Challenge #04199-K181: Wish Upon Star

It is called the Temple of Dreams and Wishes. Yet here, the only Dreams and Wishes that are granted, are those meant to truly help others, for the gods of this temple have one irrevocable law. DO NO HARM. -- Lessons

There's a local god on the rise. Guardian of a small island chain off the coast from Vingate, word has it that they grant wishes and make dreams come true.

Word like that gets around. People come with hope. They come with aspirations. They come with goals in mind.

Then they learn the rules, and far too many of them are upset about them.

Over the gate to the temple grounds are five words writ large in all the common tongues: Above all, do no harm. Those who tend the temple are endlessly surprised by the number of people who object to that.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" demanded one supplicant who claimed they had traveled across an entire continent and braved rough seas just to get there. "I have a very important wish to grant! Of course it's going to cause someone harm but they clearly deserve it!"

The attending Cleric remained calm. They were used to this. "Deserving or not, your wish will not be granted if it will cause harm. Perhaps examine the cause of your woes and adapt your wish to similar result?"

The supplicant screamed, "I want those damned devilborn gone! They took everything!"

The Cleric invoked a spell of utter truth. "What did the devilborn steal?"

"They stole no physical thing. I believe they took something that was rightfully mine. A promotion, and position of elevation. I should not be lower than the lowest scum of the mortal plane."

"How did you earn the promotion?"

"I gave the Hellkin the work... and claimed it as mine. If that thing did not exist, I would have the power and pay I deserve. I wish the Hellkin never, ever existed and never will."

"If your wish was granted," said the Cleric, "you would have nothing of what you desire. See..."

It was an illusion, but it showed another world. Another reality. Starting with glimpses of the Xenophobia Wars, how Humanity fought and failed against the might and magic of both Elves and Dragonkind. How the aid from their gods was not enough. How, in desperation, they were tempted to turn to the forces of evil.

In this glimpse of the alternative, the Humans did not do that. They failed. They lost. And Humanity remained in chains. A lesser race, for the rest of time, in a much crueler world.

"Do you still want that world? A world in which there was no position for you? A world in which you do not exist?"

They had come seeking power and elevation. There was no point to it if they weren't there to collect. "What? No! What kind of god would do that to me?"

Once upon a time, there was a Hellkin named Star. She was an Adventurer and did many great deeds. Despite what people thought of her or said about her. In the end, she did so many great deeds, that the people of the islands held her in the greatest regard.

Twenty years after she died, people started praying in her tomb. If not to her, then to her memory and the spirit of her nature. In fifty years, she became a minor goddess. In a hundred, the prayers began to be granted... so long as they obeyed Star's first principal - do no harm.

It was her creed in life, and it did not fade after her death.

The supplicant would have to go away and earn what they desired.

[Photo by Zoran Kokanovic on Unsplash]

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