Evokation / Prologue: A Toss of the Cards
#1 of Evokation
Evokation
Zerrex Narrius
Prologue: A Toss of the Cards
The spiral continues, and the world changes; but all the same, the things it suffers now it has suffered before, even if now it faces the problems on a much grander scale. Yet even with the terrible revelations that there is a Heaven, there is a Hell, that God is dead and demons and angels walk the planet - and of which are scarier, no one can tell you for certain - the world evolves in a way that is far more positive than negative. Once upon a time, after all, the world knew that these things all existed, that magic could be harnessed, that right and wrong did exist... and now the world has been taught those things again, in the post-apocalypse of both a Great War based upon science and a Demon War based upon its dark twin, magic.
Most cities lay in ruin now, even ten years after the terrible war that ravaged not just the mortal world but the planes of Heaven and Hell as well. Many places were left with only the barest of technologies, running off batteries or generators that were tired and old... while other places had developed powerful devices and weaponry based not only off the concepts of advanced science, but demonic power sources as well. Most of the physical world had fallen into a quiet peace, though, with no need for heavy weaponry: the fighting and death had worn out even the most battle-hardened and bloodlust-consumed on this planet, and most of the surviving countries wished for nothing more than peace, in order to rebuild their shattered civilizations.
Demon, angel, and mortal all lived side-by-side in some cities, from the slums to the high-class districts, despite the fact that international treaties still prohibited interference from the other planes: mortals were to stay on the physical plane, and Hell and Heaven were to keep to their own territory as well. Too many people still distrusted the supernatural after the war they had witnessed... yet many others embraced their presence, as they witnessed that Hell was no terrible place of darkness that the popular religions screamed of, but a place of learning and atonement... and how even the demons suffered under the weight of both their sins and their pains. And even though there were places in the world that would exterminate demons or angels alike and kept their cities and even small nations sealed off from the world, in many other places, they were trusted and treated now as equals, and they helped to rebuild the shattered world the mortals lived in as best they could.
In many ways, the world has changed... the planes have changed... and yet in many ways it has not. God Himself has fallen, but in reality, He has been dead for a long time. It was a False God that fell from the throne those ten years ago, and although his fall shook all of the planes, it was in reality no event of great measure, even if it prevented a great catastrophe. The worlds all still revolve, the planes all still move at their different paces and perform their tasks as they try to intermingle themselves more, as they work with the other planes instead of against, and as in the beginning of creation, there is peace in Hell, in Heaven, and even in the mortal planes. Time has spiraled into itself, and history repeats... but the tragedy of the infinite cycle is that it can never be truly infinite. In time, all things break apart, just as clocks wind down and the gears of machinery strip and wear away. All of time has cycled, in an obtuse way, back to the beginning... and perhaps the beginning of the beginning... is the beginning of the end.
But for today, life continues onwards, and after all these years apart, the Boss who once thought his little town was an entire world will find his family... as he recognizes both the true size of the universe... and the frail vulnerability adherent in both life and the planes themselves.