Nekros

## Nekros, the god of life and death

Abaddon, despite being seen as a counterpart to the gods by many, had at first a completely different purpose: He was originally created by Varen to make the races belief again in their gods and praising them for banishing the horrors that Abaddon was ordered to create, not knowing they were done under the command of the gods themself. This plan had worked for many years, but whenever Abaddon created more chaos, he, despite using his power to do so, was feeding upon it, creating a cycle of uncontrollable growth. Varen noticed that, and if he was left unchecked, he would become a threat to everyone and so chose to banished Abaddon into the underworld.

The people were able to recover, yet the gods were back to square one: The races yet again started to lose faith over time, but Varen didn't want to repeat the events, fearing that a second Abaddon would seal their fate. Strugling to find a solution, he kept his belief that the fear of death is the correct idea.

He also had to handle a few other issues with the other gods, one of them being Venator pleading to him, that he should control his elves more, claiming that since the events caused by Abaddon they became more greedy, slaughtering all wildlife and not showing any trace of respect for life itself anymore.

Varen had little interrest in making the elves care, as long as they prayed to him. But something in Venators words gave him inspiration: Abaddon grew out of control through being powered by destruction, creating an infinite cycle, yet what were to happen if a god was attuned to death though desiring life? It could also be used to stop Venator complaining. As Varen had come to this idea, he began with his work, resulting in creating Nekros.

Nekros was unique: At first he seemed to be not alive himself, just standing around like an empty husk. After years had passed, Nekros seemed to have noticed how death feeds him, motivating him unleash a plague, using the wildlife to spread it, causing thousands of deaths of animals and elves alike. Venator was furious about Varens creation, while Varen himself was quite surprised, yet not particulary worried and wondered if had messed something up. Soon Nekros began to grow rapidly, yet the stronger he got, the more sad he had become. Seeing the lifeless corpses made him sad and so he infused them with his powers and brought them back to life. The new undead seemed to behave quite similar to their normal counterparts, at least until they noticed their flesh decaying. They began screaming, reliving their memories of their final moments until they fell down again.

The other gods were terrified witnessing someone being brought back to life, just to live through their final moments again, to just simply die after that. Nekros however seemed to enjoy it, as he kept resurrecting them over and over again, creating life in its final state, witnessing them feel and then dieing again. He did not care for their suffering of remembering every 'life' they had, he only desired to watch them over and over and over. After countless cycles the area around the corpses began to wither too, taking all life out of the once beatiful lands.

As a result Venator had seen enough, he no longer cared about Varens 'grand design' nor his opinion and so, he chose to attack Nekros. To his surprise Nekros did nothing, he just looked at Venator with a bright and happy smile. As a result, Nekros was struck down with a single blow. Venator was about to leave, until he noticed a faint laughter. He spun around instantly, trying to locate the sound as he noticed a small shaking from one of Nekros' limbs. Slowly other parts of his corpse began moving again too and before Venator noticed what was going on Nekros stood up again, looking at Venator as if nothing had happened. Except one thing: His smile began to grow wider and a hysterical laughter came out of him. Venator didn't hesitate a second and killed Nekros again. Yet nothing changed. Nekros stood up, looked again at Venator and didn't speak a word. He was exactly like before, except for one thing: this time he neither grinned nor laughed, instead he looked quite bored. None of them did anything for a long time, both glaring at each other and not even looking a single second away.

Finaly Venator ran out of patience, as he began to speak: "Why are you doing this? Killing everyone just to revive them and kill them again for no reason at all?" Yet there came no response. Not even a sigh, just a bored expression marking Nekros' face. Suddenly he began to glow faint. The glow was darkening yet somehow still intensifying more and more and then, he disapeared. Venator, left alone without answers nor understanding what had happened, left the place in silence and grief, being played with, left behind and thrown away yet again...

Even when the first war started, there was never again a sign of Nekros. No one, no man nor god knew if he where he was or if he even is still alive, yet in the pain and sorrow caused by the war, people clinged to the hope that the abominations which Nekros had created could be used to help them in their need. They tried to recreate them as protectors for their villages and familys. The results however were different in every case and even though sometimes they obeyed they also slaughtered often enough everyone alive. Thus art of necromancy became despised, but the mere fact that people are able to raise the dead from their graves is proof enough that some part of Nekros is still around.