The gods were doomed to die from the very start. Their very existence is a blight on this world. For the dragons, the keepers of this world, to wipe them out was a foregone conclusion. It was only a matter of time.

  While prayers are distinctly against the Alliance’s laws, you may thank the gods for one thing. You may thank them for being both arrogant and stupid enough to provoke the dragons on their own. Who knows how many more years it would have taken for the dragons to notice them if they didn’t?

  Some have argued that it was a strategic move, that the gods saw their inevitable doom and kidnapped a hatchling to find a chance to live. They are wrong, and too young to have known the gods. They were not beings that functioned on logic or reason. They were driven only by their ego. Every action they took was with the certainty that they were the greatest beings in existence.

  You may question if I exaggerate, if my own loathing of them has coloured my opinion. While I cannot deny my hatred of the gods, perhaps explaining their existence would help you understand.

  Gods, much like Travellers, could command the mana around them. Even before my birth, there were Gods that could rival the Starfarers of today, gods with entire starclusters worshipping them.

  I won’t bore you with the acts that earned my ire. There are plenty of books written about the depraved and sickening acts of the gods. I will only tell you that even the worst things you’ve read pale in comparison to what happened on the planets ruled by these megalomaniacs.

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  Instead, I will tell you why the gods needed these worshipers. You see, while Starfarers train their mind and body, building their existence to handle the unfathomable powers they wield. Gods used a shortcut. Why become strong through your own efforts when you can convince others that you are strong?

  When you have planets of people believing you are immortal, invincible and all knowing, the mana itself acts as if you are. That is the core of a god’s power. While Starfarers use the quality of their existence to bend reality to their will, gods use quantity.

  While this may sound like a blessing, it is not. The untrained mind was never meant to handle such power. When you turn a farm hand into a god, the power corrupts them in ways that are hard to put into words.

  When you have planets of worshipers prostrating at the feet of a mortal man, it is no wonder that he believes himself greater than the masses he rules.

  When every person you’ve ever met has thought you invincible, would you doubt it?

  It is the nature of a god to be arrogant, and it is that arrogance that brought them to ruin. When the dragons learned that someone dared to capture a hatchling, a single ancient dragon wiped the gods from existence. Elf, dwarf, human or beast, every deity died.

  The wars we fight today aren’t against those forgotten gods, we fight the fools and upstarts who choose to copy the ways of old instead of blazing a new path. They are cowards who cling to a broken path. Kept alive only because the Alliance is too merciful to wipe out their believers and smash their domains.

  I am not so merciful, and I will not suffer this blight to live.

  Letter Fragment from Starfarer God’s Bane to Unknown, 38 years before the Numerin Theocracy tragedy.

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