Pirates of the Caribbean

Amuletum Angiti

Prologue: Snake Goddess

Her beauty was nothing but perspective or Eye of the Beholder as the old saying goes. To those who did not believe in her, saw her as a monster, a demoness and a heathen goddess. But to those who did believe in her, saw her for what she really was. They saw her as a powerful being who loved and cared for her kindred, who healed the injured and sick and spared the cursed a long life of suffering.

Although she often took the form of her familiar, the snake, she was loved and respected by the midwives and healers and worshipped daily by the witches and sorcerers. A single temple had been erected in her honor by a small covenant of witches and warlocks and eventually was cared for by a priest and his acolytes.

Said priest had expanded the cult of the Goddess until all in the four corners of the Earth knew her. But his greatest area of success was the land around the Caspian Sea. Many came to see Her healers for some kind of affliction or another. Others came for the charms of good luck and protection while some came for the more wicked arts. But all came with respect and hope. Fear was not to be seen in any of the eyes the Priest saw and so She was pleased.

Then one day a terrible curse had befallen the land and sea. Crops were dying from a drought and the sea itself was receding back in on itself, leaving dead and dying fish at its once pristine shores. The people eventually grew angry and fearful and soon began to no longer blame the other gods, but Her.

The villagers revolted more out of fear and appeasing the gods. They killed anyone who practiced Her arts and found their way to the great temple on the island in the sea. Standing at the steps with the confidence of man who believed his Goddess to be with him, stood the Priest. The angry villagers that had crossed the water paused at the base of the hill, unsure what to do against this lone man who appeared like a God to them.

Before they could decide and gather their courage once more, he spoke to them. His voice was not harsh or angry but kind and gentle, full of concern and curiosity as well as pity. "Why do you commit such horrid acts of sacrilege against She who has cared for you and loved you?"

"She has cursed us!" someone had shouted from among the crowd.

"Why would She curse those who are devoted to Her?" The Priest asked and spread his arms open, palms facing the sky. "The Goddess is a Healer, not a Scourge."

"Why does she then allow our crops to die and the sea to disappear?" another asked.

"Why does she not put a stop to it?"

"Because it is not Her place to command nature." He had answered and had received a roar of outrage in reply. But the Priest held his hand up to still them. "However, I will commune with Her for an answer to your troubles, but you must bring me a piece of the land and a piece of the sea. Do this and We will see what We can do."

And so the villagers did as he asked for three days and nights the Priest had prayed and sacrificed for Divine inspiration. And on the third night when the villagers were becoming restless and a plague of rats ravaged their food stores, the Goddess came to him in a drug-induced trance.

"I know of the plagues that afflict those who follow me," she had sadly said to him. "I am being punished by the others for their jealousy and therefore I cannot directly interfere any more. You must care for yourselves with what knowledge I have given you."

"We have used that knowledge to no avail," the Priest explained desperately. "The lands are cursed by Them and only you have the power to reverse it."

"No longer," she replied painfully and he was taken aback by the emotion she displayed.

"Then what shall we do?"

She was silent for several long seconds. "Make me this and I will give you that power." She finally said and began to fade away, leaving behind the image of their salvation.

And so the Priest did as instructed and had a local smithy and jeweler forge and craft an amulet out of black metal, gold and silver and decorated with jewels in the shape of a teardrop of snakes. And as instructed he brought the amulet to the temple and She empowered it with the powers to heal and dispel the magic of the Gods.

But before She left the Priest for the last time, she warned him; "With this amulet comes great responsibility. Abuse its power and everything will be for naught." He promised Her he would not and so for the next four decades, he kept the power of the Gods at bay and continued Her faith throughout the lands.

But like all men with power, their hearts come to desire more and more. The Priest soon became greedy and hungry and turned the peaceful occult of the Goddess into a bloodthirsty and savage following. She had seen what he had become and what he had done to Her faith and grew angry. One night She came to him in his sleep and asked why he had turned away from all that She had taught him.

His answer; "You are not pleased at how far and wide your faith has grown?"

"I did not want my faith founded on blood!" she had angrily shouted at him, startling him from his sleep. He had been ready to dismiss it all as a dream when shouts erupted from outside of the temple. The Priest had not known that the Goddess had an army ready to lay waste to the Temple and the surrounding lands and She had only held the slaughter back until She had his answer.

Now that wave of death rapidly came upon them all and amidst the fighting and screaming, the amulet She had him forge was torn from his chest and crashed to the bloodied marble floor of the Oracles chamber. It shattered into three pieces, one disappearing into the snake abyss below and the other two traveled separately across the world to never be seen or heard from again...