What The World Has Lost
Needles press against your skin, not hard enough to break flesh, but held fast enough to cause pain -- and only then does the vision begin. You see a timeworn, cobblestone street, shadowed by high towers made of marble, its edges gilded and clean. No monetary expense was considered too high to build Pierce.
If only there'd been an equal fervor for the lives required to save it.
Time slips away, and the cobblestones crumble. The high towers rain blocks of stone from the sky, and shatter the houses below. Eventually, the proud structures fall, eliminating entire neighborhoods in one fell swing, and breach the outer walls. Then the creatures arrive to pick the bones -- bandits and hedge mages -- scraping away the gold and stealing the city's secrets. Then the monsters arrive, drawn by the smells of fresh meat, and kept by the strange magics in the depths. The fabled city of Pierce is little more than a dungeon before your eyes, barely a blip in the long history of the Other Side.
Tommen: "It's funny... We call your side Tyrnog. Depending on the age, its the Land of Faeries, or the Dark World, or even Hell, but we always give it a name. That your people would be so self-centered... The 'Other Side', as if we are not one half to the same whole."
The needles press a little deeper, making it impossible for you to turn your head, but the form beside you is no taller than a boy. His brown hair is dirty and unkempt, his body naked and starving. Through his mane, a blue eye bores outwards, looking on as Pierce is reduced to rubble by an explosion, and then left to die. The grasslands consume the remains, and trees slowly cover the land. With each passing of the seasons, a beautiful forest begins to arise, untouched by mankind.
Then a ball of fire shatters the sanctuary, and two armies clash in the middle, reducing the forest to ash and bone. A cataclysm rips apart the would-be victors, and all the towers around the world crumble.
Tommen: "End Day. Where the Infinities touch, and all creatures are forced to pick a side, or be crushed. It was the end of the world before you, and the beginning of your own. But unlike Tyrnog, we were never given a second chance."
Men and women crawl up from the ashes, looking out at the wasteland left for them, and scream in terror. Lawlessness rules the land, and the monsters -- once forced into the deeps -- come out into the daylight. One man rises up to defeat them, his white hair glowing under the sun's rays, a sword held aloft in his cry for hope.
Tommen: "What happened next is the Baron's story. Or at least, a part of it. I shall not spoil David's journey..."
The landscape continues to warp and change before your eyes, skyscrapers climbing high, only to be consumed by flames, and then... The boy steps in front of your vision, one eye blue, the other a hollow socket. His nose is twisted -- broken and never set -- and his mouth is full of rotting, yellow teeth. He smiles as you scan him, clearly proud of his appearance, his eyes filled with knowledge beyond the lifetimes of a simple boy.
Tommen: "Welcome, Dark Walker, to the happiest road in the Void."
The boy reaches forward, a filthy hand covering your face. Only your right eye can see -- through a slit where the boy is missing a finger -- which looks right into the cold ocean of Tommen's gaze.
Tommen: "I am Tommen, the First Aspect. Across my many lives, they have called me the World Maker, First Saint of Pierce, and the Boy Who Gave Up His Dream. I am Mirror to Lalantha, Worldbreaker, Keeper of the Seven Blades. I am son to the Ringmaster, Mirror to Vic, and to Jestyr, Mirror to the One God. I am bane to my parent's vision, and that of their Mirrors."
From behind the boy, there is a rushing sound, and then everything goes dark. The needles dig in, drawing blood now, causing the vision to go slightly hazy. Then a blanket of color is thrust over everything, lit by neon lights. You see a mountain of metal, surrounded by smog and skyscrapers, every possible surface covered with advertisements and the filth of mankind. At the summit, a boy reaches desperately towards a futuristic basin, as a frightened man with blood-red hair looks down at him.
Tommen (Vision): "Please... We need it."
??? (Vision): "I- I'm sorry."
The man sticks his hand into the basin, screaming with agony, and then disappears in a flash of silver light. It takes ages for the boy to finish his climb, exhausted from a lifetime of searching. His hollow eyes look down into the empty basin, and the open keyhole at the bottom.
Hatred consumes him, and the Mantle of the Dark Walker is born.
The vision moves with lightning speed, threatening to consume your mind. Thousands of iterations in a world before all the others, as Dark Walkers populate both sides. You see Tommen try desperately to halt the machinations of his father, and that of his Mirror. You see Lea in one flash -- imbued with the boy's power and ruined by necromantic influences -- alongside thousands of others. In the end, Tommen settles on a young man, known suddenly to you as Delikul, and the cycle is shattered.
A ring becomes a single Infinity, as the Twilight War begins in earnest, leading to the formation of a second world.
Tommen: "But that isn't my story."
The visions vanish, leaving you in blissful, merciful black.
Tommen: "So you receive your first lesson. And the first Edict."
The boy's voice glitches, as if coming through a recording, and static nearly overwhelms him.
Tommen: "Feed the Worm."
The needles dive inside you, and you awaken from the dream.
If only there'd been an equal fervor for the lives required to save it.
Time slips away, and the cobblestones crumble. The high towers rain blocks of stone from the sky, and shatter the houses below. Eventually, the proud structures fall, eliminating entire neighborhoods in one fell swing, and breach the outer walls. Then the creatures arrive to pick the bones -- bandits and hedge mages -- scraping away the gold and stealing the city's secrets. Then the monsters arrive, drawn by the smells of fresh meat, and kept by the strange magics in the depths. The fabled city of Pierce is little more than a dungeon before your eyes, barely a blip in the long history of the Other Side.
Tommen: "It's funny... We call your side Tyrnog. Depending on the age, its the Land of Faeries, or the Dark World, or even Hell, but we always give it a name. That your people would be so self-centered... The 'Other Side', as if we are not one half to the same whole."
The needles press a little deeper, making it impossible for you to turn your head, but the form beside you is no taller than a boy. His brown hair is dirty and unkempt, his body naked and starving. Through his mane, a blue eye bores outwards, looking on as Pierce is reduced to rubble by an explosion, and then left to die. The grasslands consume the remains, and trees slowly cover the land. With each passing of the seasons, a beautiful forest begins to arise, untouched by mankind.
Then a ball of fire shatters the sanctuary, and two armies clash in the middle, reducing the forest to ash and bone. A cataclysm rips apart the would-be victors, and all the towers around the world crumble.
Tommen: "End Day. Where the Infinities touch, and all creatures are forced to pick a side, or be crushed. It was the end of the world before you, and the beginning of your own. But unlike Tyrnog, we were never given a second chance."
Men and women crawl up from the ashes, looking out at the wasteland left for them, and scream in terror. Lawlessness rules the land, and the monsters -- once forced into the deeps -- come out into the daylight. One man rises up to defeat them, his white hair glowing under the sun's rays, a sword held aloft in his cry for hope.
Tommen: "What happened next is the Baron's story. Or at least, a part of it. I shall not spoil David's journey..."
The landscape continues to warp and change before your eyes, skyscrapers climbing high, only to be consumed by flames, and then... The boy steps in front of your vision, one eye blue, the other a hollow socket. His nose is twisted -- broken and never set -- and his mouth is full of rotting, yellow teeth. He smiles as you scan him, clearly proud of his appearance, his eyes filled with knowledge beyond the lifetimes of a simple boy.
Tommen: "Welcome, Dark Walker, to the happiest road in the Void."
The boy reaches forward, a filthy hand covering your face. Only your right eye can see -- through a slit where the boy is missing a finger -- which looks right into the cold ocean of Tommen's gaze.
Tommen: "I am Tommen, the First Aspect. Across my many lives, they have called me the World Maker, First Saint of Pierce, and the Boy Who Gave Up His Dream. I am Mirror to Lalantha, Worldbreaker, Keeper of the Seven Blades. I am son to the Ringmaster, Mirror to Vic, and to Jestyr, Mirror to the One God. I am bane to my parent's vision, and that of their Mirrors."
From behind the boy, there is a rushing sound, and then everything goes dark. The needles dig in, drawing blood now, causing the vision to go slightly hazy. Then a blanket of color is thrust over everything, lit by neon lights. You see a mountain of metal, surrounded by smog and skyscrapers, every possible surface covered with advertisements and the filth of mankind. At the summit, a boy reaches desperately towards a futuristic basin, as a frightened man with blood-red hair looks down at him.
Tommen (Vision): "Please... We need it."
??? (Vision): "I- I'm sorry."
The man sticks his hand into the basin, screaming with agony, and then disappears in a flash of silver light. It takes ages for the boy to finish his climb, exhausted from a lifetime of searching. His hollow eyes look down into the empty basin, and the open keyhole at the bottom.
Hatred consumes him, and the Mantle of the Dark Walker is born.
The vision moves with lightning speed, threatening to consume your mind. Thousands of iterations in a world before all the others, as Dark Walkers populate both sides. You see Tommen try desperately to halt the machinations of his father, and that of his Mirror. You see Lea in one flash -- imbued with the boy's power and ruined by necromantic influences -- alongside thousands of others. In the end, Tommen settles on a young man, known suddenly to you as Delikul, and the cycle is shattered.
A ring becomes a single Infinity, as the Twilight War begins in earnest, leading to the formation of a second world.
Tommen: "But that isn't my story."
The visions vanish, leaving you in blissful, merciful black.
Tommen: "So you receive your first lesson. And the first Edict."
The boy's voice glitches, as if coming through a recording, and static nearly overwhelms him.
Tommen: "Feed the Worm."
The needles dive inside you, and you awaken from the dream.
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