Ancient Obelisk I

Humanity will fade, as all beings do. Their light will flicker and die, untouched by the eternal Flame. Meaningless and minuscule in the face of near-endless insight, burning brightly. Turning to dust as we turn to fire. An endless cycle of ruin and turmoil.

Unforeseen — Humanity is ephemeral! Nothing but a brief moment in time, a breath long taken, the blink of an eye! Yet — despite their mortal nature — they have created fire. A Flame of their own to brighten their impending dawn.

Nestled below our lands once lay a chasm so deep, its contents eluded us for millennia. No secret can resist illumination by the light of the eternal Flame. An archaic evil, brewing... growing. It must be buried, flooded, and sealed. Humanity should never brush against these tendrils of pandemonium.

Crude lifeblood is extracted, diluted, and alchemized. Transformed, transfigured. Molten and born anew. Profound power, fueling the bodies of the youngest in Embervale, rotting them. We've failed, blinded by our stoicism. Let us point our gaze back towards the sky — for this hollowed core cannot be saved.

Energy, welling from deep inside the core. A light erupts, breaching the boundaries of space itself. A door to be opened by the flame touched — the brightest of sparks will walk a path lined by fire, and illuminate what is shrouded in shadow. Never let the stars be extinguished, never douse the sun. Rise above all, a legacy to last an eternity.

We've been split. Ripped apart like a twin-headed eel. The discordance in our midsts sunders our youngest from the empyrean — a new chapter at last. They wish to protect the ephemeral flame, inspired by the hearthlights and fireflies of humankind. We will all shift and fall. At last, we stumble.

Finally — Remnants of an elusive age, cast away. Drowned in waves. Yet another evil — a mistake — brushed away, and sealed. Let the water flush out all that is tainted. After us, the flood.

Perhaps the Flame had been tainted all its life. Blinded by its own light — or perhaps, it was us. The final flaw, raised too high above the rest. A fall so deep, so devastating, it rivals the chasms below. A failure that ripped us in two. Divided, in shambles. Our young drowning in war, our old locked inside the stars. A miscalculation. Ash among starfire, after all. We must start anew. — Manathor