-Riannon Vukanovic-
As she sat in her meditation room Riannon was lost in reminiscence of the past.
She was born almost millennia ago, at the start of the twenty-first century, in a time in which magic was weak and mages hid the magic from the rest of the world.
She found the love of her life, got married, achieved immortality, had children, and lived through the apocalypse at the end of the twenty-first century and the subsequent fall of civilization that brought humanity to its knees. And alongside her husband, she achieved the zenith of magic by reaching the Root.
And now she stands at the end of her road and looks back at her life, she feels bittersweet.
"Every good story has an end," she said with a sigh, quoting the words her firstborn son said to her when he decided to abandon his immortality and die.
"But many good stories have sequels." The words brought her out of her thoughts.
She looked at her husband. Lazar was a tall muscled man who looked to be in his late thirties with blue eyes, short beard, and shoulder length hair. Both his hair and beard were the pale platinum color that some young children have before their hair darkens into regular blonde.
You would think that he painted it or used magic to alter the color but no it was all natural. Well, that was not wholly correct. One of his ancestors magically altered her genes to have hair of this color. Many ancient bloodlines have such quirks, that is how she was born with her own glorious and vibrant crimson hair. Still, she was so freaking jealous of it when they first met.
"Honey, Is everything ready?" She asked. He was double checking everything again to make sure that nothing was wrong with the ritual.
"Yes, it is."
She nodded and stood up, after he opened the door for her they exited the room heading to the place on which the ritual would begin.
Riannon and her husband are old, too old in fact. The humans simply weren't made to live that long, the weight of time was simply too great for the human mind to bear.
There are many factors that are responsible for that, but most important of all is losing loved ones either to age or something else. Humans are social animals and not having those social connections can be disastrous for their state of mind. And even if you have a group of immortal friends around you it is impossible for your outlook on life to remain like before.
She and Lazar for example don't have the same level of empathy for the death and suffering of strangers as they had in their youth. Human life just didn't have the same level of value to them anymore.
Riannon and Lazar give their best to make their children immortal to make their chosen partners immortal as well, then their grandchildren, then their great grandchildren, and so on. They were well aware of the fact that it was an unsustainable situation, that something had to give.
And it did. Their descendants willingly embraced death on mass until none but her husband and she remained.
That event would break the will to live of any normal person, but it did not break them, it did not drive them to despair. No, they had the problem and would find the solution to it. They grieved but the tragedy just made them more focused in their single-minded search for that solution. And such single minded focus of two motivated Akashic sorcerers is a terrifying thing.
She and her husband were much older than it is healthy for the state of the human mind. That along with the death of everyone they loved truly drove them over the edge. Their madness showed in their single minded pursuit to regain what they lost, in their rejection of the reality of death, and in their abandonment of any moral bottom lines in pursuit of their goal.
They were well aware of this. That this unrelenting single mindedness is not healthy. That rejecting death as the final destination of all life would be viewed by others as madness. That their previous lack of empathy for strangers along with abandonment of their bottom lines made them willing to do heinous acts that would horrify their dead family.
BUT. Their single mindedness is useful in pursuit of their goal. Rejecting reality turns from madness into merely great ambition when you can shape it with your magic. As for things they did in pursuit of their goal, their family can't be distressed over something that they do not know happened.
The resurrection even if they succeeded in pulling it off would not be the answer to their problem. After all, what is to stop it from happening again?
No, they decided that their humanity was the problem. They did not dislike humanity, in fact they loved it. That said, the human mind does not cope with immortality very well. And they wanted to be immortal and wanted their family to be immortal as well.
The answer is reincarnation. They would reincarnate into something naturally immortal and reincarnate their family into their children in their second life.
They came out of their mansion and teleported to the plane that they made for the sake of the ritual.
Although it was similar to the demiplane that some of the archmages can make, it was not the same. This was a mini universe with enough space that it could and did fit the entire galaxy inside. This is a difference between the work of archmages and the Akashic sorcerers of space-time and matter-energy.
They created this dimension with a mini big bang (although instead of all matter-energy of the universe being concentrated in one point it was all matter-energy of the galaxy).
Then they set out a kind of programming code inside this plane that will guide the formation of the galaxy into the perfect ritual circle for their ritual, guide the evolution of life that is designed to be perfect sacrifice and exact spot within the ritual circle/galaxy in which said life will form. And then eject the plane from the time stream of their universe so that the millions of years for everything to be ready will pass in a few months for them.
…
In the core of the ritual circle/galaxy inside of a super massive black hole there is a pocket space that is the center of the ritual.
They flouted inside the sphere made of light and composed of magic circles and runes, everything else inside the pocket space was empty blackness.
Riannon threw her arms around her husband's neck and smiled nervously. Now that they were about to do it she couldn't stop the fear that started creeping up. She spent so much time making sure that she will not die and now she and her love are about to ritualistically kill themselves.
Lazar must have seen that because he tried to distract her.
He kissed her nose and asked, "Do you remember when we first met in our first year at the Clocktower?"
"How can I not remember when I first met my soulmate? You were so shy back then." She said with a teasing smile which widened when he sent her a mock glare. Although his lips were slightly curled up.
Riannon and Lazar had a soul bond that they immediately noticed when they first met. It granted them a supernatural understanding of each other's intentions and personality. So much so that the moment they met they understood each other better than anyone else, including the people that knew them since they were born.
This soul bond that they share is a phenomenon that occurs when two souls have identical origins. Two of them both have an origin of magic.
Despite their souls literally being connected to each other, Lazar was incredibly embarrassed when she called them soulmates.
To his seventeen year old mind calling her his soulmate was incredibly cringe (even though they started dating two days after their first meeting).
"I was not shy. You just involved me in your conversations with our female classmates, where you constantly talked about how I am similar to male leads in those romance novels you used to read, to embarrass me and make them jealous. Teenage girls…. I still do not know what was so romantic in those novels."
That was true. Although he hid his discomfort very well, if they didn't have the bond she wouldn't have known he was so embarrassed. She found it cute.
And he didn't mind too much or he wouldn't have humored her. He too was a little amused by their classmates' jealousy.
"You were like the male lead of a romance novel. You were a stoic mysterious guy with a sexy Slavic accent. And you and the main character (me) are soulmates. And when almost all women in the world think that something is romantic then it is obvious that the issue is not with them."
"I will never understand how can, two hundred year old man breaking into a teenage girl's room to watch her sleep a few days after they met, be romantic."
He sighed. "Truly even after reaching the Root and gaining knowledge beyond mortal comprehension, there are still mysteries that I shall never find answers to."
They both broke out laughing and after giggling for a while she buried her face in his neck.
"I think I'm ready," she said with a sigh.
Lazar hummed in acknowledgment. He tilted her head gently and kissed her.
At that moment the sphere of glowing magic circles and runes in which they floated pulsed, and a spear made of light pierced through both of their hearts simultaneously.
And so as the giant ritual circle that is the galaxy glowed. As life on the life-bearing planets was sacrificed, all life force and spiritual energy started to flow towards the super massive black hole. As all the stars exploded into the supernova and all that energy was being sucked into the black hole that is the center of the galaxy. As a giant ring of energy, bought physical and metaphysical, started to form into a quasar. As the energy from the quasar started to feed the glowing sphere inside which they stood. They just continued the kiss, now tasting each other's blood in it.
Simultaneously, they both poured their will and intent into the ritual, and the sphere around them, having consumed all the energy inside of the galaxy, exploded with the ocean of light that for a blink of an eye outshone every star in the known universe combined.
-Lazar Vukanovic-
The Swirl of the Root also known as Akashic Records is a metaphysical location from which everything in the multiverse comes and ultimately returns to. As a consequence of that all encompassing purpose, it is also the center of the cycle of reincarnation and the place that holds knowledge of everything that is, was, and will be.
This was not the first time that Lazar reached for the Root. In the past, he reached the Root and gained the zenith magic of matter-energy, along with his wife who gained the zenith magic of space-time.
Back then they just speared higher and higher until they reached into the highest dimensional space in the multiverse, the Root.
Right now it was different, if before they were the bullet speeding towards their target now they were on the ship peacefully sailing towards their destination.
The view was breathtaking.
If observed in its entirety it would seem that rivers of silvery white spiritual energy, that carry souls of the multiverse, flow into a vortex with a black hole, that is Root, at its center.
This of course was not the true form of the Root, but the image their mortal minds comprehended something as vast and unknowable as the Root.
Inside the river in which he and his wife floated, all around them were an uncountable number of souls. Not all of them were human and not all of them were from the same time period, nor were all of them three dimensional beings, the cycle of reincarnation is not constrained by space, time or dimensions.
Lazar was an expert in many branches of magic, having lived for millennia there was almost no branch of magic that humanity developed that he was not the master of. That included soul magic.
And yet he was now certain that he would reach new heights in the filled as he gained new insight into the nature of the soul.
In the same way, the human body has multiple organ systems that consist of a group of organs working to perform one or more functions necessary for the function of the body, so does the soul have something similar. He was one of the foremost experts on the complex metaphysics of the soul. He understood how components interact with one another, their function, and how they react to various outside stimuli.
The soul consists of several major components: the origin, the core, the spirit (separated into ego and spirit body).
The origin is a concept of reality that is the foundation of the soul, the core contains records of the soul(which consist of everything one experienced in current life and previous reincarnations), the ego is the representation of the thinking mind, and spirit body is the representation of the physical body and is the barrier between rest of the soul and the outside world. These components, with the exception of the origin, consist of many elements that perform multiple functions.
Before this, he could glean someone's personality from their soul. Now he could sense their story, their achievements both personal and the ones that echoed through the world, their importance to the people around them, and echoes of what other people thought of them.
With his new insight into the soul, he could peer directly into the core of the soul and read the records of their most recent life.
—
Here, so close to the Root, they are outside of time and space. From their perspectives, the time they were traveling in a river of reincarnation could range from a few seconds to a few million years. Both and neither were correct from a certain perspective.
The closer they came to the Root and the higher they rose dimensionally the more they fell into the sort of trance.
From their high vantage point, they could see into the lower dimensions. This high on the metaphorical dimensional ladder their gaze was unconstrained by space and time. They started to view reality as one piece, place and moment. They no longer searched for knowledge, they just simply knew, seeing the whole picture. This ability allowed them to gain instant knowledge of anything by merely thinking about it.
And the name of this ability is…intellectus? Like from the books Dresden files?
With a pause, he used intellectus to know the answer.
The name of the ability came from the greater omniverse, a multiverse outside of the one that sprung from the Root. The foreigner that brought it here (will bring it, currently bringing it) was a jumper who gained the ability when he was in Dresden files, and Root recorded his abilities? Huh, sometimes reality is stranger than fiction. Or is it more accurate to say that somewhere reality is fiction?
Anyway, they will take full advantage of their new ability.
The purpose of the previous ritual was to store all the energy that the ritual generated inside their souls. Afterward, they planned to take that energy and use it to resist the loss of memories of their previous lives, pluck the souls of their family, store them inside their soulscape, and reincarnate into naturally immortal beings.
This plan would have worked out, but now they can see that it would be a massive waste of opportunity.
With this new opportunity, they changed the plan.
They will enter the Root and awaken the origin of magic within them. Conceptual pressure of the Root and pressure of awakened origin inside them will refine their souls until they are strong enough to handle the strength of awakened origin naturally. They will utilize the energy of the previous ritual to control the conceptual pressure of the Root so that it is equal to the pressure of the origin.
They named this Akashic ascension.
After strengthening their souls this way, they will be able to stay with the Root safely and use the Root to achieve their goal.
It won't matter if they used up all the energy from the ritual on the ascension, Root was the source of all energy in the multiverse.
Of course for all this to succeed they needed the zenith magics of soul and mind.
Soul so they can guide the improvements to their souls and make sure it's all beneficial.
As for the mind…The Root is the center of their multiverse and a place that stores all its knowledge, it contains the knowledge of the past, present, and future of all universes within it and will grant them omniscience as long as they are inside it. You would think that that was a great thing, but omniscience was a big problem.
Their minds were not exactly human anymore, putting aside that they were now purely spiritual beings, there is no way that having intellectus would not change the way their minds work.
However, their minds were simply not ready right now to be imbued with the infinite quantity of information that omniscience provides. Even if they found a way to balance the conceptual pressure of the Root and the origin, if they didn't find a way to deal with omniscience then the infinite knowledge would shatter their souls regardless and leave only the origin and core intact ready for reincarnation but without their memories.
Even with the zenith of mind magic, they would not be able to remember all that knowledge after leaving the Root. That said they will still be able to remember a great deal.
So close to the Root reaching in and taking the magic they wanted was effortless.
When one gains zenith magic from the Root they gain all knowledge of their chosen discipline. All that knowledge was too vast for it to be stored inside the human mind, even with the help of mind magic. The workaround that Akashic sorcerers found was to imprint the records of knowledge inside their soul cores, and then over multiple years master that knowledge. But even after you master it, that knowledge does not enter your mind but inside the ego part of your soul. This is why zenith magic can't be taught, the knowledge you want to teach just can't be understood with the human brain.
Of course two of them found the way to do so regardless. They with their soul bond kinda copied and pasted records into each other's soul cores. This technique came into use right now. Mastering it was even easier now that they do not think with human brains but with their egos.
After that, they linked their minds and together started to work on their minds and souls. Thoughts, emotions and ideas flowed between their minds freely as they constructed mindscapes and soulscapes worthy of the title of zeniths of mind and soul magic.
After that, the only thing they had to do was wait for the currents of the river to bring them to the Root.
Now that he had nothing to do the anxiety started creeping up again. After all, what they were doing was risky and could lead to whipping away of his and Riannon's minds.
But he squashed this fear and forcibly calmed himself, he had done everything that he could there was no point obsessing over it anymore.
…..
When they entered the Root they found themselves in a space that was utterly paradoxical in nature. They were surrounded by both a beautiful kaleidoscope of colors and an absolute lack of color. Every concept, idea, thought and event swirled around them. It was beautiful.
They, however, could not appreciate the beauty of the place they found themselves in, as every sliver of concentration their minds could spare was directed to the task of balancing great forces that were working on their souls.
They used the excruciating pain of their changing souls and the deep bond between their souls to anchor themselves, concentrate on the present task, and block out the torrent of information assailing their minds.
They used the energy from the previous ritual to push back conceptual pressure of the Root until it was equal to the pressure of the origins within them.
As forces working on them canceled themselves out, their souls started to refine. Like carbon under high pressure and heat, their souls experienced a qualitative change. The core of their souls turned into crystalline diamond-like material encasing a miniature star that is now fully awakened origin, their crystalline core reflecting the purple light of the star within. Their ego condensed into a crystal-clear liquid and their spirit body turned from a murky and vague silhouette to a marble-like figure.
As their souls finished changing he allowed himself a moment to relish in their success. Their souls are still strengthening but the most extreme changes are past and the most dangerous times are behind them, ascension is now practically assured to be successful.
After a moment, however, he started searching for the species that allowed them to best leverage their skills and knowledge.
They found several good options but ultimately decided to become fae.
Fae, like demons, is a species that has numerous races in it and they range from tiny pixies and sprites to animal-like unicorns to elf-like sidhe.
"Sidhe are obviously the best choice," said Riannon through their bond.
"I don't like it. We will be incredibly powerful from birth, which will automatically draw attention. We will pretty much change the power balance of whatever court we are born to immediately upon birth." He replied then paused, "…. Why would we even need to reincarnate in an established race? We can design our own race. It isn't like the Faewyld doesn't sometimes spawn new races so it would not be unusual if we appeared out of the blue."
Usually, the biggest problem in designing and creating new races and species is the fact that even though you created it that does not mean that you know everything about it.
It can be something like having a weakness to something you did not intend your creation to have or an innate ability. Or it can be that its mind works in a totally alien way and that makes it murderously aggressive for the most inane of reasons.
To make species along the lines that you intended, you need to have both knowledge and luck.
Needless to say, reincarnating in your creation is usually a bad idea.
That said, while they were in the Root they were night-omniscient. They can literally know any and all consequences of their design and they have knowledge on hand to make it perfect.
"That's… a great idea honey." She said, "I didn't think about that… We could even create our own otherworld from here."
The Faewyld is much like the Abyss in that it holds many mini realities inside it. Like the Abyss has its infinite layers, so does the Faewyld has its otherworlds. The best way to imagine it is if you think about Faewyld as an ocean and otherworlds as islands. It's just that those islands are mini universes unto themselves.
With that, they got back to work.
After planning out their new race and otherworld (when they can make the reality with laws tailor made for their new race then it is stupid not to) they gathered the energy from the Root.
With the effort of will they teleported inside the Faewyld and marshaled all Akashic energy they could to the creation of their bodies and otherworld.
….
As their bodies took form and their minds and souls changed into perfect examples of minds and souls of their new race and species they heard the voice in their minds.
You are named Fionn ap Asteron and Rhyas ferh Asteron.
The voice of the Faewyld worldwill echoed in their minds giving them their new names.
Immediately after their bodies took form they clasped their hands and raised them up in the air.
From their hands gushed forth a flood of light, matter-energy combined with space-time.
The bubble of creation quickly engulfed them and expanded into the Faewyld. But not a much as you would expect from the mini universe to expand. But there lies the crux of the issue. There is no need for their otherworld to expand into Faewyld, their otherworld has its own independent fabric of space-time, it can expand into itself.
Then their titles started to crystallize from the stories of their long past life.
[ Fae, Original Fyrnenon, Reincarnator, Death Swindler, One Side of the Same Coin, Prime Self, Fae Archwizard, Grand Artisan, Archon of Stars, Zenith of Space-Time, Zenith of Matter-Energy, Zenith of Mind, Zenith of Soul, Akashic Wisdom, Inextinguishable Soul, Indomitable Mind, Origin of Magic, Fae Lord/Lady, Demiurge, Archfae]
Titles are cristallisation of records, records being the essence of all events and experiences both physical and metaphysical that impacted one's soul, one's whole story. If one looks at someone's whole records, one would see the sum total of everything that makes their being.
Titles are mini realities made only out of the concepts, themes, patterns, and records related to them that reside and are a part of fae's soul.
That is the way of fae magic. When using the magic that is within their Title's authority, fae can leverage the personal reality that is their title to both increase the power of magic and to significantly decrease the cost of it.
That is the reason that fae are able to warp reality to such a way that even gods are in envy of it. That is why a fae with a title of Lord of the Sun can turn real sun into enormous ball of vines that sprouts sunflowers made of fire and light on its surface without struggling, he literally has a reality in his soul that is composed of nothing else but a truth, concepts and records related to the fact that he is Lord of the Sun. Overlay your title's reality over the world and use it as a foundation and a lever for your magic and woala instant reality violation.
The other way to use titles besides the fae magic is to build innate abilities.
Unlike the fae magic that needs concentration to weave the spell, the fae's innate abilities are passive. They are slivers of the title's reality extending into their being and giving a permanent enchantment onto them.
Every title has a set of innate abilities that come with it from the beginning. After that, as the title grows in strength, one needs to forge new abilities with records aligned with a title.
The problem was that all records of their achievements were too long ago for them to crystallize into title. Only stories that left the greatest mark on their souls crystallized.
Fae are in a manner of speaking similar to the game characters, they mostly grow stronger by gaining more records/experience. More records and titles they have, the stronger their soul is. And the stronger someone's soul is, the easier it is for them to impose their will on reality.
-Danu-
Danu sat beside the pond of clean water inside a beautiful glade, deep in thought.
She was the most powerful fae alive. She was the Great Mother, a rank of power and title that only two other beings in Faewyld possessed, her peers are few, and only superiors were omnipotent beings like the Presence, and Chaos.
She had just won one of the most bloody wars in the history of Feywild. The war in which seven Great Mothers and Fathers died. The war in which many otherworlds were destroyed. The war in which she came out victorious and stronger than ever.
The victory now felt bitter.
While the fae warred amongst themselves demons from the Abyss were falling.
Why does that matter? Well…
The multiverse is constantly invaded by outsiders, eldritch beings from outside reality. Not to be confused with occasional visitors from the greater omniverse, the outsiders are so alien to us that only omniscient beings like the Presence and Chaos understand them.
Different outsiders want different things but whatever it is, it is never good for the inhabitants of the multiverse.
In order to defend ourselves from outsiders the artifacts known as Gates were created.
Gates are not really physical gates but dimensions that force an outsider of a certain kind to enter that dimension first if it wants to enter the rest of reality.
They are basically prepared battlefields that outsiders must get through to enter the multiverse.
Until now demons of the Abyss had the duty of manning the Gate of Order. The Gate that is used as the battlefield for the outsiders aligned with Order.
The demons were not really best suited for this duty. Oh, their naturally chaotic nature provided them resistance against the corruption of the outsiders of order and the high ranking demons are formidable, but the demons on average just don't have the conceptual might to do much harm to outsiders.
They were numerous however, and they breed faster than even mortals.
Their numbers were practically unending and so despite the low strength of their average warriors, they defended the Gate rather well.
Until they did not.
The outsiders overrun them and breached into the Abyss. Lilith, mother of demons, destroyed the floors that were invaded and demon gods expelled the outsiders back, but both the Abyss and demons lost too much strength to hold the Gate.
That leads back to her bitter victory. After all, fae were well known for their titles that gave fae the conceptual strength to fight people well above their rank. In fact, according to many fae were the most suited for fighting outsiders being quite a bit an eldritch beings themselves. They should have been the defenders of the Gate of Order in the first place, but in a show of unity all Archfae and Great Mothers/Fathers at the time cashed in all their favors to transfer that duty to the demons. Demons' habit of invading and destroying other worlds did not help them in this situation, everyone was fine with making demons too busy with outsiders to bother anyone else.
And so as per the ancient accords now that demons were unable to properly defend the Gate it is now the turn of the fae.
After a war that saw many of the fae with the title of Archfae and above dead, the fight with the outsiders will be hard.
She and two of her peers can hold on for a while but the outsiders are not to be taken lightly.
They would have to nurture a new Archfae so that the Faewyld can rise to the challenge.
Just then she sensed something.
Following her hunch she used her Sight and looked past her otherworld and into the surrounding Feywild.
The Sight is, like the ability to make deals, the intrinsic ability of the fae. All of them have it although some are better at wielding it than others.
It is known as the Sight That Pierces the World. It is the ability to view the truth of things. With it, fae can view reality objectively as it really is. This is the reason that even the lowest of fae can see through almost all illusions.
Just then she saw the mass of energy congealing into the new being, it was clear that the new race of fae are being created by the Faewyld.
This was not very common but neither is it unheard of, what was unheard of is that those two new beings are Archfae from birth. For she saw the rushing light of new reality engulf them both. It happened a few times that newborns are Fae Lord and Fae Lady, but to be an Archfae from birth is unheard of.
This was because in order to become Archfae you need to create your own otherworld. A newborn no matter how smart, mature or powerful can't possibly create a whole small universe. And yet these two just did.
She stood up and in one step exited her otherworld and appeared inside the region of Faewyld in which two newborns formed.
She knocked on the border of their otherworld in order to gain their attention. There is no need to be rude after all.
Energy exited the new otherworld and settled like a mist before her. Coalescing energy formed in two figures, one male and the other female. Both of them naked and holding hands.
The male had a muscular physique and shoulder length metallic platinum hair that seemed to be spun out of precious metal itself.
The female had a shapely figure with long crimson hair whose every strand seemed to be made out of wisps of flame.
Both of their purple eyes radiated with inner light as if they had purple stars within them.
She could feel that they had a ridiculous number of titles for the newborns. Of course titles are earned through achievements and newborns usually have none beyond the title of Fae and title of their race, but it is not impossible to gain title from being born special or to a powerful parents. Still, the number and conceptual potency of their titles is impressive.
She deepened her Sight, wanting to see their titles.
What she found out shocked her.
She quickly connected the dots. She would have to be stupid not to when their titles Reincarnator and Death Swindler basically declared it.
This… could be a good thing.
Didn't she think just a moment ago about how she needs to raise a more powerful fae, this could be her opportunity to start immediately.