A’Yona

 

(A’Yona is the setting of Verboten by HolyLancer. Check it out by clicking here!)

 

Other Appellations:

The Time-Cursed World (Alpha), Universe 51810 (Universe 161)

 

Fox Harmonic:

 

Tau-Delta

 

Astral Connection:

 

L4 D10

 

This universe was carefully constructed by the hands of deities who poured themselves into the concept of life granting it forms and modes as diverse as they were. Few universes have been so blessed by divine contact–and few have been so cursed.

 

Caution Rating:

 

7

 

There’s an incredibly misanthropic time god inside this universe who was/is/will be dead and who was/is/will be alive. His actions have scarred the temporal fabric of this universe, making precise, clear observation from ARGO probes impossible. He can spread himself through infectious darkness and convert other lifeforms into extensions of himself called the Nacht.

 

And then there is his superweapon, the sword Verboten. It cuts through time. It breaks cause and effect.

 

And it is shattered.

 

The fragments have scattered on the currents of the multiverse. ARGO probes have only begun to seek them out, but we have already confirmation that at least two other worlds have Verboten fragments within them.

Verboten, even in pieces, scrapes against the temporal order of a universe. It carves out furrows in time that connect A’Yona to other universes. In this way, the Verboten fragments form the superstructure of a multiverse, or in proper ARGO terminology, a series.

 

So yes, this world has a high caution rating. And it may even get higher.

 

Multiverse Activity:

 

Frequent

 

Verboten fragments form the superstructure of an entire multiverse the scope of which we can only speculate.

 

Keywords:

 

Created, Observe Only,

 

This world’s temporal structure is dramatically different from what we are used to owing to Verboten fragments carving up time. This makes it difficult for our probes to observe A’Yona. We receive images from the past and future all vying to be the present. It also makes it very hard to contact A’Yona. We can’t be sure where–or when–a contact arrives, so we haven’t bothered sending one and have placed A’Yona on the observe only list.

 

Description:

 

It is year 0.

 

In this time-before-time, the gods roll out space and hang up the stars, as gods are wont to do from time-to-time. The physical cosmos stretches like an infinite sandbox below their Astral home. The temptation for play is too great for any immortal heart to resist.

 

The gods that wove space and forged the stars were kind to A’Yona. They believed in the value of life and poured themselves into the concept of life. They placed their love, their anger, their pride, all the emotions and ideas they valued, into life, and life on A’Yona was as varied as they were. There were humans with all their familiar virtues and vices, feralian beastmen who shunned the growing civilizations of man for the serenity of hidden glens and remote mountaintops, and dragons whose shimmering scales reflected the inner fire and color of their souls.

 

ARGO Note:

 

Yes, that means we can add A’Yona to the dragon list. Researcher Jones will be happy to hear it. He just loves comparing Vovin dragons to Tiendi dragons to whatever-dragons.

 

–Researcher Hand

 

A’Yona would have been a very peaceful universe if not for the actions of a single god.

 

Recall the story of the Kingdom. It only takes one god to ruin the plans of all the other gods. For the Kingdom, the culprit was a god of death. For A’Yona, the culprit was a god of time.

 

The god of time was a misanthrope. None can say what particular grievance he had with the concept of life, but he hated it with every tick and tock of his heart. Where the other gods showered life with blessings, he gave a curse, like a cosmic version of the witch that cursed Sleeping Beauty. He gave life time and it represented–age, death, and impermanence.

 

The virtues of impermanence have been debated since the First-to-dream broke away from the First-to-rule, but there is no doubt that the god of time intended for time to be curse. His ultimate end was not change but consistency–a consistent, eternal darkness that swallowed all starlight. He wanted to drag the universe through time and slam it against an abrupt end–and he would has succeeded in doing just that if the other gods didn’t intercede on behalf of life.

 

But the god of time was easily the most powerful member of his pantheon. He waded through his kindred, slaughtering them left and right with his mighty sword, a superweapon named Verboten which cleaved ages and cut possibilities abrupt. Hope died on its edge like everything else.

 

It took all the powers of the gods to seal away the god of time–and then he broke loose.

The few surviving gods were finally able to defeat him, finally able to kill him, and shatter Verboten into countless fragments that blew away on the cosmic currents of macrospace, carried away to the strange shores of different universes.

 

But gods cannot die. The homo fabula cannot die. At best, they are put to sleep. They are made inert. They are pacified and subdued. But gods never die, especially when they’re gods of time. Time just keeps going.

 

The god of time is once again active…though it would be more accurate to say that the god of time was/is/will be active.

The temporal fabric of A’Yona has been scrambled by the god of time’s actions. ARGO probes are only able to peer through the timestorm to give us glimpses and snatches of points where temporal energy converges. These convergence points are centered around the planet from which this universe takes its synecdoche–a planet much like Earth in ecology but wilder, stranger, and younger.

 

The year is 1167.

Yojiro Shoju, the latest in a long line of expert warriors in service to the kingdom of St. Geneva, struggles under the burden of his legacy. He is a skilled warrior, but a far cry from his brother, Lord Nigeru. He serves as a humble knight, and seems to exhibit little promise, much to the confusion of King Giovanni.

The year is 1160.

 

Shoju spars with his brother Nigeru and learns from him that they live in a age where the ideals of knighthood are distant. Meanwhile, a half-feralian named Aryssa encounters a white scaled dragon who leads her away from a danger only he can sense.

 

The year is 1161

 

Nigeru leads the armies of St. Geneva against King Giovanni’s rivals, the Southern Guard, when the time god and his Nacht suddenly appear and assimilate first the Southern Guard and then Nigeru’s own army. Nigeru survives by unleashing his greatest secret–that he is wielder to a fragment of Verboten large enough and powerful enough to be used as a sword. Though Nigeru is successful in driving away the time god, he knows that the god will try again.

 

The year is…indeterminable, but judging by mentions of Genevan soldiers, likely sometimes around the Southern Guard war. A bard, scout, and rake named Ulysses Sol rescues a coach from a band of highwaymen with skills that demonstrate why King Giovanni hires him as a scout for his forces.

 

The year is sometime far, far into the future. An older Shoju boards a train, a technological marvel, and quickly leaves it when his strange black pocket watch warns him of something important…

 

The images come, the images go, revealing fragments of a picture the whole none may know.

 

Individuals of Note

 

Yojiro Shoju

 

 

For generations the Yojiro clan has served the Genevan Empire well. Each generation produces a single male heir, an invincible, elite warrior, a leader of man, an indispensable unit. Each generation–until now.

 

Yojiro is the younger brother of Nigeru, the hero-general of Emperor Giovanni’s forces. He possesses none of Nigeru’s skill, ability, or promise, which makes his liege wonder–just what is Yojiro’s purpose in life?

 

If he only knew…

 

Raw Power 6

Durability 7

Speed 4

Sanity 4

Intelligence 3

Skill 5

 

Ulysses Sol

 

 

A independent bard who sometimes dons the uniform of a Genevan soldier to work as hired scout for King Giovanni, though his true loyalty is to his own heart. Though he seems to be a troubadour dandy at first glance, he is much more than a traveling entertainer as many brigands have learned the hard way.

 

He is completely irresponsible when it comes to the opposite sex.

 

Raw Power 5

Durability 5

Speed 6

Sanity 5

Intelligence 8

Skill 9

 

Aryssa

 

 

A half-human, half-feralian who chafes under feralian customs of isolation. She longs to learn about the other side of her heritage even though she is told that humans are dangerous and best left alone. She is a kind girl who follows her heart, and her heart tells her to seek humans.

 

She is very good with animals and has met and befriended a dragon hatchling of purest white, a sign that it is special and rare among dragons. She has named the dragon Whitelove, and it is her campion as she travels down a road she cannot fathom.

 

Raw Power 3

Durability 2

Speed 8

Sanity 6

Intelligence 3

Skill 3

 

 

The God of Time

 

 

The people of Pegana say that time is a devourer. It consumes what is and leaves behind what was. Time ages youth to dust. Time is the mouth of the night and into it falls every sunset until there are no more sunsets. Then the universe becomes like time, a vast, cold, maw with a hunger for warmth that will never again be satisfied.

Though beings like Timeliner might protest time being given such a description, it can’t be denied that for A’Yona, the description holds true.

 

The time god lived, lives, will live. His defeat at the hands of the other gods weakened him. He cannot manifest in physical reality with all his might. He is limited in power and seeks a way to break his limits so that he can plunge the world into everlasting darkness. Even in his limited form he has made significant progress towards his goals. His darkness spreads in the form of the Nacht, shadowy beings that spread their corruption to others. The Nacht could consume the world if not for a wrinkle in the time god’s plans–a fragment of Verboten large enough to be a sword, large enough to be wielded against him…

 

 

Raw Power X

Durability X

Speed X

Sanity -10

Intelligence ?

Skill X