Men of Reason and Science

The flash was of great interest to the scientific community. An all inclusive brilliant flash of soft blue light. Without a warning and leaving no evidence behind, the flash came and went in a few seconds. The media filled their twenty-four hour news cycle with fantastical theories about the light. Every imaginable group received their fifteen minutes to explain what it meant.

The light heralded everything; the second coming of Christ, the rapture, Armageddon, alien contact, the beginning of a new dawn, and the end of days. All weighed in, and all knew they were right, except for the men of reason and science.

They were few, these men. Countless hours were spent analyzing every video from every camera that happened to be on when it happened, every scientific instrument that was taking measurements, and every account of strange happenings since was read and reread. There were no answers, only more questions.

Thousands of scientists and thinkers congregated together. Within the walls of the most advanced scientific facility of their day, these men toiled for answers. Every measurement was run and compared in massive super-computers, each result compared to another. An infinite number of calculations, yielding nothing but more questions.

Ethologists noticed the strange and chaotic behavior common animals started to exhibit. Botanists measured that the growth rate of plants was accelerating. Physicists grew concerned that a strange and pervasive energy field was being detected in all directions. Geneticists grew ever more troubled that the mutation rate in cellular division was growing rapidly. Chemists watched as long understood chemical processes began yielding completely new results.

Within those walls these few became cut-off from the rest of the world. So engrossed in research had they become that the terrible reality unfolding outside had gone unnoticed. The facility provided every need, and the research provided for the want. Days melded into weeks, which melted into months, which grew into years.

Pursuit of the truth became a generational drive. New questions drove them on, and new evidence wet their collective appetite for knowledge. Earth and the rest of humanity became lost to them, as surely as they had been lost to all of humanity.

Among all of the evidence collected, the most startling piece had been over-looked. These few were changing into something else. It had gone unnoticed as it happened over the generations, but had one only looked back instead of forward, it would have been all to clear.

The few, who had become many, were human no more.

Trickster Among us

The many beings that could be classified as deities are as diverse as any group found in the world. Due to their mortal origins they have each had unique childhoods and experiences before discovering their abilities. There are deities who grew up as farmers, the offspring of rich lords, and even an orphan or two. These diverse backgrounds create vastly different approaches to how and why they use their powers in the mortal world.
Deities are forbidden from directly interfering with world events by an edict created long ago by the strongest amongst them. Failure to adhere is an instant death penalty. This absolute rule still leaves a large amount of latitude for which a deity can operate. They can guide events to make it seem like chance or luck, use the weather to aid or harm, appear in visions, pretend to be a lower being in order to influence, or anything else which a mortal will not see it as a deity directly interfering.
Among the ranks of deities are those who influence for peace, for war, don’t influence at all, some who are tricksters, some that only concern themselves with nature, but there is one among them who has a completely different goal. His only goal is to experience everything possible for a mortal to experience.
He has no name that he can recall, and the other deities either don’t know who he is or are uninterested in his exploits. Among his brethren only 3 are older, and only the oldest is ever interested in hearing his stories. He has lived countless lives throughout the world and will never be satisfied until he feels he has lived them all.
There is little doubt he is the world’s greatest actor. He will throw himself completely into the part, and then do his very best to think of an interesting way to exit the part. An expert at faking his own death he normally takes a grandiose approach to ending a character.