The Pagan

400 years after the death of Christ The Holy Roman Empire is spreading the religion of Christianity throughout Europe and all the known world. Through superior military prowess and the fanaticism of their catholic order of Jesuit priests, the Roman Empire has successfully conquered all of the Germanic tribes of The North. But as the Roman Empire embarks on its most glorious campaign into the British isles it is met with constant rebellion. The rebellion has been sparked by an old Saxon legend of the rise of the forest spirit. The spirit of The Pagan. Through out the campaign differing levels of resistance are daily but inevitably the fall of the British isles is at hand. The natives of isle are classified as Pagans by the Roman Catholic Church and are cited for conversion into the empire’s new religion. It is the Church who employs the notorious order of Jesuit Priests to institute their storied methods of conversion on the heathen Pagans: there is planking, jail, hanging, and burning at the stake as well as other demented and senseless methodologies. The people of the Isles of Britain resist but are no match for the combined might of Roman military force and the immense power wielded by The Holy Roman Catholic Church. During this time a child is born to a fierce Celtic leader. The child’s father is an ousted chief who after fleeing into the highlands has mounted resistance against the new Roman authority. The child’s mother is a high priestess within the order of druids whose worship of nature and its deities has been outlawed by the Roman consul ant. There comes a time when a Roman battalion happens upon a druid fertility ritual and all of the participants are rounded up to be executed by the battalion. The child’s mother standing defiant even in the face of death utters a spell that is audible to all in the immediate area including the Roman officers. The Roman consul ant then takes a blade and cuts the throat of the woman who is pregnant. Simultaneously the woman’s husband bears down on her location drawing his sword and begins to engage the soldiers chopping down many of them as well as a number of the priests before he is subdued, taken captive, and led away. The woman priests lies lifeless alone in their open air forest temple. After all the soldiers and their captives leave an ancient woman of the forest, who has watched from the tree lined hills, approaches the woman’s body only to see her belly moving. The baby is still alive in the womb. The ancient woman whose understanding predates even the Druids performs a impromptu c-section under a full moon removing the baby from the womb haling it to the spirits of the forest and the heavens. She takes the baby and raises him in the ways of the forest to be an avenger of the forest and the people and to rid the fatherland of the Roman devils who have conquered them. The Pagan whose name is of an ancient Celtic tongue walks totally in the way of the forest. He weaves white magic. He speaks with and freely interacts with all the animals and beasts of the forest. He is an expert archer, huntsman and swordsman. He is also a shape shifter assuming the form of various animals of the forest. And even in human form he has the abilities of the various animals. He essentially becomes the epitome of a pagan and ultimately becomes the defender of the people and the land. He is deemed an outlaw throughout the entire land. When they are unable to capture The Pagan through their own devices they persecute the people of the land figuring the people would turn him over in order to escape their oppression. Because of his love for his people he gives himself to the Romans in exchange of the promise to end the persecution of his people. On the doorsteps of the Roman Empire he faces his greatest choice and sacrifice. Inevitably he understands that the times are changing and that more important than his people holding on to their culture is their ultimate survival. But he does so with the hope and understanding that through his sacrifice there would come a time that his people and the way of life they’ve known for centuries will one day rise again. And with that he gives himself up to the Roman authority signaling the end of a forgotten way of life and the beginning of an unknown one. He is crucified to show the power of the Roman Empire but ultimately he is sacrificed for the love of his people.