MASKTOURN

Above the howl and rage of the desert windstorm stands a singular identifiable structure. An obelisk. A monolith. A monument to all that is and all that never was. A MONUMENT to ETERNITY. It stands, unyielding, as it has for all time. It has stood there for as long as things like ‘standing’ and ‘there’ have existed as concepts in the great mind of the world. It will stand there, in mournful reverence, for time immemorial. Wars are waged and peace is brought, babes are born and elders die, the sick are cured and the dead wake, and walk, and pass again, and it will stand, a MONUMENT to ETERNITY. Infinite steps lead to the MONUMENT’s only entrance.

lifebringer discourse

Deep within the heart of the obelisk, seven incarnations of a God sat around a table and discoursed. “This is ridiculous! Albanes, you knew what duties were expected upon you upon taking the mantle, did you not?” Iydelan, in fact, was not sitting, but standing in front of her chair, gesturing wildly and angrily. “Don’t blame me. I didn’t ask for this.” Albanes avoided the gaze of her predecessors, looking instead at her hands clasped in a tight knot upon the table. “Like any of us did,” Saiytsa muttered, but did not fully voice the thought. “That is not the matter.” Iydelan’s expression, impossibly, grew sterner. “The matter is-” Ttakeqeri threw their head into their hands and let out a wailing weep. “Oh, does it matter what the matter is? Leave the poor girl alone, Iyd- we’re all doomed anyways.” “Enough of these hysterics, Tae,” Anore chided. He had, characteristically, kept the levellest head of them all. “We will not resolve this matter if we are all shouting and crying.” “Well said, Anore, as always.” Saiytsa nodded, but turned back to Albanes, “But, Albs-” “Don’t call me that.” “Albanes, then.” The rose-haired woman rolled her eyes. “What I meant to say was, I am so dreadfully curious as to why you locked poor old Yeonaixho in the Fold in the first place-” At that point, Yeonaixho interrupted. “I don’t think there’s anything to gain by discussing that,” He dismissed, “And besides, can’t all this be fixed easily anyways? Naiyta did all this, got us all into this mess- can’t they fix it?” All seeing eyes in the room shifted their gaze to the Nascent Lifebringer. Naiyta sat at the head of the table, sulking and silent, and looked up only when it was addressed. “You… think I can fix this?” Iydelan began, “What I think Yeonaixho meant to imply-” “What he meant to imply,” Saiytsa interrupted, “Is that you got us all here, so you can get us all out.” “I got us here?!” Naiyta stood, their heavy chair tumbling to the floor at the sudden movement, “Need I remind you that the only reason any of this happened in the first place is because Albanes Shairoun decided it a good idea to lock her predecessor away in the Immaterial Fold?” “You don’t need to remind us, you already have a thousand times..” Ttakeqeri muttered. “I already know what I did was wrong, Naiyta.” Albanes addressed her first predecessor coldly. “You do not need to waste time reminding me of the fact. Not when we have more serious matters at hand.” “You clearly haven’t learned your lesson-” Naiyta began, but was swiftly interrupted- “- So can you fix it or not, Naiyta?” Yeonaixho asked, his own ill temper seeping into his tone. “Why should it be my responsibility? I am only fixing the mistakes you all have made.” It sneered at each and every one of its successors. “You have all disappointed me. None of you could follow in my footsteps. None of you are worthy of my Godhood.” “Oh, because not all of us turned out to be tyrannical, murderous dictators?” Anore replied bitterly. “Well, I could certainly call some of us other than Naiyta tyrannical.” Saiytsa said, with a pointed glare towards Iydelan. “As could I.” Ttakeqeri said cooly, looking just as pointedly at Saiytsa herself. “Look- this is getting us nowhere-” Albanes sighed, “Naiyta, is there really no way you can fix this?” Naiyta didn’t reply, and stared blankly ahead for a moment. “Naiyta.” Anore chided, “The least you can do is give us a direct answer-” “Something is coming.” Naiyta said in a hush. “Something is coming. We must prepare.”

As the group enters the MONUMENT, they are quickly split off into separate hallways… @everyone (should have done this before the threads whoopsies)

Thread: HALL OF JUSTICE

Thread: HALL OF DUTY

Thread: HALL OF DECEIT

Thread: HALL OF HERITAGE

Thread: HALL OF DEVOTION

THE SUN FALLS

Sadihak ran through twisting, dim, infinite hallways. Above them, a night sky as impossible as it was pitch-black and starry. Below them, white tile of a floor so pristine in reflected them in mirror shadow- their haggard form, their slight frown of complete apprehension, the fear in their eyes. It was all very silent- silent, but for the sharpness of their breath in and out, and the arrhythmic pattering of their bare feet against the floor. They were not alone. That single fact kept them on the very edge of sanity. Petrai was with them, clinging to their arm with more resolve than they had ever seen a person muster before. She should’ve been resting, recovering- Sadihak had begged her to stay behind. “And leave you to die all on your own?” She had said, her tone almost mocking, “Or worse, take all the glory and leave none for me? No. I’m coming with you.” Sadihak loved her. They really did. Whether it was true affection or love out of simple necessity, of having nothing else for so long, they didn’t know. But they had her, and that was the important thing. They reached the inner sanctum- a grand, round chamber with tiered mezzanines going up to infinity, as high as Sadihak could comprehend- and they knew it went further than what they could comprehend, anyways. It was a grand, ageless structure, and it scared Sadihak. But they could not be scared now. Not about this. They and Petrai were not alone, as expected- but Sadihak was surprised to realize Naiyta had not been alone in waiting for them. Albanes stood there, too, beside it- and they looked as if they had been speaking- arguing- really, but stopped. Silence passed between them four for only a moment. “What is going on?” Albanes asked, her tone almost genuine. She was swiftly cut off by the answer- the answer, in the form of Petrai’s thowing knife landing in Naiyta’s chest. The action- swift and cold- had taken so much of Petrai, Sadihak could tell from her grunt of pain and the expression creasing her face. But they did not have time to soothe or comfort her. Because that throw of a knife was their signal. Their opening. As Naiyta gasped in shock more than pain, as they grasped for the knife to pull it out and heal the wound, Sadihak entered their mind. They stilled it. Naiyta noticed Sadihak immediately, because Sadihak was making their presence known- they wanted Naiyta aware of everything that was going to happen. It took so much effort to hold onto them- to hold onto a God, to hold onto someone as strong-willed as Naiyta was, but they held on. With tooth and claw and strong will of their own, Sadihak held on. With what bodily autonomy Sadihak still allowed them, Naiyta shook their head. It had realized, very quickly, what was happening. “No. No. Please, Sadihak, you can’t do this. Sadihak, it’ll kill me. You can’t kill me! Please, Sadihak, don’t make me do this. You can’t do this.” Sadihak could feel their fear. Pervasive, complete, horrible fear. The fear of a wounded, starving creature fearing for its life. The fear of an ostracized child begging for mercy. The fear of someone who, more than anything, did not want to die. Who would give anything to keep from dying. Who would do anything to stop it. It was not enough to make them forgive it. Sadihak, mercilessly, made Naiyta all they wanted to be. They made it GOD.

11:23 AM

Initially, Naiyta screamed. A horrible, guttural, entirely human scream, pained by the way it scratched at their throat as it exited them. They began to sob, too, as their soul began burning away. Sadihak loosened their control over their body, allowing them mercy enough to curl up on the ground, and to allow themself focus enough to drive their message home, to not allow Naiyta the freedom to save itself. Naiyta writhed and cried and screamed. They tried to fight it- they clung onto mortality with all the strength they had. To their credit, they really tried to stop it. But Sadihak would not allow them that mercy. And then, it began to glow. First from the inside, as the godhood it had consumed began to eat away not only at its soul, but at its flesh and organs. It burned away at them like a fire started in their belly. It tore through bone, muscle, flesh, and split open their skin in beatific streaks of light- like sunrays peaking through from behind a horizon. Like a dawn coming after a horrible night. Naiyta’s horrible, human screams of pain began to shift in tone- an angelic, choral bass underlying them. Something began to sound like the reverberating humm of a bell after it had been struck. Something began to feel like that, too, vibrating in the bones of all witness to it. And then, as the sun began to rise from beyond the distant mountains, it became too bright to bare the sight of. GOD enveloped all. Consumed all- in righteous, complete purity. Sound and light and sensation unknown flooded the senses of all bearing witness to it. GOD stripped the world of all its unnecessary flourishes- all the complexity of mortal body and emotion, all that Naiyta Hauryan had once enjoyed and taken completely for granted. There was no more hate, nor lust, or longing for love. There was no more beating heart or thinking mind, no golden eyes or thin, long hands. There was no more them. There was only what was, and what wasn’t. There was only GOD. An epitome of power. A complete, inhuman power. GOD, as an antonym to mortal. GOD, as an antonym to death. An APOTHEOSIS. It only lasted an instant for the being that was both mortal and divine to cease existing in that delicate balance. It only took an instant for GOD to supplant the human nature of its first and most beloathed host. It only took an instant for Naiyta Hauryan to cease existence. And in that instance, the breadth of the universe was both incredibly infinite, and incredibly small. Sadihak Rouwae, only of both their names, took in a heavy breath, and breathed it slowly out. They brought slowly back into the world, ETERNITY, like leading a babe from its mother's womb- or removing a parasite from the devoured body of its host. They could not shape it- but was this enough? Would it ever be enough? After a decamillenium long night, the sun had risen again. ETERNITY returned, and the Lifebringer was no more. The light faded, and Naiyta Hauryan was no more.

11:23 AM

@everyone