When I look out at the vastness that is the multiverse, when I see all the beauty and all the terror of all time and space, when I apprehensively stalk the horrors that exist just beyond a mortal grasp, when I find that one square of land in one world has more depth than I ever imagined, it sometimes seems too vast, too unknowable, even for me. For one charged with defending the Cosmos to be so enraptured by the very thing it defends is dangerous. I get distracted, and Lurkers almost get through the Rift.
The universes are much too wide and the diversity too great for even I to comprehend. I have been to all of them, of course. When Lurkers or Shakers sneak through, I have to bind myself to them. Help them fight. Make sure they never understand the incredible danger they live in. I Drift into their realm, I smite the forces that would destroy Order, and I leave. Some call me a hero, others a god.
It doesn’t matter to me, either way. I exist to defend them. What they think of me, or don’t think of me, is not important. The next time I visit, the mortals, their children, and their gatherings are all gone, replaced. I watch universes be born, I’m there when they die. Keeping up friendships, or even a presence, becomes nearly impossible in the vast infinity that is Cosmo.
When all is quiet, when the universes are all safe, when the Lurkers and Shakers and Vile Ones are still, when there is no struggle, then is when I explore the Universes. Each one holds millions of wonders, things even I cannot fully admire. I feel the dying pulse of a star, I touch the fusion of a sun, I examine the asteroids and the meteors, finding rare and precious metals. I explore worlds unseen by any before, and worlds that will never be seen. Sometimes I find life there, too. Sometimes it's even intelligent.
The Lurkers don’t stop.They invade. They destroy. They enslave and devour, unnoticed for thousands of thousands of years. The Vile Ones impress their will on these mortals, the Shakers make sport of entire universes. They don’t appreciate the beauty, the joy, the splendor of the cosmos. They don’t see the individual glories of the worlds they attack. All they see is potential for destruction.
I stop them to preserve the beauty of the Cosmos. I fight to protect the Rift so that the mortals can live normal lives. I wish to keep exploring the universes forever, to find more, to experience more. In that, I am an incredibly selfish creature. The Lurkers don’t stop, the Vile Ones never quit, the Rift is always besieged. I could abandon my post, leave, find a new place to explore, but I never do. I love the beauty too much.
There was a time when I was no better than they. When I didn’t respect the Cosmos, when I saw Drifting as a chore, as my job. I never stopped to look at what I protected, I fought with a pronounced indifference.
I used to believe I was much wiser and greater than the Mortals. I felt more at ease waiting at the Rift than Drifting. I hated my time spent in worlds, and ended it as soon as possible, not caring about the collateral damage. I caused as much destruction as I prevented, and I was just as frightening as the horrors beyond the Rift.
That all changed, millenia ago, when I was stripped of my power. I was forced to cease Drifting, and stay in one world for a while. It was there I was taught to see beauty in the Cosmos. It was there I was transformed, and it was there that I found a reason to fight.
For, my friends, it was there I learned of the Magic.
This is my story.