I was playing a game with my good friend, Dagon the god of fertility, when Eleanor calls again.

I politely excuse myself and promptly appear in front of her.

“Yes, Eleanor?”

She is now a teenager of 17.

“Father, I want to set up an orphanage that caters to orphans and children who have abusive parents. Veromir asked me to speak to you.”

“Of course, Eleanor. You can ask Galadriel. He will appear to my priests. They will set up orphanages around the world. They will also set up a holy order of missionaries that will investigate and protect children from abusive parents.”

“Thanks father. You are the best!” without waiting for a response, Eleanor runs out again.

That girl, I swear.

I suddenly realize a smile had crossed my face.

Do Gods smile?

“Have you gone crazy, Allfather Xy’xy’kul?” thunders Dagon in the council of Gods: “we do not directly intervene into the human world!”

I am about to tear Dagon a new one in response when something else grabs my attention.

“Dad? Daaaad!!”

I excuse myself from the Gods’ council, not very politely, and appear in front of my daughter.

“Yes, Ellie?”

The young woman in front of me sighs: “The Gods won’t do anything, and neither will they let you do something.”

It was a statement. My daughter has picked up way more from me than I expected in the last 7 years.

“Yes.”

She rises. Only then do I realize she is dressed in full armor. Veromir has told me she is one of the greatest swordmaster (swordmistress?) on the continent.

“Very well,” she says: “It seems I must do this myself.”

As she starts to walk out, I finally find the words.

“Wait!”

Ellie stops. She looks at me sharply.

“You can’t be involved.”

“I know” I reply: “But I can make you my champion. It will grant you the power of a demigod.”

She assesses for a second. Then she makes up her mind.

“So be it.”

In the year of our lord 1, a great wind arose in the west. It was the holy crusade, led by a fierce red haired woman. The armies of the empires scattered like wind before her fury, and soon the entire continent was united under a single banner.

The woman established the Xy’xy’kul theocracy, where we are governed not by corrupt and inept lords, but by members of the Order of the Sacred Heart. Rumours say that the members of the Order are either orphans or rescued children.

Paradoxically, for a theocracy, the worship of other Gods are not prohibited. In fact, most people agree that we have far more freedom now than we did under the old empires

• Archivist Greer, from “A history of the continent till the present day”