18 years ago

"Is it ready?" an elderly voice asked another man who was in his mid-thirties. He wore a simple cossak and stood in front of ten large spheres of various sizes, some the size of a head, others the size of a large Bristleback Rhihorn.

The spheres circled each other glowing a brilliant white luminous light that filled the large chamber. Below were eight circles where the Goddess Caphaine had told them her chosen champions would appear. After several decades of preparation and spreading the message of the goddess to the human kingdoms and empires of the wildlands the time was nearly here for them to welcome humanities champions...no the goddesses champions.

"Well Thadren? Is it working?" the elderly man asked again impatiently.

The middle-aged man stepped back from the construct "Your holiness with respect...you should be more patient considering you've waited so many years for this moment. Do not rush the will of the Goddess."

The Elderly man rolled his eyes "it is because I am an old man and have waited over four decades for this moment since I was a youth that I am impatient Thadren!"

Thadren nodded "understandable, but please ask your questions after I finish. If one thing goes wrong we will lose the opportunity for another four decades. Once the comet passes overhead the champions will arrive. Patience is all you need."

Eldric the fifth watched as the final preparations for the Goddesses heroes were made. He did not know personally what to expect from them, but he knew that soon eight priestesses would soon be blessed with the souls of eight heroes and nine months later give birth who would then lead humanity to a brighter future riding the wildlands of the taint of monsters forever...though little did many know that even the filthy half breeds would also soon be made to serve a rising human people.

Not long after the spheres stopped spinning a column of light formed in the center of the large domed room coming from an image of the Goddess who looked as if she was about to embrace her children who would be honoring her below.

Below eight priestesses of the Goddess came in of them three were elves and one was dwarf. This was due because humans believed elves and dwarfs were human as well merely different original creations of the Goddess. The elven kingdoms were much more isolationist and while they honored the Goddess the spread of their religion had not gone nearly as quickly as Eldric had wanted. As for the dwarf-kind, they were even more difficult since for missionaries to reach their mountain holds was uncommon; their best success was converting dwarf who were in human nations and sending them to the holds. This was a much more tedious process than with the elves. However Eldric believed that in the long run it would be useful for there to be at least one dwarf representative among the Goddesses chosen.

The priestesses each went onto their respective circle below the rotating spheres. Each was a breath-taking beauty due to the purifying light of the Goddess they had a subtle glow to them. They all laid down on their backs closing their eyes and began to chant the prayer. Eldric watched with anticipation as a soft glow of light illuminated each of them and slowly seemed to drift into the rotating spheres above which absorbed the light and began to glow as well. Over time the glow grew in intensity and strength causing Eldric not to be able to look directly into it himself.

"Has it begun Thadren?" Eldric asked

"Yes. The Goddess has blessed our endeavor and soon the spirits of the heroes will be transferred into all the priestesses' wombs." Thadren nodded a satisfied look on his face.

Eldric touched his forehead and then his lips giving a short prayer to the Goddess Caphaine.

"Soon the Wildlands will all belong to humanity again." Eldric smiled.

Thadren looked at Eldric and nodded "let's wait until the heroes grow up shall we?"

Eldric nodded he knew that he still had to wait and teach the heroes correctly in order to gain the desired results. "Don't worry Thadren, everything is going as planned."

"What about the other deities? Would they interfere with Goddess Caphaine's plans?"

Eldric looked at his colleague with a look that could only be described as disgust. "The gods of the other races are often by themselves and our Lady of light Caphaine has numerous other deities in her pantheon. This is not something these disorganized and treacherous ones can compare with.

"There is one who could...unite them against the Goddess isn't there? And one who is simply extremely powerful." Thadren said his voice in a near whisper.

With a sigh Eldric looked at Thadren "We don't speak of that whore or that demon it is near blasphemous to even utter their names in the same sentence."

Thadren nodded, ultimately he agreed with Eldric, but his faith was not quite as mature as Eldric's. The creation mythos was still unclear even to Eldric and the reason for the seething hatred of the other races was still something he wasn't entirely clear on, but the Goddess had long ago revealed her will to humanity and nothing was going to change that now especially with the eight heroes soon to be born.