“From one seed many roots are born, from us the garden of life grows”. The words glowed in the golden sap of the Great Tree as the 2 young saplings made their way into sanctuary of the first root. Before them stood the oldest of their race, planted here at the dawn of creation to nurture life and grow his roots across the stars. And though the age of fire had hurt the great tree greatly, the first garden had escaped the flames

As to why the Great Tree had called them here, the answers were soon to be made clear. With a whisper of leaves and the creaking of ancient roots, the ancient caretaker of the world spoke: “It has been an age since the time of the great fire, when I was but a young sapling, planted by the hands of the creators.  From my roots this garden has grown, and from it you, caretakers of life and creation. My Unfallen saplings. As one we have laboured to preserve and protect life here, as the fires raged across the gardens of the sky. But now my old roots tell me the fires are quiet, and new life is growing in my shadow. We have a duty to more than this one refuge, a duty to the great garden of life itself to prevent another fire from burning it. The elders and I agree, the time is right for us to spread our seeds and teach these young ones the lessons of preserving the great garden we all share. You two, roots born of the same seed, shall be the first to carry our wisdom to the skies and spread our message to those who grow in the shadow of my leaves.”

With that, a branch of the great tree descended and perched on its end stood a seed of the great tree itself, golden mist swirling inside. Awestruck and honoured, the saplings gazed at each other, as they often did before embarking on another communal task, and then moved to accept their duty and bear the seed of the great tree. Yet as they touched it, it burst, the golden mist inside it engulfing them both. Though they had grown from the same seed of the garden and shared a deeper bond than most of their kin, they were not the same tree. The mist found the larger of the saplings and fed his trunk with vigour, growing him at an incredible rate. The smaller sapling instead felt his mind resonate with that of the great tree, the immense wisdom of ages filling him.

“His root is strong, so he shall carry you across the stars, and in you the seeds of wisdom shall grow”. With a rustling and creaking of ancient effort the canopy of the great tree parted to reveal the endless garden of stars beyond. “Now go, and spread the message of our coming. The stars shall bloom with life once more.”

Right. I will not claim this is any good, but I wanted to try my hand at coming up with a narative (used to do that a lot back in the day) and this seemed like a good enough challenge. I wish there was more room here, I had a draft that is much longer than the 500 word limit with mythological background and some other events, but in the end I decided to settle for what I though fit the requierments of the contest the best way: my vision of what the opening cutscene for the unfallen would look like. It's the start of a new chapter in their story, as they rise to the stars once more and their first hero is sent to explore them and bring the wisdom of the great tree, guardian of life created by the endless, to the stars.

I prefered not to try and come up with some silly name because the curent inspiration we have does not actualy give any clue as to what culture or naming conventions inspire the unfallen civilization, I would imagine that would come with the refinement of the faction post contest. And I am partial to the ideea of them not having actual names, but rather titles they earn as they contribute something to the comunal garden of their species. The Great Tree beeing such an example.