In writing Son of Thunder I created a whole new world for my characters to live, adventure and fall in love in. From time to time I plan to bring snippets of my world-building here to my blog. These are things that won’t probably appear in any Heavenly War book, but will bring some additional depth and understanding to the world and the war that rages in the heavens above it.
Seeds of War
August 1883:
The Egyptian god, Set, looked down on the arid lands below, lands that had once been his. The all too familiar knot of disquiet clenched his stomach. There was a time when Egypt had been the world…and the world had been his. Mortals bowed to him in his temples, gifts and sacrifices were left at his altars. He’d been powerful—worshiped.
Osiris, Isis and the others didn’t understand. They were happy with the freedoms that came with being mythical. Powerless, frolicking fools. Of them all, only Apep stood with Set. The others just didn’t understand.
A few simple plagues, wars and disasters would bring the mortals back into the abandoned temples. Worship would flow like the waters of the Nile, and with worship would come power once again.
In frustration, Set reached for the last of his power, energy stored up over the past five hundred years—mortals, reading the mythology and wondering, for even a split second, if it couldn’t be true. It was belief, in its own way, but it yielded so little power. Still, there was something to draw on. Set needed a grand gesture, and searching the Earth he found a small volcanic island near Java that was ready to blow.
It took only the merest nudge, yet required all the power Set had accumulated, to set the world on fire. Over 36,ooo people perished as a wide area rumbled with the explosion of the volcano. Two-thirds of the island of Krakatoa was destroyed and the shock waves were felt around the world.
“What have you done?” Ra said, as the chief Egyptian gods confronted him.
“What I had to,” he answered, but he wasn’t listening to their complaints. Through the fog another voice had reached out to him.
It’s about time!
Batara Kala from the Balinese pantheon had actually spoken across the barriers that separated the different mythic pantheons. It was unheard of, but it made Set smile. There were others, as dissatisfied as he.
A Writer's Haven 