The Trilogy of Gog and Magog

First to be told is the legend of the beings named Gog and Magog.  Brothers of thought and kin to the gods, these two held great power over the Fifth after the Sundering.  They first resided in the shadowed corners of the Celestial Realms taking council from the other powers of the Dark.  At their bidding they hunted Merrith, the sister of Vivoria, and slew her with sword and hammer.  Gog took the goddess' face as a trophy and symbol of their defiance.  The lords of Light were deeply angered and cast them out and barred the Gates to the Celestial Realms to them.

Gog and Magog fled to the Fifth, and there they began to form legions who carry the taint of their violence which infects like a disease.  Their legions of fell creatures ruled over the land, tainting everything under their dominion.  Only the greatest cities survived the legion's advances and many were destroyed.  Atlantis, Ur and the elven city of Celebair became islands of light in a darkening night.

Vet- Auun, angered by such a light punishment for godslaying, sired a christos to a human woman of Ur.  This man grew to become an honoured warrior, for it was obvious to all to saw him that he was possessed by the strength of the gods.  Ikslander they named him, and armies grew under his lead.  Such was his strength of arms and skill with the tactics of war that he slew the Legions and chased them until they were cornered into a deep valley.  Ikslander fought the brothers and took the hammer and sword and broke them.  He then rent Magog's armour from his form and Mirrith's face, which had been fashioned into a three eyed mask, from Gog.  Using the last of his power he shut the mountains, locking Gog and Magog with their Legion until the end of the Earth.

Ikslandir went on to create an Empire and he ruled long.  The spoils of the battle he locked into chests of dwarven metal, and when he passed from the mortal world they were brought with him to burial.  The Altantians brought him to the Sacred Valley, where those touched by the lords of Light are put to rest, and entombed with the chalice spoken of old, his half-elven queen and the Everliving Rose.

At the end of the Earth a human will awaken him, and his treasure will be stolen.  When the Mask and Armour are worn will Gog and Magog awaken and begin to delve a way through the mountains.  Only with these tokens, and the waking of the brothers, can the Four be overthrown and the remnants of the world spared.  If the Four should be banished, for another aeon, the Everliving Rose may be planted and Eden grow anew.

Codex Psychosia - Travelling Through the Endless Night

+++translated from Derekest dialect (Shan, loc. Nightlands)+++

Long has it been, months of night.  An age in the hour past sunset, I walk through the soft places near Ten O'clock.  There is sand here, waves of shifting dunes that flow and ebb into infinity.

It is not cold, not is it warm, for there is no temperature here.  The wind barely touches ones face, smelling of nutmeg, and pulls the coat upon my back.  The pilgrim beside me swears the wind smells of chocolate.

It had been a month before I came to the Kradena, from isles populated by the peoples of Quiddity in all their chaotic splendour.  It has been almost a Earthly year since I returned to the islands.  I had forgotten I had been here, the memory obscured from my mind, until Uriel arrived.

The pilgrim joined my company early on, sensing my need to return to the waking world.  He would lead me along the path and teach me the secrets of passing through.  I would bring him with me, along my memory of Earth, and stand under a sun again.  This was our deal, for good or ill.

I caught a qwtyllc entering the Kradena and wove a cage of Thornalis root.  These I gave to the pilgrim, who would in turn give them to my friends.  By this connection I might forge a path through the barrier of the Dreaming.

The qwtyllc would be bled  upon a stone thirty paces beyond the Gate of the Gods.  I must try to be at the edge of Kradena by then, at a temple made of ivory.  By the direction of the pilgrim I crafted a dowsing rod from the last shrub in the sands which points ever further into the sands.

There are few stars here, and they change positions when the eye isn't focused on them.  Violet clouds drift across the sky, never with the wind.  Once during my travel I saw a herd of massive animals which reminded me of buffalo, but they sensed us on the horizon and fled.

I've aged a year, perhaps more, my hair has grown long, and my hands are callused.  Surprisingly, my staff has changed, it has absorbed some of the essence of Quiddity and there is a whole new scope of power I can channel.

I look forward to returning, and with the pilgrim's scrying stone I can view them from afar, but only briefly, time passes faster in the Dying Dominion.  I look forward to returning with the task set out before us.

Transcendence Cast - Dyscathi, Master of Clans

Dyscathi, to many, is a legend. His name is well known in secret organizations, across Asia, and in myth. His influence has been felt in the highest corporate circles as well as the Clan House of Lords. Dyscathi has moved in the shadows of the upper echelon for ages.

He stands at five feet, and looks of Asian descent. He looks old and frail, but carries himself with a lord-like grace. His long black hair is pulled back into a ponytail which reaches his waist. He is mostly seen wearing a deep crimson robe, a black hat, and sandals. His augmentations are hidden subdermally, most notably a sabretooth laser and a shimmer. He is always seen with his bo-staff, the "ugly stick", made from an unidentified black stone.

Dyscathi's story truly begins with Mi, his sire. Mi had selected Dyscathi to join the undying due to his martial prowess sometime during the neolithic age. The first time Dyscathi is noted in history was during the reign of the Scorpion Kings during the creation of the kingdom of Egypt.

He is next noted as being present during the creation of the clans in the far east. During the Perusian conquests, Dyscathi was prominent in many battles leading the wolf clan's troops against the Greeks. After the rise of Alexander he lived with the Khmer and little is known of him.

Dyscathi appears next during the early 1900's when he joins the Order. He oversees much of the clan's interactions with the growing western world. In the early 2000's he meets Bob, and the two forge an easy agreement between Dyscathi's clans, the wolf and panther, and the beginnings of GIS corp. In AW 01, he and Bob found the Celestius Monarchus, a corporate group dedicated to angelic and infernal research and containment.

During the first few years after the Ice, Dyscathi applied himself to researching the newfound powers unleashed by the War. He forged the Path of the Scorched Heart, the way undying can walk in sunlight. His findings regarding the angelic and daemonic hosts are required reading for the new members of the Celestius Monarchus. Along with Bob and Haemoncilus, the newest combat armour was pioneered, leading to the Slayer series.

Dyscathi's current operations run under Clan or GIS authority, which allow him to work undetected by most. His current research is regarding the mask phenomenon, an odd occurrence when a being is held within a mask, as happens with many of the greater angels and daemons. Of his active teams, only two have yielded any applicable results, Transcendence and Ascendence, and have since been merged.

Dyscathi is very wealthy, having accumulated contacts and wealth over centuries, and has a mansion in nearly every city. He is cordial, the very picture of an ancient sensei, his diplomatic abilities only matched by is skill in martial arts. Although he chooses to operate from a distance, he is always calm in battle regardless of the opponent.

Of the other undying he has sired are Teej and Damien, but not many others. Dyscathi endeavors to keep his lineage simple, carefully selecting those who join his blood-family. He keeps his affairs low-key with a preference to subterfuge. With such a long history, he accepts losses graciously and pushes his teams hard with lavish rewards.

5th History, Part One

The events that happened before, and which caused the Neoarctic Age are shrouded and corroded. The few things that we do know about the Great War are from personal accounts saved in personal hard-drives, and although often biased, these allow us to reason the cause of this catastrophe.

At the time it was not called the Great War, in fact there seems to have been many stages, these stages were each termed 'wars' or 'operations'. Worldwide power-struggles were being held and were often covert. A system of governments were set up, each declaring an impartial system while being corrupt within. The monetary system was another arena which caused a massive divide in lifestyle between the rich and poor. Many accounts claim that the corporations had control and used capitalism as a weapon, divider and harness.

Nearly every pre-war home excavated has contained at least one personal computing device, as well as a 'television' or tv. Some tv's predate the War by nearly a century, having been embedded into culture and society. Through this media, and multiple industries which support it, dominated and pacified the majority of the population. In fact it has been found that a "pop culture" existed which served as a distraction and commodity.

While distractions and sales dominated the media, other issues were easier to avoid and ignore. While the groundwork was being done by pre-Corp military the media was tasked with the job of hiding the disagreeable facts. They did it fairly well, even to the extent of misinformation on social networking. By the beginning of the 21st century an ever-increasing awareness began to spread which triggered the first of many changes that century.

5th History is a historical account of the World of Damnation (5th Dominion, 7 AW, nWo).