A long time ago a powerful being stumbled across humanity.
As a disembodied mind, the way these other creatures seemed so dull-witted one moment and would casually interpret complex micro-shifts in air pressure and patterns of electromagnetic radiation, via a process called hearing/seeing the next, was truly marvelous.
So it decided to stay a while and observe them, to see if anything useful could be learned.
Sink ethic happened a few centuries ago it should come as now surprise that a strange being casually twisting reality soon was worshipped as a god by the tribe it had chosen to watch.
Because of its utterly alien mindset, the being wasn't a very good one as gods go, but at least it wasn't a bad one either.
It's chosen subjects/faithful soon took to calling the being 'The Gifting Flame', because much like fire could refine raw materials, the bizarre challenges and stressful situations the being loved to create usually left the ones who persevered a little stronger.
After living with the Gifting Flame for over a century the priest-caste convinced their god to stop acting on random desires it picked up from people and only directly involve itself when asked. The sacred stone acting as a physical anchor for the bodiless entity and a device to translate vocal requests to fulfill a desire into something the Flame could understand.
When John asked for something interesting to happen, the Gifting Flame remembered the words of the priests about life had been 'too interesting'. Crafting the stone had been a lot of work, and so would disabling it. But if the humans wanted to go back to the old times, why that sounded like a splendid change of pace. Two-hundred years without anybody making requests had not been stimulating at all!
While Jon slept in his bed, a fine crack started to snake across the stone.
