The gods descended more than a hundred years ago.
The gods bestowed divine grace, allowing mortals to become "divine attendants" through devout faith and gain divine power and immortality. There are six ranks of divine attendants, each higher than the last. The price is gradually sacrificing oneself to the gods, until reaching the sixth rank, the "Kingdom of God on Earth": becoming a vessel for a god in the mortal realm and losing all free will.
Yet there is another group in this world, one that refuses to kneel and chooses instead to "steal."
They are known as the "Kindlebearers," walking in the shadows and practicing the "Seven Realms of Stealing from Heaven": from stealing "existence" to stealing "life," "soul," "law," and "time," and ultimately stealing the "Heavenly Dao" to become uncrowned gods. But every step exacts a terrible price: dulled emotions, debts of life, rejection by heaven and earth, distorted time, and the loss of humanity, until the gods see them as "great medicine" and hunt them relentlessly for all eternity.
Two paths, different routes to the same destination. At the end of power lies the loss of the self.
