...and the Moon will flee, and the stars will scream, and the world will brace for another beginning...

One year from now...

Pulling the hood closer around his blistered cheeks, Pashal lowered his head down to avert his face from the awful vengeance of the whirling sands around him. Every grain whipped against his body, stabbing through his thick clothing and biting into his callused skin. The storms had not ceased for three weeks, and the Templar had come across the remains of many of its victims, their skin shredded away and their bones flayed to fine points.

There were many Jinn in this part of the desert, their citadels blotting out Shilah's ignorant gaze as they patrolled the waste for survivors. Once, Pashal had even witnessed Kaleel's own city hovering over the dunes, the child-prince Onaja calmly observing the devastation from his balcony, several hundred feet above. The brilliance of the half- Ashalan monstrosity cut through the miles-high columns of sand, illuminating a struggle between his own soldiers and a cadre of humans bathed in flame-the Free Jinn of Qanon. They lost the battle, most certainly, though Pashal had not lingered to observe its conclusion.

None were yet able to stand against Kaleel's own- not the humans, or the Qanon, nor the Warriors of Laramun or their enemies in Shadow. Not even the Celestial Alliance, whose only role it was to protect the Young Races from the Legion of the diseased god. Eventually, when he was ready, Kaleel would order his forces toward the City of a Thousand Stories, and this chapter of history would be closed forever. Humanity would be resigned to a thousand years of slavery under the tyrannical rule of the corrupted Jinn, and magic would return to the world in a whirlwind of apocalyptic force...

... unless Pashal succeeded in his solitary quest. He alone still believed in the old gods, the First Ones who had vanished into the dunes one year before. If the Ashalan and Ra'Shari could be found and convinced to side with the Young Races, there might be a glimmer of hope for the future. But that would require a guide, someone to lead Pashal beyond this world and into the unknowable realms where the First Ones now resided.

That would require the Bearer of the Jidan...

Ducking low beneath a ruined arch, Pashal glanced within the awkward structure. One of the first citadels I fall after the Awakening, the City of Bronze had sent impenetrable clouds of dust into the air when it impact ed. Few survivors of the crash returned to Medinaat alSalaam to speak of the horrors that Kaleel had unleashed from the Black Earth and beyond, and those that did shared little hope for the rest. The wreckage of the Jinn citadel was not even visible in the aftermath a the conflict, its spires buried deep beneath the scorched earth or decimated entirely. It was assumed that the re,, of the valiant warriors within the city had perished. Nii hundred souls, lost in one impossible battle...

Qer Apet, Bearer of the Jidan and Keeper of the Grea Chronicle after the Living Memory, numbered among them. His loss was felt far and wide - among the Senp, of his homeland and the peoples of the jewel, who looked to him as the last link between the Age that was and the dark Age to come. But Pashal had always believed in heroes, and that true heroes never die. He was sure, compelled by a loyalty more powerful than blood beating within his chest that Qer Apet lived. And that he would be found...

"Many think that the last Age began with the Fallen Star, and the coming of the Goddess. Is that what you believe, child?" His voice had changed considerably sin his time in the city following the release of the Goddess and the rebuilding. No longer one forceful bark among the legions of his Pharaoh Queen, it now carried through you like an ethereal chant touching but not resting in your ears. His words were meant for more than just this young Templar.

"You are the Keeper. I trust your words. They are the truth," Pashal answered as he knelt before the icon. He prayed that the nervous sweat upon his skin was not too insulting.

After a resigned pause, Qer Apet continued, "There is another chapter to the Chronicle that few are aware of, that the Jidan has whispered to me in my sleep. It is a chapter of blood and magic beyond words, and defines the beginning of known time. It is relevant to your quest young Ebonite. Would you hear it?"

"I am your audience, Keeper..."

"In the beginning, there were only the Sun and Moon and stars. They were alone, boundless within infinite space. This was the First Age of the world, and little of it can be comprehended by us. Eventually, they created the Jinn, who were the first to walk this place. The Jinn were powerful, akin to gods themselves, and even after they created others to live within the world with them, they remained the most favored children of Shilah and Kaleel, the Sun and Moon. Then, over a thousand years ago, the world was a verdant, lush place, with great seas and mountain ranges and forests as far as one could travel. The Jinn and their creations - the Ashalan and humanity - rejoiced in their newfound paradise."

"But," Pashal interrupted, "The Ashalan have said that they created the world, and that the Sun and Moon were merely tools..."

"The Ashalan have said many things that are not true, little one, mostly to shield us from ourselves. It is easy to believe that the gods walk among us, that we can seek their council and aid in times of crisis. Much easier than the truth, at any rate...

"Regardless, the Second Age was to be granted to the Jinn, so that the gods would be able to retire back to their homes beyond the sky. The Jinn were offered great power, and tutored in its use. They were to be the gods of a new dawn. But something terrible occurred; many of the Jinn were not benevolent beings. Seizing the free will their creators had blessed them with, several of the most powerful Jinn, including their Champion, who had taken the name of the Moon, staged a coup against the gods. The Jinn Kaleel and his five brothers lashed out with their new strength, together toppling the Moon and casting him into an eternity of quiet slumber.

"Other Jinn responded in kind. Striking without warning, a horde of them invaded the night sky, dousing thousands of stars and capturing the rest. Together, the Jinn imprisoned the evening heavens, quickly becoming more than a match for the few who would stop them. With the dawn, Shilah arrived to behold their crimes, and was horrified by what her beloved creations had become. In an instant the shambling hordes of a new Kaleel descended upon her, trapping the Sun within a prison built of their awful face. Cut off from all that she had envisioned, and thinking her cherished family dead or destroyed, she quickly fell into madness, loosing her own power for the eager Jinn to collect. Within one cycle, Kaleel and his Legion had captured the world. Soon, they embarked on a campaign of terror, reducing their own creations to subjects or slaves, or consuming them whole in a lustful rampage of destruction...

"There were a few who opposed them, however. Ashalan and human were forced to work together for the first time in history against a common foe - their own progenitors - with all of creation at stake. Weapons were conceived and forged to fight the new menace, but few were effective, and countless lives were lost. At first it seemed as if the Jinn were unstoppable, that the new Age really would be theirs to corrupt until nothing was left of the original vision of the Sun and Moon...

"But twelve Ashalan refused to submit to the will of the Jinn. They conspired in secret working with the most skilled humans to devise a way to fight back. Together, they discovered the secret of sandsmithing, and constructed swords made of crysteel, which could cut through the insubstantial bodies of the Jinn like flesh. Eventually, a human named Hakhim, aided by Lammassar, Katani, and others, stumbled upon a fabulous magic - a sigil made of light and smoke that formed a map of all known magic. Locked within its myriad revolving icons were the keys to understanding the nature of Jinn and the gods that had created them. Hakhim's Seal became the focus of a new direction for the struggle.

"The Seal also offered two new and startling revelations about the current war. First, it illustrated, in bold and amazing spectacle, how the efforts of the Jinn would eventually spread beyond our own lands, consuming everything until they were the only powers left replacement deities of a lost age. Shilah, the sleeping Kaleel, their children in the night sky - all would perish so that the Jinn could revel in their self-depriving power. Second, the Seal offered a way to contact Shilah directly, to pierce through the wall of Jinn that murmured deceitfully in her ear each day, and open her clenched eyes to the terrible truth of her creations' design.

"The humans only sought a new ally in their fight against the Jinn, a way to end the awful cataclysm approaching. They never anticipated that their actions would urge it forward. Awakened from her lunacy, Shilah witnessed the Jinn through the veracity of the Seal, and - calling upon all the power keeping her sane - lashed out across the beautiful terrain she had brought into being. In one climactic moment the world dissolved around the Jinn, Ashalan, and humans. Magic touched by her wrath was consumed to add to the destruction, ripped away from those who would carelessly use it for their own selfish desire. Minor beings - Jinn subsisting upon the land and within the air, and Ashalan both young and weak - were obliterated in a flash of Shilah's grace. Those who thrived from magic and lived were forced out of Shilah's sight: the Ashalan fled into the earth, and the last thousand Jinn bound themselves into service with the humans or fled beyond the boundaries of our world.

"Kaleel and his brothers, saved by the power stolen from the slumbering Moon, were severely weakened during the Day of Wrath. They attempted to escape but were hunted down by those whom they had tried to enslave, their citadel grounded and buried beneath the sands. With precious little strength left, they fell into a long sleep - like their father had before them - not to be seen again for hundreds of years. In time, the Young Races, who are eternally optimistic in their nature, assumed the Adversary and his brethren to be destroyed. One brother, Israk, refused to accept that Kaleel was dead and ventured into the Blighted Realms to find him. His story is well known, especially to those of us familiar with him today.

"The First Jinn War was over. Residual magic left over in the sands of the new desert left behind by Shilah's Wrath was collected and used in several artifacts of great power, many of which are still known to us today. Among them are the Crystal Hourglass of Laramun and the Ashalan polearms known as Khadja, both of which have played important roles in the last Age, the Second of our world.

"The Age of Heroes. The second chapter of the Great Chronicle.

"As we know today, the humans and other Young Races eventually summoned members of the last thousand Jinn, rousing them from their long sleep. The Jinn were bound by human ritual, their lifeline after the Da of Wrath and the source of their present hostility. Thes( Jinn were and continue to be the only source of magic the wastes, a valuable commodity to the Young Races, which increases the friction between our peoples. One year ago, something happened in the sky. The Moon vanished in a heartbeat, releasing Kaleel and his brothers from their submerged prison. They are not happy about our revolution, and hope to crush us beneath the heel before reclaiming their place in the heavens for the next thousand years..."

"Keeper, that is why I have come to you. You bear the Jidan. You can bring the Ashalan back to us." Pashal's voice was soft, in reverence to the awesome secrets the Senpet had confessed to him.

"Their time is past. It is your turn to fight now. Your turn to seize a place in history..."

"But the Ashalan are gods. How can we hope to succeed where they failed?"

"They are not gods. Merely old..." A long silence swept through the dim chamber, one last statement in wake.

"...and they did not fail. Remember that and you have learned their greatest lesson."

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