(( - Edit: Gah, almost forgot. This is just something I'm looking for opinions on as well as getting vetted by people who know more than me about the setting. If you find any flaws in my logic/story or anything you don't like at all, tell me. I'm mostly trying to get second opinions on this before I try and pitch it to anyone.
Many artifacts were created in the First Age, some were mightier than others. The Twilights of the time crafted the greatest weapons and artifacts that had ever been seen, wonders that had never been seen before, and may never be seen again. Artifacts capable of amazing things, altering the very world around them with ease.
But what may have been the greatest artifact crafted by the hands of those First Age artifisans, could very well have been created after the Usurpation.
The Solars had been frustrated by their limited access to Necromancy. Frustrated and angered. Many attempts were made to push those limits just a bit farther.
One Ancient Twilight took a route different from those of his companions.
He had studied with Autochon and Gaia both, spoken with and studied the essence patterns of the Incarnae and his fellow Exalts, and as the pall of the Great Curse fell across the souls of the Exalted, with no being to question him, the Twilight's huberis grew. He became obsessed with accessing the power of the untainted Primodeals and that of the Oblivion, and in his pride and madness, decided that altering the Exaltation itself was the only way to accomplish this.
He was one of those who sought to slaughter the Dragon Kings to discect them and study their souls, unintentionally driving away Autochon not only with this, but his own dabbling into modifying the Exaltations.
In his huberis, he assumed that Autochon was simply unwilling to see his work improved upon.
The Twilight spend millenia gathering test subjects, performing expiriments, and losing his sanity. He fell to the Great Curse faster than many of his compatriots, and many a Dragon-Blooded died on his discection table, stained forever red with the blood of thousands.
He concluded that a simple ritual would not suffice, he would need a focal peice, an artifact to perform much of it for him. An artifact of power that would allow him to manipulate the exaltations, the power of the Yozi's and even Oblivion itself, fusing these with the shard of exaltation and increasing it's power.
And thus, the Reconstruction Gem was concieved.
--------------------------
Millions of mortals died, hundreds more Dragon-Blooded and a number of Lunars simply dissappeared in the Twilights domain. Questions were asked, but the Twilight's domain was at the edge of the Wyld, it was no surprise if the occasional Behemoth attacked and struck down the Exalted. The Twilight always provided the proper evidence for the Deliberative, leaning on the younger Solar's and diverting their attention.
It took centuries of work, and the sacrifice of millions, but the Twilight finally began to make a breakthrough. It would take a fusion of pure Wyld chaos given form, wrapped around an Oblivion core and weaved with the power of the Yozi's... and all given structure with the blood and souls of mortal and exalted alike.
This would be his focus.
This would be the gem that would allow him (and the rest of the exalted of course, it was certainly also for them, he wouldn't sacrifice so many for selfish reasons!) to fuse the power of Oblivion and the Yozi's with that of the Incarnae and the Exalted, raising the Exalted beyond simple Princes of the Earth, but making them Kings.
It was then that the Usurpation came.
However, that is not where the story ends.
The Twilight survived the first attempt on his life, fleeing the Dragon-Blooded and seeking his home, reaching it faster than could be anticipated. He set up his defenses, activated his many automona, sent out his demon gaurds and his armies... and truly began to work.
Terrified, truly afraid of the death he saw coming, he saw that the only way to put the fool Dragon-Blooded and Sidereals in place was to increase his own power! To become something more than a Solar! For what could mere Terresterials and Sidereals do to a new Primordeal? To a true Neverborn?
He removed all of the safeties he'd been working under, the barely created gem of power needed to be finished soon, whatever the risks to himself. The armies of the Twilight held off the Dragon-Blooded and Sidereals long enough that Calibration came around once more... and the Twilight did what was neccessary to finish the sphere in time.
The Twilight summoned a Third Cicle demon every night of Calibration, binding the greatest of the Crafts Demons to the singular task of creating the Reconstruction Gem, each was in addition to numerous Second Circle demons already working on the project.
He consorted with the Rakshasa and used his own powers over the Wyld in conjuction to rip the purest forms of chaos from beyond Creation.
He used the most powerful Necromancy available to him to rip Oblivion from the Neverborn and Soulsteel of his own manufacture, refining it until the purest Oblivion, no longer tainted with the impurities of Soulsteel, was in his hands.
Only five years later, five years of war outside his gates, each day the fools that dared attempt to usurp his throne pushed closer to his sanctuary, five years of a war of attrition to reach the Twilight... he succeeded.
The Reconstruction Gem was complete.
--------------------
The Twilight did not simply succeed, if only it were that simple.
He crafted a wonder beyond that of any seen before... succeeding beyond his wildest dreams... and yet failing on a fundamental level...
The Twilight thought he merely succeeded, crafting a gem that would allow Solar's to access the power of Oblivion and the Yozi's in addition to the power they already wielded.
But it could do so much more.
The Twilight used the Gem first to fuse the power of Oblivion into his shard, granting him the power of the Neverborn and granting him access to the powers of what would come to be known as the Abyssals. He believed that this death magic would allow him to force back the foolish usurpers barely a mile from his sanctuary.
He was right.
The immense power a multi-millenial Solar, granted access to the power of Oblivion itself, completely devestated the Dragon-Blooded and Sidereals outside his gates, forcing their armies back all on his own. Had the Twilight simply done this every day, the casualties he would have inflicted on the usurpers would have been catastrophic, he may have even survived the Usurpation.
He did not.
Drunk on his own power, he retired to his santuary at the end of the day. If this was the power of merely Sol Invictus and the Neverborn... what would his power be if he also could use the power of the Primordeals? He would be unstoppable! Invincible! He could overthrow heaven itself all on his own and rewrite the world into something where no one could simply over-throw their betters like this!
That night, the Twilight's sanctuary vanished in a blast of power beyond that any had seen since the Primordeal War. A multi-kilo-mote explosion reduced the entire sanctuary and even some of the armies of the usurpers miles away, to mere ash as the Twilight unwittingly discovered a flaw in his design, discovering where he had failed.
The Reconstruction Gem, for all it's power, cannot give any Exaltation more that one extra aspect. A Solar cannot access the power of the Neverborn and that of the Yozi's. It is one, or the other, never both.
The Usurpers fled the area as the Wyld surged in, the defenses against it in that area destroyed in the explosion, however, failsafes in the grid kept the surrounding areas stable, preventing any further Wyld incursion.
And so, the Usurpers assumed that whatever the mad Twilight had done, was either powerful sorcery, a one time thing, or had simply been destroyed in the massive explosion.
They were wrong.
-------------------------
The Reconstruction Gem, by it's very nature, is the single most indestructible thing currently in Creation. Nothing, not even the concerted power of the whole Primordeals and Incarnae working together could even scratch it's smooth surface. It was the cause of the massive explosion, but it was unharmed by it, merely sent flying away into Creation by the force, burried and undiscovered for ages, it's power simply waiting to be used.
When it is discovered, it shall change the playing field of Creation buch like a bulldozer can alter a house. Whomever possesses the Gem will have power unlike what has been seen since the Primordeals themselves... and possibly power even greater than that.
((As for what it actually does, I'll post that after I get out of class))
Many artifacts were created in the First Age, some were mightier than others. The Twilights of the time crafted the greatest weapons and artifacts that had ever been seen, wonders that had never been seen before, and may never be seen again. Artifacts capable of amazing things, altering the very world around them with ease.
But what may have been the greatest artifact crafted by the hands of those First Age artifisans, could very well have been created after the Usurpation.
The Solars had been frustrated by their limited access to Necromancy. Frustrated and angered. Many attempts were made to push those limits just a bit farther.
One Ancient Twilight took a route different from those of his companions.
He had studied with Autochon and Gaia both, spoken with and studied the essence patterns of the Incarnae and his fellow Exalts, and as the pall of the Great Curse fell across the souls of the Exalted, with no being to question him, the Twilight's huberis grew. He became obsessed with accessing the power of the untainted Primodeals and that of the Oblivion, and in his pride and madness, decided that altering the Exaltation itself was the only way to accomplish this.
He was one of those who sought to slaughter the Dragon Kings to discect them and study their souls, unintentionally driving away Autochon not only with this, but his own dabbling into modifying the Exaltations.
In his huberis, he assumed that Autochon was simply unwilling to see his work improved upon.
The Twilight spend millenia gathering test subjects, performing expiriments, and losing his sanity. He fell to the Great Curse faster than many of his compatriots, and many a Dragon-Blooded died on his discection table, stained forever red with the blood of thousands.
He concluded that a simple ritual would not suffice, he would need a focal peice, an artifact to perform much of it for him. An artifact of power that would allow him to manipulate the exaltations, the power of the Yozi's and even Oblivion itself, fusing these with the shard of exaltation and increasing it's power.
And thus, the Reconstruction Gem was concieved.
--------------------------
Millions of mortals died, hundreds more Dragon-Blooded and a number of Lunars simply dissappeared in the Twilights domain. Questions were asked, but the Twilight's domain was at the edge of the Wyld, it was no surprise if the occasional Behemoth attacked and struck down the Exalted. The Twilight always provided the proper evidence for the Deliberative, leaning on the younger Solar's and diverting their attention.
It took centuries of work, and the sacrifice of millions, but the Twilight finally began to make a breakthrough. It would take a fusion of pure Wyld chaos given form, wrapped around an Oblivion core and weaved with the power of the Yozi's... and all given structure with the blood and souls of mortal and exalted alike.
This would be his focus.
This would be the gem that would allow him (and the rest of the exalted of course, it was certainly also for them, he wouldn't sacrifice so many for selfish reasons!) to fuse the power of Oblivion and the Yozi's with that of the Incarnae and the Exalted, raising the Exalted beyond simple Princes of the Earth, but making them Kings.
It was then that the Usurpation came.
However, that is not where the story ends.
The Twilight survived the first attempt on his life, fleeing the Dragon-Blooded and seeking his home, reaching it faster than could be anticipated. He set up his defenses, activated his many automona, sent out his demon gaurds and his armies... and truly began to work.
Terrified, truly afraid of the death he saw coming, he saw that the only way to put the fool Dragon-Blooded and Sidereals in place was to increase his own power! To become something more than a Solar! For what could mere Terresterials and Sidereals do to a new Primordeal? To a true Neverborn?
He removed all of the safeties he'd been working under, the barely created gem of power needed to be finished soon, whatever the risks to himself. The armies of the Twilight held off the Dragon-Blooded and Sidereals long enough that Calibration came around once more... and the Twilight did what was neccessary to finish the sphere in time.
The Twilight summoned a Third Cicle demon every night of Calibration, binding the greatest of the Crafts Demons to the singular task of creating the Reconstruction Gem, each was in addition to numerous Second Circle demons already working on the project.
He consorted with the Rakshasa and used his own powers over the Wyld in conjuction to rip the purest forms of chaos from beyond Creation.
He used the most powerful Necromancy available to him to rip Oblivion from the Neverborn and Soulsteel of his own manufacture, refining it until the purest Oblivion, no longer tainted with the impurities of Soulsteel, was in his hands.
Only five years later, five years of war outside his gates, each day the fools that dared attempt to usurp his throne pushed closer to his sanctuary, five years of a war of attrition to reach the Twilight... he succeeded.
The Reconstruction Gem was complete.
--------------------
The Twilight did not simply succeed, if only it were that simple.
He crafted a wonder beyond that of any seen before... succeeding beyond his wildest dreams... and yet failing on a fundamental level...
The Twilight thought he merely succeeded, crafting a gem that would allow Solar's to access the power of Oblivion and the Yozi's in addition to the power they already wielded.
But it could do so much more.
The Twilight used the Gem first to fuse the power of Oblivion into his shard, granting him the power of the Neverborn and granting him access to the powers of what would come to be known as the Abyssals. He believed that this death magic would allow him to force back the foolish usurpers barely a mile from his sanctuary.
He was right.
The immense power a multi-millenial Solar, granted access to the power of Oblivion itself, completely devestated the Dragon-Blooded and Sidereals outside his gates, forcing their armies back all on his own. Had the Twilight simply done this every day, the casualties he would have inflicted on the usurpers would have been catastrophic, he may have even survived the Usurpation.
He did not.
Drunk on his own power, he retired to his santuary at the end of the day. If this was the power of merely Sol Invictus and the Neverborn... what would his power be if he also could use the power of the Primordeals? He would be unstoppable! Invincible! He could overthrow heaven itself all on his own and rewrite the world into something where no one could simply over-throw their betters like this!
That night, the Twilight's sanctuary vanished in a blast of power beyond that any had seen since the Primordeal War. A multi-kilo-mote explosion reduced the entire sanctuary and even some of the armies of the usurpers miles away, to mere ash as the Twilight unwittingly discovered a flaw in his design, discovering where he had failed.
The Reconstruction Gem, for all it's power, cannot give any Exaltation more that one extra aspect. A Solar cannot access the power of the Neverborn and that of the Yozi's. It is one, or the other, never both.
The Usurpers fled the area as the Wyld surged in, the defenses against it in that area destroyed in the explosion, however, failsafes in the grid kept the surrounding areas stable, preventing any further Wyld incursion.
And so, the Usurpers assumed that whatever the mad Twilight had done, was either powerful sorcery, a one time thing, or had simply been destroyed in the massive explosion.
They were wrong.
-------------------------
The Reconstruction Gem, by it's very nature, is the single most indestructible thing currently in Creation. Nothing, not even the concerted power of the whole Primordeals and Incarnae working together could even scratch it's smooth surface. It was the cause of the massive explosion, but it was unharmed by it, merely sent flying away into Creation by the force, burried and undiscovered for ages, it's power simply waiting to be used.
When it is discovered, it shall change the playing field of Creation buch like a bulldozer can alter a house. Whomever possesses the Gem will have power unlike what has been seen since the Primordeals themselves... and possibly power even greater than that.
((As for what it actually does, I'll post that after I get out of class))
