Ahsa: Difference between revisions

*''An oasis in the desert. Seeds of hope... buried beneath the sands... Nomads... wanderers... travelers. Their journey comes to an end... The first to be claimed by the Deep... [breathes uneasily] the first to fall victim to the Witness...''

*''A city of Light... a... a flourishing garden... A silent god... withholds a deeper truth. Questions unanswered, uh... longing unfulfilled. The sky... darkens... as a new journey begins.''

*''Shrouded in... Darkness. A promise of something more... Two halves of a whole... long divided. A schism between them. Reunited. [exhales in joy] A glimpse beyond... to the beginning...''

*''Anathema... calamity! That which cannot, MUST not, come to pass... A wordless denial. A fleeing god. Betrayal... and escape. The pursuit... for the final shape... ''

*''Our minds are one, linked by the Darkness. But only for a moment. I must borrow Sloane's voice to speak my words. Please... heed them well. Before you can confront the Witness... you must understand it. The Witness's first victims were once like you. Struggling for survival. Bolstered by hope... Until their hopes became reality. They called it "the Gardener," their deity of life. It ushered them into a golden age. For eons, they prospered. But their newfound god never spoke to them. It lavished them with gifts, but not with guidance. And though they lived in paradise, they came to crave a greater purpose. They desired meaning. Structure. A "Winnower"... to shape the garden. Their scholars discovered that the Gardener shared a connection with another entity among the stars. They called it "the Veil." And when they found it, they arrived to claim it. They already knew much about the Light. How it could bend the laws of the universe and create life. But they came to realize it could bring ruin... just as easily. The cosmic event it set in motion could wipe out entire civilizations in a heartbeat... without reason. And so they saw the Light not as a source of prosperity... but of unfettered chaos. By studying the Veil, they came to know the Darkness. A power that was shaped by thought and consciousness. And in the Darkness, they found the means to carve away the chaos of existence. To calcify it into a final shape. Eternal... and perfected. They brought the Veil back to the Gardener in an attempt to strengthen their connection. There, they could reshape reality itself. The Gardener would not allow it. And so, it fled their world. But they would not be deterred. Having witnessed the truth in the Darkness, they used its binding power to merge themselves...into the salvation they craved. Thus began the Witness's pursuit... its campaign to impose meaning on a meaningless universe. One that is nearly at its end.''

*''The true path lies obscured. But she knows the way. She who hides truth... in deception. The Witch Queen... must rise.''