The Devine Demon {Chapter 63}

As they crossed the courtyard Lilith could feel the presence of Lathander upon her. Just like she felt a few minutes ago. She was now somehow aware of his gaze after being exposed to it so fully. Looking up at the archway of the cathedral Lilith could see a large Holy Symbol mounted there as decoration. The gold plated idol had his presence and it surveyed the area overlooking everything that entered the main gate or crossed into one of the many towers. Lilith smiled and waved as she had often done when walking into Walmart or a bank when she saw herself on camera.

They continued into the Tower of Rest and up to the second floor where there was a walkway that went over to the Tower of Self Improvement. They walked past the Paladins on guard at the ground level entrance and again at the skyway on both sides. The first room they entered in the TOSI was large and well lit, having windows facing West and East. The room spanned the entirety of the tower and had only three features. A stairway going up, a stairway going down and a large Holy Symbol of Lathander in the middle. Lilith was starting to wonder if these symbols were less decorations and more of a security measure like the Steel Golems in the Blackstaff Tower.

“Father Trendel, what purpose does this symbol serve here?” Lilith asked as she once again felt the presence of Lathander.

“Come back here and watch.” he said walking to the edge of the room near the staircase that led up.

Lilith and the rest of the group followed and waited. Sure enough one of the priests that had been standing by himself walked up to the symbol and began praying to it out loud. Lilith could now see the focus of the symbol turn to him. Lathander had heard his prayer but it was not obvious what if anything he had done in reply. The priest however stayed there at the symbol and did not move. Lilith felt sorry for the priest and placed her right hand around her Holy Symbol and asked into it. ‘Is there anything I can do for him?’

Lilith looked back up but did not hear anything she couldn’t see the sun from where they were as it was high in the sky by now. But when she looked at the large symbol in the center of the room again its focus fell on her and she heard the words ‘Tell him to get started’. Lilith didn’t understand why Lathander didn’t speak to the priest directly, he was right there, but she did as he said. She slid up to the priest and placed a hand on his shoulder startling him as she did not make a sound when she moved on the stone floor.

“What…” a word came out as he pulled away from her touch and fell to the floor. “Oh is it Lilith? Did I take too long?” The priest asked from the floor as Lilith helped him up.

“Its ok. He wanted me to tell you to get started.” she said in a calm voice with a nod.

He looked stunned at first but hen spoke “So I still can’t hear him? I guess that's the way it is. Well he still has a job for me to do, I should better get to it.” he said giving Lilith a slight bow before he walked out via the skyway.

Lilith watched as Lathander’s gaze followed the young priest and then went back to her. She bowed to the Symbol much as the priest had, and then slid back to Father Trendel.

Lilith looked at him about to ask a question but instead he spoke. Somehow he knew exactly what transpired. “Not everyone can hear him or channel divine spells. We each have different talents and Lathander has uses for all of us.” He said calmly smiling at Lilith as her face turned form confusion to understanding.

“Especially me huh?” Lilith said with a chuckle.

“Yes especially you. Do you know why he chose you, out of all the people on Earth?” The Father asked.

“No but I imagine it has something to do with why I can hear him so clearly” She said sounding a bit unsure.

“Yes his philosophy and methods are very similar to what you have learned from the Teacher on your world. And you are one of the a few that truly understands the essence of his message. You are also capable of defending yourself and others without a second thought. And you posses a strong will and a determination to win.”

“Boy is she strong willed.” Wendel said with emphasis on the first word.

“You used that name again, the Teacher, are you referring to Jesus Christ?”

“Come this way to the next tower and I will answer that question. Celeste you come too.”

“Sorry Wendel.” she said as she hopped forward to keep up with Lilith and the Father’s long strides. “Hey wait up you are like greased lightning on these stone floors.”

Lilith looked over her shoulder and shot her a smile. “Come on now short stuff, you don’t want to miss out on the answer to the meaning of life the universe and everything.”

Celeste mouthed back the word ‘universe’ as if it was something she had never heard of before.

The three of them moved across a second skyway past two more sets of paladins and into the Tower of Secrets. This room also had a large Holy Symbol of Lathander in the center. But around it were book cases all arranged in a radial pattern like the spokes of a bike. The Symbol could see down every isle and would be able to observe any person taking any book. If that symbol could shoot out radiant energy like Lilith thought it could, this was truly one of the most secure rooms in the city.

Father Trendel stopped at the center of the room having pulled a book out of the rack as they passed, almost as if it was an old favorite of his. He turned to a page and held the book outstretched both pages exposed to them. “Do you recognize this?”

“No” Celeste answered.

“Yes” Lilith said nodding her head slightly “It is a galaxy with two arms. But I don’t know which one.”

“That is correct and it would be impossible to tell from this ink rendition anyways.” he said as he looked up at her.

“What is a Galaxy?” Celeste asked struggling with the word slightly.

“We have to start out smaller. I am afraid” The Father began but soon received an angry look from Celeste who thought he was making light of her. He then flipped to a different page that showed a clear spherical shape around a planetary system with three planets and he pointed to one of them. “This world of Faerun is a planet and it orbits the sun inside of a crystal sphere. This sphere has doorways or portals into the Astral plane and in the night sky you can see the light leaking in from the Astral plane through those holes and here, we call those stars. But that is just one way to make a planetary system. It is a simple way, very controlled very predictable. This is what you use when you want to experiment with different terrain or creatures or races or magics. A controlled environment like Faerun is a good place to practice small stuff.”

Lilith could be seen nodding as this was making sense to her but Celeste's face seemed to contort in horror. She was being told that her whole world was an experiment and was simple. She struggled to grasp the concept and looked over to Lilith for help.

Seeing Celeste’s expression Lilith tried to give her an example. “Have you ever seen a ship in a bottle?” she asked.

“What?.. I, yes, I have seen one. There is a shop that makes and trades in them. Very intricate models. Some are pretty in a way.” she said struggle to see the relation.

“Yes they are like the world of Faerun. It is like a ship in a bottle, all by itself separate from other planets. The upper and lower planes are only proximal to it in an other dimension.” Father Trendel said looking to Celeste to see if she was following before he continued. “While there are many crystal spheres like this one, I do not believe there are more than 50 in total and each one has a habitable planet revolving around a star.”

“No our planet revolves around a sun the stars are just holes in the crystal shell. You just mentioned this but a minute ago.” Celeste said sounding a bit desperate.

“Yes that is how it works in here, inside the bottle. But a sun when viewed from outside the bottle is called a star in a normal universe. Also in a normal universe there is no crystal shell, there is no bottle.” The cleric said as he stared at Celeste to make sure she understood the distinction. He then flipped to another page of the book that showed a simple solar system with one star and four planets with one of them having a moon. Notably this system had no crystal shell around it. But the background still had stars shown as points of light. “This is what a normal solar system would look like. Several planets and no crystal shell. One star in the center. These solar systems travel in large spiraling groups we call a Galaxy and they look like this.” He said now turning back to the first page. He then pointed to one of the many dots and said “That is a single star among millions that make up a Galaxy.”

Celeste looked at the dot on the page and suddenly realized the difference in scale. A galaxy was so large that a planet was not visible in comparison. She looked away from the page and placed both hands on her head and tried to do some rough approximations in her head. But no matter what she did the numbers became so big that she no longer had names for them. She then looked up a Lilith who was once again just smiling at her without a care in the world.

“Why aren’t you astonished by this Lilith? Did you already know?” she asked pointing at the pages of the book.

“Of course, I come from one of these normal galaxies. We call it the Milky Way and I come from a solar system we call Sol and from a planet called Earth….. Wait I actually said it that time Earth. Earth. Earth. I said Earth and not Dirt. Wait is this room different?” Lilith asked looking at the cleric with more than a little interest.

“All things may be said here.” he replied before continuing. “The universe that Lilith comes from is also one of many but each one is very different. Several of them were created by Lathander in one way or another including the Crystal Sphere housing Faerun. For the sake of our discussion lets call her universe the ‘Proverb’.” He stopped for a second to look at both Lilith and Celeste to make sure they were ready before he continued. “So Proverb is very old it is approximately 30 billion years old and it took a long time to mature. It was started and maintained by a group of three gods, The Creator, The Defender and the Teacher. The Creator is Lathander of course and you know the Teacher by his mortal name Jesus. The Defender has lost his name and currently lies trapped in the void of space between galactic filaments.

“What? Now that does need more explaining.” Lilith exclaimed as Father Trendel had just confirmed that Cthulhu was real.

“Yes it goes back to the name. The Proverb. Have you heard of the thought experiment about the power of gods to create a stone so large that even they could not lift it?” he asked.

“Yes our philosophers discus such things, but it is an unknowable problem so no one else really spends any time thinking about it.”

“The Gods do.” the cleric said with a raised eyebrow.

“Wait wait wait. Lathander tried to create a stone so large that even he could not lift it?” Lilith asked as she too now had her hands on her head messing up her own hair.

“Not exactly, if you look at it another way it goes like this. Could a god create a universe so complex and dynamic that even he does not know what the outcome would be? Many gods asked that question but Lathander and this group of three were the first to try and find out. Using the Plane of Creation as a base, Lathander tweaked the formula allowing for durable long lived intelligent life forms capable of believing in or doubting their own creators. They would have free will and a universe of options open to them even the use of magic. There would be free flowing water and warm suns. His creation just needed 29.99 billion years to bake before it was ready.” Father Trendel said with a smile.

“Talk about a watched pot that never boils.” Lilith said with a bit of sarcasm.

“Yes, quite. These gods live on a totally different scale from us. It was a big question for them and so to them, it was worth the wait. As I am sure you know Lathander doesn’t create and plant individual trees instead he makes trees that plant themselves. Similarly he doesn’t make individual planets at that scale, he instead made a universe that created itself in the image and form that he chose. It ended up with filaments, galaxies, solar systems, and planets. Some of the planets ended up with the right elements for life eventually. I don’t know the full details of why it took so long but it did.”

“I know the answer to that but I can tell you about it later.” Lilith said with a great deal of enthusiasm.

“Good then you are in the right place. Now after the planets were created so was the life. It sprung forth through random chance but the rules of the universe were set to favor this occurring. Life was inevitable in this way and its emergence was predictable to an extent. The life then changed and evolved according to his plan, so on billions of worlds intelligent life emerged all at the same time give or take a hundred years. But what will surprise you even more is how similar it all was. The life changed and evolve at random but there are only so many ways that a fish can move and a lizard can walk. A minimum of two eyes are needed for depth perception and having all the senses in one spot is great for easy access to the brain or as a means of keeping the body hidden. So each of the sentient species stood on two legs all at roughly the same time and in the same form. Now from here things became more and more unpredictable but the three had already conceived of a creatures to help manage the many worlds. To account for the variation in climate and conditions the Defender created angels to help protect the creatures from harm. They continued to develop and create speech and language and when they were ready, the Defender used his angels to contact them and tell them of their creator. To prevent confusion amongst them, he only told them of himself and started giving them rules to live by.”

“The ten commandments.” Lilith said in a calm voice.

“Yes and the many peoples on a billion planets learned them and tried to live by them. The people all roughly looking human were denied magic as the gods thought they were not ready for it. And they were probably right. Due to the limited resources and their primitive minds, atrocities began to happen. Barbarism, slavery, prostitution, sodomy, all of these were abhorrent to the Defender and he sent his angels to help these people turn away from their sins. The Defender’s avatars were living on these worlds his Holy Symbols witnessing their every day lives, the good the bad and the ugly and he was deeply affected by this and the mind of a god was changed by these chaotic creations.

This was the first thing that Lathander had not predicted. The effect of such complex beings on their own creators. Lathander was safe in the Plane of Creation as a type of backup he was isolated and distant from the horrors that the Defender was exposed to. Both the Defender and the Teacher struggled to keep the mortals in check so the Angels were given the ability to provide whatever the morals asked for so long as they were willing to give up something important to them. That way they would not pray for frivolous things. The angels though were the next to be affected. They were created without free will and were incapable of disobeying the Defender. But as they interacted more and more with the humans they recognized that their charges had free will and they desired the same for themselves. So one day, an angel asked one of the mortals to wish for them to have it as well. At first it was one angel and then it was two. Then within a day all of them had been freed from the Defender’s will and were creating and doing as they pleased. Some still used their magics to benefit the mortals while others used it for their own purposes. One angel granted himself more power and became a lesser deity leaving the universe of Proverb and joining Lathander in the Plane of Creation.”

“I bet that got his attention.” Celeste said with a raised eyebrow.

“There is no written record of any of this of course. I am telling you what Lathander has told me. What happened next was rather extreme, but their grand project was at stake and they wanted a definitive result to their experiment.” He said looking to the Holy Symbol in the center of the room before he continued.

Lilith looked too and could see its focus was on Father Trendel and the book he was holding.

“Needless to say Lathander was astonished at this development and his new neighbor, so he began to make a new plan. First he would need a storage yard, a place to catch and store all the unneeded parts from his greatest creation. So he created the lower planes and placed the angels there and left them to their own devices. Now separated from the mortals and the gods, they had no one to make wishes and thus their powers were greatly curtailed. Back in Proverb things only got worse. The sins and the barbarism grew more prevalent and even the avatars of the Defender and the Teacher began to fall victim to wanton acts of sex and violence. And then the third thing happened that Lathander had not predicted. The mind of a god broke. The Defender of creation snapped and decided to destroy it all. He made it rain on every part of every planet and did not stop. Every land began to flood, billions upon Billions of people died. Some planets were wiped clean while others were saved in time by Lathander’s desperate actions.”

Father Trendel then turned to another page where there was a picture of a single planet with land and oceans and Ice caps at both the top and bottom. “He created the world of Faerun inside its own Crystal shell. It was quickly created based on a world from Proverb but it was needed as he immediately populated it with several different species from the many worlds there as a way of preserving it. Over 100 races in total were saved including their associated flora and fauna, but Lathander was not done. He and the Teacher pleaded with the Defender and begged him to stop but he had gone well and truly mad at this point. He was outraged at the repeated betrayals of his creations. First by the angels and then again by the mortals. The last straw was the attack on his avatars. The wanton lust and violence and the feeling of betrayal made him mad beyond all reason and Lathander enacted his plan of last resort. He altered the very nature of the Universe of Proverb. He canceled all magic both arcane and Divine. Without his powers the Defender was stuck in the void. His avatars dispelled and the rain stopped. The teacher was on a planet at the time aboard a boat along with many others he had tried to save. His other avatars also were dispelled but he was lucky as he was not alone. Lathander then took steps to quarantine the mad god by taking his name and erasing it from all records. He then contacted all that knew of him and erased him from their memories as well. One by one his fellow gods came to the Plane of Creation and mourned the loss of their companion, and friend, before they too forgot of him.” Father Trendel said with his lips pressed together in a pensive look.

“So what happened to the Teacher how did he come to my planet so that we could know him as Jesus.” Lilith asked her enthusiasm in stark contrast to that of his.

He let out a sigh and looked at her for a moment before a smile came across his face matching hers. “The teacher taught the people of his world. It took years and it started with a small following but he pushed forward, expanding it one generation at a time. His body was still divine, it was indestructible and did not age, but with no magic he could only influence the world with his two hands and his voice. But advance they did. Faster than any of the other billions of planets. Together they created technology that allowed for digital storage of information. They then developed mechanical flight and then flight amongst their own planets. From there he began creating technology in secret and advanced far beyond what any mortal mind could conceive of. Soon he had technology that was indistinguishable from magic and he left that world to travel the stars. At each new stop he made a copy of himself to go down and teach. The outcome was different on every planet. He is a good teacher but even he cannot reach the hearts of every race. Sometimes he succeeds and sometimes he fails. Sometimes he lives and sometimes he dies. But he always leaves after he has delivered his message.” Father Trendel paused for a second and Looked at Lilith. “I think your world has some records of this. Why don’t you share with us and with Lathander what you know.”

“This was about 2000 years ago for us but we have several witnesses and the stories are very similar. It starts when Jesus came to us born as a child and he lived a perfect life as an example for all of us. He began teaching all that would listen how to get along with our neighbors and how to prosper without the burden of onerous rules and laws. This was not very popular among the existing priests and kings so he was killed. He died for our sins as the ultimate sacrifice so that no more sacrifices would ever be needed. He gave us a simple set of rules to live by. He taught us to treat others the way we would want to be treated. To treat each person as we would our brother, and to expect the same from them in return.”

“That's a good rule.” Celeste said.

“We call it the golden rule.” Lilith said with a nod and a smile.

“And so do we. It is part of what Lathander teaches too. As you have probably guessed he is still in contact with the Teacher and they speak often about the slow development of that universe and what they can do to improve and maintain conditions there. Jesus still continues his mission teaching as many of the people, on as many of the worlds, as he can.”

“But if he is just visiting them one at a time, that will take forever.” Lilith said seeming to think that more could be done.

“Again you are thinking like a mortal. They aren’t trying to save everyone in an instant only trying to ensure that the end result is a world of peace and beauty like they intended it to be. They are also watching to see what new surprises the universe of Proverb has in store for them. It is the proverbial stone that is too large to lift. A riddle so complex that they still don’t know what the final outcome will be.” Father Trendel concluded as he closed the book with a thump.

Lilith thought for a minute, About her world and about the fate of Jesus, killed by the mortals he was trying to teach. “Our religion on Earth talks about our original sin, I think I understand that a little better now. I mean we did things so terrible it drove a god to insanity and we continue to do them.” Lilith said with a sullen expression.

“That tragedy does not lie entirely on us mortals. The betrayal of the angels factored into that as well.” he explained

“Father what of the hundreds of races that were sent here? Are we descended from them?” Celeste asked expectantly.

“Of course we are. Many races were already so similar that there was no difference between them at all. Others only differed slightly in color. In the end the races of Faerun are the result, Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, Tritons, Tabaxi, Lizard Folk and many more.”

“And what of the angels what happened to them?” Celeste asked again now wanting to learn more about Faerun as she suspected the truth was very different from what she had been taught in the wizard’s academy.

“Some of it I am sure you can guess, the rest we will have to cover another time. I have business I need to attend to but I am sure the Brothers can continue your tour for now.” He said as he pat Celeste on the shoulder.

“Thank you Father Trendel for explaining this, I assume that we should not speak of this to anyone?” Lilith asked as the Father and her friend started moving toward the skyway they entered from.

“Well we do call it the Tower of Secrets for a reason.” He said over his shoulder as he opened the door leading out of the tower.

“Yes how silly of me.” Lilith said as she too exited the tower going across the skyway and back into the Meditation room of the Tower of Self Improvement where they were greeted by the rest of their party.

 

 

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OP Message: This is a work of fiction. It is not meant to alter or endorse any religion in particular although it does use Christianity as a stepping off point. After all you have to start a conversation somewhere.

 

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Map of Waterdeep Waterdeep is the most important port city on the sword coast also called the City of Splendors.

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Map of Faerun
Daggerford is on the Sword Coast, South East of Waterdeep and south of the Sword Mountains

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