The Terminal Dogmas

Preparations for the End Times

But the rock cried out,
I can't hide you

The Terminal Dogmas are a series of belief systems or dogmas around Era Termina: the End Times. These beliefs are shared by distant societies with nonetheless astounding similarity: versions are found in Ket, Nurin and Jura in the Gamma Quadrant as well as various Khayyamite sultanates in the Beta Quadrant, suggesting widespread belief prior to the chaos of the Second Age. The Dogmas are by no means ubiquitous across Waking Materia; they are merely one of the most widespread.

"Terminal Dogma" is the Kettite term used in Gondara; in the Lorent they are called the Analects of Searise and Skyfall, and on Khayyam they are the Greetings for the Thousand Converging Wyndes.

Synopsis

The Dogmas are generally expressed thus: the world habitable for Humanoid species is shrinking, from above and below. From below, the Deluge has already come, a monstrous upwelling of demon-infested brine that drowned much of Waking Materia's surface some 1,500 years ago. Believers hold the second half is coming some time in the future, beginning the Era Termina or End Times. In Middish Common this second event is called Skyfall.

Skyfall

Capping the dome of sky above the Material plane, it is agreed, is the Luminiferous Æther: shifting, sometimes colourful waves of light that give us day, and from which we draw arcane magic. Should the arcane layer of reality ever descend upon the Material realm below, only the gods may truly know the result: perhaps strange, theoretical creatures from the arcane paraecologies may see us as food, much as the kaiju of the oceans do; perhaps the raw, eldritch energies will result in random conflagrations of magical phenomena around the plane; perhaps we will be absorbed into a reality altogether unknowable. Either way, with the shadowy dangers of the Sunken Expanse all around us, there will be nowhere to hide this time.

Divine Explanations

It is believed by the Kettites that two gods were given the responsibility of holding back the Sea and the Sky, leaving them in a state of balance with the Surface realms of Man. The god of water, Ina'ut, was tasked with keeping the world's mighty Seas in their place. The goddess of light, Aios, was similarly tasked with keeping the Skies safely above us.

Theories on why it occurred vary with divine school, but it is agreed Ina'ut failed, resulting in the the nigh-apocalyptic Deluge. The Kettites believe that Aios too must eventually tire, a supreme warrior though she is. Their Termina Sentries stand atop the blindingly bright plateaus, awaiting signs of this event's coming.

Similar beliefs are found on the Lorent and various Khayyamite Sultanates.