PRELUDE /// Come, Wayward Souls
-{The Pale King, God of Higher Thought}-
A stirring.
The vast mind of a vaster creature stretched and unfurled, uncoiling as it began to shift, a thousand-thousand prismatic reflections of uncertain futures flickering through its un-vision. Images of a strange, smug-faced man holding a goblet of white liquid. Of countless entities pledging allegiance to this creature...no, to an emblem of this creature...twice stricken down, twice risen again. A third rising, helmed by the Crown of Hallownest. The mind curled, folding and twisting as it began to pull at the fabric of the irreality it inhabited, sending a call, a Dream, an Omen to the far reaches of the Cosmos, and feeling the answers start to flood in. Contented, the great being began to curl in on itself, spiraling ever inward as it began to return to the puppet it called Form.
The Pale King slowly returned to lucidity as he pored over a set of documents at his desk. Idly, he scratched signatures with one claw, the many-horned God-King's Focus lying elsewhere as feedback from The Dream began to filter through his subconscious. Idly setting aside a document on excavation approval, he stood, gliding to a far corner of his study as he began to draw a symbol of glimmering white light, binding a seal of silk-scroll in it before dismissing it with a clap, the missive relayed through an immense warping of space to the office of his Clergy. This could be entrusted to them. Turning, he returned to his desk, picking up the document he had discarded. After some examination, he detected the flaws, corrected them, and idly cast it aside to be returned to its senders to be re-considered. The clock on his desk chimed, informing him that it was the end of his assigned duties for the Day, and he stood, making nary a sound as he demanifested from the Study, appearing elsewhere in his Palace to enjoy the evening with his Wife and Children.
~~~~
-{Coroor, Cleric of the Pale King}-
The sturdy Beetle hefted a crate of stone tablets over his shoulder, grunting somewhat at the effort as he joined another group of Clerics. The entire Chapter was abuzz with activity, having been gifted such an enormous task by the King Himself. To deliver aid, and bring new peoples to the Eternal Kingdom...it was no small task, and given these peoples were from another world entirely...! The Chapter was reasonably excited.
Worship of His Eternal Majesty was quite loose, as He had no need for the Devotional Energy of mortals, meaning that there were no proper sermons, simply small prayers and the handling of Idols to hopefully influence Fortune in their favor. The King had elaborated on the general situation of their locale of arrival, and it was...certainly quite unpleasant. Their 'allies' were causing immense damage, and the Chapter's duty was to provide aid and, where requested, bring people from this damaged world to the Eternal Kingdom. Contingents of Royal Guards stood idly, heavyset beetles, lithe dragonflies, and everything in between sharpening weapons and commenting on how they were finally seeing action. Setting his crate of Tablets on a nearby cart, Coroor settled with the Clerics of his particular creche, chatting and speculating on what exactly they would find.
The room went silent when the Great Knight entered.
She moved with haunting elegance, double-pair of antennae trailing behind her like silver wire. Her flowery cloak flowed about her like a living thing, the immense nail strapped to her back in stark contrast to her seeming fragility. Her faceless, flat mask betraying her blindness yet all-too-keen senses. Ze'mer. The Mysterious. The 5th Great Knight of The Pale King. And, more controversially, Lover of a Mantis.
The Kingdom-rocking Scandal that had arisen when it was discovered she was in courtship with a daughter of one of the Mantis Tribe's Lords was nigh-unprecedented, if only for the geopolitical tensions surrounding the two nations. The only worse affairs were where actual lives had been lost, such as with the discovery of illicit Noble circles funding the Colosseum of Fools, or the discovery of the Soul Sanctum's depraved practices. Yet, the Great Knight had not been stripped of her titles. Her deeds had far outweighed the burden of love, even if controversial. She had retreated to her estate in the Resting Grounds, living in seclusion ever since, rarely emerging to perform funerary practices and spiritual communes.
But now she had returned. And evidently, to provide protection against the threats of this foreign World.
The Royal Guards snapped to attention, briskly saluting the Knight as she passed them, gliding towards the Chapter Leader.
"Is le'mer's kin prepared?" She murmured, her voice sonorous and melodic, carrying elegant tones that belied a hidden sadness. The Chapter's Leader, a tall butterfly named Jalesen, bowed briefly, before responding. "Aye, Ser Knight. We've prepared the appropriate supplies. All that remains now is the opening of The Gate."
"Che' sees. Very well, ready le'mer's kin for the Journey." The Knight said, striding forward to a far wall. Several mages among the Clerics detached from their huddles, taking positions along her sides as they began to Focus, channeling Soul and Essence to bend to their will as a spiraling pattern began to manifest on the wall, filling the Cathedral with more light than it already had...
When The Gate fully formed, the first wave of Royal Guards strode through, Ze'mer included, and the Clergy of The Pale King entered a new World.
~~~~
-{Eastern Vaven, Foxania}-
People were afraid.
Beyond the revolutions, beyond the kidnappings by shadowy black ops, the soldiers raining from the sky, the rampaging ethereal primate and the most recent arrival of a tear into Hell itself, many civilians in Vaven wanted to leave, to escape, or worse were caught in the fighting and injured, killed. In this chaos the Eastern quarter of Vaven remained somewhat spared from the fighting, a shelter for people seeking egress from the Capital or shelter from the rain of soldiers in the countryside. With their Empress buried in her bunker, the Children of Athena nowhere to be found, and, of course, the neverending tide of Demons, Drug-fueled Apes, and orbital soldier drops, the situation seemed...grim, to say the least.
Until the Ones in White came.
They were a strange folk, of all shapes and sizes. Gaunt, seemingly insectile, they spoke in strange voices and wore stranger garbs, flowing white robes and an ivory mask. Certainly, they were met with apprehension, with fear, but they remained peaceful, with no weapons on their person. It was when their powers were discovered that they were welcomed wholeheartedly. With a mere touch, they could heal even the most grievous of wounds, brilliant pale silver light flowing around them. Their power had limits, yes, but they manifested in relief camps, providing aid and consolation, before vanishing to visit a new place. Eventually, they revealed their 'headquarters', a large library left empty by the war, and dozens flocked, in hopes of receiving aid.
It was there that the Ones in White described their nature, and their purpose. They were the followers of a Higher Being, themselves from another World, known as "The Pale King". A God. Their duty was to provide aid to the sick and wounded, destitute and starving, and if necessary, offer...relocation, from this world to the World of their origin. To an Eternal Kingdom. Hallownest. Many eagerly accepted, daring to risk an unknown frontier over the horrors this civil war had wrought, and they were escorted to the means by which the Ones in White came to this World, and passed through, traveling to the Eternal Kingdom.
Yet, relief and evacuation were not the only services the Ones in White provided. One notable incident was that of a contingent of demons, detached from the main horde and seeking suitable...partners, wandering into Eastern Vaven. The civilians had no means of defense beyond improvised weapons, but the potential horrors of the demonic incursion were cut short in a blur of white and the singing of metal, the dust clearing to reveal the cleanly-dismantled demons, and at the center of it a towering warrior. She was elegant but practiced, fragile yet strong. Her attire and build slim and decorative, while her blade was hefty and seemingly cumbersome, but twirled around her with the lightness of a feather. She spoke in a stranger, more elegant tongue than the other Ones in White, but had introduced herself as a Knight of the Pale King. One of his personal cohort of protectors. Her elegance in manner and strength of wit, alongside her overwhelming compassion, quickly ingratiated her to the people of East Vaven, and the rate of evacuees to the Library Gate increased, not a flood of refugees, but perhaps five or so a day, families, that would come to the gates of the Ones in White's stronghold, seeking passage to the Eternal Kingdom. The vast majority, however, sought passage out of the Capital, or hunkered down to wait out the war.