Divine Era Chronicle

This is the story of the Divine Era, the ancient age of gods, following the perspective and acts of The Architects.

In the beginning, Halika was just another mundane planet in a vast cosmos, formed from stardust and unfeeling physical forces. If it had any gods, they operated only through the mechanisms of gravity, colliding atoms, and gradual biological processes. Humans and many other animals evolved on this planet, mimicking our own world's ecosystem. These humans mastered fire and began using basic agriculture and domestication as they migrated across the world. It was a familiar story. There was no magic, only human potential.

And then an ancient creature born from a distant reality found this world and selected it for her newest project. This creature was named Isatha once, though she would only be known as The Referee in this world. The Referee conjured four newborn spirits of limitless power and bound them to the solar system around Halika. In this patch of space, these four spirits - these Architects - would be unchallenged and infinite in their strength. The Referee would guide and mediate between them, ruling on the collisions of their powers and helping fill out the creative details of their various divine works. These four Architects were derived from mortals themselves, bearing the trace memories of mundane humans from a distant and technologically advanced world mixed in with the unknowable consciousness of a creature devoid of any form or needs. They had just enough human in them to be interesting and to diverge from one another, but were unshackled from humanity and from whatever distant humans their minds had been partially assembled from.

The Referee, moved by her own alien agenda, set them loose upon Halika. As these Architects existed outside of time and space, the Referee gave them a temporal structure: they would exist in five "phases" of time. These Phases would last for centuries, but would feel to the Architects like days or hours. The Architects could move freely around time in those phases, but would be unable to return to a prior phase once they moved onto the next. And so their work began.

Premise

Four Architects set to work on ten continents.

Architect V would take the name Halcyon. Architect A would be called The Chimera. Architect K would be called The Masked One. Architect M would be called The Hidden One.

For those who do not wish to or are unable to look at a map:

Samvara was simply a land of deserts, forested lakes and riverlands, and mineral-rich mountains. Avetem was a grand expanse of rainforest and savannah - Ukaram was as well, but far to the East. Desmia was a land of abundant forests. Izekra was a fractured land of swampy islands and mountains. The Suneka was a mix of mundane grassland and rich lakes. Inahng was a great wall of enormous mountains with an emormous river running through a vast desert. Maradia was storm-battered forests, while Nafena was a rocky ring of chaparral and semi-arid islands and peninsulas. Sonev was bamboo forest and iron-rich mountains, and Garadel and Larazel were sparsely-populated regions with gem-rich mountains. Stildane and Ibith were both frosty forests.

Phase 1: Neolithic

The first phase represented all the time between the arrival of the Architects and the advent of mortal writing or institutions capable of preserving memory for extended periods. This made it a kind of foundational pre-history, a time that would be forgotten by default.

In this time, the Architects were quiet, making only species.

Halcyon acted the most dramatically, making Dryads, Prisms, and Solars. Dryads were plant people with similar lifespans to humans, who ate a mix of detritus, vegetation, and fodder supplemented with sunlight. Dryads had three sexes (male, female, both), all contained in their flowers atop their heads, and no other sexual dimorphism. They had basic rake-like claws, could root themselves in soil to inefficiently feed, and had excellent senses of smell while lacking effective peripheral or long-distance vision. Dryads also have tremorsense, which allows them to detect distant movement when firmly planted with both feet on the ground. They had pouches to carry their young and lacked any capacity for childbirth complications. They were created in a great number in the equatorial land of Avetem and they quickly migrated outwards in paths that humans had once taken when they evolved in and migrated out of Avetem. By the end of this Phase, Dryads had populated Samvara, Sonev, Garadel, Larazel, Izekra, Ukaram, and Ibith.

Prisms, meanmwhile, were mineral sentients who ate a mix of salt and other select minerals to live. Prisms still need water and air, but are resistant to most organic poisons. They live for around 200 years (equivalent to human 75 years) and reproduce through budding. Prisms do have gendered nodes (where buds can form) that they can use to exchange genes for their buds with other prisms, but this is not required for reproduction. Prisms range highly in height depending on their nutrition during childhood, from 4 feet high to 7 feet tall. Budded prisms are genetic mirrors but do not carry memories. Prisms cannot see, but do have perfect 60-foot echolocation and the ability to read the density and composition of solid objects well. They can detect general shapes further out than 60 feet, but the accuracy and detail of the echolocation quickly fades. While prisms have harder bodies than organics, they are not made of firm rock and can still be harmed with sharp objects - even if it is somewhat like they are wearing light armor. Halcyon created Prisms in groups on every continent at the same time, concentrated on the coasts and mountains. After creation, many prism groups struggled to survive, but the mountains of Inahng, Nafena, Samvara, and Garadel all saw thriving prism communities form.

Solars are beings of light wrapped in magical glass, who live for 500 years (equivalent to human age 75) and eat sunlight. They can communicate telepathically and through flashing light patterns. Solars have no sexes and reproduce by pooling energy between them when in groups of 3. This is resource-intensive and rare, meaning that solars in nature reproduce at a rate only slightly above equilibrium. Solars have a very slight natural instinct to follow the seasons, migrating across hemispheres to chase sun-rich daytimes. Solars seem to do well eating sunlight even in colder climates - daylight exposure matters more than heat. Solars need small amounts of water and air, but even these are miniscule compared to the other species' needs. Halcyon created the solars in two groups: one on the Samvara-Sonev-Avetem-Ibith-Larazel-Garadel landmass, and one one the Stildane-Suneka-Inahng-Maradia-Nafena landmass.

The Chimera created Pearl Pangolins: cold-resistant sentient pangolins with iron-hard opalescent scales and small-range teleportation abilities. The Chimera made these in the arctic and antarctic. Pearl pangolins can eat bugs, sap nutrients from glacial ice or permafrost, and do well in both ice caps and tundra. Every ten years, one Pearl pangolin in the world is subject to a boon: they become enormous, the size of a small elephant, but do not need to eat more despite their size. The Chimera made two groups: one in the arctic tundra and one in the antarctic tundra.

The Chimera also sent down a shard of themselves as the Reincarnations, who would gather information for him by living countless mortal lives.

The Masked One created Giant Lobsters: lobsters that just keep growing with age. They placed them all around the world, with one breed reaching dog sizes in brakish fresh water and one reaching elephantine sizes in saltwater. All waterways were affected. They also created massive sea monsters that would automatically generate in the deep sea - Leviathans - who would attack mortal vessels who went too far from shore. These Leviathans could influence the dreams of mortals. The Masked One also made a number of sharks sentient and cast them outside of the influence of the gods, to live freely in the depths.

The Hidden One watched, but did not act.

After creating their first creations, a mysterious pinprick of power beyond the reach of the Architects formed in the upper atmosphere and began orbiting Halika. This would grow very slowly over time, eventually becoming The Static.

Phase 2: Early Civilization

The magic of Phase 1 vanished from memory, and mortals came to accept these different creations and simple facts of the world they lived in. A time before these creations was completely forgotten.

In seven places, sophisticated agricultural societies began to organize and develop: Desmia, Inahng, Nafena, Suneka, Sonev, Samvara, and Ekraht. And so the Architects, sensing a new age, began to look more closely at these mortals.

First came Desmia. The continent had been abundant before, but fell into a time of climatic hardship. At the same time, Dryads were migrating into the continent searching for food and lands of their own. A number of humans identified the dryads as having caused the bad weather, and pointed to how they disrupted the environment as proof. These humans banded together and tried to drive away the dryads. Other humans sided with their new neighbors, but the organized anti-dryad families defeated them and demanded that they serve as workers while the warlike families continued their attacks. These systems intensified, violence begat violence, and the exploitation of the conquered became a system of intense slavery. The first Desmian city was built by the dryads and their human allies as a bastion of survival, but this was overtaken. Halcyon teleported the dryads out of that falling city to a safe area far away, while the human defenders became the slaves who fashioned it into a capital of the new human war-kingdom.

Halcyon gave a telepathic command to all dryads and prisms telling them to flee this human land. While this did save countless lives, it fed into the human's expansionist spirit. The human kingdom became many human kingdoms, all predatory and militarist and built on the drive to destroy whatever they felt was new and unnatural.

To commemorate this violence, the Hidden One made many cats sentient all around the world. He created a Cat Heaven, a hivemind of all cats who died, to judge cats and assign them to cat heaven or cat hell. This cat heaven was given the ability to influence dreams and was instructed to enforce a cat code of honor (act like a cat, train like a warrior, accept no humanoid masters, avoid communicating with other species as a norm, keep to a small piece of territory, maintain a specific hierarchy). These cats endlessly fought each other, living as animals in the woods, and the Hidden One thought that was very funny since he wanted this to recreate the 'Warrior cats' media series in perpetuity.

In Sonev, in the valley of Spires (now called Runeva), the dryads and humans integrated well but began fighting over the limited hyper-fertile riverland as agriculture expanded. Cities and polities began to form from the forced movement, conflict, and overcrowding that ensued. Halcyon sent a vision to all the people of the valley affirming the righteousness of their people and history and telling them to integrate the other neighboring peoples as equals after conquest. And so the valley began to unify and consolidate as a single people, as the Architect encouraged them. To reward the Runevan peoples, Halcyon blessed the valley with overwhelming abundance: food that grows quickly and from paltry soil, resistant crops, all the staples of agriculture made easy and unnaturally abundant.

In Inahng, on the great river that crosses the desert, communities competed for water access and water control - raiding and feuding over irrigation. One group, the Etezja-Calaza, were the most adept irrigators but drew hatred from their neighbors for water diversion. As the other groups united to try and tear down the "profane" water diversion dams, a priestess of the river was elected queen of the Etezja-Calaza, and her daughter led the warriors in defense of their dams. The Chimera intervened, descending as a peacock-feathered dragon-lion to protect the dams. He gave the mother and daughter a nest of eggs that hatched into Sudraco: crocodile-horses well suited for the river, that could be easily domesticated and ridden. The dragon told the daughter to throw a cowry shell (their favored decoration and psuedo-currency) into the river when she needed him. When a great host of desert-dwellers displaced by climate joined Etezja's enemies, the daughter threw a shell into the river. The Chimera emerged as a man with a body that looked like it was carved of salt or marble, and he gave the daughter - Queen Yena - a powerful artifact called The Saltspear. This indestructible bronze spear could allow the wielder to turn anyone to salt with a glance, but could only be wielded by Yena or her children. The Chimera also gave her steel-hard armor of woven peacock feathers and a great white sudraco that would follow all her commands. With her new armaments she smashed her enemies so resoundingly that she was able to subjugate their peoples with minimal bloodshed. She turned her angry neighbors into client-subjects, and used their labor to expand the irrigation network. The Etezja threw a great party and the Architects attended in disguise. The Chimera slept with Queen Yena as a consort and left her pregnant with a demigod child named Ghavi. The Chimera then vanished.

Ghavi was born with immense sorcerous power and unbeatable physical strength and he quickly became wild and rowdy. While Yena ruled, Ghavi conquered a vast river empire and laid claim to all of the world as his father's domain. Ghavi eventually wandered into the Adira mountains dividing Inahng from Suneka and Stildane - mountains taller than the Himalayas. He feuded with the prisms who lived there and tried to fight Onyx Zethora, the greatest prism warlord of the day. Onyx hid from Ghavi and allowed the low oxygen and cold to sap the demigod's strength; and they were able to capture Ghavi this way. Ghavi met a prism woman named Jade there, who was also a captured daughter of a local leader. The two fell in love and fought their way out of captivity. Onyx proposed to duel them honorably and lost, but Halcyon intervened to spare his life. Onyx was given immense strength by her blessing and his line would always have one who inherited that strength but was also cursed to feud with the children of Ghavi - this curse/blessing became known as the Zethko. Onyx negotiated peace, and Jade helped Ghavi integrate the prisms of the high mountains as allies and partners in empire. The two fell in love and were married by apparitions of the Chimera and Halcyon - who gave them to miracle of conception. Ghavi and Jade were able to have children: the first Half Prisms, who could interbreed with humans and prisms alike and who would expand as the first hybrid species. Half prisms could live 150 years (equalling human 75) and had a mix of echolocation and human senses. These children, as well as Ghavi's many bastard children, would also inherit his sorcery. From these lines, the first magic users entered the world: arcane sorcerers. These were the first mortal magicians and for a time they were the only ones.

In Samvara, the prisms created massive semi-subterranean cave cities that they shared with humans and dryads. To try and make these cave cities safer and gentler for dryads and humans, Halcyon created glowing edible Halpara Mushrooms in these caves and sent down a vision to the dryads nearby telling them that the cave-cities were safe.

West of Samvara, a small arid island chain developed a curious ecosystem with giant otters and dragonblood trees - like Socotra, but with otters. The Chimera came down and chose one mortal who was particularly friendly with the otters to become the first Selkie: a person able to transform into an otter through a personalized magic pelt. This pelt would only be possible to get by performing a trial of bravery at the cove that this first Selkie- Daya Otterchosen - loved to swim in. All the people of the islands could perform this test, and they became the original selkie peoples - on an island, fairly far off from the mainland.

Halcyon gave her own favor to another isolated island. West of Garadel, far from any civilization, was an island that had giant carnivorous moas and a few of the last remaining giant eagles. These eagles preyed on the moas, and a small human population threatened to hunt both species to extinction. Halcyon and the Chimera guide two teenage girls from two different tribes on opposite sides of the island to each bond with a different giant bird. The eastern girl magically bonds with a Moa; the Western girl with a giant eagle. Both are used by their tribes to conquer their half of the island, leading to a standoff between the two girls. The girls refuse to fight and fall in love instead, bonding over their shared love of the birds. They unify the two tribes and unite the island, and teach others to bond the other giant birds. This spares the birds and humans gain Ranger nature magic and combat skills from the bond. Both girls - Ara and Kara - retire as wives and choose to have their bodies eaten by their birds after death.

The Architects pivoted to other developing civilizations. In Ekraht, where the volcano-fed neutrient-rich rivers created dense populations, civilization grew from familial networks and family hierarchies. These great farming clans were left alone by the Architects. In Suneka, the people organized through unifying religious ceremonies that sought to enrich the soil and led to ceremonial governments that became more real over time. These were also left to their own devices.

In Nafena, the prisms and humans fought horribly over control over the rivers and mountain valleys. Both groups formed species-based coalitions and exploited the other group through slavery. Civilization grew from violent extraction and species-identification. Halcyon and the Chimera intervened. Halcyon gave a vision to all prisms across Nafena, urging peace and telling them to organize peaceful trade meetings along the coast. The Chimera appeared on a human -populated volcanic island not far from the coast as a chimera-dragon and told the people that they needed to end all species conflict throught the expansion of their superior culture - and that it was their job to remove species division. This dragon-form then died and psychically compelled the people to consume its flesh, which invigorated them. To all who ate its flesh, it gave the assurance that it would live on through them and watch over their descendants. These people became known as the Vetevics. The Vetevics and Halcyon-obeying prisms forced their fellow humans and prisms into peace. But the technologies and organizations of competition remained, and cities blossomed.

Phase 3: Expanding Civilization

This phase represents all the time between Phase 2 and a climate crisis that is Phase 4.

The Masked One began this by creating the Cephapersons: three sentient cephalopod species that live solely underwater. These are the Octopersons - reef-specific octopi who have the gift of spontaneous invention and who can create semi-magical 'mad science' inventions to improve their lives. Squiddles - continental shelf squids that can move very quickly and who have a natural affinity domesticating sealife. The squiddles were given Crabcows by the Masked One, huge docile crabs with nutritious meat. The third were the Cuttlefolk, sentient cuttlefish who could live anywhere with ease but who lacked the ability to speak. Cuttlefolk can create magical music, which they use to communicate alongside sign language. The Masked One also made a blessing create small clusters of cuttlefolk in random ocean locations every dozen years.

All three cephaperson species grew quickly but also died quickly with lifespans of 30 years. And while they all had great magical gifts, the lack of durable materials meant that they struggled retaining knowledge generationally or building lasting structures. The Masked One seemed content with this and left them to struggle against entropy in the ocean without aid.

In Samvara, the prism-led cave cities began to exert control over the rivers through dams and property expansions, subjugating the surface dwelling tribes and often exploiting them cruelly. While these cave cities were not species-based thanks to Halcyon's intervention, they still saw themselves as superior on basis of lifestyle. A coalition of river tribes formed around a dryad girl named Lily of Red who claimed to have more visions from Halcyon that demanded justice. Lily was lying, but Halcyon was intrigued. She appeared to Lily as a giant dryad and introduced herself as Halcyon the Goddess. Halcyon taught Lily the magical art of druidism and placed a series of limitations on it through a curse: that if any druid of Lily's educational lineage were to kill another sentient for sport, greed, or vengeance alone, they would turn into a horrible Sintree. Halcyon encouraged Lily to continue her war, but with ethical guidance and care; to get justice, not destruction. Lily defeated the cave-cities but spared them, creating an accord with them to divide the river between their peoples. Lily's cult became the surface government and began developing a religious framework.

See Theophany of Lily for details.

The Chimera decided to teach Moon Druidism to the selkies and the pangolins through dreams and mysterious chimeral spirit-avatars; this druidism was just as magic but lacked the Sintree curse.

The Masked One also introduced Warlockery: that the Leviathans could become warlock patrons to those who they contacted via dreams.

In Nafena, prisms and humans no longer fought on species lines but war continued between new mixed-species realms. Halcyon guided a prism poet to form a refuge in a cave, which the Architect enchanted with an aura of peace and abundant food. This prism, named Hiku Matsune, gathered many refugees and pacifists to this cave to share what they had and create art together. Halcyon was impressed and descended as a spirit to teach Hiku a magical art: Bardism, the arcane practice that uses art and arcane lore together to cast spells. And so her community became a holy place for all species and factions, a neutral ground and a place of healing that revered Hiku as a goddess after she died.

The Masked One was inspired and decided to take the nearby sentient cats of Nafena and give them a new deal: they would get their own Heaven hive mind as long as they acted like Jellicle cats from the musical Cats (explained as a complex set of rules). These Jellicles were then taught the secrets of bardic magic as well. The Jellicles were also able to astrally project to help Warrior Cats ("cat traditionalists") defeat a powerful cat warlord named Genghis Nyan, and so a number of distant warriors became Jellicles and the tradition of bard-cats spread. Cats remained artificially separated from humanoids, though, by the arcane and strict laws of media mimicry forced upon them.

In Sonev, migratory prisms arrived in Runeva, and Halcyon sent down a vision to all parties requesting their peaceful assimilation into Runevan culture. All the citrus of the valley bloomed at once and released a perfumed healing mist over the valley as a sign of divine will and the prisms were settled into the mountains around the valley.

In Ekraht, Halcyon gathered the dryads of the cold Southern lakes and gave them two magical staves that could control the weather in a several mile radius when used together. The chosen mystic was to keep one and give the other to a human of the ash river civilization, to teach the people of Ekraht that humans and dryads were to work in harmony. The dryad mystic decided to steal the second staff to control the weather alone. Halcyon appeared as a dryad of ash and shattered both staves, condemning the mystic and exiling them.

The Masked One created Dragomanders - small magical dragon salamanders the size and temperament of cats - in the massive volcano near the ash-river civilization. These Dragomanders have a magic toxiplasmosis-like parasite that allows them to latch onto mortals they like; as long as the infected person lives, the dragomander can resurrect itself. This parasite grants the infected mortal with dragon sorcerer powers as long as the dragon likes them. These dragomanders eat sulfur and other volcanic minerals, are heat immune, and produce magical polluting smoke when they give magic. Halcyon's staves were meant to help cleanse this smoke, but it simply began to build near the volcano instead. Despite this, the ash river peoples embraced dragon sorcery for its magical potential.

In Desmia, the human-specific warlords became more organized and refined. They made alliances with the local cats (not through language, but mutual aid that skirted around the Warrior cat limitations) and pursued the dryads as a legitimizing force for the emerging royal class. Imitator regimes appeared, which adopted the same anti-dryad and anti-prism stance as part of the "civilization" package. Soon, the whole continent was aflame with war. Halcyon descended as a great dryad made of stormclouds and met the largest human army right before they set to massacring dryad civilians. Halcyon demanded that the Humans submit to her authority, go home, and stop killing her children - the dryads, prisms, and solars. The humans were terrified, but responded by throwing javelins at her and trying to scare her away. She drove them back with a terrible storm and cursed the whole continent with the The Day of Blood: a day every year on the anniversary in autumn of the warning when the skies would rain blood that withers away crops and summons the ghosts of the dead to scream at and condemn living humans. This curse would follow the lineage and culture of these Desmian humans to other lands and would last forever. This blood rain also makes the Giant Lobsters more aggressive. This curse intensified the zeal of the Desmians but also broke the inertia of their expansion. The dryads were able to rally in the North and form their own militaristic culture called Mathari. The most zealous of these Mathari began to use terror tactics and biological warfare to fight back - using their own immunity to human diseases to spread plague and terror to their enemies.

The Masked One punished the mathari by sending down Corpseblight: a fungal infection of immense lethality that grows on dryad bodies and affects only plant-people. This disease spread beyond Desmia and would cause great death in the equatorial regions where dryads populations were skyrocketing. The Masked One also wove a grand enchantment around a mountain range in Northern Desmia, East of the Mathari. This enchantment created a magic mist that would trap any invaders or uninvited guests into an endless world of mist where age, hunger, and thirst were lifted - a kind of lonely wandering hell of nothing. This enchantment would not harm any who were born in the feywild and who accepted it as a home, and it would spare those who were invited across the threshold (until they left, and would require an invitation again). This enchantment would greatly slow down aging and reduce hunger and thirst for all living things in the area. The cost is magical mutation: those in these 'Feywilds' would 'become long', growing larger and stranger with time instead of aging. A species of fruitbats were chosen by the Masked One to mutate very specifically into Vespers - bat-people - in time, forming a new sentient species.

The Chimera then created a Second Moon in the sky, creating global confusion. According to these new Lunar cycles, cats in Desmia, Izekra, and Sonev would sometimes be born as 'humanoid cats' with opposable thumbs: essentially, cats that operate like Puss N Boots from Shrek, able to switch between cat and human stature at will and capable of human speech. In Desmia, these cats were accepted by many humans given their long-lasting community alliances.

Halcyon also decided to use the Second Moon to form a new group: The Lunar Pantheon. This would be a group of ten dead mortals who would each be assigned a lunar combination of the two moon phases. During their assigned phase, the ascended mortal could influence mortal dreams, and mortals could use specific incense rituals to ask that ascended mortal questions. Lily of Red was the first chosen for this group. Jade (wife of Ghavi) and Hiku were added soon after. The remaining seven slots remained open. These Lunar Gods existed partially outside of time like the Architects, and found the remaining Divine Era fly by in what felt like days.

At first, this ritual was not well known. The cult of Hiku in Nafena was given the ritual for The Divine Contact by Halcyon in a dream, as were all solars. Solars were also given the innate ability to become clerics through devoted faith towards Halcyon - the only species to be allowed to do this.

This led to Halcyon ordering her heavens. Before this, all dead souls (except for cats) simply vanished unless resurrected and the afterlife was a mystery. But Halcyon decided to create a new destination for souls: Paradise, a heaven for her dryad, prism, and solar creations to go after they died. Paradise was originally three distinct heavens, one for each species, but eventually Halcyon decided to merge them into one plane with three distinct cosmic regions. Paradise would be malleable, allowing each soul to meld material as they wished to build or live without scarcity or need. These souls would lack hunger, thirst, or need for sleep, and could not engage in violence against each other; they had no pain nor material needs. The meeting of the three wings of Paradise would be the place where the Lunar Gods would convene. The Chimera decided to make the Second Moon a heaven of its own: The Moonlands, where Pangolins could live a second reincarnated spiritual life before passing without bodily needs or the decay of age.

The Hidden One looked upon humans and decided to give them an afterlife. This afterlife was a foggy hell, modeled after the Silent Hill video game setting, where souls would lose their memory and be forced to start from the beginning whenever they died in the hell plane. It was torturous, but called Purgatory for its foggy and liminal atmosphere. This would be a personalized hell without escape or reprieve, where all humans would go regardless of morality or belief. The Hidden One thought that would be a funny joke and expected the other Architects to intervene, but the others did not. Halcyon did create Deliverance, though: the ability of any dryad, prism, solar, or hybrid to invite any currently-dead human they know by name to Paradise from Hell. Only the Lunar Gods were told of this.

The Masked One decided to let all other species continue to the great mystery after death. This acceptance created Oblivion: a "plane" that is the cosmic threshold between the Architect-touched planes and whatever fate lies beyond them. The Masked One did create the Astral Plane, not as an afterlife but as a place for communion between dreamers and their warlock patrons.

The Hidden One also created The Gluttonmaws - mysterious cannibal cryptids based loosely on the Veggietales that appear whenever it is spookiest and haunt places that mortals fear. He also made The Aleokifa, a moving mountain cave that promises treasure in an elaborate dungeon but actually slowly eats and digests all who venture inside.

As final notes, the Chimera added Wanderbloom and Divine Musk Deer. Wanderbloom are essentially small hardy flowering weeds capable of growing in any biome but with natural limiters to prevent massive ecological damage. These plants, which are edible to all species, and their extracts act as perfect contraceptives that work flawlessly for a full 24 hours after consumption. The Chimera hoped this would subtly encourage gender equality and sexual freedom across human cultures, and so seeded them around the world. The Divine Musk Deer were less overt: they are ordinary musk deer that are conjured magically in random locations around the world, with the ability to adapt to the spawned location with ease. These deer can come in new colors and with new horn designs. Their spawns prefer areas with very low mortal populations and occur only once every few decades.

Phase Four: Crisis

With that, the Referee signalled a looming climate crisis: a period of sudden cooling that would temporarily create famines and chaos around the world. Whether the referee made this happen as a kind of test or simply forewarned about it is unknown.

The enormous volcano in Ekraht, now surrounded by magical pollutants, began to erupt. The Masked One conjured a massive village-sized kaiju of a dragomander: an immortal, sentient, magically-powerful dragomander named Kemegi. To protect the ashlands from the surge of magically-polluted volcanic ash and poison, Halcyon chose a dryad from the same tribe as the failed mystic - a young and stupid man of good heart named Wimbo Aizitu - to save the ashlands. She gave Wimbo the power to control the weather and fly, and gave lesser Windweaver powers of air manipulation and magical purification to Wimbo's descendants. Wimbo purified the magical poison and spared the ashlands from total devastation following the eruption; he would organize dryads to act as community relief, rebuilding and supplying the ash-river cities. He was glorified by humans and dryads alike and made ceremonial emperor of the region, though he never ruled and was just a mascot with whom the title died. Wimbo became a Lunar God upon death, joining Lily, Hiku, and Jade. Kemegi helped a little in containing the lava and fire, but more out of accident than benevolence.

The Masked One spread dragomanders to all volcanoes around the world, allowing for dragon magic everywhere - but the ashlands would be the epicenter and magical focal point of them all.

In Sonev an army of outsiders, led by Pangolins who fashioned weapons and armor for their companions out of their steel-hard scales and wielded moon druid magic, besieged Runeva seeking the blessed abundance Halcyon had given. Runeva fought but lacked the magic to fight back. When the conquerors seemed ready to settle in as the new elite class, Halcyon released a wave of hyper-allegernic pollen that only sickened the invaders and caused them to become weak and confused. Halcyon also sent a fearful vision demanding that they leave, and the invaders scattered and fled. The valley unified around this event, becoming one great empire. But this empire quickly became coercive and restrictive. The dryads of the valley had been more and more stratified even before the invasion, but now the Runevans were led by a dryad priestly elite and a human warrior-elite that forced a rigid hierarchy upon the people. Dryads of royal blood were worshipped as Halcyon's own daughters and the abundance became a symbol of innate superiority.

Halcyon and the Masked One identified one lesser dryad royal named Orchid of Blue: the wisest and most learned of the dryad-supremacist scholars who lived in a secluded library tower. They fired an arrow of love into her heart that caused her to become passionately infatuated with her human messenger - the ship captain Ispi. Orchid was subtly guided by the Architects to see humans as her equals and she entered a passionate romance with the human. She gathered sympathizers but her faction became the target of the Runevan elites. Orchid was guided by a magic flower that appeared in her dreams to found a new promised kingdom of equality with Ispi, and Halcyon helped them build boats and guided them with magical winds to a crucial straights to the far West. This prime location was signalled to be where she wanted them to build her kingdom of equality. Orchid curiously fell pregnant (or with fruit as dryads do) and the fruit become a Half-Dryad baby with the traits of her husband. From Orchid and Ispi came other hybrid children, who would serve as a bridge between species just as Jade and Ghavi did for prisms on the other side of the world. Ispi would die seeking to cult of Lily for magic to aid his people and Orchid ascended to become a Lunar God upon death.

There were other petty mortal kingdoms in Sonev aside from Runeva and Orchid. These kingdoms, thrown into chaos by the invasions and crop failures, began hunting and stealing from the nearby Octopeople. The Masked One became furious and gave the octopeople divine inspiration to create Chemical Weapons: chlorine and mustard gas and mechanisms to launch gas canisters onto the surface. The surfacegoers fled in terror and the octopeople became lords of the oceans there; the recipe they learned would spread throughout the oceans with time.

The Masked One also enchanted the Leviathans to have ultra-nourishing meat when slain, and for a mysterious voice to declare "The Strong Survive" when a Leviathan is brought down through purposeful violence. This phrase also became embedded in Leviathan minds, though each monster interpreted it differently. Those Leviathans who lived longer were blessed with calmer tempers and more sophisticated sentient minds (perfect for warlock patronage), though all leviathans have the capacity for sentient thought. Some spawned Leviathans would also be "deluxe spawns" with particularly unusual powers, biology, or psychology.

In Samvara, the lands fell into great chaos. The cult of lily was divided, with Lily's clan and loyalists migrating to other side of Samvara - to the humid forests of the east - while more scholarly druids remained in the West. The cave societies ("Kimas") became more rigid, utilitarian, and expansive. One prism from a Kima gained divine attention for being exiled repeatedly for his wacky behavior: he insisted on adventuring, exploring, and questioning everything. He was fascinated with other societies and experiences, and was an expert chef. He formed an adventuring merchant crew to document and understand the world better, to bring all species into harmony. The Architects guided and aided him subtly until he sailed all the way to Desmia where he was captured and executed by the humans there. This prism, named Emesh, was then possessed by the Masked One and used to condemn his executioner. The Masked One cursed the monarch who killed Emesh to never be able to hold a weapon, and cursed the city that killed Emesh to have all weapons dissolve into dust upon use. The curse also made the city land feel eerie to any who entered (not dangerous, but spooky) and over time the city faded into ruin. Emesh was promoted to the Lunar Pantheon, though.

In Desmia, the wars continued. Izekran boat technology allowed tropical raiders to strike the South Desmian coasts, creating new conflicts Southward and drawing the curse of blood out of the continent. The Chimera decided to throw down Gem Plague in Desmia: a disease that infects snakes (via mites) that then spreads to humans through their bites. Infected humans slowly grow iron-hard gemstones out of their body, which slowly pierce their organs and erode their immune system until they die miserably and painfully. This plague is taken as a divine blessing by the Mathari, which the Architects quietly encourage.

Gem Plague quickly escaped Desmia as corpseblight once did. To ease human suffering, the Masked One created "meatrock" - which mortals named Kilusha - a mineral that tastes like cooked meat and which pauses all disease symptoms and progression for several days if any is eaten. Kilusha cures basic illnesses like influenza and bolsters the immune system, but cannot cure gemplague permanently; it must be taken regularly to prevent progression. Halcyon created the only true cure: a tree in the frosty land of Ibith that produces sacred water that cures all illness in any who drink it. This became known as the Isethra Tree. To guard the Isethra tree, Halcyon created an immortal and ageless guardian: a stout 4-foot teleporting sugarglider man with a tremendous mastery of magical martial arts and an instinctual protectiveness of the tree. This guardian, Bobito, was the only sentient and humanoid Blinkglider: a new species Halcyon made in Ibith, sugargliders immune to cold who teleport around. This tree remained far from any civilization.

Somewhere in an obscure land, a gem plague victim was blessed and cursed with plagued eyes that became gems - but which granted genuine visions of the future and divination abilities.

In Maradia civilization was just starting while the rest of the world's civilizations faced collapse. Halcyon decided to help them get started by giving divine inspiration and guidance to a lonely and isolated prism toymaker named Agamine. Agamine was taught how to create The Empty: magical golems that obey command amulets and which can be made using intricate rituals involving precious metals. Agamine was given these materials and soon won great acclaim, but Halcyon warned him not to allow this technology to proliferate until the time was right. Agamine became extremely anxious about whether this meant that he had a moral responsibility for all golems, and Halcyon suggested he might be didn't give a solid answer. Agamine taught a small cluster of novices who were sworn to secrecy; Agamine was then made a Lunar God after his death.

To mark this age of crisis, the Hidden One and Masked One conspired to create a system for Ghosts to exist. They agreed that a soul should become a ghost if the death was exceptionally funny or sad. Each Architect created a different judge for this. The Masked One created a mysterious copy of themselves: The Masked One Automata, a grim reaper that alternates between comedy, tragedy, and rage masks depending on the circumstance. This automata was essentially a mind-mimicking program containing the knowledge and preferences of the Masked One, who would view and judge every mortal death and help guide each soul to its proper place. The Hidden One gave the Cat Heavens the ability to review and judge deaths as well if they wished.

In this new ghost system, ghosts cannot be permanently destroyed without an exorcism. This exorcism can only be done by filing divinely mandated paperwork, which is filed at a newly created immortal: an island-sized dragon turtle named Ruko. If the paperwork is not done, ghosts can technically be exorcized by either fulfilling their life's most unfinished business in a way that is judged poetic by the Automata or by killing someone in a funnier or more tragic way than the original ghost. Also the paperwork can also be filed on either of the two moons, which manifests a ghostly town there if the paperwork is present, but Ruko the dragon turtle is the only reliable way for most people. Ruko knows the paperwork inherently and the ghostly town on his back naturally produces the relevant forms in the language of the visitor.

Halcyon decided to make another underwater friend: Shinikem, a huge immortal manta ray with an island on its back and the ability to form empathic and telepathic links with those on the island.

In Garadel, the prism communities had grown extremely dense and populous in the mountains and offered shelter to humans affected by the climate disturbances. In eastern Garadel, Halcyon made thirty Dragon Forges: magical lava-filled forges deep in mountain caverns that can be used to create magical items by those with smithing abilities. These forges would be hidden until next phase. Most magic items made by these forges are just "+1" and more effective and durable by default, but the "+" enhancement growing if the item is worked over longer and with more finesse. It would take a full century for a smith who is anything short of a true once-in-a-century master to make a +5 weapon. Adding additional magical effects requires further skill and time, and also the involvement of a spellcaster capable of similar magic.

In Western Garadel, where the mountains give way to grasslands and chaparral, Halcyon created Fire Termites: termites that build candle-shaped hives full of incendiary nectar that explode after a period of time, launching fire termite colony larvae massive distances but also creating wildfires. If extracted, this nectar could act as liquid fire. The Chimera, seeing this, blessed their pearl pangolins with the ability to breath fire for a small period after eating fire termites or drinking their nectar. The Masked One enabled dragomanders to survive off these termites instead of volcanic minerals, providing a key resource for future dragon sorcerers.

In Nafena, solars looked on the chaos with horror and a coven of them decided to use short-lived puppets to take control of the coast. The masked One took the most influential and decadent of these cults and sank their palace underground. All solars within were cursed to live half-lives, able to survive without light but sick and weakly. They and their descendants would be trapped in the sunken palace, vulnerable to disease for the first time and very brittle. The rest of the Eastern solars pronounced a taboo on interfering in non-solar politics and society after that.

A flurry of creation followed. The Chimera created metal of Moonstone which becomes invisible at night and exists in deposits around the world. Halcyon created Adamantium, a super-heavy and super-durable metal scattered randomly as well. Halcyon also created a blessing that periodically spawns small meteors containing Starmetal (a super light super durable metal that is very easy to enchant via dragon forge) that only land in uninhabited areas.

The Masked One made Merfolk: human-mimicking ocean predators, mindless and carnivorous. The smaller and more numerous males present as beautiful mermaids to lure in and devour sailors, while the larger and rarer females are large anglerfish with humanoid lure appendages. A massive immortal female named Moksetar was made in the seas North of Nafena and Maradia.

Halcyon made Dire Hounds in Garadel and Ibith: fire-resistant giant greyhounds with ghostly luminescence in Garadel and very-long cold resistant Borzoi giant hounds in Ibith. She also made Suntail Grass, glowing cattails that contain juices that temporary emanate light, in the humid forests of Eastern Samvara. The Masked One made Vegan Shrews, rodents that taste like plants, and a broadleaf plant that tastes like rocks.

In the tropical region South of Suneka (place, Halcyon also made the Ruxa: feylike spirit animals similar to Yokai. Foxes that tell you how you will die, scaled guardian lions, howler monkeys who shoot sonic blasts, old-man-faced-children who peacefully spy from treetops, cooking goblins who enjoy tofu but require small gifts to provide chore help, headless men with eyes where their anus would be, cloaks that protect the wearer if given food, and cloaks that devour the wearer if worn are all specifically included.

Phase 5: Final Words

The world stabilized, the climate adjusted back to normal, and the world is transitioning to one of widespread agriculture, metallurgy, urban living, and global trade - iron age stuff. But with every creation and consequence of creation, the tiny Static ball grew larger. It threatened now to transform into something - a predator, a danger for even godlike Architects. The referee warned them that they would need to hibernate for an age and then re-emerge as mortals to defeat this threat. This was their final phase to make preparations and say goodbye to their creations.

Halcyon unsealed the Dragon Forges and the Chimera created the Five Chimeric Vaults:

• a megadungeon in a tropical isthmus in Izekra (at a critical juncture between Desmia and Avetem), which magically sprawls deep underground and is full of magical monsters, magic items, and riches. Deep inside is a magic room locked to the Chimera alone containing a magical revolver with six shots that can kill any humanoid instantly
• a mysterious door in the Feywilds of Desmia, which leads to a realm of fear. If the visitor can face and survive their fears, they are blessed with exceptional mental fortitude, an unbreakable will, expanded perception, perfect memory, and the ability to resist all hostile mind-ensnaring magic.
• An island in the Antarctic taiga near Garadel, where all magic is nullified. An invincible shapeshifting monster lurks on the island (it cannot leave and is not sentient). If anyone survives a full day and night on the island, they become immune to heat and cold, need no sleep or food, resist all diseases, and cannot be magically transformed against their will.
• An underwater pyramid full of monsters and loot, similar to the one in Izekra but in the oceans North of Nafena - near the Moksetar.
• A maze of traps and magical dangers carved into the Mountains of West Garadel. Inside is a pillar that can translate any language or cipher perfectly and displays all languages that exist. This sacred pillar also contains the secrets of arcane magic, allowing anyone who studies it for enough time to begin mastering wizard magic,

To add to the megadungeon, Halcyon created Flowyrms: small dragons with butterfly wings that can spit acid and are actually part of the lifecycle of a magical pitaya cactus. Well-nourished Flowyrm cacti produce flowyrms as well as normal fruit, and these Flowyrms act as pollinators who also distribute seeds of their cactus-self. These Flowyrm cacti are part of the megadungeon but are designed to flourish in tropical, subtropical, and warm arid climates outside of the dungeon.

As species-based bickering began to escalate in the cold woods of Stildane, the Chimera decided to quickly solve that problem by sending down seventeen massive meteors of Ederstone: a substance that radiates chaos magic that mutates everything it influences. The fallout of these meteors was contained to Stildane, plunging the continent into magical chaos as the sun dimmed and chaos magic flooded the land. This blended the species there together and then fragmented them into hundreds of local sub-types. Elves, dwarves, all the fantasy races exist there as a result - alongside many more stranger folk. Monsters abound in Stildane as well, which can be harvested for magical bits that could be jury-rigged into magic items... should communities survive long enough to figure it out.

The Chimera also scattered magical runestones containing parts of the secrets to wizardry across stildane, but these stones had to have their runic symbols assembled and deciphered first. This task would likely take a while. More immediately, random people exposed to chaos magic sometimes become wild magic sorcerers instead of dissolving into monsters,

The Chimera created Kobolds to bring stability to this newly-accursed land: 4-foot opossum-like mammalians, obligate carnivores who are totally immune to Ederstone and all other transformation magic. Kobolds are both-sexed as a default and can reproduce with any species; they produce children of a random species when reproducing with a non-kobold. Kobolds live for 150 years (equal to human 75) and are natural climbers. They were created in a flashy magical display in Stildane which left them equally confused.

In Nafena, Halcyon decided to challenge slavery by targeting the most intensive slave mine and blessing a young woman enslaved within. This was Theia the Liberator, a human woman who became the first Paladin in an oath to Halcyon. She smashed the chains of her slavers and healed the oppressed, leading a dramatic slave revolt that captured the island they were on - Vytara. Halcyon allowed Theia to make her own paladins and granted her great divine strength. Theia became depressed as she got older and fell into a deep melancholy. The Masked One listened to Theia and promised they always would, giving Theia solace and a deep zealous piety to all the Architects. She and her army of paladins agreed to wait as Halcyon's army against to be summoned when she returns in mortal form. The island of Vytara was put into magical stasis and hidden beneath the waves. Theia's frozen body would wait to fight the great evil, but her soul was taken up to Paradise to serve as a Lunar God.

After Theia's promotion , the entire Lunar pantheon gained the ability to create their own paladins - they could seek out candidates in dreams and then judge their oaths to see if they are faithful to them.

In Izekra, a Desmian army led by a well-intentioned but indoctrinated warrior-prince named Ishkibal invaded across the sea - marking the beginning of Desmian human supremacists expanding militarilly out of their continent. Halcyon came down to Ishkibal and guided him to form an alliance with dryads against evil humans - convincing Ishkibal to stand down against innocent "demons" and respect Halcyon as an honorable foe. He formed a new religion that moderated his people's violent beliefs with a strict moral code. For his mercy, Halcyon gave his family a magic warhorn that forces all who hear it to stop fighting (and which grants temporary translation abilities to all who hear it), magic armor, and a blessing on his favored city that as long as dryads and humans live in peace there, those who believe in Ishkibal's faith shall defend the city with superhuman strength, durability, and speed. Ishkibal was elevated to the Lunar Pantheon after death.

In Samvara, a group of druids convened to try and cure Gem Plague by experimenting on the rumored Isethra tree. After a journey across the entire world quietly protected by Halcyon, they finally arrived there and sought to use powerful magic to give the tree sentience and mobility so it could cure people around the world. The druids angered Bobito, the tree guardian, who killed two of the druids and injured the last one. The last living druid, a genderfluid solar named Haru, prayed to the gods for answers and made peace with Bobito. The Architects answered and revealed themselves physically to Haru. They told her of their fallibility, of the dangers that would one day come to the world, and of the importance of mortal agency in giving the world meaning. They offered her immortality, to exist as the sole living Lunar God who would walk the earth for centuries to guide mortals to compassion and prepare for the return of the Architects. Haru agreed, and she was blessed with agelessness, strength, and an aura that prevents anyone from doing her harm without her first doing them harm.

And with those two, the Lunar Pantheon was complete with ten members for ten lunar phases.

The other two humans were resurrected with Dhampirism - or "punch-vampirism" as the gods called it. This magical condition gives monastic martial arts abilities but erases all prior specialized knowledge and much of a person's memories to convert it into martial arts and combat ability. Those afflicted can only feed by inflicting physical violence through martial arts - food helps them not - and starving dhampires can enter feral rages. Dhampirism can spread through either careless feeding by a feral dhampire or by intentionally giving a magically charged gut punch to someone. If a Dhampire is physically struck by someone else's punches or kicks enough times in a short enough duration, the condition fades (no one is told that, though). One of the two humans ventured to Sonev to seek a better life, disillusioned by the tree expedition. The other dhampire headed back to Samvara to care for his family. This second Dhampire's son was given a vision by Halcyon on how to create healing potions using the ritualistic preparation of mundane herbs (more expensive herbs and more elaborate ceremonies for more healing).

The Architects also gave a number of hot-springs monkeys in remote locations magical martial arts (without dhampirism's cursed elements), so that mortals can learn by imitating them closely.

The Masked One then created Hedge Magic: Curse Magic, Tragedy Magic, and Comedy Magic. Curse Magic allows a person to curse someone they have a trace of (an intimate possession, blood, hair, etc), at the cost of suffering give times the curse in return. Tragedy magic allows someone to ask for divine intervention from the Masked One Automata but only works if it is either the worst moment of their life or if it falls into a very small random chance (and it only works once - so if you use it and it doesn't work, that's it expended forever). Comedy magic allows for minor illusion magic, telekinesis, and minor cantrip magic but requires that the practitioner incorporate it into a joke. All three magical arts require care and practice, but not so much that commonfolk can't learn it. The Masked One randomly scattered the original knowledge of these arts around the world in the minds of non-elite everyday people, so that it would permeate common cultures everywhere.

The Masked One also made whimsical moomin-style gnomes, or Haltia, on an island between Stildane and Desmia.

To protect their lone selkie islands, the Chimera created Kailio, an enormous immortal kaiju otter, as a guardian. They gave kailio the ability to sleep for centuries whenever they wish, to hopefully protect Kailio from some of the inevitable distractions and distortions of time.

The Hidden One created the Heart of Ashara, a massive gemstone in a sparkly cave that resurrects any who die their as a sentient cat - in Desmia, near a large cat-human community. Drinking the water near the Heart astrally projects someone to commune with the cat heaven hivemind.

The Hidden One then made Karbeetles, bugs that look like cars, in Western Samvara. These Karbeetles have steel shells, glass windows, and rubber tires like actual cars, but are entirely organic on the inside. They are ageless, reproduce at a rate similar to horses, and only need to eat dust to live, but they are also very stupid and bad at avoiding danger. They have human eyes behind their headlights and a human mouth of metal at the grill locked in a screaming expression, but they don't actually feel fear or pain. They mature after six years, keep their young in the 'back seat', are semi-photosynthetic, digest non-Karbeetle life forms who sit in their seats, and have foul but edible meat. They are a grand final prank.

And, as a final preparation before sleeping, Halcyon made three sentient buildings capable of granting great magical boons of their choice to any they deem worthy.

• Aysha, a sentient lighthouse in North Samvara near the end of the solar migration route
• Suwota, a sentient flower that also possesses every building it grows on, in Runeva on top of Orchid's old tower
• Mavara, a crystal temple in a cave deep underground in the mountains West of Inahng.

Each building was given mental instructions to keep watch for any agents of the end of the world and to gather resources and information for whatever dark force is coming. And then, without a word, the four Architects were taken into stasis.

Thus ended the Divine Era. The Modern Era dawned the next day. Only the Lunar Gods and sentient buildings knew that this had occurred, though they did not know if they were going to be waiting ten years or a thousand years for the Architects to be born again.

It has been two thousand years since that day.