chapter 1

In a section of Tropical Africa during the time before Europeans had explored this part of the Dark Continent, there was a small forest kingdom.

In this forest kingdom, a young ambitious ruler came to power.

This ruler began as a good man, who kept his interests of his people over his own. He also made peace with the other tribes nearby. Because of this, his people loved him at first.

Unfortunately, soon after consolidating his power base, the ruler's manner began to change. He grew greedy and cruel, and those who spoke against him were killed or imprisoned, often without trial. He also began making grabs of land from the neighbouring kingdoms. Soon, his people's love turned to hate.

But, this ruler remained a superstitious man. He had as advisors all kinds of shamans and seers.

But, one seer always had his trust.

Her name was long forgotten to history, but she was legendary in both her beauty and her power. Her powers of prophecy were uncannily accurate, while she seemed to have the power to read people's minds and was said to be able to move objects without even touching them.

One day, the ruler visited the seer at her home.

The ruler asked her to see how his legacy will continue into the future.

The seer concentrated for several minutes, then she came with an answer.

"Your rule will be long and successful," she was reported to have said.

The ruler was pleased and returned to home with the knowledge that he will have a legacy.

Several days passed.

Finally, the ruler's people would have no more of his cruel, greedy ways. With help of his enemies, his people, and his own army, the ruler was overthrown.

Mere luck kept the ruler's head from rolling free on the ground when his enemies came to his house to kill him.

As he tried to escape with some still-loyal members of his people before Death could claim him, he decided to pay the seer one final visit for some petty revenge.

The ruler hated failure. He had many a brave warrior put to death for failing to win a battle and many a noble person killed for failing to carry out his plans to his liking. But, a seer who gave him a false prophecy would not be killed immediately he reasoned. He wanted her to pay for her failure in a more horrible way.

He found a loyal shaman willing to put a curse on the seer.

The seer was in her bed when the ruler and his men came to call. Before she knew it, she was grabbed by several strong men as the ruler told her of her alleged crime.

"For the sin of a false prophecy, you and your female decedents will be cursed for all time," he announced. "You and your female decedents will continue to have their powers, but as you use them, your bodies will grow fatter. You will grow so fat that it will be impossible for you to be able to leave your house, so fat that you will be not be able to rise from your bed, so fat that even the simplest of movements will be impossible for you to do...until the day you grow so fat that you will die!"

The shaman then administered the curse.

The ruler and his men then left the seer's house. Unfortunately for them, they met up with their enemies and killed on the spot. The shaman died with them.

The seer, it was said, continued to be a seer, but noticed that she grew fatter as she used her powers. She managed to control her weight as she tried to find a cure through other shaman in the area, but she wasn't successful. Though she was fat, she remained quite beautiful and had many suitors.

A few years later, she gave birth to a girl. This girl was a seer as well. She began showing her powers when she was 6, and she also began to put on weight as well. So, she asked her daughter not to use her powers until the seer died.

By time her daughter was 10 years old, the seer was trapped by her seemingly endlessly expanding body in her bed. Still, people would see her for her prophecies which continued to be accurate or to see her use her other powers to move things without touching them eventhough it made her body even more fat. She honoured every request even when her weight made it hard for her to even breathe.

Finally, the seer died when the girl turned 12.

It took a dozen strong men to move the seer's body to a huge grave which remains unknown to this day.

The seer's daughter then took up her mother's cause.

She became a seer as well, and soon began to suffer from the effects of the curse as well.

She also gave birth to a daughter, who also became a seer suffered from the curse as she grew older.

As did her daughter...

And her daughter...

...until the Centuries passed.

The kingdom the seer came from no longer exists save for the few artifacts and spoken legends adopted by a larger confederation of kingdoms which appeared shortly before the Europeans began to enter the Tropics of Africa.

Unfortunately, the seer's line continued on as did the curse that was placed on the females of that line eventhough time, European influences, and the slave trade erased the details of the story from the seer's more recent decedents.

How the seer's line was able to continue into modern times was combination of luck more than anything. Most of the seer's decedents barely lived long enough to birth children before their extreme obesity claimed their lives. Others did not become psychics and hid their powers from the general public to live more normal lives as long as they could. Some even knew their grandmothers.