The Void Rift Crisis

by Visiden Visidane

Beginning - Magnus Chartophylax

I was in the Hall of Records when the Void Rift Crisis began, yes, try to contain your shock. I stayed there with the scribes for the duration of that disaster. You must understand that this hall is the greatest repository of Eternal Herd history anywhere, rivaled only by the Circle of Knowledge, and they still send scholars here regularly for materials. We've lost enough of our past with the Sixth Cycle, and I will be diminished a hundred times over, in the most painful ways possible, before I stand by and watch more be swallowed by obscurity.

The First Ascendant had ordered that the Hall of Records be designed like a fortress. It may seem strange to you now, but the First Cycle was a time of anxieties and suspicion. We were worried of being invaded by the Wolvenaar, or the Q'tzal, at that time, and we were ready to defend ourselves. That's why the oldest buildings in Empyrea tend to have the feel of fortresses to them. I give praise to the First's foresight now as I did during the crisis. My scribes and I boast of no frightful power, but I am proud to say we held strong without losing a single manuscript. We were fortunate that the planar shadows were drawn to the living, especially those close to the Agamanthion's extensions, it was not as if we were their primary targets.

My endeavors, however, kept me inside one structure during most of the crisis. You will have to ask General Gravitas and the others about how the rest of Empyrea fared. Be discerning, mind you. He is not above peppering truth with exaggerations to make a point. Empyrea has always been our most resilient plane; directly anchored by the Throne's physical presence, bolstered by cycles of building, and assured by a constant large concentration of alicorns. If the Herd is to be truly destroyed, Empyrea will be the last to fall.

Of course, I shall not allow that you come away from this conversation without having learned something of the Void Rift Crisis.

You are likely wondering what the King and Queen of the Fifteenth Cycle were doing during such a time of need. Surely, the Throne could have swept away these invaders.

First, we should consider the time this took place. It was the closing period of the Fifteenth Cycle. I do not merely mean that the King had announced that he was stepping down soon, I mean that the process had already begun. The Fifteenth Ascendant was in the process of removing himself from the Throne's attunement, immediately after which Turbo Pinnae would take up the crown. It was, perhaps, the worst time for the Void Rift Crisis to occur.

Some among us have posited that the Agamanthion had bidden its time for such a moment, and that Pinnae's involvement in studying it was coincidental. But such talk is often just dismissed as the theories of apologists. And it assumes that some sinister intelligence lurked within the Agamanthion. Or, at least, the Sixth had designed it to monitor the situation all over the Herd, then activate when certain conditions were met. The Seekers have been quick to oppose the notion. It is understandable that they will not hear of any suggestion that the Necromancer Queen was somehow plotting our destruction. Understandable, but ill-advised for those who would quest for knowledge. The Seekers should have been prepared to face such a possibility. Looking back, they might have been more cautious with the Agamanthion if they even remotely suspected that it was purposely harmful. It is not as if the other artifacts they discovered were quaint little toys.

Deliberate plan or not, however, the Throne's power was at its weakest when the Void Rift Crisis happened. It also did not help that we were more complacent at that time. If you look at the Herd now, you wouldn't think that it was possible for us to be complacent, but what you see now in our increased show of might and more frequent organized events in Ida is the result of lessons learned during the Void Rift Crisis. Before that, it was far more common for an alicorn to fly around without his barding, or for colts and fillies not to have lessons involving the art of fighting. Indeed, the "Young Fighters Tournament" in Ida is a tradition created only during the Sixteenth Cycle. Patrolling the areas in Vestibulum where the boundaries of our world are thin was also seen more as an onerous, ceremonial task. These times, sentinel work is taken very seriously, and our presence in Vestibulum has doubled.

Still, that did not mean that the Fifteenth did nothing. Far from it. The Throne was vital for holding our world together while the Agamanthion struggled to collapse it. The King and Queen had to stay with the Throne, utilizing their already faded attunement to hold the Eternal Herd together. Without them, the Herd would have collapsed before Sanctus Dominus could mount a rally. It must have been difficult to react so suddenly. The Fifteenth had told me several times in various conversations how relieved he was to lay down the crown. To have to take it up again so suddenly, and to find out that his son had likely been diminished, and was responsible for such a disaster...it was a marvel of inner strength for sure.

Do you know that the Fifteenth Ascendant has already naturally diminished? It is an unprecedented occurrence. Ascendants usually stay on for a cycle or two after passing on the Throne's responsibilities. The Fifteenth was gone before Sanctus Dominus' sun crown could even be forged. Perhaps the burden of the Void Rift Crisis happening in his cycle, the downfall of his son, and the strain of re-attuning to the Throne so suddenly drained him to such a state.

I suppose it was only fitting. No son should be diminished before his father. The sad reality of it is that he was not alone in his plight.