Prologue
--------

It began with the disappearance of a God, and ended with the splitting
of Creation and the discovery of a city of humans long lost from the
main continent of Sapience.

Two hundred and thirteen years after the Fall of the Selucarian Empire
(213 AF), Phaestus, the Smith, disappeared. For decades, nothing was
heard from Him, and His fate was not known. As has been recounted
elsewhere, His hammer plummeted to Sapience one day in 285 AF, and He
was released from imprisonment in His hammer through a ritual involving
the still-imprisoned Agatheis.

Upon His release, Phaestus spoke of the Other; a being of immense power,
perhaps exceeded only by Sarapis Himself. Phaestus had noticed this
Other watching Him, and when the Other realized this, it imprisoned
Phaestus in His hammer, where he remained until the hammer somehow found
its way to Sapience.

The discovery of this information caused a certain amount of alarm in
the Garden. What could this be? Sarapis Himself claimed not to know.
Little did anyone suspect the consequences that would be faced within a
matter of 3 years.

Memory Gaps
-----------

"The first portent of doom was the disappearance of Syvelium, and
Pentharian's denial of Syvelium's very existence." -- Averroes

What was going on? Syvelium, the Paladin guild tutor, had disappeared,
but the Gods claimed that he had never existed. This was unprecedented,
and speculation ran rampant. Soon, other inconsistencies started
becoming apparent. For example, the Gods began claiming that mortals
must be misremembering the fact that Phaestus had been trapped in His
hammer. The Logos Himself made a statement, ordering mortals to stop
posting what He termed 'nonsense.'

"I thought the Gods were either being manipulated or there was a war
in the Garden that was being concealed from mortalkind."
- Morlana Ni'Choya

Whatever was going on started spreading to mortals. Soon, quite a few
mortals appeared to be losing their minds. Firefox Sly, for instance,
began searching for a wife and children he never had, believing someone
had stolen them and attempted to wipe their memory from the world. Cyre
Elseth, a Human, became convinced that he was, in fact, a dwarf, and
that Phaestus deserved to be worshipped obsessively. Tigrayne Lena
reverted to her childhood, and forgot how to speak Achaean, knowing only
tsol'aa. And on, and on.

"My memories are spotty, and I get a headache every time I think about
it. It was bewildering to suddenly find myself playing with a ball,
or picking flowers in a part of the forest far from my home, or having
my good friends ask me if I wanted another cookie, as if I were a
child. Frightening, when I heard how I had been acting." - Tigrayne Lena

The Shamans
-----------

Soon, out of insanity, a wonder! A new set of knowledge, of mystical
earth magic skills appeared in the mind of Firefox Sly. Dubbed 'Shaman',
Firefox immediately opened a guild, while Twilight, Lord of Darkness,
claimed the whole while that Shamans had always existed, and seemed to
be confused by why Firefox was now the guildmaster.

The Destruction of the Basilica
-------------------------------

Things got stranger and stranger, and a few months later, it was clear
that the pace of events was accelerating, and leading to some sort of
climax. During a Dreaming led by the Order of Valnurana, the Other
partially revealed Himself.

Soon after, He revealed Himself to the world, appearing as a giant
figure in the sky. His first action was to cause dark storm clouds to
cover the land. These clouds began to randomly slay Achaeans, and change
their race to satyr or siren.

Most alarming of all, the weather changed in the space of ten minutes.
From a normal mid-summer, blizzards seemed to spontaneously spring up
all over the continent, as the temperature dropped to inhumanly cold
temperatures. The wind picked up, until gale-force winds buffeted all
those who ventured outdoors. The world seemed to have gone mad.

"Ah thought fer shore this wuz the end." -- A Shastaan fisherman

Soon thereafter, a gilded chest was seen to drop from the sky and land
in the Aureliana forest. Arriving first was Kaisar La'Seir, who
discovered that the chest contained words of prophetic warning. Words
warning that opening the chest would lead to destruction.

It then seemed that the Great Mhunna, leader of Moghedu, had discovered
a glowing key, presumably for the chest. Calling for council from other
mhun, he soon heard of the inscription on the chest. Determined not to
allow anyone to open the chest and unleash the promised destruction, he
decided to keep the key in his possession.

This did not sit well with certain Achaeans. The Overlord of Ashtan,
Malaclypse Thorn, demanded that the Mhunna hand over the key, or die.
The Mhunna, seeing that Malaclypse had brought a small army to back him
up, dove at Malaclypse, calling his powerful bodyguards to battle. When
it was over, the Mhunna stood, but the Overlord had perished.

"They invaded our home, and took what was not theirs by force. We
will not forget how Ashtan, under the banner of its elected leader,
murdered our leader. We will never forget." - a mhun warrior

With time however, a large enough force was assembled that it was able
to murder the Mhunna to get the key, though they lost it as quickly, due
to the magical and slippery nature of the key. With time, and after
numerous battles, the key was recovered by Shakti Devi, who ran to the
Aureliana, and opened the chest.

"[I opened the chest] for the spirit of chaos, discord, and change."
- Shakti Devi

Immediately upon opening the chest, a red beam of light shot into the
clouds, tinging them red from horizon to horizon. Multi-coloured
lightning began flashing inside them, and a great disturbance in them
became apparent. Soon, they split to reveal a giant arrow of flame
shooting toward Sapience!

It quickly became apparent that the arrow would strike Shallam, and as
it grew closer, the Chrysalis Basilica in particular. In seconds, it
thundered into the domes of the Basilica, instantly slaying all those
inside, and destroying the home of the Church, leaving nothing but a
crater behind.

"I was filled with utter dismay, and a deep sense of loss at the deaths
of Marhisa and Handel." - Sir Toralin Maleska

Hashan Burns
------------

Almost immediately after, another, larger gilded chest dropped from the
skies to land in the Pash Valley, and a key was seen to fall soon after.
The warning on this second chest was even more dire. It was clear a
weapon of mass destruction lurked inside, perhaps even worse than the
first.

Quick on her feet as always, Fern Le'Yuet was the first to locate the
key. On her way to the chest, she was lost, and fell victim to the
deadly blades of Sir Vexlore Sar'vet. Eventually, Charlotte Voivre, a
citizen of Shallam, recovered the key, and ran to open the chest.

Fire immediately gushed out toward the heavens, incinerating everyone in
the room, and setting the skies alight. The clouds began to swirl into a
flaming vortex, which moved over Hashan, and began to descend. On the
advice of Thakren Thudbutt, many Hashanites gathered at the Crossroads
in the city, as Thakren had incorrectly advised them they would be safe
there. Thus, as the vortex descended, many more died than might
otherwise have, as they stayed in the city.

"Uncontained panic followed by total confusion and horror pretty much
sums it up for me." - Fempu Isithrandil

Upon the destruction of Hashan, the Other revealed His name to be
Varian. Declaring to existence that He would make Creation His, He
declared Himself de facto ruler of Creation. It was at this point that
Lord Sarapis took a hand. Revealing that He had not, in fact, lost His
memory, and that He was playing along with Varian, in order to see what
this nearly equal being from outside the Logos' Creation wanted.

Unfortunately, Varian was powerful enough that even in His own Creation,
the Logos could not destroy Him. Thus, in order to expel Varian with a
minimum of disruption, the Logos created a copy of Achaea, and pushed
Varian into it, where He could rule as Creator. Named Aetolia, the
Midnight Age, this new world is now separate from Achaea, and its
future-history will progress differently from that of Achaea.

In the aftermath, Sarapis removed the vortex of fire from Hashan, but
declined to restore the Basilica, so devastated was it. The weather was
calmed with time, and the doom clouds were dispersed.

Cyrene
------

As the land returned to normal, a shout was heard from the edge of the
Vashnars, to the southwest, "HEEELLLLP!! THE DRAGON....IT...MY
MASTERS....DEAD!" Rushing to that part of the land, Revelation Azon, an
Ashuran monk, discovered a path covered by rubble, revealed by
disturbances earlier. Rushing to investigate, he was shocked to the core
of his being to discover a human city in a valley deep in the
southwestern Vashnars, long kept secret from the outside world.

Called Cyrene, it appears that this city would have gone on unnoticed
for a long time, were it not for the path that was revealed by the
powers of the Other. This was a happy coincidence for Cyrene, as during
the spell of exceptionally cold weather, a massive, old blue dragon
called Ainghaeal had come down out of the mountains looking for food,
and found that the Cyrenian Imperium provided many tasty snacks.

"There's nothing better than chomping a Senator." - Ainghaeal, before
he was slain by Janduin with the assistance of many others.

Without a government, the citizens of Cyrene petitioned Czanthria
Zuiho_sho to replace their former Imperiate as leader of Cyrene. As the
Basilica had been destroyed, Czanthria accepted, and founded a new
guild, the Runewardens, combining the skills of a Paladin and a Shaman.

Epilogue
--------

It is certain that the changes wrought by the appearance of the Other
will shake the foundations of Achaea for many years. New races, new
classes, new guilds, and new cities will provide opportunity for power
to shift, for alliances to formed, and broken.

What will become of this heretofore secluded city of Cyrene? Will it
grow to rival Ashtan, Shallam, and Hashan as a fourth power on Sapience?
How will it feel about Ashtan and Shallam particularly? (For it was
founded thousands of years ago, in the times before Nicator founded
Seleucar, in response to the endless Ashtan/Shallam wars.) Perhaps not
even the Logos knows.

And what will happen to the mortals who brought this destruction upon
their fellows, Shakti and Charlotte? The calls have already begun to
hunt them for the rest of their existence for their crimes against
humanity, and certainly it is difficult to avoid the opinion, given the
warnings provided, that they knowingly brought destruction on innocents.
Will Achaeans have the moral courage and the will to impose justice?
Only time will tell.

Penned by my hand on the 22nd of Phaestian, in the year 288 AF.