Yikonis
Salika's Knowledge #251
Planet Yikonis, also known as the domain of the God Vikuon. This world is very much like our own world. It has oceans and forests, large deserts and grasslands. That is where the similarities end. With Vikuon gone to unknown parts of the universe, Yikonis was left ungoverned and the world grew out of control.
There is life here, but it is completely different and dangerous to be around. The intelligent beings of this world live off of and generate massive amounts of energy, just like the god that created them. Most of the other life involves some sort of play with powerful acids that would melt a person in seconds. In ancient times the world had a thick atmosphere and it was impossible to see what was on the surface, but through the Iron Age the clouds have cleared giving us a glimpse of it all, and what we see is a world dying without their god.
- Salika
Vikuon's Domain
At the beginning of the Iron Age, the planet Yikonis was a whitish, hazy world, covered in thick clouds. Silver Age texts describe the world as completely inhospitable to human life:
The atmosphere alone would crush you before you reached the surface. If the atmosphere didn't crush you, the temperatures would burn you to a crisp. If the temperatures didn't burn, the acid would melt you into a puddle of goo. If the acid didn't melt you, the posion would destroy you from the inside out. If the poison didn't destroy you, the many dangerous creatures there will. If you somehow survive all of that, then you still had to contend with the intelligent life there.
By the middle of the Iron Age, something unknown even to the Silver Race had started to happen, the storms on the world had started to clear. Instead of a colorless haze there were yellow deserts and violet forests, and oceans. There are also little settlements dotting the landscape near the ocean. The Golden Observatory in Irellith was able to see these details quite clearly. The Silver Age texts say one thing, but the Iron Age humans and elves aren't really sure if that's the case anymore...
History
A New world
The history of Yikonis go back quite far into the depths of history, before the Silver Age, even before the Golden age. You have to go back to beginning of the dark days, back when Meliheal was a sapling and had yet to connect the realms together. In these times, there was just Vreathe as a perfect sphere with the world tree growing on top of it. In the distant cosmos were the smoldering embers of creation, and Vreathe had no sun yet.
Here the Elder Gods Alom and Tazil created the great worlds that would share space with Vreathe. These worlds had no names yet. They then started giving these worlds out to the children of the elder gods. Vikuon, the oldest child of Nora and Tazil, recieved the largest rocky world. He would give this world the name Yikonis, or "The Storm".
While many of the gods stayed on Vreathe to help tend to Meliheal and prepare for the comins of the Golden Race, Vikuon mostly stayed on his world, shaping it as he pleased. He shaped the life that would live here. He used the ideas of various plants from his aunt Yanneth and cousin Flora to create his own strangely plant-like things that would grow across Yikonis. His creativity was as boundless as his energy.
Countless years before the first humans walked out of Mileheal and helped the gods shape Vreathe into what it is today, Vikuon had a diverse world filled with beauty that only he could truly appreciate. there were gods that grew quite jealous of his efforts however....
The War of the Rena
The Rena were Elder gods that didn't include Alom, Yanneth, Nora, and Tazil, who here will be referred to as the Tetrad. There are countless numbers of them, each with their own powers and domains. They were in small groups that were each given a world seed by the creator Silnos. They were to create something similar to Meliheal and create a world tree that could spread across the cosmos. they were to create a life giving world... They all failed.
They came to Vreathe and wondered how it was possible that this tree was growing. They wondered how Yikonis was such a lively world without its own world seed. This wonder turned to jealousy and anger. They demanded that the Tetrad share in their creation. They refused. One of the Rena, a powerful elder god named Buldefirn, saw Yikonis and how the world was filled with life, even moreso than Vreathe was at the time. That world would do.
Buldefirn kicked Vikuon off his world and took over Yikonis for himself. Vikuon was not powerful enough to contend with an elder god. Buldefirn started changing it, and planted a world seed on it. This World Tree, Shariheal started to siphon the world's energy and started to quickly grow. This was actualy a problem as Shariheal was started to connect to the same realm that Meliheal was, which was started to shake reality to its foundations. It was discovered at this point that there could only be one world tree in the universe. This started the War of the Rena. The tetrad and their children were on one side against everyone else.
Most of the details of that war does not concern the world of Yikonis, except the destruction of Shariheal. Vikuon himself destroyed the tree. The tree came crashing down on his world, forever scarring it. Buldefirn was destroyed with the tree, his body being scattered across the cosmos as giant pieces of clear yellow aethercite crystals. Some of these crystals made it to Vreathe, but the majority are on Yikonis. The rest of the Rena were captured and imprisoned in the crushing depths of the Planet Tarsuros, where they would never again see the light.
Creation of the Sun
When the Golden Age came, they were without light. The World of Vreathe was without light. A few thousand years into this age, the Gold Race went into the cosmos, gathering some of the ashes of creation, and they built the Tower of Heaven, which would only light a small portion of Vreathe.
Vikuon was on his world, trying to rebuild what he had lost. He was mostly successful, but it just didn't have the same beauty as it did before. Vikuon finally visited Vreathe for the first time and met with the Gold Race. He saw the tower of Heaven and how it lit a small portion of the world. He saw the Gold Race building several more. This gave Vikuon an idea, a way to light half the world at a time.
He instructed the Gold Race to go into the cosmos and gather as many ashed of creation as they could. They did so. Vikuon then used his great power, compressing the ashes into a ball, and then compressing it further. The ash ignited, creating a very large ember of creation, a star. It was the Sun. This warm light fell over Vreathe, filling it with warmth. Many creations of Yanneth and Flora that did not grow in the darkness started to sprout and grow, filling the world with much more life than it has ever had before.
Vikuon's boundless energy and creativity had given beauty to a second world. He then turned to his first world and realized a mistake. The Sun was the right distance to give Vreathe the warmth it needed, but it was too close to Yikonis. The world was starting to turn into a great desert. He was unsure of what to do. He looked at the two worlds and decided that Vreathe was the more beautiful one, so he created a great storm that covered Yikonis, protecting it from the heat of the sun. This storm made the world disappear behind a cloudy haze.
The Silver Age
Yikonis isn't mentioned much during the Silver Age. When the Olimians were looking for new worlds to terraform and colonize, Vikuon lied to them, saying that his world was too hot, crushing, acidic, and more for them to live on. This made the Silver Race look out to worlds further away like Rosia. Later in the Silver Age, the Olimians did the unthinkable, they tried to burn down Meliheal, the World Tree.
Back when Vikuon burned down the Shariheal it had not yet spread to all creation. Meliheal had done so. Its branches and roots connected other worlds even, and burning it down would destroy everything. Vikuon joined the elder Gods in stopping the Olimians. Vikuon unleashed his power on the Olimian capital city of Tenali, leveling great parts of it. He also destroyed three of the Sky Fortresses the Silver Race was so proud of.
Vikuon went back to his world to rule it in peace, but years later, the Silver Race rose up once again. They imprisoned three of the Elder Gods in the moon. They also went after Vikuon specifically. They raided the world of Yikonis, bombing it and turning large parts of it into a wasteland. This enraged Vikuon who vowed to destroy every last bit of the Silver Race. He went to Vreathe, starting a rampage that lasted a thousand years, until he was captured and imprisoned. His body was placed in a casket and he was buried in the deepest ocean trench known at the time. Vikuon's energy escaped him and he raged for thousands of years. This energy still affects portions of the Voltaic Sea in North Cassel and Southern Rinea.
The Iron Age
It wasn't until the beginning of the Iron Age, many thousands of years later, that Vikuon was freed again. He was freed by the Elder Goddess Nora, who was now known as Saint Nora. She had used all of her godly energy to kick all the gods off Vreathe forever. This freed many of the imprisoned gods on Vreathe, including Vikuon. Vikuon was at first filled rage that he couldn't take revenge on the Silver Race, but he learned that they had destroyed themselves long ago, and the elves were a mere shadow of their ancestors. Saint Nora assured Vikuon that the elves would not be able to bring destruction to another world again. She said that Vikuon could leave in peace.
Vikuon went to his world Yikonis once again. He found it quite changed from when he was last here. The planet was almost half desert now due to the Silver Race's destruction. There were still plenty of forests and grasslands and plenty of life. Vikuon resumed rule over his world once again.
So what about the cloudy haze over the world and the great storm? Why did it disappear? It isn't because Vikuon left Yikonis to seek out another place in the Universe. It was because most of his power goes into maintaining the World Shield. This shield was put in place by Saint Nora at the end of her life as an Elder Goddess. The barrier is constantly and forever being attacked on all sides by other gods.
When Saint Nora neared the end of her human life, Vikuon went to visit her, one of the few times a god was allowed to visit Vreathe during the Iron Age. Nora had a request of him, to maintain the world shield, prevent Vreathe's destruction.
The Sun Throne
Vikuon agreed. He didn't play a direct part in Vreathe's creation like the other gods, but he did create the sun, which is why the world is what it is today. Vikuon went back to Yikonis, wondering how he was going to protect Vreathe. If he used his power to do so, then the storms around Yikonis would disappear, and what was left would be destroyed. He traveled around his world when one day he came across a piece of Silver Age machinery that somehow survived being bured in the deserts for hundreds of millennia. The reason the Silver Race were so good at defeating the Gods (and Dragon Lords, among other things...) was because they were good at converting energy from one form to another. This gave Vikuon an idea.
He had his people construct for him a great throne, made of Sun Stone. He also constructed a great machine that connected to towers all over his world. When Vikuon sat on this throne, he started his task that Nora had set out for him. He strengthened the World Barrier, to continue to prevent other gods from entering Vreathe. As he did so, the great storm he had protecting Yikonis disappeared.
The world would have burned up, if not for the many towers Vikuon constructed. These towers absorbed the excess heat from the Sun and gave the energy directly to Vikuon, which he then used to strengthen the World Barrier even more.
This was a gamble, as Yikonis was no longer protected from prying eyes. They could see a lively world filled with life, able to be exploited. But Vikuon gambled that the other Gods would be too busy trying to gain access to Vreathe to notice that he was the reason their efforts failed. For the last two thousand years, he has been correct.
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