* Restricted Information: Secret
ERALCH was once a Demigod at the House of Karma. His special concern was the direction and supervision of the evolution of the various races of People in the World. This is an important post, and He was much in favour with KOROS. But, it is said, it is in the nature of Demigods to aspire to Godhead, and those Who have the most power are the most ambitious, and so, paradoxically, the least satisfied with Their lot. So it was with ERALCH.
Then, one day in the Year 1107, LLYWELLA, Goddess of the Fishes, came to the House of Karma. She was evolving the race of the Sea-folk and sought the gift of water-breathing for them. KOROS was totally opposed to LLYWELLA's experiment. He/She considered that it interfered with the existing order and forbade Her to continue with it. She refused, and They argued.
ERALCH was most impressed by the beautiful, headstrong and independent Goddess with Her plans for the rapid evolution of Her own race of followers. She, for Her part, was not unaware of His interest. She cast Her line for Him, gave Him enough play, and then brought Him in as surely as Her enemies the fishermen might one of Her charges. For LLYWELLA, ERALCH left the House of Karma. For Her, He stole the precious gift of water-breathing. For Her, He gave up the slow evolution of many races for the rapid evolution of one.
But what to do when the job was finished? His lover lost interest on finding that She could not become Clerical Goddess to Her people. She curtailed the project and paid less and less attention to Him. He could not go back to KOROS, Who had taken away as many of His Powers as He/She could, and had been trying to kill Him in retribution for his treachery!
So in the Year 1703 ERALCH turned to the Gods of Hell, Who eagerly accepted His services and provided all He requested for a breeding programme of Sea-Orcs for Them. He even found a new Goddess-lover in LOFIR, Mistress of Destruction.
Passion can be a destructive emotion. What chance, then, did ERALCH have when He fell in love with LOFIR? She used Their relationship to become the special Clerical patroness of the Sea-Orcs, or Sahuagin, He produced, and achieved a dominance over them which He could never obtain without Godhead. His older and deepest desire prevailed over His newer attachment and He plotted the death of His lover with another of Her Demigods. In the Year 2297 ERALCH killed LOFIR with Her most potent weapon of Destruction, and WAGREN killed ERALCH likewise. Traitor was killed by traitor, and thus does treachery receive its just deserts.
So WAGREN, Whom LOFIR had never trusted, assumed Her throne by betraying someone else. So KOROS at last recovered ERALCH. Or did He/She? If anyone could fake His own death to the House of Karma, it would be ERALCH.
© P.R. Wild, 12 November 1982, minor revisions 29 February 2004
Back to Shipwrecked on the Secret Isle index
Back to DEMIGODS index