1. Atlas

1

Atlas

the Path Here

Time continues to circle.

Same as the Titans failed their children, the Olympians, so did the Olympians fail their children, the mortals.

Mortals have cast aside the Gods that breathed them to life, and creatures, distant descendants of the Divine, those imbued with the immortal blood, ichor, live in hiding.

Restless.

Seething.

Fighting amongst themselves for scraps of power.

Chaining the weak.

Killing the outcasts.

My family included.

We were broken, disappearing, creatures going extinct, power draining, until Hope came.

King Kadmos, Vein of Elpis, the Unifyer, Dawn’s Blade, the Crusader, the Last of his Blood, Final in the Line of Hope, forged unity through strength. The Great King banished ancient blood rites, eviscerated old prejudices, and pushed for mortals and creatures to co-exist in peace.

Those in power never want change.

Adversaries, Gods, immortals, and beasts alike fought the King.

To defend Kadmos’s virtuous charge, he recruited the most skilled warriors to be his sword, and a motley crew of mortals and creatures became the heroic Kingsguard. So effective was the Kingsguard that when Kadmos married, he formed the Queensguard for his wife, Queen Vinia, Protectress of Creatures, She of the Mortal Realm, the Hope of Hope.

The members of both guards were gifted extreme power to force change and launch hope. It was working.

Until thirty-eight years ago, the Kingsguard failed.

Kadmos’s assassination ended the war and the charge for change. The Kingsguard, for their failure, was cursed. Branded with marks on their necks, they fell from grace, hated by both sides of the war, and became the Blackguard.

Mercenaries bound by tragedy, cursed by Hope.

We live in the fringe, in your backyard, searching, scrambling for our cure: the death of Kadmos’s killer. Every year that passes without our revenge, the curse worsens, it's marks have spread to our wrists, our ankles. Soon it will kill us.

Hunted like wolves by the Queensguard, hated by creatures, we are forgotten by the Gods.

Our only lead to avenge Kadmos is that of a Phoenix, creatures used as pawns for their ability to be detonated like bombs without leaving a trace. Capturing a Phoenix will take us further toward our cure, help us determine which of the king’s enemies infiltrated their ranks and deployed them against our king.

For Hope, we now leave the path of vengeance to Sinis.