The Book Of Earth/Cloud Island
Hundreds of years after the Primordial War ended, a Sidereal who Exalted around that time named Questor conceived a passion for his beautiful young Lunar student, Magnificent Beaver (also known as "The Hirsute", to her friends). Knowing that she was already partnered with her Solar Mate, Walking Typhoon, he challenged the Solar to a duel for her favor...
The Dawn laughed and accepted. And then reeled in shock as the Seer revealed the full power of the secret disciplines the Sidereals had been developing since the War, perhaps for the first time in public. This battle went on for some time, and was well and hard-fought, but ended with the Lawgiver humbling the Sidereal, as even his own fellowship had predicted it would.
Surprising everyone, however, Typhoon demanded no recompense, instead congratulating the older Exalt on his prowess, and revealing that his relationship with his Lunar mate wasn't of that kind, anyway. He didn't care WHO she romanced, frankly...
Questor was even happier to learn that she returned his affections, and upon their eventual marriage, set out to give her a wedding gift to match the ages.
Already a masterful artisan, Questor nonetheless consulting with the most inspired of the Crafts Gods and the People of Adamant to drawing up his plans. Once they were finalized, he used the mightiest Crafting arts of the Viziers to quickly make his dream reality, a feat that astounded even the Solar Deliberative.
Where once was nothing now floated the Cloud Island, a large island paradise that literally floated on a cloudbank of its own. Magnificent Beaver thrilled to run, fly and hunt in her new home, and the two enjoyed many blissful centuries there. It became a popular sight in the West, floating over the sun-dazzled seas, and an informal headquarters for their Exalted Circles. Beaver personally made a pact with a spirit court of Sirens, who swam in the cloud supporting the isle, for she loved to hear their ethereal singing under the shining moon...
But all stories that lead to the Age of Sorrows end tragically, and this one is no exception. Chejop Kejak convinced Questor that his wifes' increasing mood swings were the result of her bondage to Walking Typhoon. Questor put all his support behind the Bronze Vision for her sake, but wasn't sure if he should warn her or not...
Finally, on the very day of the Usurpation, he decided he could keep nothing from her. Beaver was horrified to hear of the Sidereals' plans, and begged him to help her help their friend. Believing that she put him over their marriage, he refused, and ultimately, there was nothing for it but battle.
He put her down, with an esoteric blow that would not heal, just in time for Typhoon to arrive on the island. Witnessing this outrage, the Solar leapt to the attack, and the two finished the duel that had begun the Age here at the end of it.
The result may have been the same, for Typhoon had grown strong over the years and his rage was formidable, but Questor had likewise grown more powerful and kept his head, employing all that he had learned of his former ally's skills over the years. Still might he have lost had he not felt the surge in strength and vitality that could only have come from his bond to his fallen wife. Only with her Essence within him, did he finally slay his opponent...
And his own heart, for he had also caused the death of she who had chosen him in the end. Grimly, he transformed her bridal present into her funeral marker. Even tho he missed the Usurpation's opening blows to do so, he entombed his two former friends and lovers on the island that they had all loved so much, and set it to settle on the waves, and then deep below them, as their Essences circled each other, then sped off, hers to a new life elsewhere, his to a darkness that might never end...
Questor lives still, one of the Bronze Faction's Inner Circle's oldest, and most powerful members, only slightly less so than Kejak himself. He has never met any inheritor of Beaver's Essence and has not permitted himself a single loving touch in all the centuries since then, as penance for violating the bond of Venus...
Cloud Island (Artifact 4)
Cloud Island is an artificial island, miles across, that appears natural in every respect. It supports a wide range of colorful flora and fauna, and is a skillful mix of overgrown vegetation and elegant gardens. One of its more charming features is a tall waterfall, which is ideal for diving off of or mediating under...
The sole appearance of artifice is the sprawling open-air villa in the center of the Isle, crafted from shining moonstone. Concealed here, is the entrance (tho not the only one) to the subterrarean complex beneath that houses the Control Room that steers the Isle and the Essence Engines that keep it aloft.
Questor and his wife also kept a rotating staff of Mountain Folk on hand within to operate and maintain the equipment while they enjoyed the island itself. The last shift died down there, their Essences racing back to Mount Meru, leaving behind frozen bodies of lifeless Jade, still waiting to be discovered in the endless dark beneath the sea...
A side effect of the Essence Engines is a steam-like mist; motonic manipulators give this mist the density of water, generating a warm "cloud" around the base of the Island that one can literally swim in!
These Engines are currently idling, maintaining the Island in a fixed point equidistant between the surface and floor of the Western Ocean. Tribes of Pelagathropes, Beastmen, Fair Folk and People of the Sea have fought over it, all possessing it at one point or other; nations such as Skullstone and Coral would surely attempt to raise it should they learn of its existence and location. Zhuxaio, God of All Things Sunken hungers for it, and would do much to add it to his museum of lost treasures of the sea...
The only life visible on the Sunken Island now are the sea life that can thrive there; schools of fish dart among the coral reefs that have grown along it. Sea vegetation and barnacles crawl all over the fine statuary, obscuring it from view. But the craftsmanship is of First Age make, and it would require only a quick cleaning to reveal the pristine gold and silver tombs, shaped into the beautiful likenesses of those within...and the sparse, unadorned steel one, which bears no face or name, silently waiting the day its occupant arrives and joins the others.
