//------------------------------// // Prior - Magnus Chartophylax // Story: The Void Rift Crisis // by Visiden Visidane //------------------------------// Insight about the roots of the Void Rift Crisis? Colt, does my name provide you no clue? My job is to record events, not to give my take on them. This would be a difficult enough task if I worked in the utter void that the Agamanthion tried to reduce us to, much more so when I have alicorns poking and prying at me in hopes of nudging history to be more favorable for them. There are plenty of alicorns to talk to if you're looking for one to pronounce judgment on Turbo Pinnae. Don't try to push me by saying that my opinion on the matter would have more weight because I am First Cycle. I have heard that far too often. For the sake of education, however, I do have something to add to your ongoing query. Let it never be said that an alicorn entered the Hall of Records and learned nothing. First of, the Agamanthion. I know that some alicorns out there are already happily convinced that the Agamanthion was some kind of extra-planar bomb, sent by some hostile, far-off realm to destroy us or some such thing. It's not, and such thoughts are dangerous. The Herd should not look on so belligerently towards other heavenly realms. The Agamanthion was rediscovered in Elys, during the mid-Seventh Cycle, by the Seekers of the Sixth. The records from the First to the Fifth Cycle made no mention of it, and no one from the Seventh had noticed its construction or arrival into the Herd, an impossibility given the complexity of the Agamanthion's design, and its sheer size. The Seekers also identified several design patterns in the Agamanthion that were identical to that of previously discovered devices such as Facem Subsequentis. The Sixth Ascendant, may she be revealed, was fond of a particular aesthetic. The Seekers use this as a way to identify the things she left behind, and as proof that she did not plan this disappearance. That the Sixth's devices are always laced with necromantic effects of a magnitude not yet matched to the present also helped. So, at the risk of disappointing our more aggressive brethren, I must point out that the Agamanthion came from nowhere but the Herd. What was the Agamanthion? Many great minds have been wracked trying to answer the question. Even to this moment, when the Agamanthion can barely even be considered rubble, the Seekers continue to analyze. Turbo Pinnae was the closest to that goal, and we all know the price his inquiry cost him. We do know that it housed smaller artifacts related to the Sixth Ascendant, including a small army of powerful guardians to protect its corridors upon activation. We know what it did; its extensions gated into every layer of the Eternal Herd, destabilizing the very structure of our plane to collapse it on itself. The debate as to whether it was meant to do that or Pinnae's meddling caused it is hotly debated up to the present. But as to what it was...it is unfortunate, but we may never know. When Sanctus Dominus destroyed its core, the Agamanthion all but disintegrated in a great explosion of worldly energies. We have precious few fragments from its extensions to study, and I'm afraid I cannot bring myself to be optimistic that anything short of a lecture from the Sixth Ascendant herself could ever make sense of it all. Next, the Seekers of the Sixth. The Seekers declared their motives early into the Seventh Cycle, in a momentous occasion in the empty wing of the Hall of Records. I was there to witness it, and I readily approved of their quest to recover as much knowledge of the Sixth Cycle as possible. That is their goal: knowledge, not the reinstatement of the Sixth Ascendant as some of the ridiculous mumblings I've heard suggest. It's certainly not to obliterate the Eternal Herd as the Sixth Cycle was obliterated. If only more alicorns spent their time in the Hall of Records instead of indulging so much frightened gossip. Contrary to what you might have heard, they are not led by Sagax Lumen whom they treat as a Queen. The Seekers are officially led, or were unfortunately, by their six High Seekers, all who are equal peers. They organize their searches, and catalogue their findings. Sagax Lumen just happens to be the most well-known among them, partly for her discoveries, and partly because she is the most vocal among them, acting as their de facto face when contact with the Herd as a group is necessary. Sadly, none of the High Seekers survived the Void Rift Crisis. It will be at least three cycles before the group recovers them. I have heard General Gravitas' denouncement of the Seekers, and his call to punish them for their role in the Void Rift Crisis. He is a brave and strong warrior true, but he does not know how to pick his battles. It is proof enough that he challenged Sanctus Dominus in Ida twice, and lost his head on both occasions. His dismissal of the Seekers' cause is even greater proof. It is baffling that so few understand the loss that the Herd still faces today. We have lost an entire cycle to obscurity. The wing for the Sixth Cycle lies empty save for a few treatises on the sparse clues the Seekers have recovered. If Gravitas cares as much for the Herd as he says he does, he should be aiding the Seekers, not saying nonsense about how we should be destroying the last traces of the sixth. Their part in the crisis is cannot be overlooked, but to abandon the Sixth Cycle to obscurity is a crime far more unforgivable. Ah, but I stray from the topic. It is the Void Rift Crisis that interests you. Fortunately we have records for that. Every scholar in the Herd seems to want their take on the crisis published, including you apparently. You may have to track down some copies. It is a subject of great interest for many of us.