Disclaimer: I still don't own Danny Phantom. Butch Hartman does, and I somehow doubt that will be changing any time soon. Since I'm not making any money from this, there is nothing for the law-ninjas to sue out of me.
Author's Note: Well well, here we are at the big history lesson. The answers to some mysteries, and yet more mysteries to replace them! ;)
Chapter 13: The History of the War
"You take a mortal man
And put him in control
Watch him become a God
Watch peoples heads"
-"Symphony of Destruction" – Nightwish
In the beginning, ours was a world of peace. Created by means we cannot know or understand, this world was made, and ourselves with it. It was a simple world, at first; given not to thought and reason… nor to conflict and strife.
"Does the book say who the author is?" Danny frowned, studying the weathered pages as though he could divine the writer's identity from the faded script.
"Nothing beyond the 'last of the Watchers to witness it.'" Ghostwriter flipped carefully to the front page again to double check the book's brief introduction.
"Whatever it is." Sam noted dryly.
So it was for a very long time, beings in this vast world of aether; existence without consciousness. As the time that was past grew however, so did this world, and the beings that dwelt within it. Form rose from chaos, awareness from ignorance. Out of the aether soared great mountains and vast plains, deep oceans and meandering rivers; peopled by all manner of creatures, some benign and others less so.
"What is this? Some sort of creation of the world story?" Sam quirked an eyebrow.
"I dunno... I think it's talking about the Ghost Zone, not the real world." Danny pondered aloud. "Except it's not describing any part of the Ghost Zone I know."
"Mister Fenton, Miss Manson, perhaps we would find out if you stopped interrupting?" Lancer rolled his eyes at his two former students.
With awareness came new things. Hope, longing, joy; hate, greed, despair. It was a lawless land, for law did not yet exist. It was the chaos this world spawned from; chaos given form, given a new name: anarchy. It was a land in need of guidance, of a leader to bring order to the maelstrom.
I was one of the first to rise from ignorance to awareness, and I began to gather like-minded beings to my cause. Reason convinced some, but not all; there were many who simply sought power with which to force their will on the rest. None of us had the strength to force a change on anyone; not even my own unique skills were sufficient to make such a massive change all at once. So we began to Watch events as they unfolded; with my foresight, we were able to create change, though slowly. We adjusted things, nudged others toward certain choices at the critical moment.
It was not an obvious power, our organization. We had not the words for it back then, but we formed a shadow government, slowly bending the ancient warlords to accomplish our objectives for us. We never gave a name to our group, yet somehow over the eons we were accurately branded as the Watchers. It was our creed, our mission. To watch, but to only interfere where it was necessary. To nudge the present, correct the past, and establish the future.
To this end, we came to support the Dark brothers. Maghnus, the elder of the two, was cunning and intelligent; like the Watchers, he desired to bring order to anarchy. Pariah, the younger, was a skilled warrior and an excellent tactician; his support was an invaluable asset in our goal. Before long, nearly all the lands beneath the violet sky were under the control of Lord Maghnus and his forces. The realm of spirits was at last ruled by a singular monarch, much as were the lands of the living, though only a very few of the Watchers knew of that other world. It was a closely guarded secret among us; those that learned of it, and those few that remembered anything of their own time spent in that realm prior to manifesting in our world.
"Wait, then these Watcher guys helped Maghnus?" Sam blurted. "But to hear Dora tell it, he sounds like he hated them!"
"And the Ghost King too." Danny mused. "There's something weird in this book."
"It is a common literary plot to have a traitor in the family." Lancer noted thoughtfully. "But it sounds like the ancient Ghost Zone was more... like the real world."
"The real world?" His former students glanced back at the dead teacher.
"I don't see any continental landmasses or oceans anywhere around here." He replied drolly. "Do you?"
"This illustration looks nothing like the Ghost Zone anyone here knows." Ghostwriter held the book up, pointing to a full page illustration that looked for all the world like any average slice of coastline. The only thing that indicated it was supposed to be the Ghost Zone were the whirls of black and purple in the sky, and the fact that the water was bright ectoplasmic green. The colors were faded with obvious age, but the landscape shown absolutely could not have been the real world.
"If that's the Ghost Zone… what the heck happened to it? This mansion should be grounded if that is supposed to be this world." It was Sam's turn to stare at the old book as if she could conjure answers from its faded pages.
"Shall I continue?" Ghostwriter set the book back down on the table.
I began to see, however, that too much order could become just as dangerous as the anarchy we had worked so hard to overcome. Convincing my fellow Watchers of this however, was difficult at best.
"You would give up everything we have worked for, merely on this feeling?"
"Surely you are losing your touch, we have come so close to taming the chaos of our world. You cannot possibly think that going back now is a wise choice?"
I was rebuked and scoffed at nearly every turn. Our organization maintained its support of Lord Maghnus despite my urging caution, that we had done enough and it was time to withdraw to let things happen on their own. To manipulate events required being aloof from them, to view them without bias that could taint the actions taken. That lack of bias was fading swiftly and could have torn the Watchers apart if left to our own devices. I was already starting to gather my own circle of confidants within the organization, planning a coup to return the Watchers to our original role as distant guides rather than the loyal dogs of the King it was becoming.
Lord Maghnus was a harsh master over the lands he controlled. Harsh, brutal when provoked, but not senseless. He was not necessarily a fair lord, nor a just one, but to his credit he did not indulge in cruelty for cruelty's sake. The worst of his rages were always directed at those who opposed him. He was content to leave his subjects to their own devices so long as they did what he asked of them, which in those days was not much. Border patrol and other military service were the most common of his demands, and amid the turmoil of the times they were reasonable enough.
Still, he was powerful, and even without our aid his lands grew greater by the day. He was not a distant monarch like some of the other warlords; he was never content to merely sit in the safety of his Citadel and rule from afar. If he was not out leading his forces into battle, he was exploring the fringes of our world; those places where the land ended and the void began. It was while he was away from the Citadel that I took my cautious steps to counter my fellow Watchers and work on the coup my faction was plotting.
I suppose now however, that ours were not the only hands meddling with fate.
"Well there's your reason he hates the Watchers." Lancer observed. "Whoever wrote this was planning against him."
"I wonder who this guy even is." Danny noted. "And how old this book is."
"Far older than the Ghost King's history, clearly." Ghostwriter observed. "Most of the Ghost Zone residents knew of Pariah; none of us knew about this Maghnus."
"And Dora's one of the oldest ghosts I know." Sam glanced at another illustration, clearly depicting Maghnus riding some sort of winged beast into a surreal landscape that looked a bit more like the modern Ghost Zone. "So that's what? A thousand years, and Pariah was around well before she was."
"Hey!" Danny yelped, gabbing a finger at the picture-Maghnus' left arm. "He doesn't have that gauntlet thing that he's supposed to have now."
"Maybe the guy who drew the picture forgot it?"
"I find that highly unlikely." Lancer said thoughtfully. "It's supposed to be a powerful item, is it not? Look at the way that arm is raised- clearly it's to draw the reader's eye to that arm... and maybe to the fact there's no gauntlet."
It was his return from one such trip into the aether that tore my plans to pieces and added a new urgency to my cause. For he returned from this journey not with hands empty; but with a bounty of things discovered that would reshape our entire world.
Even now I do not know the origins of the items Lord Maghnus found; nor the purpose for which they were made. Whether they were the mere conjuring of the void, or perhaps the forgotten tools of an unknown creator; all that was certain is that these items contained power beyond measure. Even the Watchers, with our vast store of knowledge gained over the ages had no names to put to them.
The first two, which we termed the Lesser Ascendancy, were items of sheer power. A small ring, and a flaming crown; when worn the user's strength and power was increased a thousandfold or more. Even a weak ghost could, with these items, become a warlord fit to overwhelm Pariah and very nearly a match to Lord Maghnus.
"The Ring of Rage!" Danny gasped, recognizing that description.
"And the Crown of Fire... Maghnus had them first?" Sam gawked.
"All the trappings of a political plot." Ghostwriter quirked an eyebrow. "A large kingdom, great power; and an evil advisor plotting against the throne."
"It's a classic literary device." Lancer nodded. "Though it seems this time that it's being told by the 'evil advisor.' But then, you would know that if you'd paid more attention in school."
Danny tried not to roll his eyes at the zing.
The Lesser Ascendancy alone was cause for concern, however these two items were as nothing compared to the remaining two; what we came to call the Greater Ascendancy, and what the survivors simply came to call the Ascendancy itself. A pair of armored gauntlets, elaborate in their metalwork and encrusted with large gems. A study of opposites: one was bright gold, with colorful gems adorning it; the other bright silver with stones of black and white, cold and distant next to its more vibrantly colored partner.
They were pretty enough things to look at, but the kind of power both command is dangerous and tempting beyond measure. With both, the wearer literally holds the power to create and to destroy in his hands. The silver gauntlet is Destruction incarnate; destruction of life, void to tear apart form, rigid reason to tear fantasy asunder. The golden one is the opposite; fantasy made real, the impossible given form, life produced from a void.
Equipped with all four, Lord Maghnus truly was unstoppable, almost a god with his strength. Those who resisted him were culled from existence with a flick of the wrist; those who obeyed were given wealth and power with a wave of the hand. In a way, the arrival of the Ascendancy was a blessing: with its power, Lord Maghnus was able to build up his lands and make things much better for those who looked to him.
Those who did not...
"Wow." Sam commented lamely as they all peered at another illustration, this one showing Maghnus in what could only be full regalia. Crown atop his head, the glimmer of armor on both arms; the landscape to his right verdant and full of happy ghosts, and to his left... nothing.
Nothing save for a handful of ghosts contorted in agony, surrounded by a cloud of silver that time had faded to dull grey.
Still, the timing was fortuitous for my faction. Had we made our move, I imagine in hindsight that we would not have succeeded. The Ascendancy forced us to reconsider our plans; and most importantly, it unified the Watchers again. Instead of the fledgling factions that had been forming, we were once more united in our purpose. Even in disagreement about our role in events, one thing we all agreed upon was that the Ascendancy was dangerous; a power such as that was bound to corrupt the user given sufficient time.
The question, of course, became how do we stop, or even curtail someone with that much power?
A frontal assault was simply impossible. There was no force in the world that could compete with Lord Maghnus and the full power of the complete Ascendancy. We could not topple the warlord unless we could get the Ascendancy from him, yet our goal was not originally to topple Lord Maghnus entirely. It was a conundrum with no ready solution, certainly none that would resolve the problem cleanly... or quickly.
An idea began to form when one of our agents, a warrior in the service of both of the Dark brothers reported that all was not well between the two. Lord Maghnus was unaware, but his brother Pariah was coming to resent serving his more powerful brother. Cut from the same cloth, they were; proud, powerful, and always craving more glory. The other Watchers all agreed that Pariah was our best hope to deal with the threat of Lord Maghnus and the Ascendancy, but I didn't agree with this assessment; at least not entirely. I had learned discretion by then, however, and began to lay my own plans without the knowledge of my peers. Had they understood the true scope of my plan, my own fate would have been sealed.
We had our agent quietly fuel Pariah's resentment, all the while making it seem as though it were Pariah convincing our agent to help him; and not our agent planting the ideas in the first place. Pariah had to be tricked into moving forward with our plan as if it were his own; for only he could get close enough to Lord Maghnus without raising suspicion.
"A brother's betrayal and an evil advisor." Lancer raised one eyebrow.
"I'm not liking this guy's talk about plans and fate." Danny frowned.
"I'm with Danny. It sounds like this Watcher guy wasn't just planning to use the Ghost King against Maghnus, but..." Sam paused, organizing her thoughts. "He makes it sound like he's betraying the rest of the Watchers... his own friends!"
"Not so much that he is betraying them." Ghostwriter countered, tone foreboding. "But that he will betray them. We aren't that far into this story yet."
"But he's going to." Sam grumbled. "So that gauntlet Maghnus used to take over Dora's castle... that's got to be the destructive one. So what happened to the gold one? We know what happened to the Ring and the Crown."
A quiet moment fell over the room as Danny and Sam both considered where that power was currently being applied. Dan had put himself in the line of fire to bail their butts out; how was the fire headed ghost faring against Maghnus' army? More importantly, why was he even helping them? Had the ghost really turned over a new leaf, or was helping them merely secondary to unleashing further violence?
Following another venture into the aether, Lord Maghnus returned with yet another interesting item, a scroll of parchment charged with power. A map. I already knew of the artifact, but hid this knowledge from the others. It was a useful tool, a map and mode of transit from one location in our world to another... and to the world of the humans. It was part of my plan from the start.
To the horror of my fellow Watchers, Lord Maghnus took full advantage of this new ability. First traveling to the farthest reaches of the land he controlled, and then beyond. It was inevitable that one day, he would ask the map to take him someplace he had not yet been before. In a flash, our oldest secret was revealed; Lord Maghnus was taken to the world of mankind.
It was a world utterly foreign to the monarch. Blue skies and an alien sun he had never seen shone down upon him. As happens often with the residents of the spiritual world, Lord Maghnus was utterly enthralled by this new land, craving to explore it and eventually dominate it.
However, the denizens of this new world did not react to his appearance the way he expected. Here, he was just another being, an equal; a conqueror to be obeyed. There, he was reviled, branded as a demon; a monster bent on their destruction without recourse. He did not stay long, for he was not given to discussion; trying to convince these ancient humans that he was there to explore and eventually add their lands to his empire rather than to simply destroy them wore down what patience he had for it. He could have just eliminated them all, but what good was land without the loyal subjects to work it in his name?
Pariah was waiting when his brother returned, and he asked what had agitated Lord Maghnus so greatly. Not knowing that his brother was plotting treachery, Maghnus told Pariah what had happened and how the humans had shown utter hatred or irrational terror at the sight of him.
Pariah at last saw the opportunity he had been waiting for, and suggested that his older brother was clearly tired from such an experience, and that he should take a well-deserved rest. He promised to Lord Maghnus that he would raise a massive army for his liege, a force with which to conquer the humans and put them in their proper place.
Lord Maghnus agreed, and slept deeply.
Pariah was raising an army, but not for the purpose he had promised. No, Pariah dispatched his right-hand servant, the agent in our service on an errand. While Maghnus slept, Pariah intended to take the steps needed for the younger brother to topple the elder from power.
"Hey, is that the Fright Knight in that picture?" Danny pointed at the familiar black and purple figure illustrated sneaking into a massive castle while Pariah was depicted on the opposite page leading a skeleton army.
"Is it?" Sam peered closely at the book. "It is! Wow, guess that guy really gets around, doesn't he?"
"Quite the treachery. It seems to be that our mysterious narrator planted that map for Maghnus to discover." Lancer nodded sagely at his own observation.
"Really?" Danny glanced over at the teacher. "How do you know?"
"It's quite simple." Lancer crossed his arms, tone taking on the familiar drone of lecture. "He says he knew of the map, but withheld that information from the rest of the Watchers. If he is so committed to whatever this plan of his actually is, would he leave something he knew about like that laying around for no reason?"
"He's using the Ghost King like a tool to forward whatever plan this is." Ghostwriter agreed. "And clearly toppling Maghnus was part of it."
Pariah dispatched his most loyal assistant to the Citadel, not knowing that it was one of our agents. While Pariah raised a force to revolt against his brother, it was the Fright Knight's duty to slip into the castle, into the private quarters of Lord Maghnus to accomplish a single goal.
He was to steal the Ascendancy.
Unfortunately, even the best laid plans of the Watchers were not perfect, and this was no exception. He was able to get half of the Ascendancy, the ring and one gauntlet, before Lord Maghnus was aware of the disturbance and awoke. Outraged by the treachery, Maghnus flew into a mighty fury, and it was only by luck and quickly fleeing the Citadel that the Fright Knight was able to escape with as much as he had obtained.
The time for planning had ended. With the Ascendancy divided between the brothers, I had come to the end of my planning; the outcome was no longer in my hands, nor that of the other Watchers.
It was to be war unlike any our world had known.
Author's Note: Dun dun dun! Seems like there's quite a bit more to the history of the Ghost Zone than anybody counted on, doesn't it? It's been a challenge to write the book they're reading this stuff out of- the style is so radically different from my usual style. That and it's being told from the viewpoint of an entirely unknown character, so it's not like my usual POV writing either.
Anyway, a heads up to you guys that have been so kind as to do fanart based on my stories: The Phanfiction club on DeviantArt (www. phanfiction. deviantart. com) is honoring my stories this month in their January contest. So if you've already done some art, or maybe are thinking of it, join the club and give the contest a shot! The winner gets featured over there ;)
As always, a hearty THANK YOU to all my readers. Y'know that some of you have been following this plot bunny for nearly two years now? The plot bunny hit me sometime between 7 and 10pm, February 28, 2006 in my Geology class. Time sure flies, doesn't it? Anyhow, fireworks and other potentially dangerous and illegal explosive entertainments to: Fulcon, Eleirah, Akino Ame, Selofain, Moony's Metamorphmagus, Angelic Kittens, Skandragon Blackheart, Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet, BaronOBeefDip, Kitty Kyinsky, Esme Kali Phantom (it's her fault I decided to make Lancer's first name 'William,' ;) i AM the Random Idiot, and darkness over day!