[CCWC Submission] Heed The Warnings
I'm not entirely satisfied with it, and I threw in a mythological reference that's probably way too obvious now, but I am currently in a funk and have the perfectionism bug, so I got to let things go. I don't expect to win the contest, but that's fine. I'm just glad I wrote something.
Word Count: ~464
All warnings have a cause, a precedent. Tragedy becomes example becomes tradition, until the suffering fades from living memory and the warnings become mere words and lose their power. While I cannot attest to the veracity of our most ancient tales, there is a reason why only the worthy are chosen to ascend. The power of the Sun Disc has brought centuries of prosperity to Shurima, but it can also fling open the doors to darkness.
In the earliest days of Shurima, there were no sun priests, no criteria for ascension but the bonds of trust and brotherhood. When the ancients first discovered the power of the Sun Disc, they did not realize the potential of their gift. They were simple people with simple ambitions. They reveled in their newfound strength, and only discovered their longevity in the decades to come. But power and time do queer things to men. When one lives long enough, detached from the plights of mortals, one’s thinking begins to change. Some of them had sturdier hearts and proven morals, and continued as they had before, more than human. But others slowly lost their humanity and began to think themselves as apart; and with their gifts, it was inevitable that one came to see himself as greater. There is no record of his name, but he was described as a serpent, much as I am a jackal. He was once a trusted friend among the ascended, yet became the greatest menace our young land knew. Withdrawn from humanity and convinced of his own superiority, he became a tyrant unlike any other, for no man could kill him and he did not age. When his fellow ascended tried to stop him, he struck them down in anger and took the Sun Disc for himself, plunging the land into darkness. Several ascended had escaped the slaughter and banded together to stop him, but he perverted the Sun Disc in his hubris and became a thing of fire and fury. It took the combined might of hawk, sha, and cat to finally cast him down. To prevent such a thing from ever happening again, the sun priests were formed. Only after a lifetime of service to Shurima, long enough to see the quality of one’s heart, would they deem one worthy of ascension.
It may be allegory, but I know that the ascended are not meant to rule. We are meant to guide our brothers, not lead them. If you truly wish to ascend, you must relinquish your claim to the throne. I serve Shurima and thus serve the emperor, but as an ascended, who has seen the passing of generations, it is my duty to advise you against this… folly. If you continue your course, you could doom all of Shurima.
