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 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.
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 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 made up the composition of 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 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 they could use to engulf 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 enthropyentropy: 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.
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 were "victorious", but for most there was no satisfaction to be held in 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.
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 lesser Hours and Bayali priests that had suffered before it, the Serpent fell victim to its own hubris there, underestimating the power of nonexistenceand 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-tailTail, 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.
With the Great Serpent dead, conflict was clearly all but inevitable. In preparation, the Hours began amassing their forces for the coming conflict. In an effort to prevent the total breakdown of diplomacy and the destruction of the Serpent's peace, a cabal of radical scholars and rogue Long concocted an audacious deception. They invented stories of the Hour of [[The Deceiver]] a False-Hour of lies and fraud. They weaved tales of a terrible curse placed over the Fourth History, set in place by the Great Serpent in the event of its death.
==It was said that the Serpent's Curse would instantly destroy any Hour that tried to claim the Fourth History as their own in the absence of the Great Serpent. This deception was enough to make even the Hours hesitate, and fears that a war would prematurely start to conquer the Fourth History slowly dissipated. [[The Third History]] was traditionally a history controlled by the Doors. Bereft of most forms of divine intervention, mankind developed independently of the occult, growing technologically advanced and spawning vast empires with ambitions of mapping the world. Unknown to the Doors however, the Keys saw their enemies' domain as the place they were the least likely to check for their influence. They revealed themselves to the primitive people of the Americas and taught them of magic. Unifying them under one banner, the Empire of Keys became the secret power in the Third History. The Keys hoped that with time, they would be able to foster from their new mortal flock an army of powerful sorcerers with whom they'd be able to overwhelm the Doors. It would ironically be a move initiated by one of the Doors that would ultimately open hostilities. A small territory dispute between the Anaconda and the Snake Tail escalated into open conflict between the two Hours. The Keys rallied behind the Tail, while the Doors moved to support the Anaconda. Soon, it became clear that the small squabble between "sibling" Hours had turned into the excuse both groups needed to vent their growing frustrations with each other. The war that followed is widely considered to be the greatest and most terrible of the wars the Hours ever engaged in. Their friendships and their duty to protect the mortal world were forgotten as they turned all of their power towards destroying each other. The massive running battle devastated the lower House, and even the physical Doors that restricted access to the House were destroyed in the fighting. Whether it was carelessness or willing spite that caused it, the Chitinous Door, the Glass Door, and the FNORD WIP material==Door were destroyed irreparably in the fighting. The war featured numerous incredible feats of divine power that still echo throughout the Histories. The FNORD used its power over FNORD to FNORD all over the FNORD of the FNORD. The Peacock, emerging out of hiding for the first time since his creation, bolstered the ranks of the Keys with Dead souls and Insane Long that seemed to ''refuse'' to die until they were literally hacked to pieces. The FNORD. At the climax of the final battle however, the Peacock and his followers broke away from the main host of the Key's forces and rushed through the gaping hole of the Chitinous Door into the Upper Mansus just before the Lower House collapsed. With the Doors destroyed, the Hours of Order ceased to consider the Upstart a threat to their war effort. With their own kingdoms in the Upper House defended by scores of their loyal followers, they failed to see how the Peacock could possibly threaten them on his own. The Upstart retreated into the highest rooms of the Upper House to establish [[The Revel Unending]], and largely ceased to be an issue for the remainder of the war. 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 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]]. Arguably just as distressing as the loss of the entirety of the Lower House, the Mirror was slain during the war. Ever a philosophical rival to the Tower of Treasure, the two Hours of Enlightenment found themselves on opposite sides of the conflict. In a fit of rage, the Apple shattered and slew the Mirror. To the dismay of all, the Mirror was not allowed to die, the Nowhere infesting the House merging with his broken essence to form [[The Unmirror]], Hour of Oblivion. It was decided that drastic action needed to be taken to purge the House of Nowhere. Working in tandem with Anvil and the other Craftsman Hours, the Caladrius conducted a great emergency operation to purge the House of the poison eating at it from within. The remains of the Chitinous Door was recovered and partially resuscitated. The remaining power of the Butterfly within it, the power of Emergence, was harnessed and turned against Nowhere. The Door was re purposed into [[The Breach]], serving both as entrance to the Middle House as well as a pressure-release valve, constantly forcing the Nowhere to spew back out into the Void where it can do no harm. The House was always a living, breathing thing just like the Hours, and the battles held in its halls damaged its vitals greatly. To replace these lost functions, [[The Plumbing]] was installed where the Lower House once stood. Fears that the Plumbing would fall under attack by the Gods-From-Nowhere seeking to destroy the House were soon laid to rest when a new Hour, displaced through time, abruptly appeared there: [[The Snow-Stained]]. The violent Hour of Change and Thuggery took up residence in the pipes, repelling all who would challenge their claim with vicious blows. 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. 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. 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. Investigations were launched, and the fate of the disappearing Long was eventually discovered. To the confusion of the Hours, their servants were not being killed or kidnapped. Instead, they were defecting ''en-masse''. The Peacock's so-called Revel Unending was bolstering its numbers not only from bizarre Long and gathered Dead, but Long of every Principle who were for reasons no one could explain abruptly breaking their vows to serve the Upstart. All attempts to convince the Long to return were unsuccessful, and often only led to more loyal Long abruptly defecting. It was as if the Peacock's influence was a social disease, spread by communicating with the infected. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 disappearance of the Great Serpent was felt throughout the Mansus and the Histories. Some Hours felt Doors were fortunate in that their ability investigations into the Upstart managed to experiment with uncover the world and steer Empire of Keys before it could grow into the Histories in vast power base the direction they felt they ''should'' be going was restricted unduly by Keys needed to secure final victory over the SerpentDoors. Immediately, and were eager the Doors moved to "rectify" put down this perceived wrong with rising threat and undermine the power of the 21st Hour now absentascendant Keys. Unable to assault the Empire themselves without breaking the treaty, they instead settled into a proxy war. [[The Anaconda]], which would now become Empire of Keys standing in for the Hour of stealthKeys, ascended to take up and the responsibilities of Doors selecting the Great Serpent fierce soldiers and keep the peacebrave explorers of their kingdoms to fight in their stead.
Relationships between The Cuckoo whispered into the gods became strained as the tensions mountedminds of mortals, particularly between filling their dreams with visions of treasure and riches on the Hours other side of the Maker and the Anvilsea. The Maker had ever been dedicated to its work Star guided their ships so that they were certain to find perfection in its creations, but this obsession deepened as time went arrive on, to the point it no longer seemed to care for the ultimate well-being of those it modifiedEmpire's shores. The Anvil however was dutiful Hours of Edge concentrated their power and unyielding bestowed upon their soldiers great prowess in its purpose, and grew disturbed by the lengths its friend seemed willing to go to in pursuit of perfecting its craftbattle.
These tensions grew to a head when a dispute between the Snake-Tail One man among these explorers and the Anaconda blossomed into a full-scale war conquerors was chosen as both Hours used the dispute as a excuse to vent their pent-up frustrations upon each otherDoors' champion. The Hours that opposed the war saw his cunning, ruthlessness, and sought most notably his greed. All were qualities they were certain would cause this man, Hernan Cortez, to maintain a sense of order took attack the Empire the names [[The Doors]]moment he laid eyes on it. They concentrated their collective power into him, while those that sought an upset turning him into a mighty warrior it was said could not be defeated. Despite being outnumbered ten-to the status-quo -one by violent means if necessary- became known as [[The the Keys]]. It is during this time a new Hour [[The Peacock]]' forces, emerged from hiding within the Wood and aligned itself with Cortes' conquistadors decimated the Keys, for reasons the Snake-Tail ' forces and the bird kept laid siege to themselvestheir capitol in a matter of months.
For a time 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 Hours waged bloody waroutcome, greatly damaging Cortez himself certainly was not. As the Doors withdrew their forces from the House and destroying many Third History, they subsequently rescinded much of the Gates through which both mortal and god accessed its hallsincredible power they'd given their champion. The battle only ended when As he grew weaker, the mortals "champion" was made painfully aware how much of the Snake-Tail power and respect he'd enjoyed wasn't earned, and Anaconda had originally fought over were all killed save onehe mourned its loss. The Hours put down their weapons and ceased their fighting, but To compound matters the damage conquistador's rivals in his homeland took advantage of his absence to both spread vicious rumors and slanders about his loyalty.They claimed that with the Mansus power and their relationships with each other riches Cortez had been doneuncovered in the new world, it would be a simple matter for him to make himself a king.
All was not well, however. The War It soon became clear to the "Champion of the Doors had damaged the fabric of reality, making navigation of the Lower House difficult " that if not impossible. These rifts shined like a beacon to Nowheresomething wasn't done, all he'd find upon returning "home" was disgrace and new Gods-from-Nowhere emerged. Among them was [[The Insidious]], which began to spread its malign influence throughout the Wood. Also FNORDdestitution.
Tensions again began to rise as a previously unheard In his moment of phenomenon began doubt, the consolation he sought came not from his "patrons", but from those he'd been sent to manifest among the slay. Names and Long: defection. En masse many of the seemingly-devoted servants of the Hours of the House began to turn away from their mastersKeys, summoned and pledge themselves bound to fight for the fledgling Hour of the PeacockChampion's side against their own Empire sensed his waning power. Heedless They tempted him with tales of the complaints power and splendor of his fellowstheir masters, of the great red bird continued to preach to glory that could be his... if he would but serve them. At the congregations apex of the other gods, luring them away with promises of unparalleled delight and what was described as an "unnatural charm". As moment that should have been the PeacockDoors's power grew to levels unprecedentedtriumph, inquiries were made as to the origin of this young Houra bargain was struck.
It was the Cuckoo, the oldest shame of the Maker, who finally came forth His enemies sought to ruin him with the truth of the Young Upstartallegations that he could be a king? So he ''would''s true naturebecome a king. In a shocking act of callousness never seen before or since, the Cuckoo had gathered together Himself and slaughtered the sum total of her cults in the waking world, luring them his fellow conquistadors forswore their allegiances both to her with promises of pleasure their homelands and delivering only pain. All in the pursuit of creating a God-from-Blood. The Cuckoo succeededDoors, and while the infant Hour's guard was lowered immediately attacked rose again a King and murdered it, seeking to take its power for her own and dominate the other Hourshis court. She was From the first to learn riches of the horrifying truth: that the death Empire of Keys Cortez donned a Hour would lead to the creation crown of a new God-from-Nowhere. Rising again almost as quickly as it was slaingold and christened himself The Golden King, this not-Hour now knew nothing master of death, the Golden Empire. The Hours were ''Furious'' That Cortez would betray them. They withdrew the power they gave him and existed now only to spread its terribly warped notion of joy recalled their minions to destroy him and the rest of the world. A Broken-BirdEmpire once and for all for his insolence.
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. ==FNORD WIP material==
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, 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. This group 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.
This came to a head when the Keys' power grew so great as to reach into the Third History, a world in which the power of the Doors had been all but supreme. Across the sea from the empires of the Doors, the Keys leaked into the minds of the people of the Americas, supplanting their gods and leading them into the throes of their bloody worship. Fearing that the Keys would amass enough power to re-ignite the War of the Doors should they gather any more power, the Doors sent the forces of man across the sea to destroy their cults and take the wealth of the native people for their own. This plan failed disastrously when one such conqueror, Hernan Cortes, decided he would rather take power for himself rather than be subordinate to an ungrateful empire far across the sea. With the support of the other conquerors, he donned a golden crown and proclaimed himself the Golden King of the New World.
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.
