The Bookwyrm

OUTLINE

Setup:

The planet Antia is a prosperous world, filled with glorious kingdoms and a bustling civilization. It has connections to several other planets, including the frozen world of Ken’tir, which orbits the same sun, Krenos, and whose people struggle in a harsh environment. The people of Antia often help them, sending supplies and aid.

Antia has two ancient secrets, however, and a responsibility tied to them. 

In an ancient conflict thousands of years prior, a dark force was sealed away across the universe. This conflict isolated planets and reverted technology, so Antia only has connections to relatively few other worlds and a medieval era level of technology. On Antia, there is a sealed gateway, which connects to the world where forces of darkness dwell. Every so often, this seal weakens enough to release monsters back into the world, which are fought back by the people of Antia. This cycle has continued for centuries.

Antia also houses a hidden relic of power known as a Signet. In the conflict thousands of years before, they were used by incredibly powerful beings as weapons and tools in the war, fighting to seal away this deadly evil. Once the threat was sealed away, the Signets were hidden across the stars. Antia holds one of them, in part due to the fact that it has a gateway to a prison world.

Part 1:

King Eganir is crowned the twenty-first ruler of Antia after his parent’s demise in one of the wars fought after a weakening of the sealed gateway. He’s relatively young, but has to shoulder a great responsibility; signs are increasing that the gateway is weakening to the point  that it will break altogether, releasing this great evil fully and greatly endangering Antia and the various planets it’s connected to. Prophecies are spoken by magic users of Antia warning of this future.

In a desperate attempt to try and gain an upper hand in the coming war, Eganir goes on a hunt for Antia’s hidden Signet. It takes him years of searching, but with the help of knowledgeable historians and magic users, he finds it, hidden in a deep cavern below the earth. It takes the shape of an ornate sword at the moment, but it's true power is far greater than it’s appearance might suggest.

Eganir takes the Signet and begins to learn its ways. In the years leading up to the gateway’s breaking, several loosenings occur, in which smaller amounts of monsters pour into the world. Eganir uses the Signet to win these wars, defending his people.

It is during this time that the first form of corruption begins to take hold; Eganir grows attached to the Signet and the power it holds. He finds pleasure in wielding it, and is glad he’s able to use it to help his people. This doesn’t manifest in corrupt actions yet, as he’s reigned in by his responsibility as a leader and to protect his planet, which combats possible corruption.

An effect of the Signet becomes clear as the years go by; Eganir ages far more slowly, until he stops at about the age of 35. He’s become immortal due to the Signet’s influence. This portends a future form of corruption.

Part 2:

Eventually, after decades of preparation, the seal breaks. A war ensues, one that ravages Antia and the surrounding worlds. During this era, the leadership of the world of Ken’tir becomes corrupted by evil influence, actually joining the side of darkness in the conflict. Having many friends on Ken’tir, Eganir feels betrayed.

The conflict rages for years, but with the unimaginable power of the Signet, the forces of light win. In a great final conflict on the plains of Antia, the forces of darkness were defeated, pushed back through the gateway to their prison world, and Eganir uses the Signet to forge a new seal, one that will hold for millenia. 

With that war ended, Eganir turns the focus of Antia and the nearby planets toward rebuilding. Despite the fact that Ken’tir’s corrupt leadership were all eliminated in the war, Eganir holds a tight grip on the planet of Ken’tir, feeling responsible for its corruption and wanting to avoid any evil coming from it ever again. Despite his good intentions, the people of Ken’tir begin to suffer under his rule. This shows how responsibility can become a form of corruption, leading someone to do something morally incorrect in the name of a “greater good”.

Part 3:

The time from whence Eganir ascended to the throne reached past a century. Still biologically 35, he ages in other ways. His mind changes, and he begins to see himself as different from those he rules, ones with short lifespans and little power. Eganir still holds the Signet, choosing to keep it even after its use as a weapon is no longer needed. 

Another century passes, and then another. Eganir’s rule begins to change, as he sees himself as higher than all these others. His grip becomes tighter, and the people at the edges of society begin to suffer, as Eganir’s regard for their well being fades as he views them as less than himself. In the moment, there might have been no malice, but his power and agelessness distort his moral compass.

514 years after Eganir ascended to the throne, a prophetess from a distant world tells him a prophecy. If he is not wary, a child of Ken’tir will facilitate the end of his rule and the destruction of the seal he placed upon the gateway to the prison world. With this in mind, Eganir tightens his grip on the planet Ken’tir to an extreme, persecuting and oppressing the people there.

It’s in this phase that we see Eganir truly become corrupt. He fears losing his power, both because of his attachment to it, and because that loss would result in the seal being broken and a great evil being unleashed. This fear leads him to oppress the people of Ken’tir. He is separated morally from everyone else, both because of the great power he wields and because of his immortality, and this separation degrades his moral compass, making him more willing to act in this corrupt manner. And he’s able to justify it all with the responsibility of protecting Antia and the other planets from the evil he sealed away.

Part 4:

Centuries pass, filled with oppression for the people of Ken’tir. To them, Antia had become a world of hostile, evil people, with Eganir as their evil god-emperor leader. Many rebellions were attempted, each of them quenched by Antia’s military might, and in extreme cases, Egnanir himself and his Signet.

This cycle continued for those centuries, until at last, a true threat arose. Eganir discovered ancient records detailing the existence of another one of the ancient Signets on Ken’tir, and learned that a rising rebellion had found access to it. With this information, Eganir launched a full-scale war against Ken’tir, not afraid to use his Signet to prevent Ken’tir from using theirs.

Antia had the upper hand in this conflict, and Eganir had gained over a millenia of experience with his Signet by this point. Those in Ken’tir barely knew how to use theirs. Ken’tir lost their war, their last chance at freedom from oppression.

In an act of rage and paranoia, Eganir used the Signet’s incredible power to destroy the planet Ken’tir, eliminating as much of the threat that he could. A few escaped in gateways to other worlds before the horrible act, to become nomads among the stars, hunted by Eganir’s empire. The rest perished.

Eganir saw the prophecy as prevented, and turned back to his rule.

Part 5:

Again, centuries passed. The people of Ken’tir hid among the stars, moving from world to world, hiding themselves in other cultures and places. But, unbeknownst to Eganir, they were also planning a revolution, and a revenge.

Slowly but surely, with their Signet as a beacon of hope, the survivors of Ken’tir stirred the people of Eganir’s empire to rebellion. By the time Eganir learned of the true scale of the small conflicts he’d been fighting, it was too late.

Over 2000 years after his ascension to the throne, Eganir’s fall began. 

The war was long and brutal. The worlds loyal to Antia and Eganir were overwhelmed, then converted, by the rebellion. Every victory increased the strength of Eganir’s opponents, and the corrupt way he’d ruled his empire for over a millenia turned on him, causing his subjects to revolt in hope of a brighter future.

A young woman of Ken’tiran blood, named Anasi, had inherited the use of her people’s Signet, which took the form of an ornate lance. She became one of the great leaders of the conflict, leading her people and many others to victory.

Eventually, Eganir’s empire and influence were pushed back to Antia. This was where the final conflict took place. Eganir himself drew his Signet and caused immense devastation to the rebelling armies. However, Anasi had gained proficiency in her own Signet, and was able to inflict similar costs on Eganir’s empire.

The final conflict came down to these two weapons of great power. Anasi fought defensively, seeking to protect her people and weaken Eganir, but Eganir’s strikes brought horrible devastation; not only to the rebellion, but to his own forces, his own kingdom, and the planet Antia as a whole.

The conflict ended, the rebellion victorious. Antia, the seat of Eganir’s empire, was left a barren wasteland, inhospitable, uninhabitable, and dead.

 Eganir’s reign had ended. Brought about, yes, by the actions of a daughter of Ken’tir, but also, truly, because of Eganir’s own actions.

A horrible consequence came with this freedom, however. With Antia’s surface razed, the seal on the gateway opened again, and the monsters trapped inside were let loose. Antia became a hell, a place filled with fire, ash, and monsters, monsters that slowly spread across the worlds.

Part 6:

A new society formed in the worlds previously trapped under Eganir’s rule. Each planet gained its own government, one that peacefully cooperated with its neighbors and sought the peace and prosperity of its people. The people of Ken’tir found homes across the stars, becoming an interstellar culture of travelers that helped tie the worlds together.

Despite this new prosperity, there was still a threat; the monsters released in the great conflict. The worlds banded together against the evil force that threatened them, and held them at bay, but it was still an issue, one that could grow deadly at any moment.

Even so, the people of the worlds looked to the future with hope. They’d overcome a corrupt empire that had ruled for millenia. They knew they’d be able to make it through this trail as well.

And Eganir?

Some say he died in the final conflict. But still, there are whispers he survived. Whispers that, after the battle, the reality of his actions crashed onto him. They say an unbearable guilt settled upon him at the death and destruction he caused, changing his heart and purging corruption out of him. They say that he sealed the power in his own Signet away within itself, locking it, making it so he could not use it fully.

There are whispers of a man with white hair in a black cloak, one who looks both young and old at the same time. One who travels from world to world with a strange sword on his back, killing monsters that he seems to know too much about, defending those he’s never met. One who never has joy in his eyes, never a smile on his lips, as if he carries a great burden. As if he’s trying to atone for past horrors.

As if he’d fallen to corruption, and wished to every world and star in existence that he hadn’t.