Scapegoat

The Scapegoat: Returned from HellIn these lands, fear was like an inheritance passed from one generation to the next. Humans were not the only ones raised by it; the goat-men grew with it, lived by it, and learned to bow their heads to it. What was said to exist beyond the mountains was never clearly described—only that it was there, that it watched, and that it would come for those who refused to obey. For this reason, some carried out what they were ordered to do, some chose silence, and others never even allowed themselves to question it. Over time, fear ceased to be a rumor and became a system. Within this system, duties were assigned, debts were paid, and prices were accepted without question. No one asked why this order existed or what it truly protected. Because the real danger was never what was said to lie beyond the mountain, but the belief in it.