The Orrery

The Orrery is a graveyard of empires.   Many thousands of years ago, at the beginning of history, there had been many worlds floating in the Astral, connected across incalculable distances by the Nebula – a vast network of celestial rivers, floating and twining through space. The waters of the Nebula, like blood through the body, carry all that is necessary for life in the universe, and the souls of all that have lived and died across the multitudinous worlds go with them, born and born again from now until the end of time.   The Orrery was one of these multitudinous worlds. Once, it had been beautiful – lush and vibrant with greenery, budding civilisation spreading across its surface, and rivers and oceans that swelled with the glory of the waters of the Nebula. Once, the gods that walked the earth were friends to mortals, and gave unto them their unearthly knowledge. Once, angels had tended to the heavens, and the earth, and the oceans.   When the heavens broke, the Nebula was lost, and the angels went with them. The gods turned cruel and tyrannical, waging endless wars until their eventual usurpation by the mortals that once worshipped them. The voluminous jungles choked and died, the seas boiled away into vapour, and now all that remains is a cruel ocean of sand and decay.   The Orrery is a graveyard of empires. But even now, civilisation remains. The City of Glass stands stalwart against the dark. And someday, the waters of the Nebula will return.