Work Text:
There are three ages that encompass the entire existence of humanity. First, the age of man, where humans free of sin roamed the lands without walls to confine their movements. This age was ruled by the Goddess, the primal one that stepped from the sea with her hair of weeds and her blade of glass. The humans then did not know death or suffering or loss and for that, they were lesser. The Primal one, who had gifted them with these blessings saw them and punished them, knowing that it was the only way humanity could be saved.
Then the age of titans, the longest age, where the last few humans are protected by the walls and their sin roams stolen land. The final age is the age of the divine, the age when humanity proves itself to be free of sin once more and the line between goddess and mortal blurs.
This is that song, a song to the goddess, to show her we are listening and learning, to show her we are still here.
And the song begins with Sheena.
Sheena was good, protective of those who loved her and cared for her, she lived freely, and when the Primal one spoke to her she listened. The message is told through the thinning of reality, the Primal one spoke to Sheena in dreams, in the reflection of the rivers and the haze of mist.
‘A great Rumbling is coming’ She said, ‘you must save you and yours.’
And the Primal one split herself into pieces, giving Sheena the strength to do what she must do. Sheena used that strength to build a wall, big enough to hold her village and her wives and all the rivers and forests.
“Come behind the wall” She told the people, “It will protect you from what is to come.”
But if humanity is anything, it is foolish, and they ignored Sheena's words. Only the righteous saw her power and knew she spoke Truth.
The night after the first wall was built, there came the great twisting, the rumbling, the fall of the age of man. Humans with greed and hate in their hearts were overwhelmed, shaped into the creatures we now know as titans, and all traces of the goddess left them.
They scratched at the wall, desperate to consume the last of the goddess creations and it began to crumble. “The wall is strong.” Said Sheena, “but not strong enough.”
And she kissed her wives Rose and Maria, who had followed her in the Primal one's commandments, and transferred the power the Primal one gave her into them, then she placed her hand on the breaking stone. “Be content, for I will always protect you.”
And then Sheena used the last of her magic, the Last of the Primal one, and fused herself with the wall, becoming one with her creation so she may protect her loved ones for eternity.
With the wall intact and the last of humanity protected, life as we know it, thousands of years later, began. Those who had won Sheena's favour and the favour of her wives were granted the right to rule, for only the Primal one knows what is to come.
Soon, without the ability to leave the walls, the forests are felled to build homes. The rivers, the only way new things are brought within the walls, are polluted and overfished.
“Please,” said the Queen to Sheena's remaining wives, “Soon there will be no more land for our farms, no more tunnels for us to occupy and no more fish for us to eat. The Primal one runs through your veins, passed to you by your wife, she will tell us what to do.”
Rose smiled, “I will build another wall, one big enough to fit all our farms and with enough rivers and lakes for us to never run out of fish.”
And Rose used the power of the Primal one to bring the winter early, harsh and cold. And with no sun to warm their blood the titans slept. Rose made sure her wall was large enough to fit all of humanity and more, made sure there was land to farm and forests to cultivate and she learned how to protect the walls, how to maintain them and move on their surface. While she worked, Maria, the youngest and the most feirce, learnt how to kill those that plague us. She worked metal pure enough to peirce the neck of those wretched creatures. For the nape connects the mind to the body, and so contains all goodness and evil. The steale Maria made could pierce this sin, destroy it at the root and she used it to dispose of all the titans within the second wall.
When the winter snows melted, Rose melted with them. And as Sheena had, she became one with the wall, infusing it with the power and strength to stand tall, and her body fertilised the soil within, ensuring food for her people for the eternity to come.
And then all that was left was Maria.
Maria was not made to be alone, she dedicated her life to the last remaining pieces of her beloveds, their work and their legacy. In their honour she established the Military Police and the Wall Garrison, to guard her people and her wives respectively.
But the Primal one still thrummed in her veins, and she had to do more, be more. She gathered those of courage and passion, bred horses to not fear the enemy and ventured out beyond the protection her loved ones had gifted her.
Maria was determined to use her beloveds' sacrifices as a stepping stone, to usher humanity into the final age. And so the final wall was not made with hands, but with blood. When Maria fell to the enemy, her love and her passion sunk into the earth, her blood congealed and shifted to form the final wall, a wall to create, to move us forward.
The brave souls she had gathered dispatched the titans that felled her, returned to the city with blood on their hands and fire in their hearts and announced that for evermore the walls will protect humanity.
The song doesn’t end here, the song will never end. We will continue the work that has been started, we will remember the Goddesses sacrifice and we will honour their love and their marriage and we will not forget.
We will sing the song, and the song will lead us to the Divine.