The next day, mid-afternoon in the Chantry library…

Just me, myself, and I today. Anna’s off with Lady Iris in her office, having some mother-daughter time. I’d love to be there with them, but honestly… I’d feel like a third wheel! So, here I am in the library by myself. Lost in thoughts, all alone.

Spring days slip by so quickly… like the touch of a fleeting breeze. I’ve said it before, but it feels like that. Very much so. Maybe it’s because I’ve been keeping busy, steadily training Anna to become the Paladin she’s destined to be. It’s going very well, if I do say so myself!

Oh well. With some time to spare today, all by myself… I figure I oughta take down some more notes. There’s so much to remember from one timeline ago – it’s exhausting! But hey, knowing is half the battle, right? If I’m in it to win it, I gotta do what needs to be done.

Speaking of remembering things… I’m gonna focus on what I know of the gods of Nisha: Rinnah and the Demon Lord. They’re two divines locked in eternal opposition – Light and Darkness, Good and Evil… the war eternal.

Let this be proof that I remember and know what I know, timelines be damned.

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Rinnah…

She is the Goddess of Life, Light, Love, Creation, and Memory. In stained-glass portraits, her golden eyes gleam like the midday sun, radiant yet distant. She’s clad in tattered black robes and worn footwraps – an image far from regal. Her shoulder-length hair is a peculiar shade of pink… like candy floss plucked from some divine dream.

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The humans and elves of Nisha revere her as their one true deity. From the grand, gilded temples in bustling cities to humble chapels in sleepy villages… her watchful gaze lingers over all. Her covenant with the mortal realm binds us to her, eternal and unbroken.

Within the founding myth of the Order of Selene, as preserved in the Codex Rinnah and the Libram of the First Saint, it’s said she personally trained Alyssa Alcadieas, the First Saint, in the twin disciplines of healing and combat – that which formed the foundation of the sacred paths of the Healer and the Paladin.

Heroes are her instruments; her will made flesh. I like to think we embody the best of her – that we’re made of the goodness she seeks to instil into this world of hers. As the tides of fate and Prophecy decree… monsters are slain, kingdoms crumble and rise anew, lives are saved, and destinies are fulfilled.

It’s the way of things… for better or worse, it is.

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The Demon Lord…

In the previous timeline, I remember those soulless, colourless eyes glinting with malice so heavy it seemed to pierce the air. Its hulking, shadowy form was black as death itself.

It is the undisputed Lord of all demons – those horrifying creatures of ice and shadow that prey on mortal souls. For every fear or phobia a mortal mind can imagine… it’s said there’s a Demon waiting to be born. Maybe that’s why the bastard haunts my nightmares as a shadowy reflection of myself.

Long ago, in time immemorial… Rinnah herself sealed the Demon Lord and its foul brethren within Arcadia – the Land of Demons. It’s a frozen hellscape of ice and snow… a cruel reflection of our world locked in the embrace of endless winter.

She locked them all away and tossed the key, quite literally! That’s why the Runestone was shattered into six Lesser Shards scattered across Nisha. By her divine decree, no being of this world may ever recreate the Runestone and repeat the sins of the past.

But that was then. Now, defying her grand design… the Demon Lord stirs. Even as it remains imprisoned within Arcadia, its influence seeps through. Nisha bleeds, and demons peer over the veil, summoned to this world by those seeking to pay tribute to insanity and ruin.

Thus, the Oracle sought a Hero from another world – a loophole to save Nisha from certain doom. She got me.