The Restart of an Era

In the middle of the deepest parts of the Badlands seas and you find the one mile long stretch of fresh water ocean...You really are interested in finding me aren't you? Or was I right and is another adventurer after something I possess? The only thing I can tell you is the secret to a mortal becoming immortal and if that is what you want then...Turn back now and never return to these thoughts...I have warned you. Now since I wasted your time last time with my story then this time I will give you something more important...As someone who cannot be seen by gods who were not born when my curse was implemented I was surprised to find four that could...Three sons of Greek Gods. Namely sons of Poseidon, Hephaestus and Ares and one daughter of Apollo...Oh you might only know there false names...Three sons, one of Neptune, one of Vulcan and one of Mars and a daughter of Cupid...I will stick to their originals thank you...They caused a war between the gods that resurrected an ancient evil that made most leave. I did not survive and neither did most on the mortal plane. Allow me to tell you two things before I speak this story...One being that this fresh water lake you are standing on is a creation of that son of Poseidon...Price...Son of Poseidon and god of fresh water...Oh yes false names...Limni if you must but I will give him his respect...Here is the story...Of how the third era ended.

One day in the city of Pyklaar near the west coast of the Badlands I found the four deities that would change this whole world. A young batch of people. All with beauty beyond the highest reaches of normal mortals. I found a staff left on a corner only ten paces from them as they walked away. As I touched the Elven wood I instantly felt its connection with the one laughing the loudest. I threw it to him and turned to leave, knowing this must be a god but was shocked by hearing words that still ring in my head,

''Whoa there friend! Thank you ever so much! Come join us for a drink you must!''

My first guess was they were just extremely beautiful but that was squashed before the doors of the establishment had been reached. They told me their lineage and their weapons crafted for them from the gods that bore them. The son of Poseidon carried a glowing elder elven wood staff with a ever shifting ball of cobalt blue being interlaced with a shade resembling a clear lake in the highest mountain. The daughter of Apollo had a bow of shining gold, Too brilliant to be touched by the hands of a mortal but even I refused its glorious look. The son of Hephaestus wielded a forging hammer fitting of his divine lineage as the spawn of the god of the forge. The son of Ares seemed the leader to me in the short time we talked. When his lineage was questioned he only half unsheathed a brilliant blade of shining silver. The forge makings jumped from either side of the fat blade but shining with a bronze glow. The grip was wrapped Elven wood with a crimson red leather that looked like it had never seen combat or blood. The pommel was jutting from the grip, A double sided mini axe that seemed sharp to the touch. I will never forget the words he spoke with venom when I asked why it never had seen the light of war,

''That would give my father glory...That generation has had its glory to the point of over indulgence. We will now get our fill.''

These words were true but it was sad to see what became of that ideal...Some advice for a reader dealing with a god that is readying a march on the current crop...Make sure their ideals are true. All members of the leaders at least. That was my mistake.

Many years we ended up drinking. That one night became one decade before I could even blink. All was not just drink and glee in this life but also strife and anguish. The son of Ares had set his plans in motion using the son of Hephaestus and daughter of Apollo to bend reality to his whim. That one though. The son of Poseidon...Limni as he went by to avoid his father. His goals while beautiful and clear on the surface seemed to murk to an unholy torrent of debris picked up by the now moving lake's water...Well his goals and story could wait for another day I suppose.

The four all decided on two things one night near the lake that rivalled any goddess of both beauty and nature's eye for design. High grey stone walls that shined with a bright blue never ending waterfall falling down from the clouds the walls jutted into. The water of the lake was a blue I'd never seen before. Glistening what seems an infinite spectrum of the shade, all of which my eyes will never see again containing creatures from before even my birth as their brothers all perished in the open lakes and seas many moons ago. The vegetation that surrounded all sides of the still surface were the only things that moved. Slowly brushing the blue making ripples move and touch the surface with a soft sound of the wash on the grass and rocks. The smells changed with every passing warm breeze. Flowers from God's garden with a pollen that touched every corner of my nose...I will always remember the beauty that I saw that day...Maybe the gods are not all evil just a majority...Or maybe it was made to enjoy their own creation away from the mortals eyes...Well with my predicament I'd sadly assume the latter.

The gods had fallen once in this lifetime and only weeks before this was the last time I saw them all. They were chosen after some gods perished upon the great evil's return and the four were chosen from their positions. I was confused at first but then everything was clear to me. Sons and daughters would mean not a god...But a demi-god. The smile I let out this day was something I'll never forget. Along with the tear Limni shed and made into a cobalt crystal. I embraced them all one last time as they left to change the outcome of this world ending war. That week after I became nothing to them once more I was at the shores of my ultimate mission once more only this time only getting as close until the blast came. The sky became red as giants of the world started their fight. My ship and I were washed to the lowest points of the Draconic sea. When I next was born I remember hitting the age of six. My memories started to flood back quickly. Still to this day they had never come to me so young except my time with the Monk King. The Third Era? I had been alive to witness the end of something truly disgusting and the sad thing was that...There would be two more eras to come...And my hands would be involved with both again.

Well there is a story of this sea's origin. I came here to find that Cobalt crystal as I lost it in the wreckage but if I have written this then I have found it. I left the stories of these four in more detail in lands that suit their lineage I suppose you would say...Search the deep fresh sea to find the story of Limni...The demi-god turned God that wished to flood the world with the fresh ocean and rule it from his still lake palace.

-Signed Perry Lakefield