Ohhh! I am super, super excited to share this with you guys and gals today!

I've been working super hard on this for a few months and I think I'm at the point where I'm becoming super comfortable with my newest book.

So...let's just get right into it, shall we?

PROLOGUE

Iaras have always been. That’s what they were told.

The skies in their foreign world opened and they arrived as saviors. Only Urher thought of it as more of being reborn.

These new creatures worshipped the Iaras and the deities expected to be showered in flowers and for their altars to be vast and grand. They opened their homes and hearts, enticing these unusual gods and goddesses with gifts of flowers, incense, and in some cases, sacrifices.

Xadia, the goddess of nature and sorrow, cared little for the sight of blood, spewed in her name. Instead, she was drawn to the beauty of trees and lush forests. She demanded her worshippers to be one with the land, treating each blade of grass and the animals that grazed on it with respect.

Naaris, the goddess of love and healing thrived on the pleas of the broken hearted as they searched for companionship. She listened to every call and sent her support and encouragement with each partnership forged in her name.

Eborh, the god of writing and wisdom preferred to listen to the stories that spilled from the mouths of those who spoke truth. Integrity was important and he whispered in their ears, guiding them to create the most important documents known to these creatures.

Misbah, the god of protection heeded the calls of the smartest and the brightest minds. Although his force was invisible, any who went against him found themselves struck down with the most powerful of blows.

Nuhena, the goddess of healing…the Mother of dark magic and the most trusted goddess provided balance among the pantheon. She showed her power through Srusmos flowers which covered the landscape.

And there was Urher, the god of dark magic; the Father of Crows. He was the only Iara who wanted more. He provided his portion of magic with the intention of blind obedience. When a call for revenge beckoned his action, he did so quickly with a smile. When the beings fought among each other, he yelled for them to fight more. His demanding nature became too much to bear and soon their worshippers lost themselves in his constructed play, which turned into a war within themselves.

The brightest stopped calling out. No longer did they care for love and their broken hearts mended themselves in chaos and revenge. They murdered their brightest who pleaded for peace. They tore their most sacred texts into pieces.

There was no need to celebrate life or death. This foreign world quickly turned dark, their forests burned, and their Srusmos flowers wilted in the never-ending flow of blood and bodies.

When there was no one left to worship their existence, the Iaras sat in the emptiness of that world, wondering what to do next.

With Urher being the cause behind their downfall, it was up to him to find a way.

And he did. He found them an out; a new playground.

A different universe, complete with its own set of rules. He set his eyes on a planet filled with living creatures who never heard of them; billions of potential followers, ripe for the taking.

However, there was one little caveat that they weren’t expecting. These new creatures; these humans, already had their own gods; thousands of them, and if the Iaras were to compete, they had to reinvent themselves. They had to stand out. They had to offer these humans something that no other gods had.

They had to start on a clean slate and Nuhena required them to do so. If not, she would leave them behind, alone, with only the emptiness of that world. There they would go crazy.

Yes, even gods can go crazy.

The Iaras arrived thousands of years ago to the complaints of the other gods who proved to be much more powerful than they realized. Here, all the gods took an equal piece of the pantheon pie and the Iaras were required to do the same.

And they did… that was, until Urher reverted to his usual games. He released his chaos onto the world, warping some of these humans by giving them just an atom of his dark magic. It made for an interesting time upon where he could watch and critique how they managed to handle these new found gifts.

Urher turned powerful. He turned all knowing. He transformed himself into a deity with unrelenting power, shifting the classes in his adopted playground. The humans took notice of his unrelenting thirst for power. Some accepted their new gods while the other deities hashed out a plan to get rid of him and the other Iaras once and for all.

Using their own power against them, the other gods trapped the Iaras in the Void. There they remained and as time passed, the humans started to consider all gods obsolete, created in the minds of their weak ancestors who lived before them. The altars became far and few. The ceremonies nonexistent. Some stayed while other gods left for newer universes. Soon, no one remembered the Iaras. No one knew if they ever existed. They turned into lore; stories told around the fires at night where embers burned, as did the memories of them.

That was… until somewhere, more dark magic was released upon the world. This created a tear in the Void; a tear big enough for just one of them to slither out into the world to be reborn.