Prying to the Gods.

As the greatest empire in history, Lefheim rule over Verdant spanned more than 13 millenia. But like everything in this world, from the ants in the ground, to the stars in firmament, no matter how big or small will eventualy meet its end.

In the last days of the elven empire, many among the magic comunity belived that, although their race and bloodline played an important role in their status. What really set them apart from commoners was their knowledge, but even so, it was precisely that knowledge they possesed which make them so powerful in comparison, enough to change the weather and level mountains.

This might, no different from the power of god in the eyes of the common man, was what granted mages their real status. But they themselves knew, that they were no gods, for real gods were vastly more powerful and undying, far beyond the mortal plane, and rarely ever interfering. In fact since before the stablishment of the empire the 7 Gods seemed to have disappeared, never to be heard of them.

But, if the lofty Gods were no different in the eyes of mages then that of mages themselves from a commoners perspective, what was that piece of knowledge which gods knew, that they didn't?. This was a topic that caused heated debates amongst mages in the magic circle all around the empire.

in the minds of mortals, the idea that gods were perfect omnipotent beings, was something deeply rootes in their hearts, rarely ever doubted. In some regions of the empire, the mere act of questioning the actions of a god was seen as blalant blasphemy, and whomever were found making such coments, often found themselves obstructed and shunned by everybody else, being labeled as an heretic.

Even among mages themselves, although they felt a profound respect for the gods and the divine, they wouldn't discriminate against a fellow mage for voicing his/her opinion. This kind of mentality was what eventualy led some mages to question the very nature of the divine.

As per the old legends told:

"From all the great being who once ruled in the long years of the primordial era, only 7 attained godhood, they are known as the Gods of origin".

This was a legend as old as history itself, but one that no matter the race or region, always accompanied the myths of creation in which the 7 were mentioned.

The idea that the gods, before ever attaining their power, were in fact, no different then them, mortal mages, was a topic that opened their mind to the infinite possibilities. When all was said and done, the great allure of catching a glismpe at the mysteries of the divine, and finaly unveiling the secrets of immortality and the powers of the gods, was something that no mage would decline when presented the opportunity.

The great 7 Gods of origin, progenitors of the divine races, were always belived to be unattainable existences, beings beyond logic and common sense, but now, mages from all the empire discussed and analized every little piece of aviable information were their names appeared. All in the hope that they could somehow, make sense of their existence, and maybe, find a clue that could lead them to overcome their mortal limits and stand on the same realm as the Gods themselves.

Mages were beings of reason, they used logic and facts to make sense of the world around them. To them there wasn't anything more sacred than the pursuit of the truths of the universe. And now, the high omnipotent beings they

Once used to revere, were being treated with the same respect a naturalist used to study an unknown new species of plant. For the divine was no longer sacred, becoming simply a new field of research.

For decades the debate on whether achieving divinity was possible, sparked a new wave of magical research, were even the most prestigious members of the magic comunity, the council and the 12 families participated. The most popular topics among the researchers were that of the nature of divine power and its relation with normal magic and the undying nature of the gods, the later focussing more in the longevity aspect and how to attain immortality.

In the eyes of elves, magic is something that comes naturally, each of them growing progressively more attuned with the elements and gaining greater control over their mana with age. Usually elves possess a lifespan of 1000/1500 years, with such a long life expectancy, most people would like to belive that the focus of most elven schoolars in thier research would be towards how to understand the nature of the divine, therefore achieving greater power, but the hearts of mortals are always unpredictable.

From the perspective of an outsider, with the long lifespan that elves were blessed with in comparison to the other races, like orcs or humans who have a life expectancy of around 60-90 years, the thought that immortality and eternal life possessed little to no appeal seemed fairly reasonable. Of course elves themselves didn't think so.

Elves lived long lives, rarely ever dying of unnatural causes, during which they get to experience a lot, and as the years go by, the grow intoxicated with life and at the same time they grow more and more terrified of the day they'll return to the earth.

The fear of death is part of the survival insticts of all living beings. Elves were no different, and in the face of death, many succumb to desperation, and elves for sure were getting desperate, because it wasn't even a century into the race for achieving immortal life, that countless cases of ilegal experimentation in living beings were brought to light by the "keepers", event that put the council in alert as they seemed to be seeing a pattern.

The scandal in the magic comunity only continued to rise as the silver coats, in an attempt to get a hold of the situation, ended up movilising all of their resources in a great investigation that eventually ended in the arrest of a team of mages of noble origin, leaded by a powerful magus grandmaster. In their laboratory they found hundreds of elves and individuals from other races being used as guinea pigs in their experiments, from the documents archieved in the lab, said experiments were preformed as way to understand the life force of living beings to help them find a way to achieve immortal life.

The council was furious, indifferent of their background, all the mages implicated in the case were sentenced to death in the first ever public trial in the empire since more than 3 millenia ago. In the year of 12357 E.C. all the team of mages were executed in the imperial capital, their whole research and their experiments were sealed by the keepers and labeled as frobidden magic.

Notes:

-E.C. (Elven Calendar).