Plot Summary

[Catalyst Echo]

I never believed in the Gods. They were part of our far-flung past, having long abandoned the vestiges of our race. We were once mighty. We were once feared. Now, our heritage has dwindled to a few remnants of the power my ancestors wielded. I do not know how we fell so far. Maybe it was because the Gods never believed in us.

Two hundred years ago, an organization known simply as the Force took control of several large quadrants of the universe. Of course, they were met with resistance. Any striving against their endeavor to bring peace to every galaxy was annihilated with absurd ease, snuffed out like a weak flame on a flickering candle. Among these groups were the infamous Aengels, lawless assassins whose brutality knew no tether. Led by a man known as Herald Death, they stood against the Force.

And they too were massacred.

In time, the Aengels were forgotten, and the Force instituted their System. Crime was abolished, and war ceased. Yet every day, I found yet another friend or acquaintance had been taken for “preventative measures.” Every being lives in fear, looking constantly over a shoulder for the reach of the Force’s infinite hand. Quiet barbarians, I once thought to myself. The Force is a huge compilation of educated, quiet barbarians with no real aspiration for happiness and peace. The Force knows only control, and will keep its reins clenched tightly within their fist until the end of eternity.

Most certainly, the Gods had forgotten us.

Or so I thought, until last night. In my feverish sleep, a vision in gold came to me- a man that proclaimed himself a God. A god, no less that had looked down on the universe and sneered at what he saw. The time for Order was over, he asserted. This sort of peace was nothing remotely close to happiness. Life is not worth living without chaos.

He stood with the stature of a king, and his eyes blazed as though they might ignite any second. A lupine tail flowed from his waist-...a mark of the old ones, far before our evolution. My breath caught in my throat, as if my trachea lay clutched between his massive hands.

Overwhelmed, I fell to my knees and asked this burning deity what such musings had to do with me, a humble man of the sword and anvil. I write with trembling hands, still cold with the sweat I awoke in, and I recall his words with a shudder.

“You, Eveyto Furien Kai, will be my catalyst.” His voice, amplified with the breath of a thousand men and imbued with an authority I’d only heard whispers of among my family, carried no room for argument. “You will resurrect the Aengels, hone their methods, and through them destroy The Force!”

I awoke with his shouts still ringing in my ears. As I fumbled through the blankets on my bed, my hand caught something silk, unfamiliar. Once again, as I write, my eyes are drawn to it…a small, black feather.

I know not what it symbolizes, what purpose it yields in my grasp. I am a simple man, of average wit and skill. I have the blood of my ancestors and the possible power within it...but beyond the strength of my own hands, I fear I am ill-prepared.

I am by no means a master of revolution.

But if this deity believes I can overthrow these oppressive men, gods in their own right…then I will be his catalyst, the resurrection of the Aengels, or die trying.

Let it begin.

-from the scrawls of Eveyto Kai, Catalyst Echo





I write this in blood...Not to prove a point...but because soon blood will be more abundant than ink...

And it is always best to conserve resources. But ink will have no place soon. It's only place will be to scratch hastily scrawled wills. Even those shall come to pass with time, for there will be none to inherit. I have discovered this in a myriad of experiences that happened all at once. I wish I could say I understood it all, but I would be lying. It was something of a dream, but so much more.

He said his name was Month'kai...He said he was Nightmare...

From the far-stretching vestiges of blackness he whispered to me. In my most desperate state, he aided me. Tore me down. The feelings I felt when the multitude of voices hovered next to me, raising the hackles on the back of my neck, on my arms...I have never known that sort of fear...But what he said...It made me recall those years ago when I had been announced messiah of our people...

I felt...Power.

I am unaware of how it happened, but somehow we, my sisters and myself, escaped that horrible blackness. With the bright sun on us once more, the frost that glistened on the ground, on our skin, and on our hearts started to melt. But some things just cannot thaw out. Like the voice in resonating in my skull. I feel as though I have changed. No longer am I a mere courier...A messenger to a deposed royalty, now I am the Prince...And these words...shall be my courier...my message to my subjects...

I clawed my way off of that rock, I struggled to tear free the bondage that kept me and my distraught sisters rooted there in the nightmarish fever that clung to us like the chills that racked our bodies. I do not know what day or month or year it is...But none of that matters. Because soon calendars shall be useless...Only blood will have currency...For as Month'Kai told me in those limitless nights of endless wake...My eyelids frozen open from my own tears welling up, my brain too numb to find sanction to rest...He told me not to worry of day, or month, or year...For soon the only thing that will matter will be Ages....He told me not to worry of day or month or year...For although I was born in one Age...I have been reborn to bring about another...

An Age of Black...An Age of Blood...An Age of Ash

And the universe shall be my kindling

--From the writings of Ashar Yvoch Galantine

A change is coming upon the universe, welcome or not, an age that will catapult Herric, Forcemen, and feckless Aengels into an all out war. Choose your side carefully...

Are you an Aengel, a member of the unorthodox network of mercenaries, specialists, common people, and other warriors who yearn to shatter the placid tranquility the Force has created?

Or are you a member of the Force, adamant in your views, with a clear knowledge of that which is right and moral? Will you rise to squelch the hellish demons that threaten your peace and the lives of your civilians?

Perhaps you are a Herric, scrambling in a desperate quest for knowledge before the world is wiped out, gathering relics to compile their true power...?

Or maybe...just maybe...you're a bystander that got swept into it all, either by your hand or that of Fate's?

Whatever path you may choose, rest assured: the time to find your place in eternity is now.