Disclaimer: Any and all characters associated with the films Pitch Black & The Chronicles of Riddick are property of USA Films, Universal Studios, Radar, and One Race Productions. They have been used without permission and are used for entertainment purposes only. No copyright infringements are intended. All other characters are the author's own creation and belong to the author.

Terra Firma

Prologue

Faith has always been a dangerous force, especially where humans are concerned. That is why we Elementals have always relied on logic. Faith has forced men to murder and destroy, and it has driven others to forsake their own lives for the ideal of the greater good.

Five years ago, when the Furyan Riddick took over the throne of the Lord Marshal, the leader of the Necromonger theocracy, I could foresee the restoration of balance in the universe. Balance is everything, it is essential and it is what Elementals strive to maintain. What I did not foresee was the schism that would result from Riddick's rise to the throne, what I did not foresee was an end to perhaps the vilest, most violent faiths in the history of man.

There is a balance again, even with a Furyan Lord Marshal, but the balance came with a high price.

Riddick found the truth for us all by traveling to the Threshold of the Underverse, and like his predecessor, he came back changed. But this change did not affect Riddick like it had Zhylaw; it changed Riddick in the sense that he became stronger and more resolute to change the universe. Of course, this change had nothing to do with a newfound sense of honor; Riddick was and perhaps always will be a beast, a killer of men. But he returned changed nonetheless.

The Threshold was nothing more than a rift in space, something akin to a black hole, it was a rift that led to nowhere, the energy being sucked down too much for the rift to bear, thus much energy was expelled…it was this cosmic energy that had transformed Zhylaw, and it was this energy that pushed Riddick to dissolve the Necromonger Empire.

It was the commander Toal who represented those who were True Believers in Necroism, and it was he who took over half of the Empire toward the Threshold. Faith is an illogical notion, and all that followed Toal may have found their Underverse, but at what price?

What was left, and where Riddick sat, was those who had been converted against their will…those who remembered their lives before conversion and longed for that life again. Riddick was the reluctant leader, surrounded by those who doubted him, those who hated him. Three years into his reign, Riddick was left with half the Necromonger fleet and those who had renounced their conversion and followed Riddick out of obligation to return the universe to balance.

Riddick did not fight to keep his throne; he even gave Toal the Necropolis to take to the Threshold. Riddick now had an army, but he was not out to conquer and convert, he was out to restore. With every planet that had been destroyed, Riddick returned to repopulate, destroy the Icons that marred the landscape and slowly erase the Necromonger faith from the minds of the universe.

Riddick was no hero and he was not a savior, but he was a man consumed in his own regrets, his own mistakes. He was a Furyan, a killer, and he was ruthless. Those who followed him now were those who either followed him unconditionally as the Lord Marshal, or were those who also were consumed by the same type of regret as Riddick…only wanting to set things right.

I was surprised to find that the Lord Vaako was one of Riddick's strongest supporters. He could be trusted…only after his scheming wife was disposed of… Dame Vaako died quickly in the hands of her husband…her neck broken, her poison tongue silenced. Lord Vaako now stood at Riddick's side as his right hand man, a creature very much like Riddick…a killer and a warrior. Vaako knew he was never meant to be a leader, he was meant to be the steadfast support of a great leader, thus he stood with Riddick, much to the Furyan's chagrin.

So Riddick took up residence in his own ship, sending others to restore the damage done while he wallowed inside his own guilt after losing the only woman he loved…Kyra.

Five years…and Riddick finally decided to turn his attentions to his home world, a world he only knew in dreams and through a woman who haunted his dreams…Shirah. His state of being had changed through the five years on the throne, but I knew…as did Vaako, that it was time to return to where it all began…where Riddick became a figure of prophecy and where he would ultimately find his redemption.

TBC...