A Green Sun Illuminates the Void

An Exalted / Familiar of Zero Story

Prologue: Words From Beyond I

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Of the Fall of Mardukth, and of the love of Lyranvais (The Whispering Void)

In lost Zen-mu, which is no more, which was born of the songs of the Primordials when time itself was young, and the nascent titans warred against the shapelessness of that which now lies outside Creation, the flames of Cytherea, the Divine Ignition, burned away the dross of possibility to leave that which was desired by her and her kin. No longer did the other titans, barring of course Oramus, the Dragon Outside the World, dwell within the mind of the Divine Ignition, for they had learned the invention of wakefulness, and thus they lived and dreamed and played with eyes wide open, seeing the infinite possibility before them, and just as Cytherea, they disdained the infinite possibility to bring concrete visions into being.

And such was Zen-mu shaped, and the drums of the Primordial beat into existence time such that the vicissitudes of the Wyld could not say 'that was never so' and make it so, for as long as the drums were played and the songs of Adrián, the River of Torments, sung, and the dreams dreamed, that which had happened had always happened. And from the changing outside of Zen-mu, the hordes came, but against the fires and ice and blades of Adrián, they fell, and she inflicted infinite torments against them for daring to assault the playground of the dreamers, and all was happy.

And so it came to pass that the the Empyreal Chaos came to Zen-mu, his sister Cecelyne and him, and though none knew it, the Whispering Flame, too; the three conveyed across the vitriolic waters of Kimbery through the machinations of the Ultimate Darkness. And Mardukth, He Who Holds In Thrall, did protest against the presence of the Holy Tyrant, for in these lands he had been King, and Zen-mu had beat to his will and spoke his name to him, and he would not give that up easily. The Holy Tyrant and he did war, then, and their conflict was long and terrible, for the waters of Zen-mu did rise up against the Empyreal Chaos, and the earth pelt at his immaterial majesty and the fires of light burn ardent, and the winds themselves sought to convey him back across Kimbery, to stretch the unbounded sands of his sister, Cecelyne, such that the Holy Tyrant could never again return to Zen-mu.

The Empyreal Chaos was contemptuous, and, flanked by his twin fetich souls, Ligier and Ruvelia, spoke two words. And Mardukth was afraid.

Of the rest of the conflict, it is forbidden to speak. It is only permitted to be said that Mardukth was cast down, and the Empyreal Chaos became the Primordial King, and accepted the fealty of he who ruled in his place before. But one thing is not forbidden, though it is not remembered, and that is that Lyranvais, the Echoing Void, did watch this conflict, and she fell in love with the Holy Tyrant, with his power and his majesty and the way that all would kneel before him, and she longed for him, forsaking her impossible love for Gaia, who did not love her back, to take on an even more impossible mantle of desire, for that was in her nature.

And, as was her nature, she said nothing, because she was afraid.

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