Nightkill the Emperor wrote:Nationstatelandsville wrote:"Call it a 'desperate measure'," the man said, his smile never failing, "These are, after all, quite desperate times. You know that by now, yes?"
He began to wring his hands together, an eager, nervous energy in his old body.
"The angels call it 'Old Night'," he said, "in case you forget. A dark age of dark creatures primordial. A time before the Gotterdamerung and the Lord himself, a time of Ancients. A time of Fae. These times are returning. But you knew that.
What you didn't know is that it is coming very soon. No, not 'very soon'; right now. The work of Yahweh is being undone."
"I almost feel like approving of that." Crowley noted. "Fuck him. Seriously, and with all passion intended-" His voice began turning more Scottish as he spoke, representative of Lucifer's old accent. "Fuck him. What work of his? What's coming undone then, hmm? He didn't create this world." A pause as Crowley remembered the Gotterdammerung. "Well, not all of it and not all by himself." he conceded.
"A prison he once built," the man said, "amongst other things.
Let's begin, however, with a lesson or maybe a review. Do you know what a Fae is? Culturally, historically, yes, but biologically? How about their story? Do you know it? No? Then let me tell it. I've been through much to get this; it's a bit above my office."
He cleared his throat.
"There was once a universe," he began, "before our universe. And there was a universe before that one, known as - to some - the 'Pradesa'. This was the world of Leviathan and the world of his dragons. You're familiar, of course. Leviathan ran his world like a machine - all in order, all mindlessly carrying out their programs. No free will. No deviation. The dragons existed to 'debug' the program of any such... developments. But they ruled for a long time, and like anyone who does, they grew too comfortable for their own good. Their watch got lazy. A planet or two slipped their notice. One of those planets happened to have life on it; life not unlike our two species. Without the dragons monitoring them, this life developed freedom. And with this freedom, this life developed magic. And still the dragons did not notice.
Until this life expanded. Then they were not very happy at all. A war began.
But who watches the watchmen? The dragons too had been corrupted, unnoticed, infected with 'free will'; and so, as the long war, dragged on, they rebelled to end it. Leviathan himself was brought into combat - God against all his creation. This ended predictably poorly for both sides. The Pradesa ended.
But not entirely! Of course, Leviathan survived, you know that. But so did the life that started it all; they were called 'the Fae', or to some of the others who would come after them, 'the Higher-Ups'. Their world was dead, but their minds and their magics were not. They survived, crawling out of the universe, wandering in the ethereal absence around us. A new world began. Our world. They didn't find out for quite some time. They didn't like it very much.
Well, that's not accurate. See, as the Fae melded with their magic to survive, the magic did not become personalized. It remained a continuous force; it simply now also harbored a continuous mind. Individuality ended; minds melted together; thoughts wandered between them; people were mixed together. Horribly painful process. But the Fae could also assume individual forms. When they came to this new 'Multiverse', they found they could not interact with it without doing so. But, when they did that- well, it was like trying to fit the square block in the circle hole. There was just too much of them for our state of existence to handle. Not necessarily too much Fae, it was just arranged all wrong. And so, in order to come here and walk around, the Fae had to rearrange themselves; they did this by splitting themselves in three. Two forms from every Fae were born; two halves, two opposite forces, completely counter to each other. These were called 'avatars'. The third, their pure essence, was a perfect balance between the two, but significantly weaker than the other parts. The avatars were independent, as if they were two living beings bound by a shared psychic bond to the third. In this shape, the Fae came to our world, so as to destroy it. But then that nasty 'free will' kicked in.
The Fae that came here decided they rather liked it. And so they stayed, had children with the locals, grew a new society; a society called 'the Ancients'. The old gods. Alongside the Ancients was born a new race, native to Earth - the human race. And so they lived happily together.
That is, until they were discovered by the old Fae, the True Fae. The True Fae had grown bitter in their exile. Savage. Primal. They did not like the cultured Ancients; they only liked blood and war. And so that's what they brought to Earth.
There was one Ancient here, on this Earth. He was the youngest of them all - a Fae descendant, just like the rest. Such a smart boy. Such a nice boy. At least, at first. When the Fae came, he saw an opportunity; or, part of him did. The other saw horror. There was a bit of a spat. Either way, the boy ended up swearing his allegiance to the Fae; and now they call him king."
