Overview of Mythology in Southern Sartoria
Colleria University

Over fifteen minutes remained for the class to start, yet the classroom was almost entirely packed. What few empty seats remained were sure to be filled in the next couple of minutes, and some were bound to remain standing, if previous semesters were any indication. This particular lesson was always a popular one, to the point that the professor had been forced to agree to let people who were not registered for his class. Such was the sheer amount of interest in this particular topic. He was sitting behind his desk, writing on a piece of paper, probably some notes for the class. Some students were talking, most in hushed voices, but everyone for the most part stayed silent, waiting in expectation of what they all knew would come.

Minutes passed, until the professor stood, adjusting his grey suit, and turned off the lights. He grabbed his remote controller and press a button on it. An image was displayed on the screen at the front of the class. It was gruesome, some would even call it horrifying, yet few could take their eyes away from the image. It was a tall, pale humanoid figure, eyes on its hands, devouring humans. With another press of the button, the professor now displayed the humanoid figure, this time only its face, one completely devoid of any hair, and without eyes. It was not as if the figure had had its eyes removed, rather as if it had been born without any eyes, regular skin where the eyes should have been.

"I am sure you all know what this is. I am less sure that you all know what it truly represents." His glasses reflecting the light from the projector, the professor spoke to the whole class. "Sacur is the name of a demonic deity that features prominently in the various mythologies of Southern Sartoria. It first appeared in the First Scroll of Laterani, which was possibly written in 837, as a minor being, an opponent to Laterana, the highest deity of the Laterani. You already know the basics with regards to them, but were legally prevented from learning about Sacur until this course."

He pressed another button, this time showing the same shape, but with some differences. It was a rudimentary drawing, probably on a wall, showing the same pale figure, on its knees, holding its eyes accusingly at a bright light, which the students correctly identified as the usual representation of Laterana. "Sacur was a servant of Laterana who disagreed with her treatment of humans. He did not believe that she should live with them, coexisting and helping them achieve their full potential; he believed that superior skills granted a right to superior treatment, so he set out to show her how a superior being should behave, and he did that by ruining her work. Whatever Laterana made, from that moment onwards, Sacur would destroy."

Another press of the button, this time a village on fire appeared on the screen. "Eventually it became too much. Sacur had become far more than a nuisance, instilling fear into the hearts of humans, threatening to undo the very fabric of society, claiming that true beauty would unfold once he had undone the supposed damage of Laterana's benevolence." By this point the classroom was in complete silence, all obviously hoping to find out how Sacur had become an eyeless demon. "As told in the Sixth Scroll of Laterani, Sacur grew tired of how Laterana easily remade what he destroyed, and openly challenged her to a duel for control over humanity."

Chiavere, Sartoria

It was not for nothing that Chiavere had long been called the Città Lucente. If the north was known for its fondness of traditional towns and the south was known for its love of nature, the east was known for its development of industry and technologies, and Chiavere was no less than the shining beacon at the centre of all that. It was the city to which every young graduate looked when thinking of making their own future, the city of which everyone thought when talking about the height of opulence in Sartoria, not only for those fortunate enough to be born there, but also for the countless who had made their way there from the various realms. It was, in short, the ultimate land of opportunities.

It was also a cultural melting pot. Its politics were dominated by the Social Progressives, but beyond mere policy stances, Chiavere was a place where one could find something from even the smallest realm, be that cultural performances, exotic cuisine, souvernis or even something as simple as a food stand. In the past three decades, Chiavere had developed a lucrative tourism industry, taking advantage of its multiculturality to promote itself under the wildly popular abroad, though not so much in the other realms, Sartoria in One City. This had been a goal for the city government, and one on which locals took great pride, but it mattered little to the hundreds of companies that occupied the various skyscrapers in the business district or to the hundreds of obscure think tanks and associations that had their offices in Chiavere.

Mario Arcelli was a member of one such association. It lacked any definite structure, and very few knew it even existed, but he took pride in the fact that he had recently been invited to seat in the meetings of the senior leadership. He always thought himself important, and at least to the public eye he certainly was. He was one of the wealthiest people in his realm, founder of a very influential company, with easy access to the leadership of his realm and arguably those of others as well. Then again, he knew as well as anyone that power and wealth were not necessarily all that it took to climb to the top of the association. He had never met them, but he knew there were others who owed their positions to the skills they had displayed in the service of their common cause. Knowing what little he knew of the association, it was an unsettling thought to imagine what kind of skills they would have needed to display to reach the higher circles.

As he walked along Via della Chiave, one of the most important in the city, he thought of all that had transpired to get him to where he was, on his way to his first senior meeting as part of an association whose existence he had not even known ten years earlier. Then he was a wealthy undergraduate student, on his final year in university, planning his future as a successful business leader, someone who would have enough time to go on extended vacations and pleasure trips. He would go to Porto Centenio every couple of months, perhaps Selene or Noveaux every other year. Things had changed the year after he graduated, when he started working on postgraduate options. He had come across something that had changed him for good, something that had changed his goals in life, from personal pleasure to something much different, which even he struggled to understand at first.

It was better not to dwell on it. That was all in the past, and he had to focus on the future now. Nine years after first making contact with the association, he had finally joined the senior leadership, or at least had taken the first step towards true senior leadership. As he reached a tall building, one of many skyscrapers scattered throughout Chiavere, and entered the lobby, he thought of how much he had done to reach this point, so much that he had done to set the wheels in motion, and briefly smiled at the thought of all that would follow. Once in the lift he followed the protocol that he had been taught days before, and soon enough he has moving towards a floor whose existence few knew.

He exited towards an empty hallway, and upon reaching the end he turned right, where he found a locked door. He knocked on the door, as he had been instructed to do, and a few seconds after someone opened it.