Unfolding Dream

The Universe of the Unfolding Dream has traversed three major Ages, and is currently traversing a fourth one. These ages are significant because many things changed on a cosmic scale between each of these ages, so they are markers of major changes, or rather the timespans between those major changes. Age of Silence : This "Cosmic Age" precedes everything and is the equivalent to the number 0. Little is actually known of this age, except the alleged existence of the two proto-beings Akaon and Nyris. The Age of Silence begun somewhere in the infinite depth of the past with Akaon eternally sat in silent contemplation, while Nyris was merged to the nothingness that surrounded Akaon. It ended when Akaon and Nyris touched each other, and Akaon was consequently lost in a burst of Light and Flame. Age of Dreams : The first Cosmic Age begun at the Dawn of Time when the beings known as the Ancients (the Ashar and the Vaenu) were born. It ended with the end of the War of Light ...

The War of Light and Shadow heralded the end of the first cosmic era of the Unfolding Dream: The Age of Dreams, and ushered the Cosmos into the second age: The Age of Twilight. The Age of Twilight begun with the end of the War of Light and Shadow, the division of the Dream between these two forces, and the subsequent emergence of the Prime Worlds and the nascent Cosmos. During the Age of Twilight also many other denizens were born into the Unfolding Dream. In summary this is what became at the end of the war, and afterwards during the beginning of the Age of Twilight:  The Shadow God, his mightiest lieutenants and Khorugoth remained imprisoned inside a dimension that was thereafter called the Torment. Entangled in spiked chains, they were rendered unable to move without causing terrible anguish on each other. Nonetheless, the Shadow God as a cosmic entity continued to influence the beings of the Unfolding Dream with his whispers. In addition many Shadowsworn, Shadowspawn...

The Shadow God appeared at the head of the assault, flanked by his mightiest lieutenants among the Shadowsworn. Together, they approached Caldonnas as one, and engaged with the champion even as the rest of the forces of Shadow broke down upon the inner bastions with all their might. It was a truly fierce battle in all of its glory. The warriors of Light held back the assailants, but the battle was relentless. Already wounded from the previous confrontations, Caldonnas fought against Ulhaeron and his lieutenants. At first he was almost overwhelmed, but soon he raised his pace, scything the air with the sevenfold blade, while the others carefully evaded the blows that could mean their undoing. In turn, they tried to wound him with many ways, but his armor, a gift from Kaehir, that he had donned without a single word of thanks stopped most of these attacks, while Caldonnas evaded and parried the rest of them with ease, using his wings as weapons. Even so, the duel would end up in...

The armies of the Shadow broke upon the Bastions of Light like a tidal wave.  The heralds of the arrival of the shadow were the Colgatha. They came first, drowning the skies in total blackness. The Dragons rose in fury, along with other winged warriors, and all of them met the Colgatha in the skies. It was a storm of fire, and shadow. The ground shook with tremors, while burrowing horrors broke from underneath the earth. And then the main bulk of the armies; thousands of Fallen and Shadowsworn, led by a hundred generals assaulted Akuinor in tandem. The orbital defenses were overwhelmed. Some of the outer bastions fell instantly. Others lasted for a few instants. Very few managed to hold. Caldonnas stood alone before the main gates, tearing an army of Khorgons apart, after having casually destroyed their general. Anadun had fallen in a duel with Akhar, the Slayer. Kaldassos the Defiant, one of the first Ashar who had rebelled against Ulhaeron, to join the Cal'ashan, rose among ...

In the Darkest Hour of the forces of Light, three celestials met in secret, away from prying eyes, somewhere in Akuinor. The Forger had come up with a plan, a crazy hope, that showed potential. His crafty mind had come up with something none other could have devised. For the Forger was not the most cunning of the Ancients, nor was he the wisest among them, nor the most intelligent. But he loved creation above all else. Kaehir believed that for all its power the Shadow could be defeated without using implements of destruction. In fact, Kaehir believed that Ulhaeron, unable to create anymore, actually wanted his foes to use their maximum capacity for destruction. And he wasn't entirely wrong. The will of the Shadow God was served whether creation was corrupted and twisted in binding to his power, or if it was destroyed, in either case the Shadow God grew stronger, and the Aldoren and all they strove for were weakened. In the face of doom, the others had condoned to something w...

While the forces of Shadow converged upon Akuinor, Caldonnas lay in a deep, comatose slumber. His superficial scars had healed, but the wound that Ulhaeron had inflicted upon him went deeper than the body. The champion was wrestling with an impossible foe: the death of his spirit. This was how the touch of the Shadowsworn afflicted other beings. It was the entropic taint that ate away slowly any attempt to resist it. Now imagine the size of this affliction when inflicted by the sword of the Shadow God himself, especially against his most hated foe. In this dreamless slumber, Caldonnas fought with the power of the flame of a candle that struggled to remain alight against the might of a hurricane. The will to exist fought against the urge to surrender to the inevitable. But the experience was not that of death, which was the enabler of change, but the sensation of impending doom and growing misery. It was an altogether different kind of oblivion, one that was unwholesome and wicke...

Following the deadly trap that Caldonnas and the Cal'ashan had narrowly escaped, the champions of light retreated to the world of Akuinor, where the Aldoren had their seat at the time. Caldonnas was grievously wounded, and some feared he would perish, and thus the Cal'ashan voted for a new leader, whilst Caldonnas was taken in all urgency in the House of Restoration, his wounds catered by the aspect of life herself - Yriel. Alarmed, the Aldoren and their allies convened. They had built formidable defenses, but all else in the dream was falling apart, and they knew that if they could not rise victorious then there could not be enough safety anywhere in the Cosmos. They needed some form of counter to this all, even a desperate solution for these were the most desperate times. But they could not come up with something that was adequate, and with Caldonnas on death's door, they could not yet make any plans. Warriors and refugees arrived from all of the Unfolding Dream, an...