Chronotyryn
The chronotyryn, sometimes referred to as the "tyrants of time", were a race of divine beings, who are said to have originally been aarakocra before they achieved apotheosis. Details on their history and nature are sparse, and mostly derive from a rather baffling text known as Enchronoridion, written in the 6th century AK by the dragonborn scholar Kimbatuul Laodike. Laodike claims to have met a chronotyryn, who taught them the secrets of chronurgy and commanded that they write the Enchronoridion in order to fulfill a particular chain of causality which required the book to exist; however a significant portion of the book consists of Laodike's analysis of these teachings and own research, which goes significantly beyond that which was originally given.
The Form of the Chronotyryn
Laodike described the chronotyryn as six-limbed beings akin to Aarakocra, though they stood taller and were more powerfully built than the mortals from whom they had arisen. Their plumage was made of adamantine, described by Laodike as an esoteric metal with the appearance of blackened iron, nigh-indestructible by mundane means but vulnerable to the application of the forces of pure entropy. Their four sets of claws were likewise composed of adamantine, and were razor-sharp. The most remarkable aspect of the chronotyryn, according to Laodike, was that their minds were capable of holding two different chains of thought simultaneously and with complete clarity, which amongst other things greatly aided them in the wielding of magic by allowing them to maintain their concentration on two spells at once; another was their uncanny ability to speak with two voices at the same time.History
The Ascent of Chronotyr
It is unclear how or when the chronotyryn achieved apotheosis; Laodike stated that this question was impossible to answer, due to the nature of the power which the chronotyryn achieved. Through some unknown means, they successfully placed themselves outside of the ordinary flow of time, sequestering a portion of temporal existence which Laodike described as "distal to all creation", which they were able to manipulate at will. Laodike described this portion of temporal existence as being akin to "a dam placed across the River of Time at the point that it returned to the Ocean of Eternity"; located at the end of time itself, after all other things which could come to pass had done so, it was secluded from all interference by dint of existing within the final moments of creation, extended infinitely. This place is described by Laodike as being conceptually akin to a city; its true name is unknown, but it was known by such names as the Last City, the Endless Moment, the Eternal Redoubt, Chronotyr, and most commonly, as Tomorrow. Laodike states that from this hold at the edge of existence, the chronotyryn were capable of projecting themselves backwards in time, and that they were thus able to retroactively assert their divinity to "any moment that was touched by the river of time". The question of when the Chronotyryn had achieved apotheosis was thus, to Laodike, fundamentally meaningless, as once they had achieved it, they could enforce their will upon the universe to make it so that they had always and would always be divine.The Power of the Chronotyryn
Laodike states that the Chronotyryn claimed to be the masters of time, more powerful than even the sphinxes or the Couatl. They were said to exist "beyond the reach of Qar", and that this gave them alone an exemption to all laws of causality; among the least of their powers was the ability to speed and slow the passage of time for themselves and those around them, to gain perfect foresight of all events that would occur, and even to stop time altogether. They were likewise said to be able to step forward and backward in time at will, to send other creatures and objects through time to a point of their choosing, and to instantly gain knowledge of anything that had happened or would happen. Laodike believed that the powers of the chronotyryn were however far more limited than they claimed; for whilst all these things may have been possible, they were neither entirely without danger nor without cost. The ability of the chronotyryn to flout the laws of causality appeared to be linked to the existence of a large number of "anchorheads" that existed in the material world and in various parts of the Periphery. Following Laodike, the term "anchorhead" has become a generalized piece of terminology in the field of chronurgy, indicating a creature, object, or place that is enchanted and then attuned to by the chronurge, and acts as to orientate them to the passage of time. In the case of the Chronotyryn, a great number of these anchorheads were embedded in the conceptual structure of their city of Tomorrow, with an equal number embedded in an area of the periphery which had somehow been made into a static point in the River of Time. Through some arcane process that Laodike admitted that they did not fully understand, the chronotyryn were able to shift these anchorheads between this static point and any material or immaterial realm, tied to any place or object that existed at the point in time at which they intended to influence; this somehow enabled them to avoid the risks of causing temporal paradoxes which render the practice of chronurgy so hazardous, whilst also shielding them from the attention of the Qarut, a group of Inevitables which Laodike described as a beings which enforced the cosmic laws of causality.The Death of Tomorrow
It was, by Laodike's suggestion, these anchorheads which proved to be the one vulnerability of the chronotyryn. Scholars of chronurgy have long noted the existence of a "temporal scar" in the distant past, beyond which no chronurgic magic can penetrate - though few are those who might be capable of sensing the existence of the scar, and fewer still those who have been inclined to investigate it. This temporal scar, which can be pinpointed to the winter solstice, 2089 years pre-AK, was believed by Laodike to have represented the annihilation of the anchorheads of the chronotyryn, through the unleashing of some unimaginably potent cosmic force which reshaped the River of Time and fundamentally changed the metaphysical nature of the universe. Laodike believes that this likewise caused the Eternal Redoubt to be erased from existence, and for the Chronotyryn who somehow managed to escape their doom to lose their connection with the source of their divinity which was ultimately instantiated in their domain at the end of time. Quite what caused the temporal scar to emerge was unknown to Laodike, though they speculated that it may have represented the result of a war between the chronotyryn and some other force which was attempting to seize control of the River of Time. By all appearances, Laodike was not aware of the history of the Paragons of Azoth; in the light of this knowledge, it could be concluded that the temporal scar either resulted as a consequence of the Shattering of the Azoth, or of the actions of the paragon Orobouranithos shortly thereafter. Laodike was unsure of what became of the chronotyryn following the destruction of the Last City; they speculated that those who were within Tomorrow at the time of its destruction were most likely erased from reality with little, if any, warning, but that those who had been scattered across time prior to this may have survived, albeit stripped of much of their power. They appear to not have known of the Kith of Aziz or the Kenku - or if they did, they made no mention of it.The Kith of Aziz
The link between the chronotyryn and the Kith of Aziz is somewhat obscure, and few scholars appear to have made the connection in the course of their research; however multiple sources including the shade of Stone Skittering Down the Mountain - which claimed to have once been a chronotyryn - would seem to support this conjecture. The earliest mention of Kith Aziz can be found in the Chronicles of Vash Edom; one record from the Third Dynastic Period of Tzim Tevash, which can reliably be dated to 684 years pre-AK, reads:In the thirteenth year of High King Zuriel abd La'ad ur-Yammu an Tzim Tevash, the heretics who had marched under the banner of the Black Lion were set upon by their former allies, the accursed ravens that did once call themselves the "Kith of Azizu". In retaliation for the murder of one of their own, the ravens did descend upon the camp of the Black Lion, and put six-hundred of their number to the sword, sparing not even their sick, their elderly, or even their children; and we hear it rumoured that the ravens did feast on the flesh of the fallen, as has ever been the way of the followers of Azizu. This did greatly disturb the High King, who decreed that the kenku were to be barred from entering Vash Edom, and likewise from the other cities under his rule, lest the worship of Azizu spread.The Black Lion Clan are elsewhere described as being a group of heretics that worshipped Azizu (a name applied to the god Azithurapash), who had been driven out of Tzim Tevash by High King Zuriel. From this, it has generally been assumed that Kith Aziz were likewise followers of Azithurapash during the reign of the Faceless Kings. According to the mummified scribe Geshtiheshet, Kith Aziz served as the elite bodyguards of the Eighth Paragon, sometimes referred to as Aziz-Ulibor. It is unclear how or when this came to be the case, though it is notable that by some accounts Aziz-Ulibor was the first to defect from the council of the Paragons and that their agenda rapidly diverged from that of the others. At some point in their history, presumably prior to 684 pre-AK, it appears that a faction within Kith Aziz referred to as the Ravens of Death rebelled against Aziz-Ulibor with the assistance of Qi'eka'a, who provided them with the means by which to shatter the soul of the Paragon through the use of fragments of the Song of Creation - which likely made up the Devouring Word that is sacred to the Mysteries of the Raven. It appears that a side effect of this magic was the stripping of the remaining divine power from the chronotyryn, along with the levelling of the Curse of the Kenku upon them - which, for reasons unclear, has been partially concealed within the mythology of the kenku ever since.
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