Morai

“We all wonder what fate has in store for us, my child. But worry not. Take care of the bonds with those who truly care about you and those you would not hesitate to lay your life down for and I assure you, your future will be bright.” - Morai

Morai is the Goddess of Fate, Future, and Bonds.

## Origins

Back when life in the world became sentient, their beliefs lead to the creation of deities for every emotion and aspect of life. Over time, the beings of the world began to worship these deities and make offerings to them in hopes of gaining their favor or their aid.

When people wanted to ensure their fates would not be decided by their fellow man unfairly, they would provide offerings and prayers to a deity they believed would favor them. In many cultures, this became known as a guardian of sorts watching over those who worshiped the entity and so the deity became depicted as a guardian and weaver of the fates of the world. This belief spread and grew in strength until the deity became known the Goddess Morai.

As she grew, Morai began to notice how certain fates became overwhelmed by the fates of others and how often it was a struggle to ensure that all fates were equally protected and decided solely on the actions individuals made. So, she eventually weaved together several books and infused with the aura of each individual. She then placed these books into special crystals that were forged from the aura of those each book belonged to before they were placed into each being.

She would use these books in order to keep track of the fates of all beings to ensure equality among all those she watched over.

She then wove together a large web, infusing her own power into each thread so that the web would act as an extension of herself. With this web, she would be able to access someone's book at any point in time. This allowed her to make sure that no one tried to dictate the fate of another merely for personal gain and she could ensure that each fate was unique for each individual.

Overtime, she began to notice how many people began to wish for a brighter future, for not only themselves but for others. For years, these prayers had seemed to have gone unanswered. That was until a large number of people began to go to her temples in order to leave offerings as they prayed for brighter futures for either themselves or for a loved one. It seemed that they figured that, since she watched over their fates, surely she would answer their prayers for their future as well.

And answer them she did.

She would start to write a future for someone several pages ahead. But, as she did this, she also took notice of how the path someone was on did not always warrant the future that they asked for, or that she felt they deserved. But she knew, that for fate to remain equal, she could not be biased. So, with her powers, she wove the entire fate for each individual that lead to the futures she wrote.

However, she took things a step further. She wanted each future to also be earned by each individual.

Putting more focus into her work, she wove the words in the books with the ability to change and alter along with the actions of that person, and in turn change the outcome of their fate and of their future. With this, she ensured that everyone's fates would remain equal and was still within their control. She did find that, at times, she would need to step in when someone's fate began to slip out of their control, especially if they became influenced by someone of higher power or higher status.

In the beginning, Morai had considered herself weak when compared to her fellow Goddesses. But, now that she had become the embodiment of everyone's futures, she felt herself grow stronger. She had done well in her duties in ethereal form, but how well could she do if she had a physical form for herself?

She figured that it would not hurt to try. Perhaps she could travel to Ora in order to truly see her handiwork first hand.

She never really paid much attention to what form her followers had often depicted her as and so when she sensed a fate in need of her attention being in one of her temples, she focused her power into creating a physical form for herself as she made her way to where she felt she was needed.

Arriving at the temple, she found herself on the ceiling, holding on by something that was on her back. Spotting a young woman sobbing in her temple, her body silently moved forward along the ceiling till she was above the woman.

"What seems to be troubling you, my child?" She asked, her voice soft and melodious, despite having a slightly raspy aspect to it.

The mortal looked up with a small gasp. Above her was a woman with light grey skin, white splotches covering her arms, and long white hair. The only source of modesty was the spider webs that covered her breasts and legs along with a strip of red silk cloth attached to the bottom of a large gold spider with legs that wrapped around her waist like a belt. Her lips were red with palps sticking out of the corners of her mouth and spider webs seemed to cover her eyes. On her back were spider legs that seemed to be large enough to support her body.

"You need not to fear your Goddess. I am not here to do you any harm." She reassured the mortal.

The woman seemed to relax and got on her knees and bowed before her as a sign of respect. The woman then answered the Goddess' previous question, explaining how her husband assumed that she was being unfaithful and any attempt to prove to him that she was indeed loyal fell on deaf ears due to his stubbornness.

Morai silently jumped down from the ceiling, landing on her human like legs before moving closer to the woman. She gently placed her hand over the mortal's heart and slowly pulled her hand back, drawing out a small colored crystal. Lightly tapping the crystal, one of the many books she had created took shape before her, briefly startling the mortal.

As Morai flipped through the pages gently, looking through what path this woman was currently on. She then realized that this same woman had once prayed to her for a future where she and her husband would eventually have a family of their own, a future she was all too happy to write. She noticed that the words would change from what she had originally written to the couple separating and then changing back.

It was then that a small shimmer caught her attention from her peripheral view.

She closed the book and returned it to the crystal and then the crystal into the woman before taking a closer look at the source of the shimmer. She saw what appeared to be some sort of thread that was frayed and seemed to lead off to somewhere. As she inspected the thread, she noticed that it tried to repair itself but would only become frayed once more, if not worse.

She pieced together that this tread was actually the relationship the woman had with her husband, the bond that they shared. Normally, emotions were not in her territory, but it was interfering with her work. And to her, it appeared the two wanted to make amends with one another, but something was preventing them.

"I know that this may be a drastic request for you, my Goddess, but I beseech you. Please aid me." The woman said, clasping her hand sand lowering her head as she sat on her knees, almost as if she was praying.

Feeling a sudden surge of power, Morai began to weave her thread around the thread bond the woman shared with her husband. As she did so, the bond seemed to not only become repaired, but strengthen as her thread appeared to be absorbed and the thread bond thickened.

"I have done what I can. Now, your fate is once more in the hands of you and your husband." Morai told the woman before seeming to fade away as she returned to the Higher World.

Upon her return, Morai checked the woman's fate from the web she had weaved back in the beginning of her existence, pleased to see that it had returned to how it should have been for the time being.

Within days, she suddenly felt that sudden surge of power that she experienced when the woman had prayed for her to help restore the bond she had with her husband. She also took notice that her following had grown as well. This was all due to the mortal she had helped who spread word of her deed. And so now more mortals began to go to her temples and pray to her for her aid in either repairing the bonds they had with someone or help them strengthen that bond or create new ones if they were truly struggling.

Not one to ignore her followers, she answered their prayers, weaving bonds between two people or weaving her thread to strengthen or repair bonds that had become frayed.

She began to take notice that, the happier her followers were, the stronger she became. Understanding how vital the happiness of her followers were now to her strength, she made sure to listen to every prayer and to make sure to do whatever she could to answer. The only time a prayer would go unanswered was if it was for a future she felt the person did not deserve. But she would not flat out ignore the prayer. Instead, she would write an ultimatum in their fate. If they chose the path that would guide them to being truly worthy of the requested future, she would write it in their book. If not, she would not interfere with the future determined by the book.

Over the years, her following seemed to grow and grow, even seeming to cross over into generations of

followers. Eventually, her followers created a symbol devoted to her and her power that they would paint onto their pottery or use as some sort of decoration as a devotion to her. They would also show respect to whatever spiders crossed their paths, relocating it non-violently to somewhere safer for the arachnid should the need arise. Otherwise, they would acknowledge the spider before returning to their business.

## Love and Responsibilities

In 265 BST, Morai had taken on her human guise as she walked among the mortals. She had wanted to personally check on her followers and her handiwork. During her visit, she had gotten caught up in some sort of skirmish. It was during this skirmish that, when a mortal had attempted to do her harm, a man had used himself to shield her from the attack.

Enraged by the obvious disregard for life, she took on her true form and startled her would be attacker, startling them.

"How dare you be so careless with the life of another being. Do you not respect the life of your fellow man? If this is the case, then you shall be shown the same act in kind. From this day forth, your fate shall be plagued with torment until you change your ways and repent for your sin against this man." She declared as the man became so scared that he ran away.

Morai continued to watch the fleeing mortal as those who remained quickly got on their knees and bowed to her, showing their respect for the Goddess as she turned to face the man who had spared his life for her. She took notice of how his breathing had become shallow and he was struggling to remain conscious. She had seen this among mortals before and knew that the man was dying, all because he had chosen to save her.

Using her power, she teleported the mortal with her to her realm as she slowly walked around him, taking in his state. This was something new to her, but it was the only thing she knew she could do to even possibly repay him directly for his deed, even if it wasn't necessarily required.

"You are dying." She stated, almost as if it was not obvious.

The man let out a weak chuckle, offering her a soft smile.

"I am well aware, my Goddess. However, I do not regret what I have done. And if this is my fate, then so be it." He said, his voice sounding strained as he struggled to talk.

The man's acceptance of this stirred something within the Goddess. She would never dictate this to be anyone's fate. But his response acted as a reassurance to her that what she was about to offer, was the right thing to do, given the circumstance.

"It does not need to be your fate, as this was never determined to be the outcome of your life. Because of this, I would like to offer you a choice to once again take your fate back into your hands. You can either fully accept your death as you are now, or you can become my angel." She responded.

She patiently waited as the man seemed to deliberate her offer, knowing he could not do so for long before his mortal body eventually succumbed to his wounds.

"I accept. Anything to continue to serve, my Goddess." The man said, looking at her with a determined look.

"Very well. Before we begin the transformation, may I know the name of my angel?" She asked as she began to gather her power.

"My name is Gabriel." The man responded as she began to weave her thread around him.

As she did, she infused her power into the thread, transferring it into him. As the process continued, Gabriel soon began to cry out as excruciating pain began to course through his body. He felt as if something was ripping out of his back and as if his body burned on the inside. The process continued for what seemed like hours when he suddenly felt something sprout from his back. It felt as if something sprouted at each of his shoulder blades.

As he roughly tried to catch his breath, he took notice that his wounds no longer ached and he felt some sort of weight upon his back. Looking behind him, he took notice of large angel wings that had sprouted from his shoulder blades, the marginal coverts and alulas were a warm amber yellow and the rest of his wings were whiter than pure snow.

He slowly stood up, swaying a little as he attempted to adjust to the weight of his new wings. Once he was standing upright, he flexed his wings as he worked on getting use to them. After a few minutes, Gabriel looked towards Morai. Dropping to one knee, he bowed before her, tucking his wings against his back.

"My Goddess," He said respectfully, "I owe you my life."

"You owe me nothing, Gabriel." Morai responded.

From that day on, Gabriel served as Morai's angel. He assisted her in keeping an eye on the fates of the mortals as well as the bonds they had, going as far as traveling to Ora to check things personally. Things were going well, but as years passed, the two seemed to be growing closer.

Eventually, Morai began to take on her human guise more and more often as she began to spend time with Gabriel. Things began to get to the point that the two seemed to be in love. All seemed well between the two, up until the day fate slipped out of Morai's hands.

They had traveled to Ora to look into an issue with the fates of an entire village when some sort of spear pierced right through Gabriel. The spear had been infused with some sort of energy that made it lethal to her angel. And so he laid in her arms, dying once more. She knew this time, she would not be able to save him and yet, she wanted him to live on.

Focusing her power, she separated his life energy into three separate powers. For each ability, she wove a fate to keep them out of mortal hands and for them to vanish to where not even she could find them, hence for why sore created a way to summon them, making it forbidden for any mortal to do so.

Once she was done, she returned to the Higher World and kept her distance from the mortal realm. Heartbroken, she began to falter in her duties and her following began to decrease, her power slowly being drained away.

It wasn't until two mortals took the risk to perform the summoning that she had made forbidden did she come to the realization of what she was truly doing. Gabriel had died serving her and she was dishonoring him by avoiding what had become her duties.

And so, she watched the events unfold. She watched as these two men who had taken two of the powers that she had forged from the life of her love and worked to regain the balance she had once maintained.

As she continued to watch, she noticed that the young maiden who had received the third and final power reminded her of Gabriel in how she viewed everything. During the final confrontation, when the young maiden obtained all three powers and took on an angelic appearance, Morai felt something stir within her. She fully realized the mistake she had truly made and she chose to remedy it. As she watched the fate of the three beings unfold, she began to weave a new fate for their souls, one that would not take effect until the past would repeat itself.

From that day forward, she returned to her duties, her following growing once more, returning her power to her. However, whenever she was not tending to her responsibilities, she would check up on whoever was now in possession of the abilities. She would not make her mistake again.