Eternal

Year 80

Your body aches so bad right now, you feel like you’re suffering from every battle wound you’ve ever suffered. You’ll truly be glad when this all ends.

For the past five years you’ve been hooked up to a machine that Elam designed to keep you alive longer. He proposed his “brain in a tank” theory again, but you declined once again. The whole point of your Eternal plan was to avoid being a disembodied brain!

Elam’s prediction that your lifespan would be short was either very off or his idea of short was very different than most people, because you’ve managed to outlive him already by a year. You’ve made sure that the history books will certainly have a place for him and his deeds. That crazy bastard.

Gregory keeps track of your machine now. Being the cautious fellow he is, you certainly trust him. Indeed he probably thinks you could still get out of bed and unleash a firestorm on him. You have to admit, the fact that you can still instill fear in someone even in your condition gives you a source of pleasure. Just like the old days. You miss them sometimes.

Your long time advisor Kivan died a couple years ago too, though his loss was not as great, he was given a respectful funeral. Another bean counter took his place, you don’t even know what his name is at the moment, though it hardly matters at this point.

Seems like everyone you’ve ever known is dead now. Only Decena remains as your major link to the world as you once knew it and even she came at the very end of it, when you took control of the Empire. Yes, when you die, it will truly be the end of an era.

But today is the day you’ll get to see the start of a new one. You promised you’d fight to live to see it, and it has indeed come. Two of the Eternals have successfully mated with each other and the female managed to produce an offspring. Right now all three are coming to see you.

At last you will get to see the future that you have made possible. Who would have thought such a thing? Certainly not you or anyone else.

Soon Decena arrives, two young teenagers and a wrapped up baby enter the room. This must be them. The fifth generation AND the sixth together. While it was perhaps harsh to condition these Eternals into having relations with each other at such a young age, it was necessary to see if this was all for naught. Fortunately it was not.

But perhaps not all of it was harsh. These two have formed a bond, have a child and perhaps even love each other now. They will also have all the support from the Empire they can. In time future generations will have more freedom, but for now this process was necessary to secure the future of the Empire. You’ve always made those hard decisions.

“Father?” the girl with the baby asks.
“Yes? (cough)”
“This is your grandchild. A strong boy. May he bask in your presence?”
“You may give him to (cough cough) me, if that’s what you mean.” You answer.

The kids always have been a bit dramatic with their acknowledgement of you. You can imagine that’s Decena’s teachings. Still a little bit of respect and reverence never hurts.

You summon up all your strength and manage to sit up in bed to hold your grandchild. The little bundle looks so innocent and helpless. Its strange how many of these you’ve had killed over the years and never given it a second thought.

Eventually the bundle begins to squirm and you give orders to the mother to take her child again, which she does so.

“You’ve done me proud, my children. (cough) Now go and continue to serve the Empire and always know that I am watching. (cough cough) Remember this.” You say.

The two teenagers nod solemnly and Decena motions them out the door. You call out to Decena before she leaves.

“Decena?” you say.
“Yes?” she asks.
“I love you.”
“And I love you.”

At this point she knows what’s going to happen next. Her head lowers and she puts her hand to her face, trying not to sob. You hear the sniffles and stifle cries, but she then raises her head back up.

“It was an honor to serve you my Emperor. My husband. My love.” She says and gives you a salute before leaving the room.

And here you are, alone.

While you could probably live a few more years on this machine, you don’t particularly want to. You’ve seen your last victory and it was a good one to end on.

You rip out all the hoses and needles hooked up to the machine and wait for death to come.

Slowly your world starts to become dark and your breathing becomes shallow. Your mind starts to relive past pains, past glories, past losses, and past joys. You even get to see Alison one last time.

And then it’s all over.

Your funeral is a major event. Many people from Nakol to the continent of Nyttrus and all places in between attend. Of course the main attendees that matter are Decena and all of your children (and grandchild). Decena of course gives the eulogy. She remains the trooper that she always has been at heart and doesn’t break down once during it.

Your body is put in a coffin and your remains entombed in a fancy mausoleum with a great statue of you in front of it. Oddly as heavily guarded as it is, somehow a single black flower not native to Evigrus or Nyttrus is mysteriously found every year on your death day for several years just outside the mausoleum. Nobody ever knows who leaves it, save for a certain female svelk…

In the years to come Decena rules the Empire with an iron fist, though there isn’t much conflict. Indeed it probably would’ve been better if there had been as she finds herself shifting from being bored to being depressed many time, though your children and attempting to guide them gives her the strength to carry on and a little joy.

When Decena finally dies she is also put in the same mausoleum, which is then sealed up.

Not surprisingly an Eternal takes the throne, in particular a fifth gen and that’s when the conflict starts again…

The fourth and third generation Eternals had been feeling increasingly resentful of the fifth gens for years and with you and Decena out of the picture they see no reason to obey the “young upstarts” as they believe that THEY should be the next in line.

A terrible civil war erupts all over the Empire. Some of the third and fourth gens team up, while some make war on each other. All continue to hate the fifth gens with a passion however.

In the middle of all this are the other races who feel threatened by the Eternals in general due to the fact that they are practically treated as slaves as best and victims at worst. Many groups of “normals” break off as well, though unfortunately without the protection of the Empire many of these independent communities don’t fare very well and are either re-conquered by the fourth and thirds or wiped out completely.

In the meantime the fifth still have the best advantage. Their ability to breed for one and their powerful magic abilities. The former allowing them to replenish their numbers over time and the latter allowing them to gain an advantage in an otherwise technologically driven world now.

As years and decades go by, the Empire survives the civil war, but only just barely and only a shadow of its former self. The third and fourth generations are wiped out completely, leaving only the fifth (and now many of the sixth and even seventh) still around.

It is at this point many Eternals stop referring to themselves by numbered generations and realize that any and ALL who share Eternal blood is an Eternal (Indeed some have even bred with normal humans at this point, creating half breeds) and that ALL in some way are your direct descendent. A new nation, a stronger nation is formed under this ideology.

With this new mindset you are celebrated as the one who sired them all. The Eternals slowly start replacing “normal” humans in time. “Lesser races” such as orcs and elves are eventually exterminated. The newly united svelk however, have an ongoing war with the Eternals over the idea of who is the “superior” race. The only other race that seems to thrive are the kobolds who have completely overrun and taken over Nyttrus by this time.

As history moves forward other challenges and struggles face the new race of Eternals and sometimes they have to fight others, sometimes they have to fight each other, but ultimately they do what all Eternals always do: They survive and thrive.

And it is you who they still show reverence for. The All Father. The First. The Paragon. Your deeds and own history have been changed many times in stories and myths about you. Some of them are truth, others are outright lies, and some are a little bit of both.

But no matter what the story, one fact is certain; you were and shall always be ETERNAL.