The Vasilios family has produced great warriors for hundreds of years and they have made their name known as one of the strongest families in the country. Some of their descendants are in the military Hall of Fame, some are great figures in history, taught to little children in schools.
The reason is because they have been favored by the gods for years and the blessings that they have received from the gods have helped them reach great heights.
There are 2 types of powers given to those in this world. There are Blessings and there are Heritages.
Both are gotten from the gods during a ceremony where they are acknowledged by one or more of the many deities and are given gifts, abilities, weapons or any equipment to help them thrive in this world of heroes.
Blessings are gifts given, that could increase a person's strength, speed agility or mental fortitude. If someone is blessed with a strong armor or the ability to control lightning, the person could rise in power. As long as they train hard they could evolve to rival demigods, lesser gods even.
Heritages are exactly as the name implies. They are special blessings given to those whom a deity takes a liking to or feels connected to. It is the legacy of the said God, given to a person who would potentially take the place of the god.
A Heritage is basically a lesser version of a deity's abilities, given to the one they chose. The difference between a blessing and a heritage is immortality.
A blessing grants a person unique abilities. Or weapons capable of harming gods, but the weilder could still possibly die if hit with a fatal blow. But a person with a heritage is immortal, not that they can't be killed, but that they will come back to life even when dealt with the most fatal blow. And if they do die, they can be reborn once their corpse is left to recuperate. And if their body is totally disintegrated, it can reform. Although it could take days, months, years. Depending on how powerful the person was before death or how much god energy is left of the person, sometimes it's pure luck.
But even with luck attached to immortality, just the idea of it is enough to drive people crazy.
People pray to the gods and some even develop cults and a great following for a certain deity, all in the name of acquiring a heritage. But they still aren't acknowledged by that deity.
Different members of the Vasilios household have acquired blessings from different deities, but there is one deity that they truly worship.
Amaterasu, one of the gods of the sun. She is the goddess of order and rulership and she has constantly given blessings to the members of the Vasilios household, and it is the abilities she gives them that helped them make their name known as the strongest family, and establish their rulership in the city, Solarae.
Many years ago Amaterasu granted a heritage to Christopher Vasilios the 1st, and that is what caused the influence of the Vasilios household to grow. Christopher Vasilios the 1st was blessed with a myriad off different abilities from Amaterasu. One of the powers he was given was the ability to heal, this helped him when he joined the military. Being able to heal even the most fatal injury he quickly rose up the ranks and he didn't waste time to monetize his power. He became one of the most feared commanders in the army, and gained a high political standing in Solarae. He ran for City Head and won. Since then even though not all of the Vasilios' descendants became heads of the city Solarae, they did retain their political standing.
300 years down the line, the ceremony is held again and another member of the household is given a heritage. Christopher Vasilios II.
Christopher Vasilios the 2nd was 15 years old when he took part in the ceremony, and he is the second member of the family to obtain a heritage. His parents thought it would bring good luck to name him after their ancestor, how ironic is it that he obtained a heritage from the same goddess who blessed Christopher Vasilios the 1st.
Christopher Vasilios II was away from Solarae on an assignment, there he met Lydia, a beautiful woman who captured his heart, he lay with her for a night and went home the next day. A few weeks later she found him and told him she was pregnant, he asked her to get rid of it but she didn't want to. Athos was born and soon the news spread round the city like wildfire that the heir to the Vasilios household has a child with another woman. They didn't know how, no one knows how but the news spread, Christopher blamed Lydia for it but she denied ever spreading the news.
Christopher's father asked him to bring Lydia into the Vasilios household and responsibility for his actions, in turn would cause the negative view from the public to die down a bit. Lydia was brought into the estate and given her own residence within the estate. She was not accepted by a lot of members of the family, and this caused her to leave the estate, not willing to take the abuse, but she did her best to raise Athos on her own until the time of the ceremony.
Athos was entitled to thesame education and training as Christopher's other children and Lydia made sure he took advantage of it even though he wasn't as talented as Christopher's other children.
On the day of the ceremony, when it was time to gather before several members of the family and before various statues and relics of the gods, Àthos Vasilios, now 13 years old, was brought by his mother to the estate for him to claim his blessing. He sat cross legged on the ground after various ceremonial procedures. A statue shook and then ...
Well, let's find out .