A Kinda Brief History Part 3
While Rodrii, Duecell and Aevallon pursued their conquest of Baldorra and cut back the overgrown Jungle, Balore' followed his own research and academic leads. He was near enough the sole administrator of all collected Archives and he founded what would become many institutions based on their cataloguing, study and preservation. His teams were the ones that found the Wildkin and the Beastfolk, beings of rumor and myth, and established contact. It was then that he met the High Priestess of the Satyrii and was given his most valuable lead. She directed him to a place of strange significance. He found a cavern system and followed it along until, with horror, he discovered a bizarre truth. He found the corpse of the still rumbling Old World. He found out how and why the abomination got into their world. Nothing would ever be the same.
Travel into the Old World was dangerous. Not only because the ancient intelligences still defended it. Not just because it was unfamiliar and advanced technology. It was dangerous because Uncreation had seeped into everything and there were vast spaces where reality unraveled and rearranged at incomprehensible speed. Living beings that entered these invisible distortions were unmade rapidly. Perhaps instantly. He spend years investigating and experimenting and with the aid of both Nulls and Arcanists, Hounds and Fae alike, he established beacons that made safe the paths into the Old World. Then, they found it. The great wound in the world that would never heal. The place where Artifice was docked to the mechanical corpse, fused solid by now. They learned of The Ancestors and how they had been but a few steps away from completing the world, but had not installed the membrane. Other worlds existed and naturally born worlds often had a barrier or "veil" holding back the nature of the void. There world had the equivalent of a placeholder for a barrier. And the unending legions of abominations and misbegotten were drawn to their world like moths to the flame. They were exposed. Only the presence of the Hounds of Tindalos had held back the devouring masses. The apex predators had been their protectors the whole time.
The years flew by with alarming speed and research into the Old World had ground to a halt. They could not unravel the mysteries of The Ancestors and they knew how disastrous it would be if all knew how thin the line was between life and world-wide death. At a loss and with tensions rising, the High Priestess of the Satyrii appeared to them and told them to build an administrative temple of sorts at a specific location. They did and when it was finished she performed a strange ritual and conjured the gods.
-imminent segment bracketed: review for accuracy-
The Pantheon had been discovered and they revealed why the Old World has ceased sinking into Uncreation. They had been tasked with the care of the new world and the direct guidance of the mortal races, but their orders had a curious contradiction. With the new world yet released they were confined to the Old World and as it sank so too did their directive become threatened. They martialed their own might and threw themselves against a truly vast and terrible god. The one that ran the whole of the machine world and forced it to stop following its conflicting final orders from the now-dead Ancestors. They were only just able to halt the destruction, but fighting the vastness meant they couldn't guide the mortal races. {and yet} Caught in this catch 22, unable to fulfill one duty without inviting destruction, they waited for the mortal races to find them. They worked out a deal and agreed to leave alone mortal affairs so long as they did not themselves threaten the world. They also gave to Balore' the means to explore the Old World, but at great cost. Together, mortal and pantheon, they approached the problem of the absent barrier. {and yet} They would have to build one. And it would require an immense sacrifice...
Travel into the Old World was dangerous. Not only because the ancient intelligences still defended it. Not just because it was unfamiliar and advanced technology. It was dangerous because Uncreation had seeped into everything and there were vast spaces where reality unraveled and rearranged at incomprehensible speed. Living beings that entered these invisible distortions were unmade rapidly. Perhaps instantly. He spend years investigating and experimenting and with the aid of both Nulls and Arcanists, Hounds and Fae alike, he established beacons that made safe the paths into the Old World. Then, they found it. The great wound in the world that would never heal. The place where Artifice was docked to the mechanical corpse, fused solid by now. They learned of The Ancestors and how they had been but a few steps away from completing the world, but had not installed the membrane. Other worlds existed and naturally born worlds often had a barrier or "veil" holding back the nature of the void. There world had the equivalent of a placeholder for a barrier. And the unending legions of abominations and misbegotten were drawn to their world like moths to the flame. They were exposed. Only the presence of the Hounds of Tindalos had held back the devouring masses. The apex predators had been their protectors the whole time.
The years flew by with alarming speed and research into the Old World had ground to a halt. They could not unravel the mysteries of The Ancestors and they knew how disastrous it would be if all knew how thin the line was between life and world-wide death. At a loss and with tensions rising, the High Priestess of the Satyrii appeared to them and told them to build an administrative temple of sorts at a specific location. They did and when it was finished she performed a strange ritual and conjured the gods.
-imminent segment bracketed: review for accuracy-
The Pantheon had been discovered and they revealed why the Old World has ceased sinking into Uncreation. They had been tasked with the care of the new world and the direct guidance of the mortal races, but their orders had a curious contradiction. With the new world yet released they were confined to the Old World and as it sank so too did their directive become threatened. They martialed their own might and threw themselves against a truly vast and terrible god. The one that ran the whole of the machine world and forced it to stop following its conflicting final orders from the now-dead Ancestors. They were only just able to halt the destruction, but fighting the vastness meant they couldn't guide the mortal races. {and yet} Caught in this catch 22, unable to fulfill one duty without inviting destruction, they waited for the mortal races to find them. They worked out a deal and agreed to leave alone mortal affairs so long as they did not themselves threaten the world. They also gave to Balore' the means to explore the Old World, but at great cost. Together, mortal and pantheon, they approached the problem of the absent barrier. {and yet} They would have to build one. And it would require an immense sacrifice...
Comments