2 "A Poetic Beginning." Sirius, Achelous, and the Real Greek Gods.

While there were recorded humans with magical abilities dating further back than the 8th Century. Stories such as Gilgamesh are sometimes used as the first example of these arts. However, there is no proof that those in Babylonia or Egypt had non-exaggerated mystical feats.

The Greek word μάγος (mágos) is where our usage of the word magic is derived from. The Greeks had the best-recorded history of mystical feats and beings. The proof behind these tales was the density of parvucules in the Greek city-states such as Athens, Thebes, Sparta, and Rhodes. The most significant density was found in Athens and Sparta.

Magical feats currently were simple, improving the quality of life. Agriculture was limited to these small cities due to the mountainous region. The story of Achelous was a great starting point for the advisor position. It shows an almost fairy-tale-like sequence where everything went right. This wouldn't be true for most magical advisors in later chapters.

In Athens, legends of a God of Freshwater Ἀχελώϊος (Achelous) came about around 1 R.C. Born on a relatively wealthy farm, giving him the ability to learn about his power. He used his magic to create cleaner water, better farm tools, and fertilizer.

From historical records, Achelous was the first man in power to have magic. Upon finding his grave in Cyprus, historians who analyzed his skeleton had concluded that he was also the first man to have a Fosogland that resembles the size of a typical magician in the 9th Century R.C. this made people perceive him and his feats as Godlike. He would pique the interest of the young Archon Κίριος (Cirius) during this transitional period from the Dark Ages. They recruited him with promises of great riches for his ability.

During this time, the idea of colonization due to the need to grow grain grew. Take an example, Miletus, a city-state that had over 90 colonies. Achelous had an idea that during this massive and expensive expansion other city-states would undergo, he could save Athens the resources and manpower of colonization. He gained inspiration from watching Blacksmiths create iron tools for farmers at the time. While iron was plentiful, it had the problem of rusting. Copper was used but was not as strong as iron. Bronze was a rare sight because of the lack of tin. Achelous had decided to use his parvucules to create a variation of these three tools.

Upon having bronze, iron, and copper tools, he used his parvucules to start a process of transmogrification, now known as grifting, today. To make the first iteration of transtools we have today while also being the first instance of carbon steel found. The process was quite simple and is the basis for how we teach any form of grifting to this day. Simply creating multiple tools, stacking them on top of each other, and letting parvucules be pressed together with the thought of merging is its creation process.

Unsurprisingly, upon showing Archon Cirius this invention, he was awestruck. A historical record from Herodotus says, "[Archon] Cirius had fallen out of his chair, on his knees, he looked at the creation for 3 days straight, failing to figure out the mechanisms behind this. Upon the third day, he had devised a plan…."

Herodotus had erased this next section of writing, but through collecting pieces together from other sources such as tablet writings found in Achelous' grave, the plan was to devise a new deity. While other Gods came before Achelous, he has assumed to be the first real God, and the first documentation of this title was in 29 R.C (771 BCE) found on stone tablets. These stone tablets also revealed the origin of his title as the "God of Freshwater."

The proposal was simple due to the large number of farmers going towards the nearby river. He would stand there and charge people for these tools. Because of the location and its miraculous properties, Sirius would give him his God title, along with naming the river after him. Thus, they got to work, dressing him as a Greek god and having him give these tools out to the people. It was never just about improving the lives of the common man, but rather, a unique opportunity to seize even more control over them. Unlike most areas in Greece, Athens had kept Sirius precisely because of this.

For the first month, only 200 were given to lucky farmers and gifted to wealthier men. However, the word spread quickly, and more people came to the river, offering worship to Achelous. He played the role of a God well, 'blessing' these tools that were already premade. By the end of the year, production would triple, leaving Achelous with a significant deficit of parvucules.

The demand grew by the third-year hundreds of people lined up at the rivers to be 'blessed.' Sirius knew the unsustainability of the current model, and a calling would be made. Stone tablets dating around 32 R.C. (768 BCE) could be found scattered in Athens by archeologists who used a recruitment poster. It called for people who have been "Blessed by the Gods." Homer's Odyssey would even mention these tools due to how widespread they were.

For being the first round-up for magicians, historical records say it was a success. Out of the 3000 that had applied and come, 100 would come out as real magicians with an able capability for magic. While most didn't reach the prowess of Achelous, there were a few notable figures. Greek figures such as Apollo and Hermes were one of these. The skeletons of these two were found buried with Achelous.

The largest thorn in Sirius' side was obviously aristocrats. They had control over crops, animals, and even some people. Talking to his council of men, it seemed like he was backed into a corner. Since his goals contradicted theirs, he could be overthrown by sheer willpower… Except, he had the aide of his. Achelous knew about this rivalry power struggle and devised another miracle.

With the help of these new Gods… he had proposed a multistep plan toward the Archon. According to Herodotus, "The God Archelous had talked with the other Gods in his vicinity, to create [beasts] which could be tamed by him and its creators." The first step was to create these beasts, and the second step was to have mighty 'men'. These were men loyal to the Archon that were taught how to specifically defeat them. Monstrous beings such as Typhon, Medusa, and the Gorgons, while these would become common-place familiars today, summoning was a completely unheard-of process back then. Not to mention a very, very costly process. Computer models and calculations show that the creation of these creatures started around 44 R.C. (756 BCE).

According to Herodotus, "During this massive project, there was a massive influx of livestock, 50 sheep, 50 goats, 50 pigs, 50 chickens, 250 bottles of wine and 100 talents [258 kg] of cheese. To feed the advisors and whatever left was for them to keep after this. He [the Archon] was not thrilled by this. In fact, there were moments when he felt like executing the Gods as a show of force rather than go through this expensive project."

Of course, this was a chance to influence people for as long as possible. They couldn't just let these creatures out into the wild and start from scratch. Achelous had brought upon the Archon a hundred stone tablets, writing descriptions of these creatures in the context of Greek Mythology. Typhon is the most remarkable example of this, being the last child of the sorcerer Gaia, fathered by Tartarus. While the Gods Gaia and Tartarus helped design and summon Typhon, Achelous supplied the creature with his parvucules, making it the strongest creature. While mythology at the time said that Zeus was the one who conquered and sent the dragon into hell. Parvucule analysis would show Ares would be the one to slay it in 46 R.C. (754 BCE). Typhon's slaying was followed by a large-scale illusion that would show the depths of the netherworld and Typhon being 'sent there.' In the modern-day, we know this was an illusion as transportational magic wouldn't be developed until the Dark Ages of Europe. Despite the unsophisticated approach these magicians took, their projects were a success and had secured power for Sirius at the time.

Another notable success would be the creation of Medusa. Medusa brought about policy change for monsters that were humanoid. From here on out, creating humanoid creatures was seen as taboo and would mostly be for specific requests. The slaying of Medusa brought upon a new age for humanity because out of the blood from her neck came Pegasus and Chrysaor, as legend states. The basic technique was that magicians of the time used the blood of Medusa to form Pegasus and Chrysaor, and the legend was passed down orally.

This pre-emptively started the age of flight for humanity, but Pegasus and other flying creatures would not be domesticated until 650 R.C. (150 BCE). The first instance of flight using a tamed pegasus would be with Bellerophon, who claims to be helped by Athena and Poseidon but texts by Herodotus show that he had stolen the techniques which the two developed to tame pegasi.

Their plan was successful. So successful that it seemed as if the Archon would stay in power for his entire lifetime. However, even with the guidance of Achelous and his other mages, the other city-states of Greece would start to intervene. With rumors spreading of the reality of the Gods and mentions in literary works by Homer, some Gods would be bribed or even recruited by the other city-states. Achelous and Sirius practiced absolute loyalty within their kingdom, and these transitions had to be done in secret. This event would start a gradual shift of spreading magic across the world, one God at a time.

By Sirius' death in 72 R.C. (728 BCE), many of the original Gods and Goddesses had been provided more offers. Achelous would assume power as he prolonged his own life by a short amount before being overthrown by Solon. The demi-god Hercules had taken control in Sparta along with Apollo. Poseidon had been offered 500 cows for his magical abilities in Corinth.

Because of the emergence of magic, there weren't any laws preventing magical users from doing as they wished. Because magic's hereditary and self-sustaining property, the children of the Gods would give around 92% - 115% of their original magic to their child while still maintaining their own. Which started the well-known Golden Age of Magic, a 400-year reign of magicians. The next chapter will discuss the beginning of the end of this age and with the real God of War, not Ares, but the man who killed him and took this title, Alexander the Great.