War of the Fracture
This whole tower used to feel a lot different before the war. I remember spending time on the upper floors -- I prefer the ocean, so I came back, but still... it was nice to be able to see friends above.
What? What you means? You want to fall oer to the Castle again? Is yor bark rotten? Yous know why we cast shade there. Yous know why we don touch that place. Aint never root there again.
It's just not the same. Not since it broke. We still don't know how the Fifth Floor amassed such a large army of clockwork. We still can't reach the lower floors. Most of all, we still don't understand why.
The Tower, Divided
In the late 1400's of Synthacrosia's operation, the tower underwent it's biggest change since the beginning of the decline. A short, brutal war occurred between three of the towers upper floors; the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth floors. This trichotomy of war is known by three names; The Seperatist Wars , The War of the Fracture, and the Sealing War.The Conflict
Prelude
It began with silence -- silence from the Fifth Floor. Before the war, before the Fifth Floor broke, it's denizens lived purely within the massive sprawling expanse known as Stone Castle Invictus . It was a time when information and items were traded freely between the floors.
Residents of Blackridgepool and Wandermere were often found heading up to meet friends on the Fifth Floor, sharing art and stories. People from the lower floors who had yet to reawaken their hunger would often make the trip, just to experience their Second First Food .
Those living on the Sixth floor would welcome visitors from below, or visit below themselves, as it was their only source of new stories. Main City of the Sixth floor was cut off from above due to the Cursed Town built around the stairway to Floor 7.
Included Conflicts
Conflict Type
War
Start Date
1486
Ending Date
1492
Conflict Result
The Fracturing of the Upper Floors
Location
Souls, Broken
The greatest conflict Synthacrosia has ever seen brought about a side effect; Broken Core. The fracturing of the tower destabilized the fabric of reality within the structure its self; certain more susceptible souls felt this effect more, and broke with the tower they called home.We cannot let this spread. Whatever darkness is entering the tower here, we can not let it get to the other floors. We can cut it off. It'll break us, but we have to do it.
Belligerents
Strength
Non-mechanical forces, guards posted on Mammoth Hill. Guard ships patrolling the ocean.
Casualties
There were 104 casualties, spread across the two attacks against the Fourth Floor; the majority happening in the firebombing of the second attack.
Objectives
To defend against attack from the Fifth Floor, and understand why they were being attacked. To defend against future attacks from the floors above, and determine the source of the force field barrier on Mammoth Hill.
Strength
Majority of the force made up by uncorruptable clockwork soldiers. Various artifacts found within the depths of Stone Castle Invictus .
Casualties
Few deaths occured, as the forces were mostly mechanical. 13 souls died in the first attack on the Fourth Floor, and 7 died on the attack on the Sixth.
Objectives
Sever any and all travel between the floors. Isolate the Fifth Floor from the rest of the tower, to quarantine the source of Yamaraj's influence to the floor its self.
Strength
A well trained force of guard posted around Main City . Non-mechanical, mortal souls only.
Casualties
When the clockwork horde secured the area around the Fifth Floor Stairwell, 23 guards lost their lives. More might've been lost, but the guard pulled back due to the horde's strength.
Objectives
To secure the stairwell to the Fifth Floor before the clockwork horde completed whatever plan they had with it. To defend the rest of Main City, should the horde shift its attention.
Infection
Darkness had infected the Fifth Floor. Long ago, when Synthacrosia was just a thought within Locorin's mind, a powerful god was wronged. Yamaraj , the dark one, was cast from Synthacrosia. Locorin, together with an unnamed partner, sealed Yamaraj outside the tower. She has remained there ever since, prying at the cracks of the Tower, attempting to find her way back in. Eventually, the cracks widened. When Locorin Vanished, she worked to corrupt the clockwork.
Yamaraj exerted her will through the cracks she had found, and used her corrupted clockwork to meddle with events inside the tower. Her main focus was on the weakest section of tower she found; the Fifth Floor. She began slowly, directing the corrupted machines to explore. She sent them deep, she gathered intel. Yamaraj's automatons were seen crawling all over the Daybreaks, but their source was impossible to find.
A war of Necessity
The residents of Stone Castle Invictus noticed the increased clockwork, of course. Previously, clockwork would only be occasionally found upon the slopes of The Daybreaks . Soon after Yamaraj set her sights on the Fifth Floor, the numbers of Clockwork began drastically increasing.Resistance
Patrols were increased. More and more souls were trained as guards. Training regiments were created, drilling clockwork weak points into new and old guards alike. Yet as more souls volunteered to become guards, more clockwork were found crawling the hills below the walls. Soon the corrupted machinery began climbing the walls into the castle, attacking where people slept, and where they called home. When not defending the castle from the ever increasing attacks, people began to talk, and worry. Why had they failed to find the source of the clockwork? Were the clockwork going to spread to the other floors? Stone Castle Invictus soon split it's attention between two plans. Half the occupants of the castle put all of their effort into guarding, and fighting the clockwork. The other half began researching the clockwork, much to the contention of the group of guards -- why waste time researching, the horde needed to be stopped, now.
Analysis
The smartest souls within the Castle made a breakthrough, sometime around year 1480 -- they managed to break Yamaraj's influence over some of the clockwork. They worked quickly, and began assembling a clockwork horde of their own. They put the metal men to work, assisting the guards of the tower in defense against the ever growing swathes of corrupted machines. It was all they could do to keep up. The researchers began to use the new clean automatons to in new projects, attempting to determine the source of dark influence over the machines. After 5 years of constant research, experimentation, and battles, hope was almost gone. It was then they discovered the source of corruption -- it was coming from a fault in the Fifth Floor its self, from within the walls. Research halted. While the group of guards continued to mercilessly fight the growing clockwork horde, the second group from the Castle began to plan.Isolation
The researchers assembled a plan in 1 short year; much to the frustration of the guards. The two groups had increasingly been at odds as their way of life had become more difficult. The majority of souls within Stone Castle Invictus had begun to see the logic behind the plan, but a stalwart few continued in their stubborn ways, believing pure dedication and might to be the answer. Despite the push back, the plan moved forward. The creeping darkness spreading from Floor 5 needed to be quarantined. Using artifacts discovered within Stone Castle Invictus, they would do whatever it took to isolate the Fifth Floor, and halt the corruption.Part 1
Attack on the Fourth Floor
The first part of the plan, known from the Fourth Floor's point of view as the First Seperatist War . A team from Stone Castle Invictus took 20 uncorrupted clockwork soldiers with them, and marched down to the Fourth Floor. They were looking for an artifact that would help them seal themselves away; an artifact rumored to exist that would create a massive, impenetrable force field, supposed found on the Fourth Floor. After a brief 7 day skirmish, and attempted extraction of a Ring Gate , the force returned to the Fifth Floor. In their initial attack, they had determined the location of the force field artifact they desired, and they now had to determine how to retrieve it.It's perfect. We go back, grab the artifact, rough some people up.
Part 2
Severing the Sixth Floor
After the initial attack on the Fourth Floor, Stone Castle Invictus began guarding the stairs from below, using their clockwork guards. They then redoubled their efforts on creating the clean clockwork, and set their sights on the floor above. A large force of uncorrupted clockwork soldiers was quickly built, and the march upwards began. The forces from the Fifth Floor climbed the stairs to Main City , entering in the middle of the city. The clockwork soldiers were sent out to secure the area around the exit from the stairs, while the rest of the force got to work. Using Hammer and Spike , found within the depths of Stone Castle Invictus , Invictus forces blocked the way between the floors. They took the remainder of their force, and sent them down; then hammered the spike into the door behind them. When the spike is hammered into a door, it renders the door unopeneable. The structure connected to the door becomes indestructible. The way between the floors was locked, and the upper floors safe.Part 3
Return to the Fourth
We can end it now. We'll have to be quick, and decisive. Make them think we could have wiped them out if we wanted. Don't take too many lives -- we're trying to save people here.The second attack on the Fourth Floor was known as the Second Seperatist War -- and it was over in mere days. The Fifth Floor forces were comprised of entirely uncorrupted clockwork this time, and much stronger. The forces swarmed down Mammoth Hill , destroyed a part of Wandermere to destabilize the floor, and found the artifact they were looking for at The Waves of Sommerson. They created a force field around mammoth hill, and isolated themselves completely.
The Fracture
It was done, the Fifth Floor was quarantined from the rest of the floor. There would be no more travel through the floor, and the core of Yamaraj's power would be confined here.
But Yamaraj wasn't done yet.
While the majority of the people from the Fifth Floor focused on isolating their floor, Yamaraj had her corrupted clockwork focusing on breaking into the floor its self. Had there been more people working as guards, instead of researching and planning, they might have noticed how the clockwork attacked the castle with less ferocity over time. They had begun to attack the machinery of the floor its self.
Yamaraj's plan didn't go as she hoped though. Whatever the clockwork found within the walls of the floor, whatever they destroyed, it was lost in the breaking of the Fifth Floor. Every single soul residing in the fifth floor felt the core of their Soul, what makes them them, fracture . Memories fled. Time sped up -- the Fifth Floor began to experience years at twice the rate other floors did. Yamaraj had damaged the fabric of reality within the Fifth Floor; hindering herself as well as those who opposed her.
As the residents of the floor broke down into mere shadows of their formal selves, the corrupted clockwork began to slowly take control of everything they could.
It's like... someone was trying to dig their way in from outside. Like the clockwork were trying to break through the wall, to reach the outside. I didn't think it possible. The machinery and construction of this tower doesn't ever seem like something that could break, or be attacked, you know? Who would be crazy enough to do so? Hey... do you notice that? Is something... leaking... in here? Or is it... out... my... they... Wasn goes ons... whas happenn...
Comments
Author's Notes
All images created by stormbril. Patterns sourced via https://unsplash.com/