Chapter 248: Chapter 228 – Changing Times

"What criteria the Deities chose for their champions, nobody could really tell. There are too few champions with known identities to interpolate to start with, other than Champions of Wind… which tended to be bards or flighty playboys." - Rondell Fiachna, Head Priest of the Chapel of Life and Death in La Fiachna, Ptolodecca, circa 669 FP.

"Anyway, miss Ambervale," said Naht'anavriel with a more serious tone after they all talked and drank together for a good hour or so. Late in the hour the merfolk Champion of Rot even came out of her room, less sleepy-looking, and joined them. "You came here to ask about us champions besides meeting us, do you not?"

 

"Aideen said that there were differences between how the champions were then and now," admitted Cal honestly with a nod, still sipping slowly from the cup of elvish liquor in her hand. "And she said that you'd be the one to tell the story."

 

"Ah yes, that is indeed the case. She got tired of telling the tale and passed that job to me some centuries ago," replied the elf with a little self-depreciating smile on his face. "We all first heard it firsthand from the Bone Lord though, who is the oldest of us champions by a longshot. I believe you have met him?"

 

"That is so," Cal said with a nod.

 

"Before I begin, I should give some context to the story. Most champions, are arguably newer than you'd expect, like madam Kyara there," said the elven man as he gestured towards the therian matron across the room. "Out of the ones you have met so far, I believe only the Champions of Light, Life, Death, and Ice still recalled the really old day, other than myself and the lady Aideen."

 

"Most of us are younger champions, you see. Gerhard there has only been one for four centuries now, misses Nimvee and Roban has not been champions for three centuries yet. Even miss Kino has only been one for five centuries now," he continued, with nods of affirmation from the people he named. "I am the youngest out of those who lived through the older days, and also the first… where the deities asked rather than just appointed a champion."

 

Cal leaned forward in her seat, as she listened closely to the elf's words.

 

"You see, in the days long past, the deities used to be more… fickle. They would appoint champions seemingly at random out of recently deceased people who happen to have the right affinity," Nate said as he poured himself a drink from a bottle of amber-colored liquor that gave off a fruity scent. "That had not worked well. At all. Some of the first champions had went mad, while others fell into crushing depression. Only the Deity of Death, Tohrmut, lucked out with his choice of champion at the time… who is still his champion even now."

 

"Later on, they selected people under more scrutiny, choosing those they believe could accept the role before they appoint them. That had worked scarcely better, and even so, champions kept changing very often, other than the Bone Lord, that is," continued Nate as he took a sip of his drink. "The first major change happened over a thousand years ago. One of the allowances the deities had given their champions was to allow them to have their departed loved ones by their side… and that turned out to be the catalyst of the change."

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"The Champion of Light at the time, lady Aideen's late grandfather, had not held his post for long, merely a scant half a century or so. However, unlike the others before him, at that time he still had people he cared for amongst the living," said Nate meaningfully at he looked at Cal.

 

"Aideen, huh?" asked Cal in turn.

 

"Correct. Because his granddaughter was still amongst the living, if she stretched that definition somewhat, the old Champion of Light couldn't bear having his family forcefully join him in the cycle of reincarnation," replied Nate with a nod. "Instead, he petitioned the deities to be allowed to pass his position to his sons. Lady Aideen's father and uncle. The current Champions of Light."

 

"That started the precedent of us champions choosing and approving our replacements," explained Nate with a smile. "A precedent that became much favored and held strong to this day. It had not always worked, but the few times it did work more than made up for it."

 

"Around seven hundred years ago, I was given the opportunity myself. I was the first to be asked, another new change rather than the deities just appointing the new champion should the old approve," said Nate with a melancholic smile. "I was young, unsure of what to think of such a thing. Unsure of the responsibility one must shoulder in such a position… so I dithered, at least until the massacre of Altweg made up my mind."

 

"You see, miss Ambervale, I was asked because I was amongst the first to be offered the position while alive. Everybody else who had become a Champion of the Deities before then were the departed, though I guess Lady Aideen straddled that line," he added with a chuckle. "Now it became the norm to have the champions from amongst the living instead, and even those long departed, could once again walk these lands. In a way, the proliferation of the Unliving helped make an excellent cover for this. It is now no longer strange to see people who should have died ages ago... Walk amongst the living again."

 

"As for yourself, you need not worry about dithering on the offer. It is expected. Of the last seven centuries, not once had the deities offered the role to someone who would jump at the opportunity. We all dithered. The deities want us to dither and think about it, rather than make the decision on impulse," he explained kindly. "So by all means, think about it, take your time, and see what answer you come to on your own terms."

 

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