The First Fansus - Revision history

Edward at 03:16, 1 September 2019

2019-09-01T03:16:24Z

Edward at 01:29, 6 August 2019

2019-08-06T01:29:28Z

Edward at 15:33, 7 July 2019

2019-07-07T15:33:10Z

Edward at 15:08, 7 July 2019

2019-07-07T15:08:59Z

Edward at 02:58, 7 July 2019

2019-07-07T02:58:45Z

Edward at 02:37, 7 July 2019

2019-07-07T02:37:29Z

Edward at 02:25, 7 July 2019

2019-07-07T02:25:36Z

Edward at 01:10, 10 June 2019

2019-06-10T01:10:26Z

Edward at 01:06, 10 June 2019

2019-06-10T01:06:52Z

Edward at 01:04, 10 June 2019

2019-06-10T01:04:17Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 03:16, 1 September 2019
Line 206:		Line 206:

	His enemies sought to ruin him with allegations that he could be a king? So he ''would'' become a king. Himself and his fellow conquistadors forswore their allegiances both to their homelands and the Doors, and rose again a King and his court. From the riches of the Empire of Keys Cortez donned a crown of gold and christened himself The Golden King, master of the Golden Empire.		His enemies sought to ruin him with allegations that he could be a king? So he ''would'' become a king. Himself and his fellow conquistadors forswore their allegiances both to their homelands and the Doors, and rose again a King and his court. From the riches of the Empire of Keys Cortez donned a crown of gold and christened himself The Golden King, master of the Golden Empire.
		+	The Hours were ''Furious'' That Cortez would betray them. They withdrew the power they gave him and recalled their minions to destroy him and the Empire once and for all for his insolence.

	==FNORD WIP material==		==FNORD WIP material==

@@ Line 198: / Line 198: @@
 One man among these explorers and conquerors was chosen as the Doors' champion. The saw his cunning, ruthlessness, and most notably his greed. All were qualities they were certain would cause this man, Hernan Cortez, to attack the Empire the moment he laid eyes on it. They concentrated their collective power into him, turning him into a mighty warrior it was said could not be defeated. Despite being outnumbered ten-to-one by the Keys' forces, Cortes' conquistadors decimated the Keys' forces and laid siege to their capitol in a matter of months.
-The Empire's Priest-Kings were either captured for forced to flee, and as Cortez settled in to occupy the city it appeared that the threat was over. However, the waning of his power as the Doors turned their attention elsewhere, as well as whispers at home that Cortez was disloyal infuriated him greatly.
+The Empire's Priest-Kings were either captured for forced to flee, and as Cortez settled in to occupy the city it appeared that the threat was over. But while the Doors were certainly content with the outcome, Cortez himself certainly was not. As the Doors withdrew their forces from the Third History, they subsequently rescinded much of the incredible power they'd given their champion. As he grew weaker, the "champion" was made painfully aware how much of the power and respect he'd enjoyed wasn't earned, and he mourned its loss. To compound matters the conquistador's rivals in his homeland took advantage of his absence to spread vicious rumors and slanders about his loyalty.
 ==FNORD WIP material==

@@ Line 190: / Line 190: @@
 With but a single swing she severed the branches, sending the hoard and its unholy mistress crashing to the ground. The soil of the Wood, wet with the blood of Long and the deluge of water and viscous fluid leaking from the shattered House's plumbing, turned to mud and began to greedily swallow up the Crone and her ill-gotten spoils. She screamed her unending hatred of the Serpents, but knew she could take no vengeance upon them. For every moment of her days must now be spent finding more loot to keep her hoard afloat on the mud. The thought of flying away and abandoning it did not even occur to her, as lost to greed as she was. The site of the nest's ruin became known as [[The Sunken Place]]. A cursed, evil place, where everything living is poisoned by the Cuckoo's hatred.
-Some Hours moved to set themselves against this rising monstrosity, but by the time the truth was known, the damage had been done. The Peacock had amassed a wealth of stolen power from the other gods, its forces' numbers swollen innumerably by vast hoards of Long dominated by the Peacock's power and put under his control. He at last used these "Stolen-Long" against the other Hours, overwhelming the Upper Mansus and driving all but the Maker and the Anvil from their own domains. This vast army of thralls came to be known as [[The Choir Unceasing]] for the unending, obscene cries and otherworldly music they made. Many Keys aligned themselves with this rising power, and for a time the unholy alliance of the Keys and Nowhere reigned dominant over the Upper Mansus.
+Some Hours moved to set themselves against this rising monstrosity, but by the time the truth was known, the damage had been done. The Peacock had amassed a wealth of stolen power from the other gods, its forces' numbers swollen innumerably by vast hoards of Long dominated by the Peacock's power and put under his control. The Peacock's influence was compounded by the number of thralls he commanded, and his influence spread and twisted the Upper House like a cancer. Upper Mansus was overwhelmed by a plague of madness, the swell of bodies so great all Hours but the Maker and the Anvil were driven from their own domains. This vast army of thralls came to be known as [[The Choir Unceasing]] for the unending, obscene cries and otherworldly music they made. Many Keys aligned themselves with this rising power, and for a time the unholy alliance of the Keys and Nowhere reigned dominant over the Upper Mansus.
-The Doors were fortunate in that their investigations into the Upstart managed to uncover the Empire of Keys before it could grow into the vast powerbase the Keys needed to secure final victory over the Doors. Immediately, the Doors moved to put down this rising threat and undermine the power of the now ascendant Keys.
+The Doors were fortunate in that their investigations into the Upstart managed to uncover the Empire of Keys before it could grow into the vast power base the Keys needed to secure final victory over the Doors. Immediately, the Doors moved to put down this rising threat and undermine the power of the now ascendant Keys. Unable to assault the Empire themselves without breaking the treaty, they instead settled into a proxy war. The Empire of Keys standing in for the Keys, and the Doors selecting the fierce soldiers and brave explorers of their kingdoms to fight in their stead.
 The Cuckoo whispered into the minds of mortals, filling their dreams with visions of treasure and riches on the other side of the sea. The Star guided their ships so that they were certain to arrive on the Empire's shores. The Hours of Edge concentrated their power and bestowed upon their soldiers great prowess in battle.
-One man among these explorers and conquerors was chosen as the Doors' champion.
+One man among these explorers and conquerors was chosen as the Doors' champion. The saw his cunning, ruthlessness, and most notably his greed. All were qualities they were certain would cause this man, Hernan Cortez, to attack the Empire the moment he laid eyes on it. They concentrated their collective power into him, turning him into a mighty warrior it was said could not be defeated. Despite being outnumbered ten-to-one by the Keys' forces, Cortes' conquistadors decimated the Keys' forces and laid siege to their capitol in a matter of months.
 ==FNORD WIP material==

@@ Line 176: / Line 176: @@
 The Ministers convened in Shesha once more, and an uneasy peace was signed between the two sides once more: never again would the Hours meet each other in open warfare.
-But without the Great Serpent to enforce such an agreement, the Hours feared that there would be no real way to ensure such an agreement was honored. Both sides feared that as soon as the other acquired the upper hand, they would use their advantage to destroy the other, kicking off an uneasy peace that would devolve into an arms race, both sides mainly using the lull in fighting not to repair the House but to prepare for what they saw was an inevitable return to the fighting.
+But without the Great Serpent to enforce such an agreement, the Hours feared that there would be no real way to ensure such an agreement was honored. Both sides feared that as soon as the other acquired the upper hand, they would use their advantage to destroy the other, kicking off an uneasy peace that would devolve into an arms race. Their mission to guide humanity forward became a secondary concern to most, as the sides mainly used the lull in fighting not to repair the damage but to prepare for what they saw was an inevitable return to the fighting.
-==FNORD WIP material==
+Soon after the end of the war, Long began disappearing from the Upper House. The Upper House was considered to be the joint paradise of the Hours, where most of their heavenly domains were located. The notion that someone or some''thing'' was picking them off was deeply concerning to them.
-The disappearance of the Great Serpent was felt throughout the Mansus and the Histories. Some Hours felt that their ability to experiment with the world and steer the Histories in the direction they felt they ''should'' be going was restricted unduly by the Serpent, and were eager to "rectify" this perceived wrong with the 21st Hour now absent. [[The Anaconda]], which would now become the Hour of stealth, ascended to take up the responsibilities of the Great Serpent and keep the peace.
+The Peacock was technically residing in an area that was the joint property of all Hours, and was making no overtly hostile moves on his own. He was, however seemingly laying claim to this area as his personal palace, and the number of Long he was had control over was growing distressingly large. All attempts to convince him to return the defectors were staunchly refused, and it became clear the only way to deal with him was with violent intervention. As that would only lead to the re-ignition of the conflict the Hours delayed taking action as the Upstart's influence grew larger and larger.
-Relationships between the gods became strained as the tensions mounted, particularly between the Hours of the Maker and the Anvil. The Maker had ever been dedicated to its work to find perfection in its creations, but this obsession deepened as time went on, to the point it no longer seemed to care for the ultimate well-being of those it modified. The Anvil however was dutiful and unyielding in its purpose, and grew disturbed by the lengths its friend seemed willing to go to in pursuit of perfecting its craft.
+It was the Cuckoo, the oldest shame of the Maker, who finally came forth with the truth of the Young Upstart's true nature. The Peacock hadn't escaped the Cuckoo's trap as it was initially believed. The Upstart had indeed been slain by the Cuckoo in her attempts to consume him, but immediately resurrected himself and fled.She was the first to learn the horrifying truth: that the death of a Hour would lead to the creation of a new God-from-Nowhere. Rising again almost as quickly as it was slain, this not-Hour now knew nothing of death, and existed now only to spread its terribly warped notion of joy to the rest of the world. A Broken-Bird.
-These tensions grew to a head when a dispute between the Snake-Tail and the Anaconda blossomed into a full-scale war as both Hours used the dispute as a excuse to vent their pent-up frustrations upon each other. The Hours that opposed the war and sought to maintain a sense of order took the names [[The Doors]], while those that sought an upset to the status-quo -by violent means if necessary- became known as [[The Keys]]. It is during this time a new Hour [[The Peacock]], emerged from hiding within the Wood and aligned itself with the Keys, for reasons the Snake-Tail and the bird kept to themselves.
+As the Anaconda learned the circumstances of the Peacock's creation, that she had dared to keep hidden the existence of the ''true'' first God-From-Nowhere in their midst, she decided she'd had enough of the Crone's endless thefts and lies. Brandishing her mighty sword, she swiftly traveled to the Cuckoo's Nest. Nestled high in the thick branches of the eldest Wood-tree, the bloated nest was piled high with countless stolen treasures and bloated corpses. The spoils of decades of plunder.
-For a time the Hours waged bloody war, greatly damaging the House and destroying many of the Gates through which both mortal and god accessed its halls. The battle only ended when the mortals the Snake-Tail and Anaconda had originally fought over were all killed save one. The Hours put down their weapons and ceased their fighting, but the damage to both the Mansus and their relationships with each other had been done.
+With but a single swing she severed the branches, sending the hoard and its unholy mistress crashing to the ground. The soil of the Wood, wet with the blood of Long and the deluge of water and viscous fluid leaking from the shattered House's plumbing, turned to mud and began to greedily swallow up the Crone and her ill-gotten spoils. She screamed her unending hatred of the Serpents, but knew she could take no vengeance upon them. For every moment of her days must now be spent finding more loot to keep her hoard afloat on the mud. The thought of flying away and abandoning it did not even occur to her, as lost to greed as she was. The site of the nest's ruin became known as [[The Sunken Place]]. A cursed, evil place, where everything living is poisoned by the Cuckoo's hatred.
-All was not well, however. The War of the Doors had damaged the fabric of reality, making navigation of the Lower House difficult if not impossible. These rifts shined like a beacon to Nowhere, and new Gods-from-Nowhere emerged. Among them was [[The Insidious]], which began to spread its malign influence throughout the Wood. Also FNORD.
+Some Hours moved to set themselves against this rising monstrosity, but by the time the truth was known, the damage had been done. The Peacock had amassed a wealth of stolen power from the other gods, its forces' numbers swollen innumerably by vast hoards of Long dominated by the Peacock's power and put under his control. He at last used these "Stolen-Long" against the other Hours, overwhelming the Upper Mansus and driving all but the Maker and the Anvil from their own domains. This vast army of thralls came to be known as [[The Choir Unceasing]] for the unending, obscene cries and otherworldly music they made. Many Keys aligned themselves with this rising power, and for a time the unholy alliance of the Keys and Nowhere reigned dominant over the Upper Mansus.
-Tensions again began to rise as a previously unheard of phenomenon began to manifest among the Long: defection. En masse many of the seemingly-devoted servants of the Hours of the House began to turn away from their masters, and pledge themselves to the fledgling Hour of the Peacock. Heedless of the complaints of his fellows, the great red bird continued to preach to the congregations of the other gods, luring them away with promises of unparalleled delight and what was described as an "unnatural charm". As the Peacock's power grew to levels unprecedented, inquiries were made as to the origin of this young Hour.
+The Doors were fortunate in that their investigations into the Upstart managed to uncover the Empire of Keys before it could grow into the vast powerbase the Keys needed to secure final victory over the Doors. Immediately, the Doors moved to put down this rising threat and undermine the power of the now ascendant Keys.
-It was the Cuckoo, the oldest shame of the Maker, who finally came forth with the truth of the Young Upstart's true nature. In a shocking act of callousness never seen before or since, the Cuckoo had gathered together and slaughtered the sum total of her cults in the waking world, luring them to her with promises of pleasure and delivering only pain. All in the pursuit of creating a God-from-Blood. The Cuckoo succeeded, and while the infant Hour's guard was lowered immediately attacked and murdered it, seeking to take its power for her own and dominate the other Hours. She was the first to learn the horrifying truth: that the death of a Hour would lead to the creation of a new God-from-Nowhere. Rising again almost as quickly as it was slain, this not-Hour now knew nothing of death, and existed now only to spread its terribly warped notion of joy to the rest of the world. A Broken-Bird.
+The Cuckoo whispered into the minds of mortals, filling their dreams with visions of treasure and riches on the other side of the sea. The Star guided their ships so that they were certain to arrive on the Empire's shores. The Hours of Edge concentrated their power and bestowed upon their soldiers great prowess in battle.
-As the Anaconda learned the circumstances of the Peacock's creation, she decided she'd had enough of the Crone's endless thefts and lies. Brandishing her mighty sword, she swiftly traveled to the Cuckoo's Nest. Nestled high in the thick branches of the eldest Wood-tree, the bloated nest was piled high with countless stolen treasures and bloated corpses. The spoils of decades of plunder.
+One man among these explorers and conquerors was chosen as the Doors' champion.
 Shocked and incensed by this affront to their power, both the mortal empires and the Hours of the Doors moved to crush Cortes with their full might. But these efforts were again thwarted as the Hours of the Keys reemerged, offering Cortes unimaginable power in return for his aid. Desperate for allies, the King accepted and the newfound alliance successfully drove the re-claimers from the New World.

@@ Line 166: / Line 166: @@
 The war was bloody and costly, with both inheritors of the Great Serpent determined to see their counterpart slain. It was only when in a stroke of terrible, twisted irony, the final inhabitant of the settlement over which the two Hours initially began to fight did they return to their senses and realize the horrible damage they were inflicting on the world. They turned to their comrades and bade them put down their arms, for the war was over. The conflict would be immortalized in history as [[The War of the Doors]], named both for the political faction as well as the priceless Doors lost in the fighting.
-The Hours turned once more to repairing the damage done by their fighting, the impact of their own loss of control made even more severe by the knowledge it was ''The House'' they were rebuilding instead of some lesser History. The damage wrought by the war
+The Hours turned once more to repairing the damage done by their fighting, the impact of their own loss of control made even more severe by the knowledge it was ''The House'' they were rebuilding instead of some lesser History. The damage wrought by the war was horrible, the immense amount of death giving the power of Nowhere more of a foothold in the world than ever before. Those things lost to the void in the fighting allowed Nowhere to flow in to fill their place. As they festered, these Dead souls merged the the horror of nonexistence to form a new Hour of Shadow and Whispers: [[The Insidious]]. And while the Hours had fought, they'd turned a blind eye to tragedies plaguing the mortal world. Great disasters and famines struck, heralding the arrival of another God-From-Nowhere: [[The Void-In-Skins]].
 The Ministers convened in Shesha once more, and an uneasy peace was signed between the two sides once more: never again would the Hours meet each other in open warfare.

@@ Line 118: / Line 118: @@
 For the Maker, this incident proved to be too much. Already troubled by its creation willingness to strike [[The First Bargain]] and the subsequent creation of The Cuckoo, it is said the death of its sister caused the God-From-Stone to fall into a torpor. Its artistic creations grew twisted as it worked upon them. Fearful of ever leaving a flaw in its work it never truly finished a project again. As "improvement" was laid over "improvement" the appearance of its creations grew warped and grotesque. It resolved to find the flaw in its work and correct it, an exercise in madness that only served to alienate it from its fellow Forge Hours, and would consume its mind for the rest of its days.
-But the slaying of the Butterfly left far greater fractures in the relations between Hours and men, to a degree even The Great Serpent could not fully ignore. Before now the Hours had widely been seen by both themselves and their mortal flocks as truly infallible and immortal. The shattering of the First-From-Stone disproved this notion and sewed far-reaching doubts. 'What else might the Gods be wrong about?' the mortals wondered. 'What if my rivals choose to kill me too? What shall I do to them?' As the Ferryman took the remains of its "sibling" to be interred in the innermost sanctums of [[The Halls of Silence]], dicourse between the Hours grew strained, as each could not fully shake the fear they might be the next of their number to fall.
+But the slaying of the Butterfly left far greater fractures in the relations between Hours and men, to a degree even The Great Serpent could not fully ignore. Before now the Hours had widely been seen by both themselves and their mortal flocks as truly infallible and immortal. The shattering of the First-From-Stone disproved this notion and sewed far-reaching doubts. 'What else might the Gods be wrong about?' the mortals wondered. 'What if my rivals choose to kill me too? What shall I do to them?' As the Ferryman took the remains of its "sibling" to be interred in the innermost sanctums of [[The Halls of Silence]], discourse between the Hours grew strained, as each could not fully shake the fear they might be the next of their number to fall.
 Bayal, meanwhile, began to stagnate. With everyday citizens regularly practicing magic and occultism, Bayal became a superpower its neighbors and rivals could not hope to match. However, with that sense of superiority came complacency and excess, just as Adonibaal predicted. The Bayali civilization's cultural development screeched to a halt, too focused on their own pleasure to focus on anything else.
@@ Line 124: / Line 124: @@
 From his divine throne Adonibaal could not see -or maybe refused to see- how his people were changing, so focused he was on establishing his own power within the House. To Hours like the Peacock, the Maker and the Ferryman they gave all they had to give for tastier food, finer wine, and inspiration for ever more profane works of "art". Many of Bayal's advances became lost, their inventors trading the very ''idea'' of them to the Ferryman, so that they could never again be learned. As the Bayali lost their reason to excess, the Peacock "learned" more and more about humanity's desires. To this day it remains a matter of hotly contested debate whether the Peacock corrupted the Bayali or the Bayali corrupted the Peacock.
-Even the council of magi were not immune to the corruption, and as the years went by the original members passed into the Mansus, they were replaced by a loose-knit cabal of hedonists and jingoistic patriots. This group and their followers made up the composition of a movement calling itself [[The Church of the Second Flood]]. They believed that as they shared the same blood as a now-divine being, it was their right to do whatever they pleased. Why, then, should they be bound to the covenant that their foolish ancestors had made over a thousand years ago?
+Even the council of magi were not immune to the corruption, and as the years went by and the original members passed into the Mansus, they were replaced by a loose-knit cabal of hedonists and jingoistic patriots. This group and their followers formed a movement calling itself [[The Church of the Second Flood]]. They believed that as they shared the same blood as a now-divine being, it was their right to do whatever they pleased. Why, then, should they be bound to the covenant that their foolish ancestors had made over a thousand years ago?
-In their arrogance, they turned against the Ferryman in a bid to steal eternal life back from death itself. The Birds have always been among the most freedom-driven of the Hours, and so it was no true surprise when [[The Peacock]], [[The Caladrius]], [[The Silver Owl]] and [[The Cuckoo]] joined with them to enact their plan. The even made plans to resurrect Adonibaal into a new body, so that his divine incarnation might lead them into a new era where they ruled all the world.
+In their arrogance, they turned against the Ferryman in a bid to steal eternal life back from death itself. The Birds have always been among the most freedom-driven of the Hours, and so it was no true surprise when [[The Peacock]], [[The Caladrius]], [[The Silver Owl]] and [[The Cuckoo]] joined with them to enact their plan. They even made plans to resurrect Adonibaal into a new body, so that his divine incarnation might lead them into a new era where they ruled all the world.
 And so the Hours engaged in bloodshed amongst themselves a second time, beginning the short-lived conflict the Histories now call [[The War in Heaven]]. Visible to both the House and the Histories, the four Hours flew to the Moon and dared to attack the Ferryman in its own domain. Several Hours rose to support the Ferryman and the natural order, and the Anaconda led their servants into a brief but bloody battle that threatened to shatter the Halls.
-But this played into the hands of the Priests of the Second Flood. With the Hour of death and its supporters distracted by the invasion, once more they enacted a forbidden ritual of Knock to open a portal from the King's Palace to the Halls. In their arrogance, they thought they could control the Dead that would emerge, providing them with an army of deathless Bayali spirits to engulf the world.
+But this played into the hands of the Priests of the Second Flood. With the Hour of death and its supporters distracted by the invasion, once more they enacted a forbidden ritual of Knock to open a portal from the King's Palace to the Halls. In their arrogance, they thought they could control the Dead that would emerge, providing them with an army of deathless Bayali spirits they could use to conquer the world.
 They thought wrong.
-The battle for the Moon, coupled with the introduction of masterless Knock power weakened the seals on the crypt of the Butterfly Hatching. Taking the infusion of power for her own, the Butterfly partially resurrected itself. But its spirit returned from the lightless realms beyond the House... wrong. It was twisted and broken, warped by the energies of chaos and enthropy: First of [[The Gods-From-Nowhere]]. Before it could be re-interred in its crypt, the undead Butterfly struck the boundary between the Second History and the Halls. Instead of a portal they could control, the Second Flood rended forth a great Wound in the world. And upon swallowing them whole and stranding them in the Realm of the Dead, it disgorged an endless tide of maddened Dead and impossible chitinous monsters, driven only by the desire to consume all the world. [[The Blight]] had begun.
+The battle for the Moon, coupled with the introduction of masterless Knock power weakened the seals on the crypt of the Butterfly Hatching. Taking the infusion of power for her own, the Butterfly partially resurrected itself. But its spirit returned from the lightless realms beyond the House... wrong. It was twisted and broken, warped by the energies of chaos and entropy: First of [[The Gods-From-Nowhere]]. Before it could be re-interred in its crypt, the undead Butterfly struck the boundary between the Second History and the Halls. Instead of a portal they could control, the Second Flood rended forth a great Wound in the world. And upon swallowing them whole and stranding them in the Realm of the Dead, it disgorged an endless tide of maddened Dead and impossible chitinous monsters, driven only by the desire to consume all the world. [[The Blight]] had begun.
 Upon witnessing the devastation being wrought below, both sides immediately abandoned the conflict to restore order to the Second History. As the Ferryman worked to regain control of the Hall and reseal the Nowhere contained within, the other Hours as one emerged into the Second to fight back the seemingly-endless tide of souls. Adonibaal, with great sorrow, at last returned to the History of his birth. Gazing with disgust upon the evidence of his people's excess still visible among the ruins, he led only the worthy among his people to safety. Those soldiers who were loyal to him and not the treacherous priests were allowed to follow him even further when he returned to the Mansus, becoming the Deep Guard that attend his divine throne. While the History itself was largely saved, what little rubble remained of the Levant made it clear that the Empire of Bayal would never rise again.
@@ Line 140: / Line 140: @@
 Regretting the role it played in causing the loss of so many lives it had sworn to protect, the Caladrius worked in tandem with the Names of the Great Serpent to stitch closed the gaping wound allowing the Dead into the world. To their horror, it was discovered the damage done by this new power called [[Nowhere]] was ''irrevocable''. They could reduce the tide of Dead returning to the History to a trickle, but never would the barrier between worlds be able to fully heal. [[Nowhere]] was henceforth declared the enemy of all that was, and a power the Great Serpent decreed they must defend the world against.
-When the tide at last was stemmed, the Hours returned to the House. They'd been "victorious", but for most there was no satisfaction to be held in the terrible price of the Bird's experiment in "eternal life". But while the fighting had ceased, the divisions between Hours that caused the fighting remained, only deepening as the differing sides found blame for the disaster in their enemies.
+When the tide at last was stemmed, the Hours returned to the House. They were "victorious", but for most there was no satisfaction to be found compared to the terrible price of the Bird's experiment in "eternal life". But while the fighting had ceased, the divisions between Hours that caused the fighting remained, only deepening as the differing sides found blame for the disaster in their enemies.
 For the first time, the divisions in the Hours' ranks began to coalesce and solidify. Those Hours who sought freedom, whether it be endless change, sensation, exploration, or simple liberty became known as [[The Keys]]. The Hours that wished to maintain order, even if that sometimes meant stymieing progress became [[The Doors]]. The Doors resolved to prevent any further conflict in the House, even if that meant resorting to violence.
@@ Line 146: / Line 146: @@
 As much as the Hours wished to pursue their grievances further, the presence of the Great Serpent prevented the Hours from warring. Both sides knew that if they were the ones to attack their rivals first, the Great Serpent would certainly intervene to punish the aggressors. And so history marched on, and the tempers of the Gods slowly cooled over the course of ages. If given enough time, it is possible that a peaceful settlement might have been reached between the two sides.
-But the uneasy peace was not to last, however. Ever a free-spirit, the Great Serpent one day decided to explore [[Nowhere]], to better understand what this new power was and how best to defend the Mansus against it. But like the less Hours and Bayali priests that had suffered before it, the Serpent fell victim to its own hubris there, underestimating the power of nonexistence. It did not return intact. What ''did'' return were two Hours; the Hour of the [[Snake Tail with Appendages]], a God-from-Nowhere, and the Hour of the Bright-Delver, a God-from-Blood. To the Snake-tail, reality itself was pain, and it sought only to destroy all that restricted it. To the Delver, reality was beautiful, and the world and the Glory should be available to all to make the world even nicer.
+But the uneasy peace was not to last. Ever a free-spirit, the Great Serpent one day decided to explore [[Nowhere]], to better understand what this new power was and how best to defend the Mansus against it. But like the lesser Hours and Bayali priests that had suffered before it, the Serpent fell victim to its own hubris there, underestimating the power of nonexistence and being overwhelmed by it. It did not return intact. What ''did'' return were two Hours; the Hour of the [[Snake Tail with Appendages]], a God-from-Nowhere, and the Hour of the Bright-Delver, a God-from-Blood. To the Snake Tail, reality itself was pain, and it sought only to destroy all that restricted it. To the Delver, reality was beautiful, and the world and the Glory should be available to all to make the world even nicer.
 ==FNORD WIP material==

← Older revision		Revision as of 01:06, 10 June 2019
Line 149:		Line 149:


		+	==FNORD WIP material==

	The disappearance of the Great Serpent was felt throughout the Mansus and the Histories. Some Hours felt that their ability to experiment with the world and steer the Histories in the direction they felt they ''should'' be going was restricted unduly by the Serpent, and were eager to "rectify" this perceived wrong with the 21st Hour now absent. [[The Anaconda]], which would now become the Hour of stealth, ascended to take up the responsibilities of the Great Serpent and keep the peace.		The disappearance of the Great Serpent was felt throughout the Mansus and the Histories. Some Hours felt that their ability to experiment with the world and steer the Histories in the direction they felt they ''should'' be going was restricted unduly by the Serpent, and were eager to "rectify" this perceived wrong with the 21st Hour now absent. [[The Anaconda]], which would now become the Hour of stealth, ascended to take up the responsibilities of the Great Serpent and keep the peace.