I digress.

After the birth of Alwin the heir to the tribe, Lyrick and his wife would go on to have three more children, two girls and the youngest being another son.

.

.

.

Years went by as the tribe grew in number and a new age of prosperity had come into fruition.

Food was plenty, there was more than enough room for expansion within the valley that they now knew they inhabited.

Life was good, and in the blink of an eye, over a century passed under the rule of Lyrick until his death.

It was now 10,220 AC, a now 180-year-old Alwin has ruled over the tribe for a little over 3 decades after his father's death.

The Likon Tribe has known nothing but peace and prosperity.

But, the people of the tribe haven't let this peaceful time weaken them, they have constantly trained and hunted to keep their skills sharp due to the continuous attacks from different beasts.

One of the biggest threats to the Likon hegemony over the now named Lyrick Valley, are the many packs of cave lions.

These ancient beasts have long inhabited the mountains and caves of Saxonia all across the various continents, however, due to the terrain of the island the Likon Tribe lived in, the prosperous land has led to a boom in cave lion populations, as well as various other beasts.

Despite these challenges, the Likon Tribe has prevailed and has kept their land and stopped any incursions by the various beasts into their land.

For the past two centuries, the Likon Tribe had never in countered other tribes much less and lone humans around their valley.

That is, until the scouts tasked with exploring the region chanced upon a village on the outskirts of the valley.

From the accounts of the scouts, this village seemed relatively new, and the people seemed a little haggard.

Seeing this as an opportunity to bring an influx of more people to help the tribe grow and prosper even more, a kind and generous Alwin sent envoys with baskets of bread and fish caught the lake, along with some tools to help out the newcomers.

For the first few months this continued until Alwin had enough of hearing excuses as to why the chief of the tribe now known as the Ryen Tribe, couldn't come to the village and meet with Alwin.

So, this time when he sent envoys, Alwin gave them a message to relay to the chief strongly requesting to meet him and talk about assimilating them into the Likon Tribe.

After a week of waiting, the envoys came back.

But Alwin immediately knew something was amiss.

Out of the ten original envoys he sent, only 2 came back, one looking severely beaten and the other missing an arm.

Seeing the second man especially enraged Alwin due to him being the second son of Alwin's younger brother, Oldrin.

Now seething with rage, Alwin was going to order his warriors to march on the arrogant tribe, but before he could, sounds of screaming and alarm came from the walls.

It had seemed that the Ryen Tribe had brought the fight directly to him.

It didn't take long for the enemy warriors to break through the basic palisade wall and storm the outer area of the village.

The Ryen warriors had close to half an hour to kill and raid whomever they pleased, that is, until Alwin in all of his aging glory led a counter charge straight into the sea of enemies with his warriors behind him.

The two sides collided like a wave and officially commenced a brutal melee.

Initially, the two sides were relatively even with the fight being a back and forth of stone axes colliding into exposed flesh.

The tides quickly changed into the favor of the Likonians due to them wielding very primitive wooden shields.

Although these shields could only withstand a couple of blows before splintering, those couple of hits really counted when it only took you one or two swings to take down the lightly clothed enemy while they had to break through your defense.

Slowly but surely the Likonians pushed back the Ryen invaders and after a few hours of fighting, the enemies routed.

The number of invaders at the beginning was a little over a thousand while the Likonian defenders numbered over three thousand.

Due to the sheer difference in number, the Ryen Tribe lost over 600 warriors before they retreated.

For the next half a decade, the Ryen Tribe would launch a gorilla campaign by harassing the hunters and all other Likonians who left the village.

It wasn't until 10,225 AC, five years and after almost a thousand deaths later, that Alwin declared an all-out charge into the Ryen Village

After two days of preparation and getting into position, the warriors descended on the unsuspecting village and burned, killed, and looted their way through.

Towards the end of the fight, after the people of the Ryen tribe had been subdued and corralled into a confined space, Alwin and his grandson went towards where the chief of the Ryen Tribe was having a last stand.

When Alwin and his grandson, Renwick, come upon the scene, they were baffled to see that the chief was fending off almost a dozen troops alongside his daughter who was around the same age as Renwick at 25.

What they didn't know was the chief had unlocked his bloodline power a few decades ago when fighting a rock boar while out hunting.

Rock boars are known for their tough as stone skin and their powerful kicks and charges, so, to overcome this challenge, the chief who was barely hanging on, had developed a strength-based power.

It wasn't anything overly crazy, but it did boost his physical abilities like speed, strength, force exertion, stamina, and overall health.

Seeing his warriors were losing the fight, Alwin and Renwick joined the fight.

Due to their special body constitution that Tristan had granted to Lyrick over two centuries prior, the two descendants of Lyrick were not as strong as the chief, but together through teamwork, they were able to take him down alongside 20 of the Likonian warriors who helped them take down the daughter as well.

After the chief was captured, to set an example to the Ryen people who would become slaves to the Likonians and then hopefully assimilate, Alwin was going to publicly execute the chief before they headed back with his head on the tip of a wooden spear.

Although he wanted to do the honors himself since he lost his son to the raids over the past five years, Alwin allowed his grandson to do it.

With one clean strike, Renwick decapitated the nameless chief with his stone axe.

Instead of killing the chief's daughter known as Lillyan, Alwin decided to make her the wife of his grandson in hopes of passing down the power of her family to his future descendants.

Much to Alwin's luck, the bloodline power would be assimilated into the blood of Renwicks offspring, and it would become a natural feature of their family for generations to come.

Now that they were back, the rebuilding period started, to help bring the population back up due to the many deaths over the past five years and in battle, many of the Likonian men took at least one Ryen women as their concubine.

It was also an added bonus that the Ryen people have relatively similar features to themselves.

The Likonians and Ryen people shared the same traits of broad shoulders, powerful bodies, jet black hair and bright blue eyes, of course, the descendants of Lyrick were special with their white hair and more electric blue eyes.

Instead of treating them as freaks, the Likonian people saw that as the sign that the gods chose them to rule.

Two more decades passed and a new era of peace came in and the Likonians once again had prosperous times.

In the year 10,245 AC, Chieftan Alwin, son of Lyrick, passed on into the great afterlife, and the new chief of the tribe was Renwick, who inherited the position alongside his now loving wife.

Due to the warrior culture of the Ryen people, Lillyan had come to respect and later love Renwick since he had now bested her in combat only a decade ago.

The next eight thousand years would bring prosperity alongside many more skirmishes and disputes.

Many tribes rose and fell during this time but one of the constants were the Likonian people who inhabited the Lyrick Valley.