The History of The Eternal War

As told by Nolan of the Temple of Creation

We know the day. We know the year. We know exactly how long it has been since the Eternal reigned. More than five thousand years ago, before the King and his new kingdom, before the Council of Shapers and their long rule, there was the Eternal.
     Where she came from is legend. Her reign stretched as many years as it has been since her fall, for she could not die. She was the undisputed, unquestioned ruler of the world. Every nation bowed to her, every Shaper served her, and every man, woman, and child worshiped her. She was a woman of startling beauty, so that all who looked on her loved her. It was a good thing, because they had no choice. She ruled the world with an iron fist, and she was unafraid of enforcing the laws, her laws, to their fullest extent.
     The reign of the Eternal was a glorious time for humanity. Her capital, Isa, was the wonder of the world. The city was staggering in size. Homes wrought of such size that they would make the palace look like a hovel, walls so high the clouds graced their tops, the city was crafted of shining, polished stone. Under the Eternal's rule, we made the Ways, connecting the world and all of its people. The land was reformed, the continents brought together. Shapers dedicated their lives, hundreds of years, to remaking the land in the image of the Eternal's vision. Art and writing and medicine flourished. There was no war, no famine, no strife. Everyone who opposed her was crushed. Every family that raised their voices disappeared. Even kings guarded their tongues and their thoughts, lest their rule be short.
     For the Eternal had the greatest of advantages. She could look into the past, the present, and the future. The Eternal was the Master of Time.
     She had the power to stop the flow of time in its tracks, even to reverse the events of the recent present. The Eternal could read the possible futures and change the course of history. She knew the thoughts of her opponents before they had them. She knew who would betray her, when, and how. With this power, she ended all opposition before it could begin.
     For five thousand years, the Eternal's reign was gracious and benevolent. The world flourished, and the people loved her. Whenever she left Isa, parades followed, the multitudes groveling before the ancient queen. No one with a prayer of opposing her existed, and no one left alive cared to.
     But there are consequences to a life that lasts so long. No human was meant to live so many years. After five thousand years of rule, the Eternal stopped leaving Isa. She stopped leaving her mighty palace. She stopped leaving even the throne. She grew distracted. Her eyes looked far into the distance, and her attention focused less and less on the world outside her throne room. Some believe that her mind snapped, having been alive for so much longer than human beings are meant to live. Others believe that she lost her way looking into the past or the future. In any case, she drifted away from the present.
     A hundred years into her distraction, the Eternal’s soldiers chased a young thief as he ran through the streets of Isa. They believed he had stolen a ring from a wealthy woman of the city. The men, having been the sole source of law for thousands of years, were arrogant and cruel. The soldiers executed the boy even as they caught him, for thieving was not tolerated in those days. But the boy had stolen back his own property. He had given a girl a token of his favor and took it back when she was unfaithful to him. In her spite, she had called on the Queen’s soldiers. That boy was Fenril, the son of Eterian, the Shaper of Earth and Vengeance of the Eternal.
     When Eterian returned from a long journey and discovered his son slain, the earth bucked so powerfully as to shake the very walls of mighty Isa. He stormed into the throne room and demanded justice for his son. He shouted. He raged. Anger and pain shattered his voice. But the Eternal never saw him, her eyes far away. He begged her, there on his knees before the throne, but she never acknowledged his presence. After two long days, he left.
     Eterian believed her mind broken. His rage and sorrow drove him to speak out against the Eternal. For the first time in her long reign, she did not respond to an opponent's words. She did not see them coming. The Vengeance of the Eternal was a respected and feared position: he was her justice. He carried out her will as a judge, and as assassin when called upon. He had been at her side for many centuries.
     Though most people loved the Eternal and ignored Eterian’s words, others began to listen; those whose ancestors had been rounded up and executed in advance of crimes they would never get the chance to commit, those who wished for power or a kingdom of their own outside her domineering rule, even those who just wanted chaos to descend upon the world.
     The first army since the beginning of the Eternal's rule was raised in Donir. None of the people had the faintest idea how to be soldiers, nor what war really entailed. The first army was made up of a mob of farmers, craftsman, laborers, and, yes, bakers. They picked up hammers and pitchforks, standing behind Eterian as they marched down from Donir towards Isa. A contingent of the Eternal’s Immortals met them on the Bridge of the East, led by Genos, the Shaper of Wind. When asked to lay down their weapons, Eterian responded that they wanted to speak with the Eternal. They just wanted her to listen.
     In response, the Immortals attacked.
     Eterian fought against Genos, Shaper against Shaper, for the first time in millenia. While they fought, the Immortals fell on Eterian's civilian army and slaughtered them. They never stood a chance. The elite troops of the Eternal were merciless to those they viewed as traitors. Lightly armed and unarmored, they died in droves. Eventually, Eterian managed to kill Genos, sacrificing himself in the process, and their battle shattered the mighty Bridge of the East and cut Donir off from Isa.
     The people of Donir rose as one in anger and righteous fury. The Bridge's destruction allowed them time to build, to train, and to simmer in their anger. Word spread. Shapers, friends of Eterian and angry over the death of so many innocents, joined the cause. While the Eternal's armies marched across the Bridge of the West along the Ways through ancient Canto, now Coin, the Donirians prepared. By the time the Immortals started across the Bridge of the North, the Donirians were ready. Though still not up to the level of their foes, who had been raised to fight from birth, the Donirians outnumbered the soldiers more than ten to one. Shapers fought on both sides, names that still echo down through history. Jendo the Mind Razor. Kelion the Crashing Wave. And the most well-known of all: Sherrine, the Breaker.
     For a hundred years, the war raged across all the land, and no city was spared. By the time the final battle was joined before the gates of Isa, less than half of the population of the world survived. The siege of Isa lasted for two decades. Shapers died on either side, the inheritors of their power raised on war and thrown into the fray. At long last, Sherrine was born. She was the Master of Stone, one of the most powerful to have ever lived. She knelt before the gates of Isa for three days. The defenders looked on, glad for the respite and resting as Sherrine seemed to pray. In reality, she was Shaping.
     The walls of Isa stood for five thousand years of history and two decades of constant war. The Breaking took a single day. The walls fell inward, the massive slabs crushing and decimating thousands of innocents inside. In the effort, Sherrine herself perished, the explosion of power upon her death breaking what was left of the southern continent. When the world finally took another shuddering breath, Isa was gone, and the Eternal along with it.
     Or so the people thought.
     Over the next few years, all of the people looked for the rise of a new Shaper of Time. They were terrified of a new Eternal rising. Every baby was tested, every child examined endlessly. The entire world came together to search, trying to avoid history's repeating. After a generation, people started to question. After a hundred years, people started to forget. After a thousand, the Shaper of Time became a legend, a myth to scare children. But the Temple has the records. The Eternal existed. And there is only one explanation: she still lives.