WhiteCraneRiddle

The Riddle of White Crane

White Crane

Some things were forbidden even in the first age. One such thing was the mutiliation of the Solar shard. Such an act was akin to mutiliation the Deliberative and the Unconquered Sun. Because of this it was only accomplished four times, and one of them is White Crane.

Near the end of the primordial war, the world was lessening and some saw that it could never be repaired. They rationalized that with the world diminished, it would obscure the truth so that it could never be remade with the glory that was the Primordial's hands. All but one turned their back on the truth, and joined their brothers and sisters in slaying the primordials so that they could use their knowledge to twist the world into one of their choosing. But they were too slow in their victory, and before the world changed, before their magics lessend what could be and wiped memory of their acts even from their minds, she scribed the Scrolls of the Third Wing.

So important was this knowledge, so forbidden, that she had to make it imperishable, and at the time there was only one thing that the primordials had not proven that they could destroy: The Solar shard. So she altered her shard, and linked it with the scroll, so that they were one and the same. Each time the essence incarnates, it is driven to remake the scroll.

Throughout time only three people have read the Scroll of the Third Wing. The first was Karl Bax, the great architect of the first age. He was blinded by his own hubris, his own belief that the world he lived in was better than the one in the past. The second was Kejack Chejop, who learned its secrets and blamed the solars for their blasphemy, but lost himself in the crusade and was no better. The third was the Scarlet Empress, who learned from the scroll the truth of Essence - but her powers became too blatant, and those who would know what she knew moved against her to squeeze the secret from her corpse.

And the fourth will be the Bishop of the Chalcedony Thurible. He keeps the young boy who has the Essence, eager for his secrets yet fearful of acting too soon, least some important clue be ommitted. The boy knows what the Bishop is, but it matters not - his task is too great to be dissuaded by the legacy of a ghost. The Scrolls must be scribed. He knows that the Bishop watches him, searching for his desires and fears so that when the time come and he is shackled to his monstrance, that his essence will be tainted and the work that is so important will become a truth that binds all who reads it.

But the Bishop must hurry, because before she dissapeared the Empress learned of what would happen to the Scroll's essence in the future. And if she is not dead - if she speaks of what she knows - then those forces that were greater than her will rise a cry of battle that the world has not seen for an age.