The Cycle

Created by The Snow Shadow

The cycle is the threads of fate being sewn together into the cloth that it is. While every section is not the same in texture or length, there is an undeniable syncopation to it all. If this is the intention of the weavers or simply an oversight of fate, we do not know. It will always bring fortune that comes and goes like the waves and tide. It binds all men like the seasons bound all of nature. It is believed to be both a gift and curse upon our world. It brings up both great joys and great pains. The true cause of this cycle has been debated for as long as men and magi have noted its existence. The cycle is the birth and death of empires.
Its stages are clearly defined

1. The Rise of a Power: From either the birth of a nation or the rise of a powerful lord, a new or existing state will rise to untold power thanks to some manner of unique oddity, power, mannerisms, philospies or resources.
2. Ascension to an Empire: The newly formed nation grows stronger each day until it begins an era of rampant unstoppable expansion, usually a singular moment of glory will be used to identify when it has truly become an empire. This event will also be used to set the historical calendars
3. The Golden Age: The empire has been established and if it has not conquered the entirety of the world, it is not long until they do. The world more or less prospers, or at least is fundamentally changed by its ruler, this time though is usually marked by massive growth across the world.
4. The shattering: It can begin at any time and is normally defined by the empire going through a time of decay or depression though unlike many others it does not rise back up. The decay of the empire accelerates downward overtime often leading to a rapid and bloody downfall. While it is not always true, it is often the result of the very thing that helps build the empire that causes it to fall.
5. The Dark Age: An era of decay, plague, famine, ceaseless bloodshed, the resurgence of monsters, endless arcane anomalies, and death. Nations die, knowledge is lost, and hope fades. They are dark times where life is harsh though that breed strong men who can survive and forge the next empire
6. The Rebirth: While the horrors of the dark age still rage through the cycle beings again and a new power begins to ascend. In this time the horrors of the dark age will begin to fade until they are all but gone.

It is believed to be both a gift and curse upon the world. It brings up both great joys and great pains. The true cause of this cycle has been debated for as long as men and magi have noted its existence. The beliefs although greatly varied fall roughly into two categories whom I shall refer to as the naturalists and the arcanists.
The naturalists are of the belief the cycle is caused by natural means, obviously. A chemist would say no more than for each action there is an equal and opposite reaction. We use so much that we have that a period of rejuvenation is needed for both Prospero and man. Men are an Icarus that reaches high and then falls. Once we have stopped our flight we simply attempt to soar high than we did before. We shall either reach the golden sun one day or fall in such a way that we can never rise again. There is a great deal of merit, as all science shows the world as a method, a back and forth or a cycle. This provides plenty of reason for it to be believed that it is simply another natural law but presiding over human nature. We crave this structure of order but we also crave other such as freedom, faith, fame, and fighting. Which men inherently move from one such extreme to the others.
The eastern naturalist philosopher Sou-lin Yang put it best that the gods are a meticulous and orderly chaos and they do not play dice with the universe. They will always create a system, how complex it is to understand is the chaos. The great questions of the naturalists is how does this vast system work and what is causing or why is it happening.
It can be even tied to the flow of life from Prospero and the flow of energies in the void. While it is never inevitable, and many are skeptical of its validity, the shifts of these forces often coincide and thus spawn the next viewpoint that of the arcanist.
The arcanist believe that the cycle is inevitably tied with the ebb and flows of the void. That this is tied to some ancient and powerful magic from eons ago in the first age even. This does have historical precedents as very often an empire will rise with the tides of void and Prospero and a dark age coming with the next great shift of powers. One could reasonably assume that man was forcibly tied to this.
A theory that is common amounts to the idea that the first magi foresaw the destruction that man could inflict upon itself and Prospero so they tied all of life's nature to the void and Prospero. As while both are incredibly volatile forces neither are completely self-destructive and always fight to recover. This all to achieve some sort of balance and order or an attempt to bring man close to the earth to soothe our lusts. Given the magi, of great age or power show a particular dulling of emotions or take on attributes of the natures they control speaks much to this theory. As they are very closely tied to both sources of energy it is often used as proof by the arcanists.
The great questions though of the arcanist belief system can be simplified to who, how, and why. Who created the system of the cycle? How did they create it, along with how could they have possessed such power? Lastly, why would something like the cycle even need to exist? Was it a cruel and terrible joke or if it some way to assure that mankind was preserved.

Manifestation

The Cycle is most often depicted as a wheel or a serpent eating its own tail, an ouroborus. It in truth has no physical representation other than the remains of a hundred dead empires.

Type

Metaphysical, Supernatural