End of the First Aeon

Χαος removes his cloak of darkness from the world, and blasts a large forested area of the planet with concentrated chaos and uncertainty, anchoring his enchantment to the very fabric of reality.

Within this area, nothing is constant. Even the laws that govern nature itself find themselves twisted and random. Creatures that venture in wander around in a fugue, and leave the area changed... sometimes in subtle ways, other times not so subtle. Some enter and are never seen again.


And there was much rejoicing as the sun returned. The Forest of Chaos arises, and as wonderous as it is, most avoid it for they fear the effects it has upon them. Some creatures adapt to the chaotic environment and are wonderous and terrible indeed.

Far below in the subterranean tunnels carved by the Dragons, down one of the deepest branches, an earthquake opens a small passageway into a hidden grotto. Χαος touches the mind of a lone Alexandrian known for his love of exploring caves, and leads him to the passageway.

Inside he finds the remains of an ancient Elemental, and a most disturbing prophecy etched onto the cavern walls.

Four shall ride out
Three shall return
The icons of power
Shall they yield
When Titans sleep
And Gods have Gone
Then Only Shall Mortals Rule
But the Might of the Titans
Shall remain
Wielded in Object and Ire
To Ultimately Destroy the World
Unless A Path of Perfect Balance Is Found.

Menrva, Tinia and Uni split the Alexandrans into 3 groups and each god adopts one of the groups as their own. Menrva gives her people the gifts of the warrior. Tinia gives her people the gifts of the scientist and Uni gives her people the gifts of the mage. Alexandra retires to the heavens to watch what will unfold.

And so it is that the Farshoom and the Pathi sleep, for the Pathi are nearly wiped out and without the Pathi, the Farshoom have no purpose. As they sleep, so do all gods but Xyrear and the Three Sisters. The Shardi retreat to the tunnels, and the Dragons enter a long sleep but shall return in due time. The Elementals are eternal, but keep to themselves, so for a while the Alexandrians have the world to themselves and there is much peace, but the efforts and will of the titans begins to fade, as the Aeon passes. Word of the prophesy is recorded, and the Alexandrians prepare for the coming of the Gods, living in harmony with the world.

An obelisk arises with 10 gems set to preserve the world in its direst need.

Banio's efforts to create the Nothing is destroyed, a single action chosen by the Void, by right of Decree to revoke.

Finally, just as the last efforts and influences of the titans fade, echoes and emblems of the power, and a single item of great power is taken and hidden, captured until the Third Aeon, representing the power of each Titan (save Banio who was never a true Titan to begin with.)

And so ends the Aeon.

(Thanks to all my players. Details on the next game to come soon ;) )

Three Aeons - 3rd Era

So that they may be enlightened, Sawda-Saiph introduces skepticism to the world.

And so there was much skepticism, and disbelief in the world. This primarily has the effect right off the bat of lessening ALL of the powers of the gods by a significant degree, and given the general level of destruction and doom, this is damaging to them, but it is particularly damaging to Pathi and his three 'children gods', which leads to a counter assault by the three city states that remain, killing many, though they are still badly outnumbered.

Alexandra, in a mischievous mood, introduces asexual reproduction to the world.

The Void, also in a mischievous mood, decrees that the world is coy, gives flowers to itself and reproduces four or five times. This causes a mighty earthquake which is felt by all on the world, as four (or perhaps five) tiny worldlets go floating off into the heavens that have ocean, an atmosphere, a penchant to eventually grow and the seeds for life.

Χαος awakens to find the world in a great state of flux. Madness and order, betrayal and growth... clearly things have been exciting in his absence. New Laws to constrain the creativity of chaos. New Gods scurrying around like ants, believing they have the power to move worlds. These upstarts will need to be put in their place. All in good time.

Time to mix things up a bit.

Reaching out into the world, Χαος gathers bits of essence from all the major races: dragon scales from the slumbering lizards deep in their lairs; bits of living crystal from the Shardi; fire and ice and rock from the elementals. All beings, even the Pathi, contribute to his collection. Drawing life force from the spirit of the planet itself, Χαος uses his diverse conglomerate of materials to fashion a new race.

From the spirit of the planet, as all things are connected in some small way, the entire new race is connected in a very large way. Strong mental acuity links each individual with the whole, regardless of physical distance. Working as a sort of hivemind, each individual has a sense of free-will through his own actions, yet all thought and emotion passes through and is felt by the collective - at least partially, if not fully. In the same manner, all Karma passes through the collective... good karma from one group balancing and cancelling out negative karma from another group.

From the Dragons, this new race gains the power to alter. Not the environment like the Dragons, but themselves. Using this power they are able to shift and blend in with any race they come in contact with. Combined with their psionic tendancies they are also able to communicate in the same language as the race they are mimicking.

From the Alexandrians, a broad sort of wisdom and intelligence that allows them to operate their hivemind fluidly on such a large scale, and quickly grasp complex ideas. However, also from the Alexandrians comes a touch of their madness. The pleasure and pain parts of their brain fuse such that they feel neither emotion individually, but rather a complex mashing of the two regardless of the stimuli.

From the Shardi, the abilty to see how things interact with each other. Less from a physical engineering point of view, and more from the cerebral conceptual side. Combined with the wisdom from the Alexandrians, and their own innate chaotic birthright, leads to schemes and machinations on a global level that would drive one to insantiy if they tried to unravel and comprehend them.

From the Pathi, ambition and a feeling of superiority, as well as an understanding of death and how it fits in the circle of life.

From the Elementals, the patience of those who measure time in centuries instead of hours. For while an individual may have a short life, the hivemind will live forever.

Satisfied with his creation, Χαος spreads them far and wide through out the planet. As their first test, to prove their worth to their creator, he compels them to begin plotting to exterminate every last Pathi. Because after all, a god with no followers is not much of a god.

Χαος creates a new race, and compels them to plot the genocide of the Pathi

The Farshoom are created, and mighty are they to behold. They are vast in number, and their belief is strong. Their belief is in the titan Χαος, who cannot use such power (and really what would he need with it anyway?) but they are young and mighty. Their ignorance gets them in trouble at first as their arrogance at first makes them unpopular with some, but the deeper individuals around them, especially the Alexandrian seers, they are soon recognized for the potentially they hold. Within a generation, their numbers begin to swell, and they are slowly turning the tide against the Pathi. Within three generations, they have become the dominant race on the planet, crushing the Pathi in war again and and again, such that even the Pathi's twisted reality ...twisting...ability is not enough to stop their relentless march. It is truly the Age of the Farshoom, and mighty are their works of stone.

And their firm unyielding belief in Χαος is such that both Klensar and Pathi are reduced in power. Klensar is pleased that his foe is being weakened but displeased in his reduction in power....and broods.

Χαος officially announces his presence to the world. His Obelisks flare violently to life and lightning spider-webs through the sky as his presence palpably rumbles across the atmosphere. Chaotic particles pop to life from the aether and fade from reality randomly. Entire species of plants get written out of existence, only to be replaced by something even more complex.

Eventually things settle down to a rather omnious silence.

Χαος makes his return well known.

The world is in shock and awe at this. Pathi trembles and curses, Klensar is pleased at some form, any form of hope against the encroaching darkness. The races of the world are generally happy (except of course the Pathi) with the Shardi and the Dragons in particularly pleased, and the Dragons pour forth from their waiting chambers in the center of the earth and get ready for war.

Χαος releases a weak form of the rust plague amongst the Shardi, specifically mutated to affect their crystalline make-up.

Shardi Rot is indeed a blight upon the race, and it inflicts much misery. The Farshoom develop a powerful medicine which reduces its effects, but it is by no means a cure.

Alexandra gives birth to three gods: Menrva, Tinia and Uni and sends them to the surface of the planet. The three find the highest point near Alexandra's children, and upon it create a temple, a dwelling for themselves. Near the temple. Tinia strikes the ground with his staff and a large rock emerges from the ground; Uni transforms the rock to a fountain with three faces, with open mouths; Menrva causes water to pour forth from each of the the mouths in the fountain. They wait to see what the Alexandrans will do.

And so Menrva, Tinia and Uni are born. They instantly make a positive impact on the Alexandrians and a temple is made where the worship flows in. In only a decade their theoretical power exceeds that of their mother. Uri makes the fountain and it is blessed, that all who enter it are healed.

Χαος alters the Shardi Rot to be bioluminescent.

And there was light.

Χαος infects the remaining Pathi with the sporadic madness that curses the Alexandrians.

The Pathi have set up Pathi farms so that they can reproduce in ten times their number. Their dark and twisted discipline helps them accomplish this and the tide begins to turn again...until periodically 1 in 10 of them decides that looking at the stars for four or five months at a time and doing nothing else is fun. Or composing poetry.

It should be noted, that Pathi poetry largely consists of torture, rape and making non Pathi miserable....and it is horrifically written, but the sheer randomness of it makes the disciplines required by the farms impossible as they all turn on each other, with whole clans of Pathi turning on each other, allowing the Farshoom to mop many of them up.

Χαος cloaks the world in absolute darkness.

And the world is cloaked in darkness, a thick layer directly underneath Alexandra's shielding shroad but that still obfuscates the sun. And the plants begin to die again, but most of them, bottlenecked by the last time this happened, have seeds, merely awaiting living light again.

Banio creates the Nothing, which shall consume all things upon the end of the Aeon.

By Void decree, the Vale of Tiitloc shall be immune to this, but so shall the sun, stars and moons since they predate death. The Nothing may be stemmed with three acts countering it.

Banio covers the world in a never ending petulant rotting smell that all races can sense and experience as unpleasant.

And the world is covered in a never ending stench of great foulness. And there is much misery. Belief in general plummets.

Banio robs the world of sleep.

Without sleep, there is no dreaming and without dreaming, the creatures of the world, save the Shardi, who never slept, madness and despair slowly covers the world. The Alexandrian poetry becomes morose and dark, waxing fond of imagined memories of the sun and of fresh air. The Dragons, freed of the balancing curse, actually enjoy their wakefullness and soar about the world, trying to ignore the ever present rot around them.

The Three Aeons - Gap between Era 2 and 3, First Aeon

And so it was the Titans went to sleep, though still cognizant of the world. Their tremendous power allowed them to see and hear and do many mighty things, but this last era had been troubling. There was ...change on the horizon. The word of the void had declared that in the measure of time, vast and measureless though that might be, they would eventually have give way to a new kind of ruling creature, Gods. Troubling as that might be, their new sibling, born out of the unused power that slowly accrued, had brought these troublesome creatures to live earlier than they might have otherwise. Being the first of their kind, these three became the Elder Gods, which later Gods would not have quite as much power as.

The First, Klensar, a being of order and engineering, in some ways similar to Tiitloc, born out of a fictional idea created by the Alexandrians in one of their increasingly fantastic stories. It told of a race of humanoid people with pale skin, obsessed with order and cleanliness who served Tiitloc in a mighty realm in the heavens. Eventually, Klensar became real through belief in him, and so it was that the Cult of Klensar was born among all races but Dragons, for while the Shardi were slow to 'forget' their allegiance to their creator, the order and power presented by Klensar appealed to them, and as the centuries passed, even they with their nigh infinite memories began to regard the titans as only legend.

The Second, Weaver, the creator God, served in the heavens by transluscent intelligent spiders, was born by Xaoc and Alexandra (in the beliefs of the mortal kind that tried to sell another fictional story that became legend and then truth), Weaver created many more varieties of animals and plants that began to populate the world. Weaver was also popular because it became known as a God of Birth, and was thus appealed to all, even a few Dragons, for hope in producing offspring.

The Third, Pathi, was a dark creature, born out of a corruption of the legends of Banio and Sawda-Saiph, who had two aspects. One was the righteous harbinger of death and the other was the psychopathic element of destruction, hell bent on destroying the world and all in it. His race, the Pathi, were able to twist the very forces of creation and engineering, like the Dragons and the Klensari, but twisted and used to extremely destructive ends. However it was then that Banio's last secret act was revealed, and the balanced nature of Pathi, created by the balanced belief of many races of the Elder God of Destruction and Death, became only destruction and so it was that like the Metal Men before them, the Pathi began to wage war on the populace.

The only thing initially stopping them the existance of Entropium. However, the twisted nature of the Pathi enabled them to come up with counters on a fairly rapid basis, and thus, Pathi altered the Pathi so that they were able to reproduce very quickly, creating a massive amount of belief. This created three new gods, the descendants of Pathi, Death, Destruction and Doom. They were each able to grant their followers magic that was able to overcome the effects of Entropium and pass the Law of Karma off onto others using complex and dark rituals.

The Law of Karma proved harder to fool than might be thought, however, for while it could be passed off against an individual for a while, it could not be put away for ever, thus leading to vast pyramid schemes of Scape Karmas who took the blame for thier dark master, all centering on a vast and powerful lord who would inevitably fall to a group of those blessed with an exceeding amount of Good Karma.

And so it was that seven cycles rose and fell with Seven Dark lords, held in check by Klensar and Weaver against Pathi and the dark gods that served under him. The races united, only to be thrown back. The Cartels eventually fell, to be replaced by the Cults of the Gods, to be replaced by the Seven Great Nation States, giant citadels built to wishstand the seasonal rise and fall of Pathi that bred to kill them only to be thrown back.

At last, towards the end of the interum, the Law of Corruption set in. The Dragons, as a price for their immortality, began to Sleep in proportion to the vibrancy and energy they expelled in life. The longer they stayed away and the mightier they lived,the more they had to sleep, leaving their most valorous and glorious asleep in the center of the earth when the eigth wave came. The price of the Power, was that the Dragons also were more subject to the Law of Karma than most. This led to some becoming uninvolved and unwilling to intervene in the world, and others retiring to the mountains. Without the mightiest race to help them, the alliances between the city states crumbled. The Alexandrians were cursed with spates of random spontanity and madness, sometimes lasting a day, sometimes years, usually proportional to the amount of wisdom that they had. The Shardi became cruel, often callous in their actions. The elementals having received no gifts, had no curses, but they had neither the might of the dragons, nor the short reproduction cycles or wisdom of the Alexandrians nor the engineering prowess or foresight of the Shardi.

Pathi could see that in this, the eighth cycle, he was winning, with four of the seven city states having fallen, with only the Mountain of Fire, the Valley of Tiitloc and the Citadel of Light (built around the Obelisk of Light) standing against the millions of Pathi that covered the surface and held a dinner where he hoped to negotiate with his siblings. He had dinner but poisoned Weaver, and left Klensar greatly weakened.

Pathi was certain to gain complete domination of the world, culminating ultimately in its destruction...

And then the Titans awoke a final time...

Three Aeons - First Aeon, Second Era, Last Day

Χαος sows the seed of a strong belief into the minds of the Shardi by posing the question, "What or who controls the passage of time?". Perhaps they should go out and make pilgrimages around to the world to his nurmerous Obelisks, searching for wisdom and answers.

The Shardi consider this idea and begin to make a slow monotonous trek, taking a very long time indeed, walking from obelisk to obelisk, contemplating the nature of time.

In the mean time, a truly golden age of commercial prosperity takes place in the world. In the years that the Shardi move about in their pilgrimage, people buy and sell much goods, build houses, find luxuries and enjoy the benefits of peace. Though Shardi come from many clans and locations now, the Pilgrimage of Obelisks now unites them on some levels once again.

Into the minds of the dragons, Χαος imparts the lost knowledge of their three patron Dragons; Hyperion, the brilliantly shining white dragon of Light. Erebus, the shadowy and mysterious dragon of Dark. Chrysos, the illustrious dragon of Gold. Χαος speaks of their slumber at the center of this world, and of the quest the Dragons should go on to waken them.

The dragons hear this and think its a swell idea. Of course, being all immortal at this point, they take a long time to decide exactly how they're going to do it, so they ponderously study and contemplate and eventually decide to try to find out the location of their three ancestors. They begin to use their innate powers to tunnel deep into the earth, creating a massive network of tunnels behind them.

The Alexandrians have a great time exploring these tunnels over and over again.

Banio decides that since he can't destroy the world, he's going to corrupt it. So he very carefully thinks with his tiny tiny brain and gets a flash of evil genius. He is, after all, made up of the discarded energy from the titans themselves.

He looks at the races and decides to make an unholy balance. There are two sides to every story, or rather, there will be. His side, and everyone else's. So he creates the Law of Balance which states that for every gift the titans gift to a race, they will develop a corresponding flaw. This is designed to go into effect during the interim between Eras.

Banio creates the Law of Balance, because there are Two Sides to every story.

In the mean time, in an utterly shocking move, the Metal Men have dug underneath Tiitloc's obelisk using special saps made of Light and Dark matter which allow them to dig tunnels with astonishing speed. They have dug a massive tunnel underneath the obelisk, which in turn causes it to collapse.

The titanic city at the top is filled with hundreds of thousands of Alexandrians, Shardi and Elementals, all of whom are instantly killed. On the other hand, with the collapse of the Blue Obelisk, the magnetic shield protecting the world vanishes in an instant, causing massive storms to begin building all over the world. Lightning from the newly created Blue Matter, which fills the valley of Tiitloc, shoots through the metal men, killing all of them, save one named Skaar, who rushes into the depths of the earth in the tunnels they made.

There are still many alive in the Valley of Tiitloc, however and using the tools provided them in the Cave of Preparation, they use their engineering skills to build a dome to shelter themselves from the storms with Blue Matter from the shattered obelisk.

Life becomes very difficult on the surface, with many seeking shelter in the huge cave complexes left by the dragons as they tunnel to the center of the earth. Other cities buy large amounts of Blue Matter from the valley of Tiitloc to shield their cities from the storms, and in the process the Valley of Tiitloc becomes richer than any other region on the planet.

Blue Matter becomes the currency of the realm.

But then, as the dragons tunnel downward, an enterprising Alexandrian discovers a strange new material. It is extremely curious because it works as an anti-entropic force. The way the force works is that when a sentient being performs an action that increases entropy they feel pain in proportion to the the increase in entropy. This is not a simple linear calculation, Creative efforts significantly offset the entropy of their creation.

So stacking a hundred rocks into a wall does not cause any pain, but knocking down that same wall causes something like a mild twinge.

Killing another being unnecessarily of course, causes a great deal of entropy and causes pain in proportion to the complexity of the being destroyed. (Kill a mouse, get a toothache, deicide would be torturous). The Alexandrians call this material Entropium and love it. They each forge an amulet made out of the stuff, and soon the anti destructive force begins to spread around the world, bring a second era of great peace.

Killing and violence happens, but at a significantly reduced amount. Those who take the lives of others use patsy's, pawns and labyrinthine conspiracies. A series of cartels come into existence each trying to jockey into position over the other.

Alexandra is horrified by all the carnage before her and that her people are doing peaceful things. To reinforce this she creates the Karmic Law of Three, which states that any good done by someone comes back to them as good three fold and bad done by someone comes back as bad three fold.

Alexandra's creates the second law created, and it is an extremely powerful one. The effects are not immediately seen, but the worst of the worst (primarily those who run the Cartels) tend to have this feeling of impending doom and it tempers their actions somewhat. Ironically, conversely, those who do the most good feel ashamed since they now sense on some inner level that they shall be rewarded for doing what was the right thing anyway. Eventually this foreshadowed feeling goes away and they ignore it, however the law starts out early in little ways with the most Machiavellian plans going wrong at the worst times and some who do good getting a reprieve at just the right moment. The Dragons seem the least affected by this, but they are the first to notice it. They postulate that since they are immortal, the law has longer to reward or punish them, respectively.

Alexandra scoops up some Entropium and makes a calming living shield around the planet to shield it from harmful things that attack it.

The living shield is created. The storms that have wracked the planet for a tenth of a dragon life time, a Shardi Week, and three generations of Alexandrians finally ends. Life outside of the Blue Matter domes becomes tolerable again, and a small but insane group of Tiitlocian followers begin rebuilding the Obelisk of Tiitloc, albiet using actual rock instead of Blue Matter. It is insanely slow going.

Alexandra sends out psychic wavelengths to the Alexandrians to gift them with exceptional wisdom in the form of higher consciousness that they might be able to become problem solvers, scholars and poets.

The Alexandrians suddenly become very wise. They're not particularly immediately sure what to do with this knowledge but enjoy the greater connection with Alexandra (while it lasts) and so develop great songs, stories and works of art. The Book of Proverbs is created, and the greatest of all secrets of wisdom are added to its pages.

Three Aeons - 2nd Era - Day Before the End

Tiitloc forges tools for the inhabitants of his temple to use to make other tools.

And there are many tools that are made to make many other tools.

Tiitloc, having grown tired of the chaos that has taken place since he was ripped from the fabric of space, expels himself from the planet's sun. The formerly formless Tiitloc channels himself over a solar flare and takes the shape of a great white dragon who rests on a throne of stone beneath the sun-bound obelisk. The Titan offers no further aide to the dragons; however, Tiitloc welcomes all who flee from the usurping metal men into his fortress.

And so a safe haven is made for all those who see to flee the chaos outside. The quickest way for people to enter is to literally meld into the stone so that as the metal men chase them they dash harmlessly against the rocks.

Life on the rest of the planet is not faring so well however, as the Metal Men have slowly begun to kill all other life. They have eliminated about a third of all living things so far outside of the valley. Their weapons are huge clawed metal hands and teeth that rend and tear all things around them.

Χαος implants ideas and blueprints to the minds of the Shardi for how to forge their crystals into more advanced armor and weaponry, and how to imbue them with Light or Dark Matter to furthur reinforce certain properties.

This helps the Shardi turn the tide with various Clans, making them rather slow (still) but incredibly destructive when they do move. The Shardi in Tiitloc's valley, combined with the tools that he has provided, create the most devastating weapons of all, and soon squadrons of Dragons, Phoenix and Djinn leave the fortress every day and kill mass amounts of Metal Men.

Χαος expands the dragon's understanding of warfare and tactics, and how to exploit their enemies weakness to their best advantage.

The Dragons, already highly intelligent, become master tacticians and begin to carry squadrons of Shardi Armored Shock troops which they drop into the middle of Metal Men who slaughter them in massive amounts. The tide of battle begins to turn, though the clans still fight heavily amongst each other. The Tiitloc Valley clan is more concerned about killing Metal Men though, and soon all of the other clans defer to them in fighting the war.

Χαος plucks a random bacteria from nature, and alters its genetic makeup such that it thrives on consuming the metallic Death Rock that the Metal Men consist of. These new bacteria are released upon the Metal Men like a virus.

The rust scourge is born. While it does interfere with some of the tools created by Tiitloc and the Shardi, it does FAR more damage to the Metal Men, causing them to rust at an accelerated rate whenever they band together, forcing them to disperse until they live in only the most remote parts of the world.

Tiitloc gifts his loyal followers with preliminary engineering, teaching the Shardi, dragons, and elementals how to terraform and shape the world to their bidding. Tiitloc encourages these beings who have sought haven in his temple to venture out and protect the exposed world from the forces of destruction.

They learn preliminary engineering. They slowly begin massive building projects all over the world, temples and fortresses and roads and aqueducts to make the world a better place and to better protect people in case Banio strikes back in some unforseen way.

Χαος introduces the concept of currency into the world.

Every race and every clan has a different idea of what constitutes currency. The Shardi use Light matter and Time, and accept little else. The Dragons value Light Matter, Dark Matter and Gold. The Elementals each value minerals reflective of their respective element, and titles to land nearest the obelisk of their same name. The Alexandrians value shells or a good song. The Metal Men are too few and far between to value anything but survival.

And there is much trading and the world begins to prosper.

Tiitloc, after many hours of inefficient communication, develops a spoken language to be spread from his castle to the rest of the world. There is only one word: Tiitloc.

Until now, the races cooperated by instinct and strange grunting and inflection, save the Alexandrians, whose language had become the ...well...the Lingua Alexandra as it were, used by all races, but now a second language is introduced. True, while on the surface, it is maddening, with but a single word, Tiitloc, the sheer order of Tiitloc's mind forces his disciples to learn it in greater detail.

If the Eskimos of Earth have 750 different words for snow, the followers of the Vale suddenly have 10000 words for Tiitloc. It becomes all about how the word is said, and in context with the rest of the word, thus largely about context, pronuciation and inflection. Still, it is primarily a word of numbers, of order, of earth and of engineering. Both Alexandrian and Tiitloc are spread throughout the world, but one is the language of calm, every day things, and the other is the language of the Skies, of grand ideas, the Titans, of war, and of engineering and mathematics.

Banio can tell the end of the era is coming and takes advantage of the impending gap. While the Titans sleep, Gods shall arise, based on the beliefs of the various races that inhabit the world, whose power shall be derived not from the universe, but from the worship and thoughts of mortal sentient beings. And since mortal sentient beings have an infinite capacity to dream, so too shall their power be infinite.

Banio creates the Law of the Gods which states that during the second interim, Gods shall arise based on the beliefs of sentient creatures.

And so it shall be. Of course...that was what the Void was planning to do after the first Aeon anyway, but now strange new gods before the Gods of the Second Aeon, which shall inevitably come after the End of the Titans, shall come, and their power is indeed nigh infinite, held only by the dreams and aspirations of mortal kind.

Three Aeons - 2nd Era - Day 8

Alexandra wanders lightly across the face of the planet, unseen, but perhaps felt by some of the more sensitive ... entities ... observing what there is to see, particularly the life forms. She swims the various bodies of water and enjoys what she sees. Then she takes to the air, and as she flies, she hears a strange howling. She investigates. To her great pleasure, she sees a group of mammals, howling at her smile constellation in the sky. As reward for pleasing her, the smile constellation glows and a finger of falling stars moves as if from between the lips, towards the earth, but does not reach it - rather, Alexandra lightly taps each of the creatures between the eyes and gives them a gift, then watches to see how it develops and what they will do with it.

A gentle light settles over the Racoon creatures and their eyes open a bit wider. They become more aware of themselves and the world around them, and whilst they sing, they begin to sign with words of praise, still primitive but they are grateful that their minds have been expanded and that their comprehension of their beauty of the world is that much more. They form a circle and slowly dance, spontaenously and rather primitively but with perfect timing to the silent music they sing.

Sawda-Saiph is conflicted. Should she use her connection with dark forces to save the world from the asteroid? Will this endanger the world to bring the darkness so close? She creates a micro-blackhole as far from the world as possible, but in the path of the hurtling body. The micro-blackhole is surrounded by dark matter and so it cannot grow. However, with its small size, it will remain until it slowly dissipates the radiation back into the Universe. She remains nearby to ensure only the hurtling body intersects.

The black hole is interposed in front of the Death Rock. The impact is immediate and titanic. The Death Rock shatters, and much of it is instantly destroyed, though half still manages to move forward. There is great celebration in the world below, however since the Shardi had seen the anomoly in the heavens and predicted the impact of the rock on the world, destroying all life. They have now learned the name of Sawda-Saiph, harbinger of death but also bringer of life. The celebration is short lived however since it rapidly becomes apparent that at least half of the rock is still heading towards the world. In the process, small nuggets of Dark Matter spring forth into the heavens, some of which fall to the world below. Many of these are burned up in the magnetic shield but some of the larger chunks land in greater amounts in the world below, thus increasing the quantity of dark matter.

Alexandra turns to her children, though they cannot see her, and clearly says to her children, "Learn, grow, gain in wisdom and take care of each other, this planet and all that dwells on it." Knowing that it might result in her destruction, Alexandra places herself in the path of the oncoming asteroid, spreads herself out and solidifies, a gigantic shield, covering the most endangered side of the planet ... and smiles.

Alexandra interposes herself in front of the remaining half of the death rock. However, given the sheer mass of the stone involved, much of it lifts up into the air and orbits towards the far side of the planet. Since she herself is inherently invulnerable and cannot be stopped, the Death Rock is pulverized. The Alexandrians celebrate this, though the Dragons and Shardi are cyincially critical of her failed effort. The elementals are pleased but largely indifferent since the threat is still real, if lessened.

Χαος rips the moon with the comforting statue out of its orbit around the earth, bathes it in Light Matter from his Obelisk, and sends it rocketing on a collision course with the meteorite and the micro-blackhole.

The third moon is moved. What is left of the Death Rock is now absorbed in the moon, though the perfect balance that previously existed between the two moons is now disrupted, causing tides to begin to shift and change on the world below. The third moon is now a spectacular sight, interlaced with the giant statues but glittering with the ruddy red bits of the death rock and lingering black veins of Dark Matter. Explosions of Light Matter and Dark Matter intermixed cause craters in the world though thanks to the intervening titans the world will survive. The celebration in the world below is now total, but waves of erratic peace and war begin to unleash on the world, causing strange alliances of Shardi, Dragons, Changed Elementals and Alexandrians to fight with each other and against other groups.

Banio is displeased that his efforts to destroy the world has failed. He sees the celebration of the various inhabitants of the world below and is particularly incensed. He claps his hands together and sends a portion of the ruddy remains of the Death Rock down to the world below and creates the Metal Men, animate creatures like Elementals but composed entirely of the Death Rock with the singular mission to slaughter all living things.

Banio creates the Metal Men.

The Metal Men begin to wreak havok. One clan of Alexandrians, Shardi, Elementals and Dragons battling another is set on from behind by the Metal Men and half their number are slain before the native sentient creatures flee in all directions, attempting to regroup, but with their minds and emotions in chaos due to the eratic orbit of the third moon, thus far they are not suceeding very well.

Restoring House Tephet - Fluffy's Journal

My name is Fluffy and I'm a Yeddim even though people mistake me for a Yak all of the time. I can understand that. A Yeddim should be as big as a house but I'm only as big as a cottage. My dad is the God of Healing and I can lick people with my tounge and make them all better. Anyway, once my friend Far, short for Farfiglavan is a noble from a dragon house. I forget which but he doesn't like them very much because they did bad things to his mother. But he's from a far Satrapy. I don't know what a Sat is, or why they're trying to trap it, but that's where Far is from. I met far in a card game where he saved me. Some very bad people were going to trade me for parts for a machine and bet me. Far won and we've been best buddies ever since.

But I've probably already told you about that. The story I want to tell you about is how Far found his other friends. We were going home to the Satrapy, when we found out that they had been in big trouble from some bad people. Far is really good at killing things (I mean really really really really really good) and so he was going to go and kill them all but it turned out he didn't have to! A bunch of Tephets had come through and done it for him. Apparently this was a pretty big deal to Far, and he swore to pay back the guys who had done this (he cares about his family a lot) so I put him on my back and we went to the dragon isle. It took us a while and we had to cross the ocean which sucked but ...meh.

So eventually we found the Tephets in a hidey hole but one of the Tephets had been taken by a crazy Solar. My dad told me about Solars and said they were mostly good but they were also dangerous and crazy. It looked like this guy was a dangerous and crazy one. So Barad and his son Katel were trying to rescue Lintol, who is not a bean but is apparently all tied up. We snuck in there, and then we killed him. I mean killed as in mainly Far, but apparently Katel can move around a lot and did it pretty good.

So then we went across the ocean again, and let me tell you it sucked. Never eat the cheap hay. There was a lot of soldiers and they landed at this place to lay seige to it. Apparently there were these big guns that the Tephets and Far had to take out. So we all snuck ashore but nobody was particularly sneaky. I don't know why they ever thought I was going to be sneaky...I mean I'm a Ya...yeddim for crying out loud! Anyway, they saw us coming and there was a big fight. I stayed out of it and let Far kill things which he is good at, but they all did a really good job of killing those guys, but boy were they hard to kill. This one really annoying guy just kind of went inside of the gun and was like...bonded with it or something. It was hard to tell. Lintol kept using this butterfly cloud which was pretty but also killed things really well. They shot a lot of things back at each other and managed to screw up one of the guns so that it wasn't going to work any more.

But there was another pair of guns we had to go to. They were a lot harder because they knew we were coming. Now, I thought we were unsneaky before, but apparently having the gun explode or fire or whatever was even LESS sneaky so they shot lots of arrows at all of us and stuff like that and it sucked. I stayed back and watched. I don't like to fight but I can when I have to. Anyway, they got the gun and everyone was happy.

Then we got on another boat and went back to the Dragon isle. But along the way it turned out that Lintol was apparently guilty of something but I'm not sure what of because he said he wasn't guilty of anything. So we flew away. This kind of pissed me off since if we could fly why didn't we just do that the first time, but Far said it had something to do with Lintol being afraid that people shooting him down. So we flew far to the north and then got lost. That sucked because it was cold but apparently it sucked more for everyone else because they didn't have fur. They found some dead things. They all got hurt so I liked them. Lintol tastes a lot like human. He's about the most human tasting human I've tasted. Barad tasted like steel. I guess because he wears armor a lot. Katel tasted like women and alcohol. I almost got drunk just licking him! Far tasted the best because he tasted like Far. Wait, didn't I mention? Because of my Dad I can heal people by licking them. Its nice to be able to make my friends better but some of them don't taste very good.

Anyway, we eventually figured out where the hell we were and went back to Tephetville. They were making a bunch of plans there, but didn't entirely know what to do. So they eventually decided to go look for Lintol's brother. I don't know why we were doing all of the other stuff instead, but Far said it had to do with building up house Tephet's reputation. What does Tephet's reputation have to do with his brother? I dunno. Far says I should just tell the story and not make commentary, but what's the point of a story without commentary?

I digress. I heard an old guy say that once and it sounded pretty cool. I digress again. I just like saying that, even though I'm not really saying anything since I communicate with my mind instead of my mouth like humans. I think it has something to do with the fact that my tounge has all of that healing drool in it all the time. Anyway, I digress. They went to a hunting lodge. They met some hunters that took them to where Lintol's brother was last seen. Some crazy dead thing attacked us. I helped attack it. I don't like dead things. It nearly killed me. I didn't like that. Fortunately, Far poured some of his healing potions into me and I got better.

We went into a swamp. It smelled horrible. Insects got inside of me, though my healing drool took a care of most of them. Then we think we found a portal. Then we went back. Then we went to the capital Imperial city and told a bunch of guys called the Inquisition that we thought the Bad Tephets were consorting with the bad Dead Things and got help. Then we allowed ourselves to be used as bait, and the two dead things attacked us. It hurt. A lot. A blood ape attacked me and so did one of the nasty spiny things but I got better. I licked myself and Far healed me again. Still, the bad guy took Barad and Katel with him and made them promise my Tounge! Can you imagine the nerve! Far said screw that though but through two potions through the portal and they got back. Then Far and Katel beat up the last bad guy. Barad through him into the air (Far) and he landed but didn't die. Katel beat the guy up but didn't kill him. It was pretty cool. Then the Inquisitors showed up and took the bad Dead thing back to their place to ask it questions.

Then we went to the Bad Tempet's lands and they made me stay outside but Far told me that Lintol is now in charge of House Tephet, mostly, even though two of the guys are 'touring the satrapies' whatever the hell that means. I doubt they'll find any Sats either. So everyone is happy. Lintol is apparently a good ruler. Far sits around a lot and kills things or trains people. Barad trains the army and runs the army and Katel boasts about how he took down the bad dead thing and sleeps with women and drinks a lot. I eat hay. A lot of it and its the good kind of hay which means they didn't scrimp on the money. Oh and there is this really creepy guy called Jory which keeps telling the others that my drool is worth serious money and that they should sell it but no one is listening to him. Which makes me happy.

The end.