Microstory 716: Life at Full Glory

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In the original list of final taikon, we were taught that the predictions would start ramping up to a climax of some kind. It was a little vague about how things would end, mostly because part of the idea is that it’s meant to be our choice. One thing we knew was that life would start getting more and more intense until events reached critical mass, and an inevitable conclusion came bursting into the galaxy. These new taikon from the Book of Anseluka have taken the opposite route, especially when matched with the actual turnout of events. Life in the galaxy is more stable than it ever has been, even before the Light Wars. We have opened negotiations with other civilizations for trade and general communication. Our relationship with Lactea as a whole is stronger than we ever thought possible, especially considering just a few years ago, we were completely hidden from them. At home, our population is thriving. Immortality is available to all now, and we are on our way towards near ubiquitous defeat of death. There are still subcultures who choose to remain standard human, and they are allowed to do so, of course. Planets have been rebuilt to former glory following years of quantum darkness where only hardened life could survive. Some worlds, however, have been abandoned entirely. Many have chosen to consolidate, not just out of necessity, but also because of a deeper sense of community and culture than we could appreciate before. Overall, Fostea is much different than it has been for the last several centuries; different than our founders had planned on us being. Whereas before we considered ours to be the greatest galaxy in the universe, we are quickly proving this to outsiders by accepting new ideas, and reevaluating our methods in good faith. There are only five taikon left, but whatever comes, we know we’ll be okay, because we are a strong and proud people. Bring it on, as the Earthans say.

Microstory 715: Closing Earthquake

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When the seven Heroes were finished with their jobs, they left the universe, one by one, utilizing the magical doors that would appear out of nowhere.  By now, it has been almost exactly eight years since The Light Wars began. Though we have yet to declare their end, we are now in a period of peace. As if to mark this occasion, on December 21, 2012 Earth Common Era, an earthquake erupted off the coast of an Earthquake island nation called Vanuatu. This was significantly smaller than the inciting quake in 2004 ECE, but the epicenters were not too far from each other. The later one has largely been considered the final breath of a dying world, the destruction of which began following the first quake. Out of this event came an interesting development. The Lactean irritants who once plagued Fostea—and disappeared after their unique contribution to the first Light War battle–resurfaced. They return to a changed universe, marked by the embers of reconciliation between the cluster’s greatest two cultures. In fact, an intergalactic council has formed of present informality. While we are working on solidifying this joint effort, the ad hoc members currently seated at the table are planning the observation of a holiday that can be enjoyed by us all. The working title is Ember Day. At the same time, Lightseers are continuing to evolve the faith, taking into consideration a sense of community never felt before. We look forward to the oncoming remaining taikon as well, now with fresh perspective on the endeavor. Though the Light of Truth was always meant to shine on all things, we now recognize that this happens across a broader spectrum. What we once perceived as darkness may, in fact, be nothing worse than a different shade of the Light. We have always appreciated diversity, but now we know what that truly means. Furthermore, we see the value in darkness, for it is what gives light meaning. This is what the taikon have been trying to show us the whole time, and we are grateful for this lesson. And what luck it is that our budding relationships with our neighbors have begun now, for we are in the midst of recovery from the quantum darkness, and the Light Wars. The galaxy is nearing comparable levels of habitability to where they were before this all started...better, even.

Microstory 714: Seven Signals Sound

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The Book of Anseluka outlines seven final battles, each one led by one of the seven Heroes that appeared from their respective seven universes, to be signaled seven unique sounds. As soon as they arrived in Universe Prime, we believed our troubles to be near over. We assumed the Heroes would want to get to work right away so that they would be able to return home. Out of all of them, The Warrior was really the only one with any slight level of interest in helping us. This may have been because he spends his days suddenly fighting against new enemies, so this didn’t seem abnormal to him. The rest expressed their reservations, for they did not know who we were, or why they should help us fight the Thuriamen. This is understandable, and we knew we wouldn’t be able to convince them with our words alone. They would need to understand the severity of our situation, as told from multiple perspectives. Highlightseers, galaxy leaders, and other respected Fostean citizens held a new summit; the first of its kind. We met with leaders from The Core, Exile, other Lactean systems, and even Earth, on a neutral planet in a random uninhabited galaxy. There we were able to help the Heroes understand just how important it is that we snuff out the Thuriamen threat once and for all. But we also made great strides in our relationship with the Lacteans. Our ties to the communists in the Core are still flimsy, at best, but we have made new friends in the Exiles, who were able to convey to us a desire for traditional capitalistic trade in the open market. We have ignited a new Light of Comradery. In the end, all of the Heroes agreed to help us, for the sake of the greater community. Theirs is a story for a different book, but thanks to them the war was finally ended, complete with a groundbreaking peace deal made between Thuriama, and the rest of us.

Microstory 713: Seven Heroes Appear

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While Luvras Seldasic, Loctener to Sacred Savior, Sotiren Zahir, was in the middle of his third song in the Haplen Magnus Building, a door appeared out of nowhere. At first, nothing happened, but then it opened, and out came a group of people. They were all dressed differently, and regarded their new surroundings with varying levels of surprise and intrigue. By now, a sizeable audience had formed to listen to Seldasic’s recital, and most probably believed this to be part of it. A few, however, made the connection between there being exactly seven of them, and there being seven Heroes foretold in the Book of Anseluka. Seldasic had the urge to continue his performance, so his assistant escorted the visitors to the nearest Nexus, where they were transported to Hiereus so that they could be verified by Seamus’ Ring of Law. They easily passed the test, supported by the independent studies experts, who had no doubt that these are the seven predicted Heroes that would appear to help win the war against the Thuriamen. Though the door from which they came mysteriously disappeared before anyone could investigate, those who know their history will recognize that as a special portal to other universes, like the one where Eido Mateo originated. We do not yet know how the Heroes will help us in our efforts, but we do know a little bit about who they are, and what they’ve been through, and that they’re all from some version of Earth.

The first to walk through the door provided us with no proper name, requesting we refer to him simply as The Warrior. He was born in the past, in a land with little technology, during a time of war. He was badly injured on the battlefield when a sword randomly appeared to him, allowing him to defeat his foe, and survive. As it turns out, though we more often associate the weapon with Eido Mateo, the Sword of Assimilation actually belongs to the Warrior. He’s been using it to travel through time for years. The second Hero is named Honor Beringer. She was born to a world at war as well, but in a more general sense, with civilization having slowly crumbled and died. She was forced upon a generation ship when she was little, by a group of people hoping to save the human race from extinction by sending a fraction of them to another world. Matilda Förstner’s life was filled with less danger. She chose to enter military service when she was an adult, and is now a heavily dedicated war hero. Before arriving in our universe, she was living comfortably with a safe office job, in a position of great leadership. Joshua Bacon was unable to serve in the military due to having been born blind. He has studied his world’s military history, and is already proving to be a brilliant tactician. Though he may not be able to fight physically, he will prove to be an invaluable resource for our strategy in ending the Light Wars. Shiloh Kingsley is not a fighter, per se, but was known for his bravery in the face of danger on his world. In fact, he belongs to a class of humans who do not usually go by their given names, instead being addressed by unique titles. His callsign is Courage. Amaranti Houston is experienced in martial arts, using her skills and custom technology domestically to protect people, and fight against evil. And finally we have Ariel Grant. She has spoken very little since arriving. We know her to have her own experiences in battle, but she has not gotten into detail about it. We believe her to have worked in law enforcement more recently. We are fortunate to have seven valiant champions. The Light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak, is now shining brightly upon our faces.

Microstory 712: A Jaded Man Made Curious

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The discovery the Book of Anseluka was not the happiest time in our galaxy’s history. We had gathered so many more followers of the Light than we had ever had before, that it was a particularly nasty blow when we learned our faith would have to change. Had the revelation that we would one day have to retire the Book of Light come sooner, it might not have been so bad for our interstellar economy. But with nearly everyone now on board, it was just too much. Fortunately for these people—new followers, and old loyalists, alike—their luck would soon change. A quantum field known as the Force of Hope began affecting everyone, on every planet, nearly simultaneously. We grew more optimistic, possibly even more so than we were before the war against Thuriama started. This caused a reaffirmation of our obligation and dedication to spreading the Light of Truth across the universe. We were more determined to win the Light Wars, and we were more capable of it. There was one, however, who somehow never experienced this reinvigoration. Luvras Seldasic has maintained his faith in the Light throughout his tenure as the Loctener, just as he has his entire life. The Force of Hope, however, never managed to shine the soul within him. His closest officials have described him as numb, or on a sort of automatic pilot mode. He would do as he was asked by the resurrected Sotiren, and he always acted upon the needs of Fosteans and Lightseers, but he had no passion. One might even say that he had become jaded. Luckily for him, this would not last forever. As predicted by Anseluka, the Force of Hope suddenly awakened inside of him, like a light switch being flipped. One moment, he was his usual hardened and immovable self, and then the next, his heart was filled with wonder and curiosity. With no provocation, he started singing in the Great Hall of the Magnus Building on Haplen. He looked at everything around him with renewed interest, as if he hadn’t ever seen an object before. Doctors would call this phenomenon jamais vu, but we know it as something else: the fulfillment of a taikon. Now we have a true Loctener, and nothing will stop us from salvation.

Microstory 711: New Faction Martyred

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We are nearing the end of these one hundred and twenty-one taikon, and the Fostean galaxy is in a monumentally different place now than it was when these first started. We thought we had it all figured out. We had hundreds of years to perfect our economy and sociopolitical culture, so surely nothing could be better than what we had come up with. But this was foolish, for our predecessors in the Lactean galaxy had several times that many years to perfect their own way of life, and they still managed to get it wrong. But maybe they were onto something here. Maybe there are some things they can teach us, just like there is much we can teach them. Far from the leaders that once ruled our civilizations, there are those who feel this to be the truth. They are already in discussions with the Core, hoping to form some sort of amicable relationship. Lacteans have expressed a willingness to trade resources, while at the same time providing military strength against our common enemy in the Thuriamen. Throughout these changes, a faction of Lightseers have begun adopting new rituals and practices. It is still a form of Lightseed, to be sure, but they are more passionately in favor of the new taikon discovered in the Book of Anseluka. They value predominantly a community-oriented economy, believing that everyone has their own contribution to make, and that no man is more important than any other. They help each other hone their natural skills, and find their place in the universe, rather than simply encouraging each member to find their own way. The majority of those on the outside of this new faction are accepting of them, and willing to let them carry on in peace. Others, however, feel differently. They are staunch traditionalists, believing the Sacred Savior’s original words in the Book of Light to be flawless. This despite the fact that Sotiren Zahir admits within the text of the Book of Light that if change is necessary, it should not be resisted. These conservatives felt their ideals were being threatened by the presence of a rival faction, even though sects are no longer considered in competition. They misinterpreted the text of the new taikon, thinking they were the foretold martyrs of their faith. They struck first, massacring the majority of the community-based faction, which actually acted to martyr them instead. The attackers’ faction was immediately disbanded, with all violent members being sent to jail to await judgment, and likely incarceration. A memorial to the progressive martyrs is planned for construction on Lakre, not too far from the memorial already being erected in remembrance of those lost in the Hydra Support Network.

Microstory 710: Fruit of Restraint

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The resurrected Sacred Savior, Sotiren Zahir demanded he be transported to the nearest nexus so he could reach Ileana Ulaire, who had just been killed in a freak accident involving the Belt of Andrea. The device had malfunctioned while she was trying to use it to pass through a wall, causing her to be trapped inside of it. Of course, her death occurred instantly, but Sotiren was too distraught to listen to reason. He stole two weapons from his personal guardsmen so he could start blasting the walls away. He wasn’t just trying to get her out of it, but also needed some sort of outlet for his rage. As an accident, there was really no one to blame. The inventor likely died thousands of years ago, and even if they hadn’t, no one knew exactly who it was. This was ancient technology, and in all honesty, it shouldn’t have held up even this long. Perhaps one could blame the Lactean irritants for having gifted Ileana with it years ago, but since they were missing, there was no one Zahir could hurt. Had he been offered some focus of his anger, he might have been able to take care of it quickly, and move on. Without one, however, his anger continued, completely unabated by anyone of his followers’ attempts at calming him down. A man like that could destroy a whole world in a matter of days, and no one would be able to stop him, because they all believe in him. In all of enigmatic Anseluka’s wisdom, however, hope was not lost. The next new taikon foretold the achievement of the final Fruit of the Divine Light, which was one of only a few taikon with recognizable analogs in the original list of the last taikon.

A group of scientists was recently commissioned by the Serving Loctener, Luvras Seldasic to create a new breed of angiosperm that would bear the Fruit of Restraint. Technically, they completed their work before the two previous taikon were realized, but both the Book of Light, and the Book of Anseluka allow some latitude when it comes to order. The fruit, which has not gained an official name yet—though those involved are leaning towards either urjaen or hypojs, after its primary creators—acts like a drug, affecting the body and mind in a variety of ways. Unlike the Fruit of Gentleness, the Fruit of Restraint simply physically prevents the consumer from acting on their impulses, rather than causing tranquility. It targets specific areas of the brain, and almost as if it can reads minds, prevents you from carrying out your current most primal desires. It’s capable of becoming an incredibly dangerous weapon. While certain factions in the galaxy are protesting the fruit of restraint’s creation, and call for its destruction, others cry for it to be used as a response to the Thuriamen war bananas. It is as yet unclear what part it will play in the future, if any. For now, only Sotiren Zahir was given a dose of the fruit, and only due to dire circumstances. There is no telling how many lives this act saved. We are just grateful the divine books were written by such wise men who somehow knew this all would happen. Otherwise, no one would have thought to make something like this.

Microstory 709: Death of the Firstborn

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For the few years, ever since the revelation that we will now be working through a new taikon path, parents have been worried over this one. The Death of the Firstborn seemed like a pretty clear warning. Though, the passage on it in the Book of Anseluka speaks about family as a more general concept, rather than literal genetic links. We should have, therefore predicted what would happen. As far as we know, no parents have recently lost their firstborn children, at least not beyond casualties of our war with Thuriama. Those deaths have been happening since the Light Wars began, and no recent losses could be characterized as being different, or more exceptional, than the others. No, this was not what the taikon was referring to. Ileana Ulaire, the replacement for Eido Andrea was the only notable death since what we consider to be the accomplishment of the taikon before. She was the first eido replacement since the taikon began, and was actually appointed before Sotiren Zahir was even resurrected, as was Seamus. After millennia of progress, we have developed safeguards, and technology capable of curing nearly all diseases, and of treating just about ever injury imaginable. Still, there are some freak accidents that even we cannot fix. Even if we could, those who discovered Ileana’s body quickly realized this to be the fulfillment of a taikon, and would have been forbidden from saving her. As explained, a group of Irritants, which mysteriously disappeared from the galaxy years ago, came upon Fostea before the taikon started, looking to cause trouble. They ended up gifting the Belt of Andrea to Ileana, however, evidently seeing their constant meddling to be inappropriate. Ironically, we have now adopted some of those people’s principles, as some of them originated on Earth. We do not believe their gift to be a tool for deadly subterfuge, but that does not make Ileana Ulaire any less dead. She was one day using it to pass through walls, as her predecessor would do casually, when it experienced a literal catastrophic failure. Something in the device became corrupted, and disengaged while Ileana was in the middle of a cement wall. Only the front part of her body managed to exit the other side before this error, or loss of power. We know there to have been preventative redundancies in the design, so we don’t know how this could have happened,  but experts do not suspect foul play. Many have attributed this event to the New Light itself, but the resurrected Sacred Savior sees it differently. It has caused him to fly into a rage.

Microstory 528: So-called Light Wars Begin Over Earth

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Our great galaxy’s animosity towards Lactea cannot be overstated. They are full of communists who value nothing. Ever citizen, regardless of how hard they’ve worked—and except for a few “contribution requirements”—is provided for. They are all immortal, telekinetic, and uninteresting. They represent all that our people hate about the universe, and they have always been our worst enemies...until now. As it turns out, there is an even worse way to do things. There is that Lactean rule that says one is not allowed to enjoy the benefits of the system without having some sort of vocation. That vocation may entail sitting in a room, reading a book, and making sure a robot doesn’t malfunction, but it is technically a job that the government accepts. Following that requirement, citizens are free to act as they please. They may travel where they want, learn what they want, and marry who they want. This is not so when it comes to the evil society of Thuriama.

Thuriama is the name of the new branch of Amadesis that rose from the ashes of its former self after the destruction of its originating planet. Amadesis is the most heinous and despicable religion ever created. Its entire purpose is to poison everything it touches, and infect outsiders with their twisted ideals in religious devotion. This particular sect focuses most deeply in the concept of the soul, hidden in their claims of bringing light to the blind. The idea of controlling someone by accessing their soul energy has been a goal of theirs since the seeds of the sect was first planted by historical figure, Ellaraitch. It is not yet clear if they have succeeded in their endeavors, but what we do know is that they are executing at least more traditional forms of fidelity on a compartmentalized group of their own population. Historians believe that they cloned or bred an entire subpopulation designed specifically to serve them. As Fosteans, of course, we find the idea of enslaved humans to be disgusting. It is one of the few laws that we even have. The Thuriamen have no such law, and have been exploiting free-thinking individuals for whatever dastardly plans they have. And so it is with a full understanding of irony that the Fostean leaders have teamed up with Lactea to combat these terrible people. We would normally avoid interfering with other cultures, but it was nearly unanimously felt that standing back threatened our galaxy. If the Thuriamen indeed have the ability to control others, that is something that must be stopped. We have done things our own way, though, and acted somewhat against our alliance with Lactea. We decided to attack Thuriama first. Unfortunately, since Thuriama is located in higher complex dimensions, this meant risking exposing ourselves to veiled Earthans. Details on our battle campaign are forthcoming, but there is one thing that we can tell you. The Light Wars have just begun.

Microstory 67: The Typhon Lie

The Typhons were a fabricated race of aliens from another galaxy. They were imagined by a task force as part of the Ceresian-Eridani Interstellar Unity Initiative. They are said to resemble giant snakes with the head in the shape of a large skull. The Eridani claimed that the Typhons invaded and warred with them for almost a thousand years (which is equivalent to about 1,019 Earthan years). In that time they supposedly inadvertently taught the Eridani all they needed to know about military strategy and execution. In truth, with help from Ceresian refugees, the Eridani procured historical documents and other literature regarding the wars on other planets to gain their military knowledge. The Eridani used the Typhon lie and what they had learned, not to fight, but to assert themselves as the dominant military race, discouraging others from fighting each other. This elaborate and convoluted plan ultimately proved successful. There was a modern movement to uncover the truth about the Typhons. Several skeptics came together and started to question whether they ever existed. The movement, however, was quashed following the 25th Century Typhon Infestation. It was only a recent development that the Core revealed that the Typhons were, in fact, originally not real. All evidence points to a rogue group of scientists from Fostea that genetically engineered these new Typhons in retaliation for the Light Wars.