Chapter 0: The Prime Prophecy
A glimpse to a world, disconnected from time. We see the clockwork nirvana of Mechanus, the industrious Modrons, and a mysterious conversation with Primus and mysterious figures. One Primus is gone, and another emerges. But as rare as that may be, there is a mysterious countdown that has begun, and the fine clockwork that turns will have far greater reach than those in the proximity the hear is soothing chimes through the narrow halls and vast workrooms of the Clockwork Cathedral.
"There exists on a plane much different than our own, a cathedral made of many gears. Some gears are hundreds of feet in size and some are smaller than a finger nail, but the cathedral extends far into the bronze sky. Among the clouds there is a workshop floor where hundreds of monodrones are running to and fro. These short, rotund, half-mechanical beings. Each has a specific task, moving items around the floor, monitoring screens and telescopes, and all manner of office work. Above the sea of monodrones, there are taller duodrone and tridrones serving more complex functions, such as oversight and data interpretation. In the air, quadrones are moving large file boxes and constructs around the room, some descending down passages with raw materials and boxes to the other floors of the cathedral. The room smells of gears and metal, the kind of smell that can be slightly detected by the tongue. This main office chamber has an tangerine haze as the light beams flow in from all directions. In the center of the room is a large circular desk that sits on a raised platform, where the segundus is perched in the precise center, not only of the floor, but in the center point of the cathedral itself. This level of synchronization and precision is expected, this is Mechanus after all. As bell tolls from above, the modrons start for the clear out of the many circular doors. All except segundus in the middle. It watches as they march out in all directions in perfect unison, as only modrons can. Perfect. The segundus continues their work, stamping approval seals, analyzing data and setting up shipment and build orders for the next morning. Their documentation tasks will pick up soon, as the wars around the planes only continue to increase, and their monitoring tasks always seem to pick up when conflict is peaking. Precisely an hour later, the bell tolls again and the segundus leaves their station and heads to the recharge station for the night. Just as they reach their recharge housing in the Modron Hierarchy quarters, a disrupt message comes through the central comm line. Then a divert message which reads, "Head to the Pendulum." Most peculiar. Pendulum has an access hatch from Sub-Atrium O-9-W, L-Delta, and Main-X, the latter of which is closest, so the secundus heads out. The large, circular room rarely sees use, but secundus knows it well. It consists of large desks with recessed seats, arranged in concentric circles emanating out from the center of the room. The first ring has 4 desks for the 4 secundus. The next ring has 9 for the tertions, then 16 for the quartons and so on out to dacatons. True to its name, the Pendulum swings freely of the larger building around it and is perpendicular to floor however there is no gravity on the ring, likely due to an ancient, ill-understood law of the universe. But one who would understand, sat in the middle of the Pendulum: Primus. In a vacuum, you wouldn't think Primus was of Mechanus at all. He is anthropomorphic giant standing tens of feet tall. His terminal sinks through the floor, so he is only visible from the waist up from the room, although the bottom half of his body sinks into an unknown plane, and not below the pendulum as you would expect. There are numerous clockwork apparatuses, wires and tubes, and sparks shooting from his body. His two arms are constantly elbow-deep in two of the many planar portals that orbit around him. Each portal is a different color and grants access to one of the inner or outer planes. This was quite common, as Primus is charged with oversight of the celestial clockwork of the universe. What was uncommon, however, was the figure that seemingly appeared from thin air in front of Primus. It was a robed and hooded lanky figure, that would be blurry to you and me, but nothing escapes the modrons view, not even the Eldergods. Surrounding the blurry figure is an orbiting figure, hearkening to electrons orbiting a nucleus. Although the appearance of the figure was quite abnormal, as visitors to the Pendulum was very rare, what happened next was almost unheard of: Primus unplugged from his terminal. A general unease spread through the Modron Hierarchy in attendance. The aura then jumped from the blurry figure and transferred over to Primus. Then, the main comm line went dark (t=2.895 seconds, noted the segundus), and communications stopped from Primus. The modrons began to look around in confusion, and you could even hear 1 or 2 chatter sounds in the otherwise complete silence. A true silence. Highly peculiar indeed. As Primus is deep in thought, the free flow of information continues to be dark (t=4.655 seconds), but for a moment the secundus swears he sees the image of a red dragon surrounding a titan sized portal, but it quickly flickers away. In the Pendulum, Primus's head oh so slightly turns in the direction of that particular secundus. Of course, Primus sees all. The aura leaves Primus and returns to the stranger. Primus sits in silence for only a few seconds, but this is seemingly forever in the modron frame of reference. No instructions are communicated, he is still dark t=8.945 seconds). Then he plugs back in and the comm line reboots. If modrons were capable of it, you would think a sigh of relief washed over the pendulum. He begins to pull here and there, in this portal and that. Then something that had never happened before happens. He speaks. "It is clear what must be done." Seemingly, that comment was targeted for the di-chromatic stranger. Then without another sound, a series of flashes fills the room and Primus is gone. The hooded figure seems pleased, and takes their leave. Segundus looks down, and his construct form has been changed to a taller, burly humanoid figure. In fact, they are no long secundus at all. With the slightest hesitation, undetectable by the others, he walks up to the Primus terminal and looks down on the lip of the desk. There lies a clockwork music box, with precisely interlocked gears and coils. This music box is so perfectly crafted, right down to the molecular level, there is no doubt this was the doing of the previous Primus. He is confused for the first and only time in his life. Then, he plugs into the terminal and assumes the call. He has ascended to the rank of Primus. He begins parsing thru the gears of the universe for the first time with his new sight. He too sees what must be done. What had been done. He silently summons 3 monodrones and a pentadrone into the room. Using his left hand, molds them into the shape of a chest and ushers the music box into the center and seals to top. Finally, he rips a gear from his own arm off and locks the chest with a timer. A countdown timer displays on a panel on the front of the chest, showing 24,137,569. Another 9 modrons come into the room and retrieve the chest. The begin the climb to the top of the cathedral, using a series of tight corridors, all stepping in perfect unison. There is only one room at the top floor of the highest bell tower. It is labeled Prophecy Storage Facility. They move the box to the center of the room, and all 9 synchronously execute their Reconfigure order, transforming themselves into a pedestal under the chest. The new pedestal and music box are the only objects in the room. Once the transformation is complete, the box begins to play. The music is hauntingly beautiful; slow and deliberate. The notes bounce off the empty walls, down the halls and corridors, through the empty rooms and even surrounds the open air of the pendulum, as it swings back and forth slowly. The melody pours over the streets of Mechanus, across the empty space above and reverberates through the space between planes. It continues through the universe, pouring into every crevice of existence at a nearly undetectable frequency the further from the source you go. Most creatures of existence continued without ever have detecting it. Once the final vibration hits the furthest corner of the further plane, the countdown timer engages into place, and begins its slow decent to 0."
"There exists on a plane much different than our own, a cathedral made of many gears. Some gears are hundreds of feet in size and some are smaller than a finger nail, but the cathedral extends far into the bronze sky. Among the clouds there is a workshop floor where hundreds of monodrones are running to and fro. These short, rotund, half-mechanical beings. Each has a specific task, moving items around the floor, monitoring screens and telescopes, and all manner of office work. Above the sea of monodrones, there are taller duodrone and tridrones serving more complex functions, such as oversight and data interpretation. In the air, quadrones are moving large file boxes and constructs around the room, some descending down passages with raw materials and boxes to the other floors of the cathedral. The room smells of gears and metal, the kind of smell that can be slightly detected by the tongue. This main office chamber has an tangerine haze as the light beams flow in from all directions. In the center of the room is a large circular desk that sits on a raised platform, where the segundus is perched in the precise center, not only of the floor, but in the center point of the cathedral itself. This level of synchronization and precision is expected, this is Mechanus after all. As bell tolls from above, the modrons start for the clear out of the many circular doors. All except segundus in the middle. It watches as they march out in all directions in perfect unison, as only modrons can. Perfect. The segundus continues their work, stamping approval seals, analyzing data and setting up shipment and build orders for the next morning. Their documentation tasks will pick up soon, as the wars around the planes only continue to increase, and their monitoring tasks always seem to pick up when conflict is peaking. Precisely an hour later, the bell tolls again and the segundus leaves their station and heads to the recharge station for the night. Just as they reach their recharge housing in the Modron Hierarchy quarters, a disrupt message comes through the central comm line. Then a divert message which reads, "Head to the Pendulum." Most peculiar. Pendulum has an access hatch from Sub-Atrium O-9-W, L-Delta, and Main-X, the latter of which is closest, so the secundus heads out. The large, circular room rarely sees use, but secundus knows it well. It consists of large desks with recessed seats, arranged in concentric circles emanating out from the center of the room. The first ring has 4 desks for the 4 secundus. The next ring has 9 for the tertions, then 16 for the quartons and so on out to dacatons. True to its name, the Pendulum swings freely of the larger building around it and is perpendicular to floor however there is no gravity on the ring, likely due to an ancient, ill-understood law of the universe. But one who would understand, sat in the middle of the Pendulum: Primus. In a vacuum, you wouldn't think Primus was of Mechanus at all. He is anthropomorphic giant standing tens of feet tall. His terminal sinks through the floor, so he is only visible from the waist up from the room, although the bottom half of his body sinks into an unknown plane, and not below the pendulum as you would expect. There are numerous clockwork apparatuses, wires and tubes, and sparks shooting from his body. His two arms are constantly elbow-deep in two of the many planar portals that orbit around him. Each portal is a different color and grants access to one of the inner or outer planes. This was quite common, as Primus is charged with oversight of the celestial clockwork of the universe. What was uncommon, however, was the figure that seemingly appeared from thin air in front of Primus. It was a robed and hooded lanky figure, that would be blurry to you and me, but nothing escapes the modrons view, not even the Eldergods. Surrounding the blurry figure is an orbiting figure, hearkening to electrons orbiting a nucleus. Although the appearance of the figure was quite abnormal, as visitors to the Pendulum was very rare, what happened next was almost unheard of: Primus unplugged from his terminal. A general unease spread through the Modron Hierarchy in attendance. The aura then jumped from the blurry figure and transferred over to Primus. Then, the main comm line went dark (t=2.895 seconds, noted the segundus), and communications stopped from Primus. The modrons began to look around in confusion, and you could even hear 1 or 2 chatter sounds in the otherwise complete silence. A true silence. Highly peculiar indeed. As Primus is deep in thought, the free flow of information continues to be dark (t=4.655 seconds), but for a moment the secundus swears he sees the image of a red dragon surrounding a titan sized portal, but it quickly flickers away. In the Pendulum, Primus's head oh so slightly turns in the direction of that particular secundus. Of course, Primus sees all. The aura leaves Primus and returns to the stranger. Primus sits in silence for only a few seconds, but this is seemingly forever in the modron frame of reference. No instructions are communicated, he is still dark t=8.945 seconds). Then he plugs back in and the comm line reboots. If modrons were capable of it, you would think a sigh of relief washed over the pendulum. He begins to pull here and there, in this portal and that. Then something that had never happened before happens. He speaks. "It is clear what must be done." Seemingly, that comment was targeted for the di-chromatic stranger. Then without another sound, a series of flashes fills the room and Primus is gone. The hooded figure seems pleased, and takes their leave. Segundus looks down, and his construct form has been changed to a taller, burly humanoid figure. In fact, they are no long secundus at all. With the slightest hesitation, undetectable by the others, he walks up to the Primus terminal and looks down on the lip of the desk. There lies a clockwork music box, with precisely interlocked gears and coils. This music box is so perfectly crafted, right down to the molecular level, there is no doubt this was the doing of the previous Primus. He is confused for the first and only time in his life. Then, he plugs into the terminal and assumes the call. He has ascended to the rank of Primus. He begins parsing thru the gears of the universe for the first time with his new sight. He too sees what must be done. What had been done. He silently summons 3 monodrones and a pentadrone into the room. Using his left hand, molds them into the shape of a chest and ushers the music box into the center and seals to top. Finally, he rips a gear from his own arm off and locks the chest with a timer. A countdown timer displays on a panel on the front of the chest, showing 24,137,569. Another 9 modrons come into the room and retrieve the chest. The begin the climb to the top of the cathedral, using a series of tight corridors, all stepping in perfect unison. There is only one room at the top floor of the highest bell tower. It is labeled Prophecy Storage Facility. They move the box to the center of the room, and all 9 synchronously execute their Reconfigure order, transforming themselves into a pedestal under the chest. The new pedestal and music box are the only objects in the room. Once the transformation is complete, the box begins to play. The music is hauntingly beautiful; slow and deliberate. The notes bounce off the empty walls, down the halls and corridors, through the empty rooms and even surrounds the open air of the pendulum, as it swings back and forth slowly. The melody pours over the streets of Mechanus, across the empty space above and reverberates through the space between planes. It continues through the universe, pouring into every crevice of existence at a nearly undetectable frequency the further from the source you go. Most creatures of existence continued without ever have detecting it. Once the final vibration hits the furthest corner of the further plane, the countdown timer engages into place, and begins its slow decent to 0."
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