Chapter 36: Stirring Beneath the Surface
Perspective: The Seven Churches
The world was shifting.
Not with earthquakes or storms, but with silence, forgetfulness, and things slipping from records that should never have changed. Something had gone wrong—and none of the Seven Great Churches could name what it was.
1. Church of the Lord of Storms
Pathway: Tyrant
It began with waves.
Trade ships from the southern sea vanished mid-journey.
Seasoned sailors returned with altered memories—confused, speaking of ports that didn't exist.
The winds had changed course as if avoiding something.
When the Church sent an inquiry vessel, it returned empty—no crew, no damage, just a floating shell with stormwater still fresh on the deck.
High Priest Utor roared during the synod:
"This is no curse. This is something hiding from our god's gaze!"
But the Tyrant said nothing. And that silence was more troubling than thunder.
2. Church of the Evernight Goddess
Pathway: Darkness
Dreams faltered.
Reflections whispered things they shouldn't.
High-ranked Seers reported a quiet erasure, not death—the undoing of memory.
The Goddess's followers were familiar with shadows. But this wasn't normal concealment—it was deeper, older.
A nun knelt in her temple and whispered:
"It's as if something was never meant to be... and yet forced itself into the world."
The Goddess remained composed. But even She was watching more closely now.
3. Church of Steam and Machinery
Pathway: Paragon
Their machines hiccupped.
Divining orbs spun indefinitely without results. Calculations to map ley lines near the southern waters returned as corrupted data.
One engineer exclaimed:
"We're looking at fabricated reality. Something tampered with data—at the level of belief."
Others called it impossible. But the Paragon Pathway wasn't built to ignore impossibilities—it was built to dissect them.
If anything could find the truth, it would be the Church of Steam and Machinery… given enough time.
4. Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun
Pathway: Sun
Sunlight dimmed near that stretch of sea.
The Radiant Knights sent to investigate experienced nausea, dizziness, and intrusive memories they swore didn't belong to them.
The Light of the Sun could burn illusion.
But this was no illusion—it was a lie given form.
And lies, no matter how false, could be worshipped.
"The light recoils," muttered a Cardinal. "As though it sees something… it dares not judge."
5. Church of Combat
Pathway: Twilight Giant
The warriors of this Church trusted instinct before logic. And instinct screamed.
"Danger," whispered one old bishop after coming within ten miles of the disturbance.
"Not an enemy we can fight. Not a blade we can block. A truth we cannot name."
Their combat Priests gathered in silence. All had the same unease: the feeling of forgetting a fight they'd never entered.
Their divine path thrived on resistance, but what do you strike when the enemy is an idea?
6. Church of Knowledge and Wisdom
Pathway: White Tower
The Scholars were the first to identify the anomaly—though even they couldn't fully grasp it.
Scriptures changed subtly.
Historical archives lost entire chapters.
Holy records contradicted themselves.
A theologian shouted during a secret conclave:
"Something is rewriting belief—and not through power, but through conviction!"
Even prophecy bent strangely near the anomaly, always circling but never touching its core.
They suspected a rogue will—something that operated within spiritual blind spots. But the more they investigated, the less they remembered.
7. Church of the Earth Mother
Pathway: Moon/Mother
Nature trembled.
Plants on nearby coastlines began to grow in strange patterns.
Beasts acted confused, forgetting migration paths.
And the moonlight over the sea reflected nothing at all—just blank water.
The Church of the Earth Mother, attuned to cycles and instinct, felt it before they understood it.
"Something unnatural has been born," their Moon-Watcher whispered.
"Not a god. Not a monster. A presence made of absence."
The Unspoken Accord
The Seven Churches met in hidden dreams and mirrored halls.
None could name the being.
None had found the source.
But all agreed:
"Something is rising… that was never meant to exist."
It was not just a threat.
It was a narrative infection—rewriting belief itself.
And none of them—not even the gods—could yet speak the name of the one behind it.
End of Chapter 36: Stirring Beneath the Surface