After the Pulse (stat-based opened 11 June 2012)

First Year After Pulse:

I write this now on the first-year anniversary of seeing the sign of the Ten Gods and their King, the Abyssal Pulse which changed our world. As far as I know, this may be the first written text of our new world. Communication is difficult these days.

I, like many others, saw it shoot across the sky: a black arch, like a rainbow, terrible to look at- it not only sucked in all light, but it too brought all feelings of despair, depression, and hopelessness to the surface of one's soul, and it seemed to stab us through our entire being, yet we were not able to look away. In those few seconds and that eternity it appeared to those who saw it, I assume we could all feel the same thing: it was if our souls were being ripped from our very bodies and devoured by the maw of Death itself, within which we shall suffer in torment for eternity. Regardless of if it were horridly real or a nothing more than a fictitious account, with the Fates we pray to being the latter of those options- a merely imagined experienced- it is indeed true our world lost all memory of itself. Not only myself, but all others: there are no written records of our past and there are none that remember. The Abyssal Pulse wiped out our sense of self and our world. We are no longer what we once were. There is nothing left.

Ah- slight correction; my assistant has reminded me now of this most unusual occurrence: one that seems as if it were so common and ordinary now, I cannot help but wonder if it were as common in the world before the Pulse? A daily event, six months from the Pulse in continuation, every night when those still living upon this planet would dream- I cannot say the same for the dead- our vision would flash to those we now refer to as the Ten Gods and their King. They sleep in coffins, in a circle, eight of them, each coffin made of a different element. I myself remember it so vividly I can recite them, clockwise, in a row, their names that I know but do not know how and their respective elements of power. At the top, there was Hellfyre, asleep in the flames; then, continuing to the right, we had Yuki of Ice, Liuna of Earth, Zefaq of Lightning, Glaive of Air, Dasa of Metal, Lillyetta of Nature, and Lorelei of Water. In the center were Ishiki of Light and Amaya of Dark. Standing above them, floating as if watching over his children, stood the King, he that rules the Gods: Asmodeous Ourouborus; the Endless Circle. A man so fierce he looked as though he may have been the Pulse himself. Every night, for six months, the Ten Gods would appear, and then Asmodeous, as he looked us straight in the eye, and he asked us, like a father begging us to save his children, "Will you wake the Ten Gods?" To hear his voice was both to be great evil and to fear it; his voice was that of all that is ourselves. Within him, we are both strong and weak.

Six months ago, these nightly terrors and yet blessings stopped. Six months today. A great outcry appeared at the time of disappearance; riots arose as if people hurting each other could bring back the voice of the King, and men and women alike suddenly seemed to gain great ambition, seeking to carve out kingdoms, starting wars, killing hundreds, as if the only thing that held them back were the Ten Gods and their King. A religious order known as the Dragon has started based around the Ten and their King, both seeking to teach the blessings and knowledge they claim to have obtained from these dreams, and yet at the same time I cannot help but feel some of their unusual activities are aimed at finding traces of their existence. Men who claim to be of science have started to study this world, to try and understand what happened and why; the Dragon is oft at war with them, claiming that seeking knowledge as they do is why the King has left us. Others, like myself, are merely trying to eke out a living and survive this new world. A man I have known for the past year has left today, suddenly deciding he wishes to find the Ten and their King. I fear the Dragon had gotten to him, and told him this, but he persistently denied this. His final words to me were:

"Gods do not exist; therefore, the Ten must be demons such as ourselves, although perhaps far stronger than anything this world has ever seen. If the King is dead, then whoever shall wake his children shall obtain the new world. I don't know yet if I'm setting out to control them for my own gain or if I'm setting out to stop others from awakening and using the Ten themselves. I'll find out along the way. But if I accomplish nothing? At least I shall have myself a time and an adventure."


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