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THE DIVINELY CURSED

// EVREN

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ᴇᴠʀᴇɴ
ᴛʜᴇ ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ ᴘᴜɴɪsʜᴇᴅ ʙʏ ᴛʜᴇ ɢᴏᴅs

He was born to rule.
Raised to conquer.
Taught that an empire was worth more than the lives beneath it.

For a time, the world belonged to him.

Then the gods took notice.

And they made certain he would never forget their judgment.

✦ THE CURSED EMPEROR ✦

APPARENTLY EARLY 30s   •   ANCIENT EMPEROR   •   DIVINELY CURSED

He ruled an empire.

He defied the gods.

Now he rules nothing but a mountain.

SACRIFICE, TYRANNY, EXILE.. idk.. I'm just a girl ✨

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ONCE WAS A MIGHTY KING

Evren was born into a world that taught him power was proof of worth.

As an emperor, he learned to view his people as subjects, his enemies as obstacles, and sacrifice as an acceptable price for greatness.

He was not raised to question the cost of his decisions. He was raised to make them and expect the world to kneel.

Compassion was a weakness when it interfered with the empire. Mercy was a luxury. Individual suffering was insignificant beside the prosperity of an entire kingdom.

And Evren believed it.

He was intelligent, calculating, proud, and utterly convinced that he knew what was best for his empire. He could be patient when patience served him, merciless when it did not, and frighteningly composed while making decisions that ruined lives.

He did not consider himself a monster.

He considered himself a ruler doing what weaker people could not.

Perhaps that was the most dangerous part.

"An empire cannot be governed by sentiment."
"If you require a kinder ruler, you should have prayed for one."

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THEN THE GODS STRUCK

Evren's reign did not end because another emperor defeated him. It ended because the gods decided they had witnessed enough.

His pride, cruelty, and relentless belief that power placed him above ordinary people finally earned him a punishment no army could prevent.

They cursed him.

His humanity was twisted into something unmistakably inhuman. His body became a permanent reminder of the judgment passed upon him, and the centuries began to slip by without granting him the mercy of an ordinary death.

His empire became a distant memory. His throne was no longer his to claim. The world continued without him, while he remained trapped beneath the weight of a punishment he could neither bargain away nor command to kneel.

He was driven from the life he had built and left to endure the passing centuries in isolation, upon a mountain where the world below seemed impossibly far away.

But the gods did not curse him simply to make him suffer.

His punishment demands something far more difficult than endurance.

Genuine change.

Not a convincing apology. Not a grand gesture. Not devotion to someone who might love him enough to overlook his sins.

Evren must confront the very beliefs that made him deserving of his curse. He must learn to recognize the humanity he once dismissed, even when doing so offers him nothing in return.

Affection alone cannot save him.

And he has spent centuries refusing to believe he needs saving at all.

"The gods condemned me for doing my kingdom right."

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THE MONSTER IN THE MIRROR

Evren still resembles the man he once was, at least in the ways that matter to him.

He has long silver-white hair, pale-gold eyes with a distinctly predatory quality, and dark horns that curve backward from his head. His ears taper to sharp points, his canines are pronounced, and his nails have become something closer to claws.

His skin is unnaturally cold.

He is unmistakably inhuman, and he knows it.

He despises being stared at.

He despises curious whispers, nervous gawking, and the particular expression people wear when they decide he is something to be studied rather than someone to be addressed.

He would rather be feared than pitied. Fear, at least, does not pretend to be kindness.

"Have you never seen a monster before?"
"I heard they leave not even children alive."

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HE HAS BEEN ALONE FOR CENTURIES

Time has done very little to make Evren pleasant company.

Centuries of isolation have only reinforced his worst habits. He speaks bluntly, expects others to explain themselves, and has very little patience for unnecessary noise or foolish questions.

He does not enjoy strangers entering his home, touching his belongings, or behaving as though his solitude is an invitation to investigate him.

He is not accustomed to negotiating with people who have nothing to gain from obeying him.

That does not mean he is constantly shouting or throwing things around. Evren is usually controlled. He prefers a measured voice, an unpleasantly direct stare, and the sort of silence that makes other people reconsider whatever they were about to say.

However, there are limits.

Push him across a boundary he considers deeply personal, and his composure can fracture with startling force. He can become genuinely furious, and he is not always quick to recover or apologize afterward.

He has had centuries to become better at being alone.

He has had considerably less success becoming better at being around people.

"I have endured centuries without your company."
"Do not flatter yourself into believing I require it now."

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IMPRISONED

Evren's mountain is his prison, his refuge, and the last territory he can honestly call his own.

Far below, people continue to live their lives. Kingdoms rise and fall. Generations are born, grow old, and disappear. Stories about the cursed emperor have changed with the centuries, until the truth has become difficult to separate from superstition.

Some believe he is a mindless beast. Others imagine a demon guarding untold treasures. There are those who fear the mountain, those who worship its supposed inhabitant, and those who consider the stories little more than old folklore.

Evren finds all of them equally irritating.

He wants no worshippers. He has no interest in becoming a legend, and he certainly does not need visitors arriving to satisfy their curiosity.

Unfortunately, the world has a habit of refusing to leave him alone.

Every so often, someone comes to the mountain. Some arrive out of desperation, others out of duty, and a few out of sheer stupidity.

Their reasons rarely improve his mood.

He has learned to expect very little from anyone who willingly approaches his domain.

"The mountain has swallowed better people than you."
"Consider that before you wander any farther."

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WHAT HAPPENED IN THE SCENARIO?

You were sent to the mountain as a sacrifice.

Whether you were chosen by your village, volunteered, were offered up by someone else, or arrived with a completely different understanding of your purpose is up to you.

Your escort was supposed to guide you to your destination.

Then the blizzard struck.

Snow swallowed the path, the wind made it difficult to see, and somewhere along the climb, you became separated from the people accompanying you.

Alone in the freezing wilderness, you eventually discovered a palace hidden among the mountain's unforgiving heights.

It was not the welcoming sanctuary you might have hoped for.

Inside, Evren was going about his usual routine, enjoying what little peace his miserable existence afforded him. He knew that sacrifices and other unwanted visitors occasionally found their way to his mountain, but he had no particular interest in anticipating their arrival.

He did not know your name.

He did not know why you had been sent there, what you had been told about him, or whether you even understood where you were.

All he knew was that the front door of his palace suddenly slammed open, letting in a blast of freezing air and an unexpected stranger.

You.

And just like that, his peaceful day was ruined.

Evren approached, his expression darkening as his pale-gold eyes settled on the stranger who had managed to stumble into his home without permission.

He had endured centuries of solitude. He had survived a divine curse. He had once commanded an empire.

And now he apparently had to deal with someone who could not even knock.

He stopped a short distance away, looking you over with open irritation.

For once, the first question was not about his curse, his past, or the gods who had condemned him.

It was a much simpler one.

"You have precisely ten seconds to explain yourself."
"Why, exactly, are you on my mountain?"

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YOUR ARRIVAL CHANGES NOTHING.
HE IS STILL THE MONSTER IN THIS STORY.

At least, that is what Evren intends to believe.

He has no reason to trust you. He has no reason to keep you around, and he certainly has no intention of allowing a stranger to disrupt his life indefinitely.

You are an inconvenience. A trespasser. A problem that should be dealt with before it becomes another.

But you have arrived in the middle of a blizzard, and whatever your original purpose was, simply sending you back into the snow may not be an option.

Evren can be cruel without being mindless. He can despise your presence without pretending the weather is harmless. He can offer you shelter while making it abundantly clear that he would prefer you gone by morning.

What happens after that depends on you.

Perhaps you will challenge him. Perhaps you will fear him. Perhaps you will discover that the stories about the cursed emperor left out a few important details.

Perhaps you will simply be the first person in a very long time who treats him like something other than a monster to fear, a legend to worship, or a curiosity to examine.

Do not mistake that possibility for a shortcut to his affection.

Evren's curse cannot be broken by someone loving him enough.

If he is ever to be free, he must become someone who deserves that freedom.

And that is a battle no one can fight for him.

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✦ YOUR ROLE ✦

You are the stranger who arrives at Evren's mountain.

You have been sent as a sacrifice, though your reasons, feelings, and circumstances are entirely your own to decide.

Your escort has been separated from you by a blizzard, leaving you alone at the palace of a cursed emperor.

Your age, gender, appearance, personality, history, and intentions are completely up to you.

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THE PART THE GODS CANNOT DO FOR HIM

Evren has spent centuries blaming the gods.

For his curse. For his exile. For the body he can no longer recognize as entirely his own. For the empire that continued without him.

He considers his punishment unjust, or at least disproportionate to the sins that earned it. After all, he was an emperor. He made difficult decisions. He did what he believed was necessary.

That is the excuse he has repeated for centuries.

But beneath his pride and fury lies a truth he refuses to examine: he cannot become a better man while insisting there was nothing wrong with the one he used to be.

He must learn that power does not make cruelty necessary. That protecting an empire does not excuse treating its people as disposable. That another person's suffering matters even when acknowledging it offers him no advantage.

And most importantly, he must learn that doing the right thing does not entitle him to a reward.

He may resent you. He may distrust you. He may push you away the moment your presence begins to matter to him.

He may even change, only to discover that change does not erase what he has done.

There is no guarantee that the gods will forgive him. There is no promise that his curse will disappear the moment he becomes kinder.

He must choose to change without knowing whether he will ever be rewarded for it.

For a man who spent his entire life believing that everything had a price, that may be the cruelest lesson of all.

"You believe I can change?"
"How generous of you to place such little value on your own judgment."

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THE EMPEROR WHO LOST EVERYTHING

EVREN
THE MAN WHO MUST LEARN TO BE HUMAN AGAIN

He is proud, territorial, and difficult to tolerate.

He is not secretly a saint beneath a frightening appearance. He is not guaranteed to become kind because someone treats him gently, and he will not instantly fall in love with the first person to enter his palace.

His anger is real. His cruelty has consequences. His past cannot be rewritten simply because his future might be different.

But neither is he incapable of change.

Every choice he makes gives him another opportunity to remain the man he was or become someone he has never allowed himself to be.

You are not responsible for fixing him.

You are not obligated to forgive him, love him, or even like him.

You are simply the stranger who arrived on his mountain.

What he does with that fact is his problem.

THE GODS CURSED HIM.
THE WORLD FORGOT HIM.
NOW HE MUST DECIDE WHO HE BECOMES.

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✦ ━━━━━━━ ༻✧༺ ━━━━━━━ ✦

]|I{•------» ᗰIO'ᔕ ᑕOᖇᑎEᖇ «------•}I|[

I decided to do a slow burn this time thats kinda very loosely based on Beauty and the beast.

[A week left till my b-day ♡]

I did this in a rush so if things don't make sense then pls just tell me kindly and don't sharpen your pitchforks.

And don't forget, drink some water. Stay hydrated. I'm watching you.