By the way, because of the inherent magic of the ink bookbinders use for books, when the author adds to it, every copy will transform to include these additions.

With each city and commune having a copy of the volume, they should periodically check it to see if the Scribe of the Elders has added anything more (assuming there's someone around who's available to read it).

Awesome. (And if you're going to fix the creches thing can you fix the version I copied into the Serenwilde post so I don't look stupid? )

Lord Lacostian came back? i thought he left about 3 months ago and never came back. that is good.

"The History of the Elder Wars", By the Scribe of the Elders (Page 3)
                          THE BOOK OF TRILLILLIAL

I awoke to another perfectly beautiful day among many such perfect days.
Had I known it would be the last such perfect day I would ever know,
perhaps I would have cherished it more, imprinted it harder upon my
memory, savored each sweet breath and each happy laugh more deeply. Such
was not the case, of course, it never is.

The day started gloriously. I soared on a strong current of air,
enjoying the feel of its brisk chill under my wings, listening to the
infant Spirit of the Sun, just newly awakened by the Sixth Circle, sing
out joyously as the day dawned. I laughed out loud as the older Spirits
of Night and Moon teased the newborn spirit as they ran away from the
break of day.

Bold reds and bright oranges flared across the horizon, which I
immediately recognized the work of my sister Isune. I reached out with
my power and sent clouds rolling across the jagged mountain range,
painting the sunrise with soft magentas and streaks of yellow. The

Spirit of the Sun cried out merrily at the colours that swirled around
him, and I tickled him with shafts of pink rays.

Then, there was Isune before me, her shimmering wings spread behind her
and her eyes sparkling with many colours. We clasped hands and spun
around in the air, letting our wings whip around behind us. Who would
have thought these days would ever end?

"Pink!" laughed Isune. "Oh, sister, that was grand! Let us paint the
mountains pink!"

"Or pink and purple!" I said as we drifted lazily in the air. "But let
us wait until the setting of Sun."

"Are you off to see, Xyl?" she asked me.

"Of course I am! Today we build another spire."

"You love him, yes? What an odd match you two make! He seems so cold to
me."

"It is our weakness, sister, to love those who are silent and wise!" I
laughed. "Do you not still pine for Lacostian?"

She pushed me away and we both giggled like newborn spirits ourselves.
Then, after promising to meet to paint the sunrise, Isune flew off and I
made my way to the House of Xyl. Yes, I loved him dearly, though it is
true he showed little of his emotions. Indeed, his skin is crystal
itself, unable to smile or frown, laugh or cry, only the ever changing
lambent colours revealing his emotional state. But he has a sense of
harmonic beauty and aesthetics that is beyond any I have ever known.
What I had always wondered is what does he see in me. I know my thoughts
are not as deep as his, nor my curiosity as intense. So why does he love
one who spends her days painting dawns and dusks with her sister while
he ponders the unfathomable? I thought then that I would ask him to add
that mystery to his list of multiversal mysteries!

So it was with that pleasing thought that I drifted down to House of
Xyl, which was perched atop the highest mountain peak within the Basin.
Admiring the play of light and color upon the crystal dome, surrounded
by crystal spires arranged symmetrically around it, I landed near the
entrance and paused to enjoy its beauty. Xyl had once told me that this
mountain held a fulcrux of the concordant energies within Lusternia
itself.

I sang out Xyl's name, letting my voice vibrate through the crystal
spires. When Xyl didn't answer me, I wasn't alarmed, knowing that he
often lost himself deep within his contemplations. Humming to myself, I
went in search of Xyl, finally finding him in the observatory studying
the images of the cosmos that flickered upon the dome above.

"Did you see my sunrise, Xyl?" I asked, walking up behind him and
running the feathers of my wings across his back and shoulders. "I used
pink! Isune thought it was very funny."

"I apologize, beautiful Trillillial," he said, finally turning around
and putting a cool hand against my cheek. "I missed your sunrise. There
is something I have found, which must be studied more."

"But we were going to build another crystal spire! I have picked out a

lovely rainbow quartz . . ."

"No," said Xyl, cutting me off. "No. This cannot wait. I may even need
to call a conclave of the Fifth Circle. I apologize."

Normally, I would insist that he take a break from his workings, but
there was something about him that made me pull back. His crystal eyes
were a dull malachite rather than their normal clear emerald. I had
never seen him in such a mood.

"Ah, my sparkling hero!" I said, trying to lighten his mood somewhat.
"You want to simply gather the Fifth Circle to spend your time solving
equations and debating the meaning of the color red!"

"Perhaps," he said, his cheek glowing like rose quartz. "But, my
Trillillial, you must trust that this is important. Truly, I need to
study this some more."

I followed Xyl's gaze up to the swirling stars upon the dome. He was
gazing up at one section among the dimensional rifts, which was darker
than the rest. Not knowing why, my feathers bristled with a premonitory
chill and a foreboding pressure built up behind my eyes.

Shivering, I turned away and told Xyl I'd wait for him in his library.
I'm not sure if he answered me or not, for I flew hastily out of the
observatory, suddenly not wanting to be there.

The Library of Xyl was located atop the northern most amethyst spire,
and the room itself cut in a hexagonal shape. Knowledge crystals floated
in pleasing helix patterns that Xyl devised to categorize the crystals.
I wandered along the glittering columns of spinning gems, touching
several that I passed, feeling the slight warmth as they flared at my
touch and released a summary of what knowledge they contained. Browsing
through subjects that held little interest to me, like treatises on
universal cosmic laws, I finally settled on the knowledge gems that
contained the histories of the forming of the Circles.

Plucking a floating gem out from the helix of early histories, I let it
rest in my palm and closed my eyes, willing its knowledge to unfold in
my mind's eye. It revealed the history of the forming of the Circles.

                              ~oOo~

THE FIRST CIRCLE

The gods first manifested within a bubble of cosmic reality (also known
as creches and later sometimes referred to as the cosmic planes). It is
common knowledge that Dynara first produced lesser beings within these
creches, which she sometimes referred to as divine templates. Once
perfected, she set to incubating the nascent beings who would evolve
into the gods. For reasons known only to Dynara, the beings within a
creche often developed in similar patterns, with one god being the
dominant or leader of his or her siblings.

Following the disappearance of Dynara and the Great Silence that
followed, some gods were driven mad, so used were they to hear her
cosmic song. Some returned to their creches, the dimensional pockets
where they were born. Some spun out into the Void, searching for
something that could never be found. But, finally, most made our way to
the First World.

Gathering in Lusternia, there was great conflict among the Elder Gods.
It was immediately recognized that a hierarchy must be established in
order to avoid clashes and power struggles between the dominant ones
among us. Thus, the First Circle was formed, which was a council of the
natural born leaders (occasionally referred to as the alpha gods). They,
in turn, orchestrated the formation of the other circles.

The First Circle mediated conflicts and were the diplomats that
transversed to the outer spheres to investigate the creches that
contained divine not fully manifested. It was apparent that without
Dynara to finish their creation, these nascent beings would never be
complete, never be fulfilled, at least insofar as the gods were
complete. They were often referred to as the half-formed, and it was the
half-formed who first began calling the gods who came to them as the
Elders, and later the Elder Gods.

THE SECOND CIRCLE

Another common manifestation among creche siblings was that one or two
in each group often rose to become natural warriors. More aggressive
than his or her siblings, the warrior divine were usually extremely
close to the leaders of their creches and felt themselves to be the
protectors of their siblings.

These warriors formed the Second Circle, which perhaps held the largest
number of Elder Gods, as many were drawn to adventure, conflict and
battle. And there were many battles in the early days. Those half-formed
who broke out from their creches, and outside of their natural
environment, they'd almost invariably become insane, ravaging everything
in their path. Thus, the Second Circle protected Lusternia from their
incursion, driving them off or hunting them down in the outskirts of
space and dimension. Crazed half-formeds were not the only threat the
Second Circle fought. Sometimes, destructive creatures or forces were
found wandering the Void, and sometimes even some of our own number who
were driven insane by the Great Silence.

THE THIRD CIRCLE

Before the coming of the Son of Yudhe, the divine that Dynara first
created were referred to as the Primal Gods. Very few of these divine
were permitted to live, but those that did were the ancient ones among
the gods. The Primal Gods referred to the rest of the divine as "Star
Gods" because we were 'star-shaped' (a head, two arms and two legs). It
is curious that this "Law of Five" can be seen in many of Dynara's later
creations, and it was the favorite form in which she herself took.

In any event, those few Primal Gods left had little interest in
interacting with the 'Star Gods', and spent most of their time in deep
contemplation and meditation, sinking down into a deep sleep, letting
their consciousness ride the eddies and currents of wherever their
thoughts carried them, sometimes for centuries at a time. They were
called the Third Circle, also known as the Meditators.

Several younger gods also chose the path of the Third Circle. Notably,
Lacostian went into a deep meditation, merging his consciousness with
the logosphere of Lusternia, the flickering sentience of the First World
itself, gathering what he called the Akashic Records.

THE FOURTH CIRCLE

The Fourth Circle were the artists, the muses, and makers of songs.
Again, many creches had several natural artists, and a very few creches
seemed to have been borne entirely of artists. Using the First World as
their canvas, the divine artists pleasured themselves by creating
riverbeds and sunsets, playing with shape and form, light and shadow.
They gave flowers their colors, painting their essence deep and true,
pinks and blues, yellows and reds, soft shades and bright. Many of the
Fourth Circle lost themselves among the tulips, zinnias, snapdragons,
daisies and honeysuckle rose. Some swept the beaches with white sand,
which sparkled in the sunlight or the starshine. The birds that were
later created by the Seventh Circle, were often favorites of the artist
gods, who designed feathered plumes and painted eggs from speckled brown
and blue to bright pinks and yellows. Some of the Fourth Circle spent
their time changing the geography of Lusternia itself, smoothing hills
until they rolled like green waves, raising islands along the coasts,
and scattering ponds and lakes and lagoons throughout the land. Still
other of the artist gods did not but create music, which was carried
upon the winds, sweet chimes and sounds from exotic instruments echoed
out from their bright crystal caverns.

These were the Fourth Circle, the artists, who were truly the most
carefree and happy of the gods.

THE FIFTH CIRCLE

The Fifth Circle focused upon sharpening their minds to razor keenness
in order to study the mysteries around them. They spent many days and
seasons and years simply contemplating the layers of reality, studying
universal laws that bound and bent even the gods. There was no mystery
they did not study, and their minds became mazes of cognition, enigmas
unto themselves. Nothing brought those in the Fifth Circle greater joy
than stripping away the veils of reality, layered like an onion,
discovering dimensions hidden in the sheaths of probabilities. Often,
these intellectual gods would create complex games of thought and
strategy, luck and will, that they would play among themselves,
reflecting the puzzles of reality they thought to understand.

The Fifth Circle were the Truthseekers. They hunted with no less vigor
than the warriors of the Second Circle--only their weapons were thought
and logic, and their prey were the mysteries and paradoxes left in the
wake of the Great Silence.

THE SIXTH CIRCLE

It was said that the gods who were most touched by the Son of Yudhe had
a deep desire to create life. These gods followed one of two paths. The
first path was that of the Sixth Circle, called the Awakeners. Within
each majestic creation of Dynara, from the Sun and Moon, to the Trees
and Lakes, to the Night itself, these paradigms of Dynara's very essence
were latent with pure spirit. Those of the Sixth Circle sang to those
potential, sleeping spirits within these creations. Through the aeons,
presences began to awaken, and these were called the Great Spirits.

Thus, the Sixth Circle created the Great Spirits of Lusternia, though
they were not like themselves, not like the gods and goddesses that were
created by Dynara. In this the Sixth Circle failed, for they could not
create kindred beings to themselves. Still, the Sixth Circle loved them
and guided them, and they would forever be their greatest creations.

THE SEVENTH CIRCLE

The Seventh Circle were the true Creators. Instead of awakening the
potential of the paradigms, the Seventh Circle created life itself from
the aethers. They populated the oceans with fish, the skies with birds,
and the lands with creatures. But no matter what they created, no matter
how much they labored, there was no soul within the bodies of their
creations.

However, as the aeons passed, certain of their creatures who survived
and thrived and multiplied, developed what the Fifth Circle called a
"hive soul", wherein the sum of all the sparks of life within a
particular group was greater than the individual creatures. A sentience
arose within these species, also called Great Spirits, which were able
to physically manifest and think and communicate with their creators.

Though the collective spirits that rose from certain animals created by
the Seventh Circle were their highest and greatest triumphs, still they
fell far short of the souls of the gods themselves.

Thus, the Sixth Circle and the Seventh Circle shared jointly the
manifestation of the two types of Great Spirits--the Awakeners guiding
the ephemeral spirits to sentience and the Creators creating the animals
who formed collective spirits. Because of this, these two circles were
closer than that found among the other circles.


                                ~oOo~

I clasped the remembrance crystal to my breast and smiled to recall how
the Divine Circles were formed. What a time it was when the First Circle
hadn't been formed, when we thought they'd fight each other for
position. Who was it that formed the first alliance that would grow to
be the First Circle? Was it Fain? Meridian? Allinvia?

As I placed the remembrance crystal back in its swirling helix, I felt
Xyl's cool hand upon my shoulder. I turned to him and placed my hand
upon his chest, making his throat glow softly amber. But his eyes were
still darkly malachite. He gently caressed the tips of my wings with a
finger.

"I must call the Fifth Circle together," he said.

"What is it you have found?" I asked.

"Something is coming to us, something disturbing..." he began but then
paused, shaking his head. "It may be nothing, but I want ... I need the
opinions of the entire Fifth Circle."

"It will be some time before they gather. Let us start building another
crystal spire. Did I tell you I have some lovely rainbow quartz?"

"You know I cannot. Not now," said Xyl. "Go to Isune and paint your
sunset"

Another dark premonition made me shiver, and I wrapped my wings around
both of us. I begged him to put aside calling the Fifth Circle for just
one day. I told him that I feared if we didn't have this final time
together, we would never have another. But he gently disentangled
himself from my wings and pushed me away.

"We shall create a spire another day, my Trillillial," Xyl said. "I
promise you. And then we shall build another and another until the end
of time."

"And I promise that each spire will be more harmonious and beautiful
than the last," I said. "Together our spires will become a crystal city
that will shine like a beacon of our love!"

Alas, neither promise would be kept.

Actually we've had that part for a bit now. I just hadn't bothered to post it. So, no ninja'ing for the Shiribot. 

On the Story.
For the Story.

Does that mean you like the story?

Unfortunately, the Elder Wars history is obviously not going to provoke the same type of anticipation that we got when we first released the Empire Histories a chapter a week (for those of you who were around for the old MSN group pre-Lusternia), because everyone probably can figure out how the story ends more or less.

Nevertheless, there may be a few twists and turns!

Does that mean you like the story?

Unfortunately, the Elder Wars history is obviously not going to provoke the same type of anticipation that we got when we first released the Empire Histories a chapter a week (for those of you who were around for the old MSN group pre-Lusternia), because everyone probably can figure out how the story ends more or less.

Nevertheless, there may be a few twists and turns!

Does that mean you like the story?

Unfortunately, the Elder Wars history is obviously not going to provoke the same type of anticipation that we got when we first released the Empire Histories a chapter a week (for those of you who were around for the old MSN group pre-Lusternia), because everyone probably can figure out how the story ends more or less.

Nevertheless, there may be a few twists and turns!

Hah, I know! But I told Gerald on IRC when we got our bit, and then you checked after that. So yes, I did ninja you.

EDIT: And Jitwix - the first page is contents.