The inhabitants of Aetherius have awakened to a very unusual sight. The air was filled with the sound of craskling energy, bolts of lightning were crossing the sky and hitting people, and the ground was shaking wildly. Puzzled, the adventurers began questioning the scholars around the lands, but nobody had any answers.
A lightning-filled day later, a bright series of lightnings has illuminated the skies, beating repeatedly into the ground in the Aoash hills. Many adventurers hurried to the location as soon as the lightnings subsided, and Aleutia was the first one to discover a small cave uncovered by the strike.
The cave, which still showed signs of having been inhabited many years ago, contained a long inscription carved into the rock, and several smaller carvings on the side. After an initial confusion, the gathered adventurers realized that the strange glyphs are actually an encoded message, and that the smaller carvings are clues.
Several groups of adventurers were working on decrypting the message, and they quickly discovered that the message has been written many centuries ago by one Dakhor Spilae, a scholar from the ancient Caanae. In the message, he claims to have built several powerful obelisks on power nodes that he has discovered on islands surrounding the continent. The obelisks supposedly drew on the power of the Diachaim to provide defensive measures for the city of Caanae.
He then went on to describe how the experiment backfired and the energy started discharging in lightning bolts, eventually leading to a large lightning bolt colliding with the then-whole moon itself. Dakhor's group has managed to disable the obelisks, but he was worried that they could eventually reactivate again. For this reason, he has prepared a way to have the lightning bolts discharge against sources of metallic rock, which then can be used to build power generators used to control the obelisks' power.
The plan was initiated by pushing a stone lever hidden in a chasm west from the Egeria forest. Ristani was the first one to discover the chasm in the Byley plains, and as he pushed the concealed lever, the crackling of energy was replaced by an ominous silence.
Before long, another bright lightning struck the ground in the Byley plains, followed by more strikes in the Ik'taru expanse and the Nogba wetlands. Each strike caused a chunk of the metallic rock to be separated, and the adventurers started pushing them into their home cities and councils.
The first chunks were claimed without much opposition, as the information about the rocks has not spread out yet. The very first rock was discovered by Oburi and pushed to the confines of the Stavenn Empire. Ristani found the second rock, delivering it into the city of Kinsarmar, while Dias delivered the third rock into the desert city of Antioch.
At that point, however, the adventurers realized that allowing their enemies free access to the mysterious rocks may not be in their best interests, and many of the subsequent rocks were only obtained at the cost of much bloodshed.
The desert city of Antioch had a significant advantage in numbers, and managed to seize most of the rocks for themselves. Despite an uneasy alliance that has formed between the users of pure magick and demonick magick, the city of Antioch has obtained the necessary number of rocks and the Minister of War, Guardas, ordered building of a generator. After the generator was completed, Ozreas and Anatolia led the assault against the Obelisk of Sukhder, successfully bringing it under Antioch's control.
The forest council of Khandava was the second one to collect the necessary metallic rocks and the construction of a generator has been initiated by Sanai, who has also led an assault against the Obelisk of Aryana.
As the situation stands now, the Empire of Stavenn and the Celidon Council have also completed their generators and seized an obelisk for themselves, while the city of Kinsarmar and the council of Ithaqua are busy finishing generators of their own. And as each of the factions seeks to usurp as much power as it possibly can, the conflict between them threatens to flare with renewed intensity.
Penned by my hand on the 5th of Fas, in the year 608 AD.