A Goddess is Born?
For hundreds if not thousands of years, the world of
Starlo worshipped a pantheon of deities, each associated with a specific kind of role in making the world, and civilization, function.
This pantheon included gods for the weather, the seas, the earth, farming, hunting, the sun, and more; all the usual gods one might see associated with a pantheon.
One of these deities is the goddess of adventurers and heroes. The world was dangerous after all, full of vicious creatures and even more vicious people; tyrants, bandits, uh...honestly mostly tyrants and wannabe tyrants, there were quite a few of those it was becoming quite a problem.
Heroes were of course necessary for dealing with these problems, and this goddess existed to bless them with the powers and courage they need to see their mission through.
At some point, however the issue got so bad that the people of the world attempted to physically summon the goddess down to get her help directly. Surprisingly, the summoning appeared to be successful, and a rainbow haired, angel-winged woman descended from the heavens and gave the world's heroes everything they needed to ensure peace and justice for all.
A Hero in Her Own Right
At first, all appeared to be well; this supposed goddess travelled the world, blessing all who needed blessings, and making sure heroes could get their jobs done. Over a few centuries, however, she began to grow...restless. Irritated. Dissatisfied. Sure, it was nice to assist other people in doing their work, but...she didn't want to be stuck as a supporter or helper; she wanted to be a hero in her own right!
Thus she tried to do exactly that; rather than assisting heroes and adventurers in completing their tasks, she just began to do them herself; with her unusual power level compared to mere mortals, she was able to take down threats far more efficiently than any adventurer could before.
The people of this world, who didn't really care about who was protecting them as long as they were protected, began to praise their goddess even more, and seemingly...she appeared to grow ever stronger the more praise she got. Even without her direct blessing, her actions continued to encourage other heroes and adventurers to keep doing their thing, so the world experienced an unprecedented era of peace and prosperity.
Ever Higher, Beyond the Heavens
...But the goddess remained unsatisfied.
Sure, she was helping this world be a better place, but what of the worlds up there among the stars? If there were life there, surely they too would have a need for a hero, right?
...So one day, she left. Just...up and left Starlo, and began visiting other worlds.
As she predicted, these worlds had their own problems, their own villains, their own troubled citizens
and so she began to quest for them as well. From world to world she hopped, taking down all sorts of bad guys and assisting all sorts of peoples with all kinds of problems.
This pleased her; finally, it felt like she had a reason for existing. But it all began to go to her head; surely, if she had yet to ever fail in a mission, she must be capable of doing anything and everything, right? She was all powerful, all capable, all good, feeding off of praise and prayer to reach unthinkable levels of power, which she would invest back into her heroism.
...But this would be her undoing.
Flying Too Close to the Sun
One day, she would encounter a world where the end was said to be nigh; a world predicted to end in fire and bloodshed. Nothing could possibly prevent this, surely.
She thought nothing of it though. Like every other world, this one too could be saved.
Thus too did she entered this world, and gather information on what the problem was. Despite these warnings, however, everything seemed...peaceful? The civilization there seemed so advanced and so capable of control over their own world that her assistance did not appear to even be needed.
So...were the warnings wrong? should she just move onto another world?
No. She would stay and fight. something was coming. it was just a matter of when.
...Then it happened. The world met its end. And nothing she tried seemed to slow the end down.
The civilization was far more flawed than it first appeared, and was living on a metaphorical foundation of sand; the moment the sand started crumbling, so did everything else.
In a last ditch effort, one of the people on this world attempted to split it apart into fragments to protect it from its fate.
...And the goddess was split apart with it.
An Irreversable Fall
A fragment of her previous being, so too was her power greatly reduced, and all her memories of the past, who she was, and why she was here vanished with the rest of her soul. She even lost her wings, and only two colors remained in her hair.
It is said that she continues to hop from world to world after this, but she is no longer aware of why it is happening; it is as if a piece of her still yearns for the days when she saved worlds, but she sure didn't know that. She likely doesn't even remember her name anymore.
Whether any of the events described truly took place or not is a mystery, but the moral of the story is clear; no matter one's intentions, one should never take on work that is neither their business nor within their capacity to complete. Even should the attempts succeed at first, it is only a matter of time before it all comes crashing down.
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