The Twin Hunters of Death
The Bow and the Beast
Never one...
...Without the other
General
It is said that the elves of Fal'Addas believe in a myth known as the twin hunters of death. They are a tale as old as time, changing only slightly as it is passed down through generations. A brother and sister, the bow and the beast. They are not gods, though the elves tend to worship them both out of fear and in hopes they will receive a swift shot from The Bow's merciful hand rather than ending up in the cruel hands of the sadistic Beast.It is a mortal’s nature to die. To live in fear of this is to live in fear of one’s very nature, and so the Beast’s cruelty is a reminder of what make’s people mortal more than anything else, that being pain. Accepting death is an easy shot for the bow, but those who run from death aren't so easy to hit, so it falls on the beast to hunt them down.
The Bow and The Beast are set to maintain the balance between life and death. The Bow leads those who are ready via a swift shot of her bow. The beast will hunt down those who refuse their fate and give them the violent end he thinks they deserve. The balance between life and death is fine, after all.
Lore
In the beginning The Bow and The Beast were one, tasked to claim the souls of those who met their end and guide them to the afterlife. For many years, the two were nearly indistinguishable from each other. Neither carried emotion, wants, or needs, aside from the drive to perform their sole task of bringing death to those unfortunate enough to cross their path with their identical blades. However, as years passed, the two would slowly become more distinct.
“The Beast,” as he was known, would be drawn to battlefields where souls were abundant. He would watch as people fought and died with feelings of hatred in their hearts, and how the victors would celebrate their killings by boasting of their valor in battle. He would also observe as barbarians ravaged cities and pillaged all that was in their way. In time, as he searched to understand who he was, he began to identify with those like this. After all, both he and they were bringers of death. It only made sense that he should take pride in killing as they did.
The other half of the twin spirit, the one known as “The Bow,” would not follow such a bloody path. Thousands of lives she lived allowed her to adjust to society. She saw how unjust death could bring sadness. Mothers losing sons, lovers torn apart by illness, and wars bringing children to die by famine. She saw the devastation this would bring to the living, and in time, began to resent her task. It was a far cry from the feral beast she was in the beginning. Still, she did not rest her blade right away. Death is a necessary thing for the cycle to continue, both she and her brother knew this. And even if she did not enjoy this task as her brother did, she understood it was their responsibility.
A rift would grow between the twin spirits due to their slow change in personalities over thousands of years, a rift that would finally tear the two apart on the day The Bow had chosen to forsake her duty. A woman was set to die by the Bow’s sword at the order of her brother, not nature. The Bow could not bring herself to carry out this killing, and chose instead to spare the woman in an act that defied the reason for her creation. But the Beast would not be so kind, and so he would cut both the woman and her family down that night in a violent display. He believed she deserved punishment for living beyond the time she was allotted, and so he had made sure their deaths were not swift.
When The Bow learned of this, she cast her sword aside in disgust, swearing never again to bring an unjust death. She would plot to end The Beast’s terror over the citizens and return peace to the elves. The Beast thought this an outrage, and so he took up her discarded sword and brought death as he pleased, even going so far as to kill those not yet meant to die. When the two would again meet, the Beast had become little more than an animal, as his name would suggest. He would kill The Bow out of impulse, only realizing it was his sibling after he had done so. For the first time, he was suddenly filled with sadness and regret. He had finally understood what his sibling had realized so long ago, the pain that death could bring. The beast, unable to live with this grief, would act one last time out of impulse and take his life with the sword that he had taken his sister’s with.
Though their physical forms will die, they will always be reborn and the story repeats. The Bow will always plot to kill The Beast and The Beast will always kill The Bow in an act of rage before taking his own life.
“The Beast,” as he was known, would be drawn to battlefields where souls were abundant. He would watch as people fought and died with feelings of hatred in their hearts, and how the victors would celebrate their killings by boasting of their valor in battle. He would also observe as barbarians ravaged cities and pillaged all that was in their way. In time, as he searched to understand who he was, he began to identify with those like this. After all, both he and they were bringers of death. It only made sense that he should take pride in killing as they did.
The other half of the twin spirit, the one known as “The Bow,” would not follow such a bloody path. Thousands of lives she lived allowed her to adjust to society. She saw how unjust death could bring sadness. Mothers losing sons, lovers torn apart by illness, and wars bringing children to die by famine. She saw the devastation this would bring to the living, and in time, began to resent her task. It was a far cry from the feral beast she was in the beginning. Still, she did not rest her blade right away. Death is a necessary thing for the cycle to continue, both she and her brother knew this. And even if she did not enjoy this task as her brother did, she understood it was their responsibility.
A rift would grow between the twin spirits due to their slow change in personalities over thousands of years, a rift that would finally tear the two apart on the day The Bow had chosen to forsake her duty. A woman was set to die by the Bow’s sword at the order of her brother, not nature. The Bow could not bring herself to carry out this killing, and chose instead to spare the woman in an act that defied the reason for her creation. But the Beast would not be so kind, and so he would cut both the woman and her family down that night in a violent display. He believed she deserved punishment for living beyond the time she was allotted, and so he had made sure their deaths were not swift.
When The Bow learned of this, she cast her sword aside in disgust, swearing never again to bring an unjust death. She would plot to end The Beast’s terror over the citizens and return peace to the elves. The Beast thought this an outrage, and so he took up her discarded sword and brought death as he pleased, even going so far as to kill those not yet meant to die. When the two would again meet, the Beast had become little more than an animal, as his name would suggest. He would kill The Bow out of impulse, only realizing it was his sibling after he had done so. For the first time, he was suddenly filled with sadness and regret. He had finally understood what his sibling had realized so long ago, the pain that death could bring. The beast, unable to live with this grief, would act one last time out of impulse and take his life with the sword that he had taken his sister’s with.
Though their physical forms will die, they will always be reborn and the story repeats. The Bow will always plot to kill The Beast and The Beast will always kill The Bow in an act of rage before taking his own life.
References
Special Thanks
Thanks to my brother for putting my bullet point list into paragraphs