Universal Lore- Part 2, The Realms Of Death(The Realm Of Endless White & The Realm Of Skybeasts)

Universal Lore- Part 2, The Realms of Death(The Realm of Endless White & The Realm of Skybeasts)

When observing the order of realms in this existence, it is fair to say that the High Realms are roughly in the same level as The Realm of Endless White, but most denizens of either will never encounter the other.

This realm is, as it is aptly named, pure white. There is no civilization there, and when first entering it may seem that there is simply nothing there at all. It is simply a realm of expansive ground that has no variation in topography- but there is "life", or rather the remnants of life.

To explain the Realm of Endless White, you must first know of the Realm of Skybeasts, where all dead from the Lower Planes must pass through first before they reach the White.

Whether they have sinned or were gracious in life, or were mere children or elderly before their deaths, all life of the Lower Planes is sent here and enters through a doorway known as Telvorshei Ermelorisk, or "From Where We Emerged". No living being*¹ has ever crossed through this entryway or has gazed through it to describe its appearance- but for those nearing death and those who have already died, on both ways there is only a white light within the doorway. High Realms races are unaware of the existence of this realm and none have ever entered it*².

The doorway is located in a fixed spot within the Realm of Skybeasts, but whether the entry into a realm of death is a peaceful or horrifying ordeal is a matter of your own luck. As anyone who has died would quickly find out, the Realm of Skybeasts, also known as The Plateau, is filled with strange beasts known as skybeasts, and the vast majority of them are incredibly aggressive and possess a great many ways to kill a soul, including various venoms, spikes, and teeth.

If a soul did not get mauled by a skybeast as soon as they emerged, they will very quickly also realize that in contrast with the inviting clouds that create the ground of the realm, there are a great many eyes that dot the sky in all sorts of colours and forms that a mortal never would've thought existed. On a calm period, these eyes are inactive and appear to not be present(thought if you look closely they are closed). On an active period, they will randomly emit blasts of energy that can disintegrate any soul they land on. In the distance there is also a giant gaping maw that opens during these active periods and vacuums up souls that happen to be near it.

If you manage to survive this and travel in any direction away from the maw, you will come across rudimentary shelters and outposts surrounded by fences made of various Skybeast parts.

These are the only major signs of civilization and a souls' best chance of making it to the Realm of Endless White.

The outposts are roughly the size of a town and they have very simplistic names, with the inhabitants are a mix of races from across the Lower Planes. There is no major language barrier as souls appear knowing a common language along with whatever is their native tongue, but abstract ideas that are unique to specific worlds are not automatically learned by souls from worlds without them.

As for the condition of the people and whether or not they can die, people who die at the age of adulthood for their kind will appear in the Plateau at their peak strength in life and with whatever they had on their person when they died(if they were stabbed or shot they carry the thing that was stuck into them too), but are incapable of learning new spells from other souls. Children and adolescents will appear at the age they died but will be able to grow up to the age their species considers as mature and can learn new spells. The only ways to permanently die in the realm are to be consumed by the maw, be completely eaten by a skybeast, or be blasted into smithereens by the Eyes. Souls that suffer a temporary death may slowly regenerate if a part of them remains or will reappear at Telvorshei Ermelorisk.

Life in these settlements is considered somewhat tribal, with the main concerns being food(appetites are significantly slower than in life), shelter, hunting and resource gathering, and weapon crafting. Some settlements that are close to each other will choose to specialize in weapon crafting, some in building, and some in medicine. Souls that are known to have a violent nature that cannot be persuaded to become skybeast hunters are kicked out of the settlements and left to fend for themselves.

Banditry does exist in the Plateau but is rare as some settlements may have domesticated the more tame skybeasts. Whether or not a settlement is raided also depends on the actual species(plural) in the settlement and what kind of technology the people have, so a bandit group composed of species without magic would not try to go against a settlement composed of species with magic or with technology sufficient enough to compensate for a lack of magic.

Now, the Plateau does have a sort of leadership, albeit very distant from the regular souls.

The beings are not of any race among the souls of the Plateau, so souls that have encountered them before(and have the concept of divinity on their world) view them as strange gods. Those from races without the concept of divinity have two different views, one being that they are of a long extinct race and have evolved after spending many uncountable years in the Plateau, and the second that they are actually native to the Plateau but evolved to become more intelligent than the skybeasts.

The leaders themselves are known as the 7 Elders by souls and are split into two groups: The Supreme Ones and The Fragments.

From what little souls have heard about them, their names have the prefix "The Elder of" and are something akin to Many Eyes, Many Arms, Many Legs, Fragmented Life, Fragmented Death, Fragmented Time, and Fragmented Space. The maw in the land and the eyes in the sky are part of what used to be an 8th Elder known as Many Mouths, according to souls that have been in the realm from the first few thousand deaths in existence. Now, the 8th is known as The Devourer of the Plateau.

The Elders live in a very out of place citadel with geometric patterning and a large central chamber that few have ever seen, and it is generally accepted that the Elders are strange in that they have never left the Plateau.

Souls are able to leave the Plateau whenever they hit a kill quota of skybeasts, and this number tends to be higher for those that have committed something their society considers to be negative and lower for younger souls that couldn't actually commit anything considered a crime, but it isn't uncommon for souls to have quotas that are unreasonable for what they have done in life.

The Elders, though, have been present for as long as anyone knows, unable to pass on or perhaps unwilling, as the Devourer has consumed some trillions of skybeasts but has yet to disappear.

And so the focus must return to the Realm of Endless White, also known as The White or The Expanse, to complete this description.

When a soul has reached their kill quota in the Plateau, they will appear in The White in simple garb considered to be casual or sleepwear from the species they came from. In The White there is no need to eat or sleep, only to just exist. Desires such as lust or greed do not exist, and so the personalities of the souls that make it there are very watered down. Some souls choose to lay down and sleep until the end of everything, and some others choose to travel around and learn of the many races in existence with there being no skybeasts to fear anymore.

Curiously, some Altersaeans, Spaelculans, and Tilemgians have appeared in this realm before, but not many of them.

Now, the only way to permanently kill a High Realms being is to slay them in their home realm under specific circumstances and methods, which will lead to two outcomes for them: one is two simply cease to exist, the other is to appear in The White. Due to The Tearing, there are a fair amount of Tilemgians there, but all the High Realms races that appear will lose their connection to their creators and thus their abilities, with some also facing severe memory loss.

Voiskanans are believed to also follow these outcomes, however what few Voiskanans that are seen to make it to The White only maintain their existence for a few seconds before fading into nothingness, as their souls will always be incomplete and thus return to their origins.

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¹- The most immediately noticeable case is with Yūregian undead, which are technically not alive but also aren't fully dead. A Yūregian necromancer can raise a body if it's intact enough, but on the soul end, the closer a Yūregian soul gets to reaching the quota, the harder it is to raise them into undeath. If the soul manages to meet the quota, they can no longer be raised as The White fully severs the connection between the Lower Planes and Realms of Death. However, this almost never happens as necromancers are fast acting enough to prevent a soul from being in the Plateau for more than a week. As to whether the necromancers know of the Plateau, the memories of it are wiped from the undead individual and are restored temporarily each time they return to it.

²- Tilemgians may become the first exception to this as they are now semi-mortal after the Tearing of Boriasonde, so it's possible that a few that don't end up ceasing to exist after death will end up in the Plateau. Alternatively, the descendant races of them that are scattered throughout existence could reach total mortality close enough that at some point they'd be admitted to the realm as any other mortal race would.

There will be a short story posted at some point that will explain the origins of the Elders, so look out for it! This post will be linked to it too.

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Universal Lore- Part 3, The Mortal Realms(The Lower Planes & The Lesser Realms)

A Cycle consists of the beginning and end of an Existence and the nothingness before and after. An Existence consists of the universes and realms that are born and die within it.

This Existence was born with the gleaming light which pierced through nothingness, with that light having brought forth the flow of time as a seemingly endless stream of sand, the tapestry of strings that formed the expanses of space, and the possibility through alternatives that allowed the creation of new branches on the tree of universes. But of course, you've heard the whole story by now.

In that light was a force of creation that stretched throughout all the universes of existence, swathes of iridescent cosmic gas that quickly formed the first stars and planets.

To the beings that lived and remembered many previous Existences, this all came at what felt like the blink of an eye, and this plane that would belong to true life would become known as the Lower Planes.

What distinguishes the mortals from the denizens of the High Realms is what eternity is to them. To mortals, their lives are finite but what comes after is infinite- they have souls that can pass on to somewhere beyond the reach of the High Realms, an existence where there is no end other than when they feel it should end. To immortals, their lives seem infinite but what comes after is nothingness- they lack souls, with their options being to reform back in their home realm and toil once more or cease to exist; an existence where the end dictated to them is the one of all nonliving things.

Those of the High Realms lack a concept of a soul, and most do not understand what one is, save for Nix- but even he does not fully understand the origins of souls and thus can only create imitations of them, false lives that are unstable and lack a true free will.

In the Lower Planes are countless souls of civilizations and species that once or will or do exist, and thus with souls comes a force called "potential". This "potential" gives them the ability to evolve, and some by slim chance become more than mortal, but less than immortal. These evolved beings may have been created through manual evolution, magic, technology, or a fusion with elementals(should the world have them), and some are born through pure chance, but these beings often have the ability to faintly see the threads of Space.

Through these threads do they slip into a space in-between, above the Lower Planes but below the Realms of Death, and here can they thread their own strings into the grand tapestry of existence and create Lesser Realms.

These Lesser Realms are only able to be created in relation to a place in the Lower Planes, such as a city above the clouds or a mirror of the environment reflected by a lake, but some more powerful beings may create a Lesser Realm bound to a unique concept or state of conscious, such as a realm of dreams or a realm that is only accessible to those that understand a fundamental concept of a belief.

As such, some species may consider these evolved beings to be "gods", or at the very least an embodiment of some aspect of their world or civilization.

Lesser Realms are often inaccessible to High Realms beings, but if the location one is bound to or if the concept it relates to is fathomed or influenced by a High Realms being, the Realm can be subject to the influence of a force of creation, such as corruption from the Abyss' nothingness.

These realms can persist after the evolved being dies so long as they willed it, but when they die, the Realm begins to unfurl its "strings", and thus can be destroyed by another evolved being that comes across it.

In the grand Order of this Existence, the High Realms house both outsiders and creators, the clockmaker watching the clock and only reaching down to repair cogs and gears-

To the Lower Realms, the face of the clock is all they perceive, and every atom that composes the face is another world and civilization.

The hands move because Fate dictates as such, and the numbers that are raised above the clock face can observe the space above the face and the movement of the hands.

These numbers are the evolved beings, and with their differing perspective on their place in existence, they may alter the face of the clock ever so slightly to leave a scratch or dent that can slip past the eye of the Creator.

These dents are the Lesser Realms, a miniscule puncture on the grand tapestry of Space, and the way for mortals to alter Creation's truths akin to ants on an endless field.

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Universal Lore- Part 4, The Elemental Planes

All life has the drive to evolve, whether they know it or not. Some are fated to lose the race of genetic and intellectual superiority, some never achieve the creation of civilization, and it is debatable whether or not some will ever even achieve sentience.

Some beings are beyond evolution in the High Realms they isolate themselves in, beings that perceive themselves as the closest to the ideal of perfection and thus are stagnant so long as they believe so.

Some beings are the purest form of evolution, elemental beings that can alter the shape and thought of life through assimilation but could be mistaken as mindless to those that fail to understand a simple truth: the purest defiance of fate is evolution.

If the High Realms represent the driving hand of fate, the Elemental Planes represent the breathing will of life.

These elementals, of course, have their own realm, or rather level of existence, that they are born in- physically it is beneath the Lower Realms, but is as deeply intertwined to the other's existence as are the High Realms and Lower Planes, and is (if anything) closer to mortals than High Realms beings are.

The purest of elements are Stellar, Flame, Air, Earth- the first elements that drive evolution before water and nature come forth, and thus these elements are the ones that make up each sector of the planes where the first elementals came.

The planes form as a vast cave system would, the four largest chambers each holding an elemental core, and from these cores do the energies coalesce and birth new elementals into the current Existence.

The elementals, though beings of pure energy, are unstable lifeforms in their first century of existence, and there is a high chance for their forms to separate into core and body.

The body is capable of developing its own core through the energy created by the division, and so it becomes a physical elemental. The core does not develop its own body, but in exchange gains greater intelligence, and so it becomes an ethereal elemental. On occasion, one half may not become an elemental at all and collapses back to a basic energy state that lacks consciousness. Some elements are more prone to splitting compared to others, and some may only form as a specific type by default.

Air is closest to the ideal of formless freedom, and thus they may only become ethereal elementals.

Stars are second closest to the ideal of steadfast perpetuity, and thus they may become both physical and ethereal but have a greater tendency to form as the latter.

Flame is closest to the ideal of mastery through trial, and thus they may equally become physical or ethereal.

Earth is the closest to the ideal of corporeal self, and thus they may only become physical elementals.

The few elementals that remain whole in both physical form and ethereal mind become Potentates that anchor the Planes, voluntarily falling into eternal stasis until their cores burn out to maintain the existence of the realm.

But what of the impure elements that too drive evolution, and what of hybrids of the four?

They do not exist on the Elemental Planes, instead being born upon individual worlds in the Lower Planes and the in-betweens of space.

Some are "natural" in a sense, water and nature elementals while not being true elementals are at least considered half-elementals and naturally come into existence upon worlds with Potential, although they are a sort of byproduct of evolution. Due to this, they can freely choose between a physical or ethereal form.

Some are created unnaturally, being hybrid elementals born from the collision of pure elementals and/or half-elementals. Whether they are physical or ethereal is dependent on the property of the material they resemble, with storm elementals being ethereal and crystal elementals being physical.

All, however, are capable of assimilation and all share the drive to evolve and become greater beings. They seek Potential and to spread their influence, either being born from said Potential or drawn to it from the Elemental Planes.

When a world meets the threshold of Potential either through an event or natural evolution, Elementals will cross into it and fuse with certain mortals to their whim, merging their ideals and thought and spirit and form in order to create an "evolved being".

These evolved beings become almost a separate race from the race they came from, with some being genetically different(or may not even have genes left) and some still having genetic similarity to their original race but difference in ability and appearance, though all will now have a core akin to an elemental's, and so their lives become intertwined with the power of the core and the ability to pass onto the Realms of Death is forfeited.

When the core's energy fades or the core shatters, so will their consciousness, and they too will meet the same fate as an elemental that fails to return to their birthplace should they have one- reversion to their element's base material.

Such was the fate of the Sky Lords of Avianaen that became no more than the passing breeze, and so did the silent Åskorhaia sentries that became stone and Mountainheart.

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Astray

Sneak peak for the next post legends post

One bolt that struck the arrogant first true,

Two pearls that drowned with the second's sorrow.

Three tendrils that dissipated with the third's regrets,

Four petals that sprouted from the learned fourth.

The one they called 'master' is no longer in this world,

Five stars blinked out when they disappeared.

Of the Trifold Eclipse and a Bygone Era, an Elvarian Short Story

The sky was not always smothered in ash and debris, and we of the three kingdoms were not always so somber and defeated. 

We were once proud and mighty peoples, we that held the power of the three moons and sun of this world, but all that is left of our radiant legacy are ruins and shriveled bodies.

All we have left to hope for is to remember the past and pray for a future to carry on our memories, and so do I leave this story on this wall to preserve for whomever finds this some thousands of years from now.

When there was still a sky and celestial bodies in our sight, we would celebrate an event known as the Trifold Eclipse where all the moons of this world would align with the sun and cast a silvery shadow upon this world, and this only happened once every seven thousand years.

We of Lunaris would come out from the night on this rare occasion where we did not have to fear the weakness the daylight brought to us, and those of Solaris would come out from the day on this rare occasion where they did not have to fear the weakness the dark of night brought to them.

Those of Urthalis would prosper most at this time, as both the sun and moons were present, and this eclipse would last one week.

We would hold vibrant and plentiful feasts and festivals in the main city of each kingdom, traveling throughout the world in a sort of drunken pilgrimage in our finest festival garb. Tournaments would be held to test each others’ physical and magical prowess, and cities and villages would shine brightly with the celestial energy that bathed the world in shimmering light.

Though the flow of the violet Asurei was weak during this eclipse, this was a time of celebration for our victory against the Dak-Shan many, many generations ago, and a time to thank the celestial bodies for shining upon us and granting us their power.

We were all at our most powerful during this one week, and on the eve of the final day of the eclipse, every citizen would gather at their capital city and channel their power into crystal vessels.

The vessel of Solarine shone bright gold like the sun that they drew from,

The vessel of Lunaris shone pure white like the pale moons,

And the vessel of Urthalis shone a warm vermillion like the vivid sunrise and sunset.

These vessels represented the empires we had built and the legacy our ancestors left for us to continue, and in these vessels too were our well wishes to the future generations and prayers for our empires to last forever.

On the first light of the last day, Solaris would raise their vessel into the sky and watch as it became another star in the sky.

On the sunset of the last day, Urthalis would raise their vessel into the sky and they too would watch as it became another light in the rays of the descending sun.

On the midnight of the last day, we of Lunaris would raise our vessel into the sky and watch it as it followed the separating moons and disappeared into the blackened night.

As the vessels faded from the sight of the three kingdoms, so too did the eclipse’s corona leave the skies and thus did this time of celebration end.

We never thought that The Fall would occur less than six months after the last Trifold Eclipse.

Now, this is but a distant memory that fades with each year that passes, and over four Trifold Eclipses should have happened by now…

But we no longer have anything to celebrate with a shrouded sky, and so do I entrust this memory, and thus the legacies of our fallen empires, to you from the future.

If we do not survive this age of darkness, please let our memories do so in our stead. -------------------- The Trifold Eclipse is no longer celebrated by the people of Elvaria after the many tens thousands of years of darkness and strife, and there is only one kingdom left that directly draws from celestial power. Of the many traditions of the Cycelian empires left behind in the distant past, this festival is one of such that will never see a revival. The memory endured through stories passed down through the ages, but the spirit of it died with its era. Some believe that there should be a revival of it for the preservation of the past's glory, but the majority believe that those days should be left to time in order to look forward to a new golden age.

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Elvarian Tales- Delkhiir's Worthy

In a cave sunk by time once lived a being who ascended five times.

Once upon a distant era, they were another elf from the remains of civilization, one of the many that were born in a time when the world was ravaged by volatile power and shrouded by a false night.

The first time they ascended, they received a core of stars that shone as a sun would in the ashen skies and ruins of empires.

The second time they ascended, they received a core of fire that scorched the ground they landed upon, leaving only scorching lava and a flaming wasteland.

The third time they ascended, they received a core of water that caused the tides to swell and ferry a small fleet to land.

The fourth time they ascended, they received a core of wind that swept land into the skies and seas and joined together stray islands.

The fifth time they ascended, they received a core of nature that brought forth seeds of goodwill for the new kingdoms to attain prosperity.

For an elf to survive not one but five ascensions allowed them the respect of the otherworldly elementals, and thus they were given a choice never before afforded to a mortal- to become a Potentate and see the Elemental Planes with mortal eyes but only if they forfeit the mortal realms, or to remain as a mortal soul but at the cost of renouncing their existence when the power of their cores fade. They chose to remain among the elves and life, desiring a death on their own terms and to leave mortal disciples before they passed.

The elementals seemed to understand their choice and would grant the ascender two gifts- to shift time as many times as they had cores, and a name that befit the first mortal deemed worthy by them. The ascender would receive the new name of Delkhiir, "valiant" in their strange language.

Delkhiir would meditate in a cave upon an island, emanating faint traces of elemental energy through the corners of the world in order to seek those with the sensitivity to sense them. Of the repopulating world freed from artificial night, 25 would come before Delkhiir, some that followed through strange crystals that guided them to the island, some that came of their own merit, some that stumbled upon the island by mere chance.

Of those 25, 13 would lie and 12 were sincere.

The 13 that lied were struck down with a ray of pure starlight for the audacity to lie in the face of an ascender. Of the 12 that spoke the truth, Delkhiir would choose four to be their disciples, the rest swearing an oath of secrecy and turned away kindly.

These disciples would take on pseudonyms drawn from syllables of the elemental language, the first, a Flaernan, taking the name of "Vaj", the second, a Floernian, taking the name of "Lemn", the third, an Avianaen, taking the name of "Nin", and the fourth, a Dalirnan, taking the name of "Kor".

The first disciple, though he spoke the truth before Delkhiir, had intentions far from pure. He desired the world and perhaps more, and when he received the core of fire he scorched many in war. When he died, he died as an arrogant fool- the face of a man who knew only greed and bloodlust still plastered upon his face when the lightning struck. He left a legacy of terror and slaughter, his existence scorned by the elementals. His name was Derevysk-Vajkarr, and then he became little more than ash.

The second disciple was oblivious but only had well-wishes for the world, diffing from the first in his insidious nature. She wished no more than for the world to be given a brighter future and thus was she sent to the time of Floernia's birth with the core of water to nurture. She was overwhelmed by the power she failed to understand, and soon was she misguided and created rains that flooded coasts and raised tides. In these tides did she sink below, consumed by great sorrow. She left a legacy of failure and regrets, her existence pitied by the elementals. Her name was Adolia-Lemniin, and then she became little more than sea foam.

The third disciple was most similar to Delkhiir in intention- he too wished to take on disciples and grant them the power to alter the course of the world, but also worthy of having people to call his own through ascension. He would be sent to a time only a few millennia before with the core of air, and three would become four as he became the fourth of a kingdom's Lords. He fell to the same covetous desire of the first disciple and betrayed his ascender brothers, their kingdom spiraling into war with the deaths of their sires. When he died, he did so in shame as the remains of his brothers struck him true. He left a legacy of betrayal and ruin, his existence forgotten by the elementals. His name was Thervos-Aninaar, then Thiroaven, and then he became little more than a breeze.

The fourth and final disciple was unambitious in terms of fostering or conquering- Kor desired little more than to learn and understand what was beyond the lands and seas to wander. They would live upon the island and learn of the age lost in shadow and ideals of the elementals, declining to see the past or future in order to learn all of the present outside of the world. Delkhiir thought Kor to be strange, but there were not unwelcome to a life as a teacher rather than a master, deeming it better than to witness their fourth core be used for the domination or destruction of people. Delkhiir would pass on as much of their knowledge as they could, both tales of the past and tales of the Elemental Planes, but they knew their memory was failing as time wore away at their existence and there was only so much they could still recall.

Delkhiir once had five cores sustaining their existence, and now they had two, mortality looming over them. But they did not say this to their fourth disciple, only wishing for Kor to attain some form of happiness after seeing the folly of the preceding disciples.

The first part of Delkhiir to fail was their legs, and they could not be moved from the position of the lotus. They smiled and told Kor not to worry, but Kor was not so unlearned that they could be fooled by Delkhiir's reassurances.

Kor knew they lacked the power to slow the progression of Delkhiir's gradual descension, so they chose instead to lessen Delkhiir's grieving of their loss in the only way they could.

In the cave, where Delkhiir sat was only able to see the very top of the opening but was otherwise in darkness from sunset to sunrise. Before their legs failed, Delkhiir often would arise to view the passage of the celestial bodies and absorb traces of stellar energy, but now they could not, and it seemed to slightly quicken time's effects on their body.

Kor would chisel away at the entrance of the cave and carve openings into the sides to allow light to reach Delkhiir, and they would also scour the world for the shedding and cores of half-elemental beasts to imbue into crystals to bring light and energy into the cave.

Without the other 3 cores, Delkhiir could not be sustained on any energies save for stellar and nature, and both were rare to find from willing beings or in natural occurrence.

Once, Kor stumbled into the cave suffering from fatal injuries, as they had tried to steal a celestial artifact from the vault of a kingdom and were caught and nearly executed. Delkhiir felt great sorrow for allowing Kor to end up in this state, as Kor had spent their youth with Delkhiir instead of seeking happiness in the prime of their life, and so Delkhiir would grant the core of nature to them.

Kor would awake from a coma after the acceptance of the core and was to interrogate Delkhiir on why they had chosen to sacrifice one of the few things sustaining them for a mortal like themselves, only to find that Delkhiir was unmoving and did not draw a single breath.

Though Delkhiir was not to die yet, they had chosen to fall into stasis for whenever the absolute last being considered worthy would come before them, both to preserve their own existence for as long as what was still possible and also to relieve Kor of the burden they had put upon them.

The core of nature was small and fragile after being worn down by many millennia of existence, and Kor would perish after only a century, finding that their only happiness was as the student of Delkhiir. They did not leave a legacy to the rest of elvenkind, but their passing was mourned by the elementals that still remembered Delkhiir. Their name was Koriinaan, "gift" in the language of the elementals, and then they were little more than a single budding flower on the island.

When the island inevitably was consumed by the tides, no fifth disciple was ever able to receive the core of stars. With time, the core would finally fail, and so Delkhiir would cease to exist.

Those that observed the stars witnessed five stars blink out of existence on the day Delkhiir died, but they would never know why nor the story of the four tragedies that came before. By mere coincidence, these stars were named Vana, Lanae, Noien, Kaio, and Delhir, and there was no one left that could grieve for these stars.

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