Kontheios

One of the things about writing things like these is that it gives me a chance to try to be less verbose (which I have a habit of being). On the other hand, whenever I write less, I just end up either feeling lazy, or like I’ve left something out.
That said, in this case I am absolutely being lazy.

In Kontheios, Castle Atrekei was where the Gods lived. Once. But one day, more than five hundred years ago, the gates opened, and there was no one inside.
Texts were found, written in the language of the gods. As far as anyone could tell, they really had loved the people of their creation, and had sought to do what was best for them. Countless theological and scientific questions were answered in a heartbeat. And nowhere was there any hint as to where the gods had gone, or what had happened to them.
Over the following century, numerous religions sprung up, purporting to have answers. And just as soon, they declared each other blasphemous, and fought. It was a time of great upheaval, and, as with all times of great upheaval, there was no shortage of men willing to make things worse, if it would profit them to do so. Today, only a few major schools of thought remain on the subject of the gods:
The Avessei believe that some great human sin so horrified the gods, that they left the world, disgusted by the evil in humanity. The Omoroi go further, believing that this act was so heinous, that it actually poisoned the gods, who retreated from reality to heal. Meanwhile, the Prossei believe that the gods left their children behind to forge their own path, that the next step in humanity’s development requires them to be without their gods. And the Calanei believe that a being they call Asanelan, the adversary of the gods, attacked them, and that the gods were able to defeat it only at the cost of their own lives.
But in fact, the world today has in large part moved on from the gods. Whilst few doubt they did exist, fewer still believe that they will return soon, or that some clue as to their disappearance might be found. When the disappearance first happened, numerous men dedicated their lives to finding the answer to that mystery,but there is no record that any succeeded.
There have been other changes, too, since the disappearance of the Gods. The souls of the dead, which were once ferried by Xarile to the great beyond, now linger in this world. Whilst only the strongest can manifest as ghosts or spectres, anyone who has died since that day can be called upon by magic. Plants, too, unconstrained by Demmera, have grown wild and unruly. They grow wherever they please, weeds choking crops, and forests ignoring their natural borders. Even the Sun has grown erratic in the sky, now that Heimmora is no longer there to measure out its path. And in a thousand other ways, the world has changed, now that the gods are not there for it.