A Hand-Woven Universe 149 148. Epoch Tribes?

Within the pendant was a familiar figure to Noone. It was him – sort of. The being looked exactly like Noone, but the air around it seethed with cold malice. Its eyes were red and filled with a calm hate.

This was all normal to Noone, who had observed this being before with his divine sense. But what caused Noone's eyes to widen, was the ice which surrounded the being.

It had shrunk. Or melted. Either way it was less now than the last time Noone had observed it. This caused him to frown, but he quickly hid it.

Everyone in the room talked among themselves, while Noone continued to quietly observe the projection. The more he observed it, the more his heart throbbed in agony – remembering why he had developed this devil in the first place.

Noone looked into its eyes – it was solace, and strength. Cold, calculating strength. Noone had thought about it before, but when overwhelmed by the inner devil, he had been much stronger than he was even now.

Noone had lost his home, and this was the key to avenging them… if only he could return to that power….

"Noone. Are you alright?" Suddenly a voice was transmitted into Noone's mind. It was Alaviv's voice.

Noone shook himself out of his stupor and he took a deep breath, his head throbbed and for a moment and when he glanced back at the projection, he could have sworn he saw the bedeviled form frown.

"Wh-What was that...?" Noone thought, a vague fear piercing through him, causing him to grit his teeth.

After catching his breath and pushing those thoughts away for later, he managed to speak up.

"I believe it's time for me to ask some questions." Noone interrupted the discussions at the table causing the room to fall into silence.

"Yes." The wizened voice said eventually. "It would seem that it is."

Noone hesitated for a moment. Three questions. He closed his eyes, organizing his thoughts. He took a deep breath.

"Tell me everything you can about the person who ordered my retrieval." Noone spoke calmly – despite it not being a question specifically, Noone trusted that they wouldn't split hairs with him.

The room was silent, everyone understanding that this was a question they would no doubt need to address. They all looked at each other. Finally, the wizened old man spoke, his voice calm. "Noone, how much do you know of various wizard classes?"

Noone thought for a moment before explaining what he had been told by Raelith, causing the figure to nod.

"For the most part, that is accurate. However, you must understand something. The difference between a level 5 class wizard, and a level 20 wizard is like the difference between heaven and earth. While leveling up, what it means to be a magic-caster of a certain class almost becomes irrelevant except for other magic-users of that high level." Noone nodded as he listened.

He understood this, and basically it boiled down to the idea that you couldn't apply any type of common sense to beings in this world once they achieved level 20.

A level five evocation wizard might be able to toss a fireball, but a level 20 evocation wizard would be able to reign hellfire down upon a nation.

"There is a woman," The wizened voice spoke, "who appeared as if from nowhere almost a thousand years ago – Elize, she is called. She was a prodigious and dangerous being, a divination class wizard."

Noone could sense the atmosphere in the room change, even Alaviv became solemn. He frowned. Divination class? From what he knew, this was a school that focused on things like fate, and telling the future…

"You must understand Noone, for millennia the path to divination was a well-kept secret amongst the elites of the magic world. Very very few people would ever study it and those people were kept under strict supervision at all times… the ability to read into the future is dangerous – more dangerous than anything." The man spoke seriously, trying to help Noone understand the risks associated with it.

"People who can read the future – prophesize – they often go mad. The future is limitless in terms of possibilities, and no beings mind is meant to try and comprehend all of it. They make prophecies and try to influence the world into their idea of the 'right' path, usually regardless of the means." Noone nodded as he listened.

"You are saying this Elize was outside the reach of the established magic-organizations?" Noone asked.

"Yes." The voice sighed. "When she appeared, it was already too late. She had been influencing one of the old countries for years before we came to know of her, and eventually – for unknown reasons - convinced the king of that country to go to war with an epoch tribe. One of eight in the known world at the time." A tired sigh escaped from his lips. Noone heard a tsk come from Alaviv who was equally annoyed at the memory.

"You probably wouldn't know of this, however when you spend enough time on the common world you will eventually hear of it. This battle lasted less than a week – but the consequences were dire. An entire country was brought to ruin and 6 million citizens were lost. Using her power – she forced the failed god of that epoch tribe into a corner – forced it to self-destruct. Killing off the entire country and opening a crater in the continent so large that it became our third ocean." For a moment, Noone thought he could see the image in his mind.

Noone's eyes widened. He remembered hearing about this from Tobias actually. There used to be two large oceans trapped within the continent's borders, until one day a nation went to war with an epoch tribe. The war was so brutal that the crater left behind became a third and northernmost ocean. He frowned… that was an incredible amount of power. And… so many dead?

"Why did she do that?" Noone couldn't refrain from asking. Everyone looked at each other…

"We… don't know." The wizened man said sadly. "At the time, those of us who had been alive moved to intercept the battle and try to end it peacefully – this was before we had known there was a divination class wizard involved." The room grew silent.

"When doing so… Elize made her move while we were occupied and eliminated all of our divination class wizards and most of our training texts." There was a palpable disgust in the air.

"The only reason we were able to know that a divination class wizard was involved was due to the dying message of one of our own diviners…" He sighed.

Noone stood there silently, taking in all of this information.

"Since then, we have been chasing her trail, never able to catch up to her. During this time we have been doing our best to raise our own new diviners, however even after a thousand years our luck has been low – to say the least. That was… until now."

Noone had a bad feeling.

"One of our few diviners managed to catch a glimpse of her plans, just enough for us to see this Elize striking a deal with the grand-priest of the order of life to retrieve something from the edge of the world." He spoke evenly, but Noone's muscles tensed.

"The pendant you wear, was stolen from me almost 400 years ago." One of the shadowed figures spoke with a tsk, as if being reminded of a sour memory.

"So… What does she want with me then?" Noone asked. He wasn't able to begin to imagine how such a being could have gotten their sights set on him.

"I'm sorry but we don't know. Divination is impossibly complicated, and no one can guess her exact plans or what future she is attempting to impact. But once we knew this was happening, we sent Alaviv to observe you, and hopefully assess whether or not you were in contact with her."

Noone looked at Alaviv who just shrugged nonchalantly.

"So, what now then?" Noone asked. "If you guys are trying to keep me out of her grasp, are you going to have Alaviv take me?"

"Well…" The old voice spoke. "Not exactly – the truth of the matter is... we can't tell you what to do. Just as we don't want her to get ahold of you to create whatever her future is, we can't control you or guide you either - not without possibly falling into the same trappings." He gave a non-comital shrug. Noone was incredulous, if they weren't going to do anything why did they bother to contact him at all!?

"You must understand Noone. The future and anything to do with prophecies is very tricky. From the moment you act on anything with the knowledge that it might be prophecy related, you are already acting within a script. It is almost impossible to escape – like a net woven around existence."

Noone thought for a bit. "How do you know that you meeting with me and telling me all of this isn't a part of her plan already?" Noone asked. A fair question he thought. The soft voiced female chuckled quietly.

"Divination is a bit more complicated than that, but I am afraid it's impossible to explain." She said smoothly.

Noone frowned but said nothing.

"I am going to count all of that as one question." Noone said curtly. The old man hesitated for a moment but simply nodded.

"Alright then…" Noone thought for a bit. He couldn't ask them directly about his power without explaining it in detail to them which he didn't want to do, but he also didn't want to waste the collective experiences of so many strong individuals.
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"Tell me… about epoch tribes." Noone said.

There was a silence in the room.

"Pareah, if you would?" The wizened voice spoke.

The soft-voiced figure nodded and turned to face Noone.

"The epoch-tribes are a remnant of the world before ours, and very little evidence of what that world was like still exists. However, throughout the millennia we have managed to put a few pieces together... Since you are traveling with the order, you should be vaguely familiar with the process of clerics and paladins, yes?" She asked. Noone nodded, waiting for her to explain the relevance.

"Well… From what we understand, the last epoch was a time where magic did not exist… not in the way we see it now anyways. And during that time, all individuals functioned with the grouping of laws… well… um… Okay." She said. "This is just our conjecture but here's what we think. We think that the gods of certain laws: life – death – justice – vengeance – thievery – trickery – love – crafting - etc. We think that these were merely mortals of the last epoch, but through a process similar to the religions of today, these individuals managed to climb the ladder of understanding these laws, and eventually ascend to their godhood thrones – overseeing these powers and processes.

And we think that this process was bloody and brutal, with everyone fighting over achieving these powers. From what we can tell, it seems that they wiped themselves out – except for those who managed to achieve godhood.

Those who achieved godhood then became the beings worshipped by the clerics and paladins of today.

Those who failed but were strong enough, most likely protected their worshipers, isolating themselves from the world and becoming epoch–tribes in the process." The soft-spoken voice talked quickly as she organized the story into something Noone should be able to understand.

Noone stood quietly, listening to all the information. However, as he listened he couldn't help but feel the scale she was speaking of was far too large. Mortals? Gods? What did he know of such things?

Chapter end