Damn. That is an amazing image of Ssael literally traversing this realm as if it was physical. That seems like it'd be an epic side story tbqh if it is a true one. Also, I like how there's still predator and pray, as if the slew of memories and emotions have created a primordial soup of its own from which creatures have evolved.
Yeah! I think you can tell how Ssael’s story has had legs over the centuries. It's inspired admiration in people and fired their imagination. You have this kind of dismal religion with these four gods who are always going to be better than you, who offer no hope but your eventual direct servitude - and that’s only if you perform well enough for them in a world - and even in a body - they have intentionally designed to demoralize and distract you at every turn.
Then this brave, wise scholar comes along and somehow murder-kills those gods and steals the world from them. And not to be king in their stead, but to hold it in trust until every other human is as cool as he is, and making a new world can be a collaborative affair.
But in the meantime, yeah, you got this predatory, heartless reality that Duane’s described. It’s even in the khert, where the mighty hunts the meek. Sucks, man. But if Ssael could do it, everyone else can do it too, and should try their best.