Difference between revisions of "EndOfTheWorld/Background"

Latest revision as of 01:15, 6 April 2010

Our story starts over 3,000 years ago, in the Library at Mahalanka. As the rest of his brethren were meeting at the city of Meru for the annual Feast of the Sun, the Master Librarian Kazimir was delving into the mysterious of Necromancy, exploring the black depths of the shadowlands. It was as such, hidden as he was, that the Sidereals were unable to properly orchestrate his assassination, and as he returned to the world of the living, it didn't take long for Kazimir to notice something was seriously amiss. As the cold realization of betrayal swept over him, Kazimir knew that he absolutely could NOT afford to allow the usurpers to get hold of the sacred Solar Book of Three Circles. Among the 3 Books, it was to be read by Solar eyes alone, and it's secrets were forbidden to lesser Exalted. Fearing the horrors they might unleash should they somehow master it's finer points, Kazimir swept the Book up into his voluminous robes and fled the burning city of Mahalanka like a thief in the night, running from the fires of the Solar Inquisition.

Elsewhere, a circle of heroes, the last of the truly organized resistance, came together along the southern borders of what would one day come to be known as Halta, to make their final, glorious stand against the Dragon-blooded. When the librarian Kazimir happened upon them in their final deliberations, it was doubly decided that they would make their stand not only in defiance, but in order to buy Kazimir the time he'd need to flee to the very end of the world. And when the inevitable Dragon-blooded horde came, tens of thousands strong and equipped with all manner of occult ordinance, that circle made it's stand and fought the army to a standstill at the cost of their lives.

Kazimir fled north by northeast on foot as far as he could, 'til he came to a precipice upon past which there was naught but a vacant wall of air, and then he stopped. Without resting, he used his formidable sorcery to conjure forth demon and elemental alike in his service to construct a house, a very special house designed to guard the Solar Book of Three Circles. Weaving enchantment after enchantment, as a spider weaves silk, Kazimir designed the House to be a veritable deathtrap for all but the rightful bearers of Sol Invictus' legacy. Within the very deepest portions of the House, past all manner of arcane tricks and traps, Kazimir sealed the Book away behind a very special, very powerful trap. A trap that was impossible to defeat. A trap that could only be unlocked. A trap only a Solar could best. Functionally, it was like a combination lock. Without a shard of essence for each phase of the Unconquered Sun's journey across the sky, the trap simply cannot be overcome. Furthermore, it would also require Kazimir's own essence in addition. Only with such a gathering could the Book be regained. Such was Kazimir's intent.

Drained and exhausted, Kazimir used the last of his essence to bind his spirit within that of the House, becoming it's sentient guardian. For it's final defense, the House, a level 5 manse, required 5 Hearthstones in order to even open it. Without them, it would prove impossible to even get past the main door. As Kazimir transformed himself, he willed 4 of the Hearthstones, placed within moonsilver amulets, to Madame Marthesine, Mistress of the Lost, that she might scatter them throughout Creation until their rightful bearers find them. The last Hearthstone, Kazimir left within it's slot with his House. And then he went to sleep...

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Years passed. Then decades. After that came centure followed by, inevitably, millenia. During that entire time, Kazimir had absolutely nothing to do but think. And ponder. And hate. These things he did until they finally drove him mad. All traces of benevolence faded from him. All hopes for a newer, better world to one-day emerge, for a circle to make that world with the Book he'd guarded for them were corrupted. Soon, the only thing that mattered for him was revenge. Revenge against the Dragon-blooded for murdering his kind. Revenge against the Sidereals for orchestrating their demise. Revenge against the Lunars, against Heaven itself, for complacence in the dirty deed. Kazimir, now a mad, hate-filled spectre, wanted out of the House, wanted to wreak total devastation on all who had betrayed him. Yet he was trapped, with no way out, until...

As the Empress disappeared and the Jade Prison was cracked, the return of Solar essences to the world was sufficient to activate the "beacon" within the House, a magical emination that sang and beckoned to all with the magical prowess (Essence 6+) to sense it. Among the first to detect the beacon was the Bureau of Destiny, who for centuries had been looking for the fabled resting place of the Book. Kejak, sensing an opportunity, dispatched a circle of Essence-Users Convention Sidereals, all ancient and formidable, to investigate the newly "appeared" House. An opportunity Kazimir was quick to take advantage of. As the circle arrived at the House, Kazimir courteously let Sidereals in, temporarily bypassing the Hearthstone lock. When the last of them was within it's deceptive walls, the doors slammed shut and the nightmare began. Although they were possessed of great prowess, they were no match for the ancient, wizened spectre, and soon all but one was dead of insanity. The last to hold out, the strong-willed Chosen of Secrets Vangelis, spat his defiance at the malevolent ghost before he too expired. And yet he didn't die. In the moment his soul evacuated it's fleshly shell, Kazimir forced his own in, latching on to both Vangelis' memories and shard like a drowning man grasps a lifeline. In terrible agony, Vangelis clawed his own eyes from his head, his skin and hair turned chalk white, and the smell of brimstone surrounded the two struggling as one. In the end, Vangelis was dead, and Kazimir was in full control of the elder Sidereals body. A smile played on his pale lips as his eyeless face revealed a sinister mirth.

Time passed. Soon, other potent beings in the East began to detect the radiation of power coming from the House. In Mahalanka, Raksi was troubled by fitful dreams of the one spellbook even she did not have. One of her lovers, a Black Widow totem named Shabaquo took notice. In Thorns, the Mask detected the presence of the Book and desired it greatly. And of course, the Bureau of Destiny grew troubled by the continued presence of the power emination and the disappearance of the circle sent to investigate.

Throughout the East, Kazimir/Vangelis (henceforth referred to as Vangelis), was moving as a man possessed. One by one he tracked down the bearers of key shards, namely his and those of the circle that had once defended him. Although he could care less about them, he needed them to bypass the trap that even he could not, the House's deadly Last Trap. And so he used his new-found Sidereal powers well, bringing the circle together again and steering them into a confrontation with the bearer of his own shard.

Now we come to present day. As the story begins, Gem is destroyed, brought low by the joint armies of the Fair Folk and the Deathlords. The Realm is in chaos, wrapped in it's own bitter civil war. Elsewhere it's the same, the Wyld encroaches, nations fall, chaos rules. The story opens up with Vangelis' pawns unwittingly being drawn together in a plot both sinister and apocalyptic in nature.

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