DIVA: The DYAL Goes to Eleven #0

[deucexm]

The DYAL Goes to Eleven: A DiVerse Alpha Chronicle
by Colin Stokes

Chapter 0, Prologue: Reconnect the Dots

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There once was a band of misfit casters, of ancient Terra.

Only misfits, however, insofar as their brand of magical expression didn't fit within their original society's spectrum of acceptable behavior.  They were otherwise generally well-to-do personages, which should come as no surprise given that the proper practice of magic - which is to say, non-self-destructive - tends to be an expensive proposition.

But in the first days of Light and Dark magic, no financial power in the world could have prevailed against the idea that drawing on the power of one's own soul to cast - rather than the elements, or one's patron Deity, or some other external source - was anything more than an abomination.  And so the casters banded together with those of like mind, and together planned their exodus from the places they had once called home.

Success was theirs, beyond their original designs or even their imaginings.

>From the sky descended an Avatar, empowering the artifact they had wanted to carry them across the sea and using it instead to bridge the vastness of the Void and carry them across the stars.  The journey was to be a one-way trip, and the way would be closed behind them, so that none could follow to visit further harm upon them.  And so it was, all just as the Avatar had said.

And the practitioners of Light and Dark looked upon their new world, uninhabited by humanity, and seeing in its unspoiled raw beauty a new beginning, a fresh start - they called it Slate.

An unimaginative reference, perhaps, but no worse than naming a planet 'Dirt'.

Over time, as the population of Slate grew and expanded, the site of their original arrival was lost.  Gray City, once a hub of trade and a place of knowledge, fell into ruin as it was crushed between kingdoms vying for supremacy - and with it was lost the great artifact, the aetheric gate, that had brought the initial exiles to the world.

No great loss there, at least not functionally, as the gate had never once worked since it was shut down on the first day of its use - once its original purpose was fulfilled.  And its inner workings were a complete mystery, even to the greatest minds of the time, and so any value it held - for the inhabitants - could only be sentimental at best.

But though the city may have fallen to ruin, the gate yet stood: unbowed by time, unbroken by war, unmoved by events; for the handiwork of the Pantheon is not so fragile.

Nor is the visitation of the Pantheon inconsequential.

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Reference links that may be of some use despite being infrequently updated:
http://d-verse.wikia.com/wiki/Caster
http://d-verse.wikia.com/wiki/Light_and_Dark_magic
http://d-verse.wikia.com/wiki/Avatar
http://d-verse.wikia.com/wiki/Aetheric_gate
(There's lots more but those are good starting points.)