stuff that happened

Backstory WiP

• Mara died because of an illness at the age of 4
• Outsider visited the parents preparing to bury their Mara and offered to revive her. They accepted and offered a newborn lamb as offer
• The deal:
  • Mara's life could only be extended for as long as the offering would have lived. So if the lamb was just born and died at the age of 5. Mara only had 5 year left to live
  • The deal also involved that mara got somehow tied to the outsider
  • Mara's parents also got gifted a beautiful necklace "to be worn by Mara at all times"
• Mara got revived and grew up. Her father was a shepard and she loved being around the sheep. She was also able to talk to them
• After a while, Mara started hearing a voice. The voice was friendly at first but then started suggesting her to do things.
• The voice also showed Mara how to summon fire in the palm of her hand. this ability would grow more powerful over the course of her life
• The voices advice was always terrible though, and Mara started to mentally block it. The voice did not like this and instead temporarily took over her body
• At first this was just to get angry at people and compelling Mara to lash out verbally, but after a few years the control became stronger and Mara found herself having to stop her inner voice from attacking people. her urges lead her to be shunned by the village
• Maras parents figured this was the outsiders influence over her and took the necklace away. They tried to destroy it but were unable to do so. instead, they buried it near the place where they wanted to bury Mara. After that, things went back to normal for a while
• When Mara turned 16, a stranger she didn't know gave her a birthday gift. This stranger was the outsider and the birthday gift was the necklace. Upon putting it on, the voice came back and compelled Mara to fall in love with this stranger. This wasn't so much a suggestion as the feelings of the entity in the necklace getting projected onto Maras
• Mara became rebelious towards her parents. When they noticed her wearing the necklace they tried to convince her to take it off but she refused. in the end, she ended up leaving her parents to live with the outsider.
• This was actually right how the outsider planned things. He had to have the vessel he had chosen to come to her willingly. and with this action, Mara had done just that. This opened the door for the entity to take over mara's body completely
• The entity was like Maras prisonkeeper. it took over Maras body if she either tried to remove the necklace or if she tried to leave. But if she was just alone, the entity just left her to wallop in her misery. This was fun to them. When the outsider was around, or if they left the house for some reason, The entity always had full control
• Mara talked to her captor. She had nothing else to do. At first the entity scofffed at her, but over time the entity realized she was just as much a prisoner of the situation than Mara was. She allowed Mara to leave the house and actually show her around. But only when the outsider wasn't home
• One day the outsider did find out and as such, he accelerated his plan. To make the entity regain control, he told the entity to burn down the village and kill every single person there. This had to be done eventually, but with Mara having more control than he wanted, he would do it now to stop this. He underestimated the influence Mara had
• The entity did as the outsider asked at first. But now it was Maras turn to project feelings. with every house she burned down, every scream, every death, The entity felt less and less inclined to continue. When she completely stopped, the outsider took over. he put her in some kind of trap and started to burn down village on his own. This broke the last remaining wall between Mara and the entity. They now had a single mind, a single thought, and a single memory. And they shared this one single emtion in this very moment. Rage
• Mara broke free of her bonds and attacked the outsider. She managed to kill him.
• After this, Mara fled the village. Given what she did and what she was, she figured she was no longer welcome in a human village.
• She was also still made up of 2 souls. Her own and that of the entity. even though they now had a single mind, and were physically 1 being. Mara returned to the place where she once was brought back to life. using the same ritual, she gave up her mortal human soul to revive the sheep that once give its life for her. To make sure the sheep was safe, she then guided it out of the woods and to the village. But the sheep was far from normal. Having a soul that was touched with the essence of a demonic entity, the sheep would live longer than normal and produce a unique kind of wool.the wool of this sheep glowed and always felt warm. it was also much stronger and softer than normal wool. as well as it growing quicker. This wool would make the tale of the sheep spread across the land.
• The sheep actually helped the village rebuild quicker than it otherwise would. And this blessing lead the villagers to try and replicate the success. This lead to the birth of a yearly ritual, where one of the villagers, dressed as a sheep, would walk into the woods with a sheep in tow at night. The villager would then return and wait. if the sheep returned to the village by dawn, it was considered blessed. When Mara saw the sheep being left in the woods, she felt guilty and guided the sheep back. She would give te sheep a little blessing to make sure it was healthy. and like that, Mara became a protector diety for lost sheep

Extra information

• The entity that Mara fused with is a demonprince (or princess in this case). The outsider is an outcast demon who managed to get his hands on a demon seed. He was hoping to create a demonprince and become its second in command
• Mara's parents didn't just pick any place to bury their daughter. They chose a small clearing next to a spring in the woods. This spring was also said to be a portal to the netherworld. When the outsider appeared, he had just escaped from there
  Some lore about demonprinces:
  • Unlike the number of demons (who do not have a soul) the number of demonprinces is limited to the amount of demon souls that exist. it is incredibly hard to create a demon soul. Luckily, demon souls are also immortal. if a demonprince dies, the soul is reverted into a physical object called a demon seed. To limit infighting among demonprinces, only a select few are allowed to exist at a given time. the other demon souls are kept as demon seeds until there is time to revive them.
  • It is easy for a regular demon to become a demon prince with a demon seed. But the original demon is completely lost when the prince takes over. For most demons, this is an honor. For the outsider, losing himself was unacceptable.
  • Demon princes have no memories of their past life. This is why demons are usually prepped to have the right knowledge before becoming a prince
• The demonprince/entity that fused with Mara never fully hatched but still had immortality and most demonprinces powers.
• At some point, the villagers build a shrine near the spring. Mara saw this as a good place to actually live as the hut she made for herself lacked craftsmanship. There was also a shrine attendant now that would take care of the shrine from time to time. At first Mara was wary to show herself to this human. But over time she started showing herself, indulging herself in all the things they offered her. Mara never asked for anything and only accepted what the human would bring. But the attendent was quite nice and made sure that every offering was worth her time. They even cooked for her.
• Mara has a duty as a diety. She is tasked with guiding lost sheep. Either back to their owners or to the afterlife. She has to travel quite a lot and is often not in the shrine. She hates the way to the afterlife. It is too cold and too quiet.
• Mara visits the human world quite often. She likes to just hang out sometimes and see the lives of humans. She even forms temporary friendships with them. But she refuses to form any lasting bonds with humans. Mara knows that she will outlive them and does not want to feel the sadness of losing them. Her shrine attendant is the only exception