Reborn Gods thesis stories

Abstract

After a pitched battle with demons, spirits which embody and feed off of the wrongdoing of humanity, the Gods of Ouraneia are dead. However, this is normal. Every few hundred years, the Gods of Ouraneia are killed in battle against demons; after three generations, they are reborn as humans with a thirst for justice and a dislike for corruption. Each time, they come into their own and set about dismantling the corruption of the world: replacing the corrupt rulers with noble ones, tearing apart the webs of corruption created by the greedy, and taking down those who twist the words of those who spoke truth to power to sate those in power. Each time, those they oppose are surprised by their opposition.

Vitas Carpascinus and Morticia Ghostlight meet together at an all-boys school for life magic and must uncover why books from the school's founder, a Sage who interacted directly with the God of Life, Animari. At the same time, a soldier by the name of Maximillian Eclipsa takes up pacifism while overseas, fighting to take the city of Eridan, saved by an impending court martial by a woman with a lion mask who seems to have an incredible hold over all military minds. The masked woman meets with the Sentinel of The First and Last Battlefield, who, almost forty years before, came into her own as a person. Then, as a storm ravages the city of Contiala, a crow in human form tells a story to a group of assembled humans about the origins of agriculture and its god.

Ouraneia is a world is much like our own, with social media, cars, and modern amenities. It is also a world at war, with world powers jockeying for power and superiority, with no thought given to the individuals who will suffer to feed the altars of avarice and war. In all four stories the Gods, or those close to them, must grapple not just with what it means to be a God, but what it means to do the right thing, and learn what it means to be more than just human.