Once, when she went home uninvited, her father openly insulted her husband in front of all the subjects. Unable to bear it, the princess killed herself by jumping into fire.
From that point on, great massacres ensued on Earth. It was not for nothing that Rudra was called the avenger when he was brought to existence. He was born to destroy, and more than everything he did with himself in his human life, this is what he naturally knows how to. What he was most talented in. Losing the wife who had shown him what love is when he was for aeons blind to its existence, he unleashed the fearful wrath that even gods tremble at.
Even though Rudra, who was known as Shiva on Earth, wasn't as powerful as back in Brahmalok, he was still pretty powerful when compared to other humans. He also knew an insane number of ways to raise one's strength and potential. After all, the humans were his father's creations. He had access to knowledge of every process of their creation. Using this knowledge, he raised extremely terrifying armies to go against the emperor who was known as Daksha. Some say that all knowledge of martial arts come from this single time period in history.
Rudra was even one step ahead of his father in releasing the time restriction on the human's life through cultivation. What it meant was that, his reign of terror did not last just one decade or two. It lasted a whopping nine hundred years! Rudra had only goal. Destroy everything!
All humans. All society. All nature. Everything!
Existence. Destroy!
Destroy everything!
How can a puny human king and his empire satisfy that burning fire in his gut? Rudra wanted to destroy everything, to the extent that even Brahma felt his axis tremble.
The gods couldn't stay aloof anymore. They realised that when the human world gets destroyed, like dominoes falling one by one, it would be their turn next! But they were afraid to approach this aloof god when he was in a normal state, now that his wrath burns, who can stop him? It definitely cannot be themselves!
And so Brahma, the mad creator, made a round trip to Vaikunta. It was a place no different to a blackhole in the cosmos, but within lies a deity even more aloof and unpredictable than Rudra. Brahma didn't create him, though he was said to have created all that is in existence. Therefore, naturally he wouldn't speak of this being to others. He had always been here for ages and always treated him well. Brahma himself considered him his father if only for the reason that he was the only being that was here even before him.
If anyone can solve the current problem, he could. Only thing is…he was very lazy. He was always lying about doing nothing, always in a good mood, watchful yet untalkative. He had four instruments in hand. If things could be achieved using them, he would do it, if not he would forget about it. Brahma basically never saw him get up from recliner. Of the four instruments, one was a short distance weapon, one was a long distance weapon, one was a conch that could relay signals even in the vast void of the cosmos and the last was a lotus (which according to him was to woo the females. Though, which unfortunate female would be doomed to make a journey all the way to see him here was still unknown).
The god Vishnu upon listening to Brahma's problem did not fault Rudra. On the contrary he sternly reprimanded Brahma. "Your creation grows unchecked. Without morals, without values, of course that foolish king slighted Shiva. But who I pity the most is the daughter. She couldn't find support in her husband who disdained to argue with her father and was scorned by the father who could only judge by the cover, completely blind to what is truly divine. With such an ignorant creation of yours, even I would feel like giving it a thrashing if I'm around, let alone someone who was genuinely hurt by it…As they say, there is no pill for ignorance. One must suffer the consequences."
Brahma grew alarmed and begged Vishnu, promising on all kinds of real and imaginary things that he would make reparations with as soon as this crisis was settled. Even though it might take a while for the chaos to spread to his Brahmalok, the Devlok, which was a lesser heaven were minor gods and other immortal races live was already seeing powerful fluctuations in climate and environment, foretelling doom. Brahma knew the limits of endurance of his creation and he knew, Shiva's destruction was soon reaching the tipping point. He had a feeling Shiva also knew this. But he still wouldn't stop without giving the slightest face to his old man.
Lazy as he was, Vishnu too didn't care about it. "Find the source where his destructive power comes from. And then destroy that. Your crisis will be solved," Vishnu advised crisply and closed his eyes, signaling the great god to take his leave.
Brahma was a bit confused. "The source of his destructive power?"
"Rudra, though is a god, is currently still in human form. Humans are forgetful by nature. Their grief won't last long. Rudra must also know that…So where does his wrath come from now? It's been nine hundred years."
Then it struck Brahma. "He preserved his wife's corpse using some arcane means, actually making the burnt skin regrow…She looks exactly like she did when she was alive. He carries her wherever he goes!"
"And there you have it," Vishnu mumbled sleepily, as though he had done something extraordinarily strenuous just now. Actually, he did. Up until that meeting, Vishnu had only known of this absurd new creature called human in name. In the few moments between their speech, he accessed and perused the entire knowledge related to this being along with its history. In fact, he even sent a wisp of his consciousness to take a human birth in those mere moments. It was a birth in which he was also fated to lose his wife at a young age to disease. Absurdly enough, even if he too felt absolutely tragic because of the loss, he forgot about his loss after a year and married another woman. For an eternal bachelor like him, it was a bit embarrassing what he did back there. He thought he would at least cherish the relationship more. But apparently, one year was already too long in that backward society where the more important business was to procreate. Considering all this, Vishnu was even more convinced that these backward humans must be guided towards the better path. He began to consider making a trip, but first there must be changes.