The Weight of Souls

The year is 2300. Mankind had barely avoided wiping themselves out and were on course to enter a new era of prosperity. This course was halted when beings from the stars conquered--or more accurately, re-counquered--the plant. These beings stood 10 feet tall and worse biomechanical and lumitechnical suits that resembled the gods from ancient Egyptian mythology. These beings spoke a foreign tongue that was translated through their technology, but most scholars agree it was strongly related to the extinct Old Egyptian language and a few humans have learned to speak it. They call themselves the 'Ni:buw, but most people call them The Pantheon collectively, or the specific deity they resemble individually.

Today is Judgement Day; the day when those chosen by lottery are weighed upon Anubis' Scale of Souls. Unlike traditional scales, this one is a platform hovering in the air at the top of a short flight of steps. Once a person steps on to it, the weight of their guilt causes the platform to slowly descend. If the platform touches the floor, the subject is killed instantaneously by means unknown, their very atoms ripped apart and siphoned into Anubis' body. No living soul knows by what criteria humanity is judged, but no more than a quarter of the judged survive. The Judging of 2291 is still remembered as the most brutal when not a single soul survived.

But such a harsh day is counterbalanced with a grand festival. Before the Judgment at sundown, the day is full of food, drink, games, and celebration. Those set to be judged try to live life to the fullest on what is likely to be their last day on Earth. Those not judged celebrate the lives of those who will be. The celebrations take place in the streets and plazas outside Anubis' Obelisk, a 100-story tall black skyscraper capped with a glass pyramid. It is inside this pyramid where the Judgment takes place. And it is where you all find yourselves currently.

You stand at the top of the tower, inside the pyramid, along with hundreds of others to watch the Judging. Anubis sits on a throne made of metal and light. The setting sun bathes the wide, flat room in orange light and the glass from the pyramid makes patterns of light on the floor and the people standing around.

Someone you know and love has been selected to be Judged. Feelings well up within you as time draws near: anger, despair, fear, outrage. How dare these beings judge humanity? How dare they select someone you love? What will happen to them? What will happen to you if you interfere? All of these thoughts whirl in your mind and you feel the heat of your emotions build up, your heart pounding, until it stops. For a moment, you are dead. Your feelings and thoughts have evaporated, everything is darkness. Then your body restarts. You feel a tingling sensation, heat suffuse your body. And more than anything, power. You feel stronger, faster. Think clearer. You realize you can hear the thoughts of hundreds of other spectators around you. You have become a Mythender.