[center]Here we begin…[/center]

	The sky was bruised red and black. Sickly clouds scabbed the wounded atmosphere and the sounds of battle shook the air. Dust clinged low to the cobbled ground and siphoned upwards into every breath. The courtyard was painted the same colors as the sky, blood splattered from fallen soldiers. Between the stone walls of the palace complex, mobs of enemies fought in an endless flood. White armor was caked in dirt and clean steel was already rusting from gore. Ears popped and the nose revolted as the struggle forever pushed closer and closer to the steps at the far end of the open courts.

	Sitting silently at the top of the steps was a node, a black cylinder of a glossy and alien material that contrasted the alabaster palace that protected it. It was ten meters wide and stood as tall as a regular man, or at least what could be seen of it. Beneath the flagstones, beneath the stairs, beneath the palace and the very earth itself, the cylinder stretched endlessly. 

	Standing between the node and those who had come to take it stood two figures, panting and tired. One stood taller than the other, and her voice was calm and collected despite the scene. She wore the armor of a queen, in splendid whites and pure creams. Her right hand didn’t stand as tall as her, and his face was twisted with anxiety, eyes bouncing over the enemy lines that pushed ever closer.

	“Stop fretting,” the Queen cooled, her voice more compassionate than demanding. This only served to twist her Champion’s face even more.

	“How can I?” Was all the Champion managed. “Time is almost up.”

	“And we’ve almost won,” the Queen added. “Don’t fret, Peninal”

The air suddenly fell still. Peninal squinted, the battle still raged in front of him but he couldn’t hear it. His sword shook in his hand, he could feel something curdle in his stomach. He exhaled, and his breath came out in a frigid cloud. Snapping his eyes over to Queen Olipha, he saw her breath was condensed as well, ears still silent. Despite her attitude, he could see concern entering her visage. Her lips moved. No sound.

	A ring blasted in his ears as sound came rushing back. It came back as an explosion erupted over the fighting. Clouds of frozen air plumed from the battlefield and icy wind punched into the soldiers, friend and foe alike. Frozen gore burst from the wounds and cries of pain challenged the eruption. Hail started to fall from the sky, plunking off of metal and Peninal grit his teeth.

	“He’s here.”

	The ground shook again and one of the courtyard walls began to collapse, summoning a tsunami of dust and debris. Fighting slowed as casualties started to grow and from the clouds of ice and dust came two terrible eyes. A figure made of shadows and ice came gliding through the mess, the eyes stuck on his otherwise nondescript face. Soldiers of white charged him, but each exploded into mists of hail and gore before they could get close enough. Peninal tightened his grip on his blade and took a step forward.

	“Peninal!” Olipha barked, stopping him mid step. Before he could ask what she intended, the Queen stepped past her Champion.

	“My queen, what are you doing?” 

	“Hold, Shadowed One!” Olipha ignored Peninal, her words shooting at the approaching figure. “You’ve already lost, the end of the crucible is nigh — all this death is in vain!”

	Peninal could hear the anger seep into her words. “You have nothing to gain here! You have nothing!”

	“No…” Garravar’s voice came like a winter’s breath. “I have nothing to gain… but you have everything to lose.”

	Olipha raised her spear and Peninal raised his sword, but both were too slow. A blade of ice had formed in Garravar’s hands and was already shooting past Olipha’s guard. The Queen’s armor rent with a scream and the blade plunged into her chest.

	Peninal’s eyes widened in shock, pupils shaking with fear. His sword slipped from his hand and clattered on the courtyard floor. Garravar’s eyes snapped to him and he could feel the unseen grin grow on his enemy’s face. 

	“Brother of Yargindal, Peninal the Coward,” Garravar goaded. “I see you were forced in his place, how foolish.” 

	A pause. A pulse of red waved across the sky, as if it were a beating heart. Garravar pointed a crooked finger upwards. “The triggering event is nearly here and… all the nodes do not belong to one…. anymore. “ Peninal could still feel that grin.

	“What do you think will happen?”

	Peninal looked down at his Queen, the blood leaking out of her chest now pooling around her lumped form. His fingers were shaking, and he could feel adrenaline in his veins. 

	“You better run, Little Peninal,” Garravar’s voice came again. “Before the triggering event makes a fool of you and your beloved.” 

	Against his will, or so it seemed, Peninal started to back up, his boots guiding him up the stairs. His eyes were stuck on Olipha as he climbed towards the node. Garravar himself started slowly approaching, forcing Peninal to walk faster and faster, until he was nearly running backwards up the stairs. The sky pulsed.

	“You’ll have to be faster than that…” Garravar almost laughed. “Come, isn’t this what you and your fellowship desired? Isn’t this the fruits of your labors? Go on, the nodes await your will, [i]Peninal[/i].”

	The champion’s back bumped off of the node, he had gone as far as he could. His hand touched the cold glossy surface. Garravar stood just in front of him, only a few feet out and at the top of the stairs. Peninal’s hand that touched the node began to glow.

	“Let’s hope you can claim it fast enough,” Garraval stepped forward. “Do you think you can?”

	Ice started to form around Garraval’s spear, putting a toothed edge on the blade of the weapon and serrating its deadly angles. “Olipha was awfully silent, Yargindal was awfully loud, where do you think you will fall?”  

	Peninal opened his mouth but then closed it.

	Garravar tilted his head. “Hm? You have words?”

	Peninal could feel it in his chest as he opened his mouth again, but only a squeak escaped.
	
	“I suppose you don’t,” Garravar leveled his spear and placed the frozen tip on Peninal’s chestplate. 

	“You…” Peninal found his voice and Garravar cocked his head

	“You… will fall.” 

	Gore exploded from both of Peninal’s hands and his finger bones erupted and shattered. The cloud of blood snapped back to his arms in the shape of a glistening blade and with one swift movement, he slammed the bloody weapon into Garravar’s stomach. A hoarse grunt came from the enemy, only to turn into a croaking chuckle.

	“F-fast…”

	The sky pulsed.

	The node started to glow.

	Peninal started to glow.

	The sky pulsed.

[hr]

[center][h2]Welcome to the Crucible[/h2][/center]

	In the center of a great green valley sat a node. The node was a strange cylinder of an even stranger glossy black material. By all means it was indestructible and sat a great many meters above the ground. It was about ten wide and as far as anyone knew, it stretched infinitely below the ground, never to be dug up or removed. 

	Above this scene was a blue sky, the only blue sky present on the crucible. The rest of the lands outside of this node’s valley were shrouded in a bruised red and black atmosphere, scarred with chaotic storms and unstable elements. But here in these lands, birds sang without care and primitive humans opened their eyes for the first time.

	The only thing that contrasted the valley was a god, a god clad in broken armor. He sat against the node, breathing heavily and painted in his own blood. Both his hands were missing and slowly leaked gore flaked with frost. His chest heaved, and as his eyes opened to witness the faces of the gods who would be taking over this new crucible, he groaned.

	“I have failed…” Peninal’s words were low and pitiful. He let his head fall back onto the node, his vision drifting upwards to the sky above. He winced in pain and swallowed a dry throat. Licking his lips, he started again, his voice cracked.

	“Listen quickly…” He found confidence in the moment, his life barely clinging. “You have to collect all the nodes before the next triggering event, the next end times.” A groan. “The nodes will bend to the will of whoever collected them all… make sure they have a strong will… unlike my own. Touch my head, you will have my knowledge of the nodes... I can’t…”

	His voice trailed and his eyes started to grow dim. “I can’t hold…”

	A dribble of blood began to run out of the corner of his mouth. “I can’t…” 

	Peninal’s chest stopped moving and his voice fell silent. His face stayed frozen as if he had something to say still, but any who looked in his glassy eyes knew he was no longer there. Peninal had died, and yet you all were born…

	Beside the dead Peninal sits a stone pedestal, upon it an interactive map of the world, and behind him stands the only stable node this world has.

[hider=summary]Please do this at the end of your posts. In this post we have Peninal, the last of the old gods die after resetting the crucible by mistake. He warns you all of the triggering events and offers his head to be touched so you can have all his knowledge of the nodes. Touching his head will give your god all the ooc information about the nodes and world. There is also an interactive map that your god can fiddle with to plan and learn.[/hider]

[hider=Might summary]Nothing, everyone died :([/hider]