Prologue

======================================================================

Once upon a time there was magic...

Permeating all things, a flowing energy through multiple realities, threading 
all that had existed, existed now, and would exist in the future.

The Fae, Man, Angels, Demons and Elementals alongside many other types of 
being were all sensitive to this primal force to varying degrees. Some 
sought to control it, some sought for it to control them, and some simply 
sought -balance-. This was the First Age of Magic, the beginning of the 
Endless Chronicles, and many stories are to be told of these times... and 
will be.

But not today. 

Today we focus on the Earthly Realm, and The Otherplace which kisses it 
much later on. There, two rival factions of Fae whom had fled from their 
Old Enemy and abandoned their ancient home reality of Arcadia fought a 
bloody war until reaching an impasse in their conflict so pronounced that 
they came to an unlikely and paradoxical agreement - they would take their 
battle away from the realm they were fighting over putting it out of 
sight and entrusting the custodianship of  the Earthly Realm to mortal 
man for the duration. When the conflict was resolved, no matter how long 
this took, the victors would return to take their place as rulers and 
guardians once more. This compact was known as "The Gift" and the leaders 
of mortal man readily accepted the terms. Many expected the Fae would 
simply leave and never return.  

For aeons man ruled supreme. Very few Fae remained in the Earthly 
Realm - and those that did became very good at hiding.

Over time magic waned through misuse, disuse and apathy. Religion and 
dogma replaced chaos and creativity. 

Then... one day, unexpectedly, something changed... a Schism occurred. 

-The- Schism. 

A tremor in the fabric of the realities heralded the now largely forgotten, 
but always promised, return of the Fae.

First Faerie blood awoke in those Fae who had remained in the Earthly Realm 
and then, slowly, Fae survivors of their forever war began to return in all 
manner of unlikely ways and through all manner of unlikely trods and and 
portals. 

But the returning Fae were -not- alone... 

The Fae brought with them the worst of things. Their war had attracted the 
attention of the Old Enemy. The adversary. 

It started with incursions on the edge of The Otherplace, small at first... 
but it soon spread like wildfire. 

Fae and humans sensitive to what little magic remained readied themselves 
for what may come and some, the Edgewalkers, stood guard on the far reaches 
of reality both in the Earthly Realm and The Otherplace. They managed to hold 
this line in selfless isolation for decades until it was eventually breached 
and subsequently collapses under the weight of an overwhelming incursion the 
likes of which had never -ever- been seen.

The game changed. Reality changed. Everything changed. 

The War in the Dreaming had begun and no one was ready. Not Man, Fae, Angel, 
Demon or any other being. There was Panic. There was loss. But, as events 
unfolded -and against all expectations- the war was eventually won by an army 
of all creatures prepared to fight the Old Enemy. Their alliance was simply 
known as "The Treaty" - their grand finale was an epic battle which drove back, 
and locked out, the Old Enemy with a magical shield known as The Concordian 
Barrier provided by an ancient magical creature known throughout the realm as 
a sage and a hero - this creature had no name until the barrier was put in 
place and from the moment it was the creature would only be known as... The 
Emperor. This was the agreement of The Treaty. 

The barrier once in place, however, severely restricted movement in The 
Otherplace... it made the number of reachable realities much smaller, a vast 
price to pay... and it also had an epoch altering and unforeseen side-effect...

Magic it seemed was as unable to pass through the barrier as any creature was 
unable to penetrate it... and where as before magic would simply evaporate into 
the vastness of the ether once expended; now it rebounded from the barrier and 
was effectively sealed into a closed system. It was still generating, as it always 
had done albeit in small amounts... but it was also -not being expended at all-, 
just reused over and over again. Magic was now accumulating. It was there for the 
taking... in ever abundant quantities. 

A new city soon emerged in The Otherplace so close to the Earthly Realm that 
anyone so inclined could feel it and visit with relative ease. The city is a place 
where creatures of both light and darkness reside together, although many have 
forgotten who, and what they are. Both survivors of the Fae forever war, and 
explorers from the Earthly Realm make up the denizens of this "the new place". 

This change in magical stability was reflected on the Earthly Realm too with 
tremors of chaotic magical power felt even by the most mundane of humanity. 
As above, so below. The idea of a reality of a non-magical existence began to 
slowly melt in a sea of surreal and unlikely events. A new age of magic had 
unexpectedly begun, a different and chaotic age dissimilar to any seen before. 

Soon an uneasy alliance between four ancient Fae powers, The House of The Rat, 
The Host of The Raven, The Order of Echo and The Cult of The Fox established 
control of the colloquially named "Endless City" and the Four Great Houses ruled 
in the name of the God Emperor - the creature who had single handedly rallied 
"The Treaty" and created the Concordian Barrier with magic he alone understood 
and controlled.

You join us now in the era of Concordia, we await the age of Empyrean. A time 
when the Otherplace and the Earthly Realm will be finally, and irreversibly joined 
and become one, and a time when the Emperor will take his rightful place on the 
ultimate throne of all realities.

He approaches...

======================================================================
   www.endless-chronicles.com
======================================================================
EOF