God Of Man
SEVERAL YEARS AGO, and sometime after first watching Apokalypse Now, I got the idea for a story about a white boy raised in a socially-isolated mayan villiage somewhere in the tropical rainforests of South America. He was found floating in the local river from which the community derived their water, fulfilling several of the requirements laid out in a prophecy predicting the return of their long-worshipped god, Idrico. The boy would be raised as the messiah for their religion and the final coming of their god, respected like a king and feared like a tyrant. That was as far as the story got in my head...for a time.
Several months later -- and I mean several months -- the story switched in my head to something more dark and twisted. I decided that, after going out deep into the forbidden forest one day, a fifteen-year-old Idrico would find the remains of a German airplane buried by time. Inside the airplane he would find the truth to his arrival in the villiage, as well as his family's untimely death. Realizing that he was not the god his people had thought him to be, Idrico is faced with a choice. Does he reveal the truth to his people, and in doing so destroy the very fabric of their society and possibly have them destroy him in protest? He cannot do that, but equally well he cannot simply ignore the truth and live the life of a false god to his people. Set in the prophecy is the knowledge that Idrico created his people, and must then one day destroy them to bring them back home. So disturbed by the choice that is impossible to make, Idrico loses his mind and begins to believe that he is God, and that he must therefore fulfill the prophecy at all costs, in the end slaughtering the entire villiage and sitting on his throne in peace below the stone-etched prophecy which he so reverently followed.
Several more pieces have come together from the ether of my mind, clarifying the story to a higher degree. Also within the prophecy is a statement that claims the god Idrico must choose one person to recieve his crown, and that this person will from henceforth be an immortal, incapable of death. Added to the story is another character, as yet unnamed, who is woefully jealous of Idrico and his godly lifestyle. This character follows Idrico into the forest and witnesses him discovering his true identity. He tries to tell the villiage elders of his knowledge, but they do not believe him. So, in an attempt to prove the prophecy wrong, this jealous young man seeks out and kills Idrico's chosen one, who happens to be someone Idrico greatly loves and cares for. In blind vengance, Idrico murders the boy's entire family, and then the boy himself, falling into the aforementioned lunacy, believing that this empowerment through murder is undeniable proof of his true godliness. The story thusly ends with Idrico sitting on his throne in the main temple, underneath the prophecy etched into the wall above him, stained in blood, witnessing the aftermath of his massacre -- dozens of men, women and children brutally murdered inside the temple walls, their blood staining the stone, the prophecy finally fulfilled.
And the new title, you ask? Simple. God of Man.
Several months later -- and I mean several months -- the story switched in my head to something more dark and twisted. I decided that, after going out deep into the forbidden forest one day, a fifteen-year-old Idrico would find the remains of a German airplane buried by time. Inside the airplane he would find the truth to his arrival in the villiage, as well as his family's untimely death. Realizing that he was not the god his people had thought him to be, Idrico is faced with a choice. Does he reveal the truth to his people, and in doing so destroy the very fabric of their society and possibly have them destroy him in protest? He cannot do that, but equally well he cannot simply ignore the truth and live the life of a false god to his people. Set in the prophecy is the knowledge that Idrico created his people, and must then one day destroy them to bring them back home. So disturbed by the choice that is impossible to make, Idrico loses his mind and begins to believe that he is God, and that he must therefore fulfill the prophecy at all costs, in the end slaughtering the entire villiage and sitting on his throne in peace below the stone-etched prophecy which he so reverently followed.
Several more pieces have come together from the ether of my mind, clarifying the story to a higher degree. Also within the prophecy is a statement that claims the god Idrico must choose one person to recieve his crown, and that this person will from henceforth be an immortal, incapable of death. Added to the story is another character, as yet unnamed, who is woefully jealous of Idrico and his godly lifestyle. This character follows Idrico into the forest and witnesses him discovering his true identity. He tries to tell the villiage elders of his knowledge, but they do not believe him. So, in an attempt to prove the prophecy wrong, this jealous young man seeks out and kills Idrico's chosen one, who happens to be someone Idrico greatly loves and cares for. In blind vengance, Idrico murders the boy's entire family, and then the boy himself, falling into the aforementioned lunacy, believing that this empowerment through murder is undeniable proof of his true godliness. The story thusly ends with Idrico sitting on his throne in the main temple, underneath the prophecy etched into the wall above him, stained in blood, witnessing the aftermath of his massacre -- dozens of men, women and children brutally murdered inside the temple walls, their blood staining the stone, the prophecy finally fulfilled.
And the new title, you ask? Simple. God of Man.
Post a Comment