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=== The Fourth History ===
In the year 1723 the Mendicant Without made its entrance into [[The Fourth History|the Fourth History]], wholly unaware of the millennia-long truce that had preserved it from greater influence until then. With no Names, no followers and little power of its own, it sought to establish a power base that would cement its presence among the older Hours, intervening much more personally than most Hours usually did. Donning a form that was passably human, it drew to itself the hungry, the destitute and the skeptics, asking the right questions but providing few answers. Instead, it urged its followers to spread the questioning, instilling a sense of longing and unrest for which there were no earthly remedies. In exchange, it offered greater glimpses of the skin beneath the world than any in this History had yet witnessed, further fueling the hunger and drive of occultists throughout the world.
In Europe especially this coincidentally tied in over time with the Enlightenment movement, diverting some of its proponents away from a quest for scientific and philosophical answers to solutions of a more unusual nature. Towards the second half of the century, this precipitated several crises from both the top and the bottom of society. Events quickly began to spiral out of the Mendicant's control as it repeatedly failed to gain influence over royals, who hungered for little, and revolutions proliferated throughout Europe in quick succession.
This finally drew the attention of the other Hours to the Mendicant itself, who had managed to remain in the shadows until then, but whose name was now loudly proclaimed in the streets as the people marched. [[The Deceiver]]'s lie was uncovered, as no curse had befallen the Mendicant, but this did not spare it from the Hours' judgement, and so it was cast out from the Mansus. Seething at the injustice and its own ignorance, the Mendicant redoubled its efforts in the Fourth History, determined to do everything it could to claim it as its own. It succeeded in very little other than furthering unrest until older, more experienced Hours stepped in over the ensuing decades with defter hands to snatch what it had accomplished from under its nose, leaving it with little power to speak of. Still, even as the Hours slowly began to further extend into the Fourth History, the Mendicant was never quite displaced from its position.
To this day, the Mendicant remains a figure of note among occultists in this History, though no active cult wields any particular influence. Symbols of its worship are still occasionally openly displayed in many places, despite the stigma against the occult, even though actual worship of the Hours is forbidden. As a result, the Mendicant still pays occasional visits to the Fourth History, though it has largely given up on its greater plans for it.
== Description ==