Greater Death

 Now then without further ado, I'll give a proper introduction to one of the two stories. The story's title is [ Greater Death or Great Death Maevus]

In a world where the Gods influences weigh heavy on the living, magic is king but its still young and developing. Then these mysterious emerald tablets started to pop up in which gave way to the development of magic as a whole. 

The emerald tablets themselves held secrets within the texts that mentioned a trial, waiting for someone willing to go on and complete it. Until one day a risky pair took on the Trial of Morning and the Trial of the Matron.

Narmea, a young woman hailing from the country of what would now be Calif, took on the trial of the Matron. Her trial was completed within a year of her initiating it. 

Raziel, a young brazen man with a sense of proving hailing from the ancient city-state of St. Lucia took on the trial of Morning. The trial within itself was rigorous, so difficult that Raziel tried to cheat the trial, and the Gods did not appreciate that. Narmea also attempted to assist him in cheating the trial.  

With him doing this, the Gods ultimately banished him from the plane of existence. Narmea was stripped of her newfound power and forced to be suspended in the Astral plane.

Raziel failed the Trial of Morning and Narmea was stripped of the Trial of the Matron. More trials would be discovered and passed. But then came along a man named Artur, he would go on to become a magician. After reaching adulthood and graduating from the academy he attended, a woman approached him with the opportunity of a lifetime.

The woman was none other than Narmea in the flesh, as she pleaded with the Gods to find the next person to take on her trial and not interfere with the trial itself. She sought out Artur and gave him the Emerald Tablet containing the Trial of the Patron/Matron. She taught him the primordial fundamentals of magic that his era had lost. 

Artur passed the trial successfully after three years and became the New Foundation of magic in the world. Then he came in contact with another trial holder, her name was Trish. After the trial for Artur was done, Narmea was granted the privilege to pass on. Artur and Trish settled down together and started to refine their abilities they were granted along with the magic in the world. 

In this time, magic was still new so there were lots of discoveries to be made. And it's never explained how the emerald tablets are being dispersed or finding willing participants, but the Gods have their own motives. 

They had children, but the youngest of the bunch, Eve would become the next to become a trial holder. She was around nineteen, which is the youngest of all the trial holders on record; but her Trial was the Retrial of the Matron in which she shared a fragment of Narmea's soul from long before.

She passed the trial within two years, but by this time she met two people attending the University. A noble hailing from St. Lucia named Lygo Rithia and a local citizen named Drakon from the Eleksi. 

Lygorithia was very talented in the realms of magic and understood magic to the point of where he could break it down to protons and neutrons. Drakon was a short tempered, brutish man who was equally skilled with weapons as Lygorithia was with magic. Lygorithia while attending the University, discovered the next Emerald tablet that would create a bridge between him and Drakon. Drakon also gained an emerald tablet because of his faith in his God. Eve and Lygorithia got closer, but he kept space between them so he could complete his trial.

The next emerald tablets to be discovered then vanish were: 
The Trial of Fate
The Trial of Longing
The Trial of Predestination
The Trial of Exile

After completing his trial, Lygorithia discovered the name of the Trial was one of the Sage. With completion, his understanding of magic overlapped and grew a hundredfold. He grew tiresome and conflicted with the emerald tablets as a whole, so as soon as he graduated from the University he returned with Eve to the lands of St. Lucia and called for a decree on the Emerald tablets to be hunted down. As soon as he had most of them, he shattered them. 

In doing so, his relationship with the Gods sullied, but was soon mended as he had a better idea. He broke down the tablets as a whole to go into several different grimoires since the magic on the Emerald tablets was too great and would be catastrophic in the wrong hands; he then authored over two hundred different grimoires as the trials branched deeper and became something entirely new. He rose to become the King of St. Lucia and the new Foundation of magic in the world. 

He and Eve went on to get married and the world was more or less stuck in place as the growth of magic was halted. His standard toward magic kept others from gaining more knowledge than what they needed. 

Some time, after he turned sixty-eight the world was plagued with new trial holders of the grimoires as they started reading in between the lines to discover the True Trials of completion. This would breed the first wave that would mean the end of the world of magic as it is. These four came to be known as the Horsemen of OLD. 

Since the emerald tablets granted true immortality unless the holde relinquishes their title, Lygorithia watched the War be wages on the world as whole for several hundred years until he and Eve vowed to fix this as they committed a double suicide after relinquishing their roles. 

Emeric Shaw, the Old Horseman of Death was the last to discover the true trial of Death. His cohorts had discovered theirs and completed them, but the trial of Death was a truly terrifying thing. Thousands needed to die to be granted access to Greater Death, but the true trial of Death was significantly worse... 

First you would need to declare you're beginning the true trial of Death, then you would need to kill five true trial holders. This would be a problem for Emeric as he only knows of three, but this would cause him to become a hunter of trials. Even after hunting down five true trial holders, he couldn't stop from the bloodlust. 

Drakon in his old age, declared war against Emeric with the other three horsemen as he was the holder for the Trial of the God of War. Drakon was a truly fierce person and opponent. as his faith in his God was strongest of all the trial holders. 

Emeric managed to defeat them but at the cost of True Death, he settled in a secluded area in what would be Sworadey. As he lived, he held onto not relinquishing his title so he could watch the world grow around him. 

He witnessed nations rise, countries fall, civil wars be fought, but most importantly; he lost the bloodthirst for killing. He took a career in teaching magic at a Magic University and even authored a new branch of magic regarding Sigils. He was responsible for the Saint Sigil. 

To conclude, in the end; Lygorithia's plan backfired, and he felt regret in doing so. Drakon died to Emeric and so did the other Horsemen.

Decades pass, years go by, then came the next era of Trial holders. 

The first to come about would be a woman from what's now named Monai would take on the Trial of Conquest. She ascended to the throne early in her childhood and rose to power soon after. She ultimately passed her trial soon after her twenty-eighth birthday. She left Monai and started her own country in the Ice Country of Davren. 

The next would be from the Isles of Monai, but he rose in the Providence of Heradon. In time, he became its protector and even became King for a short time. But he deserted the crown after discovering the Trial of War. 

The next would be the Trial of Famine, a woman named Clementine. From the now war-torn country of Calif, she took on the Trial, as her body was slowly dying from starvation. She passed the trial to become the holder of Famine. Forever longing but never satiated. 

Several decades would pass then someone discovered the grimoire of Death as they're attending the University of Knighthood and Magic in Ascia. A man named Maevus, followed the trial of Death. This is where we begin our story, as we follow Maevus in his journey to coming to understand the world around him and him learning how his role as the Horseman of Death will change the world in more ways than one.