Vaun sat on her throne gazing at the screens before her, the various individuals from Earth on the screen passing by drolly, none inspiring the fascination she had once held for this past time of hers. Eventually, after far too long even for one as old as her, she finalized her selection.
“Finally” she uttered “It’s time to let the games begin again”
Sitting up from her screens, the goddess walked to the edge of the platform she was on and gazed down at the planet before her. Tuska, as it was called by its inhabitants, was a mostly forested planet with one large central continent surrounded closely by a few massive islands.
The planet was bathed in a red glow by the Star it orbited, a colour Vaun was especially proud of, it had taken her millennia to build up the power to change the Star’s colour from its original teal light but she figured that it was a worthy sacrifice for the system at large. Afterall, red was her favourite colour.
Flitting between examining the different cities, Vaun noted the depressing lack of temples. There used to be people worshipping her on every street but she had grown too soft over the last 100 odd years.
Floating down to the planet’s surface, she walked through the ruins of Nalonia, the once glorious capital of the Vaunted Theocracy. Despite the sprawling field of aged debris all around her the place still brought a smile to her youthful face.
Strolling leisurely towards the city centre brought back memories of the champions and beasts that used to fight to death for a mere glance at her. The faith cultivated during that golden age was what finally pushed her into being a proper goddess, lording over multiple planets, instead of the puny immortal she used to be.
Vaun gingerly began climbing up the steps to the oversized platform before her and upon reaching the massive shrine in the centre, she placed her hand on the middle pillar before beginning to pumping her divinity into the ritual.
What she was attempting to do was a summoning, from another dimension. This of course was a very costly endeavour, making it only reasonable to perform the ritual every 1000 years. The five people she had chosen this time were, at best, mediocre in comparison to her previous attempts but Vaun still held out hope.
As the ritual was powered up, the goddess covered the city in an anti-divination ward preventing any heretics trying to prevent her from completing her sacred from noticing what was going on, or worse still linking her to the Scourge Cycle, as she had named this little passion project of hers.
Vaun finished pushing all the proverbial juice she could into the summoning ritual and laid back on a rather ornate throne, covered in gold, encrusted with jewels and most importantly emblazoned with her Sigil.
The singular crescent moon was a pattern the previously nascent deity had picked up from her multiversal travels, the entire reason she had such a penchant for plucking people from Earth was her fascination with their mythos.
Vaun took the time before the ritual completed to think back on how this all started. It had been thousands of years since she was sent to this backwater by her higher ups as a test to prove she was a true Goddess, unlike those pretenders back Auria who clung desperately to the coat-tails of their superiors.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
No, she had made the right choice coming here to slowly build up her power. Hells, she even had control of the other planets in this system, all thanks to the cycle she had come up with.
Whilst many would say it was cruel to force a permanent cycle of destruction onto a planet, Vaun thought about it in more pragmatic terms. These fragile mortals had such short lives that the occasional planet wide cull was ultimately meaningless in the long term, especially compared to the benefits for her.
It was a wonder every deity hadn’t done this, Vaun mused. Nothing promotes worship like fear after all, and who better to provide protection than her.
Moving on from that thought, the goddess brought up the new five candidates for the Scourge up in front of her. The potential walking cataclysms didn’t look like much now but Vaun still held hope, Earth’s humans had provided so much for her that she felt that hope was the least they were owed.
All of the candidates were chosen due to their lack of connections to society, and therefore ability to ignore their previous lives in lieu of their new ones.
Dorian Crist, the so called ‘Security expert’, was picked mainly to be a safe choice that should make it to end game given some help.
Mason Davies, the 38 year old plumber, he was of a particular delight to her. Someone so repugnantly so self-important was bound to, if nothing else, be entertaining during the time in Tuska with the right blessing.
Amina Kahn, meant to be a rallying point for the group, someone who could appeal to all of them and drive them forward, or at least keep them sane and committing mass murder.
Petras Keller, a veritable explosion of former teenage angst and spite, the ever popular combination of bad parenting and financial pressure had forced the 20 year old into becoming a hyper competent, brash and most importantly, competitive entry that should have the greatest chance at succeeding in this endeavour.
Finally, and by most people’s reckoning, least, was Shelby Byrne. A repressed, emotional mess of a man. Barely 18, and already struggling to survive on his own. Vaun almost felt bad for the poor boy, but he would serve as the conflict avoidant glue that would subdue the more active personalities in the group.
Despite her optimism about the future, Vaun felt it was important to recognize the current failings that necessitated the Scourge cycle. The oafs leading this planet always wound up believing they were better off without her, no matter how many times she forcibly reset their societies. For some reason, they mortals couldn’t comprehend the benefits of her Holy Power and devoted themselves to the study of magic and science instead of bathing themselves in her might.
Of course, the technology derived did technically hold some benefits. The new railways imposed between various city states had benefited many residents, especially the merchants.
However, and this was the crux of the issue, she didn’t benefit herself. In fact, the spread of this innovation was damaging as a whole to her as different cultures mingled and found different ways of existing without HER.
No matter, Vaun supposed, the whole matter would be resolved shortly. She wondered what path these new summons would take on their evolutionary paths. The previous failures, had all gone for sheer brute force in their efforts, valiant the goddess had to admit but ultimately flawed by their lack of understanding about magic on Tuska.
The system did provide options to ignore magic, but they tended to be short lived options, almost as short lived as the people who wind up picking them.
The new selection, however, had all had lots of one on one time with various ‘video games’ that Vaun had subtly placed within Earth to help prime individuals for the reality of Tuska and hopefully should provide a much greater challenge for these denizens without her direct intervention.
At long last, the ritual completed filling the empty city with blinding golden and silver light before fading away to reveal 5, very nude, very confused humans
"Welcome to Tuska" Vaun boomed.