The World of 'The Inheritance' Universe

The Covenant of Blood & Shadow

theinheritancebooksaga

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4–5 minutes

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(Whispered through the Veils by the Silent High Witch)

“The gods desired remembrance, and so they bound their veins to mortal dust.”

Verse I – The First of the Divine

  1. When the Twenty-Six Houses took their thrones, the heavens trembled with pride.
  2. The gods looked upon their creations and desired not worship, but reflection.
  3. For none among them could die, and this none could understand the ache that birthed prayer.
  4. Asimera wept fire upon the soil, crying, “How shall we be known if we cannot end?”
  5. And Baelor answered from his wells. “Let us taste we have made”.
  6. Then the Flame sighed again – and from that sigh came Hunger, the first shadow cast by divinity.

Verse II – The Making of Fleshbound Oaths

  1. The Serpent-Moon descended between realms, coiling through the clouds and seas.
  2. It spoke to the Houses: “To know creation, you must become it. Bind yourselves to the dust, and you shall remember”.
  3. Thus the gods cut their palms and pressed them against the world’s clay.
  4. When their blood fell, it quickened. Where it gathered, it spoke.
  5. The mixture of god-blood and mortal soil birthed the Witchblood Lineages, the first Inheritors.
  6. Each carried within them one letter of the divine alphabet – a shard of eternal memory.

Verse III – The Nine Forbidden Runes

  1. In secret, the Witchblood carved symbols into the air that only gods should know.
  2. These were the Nine Forbidden Runes, written in fire, sealed in blood.
  3. To speak them was to summon power; to understand them was to suffer its cost.
  4. Caldris forged the first rune in thunder, naming it Justice.
  5. Divyne shaped the second in perfume and dream, naming it Deceit.
  6. Huethel wove the thirds in silence, naming it Truth Unheard.
  7. The rest were scattered through time, hidden in relics, rivers, and unborn tongues.
  8. The serpent alone remembers all nine, but speaks none.

Verse IV – The Black River Pact

  1. The Witchbloods multiplied, and the Houses grew fearful of their reflection.
  2. For mortals now dreamed as gods did – and gods began to envy mortal death.
  3. Gasfayne and Huethel gathered beneath the Serpent-Moon and struck the Black River Pact.
  4. They swore: “Let half our power flow into them, and half their mortality into us”.
  5. Thus came the balance – the mingling of grace and decay.
  6. From this river flowed both blessing and curse:
    • Blessing, that the divine may walk the world unseen.
    • Curse, that the world may forget what divinity looks like.

Verse V – The Serpent Saints

  1. From those who survived the mingling, none arose with scales upon their hearts.
  2. These were the Serpents Saints, immortal but not eternal, doomed to walk until they repented of their first sin – the desire to be known.
  3. They bore names of forgotten light and were neither god nor man.
  4. Their breath could bless or blight; their blood heal or poison.
  5. The Saints became the keepers of the Runes, guardians of the thin veil between Heaven and Hollow.
  6. When they slept, they dreamed of the day the Serpent-Moon would coil around them more and whisper; “You are forgiven”.

Verse VI – The Witch’s Burden

  1. Those born of Witchblood carried the burden of remembering what gods had forgotten.
  2. In their veins burned both light and not.
  3. When they prayed, the heavens listened through tears; when they cursed, the earth shuddered in reply.
  4. The High Witch arose from among them – nameless, ageless, her tongue marked by every letter of the divine alphabet.
  5. She alone could read the runes without dying, though each syllable carved another scar upon her soul.
  6. The Houses called her the Mirror of All Sin, and yet they sent her dreams for counsel.
  7. It was she who first spoke the prophecy of the Serpent-Moon’s return.

Verse VII – The Price of Covenant

  1. The gods had touched the mortal realm too deeply; the Veils began to thin.
  2. Shadows walked where none should, and light bled from the cracks of creation.
  3. Zerathul, the Last Light, cried out: “The circle must be sealed, or all shall devour all”.
  4. And so the Serpent-Moon descended a final time to renew the oath.
  5. It spoke:
"From this night forward, let none of divine
blood walk unmarked.
Their eyes shall shimmer with memory;
their souls shall crave what is lost.
Through them, the world shall remember
me."

6. The Witchblood wept, for they knew they had been chosen to suffer the remembering forever.

Verse VIII – The Hidden Veve

  1. To seal the covenant, the High Witch carved a mark into the air – a coiled moon within a serpent’s eye.
  2. The mark glowed only in deathlight and could be seen by no living creature without losing its name.
  3. It became known as the Serpent Veve, symbol of the eternal binding between mortal and god.
  4. Every town, every House, bears a faint echo of this Veve, hidden in its architecture, rivers, and bloodlines.
  5. The Witch wrote upon the wind:
"To inherit is to suffer.
To remember is to burn.
To forget is to die twice."

Here, the heavens bent down to kiss the earth, and in that kiss was born both love and ruin. What follows is the echo – the earthly mirrors of the Houses.

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