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usuccc · 2 years

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can you give us a timeline rundown of the sun god au? :0 like...does alfred choose arthur specifically to be a sacrifice? does he know arthur will be a god and thats why he does it? its so interesting to me, i rly love this au of yours!

Thanks so much for the continued interest! It means a lot. I'll provide a rundown of events below the cut. Like I said in my previous ask, I am super verbose so sorry for all the word vomit coming up. I’ll also try to make a separate post on some of the mythology lore and backstory cause if I add it here it’ll be a mess.

The au as I envisioned it would start (from a story-telling perspective, not chronologically) with Arthur running away from his village days before he's supposed to be sacrificed. Every year his village chooses a sacrifice for the sun god in hopes of appeasing him and easing the effects of the drought.

Arthur was the first sacrifice in 100 years to be chosen specifically by the sun god. When he learned the news from the village's spiritual leaders (around 14-15 years old) that he was directly chosen by the sun god, he basically did a 'fake it till you make it' and acted completely devoted to and honored by his role. He gained the trust of the village that he was all in on being sacrificed over the years, and they treated him with the utmost respect and care. Many villagers had strong hopes that Arthur could even end the drought or at least significantly reduce their suffering. Unbeknownst to everyone, Arthur hated the sun god for trying to cut his life so short (and also for the drought and endless day he'd wrought upon mankind in general), so he spent those years carefully developing his escape plan. Villagers still guarded him frequently, but the level of trust that he cultivated over the years also gave him moments to himself which he then exploited to make a break for it.

Once the village found out that he ran away, they went into an uproar and sent their best trackers and soldiers after him. Arthur kept moving for days without sleep, trying to get as much distance from the village as possible. He only possessed a limited knowledge of what lay beyond the village, however, and he eventually succumbed to exhaustion.

Alfred watched the series of events unfold from the heavens, and he was deeply upset that Arthur would choose to run. Rather than inform the villagers of Arthur's whereabouts, he cut off any and all communication with the village's spiritual leaders and disguised himself as a mortal. He went to where Arthur was, passed out in the wilderness, and watched over him until he woke up.

Alfred previously avoided visiting Arthur as a mortal. He wanted to bring as little attention to Arthur's existence as possible, and other gods would certainly take notice if he pulled such a stunt (and knowing him, once he started, he wouldn't be able to stop). The village Arthur came from was small and insignificant, and Alfred instructed the spiritual leaders for all those years to keep Arthur's status a secret from any outsiders that entered the village as well. When Arthur ran away right before his sacrifice, Alfred’s patience reached its limit and he threw caution to the wind, wanting to know why so he could quickly change Arthur's mind. Alfred refused to force Arthur to do anything against his will.

When Arthur woke up after fainting, chaos ensued. He had no idea who Alfred was (and why was he naked???), and Alfred was all over him for no apparent reason. He was acting like he'd reunited with a long-lost loved one. Before Alfred could say too much, their reunion was interrupted when Arthur spotted the village tracking party not too far off in the distance and freaked out because he was so exhausted he could barely move. In this moment of desperation, Arthur made it clear how angry he was about the sun god and his life’s circumstances, earning a very strange reaction from Alfred. With time quickly running out, Alfred decided to help Arthur evade them so he could get more time alone with him, throwing Arthur over his shoulder and getting them out of there (while secretly using what little power he could conjure in his mortal form to send an intense heat wave towards the trackers so they were forced to find a resting spot and wait it out). Arthur was still extremely confused but also grateful for the help and allowed Alfred to travel with him (as long as he put on some damn clothes!) until he found a long-term place to hide from his pursuers.

They spent a couple months together evading the trackers, and Arthur grew attached to Alfred. He couldn’t help but feel something was off with him though because Alfred still acted like he'd known Arthur for far longer than he did. He assumed Alfred was just crazy (he did run into him naked in the middle of nowhere after all), but they still had their moments. Arthur was easily flustered by Alfred, but he also found a friend and a certain type of freedom in being around him that he hadn’t been able to feel ever since he learned he was destined to be a sacrifice. Alfred’s bright personality also brought a lot of light to Arthur’s depressing life.

Now, onto why Alfred is so invested in Arthur. Y’all can guess by this point, but Arthur is a human re-incarnation of the moon god. Alfred thought Arthur was dead for good, and he lived in anguish and grief for over 100 years, unable to deal with it. Alfred saw Arthur’s death at the hands of humans using an ancient weapon from the underworld they had somehow managed to obtain. They were desperate people who were promised great rewards for Alfred’s death by a mysterious benefactor.

Before Arthur died, Alfred was revered by humans and he would present himself to them in his human form at a special yearly gathering to celebrate his birth. The humans always begged Alfred to stay throughout the night in celebration, and he would indulge them, the social butterfly and party-lover that he was. Arthur stayed away from this celebration during the day because he didn’t want the attention, but at night, he would join Alfred in his private accommodations so they could drink and have tons of great birthday sex. Many humans did not even realize when Arthur would come or go.

Late into the night of the celebration, when many were drunk or asleep, the human assassins carefully made their way to where they’d learned Alfred was staying. They creeped into the immensely extravagant room and saw a blond head facing away from them, covered mostly by blankets and dozing peacefully. They went for the kill, taking Arthur completely by surprise and he shouted in pain. The shout alerted Alfred, who momentarily left Arthur’s side to accept another spectacular offering from some recently-arrived priests and priestesses of a far-off village. He instantly went to where Arthur was and saw the group of humans and the bloody weapon. He killed all of them, going to Arthur’s side and taking him in his arms. Arthur died in his arms, barely able to utter his name and reach out to him before the life left his eyes. The reason Arthur died from the wound had to do with the special nature of the weapon and the fact that when a god enters their mortal form, they are in a more vulnerable state.

So yeah, I’m already rambling so much I’m gonna try to wrap this up. Alfred lost it and assumed his god form. His rage started to spiral and he destroyed the entire city, the capital of the most affluent nation at the time. He felt himself losing control of his power, but an enchanted charm that Arthur gifted him many years ago helped him stabilize, shattering in the process.

Alfred then took his anger out on all of humanity and damned them to an eternity of suffering. He questioned the god of death on how those humans obtained the weapon, but the god of death hadn’t been aware the weapon was stolen. Alfred didn’t further suspect the god of death for orchestrating Arthur’s death because I’ll just say Arthur and the god of death had a better relationship than Arthur did with most other gods and they would have no reason to do such a thing.

Anyway, back to Arthur and Alfred traveling together in the present. Arthur found himself falling in love with Alfred. They had a moment in another village where there was some kind of meager festival and Arthur got drunk. He kissed Alfred and Alfred almost confessed then and there who he was and who Arthur was. He stopped himself because Arthur was drunk and he was concerned Arthur wouldn’t take it well. He was still adamant about his hatred for the sun god and Alfred regretted deceiving Arthur about his identity.

Soon after that, the tracking party found them and surrounded them. Alfred was forced to reveal himself to prevent them from taking Arthur, and Arthur felt so betrayed. They had a huge fight where Arthur took back ever feeling any kind of love for Alfred and he told him he wanted nothing to do with him. Alfred was crushed, but he respected Arthur’s wish and returned to the heavens.

Because of all the commotion these events caused, the mysterious benefactor who originally wanted Alfred killed became aware that the moon god had been reborn as a human. They saw it as the perfect opportunity to complete their grudge against Alfred and break his spirit fully (which was an even sweeter punishment than death). They sent humans after Arthur to kill him once and for all and he tried to evade them, but no matter what he did they always found him. Alfred caught wind of what was happening and panicked, going to where Arthur was to help him. While Alfred got swept up in killing the humans trying to kill Arthur, the mysterious benefactor finally made themselves known and finished Arthur off while Alfred was distracted.

Alfred once again had to go through the pain of watching his most important person die in his arms. Unlike before, this time he tried to control his power as the stress and despair of the situation took over. Experiencing life with Arthur as a human made him start to open his eyes to his own cruelty. He’d stayed isolated in the heavens for years, not wanting to interact with humans unless strictly necessary. Now that he traveled with Arthur and met humans that helped them on their journey, he felt more conflicted about punishing all for the actions of a few. He also knew the re-incarnated Arthur would never want to be the reason for more excessive death. In the end, he didn’t want to keep living a life where he hurt other people. He was fighting a losing battle and could feel his power amplifying to dangerous degrees, no charm there to help him contain it this time.

Other gods quickly appeared to the scene as Alfred’s condition worsened. It was getting to a point where not even gods could come near him because he was releasing so much heat even they would be burned by it. They tried to calm him down, but nothing was working. Alfred was struggling to stop the heat from spreading much farther outside his body and everything around him was starting to melt so he ran away to the heavens to create more distance between himself and everyone else.

Down on Earth, the other gods were flipping shit and arguing with each other. They knew Alfred’s massive power and instability could lead to this nightmare scenario one day, and there were some arguing that they should have killed him when they discovered him while others defended him. The god of death was the first to notice that Arthur’s body didn’t melt and was in perfect condition. The cut through his heart also appeared to be healed.

I keep saying I’m gonna wrap this up and then giving way too much detail. Long story short, Arthur revived as a god. He kept the freckles from his time as a human, but otherwise looked the same. In the lore post, I’ll go over his history with Alfred more, but since Alfred was deemed such a threat to other gods and basically all of creation at a young age, Arthur gave Alfred the original charm that stopped his power from being unleashed the first time. Arthur also visited the god of love some time after they’d cemented their relationship as lovers, receiving a blessing that Arthur would always find his way back to Alfred. Arthur wanted extra insurance that he would be there to protect Alfred and stop Alfred from losing himself if things ever went haywire. He swore the god of love to secrecy since other gods could use that information to argue further that Alfred was too much of a threat for them to let him live, and the god of love was so hyped on their romance cause it was the juiciest shit since the beginning of time so he was like yeah we cool I’m not saying anything lol. Still, the power of the god of love’s blessing was in part determined by the magnitude of love the person receiving the blessing felt for their lover, and even the god of love didn’t realize it would have the power to revive a dead god. That’s why he didn’t tell Alfred about the blessing after Arthur’s first death because such a thing had never been done before nor was it believed possible.

Once Arthur revived as a god, he went to Alfred and calmed him down. It was really intense and emotional. That one piece of art I drew with Alfred in that other form and Arthur holding his face shows that scene.

So yeah, Arthur stops Alfred, they both find out who really was behind killing Arthur (which I’ll go over in the lore post), and now Arthur, moon god and lover of the sun god, has sun-kissed freckles, how cute is that. Alfred is also super into his freckles and can’t kiss them enough.

I’m ending it here cause this is so fucking long, sorry lol.

#usuk #sun god au #damn congrats to anyone who gets through all of this #this is why I don’t write fics #al’s aus #also the reason Alfred needs Arthur to be sacrificed is so he can own his soul and they can be together for eternity #he doesn’t want Arthur to die as a mortal where his soul would be permanently dormant in the underworld

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