Sacred

"Wooden Gods"

Long ago a seed was planted. The land was barren and the water sterile, but the seed managed to root none-the-less. Its roots dug deep, spreading beneath the ocean and slowly twisting all across the world. And where the roots spread the world changed. The sterile oceans teamed with life and as the Great Tree pushed up through the surface, the land was soon alive as well.

All over its surface, the world was no longer barren. As the Great Tree's roots dug deeper and spread further, new life sprang into existence on the surface. Strange new creatures crawled, slithered, and flew over the land. Many made their home upon the Great Tree itself. Sheltered in its branches and fed by its fruits.

Finally, after the creatures had changed and mixed and spread countless times over the world, one creature fell from the Great Tree and stumbled awkwardly across the land. No longer content in the Great Tree's protection, the creature cut branches from the tree and made its own shelter, lighting fires with the leftover branches to keep away the night.

Soon the new creature fashioned idols from the branches of the Great Tree, symbols of their own desires. Tiny gods of food, fire, wind, and water. They worshiped their tiny gods, and with their tools made from the Great Tree's branches, they spread.

And as quickly as the creatures had once spread over the world, this new creature, alone, spread even faster. They flushed the other creatures from the world. And with each successful hunt. each storm survived, each battle won, the tiny gods grew larger. And with them, so too did the ambition of the creatures grow.

New idols replaced the old. No longer content with food and warmth, the creatures were soon worshiping gods of abundance, gods of the hunt, gods of battle. And with each new god came a grander idol to usurp the old, carved from the flesh of the Great Tree.

With their grand gods in tow, the creatures spread further. To every corner of the earth they made their gods' glory known. The land, once covered in creatures of all types--waddling, soaring, dancing over the surface--now was home to only one.

They stripped more and more of the Great Tree's branches, but soon the branches weren't enough. They dug deep, cutting the roots from the earth. As the Great Tree withered, the creature praised their gods, Wealth and War.

And slowly, the world came apart around them. The old creatures disappeared, the land once more became barren, the oceans fell still. The creatures cried to their gods. They prayed for answers, laying their hands on the dead wood. They carved divine symbols from fallen branches and clutched them to their breasts as they cried to the heavens for salvation.

But their was no answer. The heavens were quiet. The wooden idols gave no response. The Great Tree faded and died, and the creatures died with it, clutching the holy symbols of their wooden gods.