New direction for dissertation, short story idea.

My dissertation will be dealing with ideas of existentialism, concepts of progress/time being an illusion, exploring various archaic and theistic aspects of cultures and including elements of grim and sublime fantasy:

Upon the seat of all the major archaic points of power, left desolate but for the gods ancient energy

a few non human creatures still exist

only correspondents or familiars of the gods

dead bodies decay and rot, bones turn to dust in the dry wind, the last remnants of humanity

gone, for the devils fled their crypt, and exact justice on the mortal chaos. Devils were a name humans gave to their darkest fears and deepest sins, a personified aspect of their guilt, for the devils existed but only as guardians, safekeeping the underworld and keeping watch over the darkest parts of humanity. The real evil existed within us, and when we fled too far from good they exacted their vengeance, allowed by the gods to rid their world of our plague.

Setting a) a top an aztec temple, morrigan consorts with huehuecoyotl, ravens and coyotes linger, picking scraps from the human remains, extensions of the gods, cleaning up the earth while the true aspects confer. The shapeshifter morrigan and trickster huehue discuss a plan overheard in the olympiad of the high gods, they speculated the plague that was humanity and all its faults was seeping into the divine council, corruption amidst their ranks. One god declared though the human bodies may have deceased the evil remained, the earth still turned and life, in parts, threatened to flourish again, the other gods dismissed this as preposterous, anger set in as this was seen as a challenge to the work of their underworldlings, the guardian of the dead insulted by the notion he had failed, chimed in with a snide remark, undermining the first god's authority, claiming perhaps he was admitting guilt that he had protected some of the human life, a row broke out and as tempers rose, the two declared a duel. HueHue reported that he believed, though inadvertently, this is what the god was referring to, that humanity and its evil remained within the council, without vessels to purge imperfections or to judge, the gods absorbed all the human traits unto themselves and began to turn on one another. Morrigan devised a plan, and sent huehue to propose her idea to the high gods. Walk a mile in the shoes of our creation. We believed the ultimate evil was the chaos humanity leaked, but perhaps humanity was the chaos leaked by the gods, there was no ultimate, definable evil, but evil was eternal and unconditional, it existed in pockets throughout time and existence itself and could not be assigned to one enemy or body. The gods were to agree to spend a century on the earth as mortals, no powers, nothing to watch over them or pray to, morrigan and huehue were to observe and never help or hinder, they could interact but nothing more. Once the gods had completed their journey only then did they have a chance at understanding and potentially correcting the earth they cherished.

The following extract is my first attempt at writing this story seriously. For now it is just the introduction/beginning, setting the scene for the rest of the story. Any constructive feedback is encouraged!

And the gods took their earth back, a long standing plague that had left an open wound, festering and choking all that was meant to thrive, another mistake, eradicated. For the first time in millennia, life had begun to flourish, a broken and blackened world slowly turning green once more, birds took back the sky, what was once smog and death, was now filled with their song. The remains of the longest day, stone steps and charred streets still wet and crimson, for the world had to be left a reminder of how power, corruption and disease would be dealt with, the bodies were left behind in a perpetual purgatory of decay. Perhaps, however, this was more than that, perhaps it was a mirror to the divine, for they say man was created in the image of gods. A black and broken pyramid, an artefact of the aztec empire, stood valiantly under the feet of HueHuecoyotl, a celestial trickster, his face illuminated with amusement as he joked to himself about the blind arrogance of mankind, often mistaken for courage; a fallacy, and all they had built resembled that. A velvet thunder trickled across the sky, a murder of crows and ravens soared over the battlefield, a dark fluster that, as it landed, contorted into the illusion of a woman: a crone, her icy skin shone through the smoke and wreckage, her crooked feet crushed limbs and debris as she sauntered toward the platform, the wisest, chieftain of magick and mystery, forever endowed with chaos. “Such flimsy flesh, so weak, so quick to rot, a perfect metaphor for the vanquished, wouldn't you agree?” Her robes left trails of ash and sparks of emerald as she crossed over bodies, up to the foot of the pyramid. “I concur, humans were pathetic, you know we've never argued about that. Did you fly so far just to discuss the past, Morrigan?” She continued, ignoring his question; “Even what mankind believed to be strong, resilient and great crumbles beneath us, this was supposed to be a totem, a sacred piece of architecture intended to honour your brothers and sisters. I feel it would be more accurate to say they built it to honour themselves.” “That is all any of them cared about, a legacy, vanity, to curse everything with their mark. It's a little bit sad, I can't help but laugh.” Huehue studied her expression “you always were impossible to read..” “I believe we may have a problem” Morrigan persisted, “I never stood wholly behind this decision, yet I never objected, it was not my place, now I wish I had. Can you not see what great in-balance this has caused? Never before had we allowed a vessel to absorb so much of our toxicity. Now that our lightning rod has gone..” Her image shifted, as she looked about, a motherly grievance swept over her, her features became younger and her eyes, deeper and kinder. “A part of me feared the change this apocalypse would bring, now the dust has settled, more of me fears what little has changed. Was their survival truly not so crucial to our stability?” A look of exasperated mirth crossed his face, “we are Gods, Morrigan, mankind was never intended as a projection of ourselves.” A moment of solemnity crept over them, akin to the rising mist of souls before them, now shifting into the astral plane, a chilling vibration hovered about the air. HueHuecoyotl was the first to break the silence: “This is the price of our creation, their creation. We are already beginning to doubt ourselves, this is their poison, be damned if you are to let it plague you too” he paused, surveying the damage, in an attempt to match her empathy “a vile deed this was, but one that was necessary, we all bore witness to the chaos they ensued.” “Humanity was our puppet, the host of our parasitic troubles. We were not so different from them, HueHue, you'd do best to remember that.” Her contempt with his dis-compassionate words carved lines through Morrigan's face, her eyes reverted to their dry and icy blue state, with her last words the goddess cast her runes and took flight, disappearing into the heavens as abruptly as she had arrived. HueHue sat on the blood drenched steps, drawing shapes in the dust and meditating upon their discourse, an uneasy sickness trembled within. “To rise, and fall, to build only to crumble, around and around, this maddening cycle never ends. Progression is the greatest joke.”