"Gramps, why are you talking to a wall?" asked someone in the next room.
"You'll have to forgive my grandson, he's a bit blind to possibilities," said the old man, the bandage over his eyes shifting a little as he raised his eyebrows. "I am Herald Kruz, the Sage Of Cruxes. In the year 512, our world diverged from your own. Beings of darkness entered the world and slaughtered many. Years passed where it seemed that the human race would end.
"However - those beings of Darkness had enemies of their own. While not all these opponents were exactly what you might call 'good' - they still intervened. Humanity survived because these other beings took stewardship of lands that had a sort of 'echo' in legends of themselves. Whether they patterned themselves on those beings, were able to take form because of existing beliefs, or it was 'happy coincidence' is left up to other philosophers.
"What is the case however, is that each gravitated to a specific area. Amaterasu and her folk took up those islands of Japan. In the lands bordering the Northern Meditteranean, they were under the banner of Zeus. South of that was Heliopolis and Ra's folk. Below that, the Beast Lords. Much further North and you would find Odin's crew and across the Atlantic were the Element Spirits.
"The areas you know as South America are the dominion of Smoking Mirror, and are considered a satellite of the Darklands. Much as what you might call Russia. Given over to dark and terrible powers by ancient treaty. Despite those treaties, the peace has been broken again and again by great Worlds Wars. In between such times, there are still predators and dark beings that escape those lands to prey upon humanity.
"Then someone, *cough*zeus*cough*, got the idea of breeding heroes. Taking mortal lovers and bringing forth a demigod to do battle with supernatural enemies. Oh, it was still rare. After all, sometimes those demigods turned pretty darn villainous themselves. Sometimes they'd start out that way because if the 'gods of light' could get away with it - so too could the 'gods of darkness'.
"Most times, the child of a god and a mortal was sterile. Ra had a daughter for example, back in 1054. Tragic story - when she took a lover and they fell asleep together, well, she cooked her lover. Things like that. Some rare occasions, that didn't happen and the demigod went on to found a line of those with a Gift. That's the case of the Kruz line here in Germany, descended from Heimdahl and with a Gift Of Sight. It skips a generation or two, alas."
"People gonna think you're crazy old man!" came from the next room.
"You're here about that Ranma Saotome fella, and his father Genma," continuned Herald, "well as it happened - they ended up with their own Gifts when they arrived. Which was just as well. You see, they merged with the Selves that happened to already exist here. Genma Saotome was of the Saotome line - a Gifted line who had an ancestor named Benten some three hundred years prior. Genma gained the ability to alter gravity in a circle centered on himself, which he's worked on until he can extend it a dozen meters or so.
"As for Ranma, well, his mother was a goddess herself. Maybe it was just time, or maybe it was that Genma's luck from his descent from Benten roused itself briefly. Whatever the case, Ranma has a power from the merger in addition to being the son of:
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(Posted Sat, 17 Feb 2007 00:05)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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