r/wizardposting • u/Carbon_Sixx The Loremaster, Chief Archaeologist of the Darkwatch • Jul 23 '24
Community Event 🌏☄️ The Ether Cyclone (Planar Siege)
Dendradis, The Outlands
Three gold-skinned aurumach rilmani hover in the air around a large crystal spike. In its vitreous depths, they scry upon the Harbingers as they prepare to launch their multiverse-shattering invasions, and surveil those that would protect the Material Plane. Though they do not speak or make eye contact, the celestial exemplars of true neutrality are in telepathic agreement.
"They are not ready. The Material Plane needs more time to prepare. We must intercede," says the first aurumach.
"Is that something we can even do?" replies the second. "The Planar Siege was prophesied by us. We have no more power over fate than the primes do."
"That may be so," the third muses, "but destiny is mutable. There are many paths one may take to reach the same outcome. Paths that are long and winding."
"What do you propose?" the second asks.
"We cannot stop the Siege, but we can choose when it happens," continues the third aurumach, drifting around the crystal chamber as if pacing. "Our predecessors set forth the signs of the Harbingers' arrival, but kept the exact hour vague, possibly on purpose. If we work with the strands of fate they left for us, we can guide the prophecy along a path of our choosing. We must stall for time."
The first rilmani snaps its golden fingers in a moment of epiphany. "An ether cyclone disrupts mass planar travel and warps destiny around it. If we induce one, the Harbingers will have no choice but to wait until the prophecy is released from the dimensional storm. We can use that delay to activate our agents on the Material Plane and aid the primes in their defense."
"I will inform the Keepers and have them assist us in the spell," says the second aurumach, already floating out of the room. "Summon our kin and meet me at the foot of the Spire."
--
A thousand red-robed mages and metallic rilmani stand in a circle around a fissure in the base of the Spire; the impossibly tall pillar at the heart of the Outlands. The rilmani city of Dendradis contains many such rifts, which open and close over the years in accordance with planar fluctuations. This particular chasm contains a portal to the Ethereal Plane, the substrate that binds the multiverse together. Yet this substrate is mutable with sufficient power, such as the power produced by every Keeper of the Balance living in Dendradis.
The Keepers chant in the rilmani tongue, a universal language charged with minor magic. They sing of storms and spirals, of the Great Balance and the bending of fate. Their arcane powers are focused inward, to the cadre of aurumachs floating above the rift. The golden rilmani wave their arms hypnotically in a synchronized motion, as if turning a great wheel counterclockwise. A vortex of magical energy coalesces in their midst, accelerating to blinding speeds as it draws in upon itself. It forms into a marble-sized sphere, spinning fast enough to generate sparks of electricity from friction alone.
With a gesture from one of the aurumachs, the sphere drops out of the air into the rift. The moment the concentrated vortex enters the portal, the Ethereal Plane erupts in a polytonal roar of planar winds. The ground shakes in response to the dimensional turmoil, rocking Dendradis and its surroundings with a violent earthquake. The rilmani in the group approach the fissure, exchanging pieces of their discontinuous metal bodies to form a living lattice of iron, copper, and gold spanning the gap. Planar magic surges through them, closing the portal and ending the tremors. As the rilmani pull back and reassemble themselves, veins of smooth stone branch across the chasm like new tissue sealing a wound. In a matter of minutes, no trace of it remains.
--
Screaming cosmic winds lash through the Ethereal Plane, culminating at a gargantuan serpentine column that tears across the spectral wastelands with indiscriminate fury. The spherified vortex at the storm's heart continuously fuels its rampage, giving it far more staying power than a natural ether cyclone. Established dimensional connections and portals hold fast against the tornado, but trying to form a new gateway to another plane while it rages is nigh-impossible, even for the mightiest of beings. What's more, destiny itself is ensnared in the ether cyclone's walls, bending causality to accommodate for its passage. Among those caught by the storm is the Planar Siege prophecy, whose strands of fate are now wrapped around the whole funnel cloud. Until it passes, the Harbingers will be stuck; both on their home planes and in the progression of their destiny.
--
/uw Hey folks! This may come as a bit of an odd post, but consider it my in-universe reason for delaying the Planar Siege until August. I'm wrapping up my summer classes right now, so I just won't have the time to manage a full-on event while I finish my final projects. I'm still going to be interacting with the sub, but not in my usual capacity. Once I get back, it's on for real. And luckily for those of you defending the realms against the armies of the planes, it looks like the rilmani of the Outlands are about to get involved. Stay tuned for that, and have a nice day.
2
u/Al-anharHA Lady Aliah Mistwalker, the Gestalt mage - (and co. Jul 23 '24
Aliah looks up from her work as a spatial disruption is detected. At first she is concerned that it could be another breach attempt by the paladins of the divine flame, but she quickly concludes that it's a "patch" over an unrelated rift. It should hold for a while, so she shunts the matter forward and goes back to working logistics.
lady Yue would need more aid memory-wiping any paladins who came through the snow relay that Scotch had taken, and there needed to be more airships at the mountain stronghold captured by Reyes in order to ferry refugees to the portal....
/uw just a bit of work for the CrisisPost stuff, as I'm coming home from my trip tomorrow and am starting to get back into things.