Fractured Loyalties

by Greg Alldredge

  The banshees wailed again, signaling another incoming attack. These started farther away, and the arc grew higher. Once the shriek stopped, several dropped harmlessly into the water surrounding the Endeavor. Meghan watched, knowing each splash spelled death when it hit.

  “Get us underway now!” she shouted, but her orders were drowned out from the next launch of banshees.

  Miller reached her on the sterncastle. “There are at least six of them!” he shouted over the incoming attack. She discovered he’d been badly burnt. The effects of the weapon made evident on his body. He neared hysteria. “What do we do now?”

  Meghan spoke calmly as the shrieks of the incoming banshees ended overhead, signaling another rain of death. “We die.”

  Memories of her late husband flooded Meghan’s mind for the rest of her life. A mere few heartbeats. Lucky for her, she never witnessed her great fleet destroyed.

  The End

  of

  Fractured Loyalties

  To be continued in

  Fractured Spirits

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  The Gods of Fractured Lands

  Over the past hundred years or so, the spread of trade around the local city states has caused a number of separate gods to be melded into a single cosmology. The cities may or may not agree on this understanding of the gods, as there is still flux in the belief systems. No one system has spread to cover all known shards. Some still undiscovered civilizations might have a completely different belief system.

  Creation Myth

  The gods have always been. Humans are a recent addition to the shards and cracks.

  The Father and the First Son had a fight of earth-shattering proportions. The result was the area of the shards called the beach, a great wasteland the shards radiate out from. There is a rumor that at the center of the beach lies a great black glass desert, and at the center of that glass sheet, there is a hole that leads to the realm of the gods, the hells. None have ever been able to reach the glass or the center of the beach and live to tell about it, so it is all speculation.

  The Son won the battle. In winning, he dropped the Father so hard on the ground, it shattered the earth and cast the Father deep to the center.

  During the fight, blood was shed over the shards, from the blood of the Father came man. The First Son begat the animals and monsters.

  The brotherhood believe they come straight from the monsters that sprang up from the blood of the First Son.

  Most humans think little about the gods and religion. They pray to whomever is expedient. A few will become devoted followers of a divine for special favors. Rivals between the different holy orders and nonbelievers can be brutal and bloody. There is little room for differing opinions between the fanatics.

  A few strange explorers have tried to master the many shards and cracks. Few have been able to chart more than a few. The Father keeps the people scattered to protect them from the horrors of the world. A few believe the shards are connected, and all people spring from one connection between the Mother and the Father. Like the gods, they are made in their image. This is a limited belief mostly driven underground.

  Father

  Also known as: The Sleeping One, the Absent God, the Uncaring Bastard

  Patron: Currently not in favor of any specific city

  Realms: Lost causes, sleep, and dreams.

  Depicted as: A senile crippled old man beat senseless by his eldest son. A twisted staff of wood for his weapon

  Mother

  Also known as: Durra’ah

  Patron: Zar; flag: white tree on blue field

  Realms: Spring/rebirth and motherhood

  Depicted as: A beautiful mother figure. A small set of shears for a weapon

  Eldest Son

  Also known as: The First Son, the One Son

  Patron: Abaraka and the Brotherhood of the One Son; flag: black fist on a red field

  Realms: God of war and the mountains

  Depicted as: A large man with flames for hair. A giant metal staff for a weapon

  Eldest Daughter

  Also known as: Sinead, the unstable one, crazy bitch, keeper of the dead

  Patron: Freeport; flag: plain black

  Realms: The sea, the dead, and crazy people

  Depicted as: A naked woman with green scaled skin, sea snakes for hair. She needs no weapon, she controls the sea

  Second Son

  Also known as: Zinan

  Patron: No city will claim him, but most taverns will have a shrine to him. Drunks, drug users, actors, and any profession that deals with the above people

  Realms: Altered states

  Depicted as: A small man with a huge erect penis. He can use his member to great effect, ending most fights before they start

  Second Daughter

  Also known as: The Huntress

  Patron: Currently the main temple for the Huntress in in Cliffside; flag: solid green

  Realms: Childbirth and hunting

  Depicted as: A young woman in green leathers, she hunts with a bow

  Third Son

  Also known as: Yuan

  Patron: Perdition; flag: white scales on black field

  Realms: Trade and commerce

  Depicted as: A man that carries a large sack slung over his shoulder. The bag, full of coin, he can wield with great effect

  Third Daughter

  Also known as: Anshika

  Patron: Only a few scattered schools outside the wall

  Realms: Magic and the twin moons

  Depicted as: A pale woman, normally naked, her body covered in magical runes, one breast larger than the other. She throws magic at ease

  The Fourth Child

  Also known as: Harper or the Conjoined Fates.

  Patron: No city would risk the bad effects of worshiping this god

  Realms: Good and bad luck, fate

  Depicted as: Male and female conjoined twins. Good and bad luck is all the twins ever need

  The Old Ones

  Over the history of the shards, any number of human and nonhuman deities have been worshiped. Many of these have slipped out of fashion and into antiquity with no current concentration of followers as far as the citizens of the city-states know of. Collectively, they are called the Old Ones. In rare cases, may be collectively known as the Ginners.