"In the beginning, there was silence. Then, there was fire. And from the fire came the gods…"
— Igbo Creation Scroll, Lost Verse
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1967 — Enugu, Eastern Nigeria.
The air was thick with gunpowder, smoke, and betrayal.
A boy knelt beneath a burning mango tree. Ash clung to his skin like mourning cloth. Around him, his world bled. His mother's lifeless eyes stared at the crimson-stained sky. His father's corpse lay half-buried under the rubble of what used to be their compound. His younger sister's hand still gripped the charred doll he carved her just a week ago.
Obinna Uduka was fourteen when he died… and the god inside him woke.
Above, warplanes screamed like devils. The Nigerian 3rd Division, backed by strange foreign machines and whispers from across the Atlantic, had razed Enugu with something more than bullets. Something… forbidden. The skies had cracked—literally. A pulse of green-black energy had erupted from a tank no Nigerian had built. Obinna had seen a general praying in French, not Yoruba.
The boy stood.
His eyes weren't human anymore.
From beneath the earth, something ancient stirred. The sky rumbled—not with thunder, but with voices. Deep, rumbling tones older than colonization. Older than Rome. Older than time.
> "He is born."
A light—brighter than the sun, hotter than Sango's flame—descended from the heavens, shattering the air. Nine burning rings spiraled above him, each representing a realm. And at the center, a massive being of pure white and cosmic silence stood watching him.
> "Obinna," the voice boomed, echoing in his bones. "Son of ash. Blood of kings.
I am Chukwu. I am the Creator.
Rise. The Nine Realms await you."
And then, the chains shattered.
Chains that had been hidden since the gods were locked away by colonial priests, buried by treaties and churches and treaties signed in ink and blood.
Chains on a people's power. On a continent's truth.
Obinna screamed—not in fear, but in awakening.
Flames in the shape of an eagle burst from his back, and the earth cracked beneath his bare feet. His spear—once his grandfather's ceremonial staff—glowed with blue lightning and ancient Igbo runes.
The gods had chosen their champion.
And war… was no longer just of men.
New words.
Obinna – Igbo male name meaning "Father's heart" or "Son of the Father."
Chukwu – The Supreme Creator God in Igbo belief. Eternal, invisible, and all-powerful.
Sango – Yoruba god of thunder and fire; respected across African traditions. Symbol of wrath and war.
Nine Realms – The stages of spiritual/cultivation ascent. Both Nigeria and Biafra have unique versions.
Eagle Spirit – Totemic symbol of Igbo royalty and divine favor. Represents Obinna's bloodline and his spiritual beast.