Introduction
“The skies are haunted by that which it were madness to know; and strange abomination pass evermore between earth and moon and athwart the galaxies. Unnameable things have come to us in alien horror and will come again.”
Clark Ashton Smith, American writer and poet
To begin, calling the conflict between humankind and the beings referred to as the Elder Gods a war is in itself a bit misleading. As traditionally defined, a war is “a state of armed conflict between different nations or states or different groups within a nation or state.” While it is accurate to say that humanity met those requirements, the same could not be said for the Elder Gods. The conflict was called a war for multiple reasons, such as humanity’s intimate familiarity with the concept of war, and for the lack of a better word for the conflict. Without knowing the Elder God’s intentions, which to this day we still don’t fully grasp, describing the conflict as a war seems disingenuous. Despite this lack of clarity in what to call the conflict between humanity and the Elder Gods, there is one fact that is undeniably true: the cost of human lives and resources to the conflict was astronomically higher than any of the previous wars fought by humankind in the entirety of their history leading up to it.
To properly recount the events of the Lovecraft War, we must first establish the beginning of the war. There are three different dates that historians argue are the onset of the conflict, each of which we will go into in greater depth later in this examination. The first date of note was February 25, 2032. It was on this day that the first glyph, a massive circular array of lines and curves that always precedes the arrival of an Elder God, appeared outside of what used to be known as Dallas, a city in the state of Texas which was part of the former United States of America before their dissolution in 2051. The glyph, which we would later find out belonged to the Elder God known as Slargatchh the Creator, was discovered in a golf course (golf was a recreational activity involving using a metal staff to strike a small ball into a hole several times in succession) one morning as groundskeepers were prepping the course for the coming day. Initially, it was thought that the glyph was a prank, much like the crop circles that were prevalent during the late 20th century, however after investigation by the authorities and the discovery of unknown elements in the creation of the glyph, it was determined that this was indeed a genuine sign of extraterrestrial/extra-dimensional contact. The second date that is argued to be one of the starting point is exactly thirty days later on March 26, 2032, when Slargatchh the Creator emerged from his glyph, marking the very first Godfall. This date is widely considered by many to be the true start of the conflict, as it marked the first of many violent encounters between the two species. The third date under consideration as the starting point of the war is the most disputed of the three; the fifth Godfall (September 27, 2034), which marked the first time a human piloting an Armour met with and defeated an Elder God, Qrodkilhar the Effervescent, in combat. This date is pushed as the starting point of the conflict by the pro-humanist faction in an effort to paint the war as a feat of human achievement and perseverance in the face of unsurmountable adversity.
The end of the war is far easier to define, as it marked the final incursion by the Elder Gods (as of this writing, December 12, 2173). This final incursion, known as the Last Godfall or the Siege of Terra, occurred on October 31, 2096. Since this date, there have been no incursions by the Elder Gods on Earth. However, it should be noted that the Knights of Terra insist that the threat posed by the Elder Gods cannot be assumed to be over and the Knights maintain constant vigilance for any sign of the Elder Gods’ return. There have been countless debates on the subject of the return of the Elder Gods, including the future of the Knights of Terra and their role in the post-war world. While polling data has shown a decreased support for the Knights and the astronomical costs of maintenance for their Armours, the majority of those polled are still in favor of keeping the Order intact out of fear that the Elder Gods may return one day.
Human Culture
“My world, my Earth, is a ruin. A planet spoiled by the human species. We multiplied and fought and gobbled until there was nothing left, and then we died. We controlled neither appetite nor violence; we did not adapt. We destroyed ourselves. But we destroyed the world first.”
Ursula K Le Guin, Science-Fiction Author
Before examining the events of the Lovecraft War, it is necessary to understand the political and social climate of humanity during the years leading up to the start of the conflict. Modern conservatives will look back at the era leading up to the war as a golden age of Western Capitalism, while progressives see the period as the birth of the modern social movement and the beginning of a truly connected global community. The truth of the matter is that humankind was on a precipice during those decades leading up to the onset of the war in which income inequality, racial disparity, and the damage caused by climate change were the defining issues of the time. While the period did see some of the greatest technological advances in humanity’s history, both sides of the political spectrum agreed that the future of mankind was sitting in a very delicate balance between flourishing and extinction.
At the onset of the war, there were one hundred and ninety-five sovereign nations on Earth. Global population had just surpassed eight billion, significantly less than originally estimated at that time due to population growth having slowed substantially during the SARS Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. The majority of the wealth and power of the world at this time was split between the United States of America and the People’s Republic of China. The United States had been the global superpower for almost a century before the first Godfall, although its grasp on that position had been slipping rapidly in the decade leading up to the war. The two superpowers competed both culturally and economically, with the United States as the prime example of Western Capitalism and China as the world’s most successful Communist state.
Wars between nations were common in the final few years before the first Godfall, as climate change began to have catastrophic effect around the world. As sea levels rose and global temperatures hit record highs, resources dwindled. The poorest countries were hit the hardest during this time, leaving them little recourse but to resort to military force to secure what little they had or acquire what they needed from their neighbors. In South America, Africa, and the Middle East, there were numerous border conflicts and, in a few cases, all-out wars, such as the India-Pakistan war of 2028, which saw New Delhi annihilated in a nuclear attack by Pakistan. Fortunately, the United Nations stepped in to resolve the conflict before India could retaliate with a nuclear strike of their own. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done, with almost ten million lives lost in the New Delhi attack alone. Some historical theorists argue that had the first Godfall not occurred that humanity would not have lasted past the midway point of the 21st century due to the chaos and strife caused by the climate catastrophe.
Despite all the hardships facing humanity at that time, some great accomplishments were made during those chaotic years. Advances in space travel made by private corporations such as Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and SpaceX finally allowed humanity to achieve the dream of becoming an interplanetary species. The first manned colonies were founded on the Moon and Mars in 2029 and 2032, respectively. The colony founded on the Moon’s southern pole thrived, later becoming known as Luna City after the conflict with the Elder Gods came to a conclusion. Unfortunately, the timing of the first Mars colony proved to be disastrous as it was founded just forty days before the first Godfall, and in the ensuing global panic, resources to support the Mars mission were redirected to war effort, effectively abandoning the Martian colonists. A monument to their sacrifice was erected at the site of the colony in 2105 when humanity returned to Mars for a second, successful attempt to colonize.
The Elder Gods
And They shall be known by their signs.
When thirty days and thirty nights have come and gone,
They will step through the sundered sky and wreak havoc upon the Earth.
Their sojourn will be paved in blood and flame,
Rending village, town, and city to ruin.
Reality itself gives way in the path of the Elder Gods,
For to witness their passing is to witness madness made manifest.
The First Verse of the Book of Nebuchadnezzar
The creatures known as the Elder Gods were unfathomable to the residents of Earth at the time of the first Godfall. On Earth, there is a universality to the life that inhabits the planet, easily able to be quantified and categorized into Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species. Even the strangest of terrestrial life, such as the mollusks or anything from Australia, could be categorized in these ways. The Elder Gods defy this or any categorization, despite the very best efforts by zoologists, xenobiologists, and astrosociologists. When the first Elder God appeared, the sight of it was shocking and terrifying to behold, unlike anything that human eyes had ever witnessed before. James Lucas, a reporter for MSNBC at the time of the First Godfall and one of the first casualties of the war, famously said: “I can’t find the words to describe what I’m seeing out here. There are teeth and tendrils and limbs and claws, all in number and proportion that would make HP Lovecraft piss himself in terror.” His feed cut out moments later to the sound of horrific screaming. Each subsequent Godfall would reveal a horror wildly different from the prior one, with each Elder God sharing few, if any, characteristics with their counterparts. Even size was wildly inconsistent, with the largest of the Elder Gods, Unglarbfr the Monstrous, standing almost five-hundred feet tall, and the smallest at just shy of seven feet, Jbadglfr the Apocalyptic. Not only do the Elder Gods differ physically, but they also have a variety of fantastical abilities at their disposal. From eyes that released flaming energy beams to the ability to secrete a potent acid to telekinetic abilities, the Elder Gods had numerous tools at their disposal to cause chaos. One of the most prolific of these abilities was found in the minuscule Jbaadglfr the Apocalyptic, who could unleash a blast of solar energy equivalent to that of a hydrogen bomb simply by opening its mouth.
Despite their wildly different physical appearances and abilities, the one thing that the Elder Gods share is what came to be known as the Reality Rending Field, or RR Field for short. The RR Field had the potential to alter and rewrite reality in the area around the Elder Gods. Dr. Tan Sun-ho of the Elder God Research Center gave one of the easiest to understand explanations of the RR Field during a war conference in Lagos in 2060. “Think of the RR Field this way – it’s as if the Elder Gods can open the instructions on how the universe operates and cross out and rewrite the rules at their leisure. Don’t like the gravity rule? Just cross it off the list and boom, the entire area inside the RR Field suddenly doesn’t have to obey the laws of gravity. The Elder Gods are playing a game with us, and they are using every cheat code they can find.” (International Conference on the Elder God Conflict, December 4, 2060) To this day, the best example of the damage the RR Field can cause is in the North American Exclusionary Zone, which covers a swath of land eight hundred and eighty miles long and twenty miles wide between the area of the first Godfall south of Dallas to what used to be Kentucky. In the North American Exclusionary Zone, gravity operates on a range between half of normal to four times normal, a range of mountains floats several hundred feet in the air, and Hydrogen atoms don’t always bond correctly with Oxygen molecules, rendering water dangerously explosive. There are numerous other inconsistencies caused by Slargatchh the Creator’s passing, but the inherent danger of the Zone means research proceeds slowly.
The First Godfall
“I’ve never seen anything like it. We threw everything we had it; missiles, bullets, tanks, and it just kept walking forward, like we weren’t even there. Hell, we dropped enough ordinance on that fucker to send a developed nation back to the stone age and I swear it just smiled at us. Then it waved one of them tentacles and I watched three thousand troops evaporate into fucking mist. If you want my opinion, I say we withdraw and throw a hundred goddam nuclear missiles at it, and then once that’s done we throw a hundred more just to be sure. Shit, part of me isn’t even sure that’s enough to do the trick.”
General Horace Wakefield, United States Army 1st Battalion on day 2 of the First Godfall
On Wednesday, February 25, 2032, when the first glyph was discovered on the 12th hole fairway at Indian River Country Club in Texas, the owners released an angry message on social media blaming the marking on “Antifa scum” and offered a reward of $500 dollars to anyone who could offer information leading to the arrest of the perpetrator. They received roughly three thousand emails and social media messages claiming to know who had committed to vandalism, none of which held any veracity. When the groundskeepers attempted to repair the damaged fairway, they quickly discovered that none of their normal methods were having any effect on removing the glyph. Two days later, one of the groundskeepers admitted himself to a hospital in Dallas and was diagnosed with mild radiation poisoning. Authorities investigated and quickly discovered that everyone who had contact with the glyph had been exposed to this at the time unknown radiation, forcing the country club to close temporarily, and the entire area was quarantined.
The Federal government of the United States quickly took control of the investigation of the glyph, bringing in some of the best minds on the planet to examine the phenomena. It was found to contain multiple unknown elements, the most prominent of which was later named divinium (119 DV). Divinium emitted a low grade cosmic radiation which was mostly harmless, but occasionally caused flu-like symptoms in humans and, oddly enough, armadillos. The glyph was exactly 510 feet in diameter and perfectly circular, with a variety of lines, curves, triangles, and circles contained within. Due to the similarity between the markings and the alchemical symbols conceived of by Greek philosopher Paracelsus, the name glyph would become the standard vernacular for the phenomena. When the Federal government attempted to remove the glyph to bring it to a different site, they found that the marking had permanently altered the land directly beneath it, making it impossible to move. For the next twenty-five days, thirty days since the glyph appeared, researchers would study and experiment at the site to try to discover its origin.
At 4:28 AM CST on Friday, March 26, 2032, the first Elder God would appear, marking the beginning of the First Godfall. According to a voice recorder recovered from the scene, “the sky is splitting open; no cracking and breaking open above us! What is that? Are those tentacles? Oh my god, something with tentacles and claws is coming through the crack in the sky!” (MSNBC Breaking News March 26, 2032) The creature, later learned in the Book of Nebuchadnezzar to be Slargatchh the Creator, emerged from its rift in the sky, landing directly on the glyph and the government research team. Slargatchh stood between two hundred and twenty and two hundred and eighty feet in height, and was a massive asymmetrical amalgamation of clawed limbs, massive tentacles, and numerous mouths lined with rows of long, fang-like teeth. Slargatchh had no noticeable eyes, but even now we have limited knowledge of the biology of the Elder Gods, so it is hard to say for certain if it had, or for that matter even needed, optical organs.
For the first hour and forty-two minutes after Slargatchh’s arrival, it simply stood on the site of the glyph, almost motionless other than the constant searching movements of the numerous tentacle appendages. The Texas National Guard arrived on site, as did the press, giving all of humanity its first glimpse of an Elder God. Initially, the Guard set up a perimeter and waited, showing an abundance of caution in their interaction with Slargatchh. In the United States Military, there is a rule regarding first contact with alien species stating that use of force is only to be used as a defensive measure. Fun fact, this rule was initially written as “if the alien displays open hostility” but alien expert and TV personality Giorgio A. Tsoukalos advised them to change the wording as applying our perception of hostility to an alien culture could result in a tragic misunderstanding during first contact.
At 6:10 AM CST, Slargatchh let out a massive scream that could be heard as far away as Houston, just moments after MSNBC reporter James Lucas made his now famous comment about the Lovecraftian nature of Slargatchh. This was the first time that humanity experienced the effect of the RR Field, as an area ten miles in radius was forever altered into the first part of the North American Exclusionary Zone. The city of Dallas and all of its inhabitants, as well as the entirety of the Texas National Guard, were reduced to a liquid form that now floats above that part of the Zone. Slargatchh began its walk, heading Northeast at a steady rate of ten miles per hour, periodically stopping to release a blast of its RR Field and rewriting the reality of the surrounding area.
The American government initially assumed that Slargatchh’s target was the former capitol of the United States, Washington, DC. President Dwayne Johnson declared a state of emergency and activated the entirety of the United States military to fight against Slargatchh. The military set up multiple engagement points along Slargatchh’s route, attempting to limit civilian casualties and damage to infrastructure. The first major engagement with the Elder God took place outside of Hot Springs, Arkansas. The engagement was a total failure, as not only were they unable to damage Slargatchh, but the entire force was lost when Slargatchh unleashed its RR Field. The US military adjust their tactics during the second engagement, which took place outside of Nashville, Tennessee three days after Slargatchh’s Godfall. They employed bombing runs and long range artillery, keeping outside the ten-mile range of the RR Field. Once again, this had little to no noticeable effect on Slargatchh and it continued Northeast.
At 9:00 PM EST on Monday, March 29, 2032, President Johnson signed approval to use nuclear weapons to stop Slargatchh’s approach. At 10:00 PM EST, as Slargatchh was passing through the now abandoned city of Lexington, Kentucky, five SS-18 Mod 2 Satan ICBMs made contact with Slargatchh. Under advisement from General Wakefield, a second volley of five smaller yield SS-17 Spanker Mod 2 ICBMs hit Slargatchh fifteen minutes later. Thermal imagery of the site would later show the nuclear volley had successfully neutralized Slargatchh, bringing the first Godfall to a close.
The Book of Nebuchadnezzar
I have been witness to events that man was never meant to see. I watched as entire universes emerged from a single atom. I cried as other universes fell cold in the final moments of their heat death. Countless civilizations rose and fell around countless stars in countless galaxies in countless universes in but a single moment for me. I have witnessed it all time and time again from my jail, trapped in this interstitial space outside of time. It is here that I learned of the Elder Gods and their disdain for reality. It is here that I learned that they had set their machinations on the tiny world I once knew as home. Thus, I am left with no choice but to escape my prison, lest the Vault of Terra be opened…
The final words of the Book of Nebuchadnezzar
Following the First Godfall, the world was in a state of chaos. The United States Military had been left greatly depleted in the battle against Slargatchh the Creator, and two large patches of the country had been lost in the process; the North American Exclusionary Zone was lost to the effects of RR Field, and large portions of Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York had to be evacuated to avoid the nuclear fallout from the ICBM strikes in Lexington, Kentucky. Millions had died during the First Godfall, and tens of Millions were left without homes to return to. The United States was facing a crisis far greater than anything they were remotely prepared to handle, and for the first time in centuries, the US government found itself requesting aid from the rest of the world. President Dwayne Johnson would resign in the following days. In his resignation, he stated that, “any leader that would resort to using weapons of mass destruction on their own soil clearly was not cut out to be a leader. May god forgive me for what I’ve done.” (April 2, 2032) Vice President Peter Buttigieg would be sworn in less than a week later, making him the first openly gay President of the United States.
While much of the world came to the aid of the wounded United States, other factions saw the depleted military strength as an opportunity. Russian troops invaded Ukraine, the Taliban laid siege to Kabul, North Korea launched missile strikes on South Korea, and China launched a full scale invasion of Taiwan. With the United States unable to intervene, its standing as the world’s superpower began to wane. In an effort to reassert that the United States of America was still the predominant nation on Earth, Republican Speaker of the House Donald Trump Jr. Said during an interview: “Of course the aliens attacked the United States; we’re the greatest country on the planet! As soon as that thing landed, where did it head? Straight for DC, that’s where. What, do you think it would go to the Chinese capital of Shanghai or something?” (CNN, April 24, 2032) When asked if he meant Beijing, Speaker Trump refused to comment and called the reporter a “liberal hack”. The United Nations also proved to be ineffective without the United States’ support, failing to stop in any of their interventions around the world.
As the world slipped into chaos, a single question was still in the back of everyone’s mind: was the alien attack over? Every major media outlet asked this question repeatedly, bringing in every expert in every tangentially related field to give their best guess. Late Night host Pete Davidson would pose this very question to celebrity scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson during a guest appearance on his show. “That’s a great question, Pete. Let me be honest with you, there is so much we don’t know about what happened. We call it an attack, but was it actually? For all we know, that thing was just out for a stroll and Earth happened to get in its way. I mean, Jesus, that thing literally altered reality as effortlessly as you and I breathe. You want to know if it will happen again? I don’t know, but I really, really hope not.” (Late Night with Pete Davidson, May 20, 2032)
The answer to that question would come on Tuesday, November 16, 2032, when a new glyph appeared in the middle of the Brazilian Soccer Field in Centennial Park in Sydney, Australia. Within hours of learning that a new glyph had appeared, conflicts around the world ceased. In the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine, an unnamed Russian soldier told an AP reporter, “Why are we here? To expand the Russian border? Why does that matter when at any moment a horrible space monster could fall out of the sky and kill us all? Screw this, I’m going home.” (Associated Press, November 17, 2032) Australian Armed Forces deployed to the site immediately and began evacuating everyone within a ten-mile radius. Forces from China, Brazil, Japan, the now Unified Korea, and dozens of other countries arrived in the tens of thousands to aid in the evacuation efforts. Of notable exception was the United States, which argued that their forces were too depleted and focused on reconstruction to join the efforts. President Buttigieg did end up dispatching the Pacific Fleet to assist in setting up a defensive perimeter a few days later after extreme pressure from sources both internal and abroad. Artillery lines were made at the ten-mile mark. Military Intelligence guessed that the creature would head for Canberra, similar to how Slargatchh the Creator was seemingly headed for Washington, DC. The combined military forces planned accordingly, setting up multiple engagement points in the 180 mile stretch between Sydney and Canberra.
For the next thirty days, the world would wait impatiently for the next Elder God, at this point still referred to simply as the invaders, to make their appearance. Media covered Centennial Park twenty-four hours a day, using footage from drones to keep viewers around the world informed about the situation in Australia. The joint military forces maintained a round-the-clock vigil, weapons primed and ready to fire on the now abandoned city of Sydney. In the chance that things did not go as planned and the military was unable to stop the invader’s advance, plans had already been put in place with the Chinese government for a nuclear strike on the Australian city. As it would happen, none of that turned out to be necessary.
At 5:37 AM AEDT on December 16, 2032, the sky above Centennial Park cracked and opened up. Instead of tentacles or claws or teeth, a single human skeleton fell from the opening in the sky. The skeleton floated slowly down from the crack in the sky and landed softly in a cross-legged sitting position in the exact center of the glyph. A few moments later, the sky closed back up, and the glyph vanished, leaving only the skeletal figure sitting in the middle of the Brazilian Soccer Field in Centennial Park.
Initially, military forces were reluctant to enter the ten-mile radius after the devastating losses suffered by the American armed forces during the First Godfall. Drones inspected the site and after a few hours, the first reconnaissance teams entered the Park and inspected the skeleton. What they discovered was a perfectly preserved human skeleton wearing ornate robes and jewelry, clutching a massive, leather-bound tome to its chest. With the threat of danger assumed past, the military moved back into the area and secured the skeleton. The skeleton was put in the care of the Chinese military, despite vocal objections by the United States. It was then transported back to mainland China, where the skeleton and the tome were examined at length.
Chinese scientists were able to date the skeleton back to around 500 BC and was of Middle-Eastern descent. From the book, which had to be translated from the ancient Akkadian language of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the scientists were able to learn that the bearer of the book was none other than Nebuchadnezzar III, son of the great king of Neo-Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar II. Nebuchadnezzar III had been thought killed during an alchemical experiment, but as it turned out, he had instead been transported to what he referred to as the “Interstitial Point”, or a place between every universe simultaneously. The Tome was thus known as the Book of Nebuchadnezzar, and it detailed his alchemical experiments and his accidental imprisonment in the Interstitial Point. It was there that Nebuchadnezzar III learned of the Elder Gods and their multi-universal calling to alter realities. He described at length each of the 1,260 Elder Gods, citing their conquests, temperaments, rivalries, and countless other details about the horrific beings. Most importantly, the book included the individual glyphs of each Elder God that signaled their coming, which would allow humanity to better prepare for future incursions.
Much to the surprise and suspicion of the Western nations, China immediately shared all they had learned from the Book of Nebuchadnezzar. On the morning of January 5, 2033, Xiong Fan, a representative for the CCP held a press conference where she stated, “The information in this book does not belong to one country or one people, but to all the people of the world. We have learned what horrors await us, and this is a threat that will require all of us to put aside our petty squabble and unite. The Book of Nebuchadnezzar does not only detail our common enemy, the Elder Gods, but also contains the instructions to construct a weapon to defeat them. Let me rephrase; not a weapon, but rather an Armour for the world.” (CCP Press Release, January 5, 2033)
Armour and The Schrödinger Field
“Armour is so much more than just a ‘giant robot’, as the critics say. My Armour, Zulfiqar, is like an extension of my own body, my own will. You have to understand, fighting an Elder God isn’t just a physical battle, it is literally a battle of willpower. You want to know how strong my will is? Let’s put it this way: I’ve faced three Gods and walked away victoriously all three times.”
Sir Samara Shakir, Astral Knight and pilot of the Armour Zulfiqar, in an interview on BBC Breakfast, August 30, 2071
Included in the Book of Nebuchadnezzar were advanced diagrams and schematics for what was referred to as “Armour”. Measurements included in the schematics detailed that these Armours should stand “200 cubits in height” or roughly three hundred feet. Normally, constructing a three-hundred foot tall bipedal robot would be near impossible due to the square-cube law, which is defined as such: “When an object undergoes a proportional increase in size, its new surface area is proportional to the square of the multiplier, and the volume is proportional to the cube of the multiplier.” In layman’s terms, the larger something becomes, the more likely it would be to collapse upon itself while accelerating. Fortunately, Nebuchadnezzar III had gained the knowledge to combat this problem during his stay in the Interstitial Point.
Over the course of the eternity that Nebuchadnezzar III had been witnessing the birth and collapses of of universes, he had learned how to use alchemical machinery to harness and manipulate gravity. Dubbed Black-Star energy, this unique form of anti-matter annihilation could produce a seemingly endless supply of power, to the point where it seemed to be in complete contrast to the known laws of thermodynamics. In addition, one of the side-effects of Black-Star energy was the emission of gravitons that could be used to effect the interaction between mass and gravitational fields. By affecting the interaction between mass and gravity, an object as large as Nebuchadnezzar’s Armour was theoretically possible. The Black-Star Generator would have world-changing significance in the decades to come, completely altering the energy industry and ushering in the major technological breakthroughs in every industry and scientific field around the globe.
The final piece of the puzzle that was detailed in the Book of Nebuchadnezzar was a way to combat the Elder Gods’ Reality Rending Field. As seen during the First Godfall, all the weapons in the world wouldn’t matter when the Elder God activated the RR Field. Even with the Black-Star Generator powering it, Armour was just as vulnerable to the RR Field as any other object caught in the radius. Nebuchadnezzar had postulated that the RR Field operating on the notion of Infinite Probability, where every variable is just as likely to work in a probability distribution, meaning every single atom in an RR Field had the possibility of becoming any other atom. Nebuchadnezzar’s solution was a method for locking probability to one and preventing any alteration or variation. The device that he devised would utilize the magnetic fields of the Black-Star Generator to produce a field that would lock in the probability that the world that whomever was operating the field was experiencing to 1, effectively nullifying the Infinite Probability of the RR Field. This field would come to be known as the Schrödinger Field, named for the thought experiment by physicist Erwin Schrödinger involving a box, a poison capsule, and a cat that was simultaneously both alive and dead.
Despite the technological breakthroughs provided by the Book of Nebuchadnezzar, the path to the first Armour was a path wrought with skepticism and distrust. When Chinese scientists revealed that their study of the Book of Nebuchadnezzar revealed instructions for the construction of three-hundred foot tall mechanized combat armor, many in the international community assumed the worst. An unnamed British diplomat is quoted on an official communique with his embassy as saying: “Giant Robots? That’s their answer? We have reality bending nightmare creatures falling from the sky and they want to build a fucking Gundam.” (Official British Embassy Communication, January 5, 2033) Former American Conservative pundit and conspiracy theorist Tucker Carlson not only questioned the veracity of the Chinese announcement but also claimed that the Chinese government had nefarious intentions. “Are we really going to believe that Communist China has the world’s best intentions in mind? At the very best, this notion of a weapon to fight the aliens is a scam to siphon money from the international community. And even if this so-called Armour is real, who’s saying that they won’t use it against the rest of us instead? Are we really willing to risk a world under Chinese leadership? If I had to choose between extinction and communism, the choice seems obvious to me.” (The Tucker Show on OANN, January 7, 2033)
Despite the push back from a variety of sources, the collective fear of the Elder Gods would push the majority of the international community to join the Chinese in Project Armour. American President Pete Buttigieg, who had narrowly won the previous year’s election against GOP candidate Ivanka Trump, signed the American Armour Funding Act into law on January 15, 2032. With the signing of the bill, the United States of American became the first of one hundred and fifty sovereign nations that would contribute to Project Armour. In the interest of international diplomacy, the headquarters for Project Armour was moved to Vancouver, Canada. When asked for the reasoning behind this move, Xiong Fan, now acting as Chairperson for Project Armour, stated that “everybody likes Canada.” (Fox News, February 2, 2033)
Resources poured in from around the globe, as did the best engineers and scientists. Progress on the prototype Armour was slow going, and the prospect of having a working, battle-ready Armour available for the inevitable next Elder God incursion was looking unlikely. Construction on the prototype was helmed by esteemed Russian mechanical engineer, Dr. Aleksandr Baranov. Dr. Baranov had earned his first PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Khalifa University at the young age of twenty-one and earned his second PhD in Aerospace Engineering from Auburn University just two years later. Dr. Baranov would go on to hold positions at Roskosmos and served as an advisor at both Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic in the years leading up to the conflict with the Elder Gods. Knowing that the Armour would not be finished or tested in time, Dr. Baranov split his team in two, with one team working on the Armour and the second developing a new countermeasure to combat the Elder Gods using more traditional military technology.
On Thursday, April 14, 2033 at 7:43 AM BST, a new glyph appeared in Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant, Wales in a field just north of the center of the village. A multinational team of scientists headed by American xenobiologist Dr. Thomas Faraday would arrive on site and quickly matched the glyph to an Elder God from the Book of Nebuchadnezzar. This glyph belonged to Gyggrjudros the Ravenous, a particularly aggressive creature according to the notes in the tome. Armed Forces from both the United Kingdom and the United Nations moved quickly to evacuate the area in a 10-mile radius from the glyph. There was debate over which way the Elder God would move due to the complex political organization of the United Kingdom. Welsh officials argued that the monster would head south towards Cardiff, while United Kingdom officials were certain it would head southeast towards London. Unfortunately, there was not enough data to predict the route, and the Book of Nebuchadnezzar did not include any information that seemed relevant. To make matters worse, the prototype Armour was nowhere near completion, meaning that traditional military force would have to be used to combat the next incursion.
On Thursday, May 12, 2033, two days before the Second Godfall was to occur, Dr. Baranov and his second team would arrive on site with their new countermeasure. This new weapon, called the Nuclear Graviton Mine, or NG Mine for short, was a fusion of existing nuclear technology and Black-Star energy. While untested, Dr. Baranov theorized that it would create a massive, localized matter annihilation that could destroy the Elder God with only minimal damage to the surrounding environment. The United Kingdom gave Dr. Baranov’s team permission to deploy the NG Mine at the glyph. With the countermeasure deployed, the team waited outside the ten-mile safety radius for Gyggrjudros’ arrival. At 7:42 AM BST on May 14, 2033, Gyggrjudros broke through the sky and stepped on the mine, unleashing an explosion that could be seen as far away as the New York City. A member of Dr. Baranov’s team wrote of the event: “It was like a pillar of pure light burst from the very soil of the Earth, both beautiful and terrifying as it burnt a path to the stars. Some people prayed, some people cheered, and others cried, but all of us were in absolute awe of the power of Dr. Baranov’s mine.” (The Memoirs of Dr. Simon Chan, Confessions of an Armourer. Published in 2057 by Random House) The NG Mine destroyed all matter in a blast that was exactly two miles in radius and ten miles in height from the point of impact. The village of Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant was effectively erased from the map, leaving a circular patch of scorched dirt in its place. Any trace of Gyggrjudros was also gone, destroyed in the NG Mine’s blast. Fallout from the blast was minimal due to the vertical nature of the blast, but there were reports of people throughout the British Isles coming down with symptoms similar to mild radiation poisoning over the next few months.
With an effective but devastating countermeasure now shown to be effective against the Elder Gods, Dr. Baranov was able to focus on his work on the Armour prototype. The Third and Fourth Godfalls would occur during this time, in Zimbabwe and Greenland, respectively. On Thursday, June 1, 2034, the fifth glyph, this one belonging to Qrodkilhar the Effervescent, would appear in the Alto Rio Negro region of Brazil. It would not be discovered until June 7 due to the remoteness of the region. The prototype Armour, named Mithril by Dr. Baranov, taking its name from armor worn by Bilbo Baggins in JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit, had been completed and had even undergone test piloting, but its Shrödinger Field had failed testing multiple times. According to reports from the site, several of the test pilots had ended up in the hospital after testing the Shrödinger Field due to the heavy strain that it placed on the operator. “In each of the subjects, a range of trauma was found in the insula region of the brain, ranging from a mild hematoma to severe hemorrhaging. While three of the patients should see a full recovery, one pilot will probably remain in a vegetative state indefinitely. It is our recommendation at this time that no further human testing be conducted with the Shrödinger Field.” (Medical Report by Dr. Faye Donahoe, May 20, 2034) Additionally, the location of the Fifth Glyph meant that utilizing an NG Mine would cause irreparable damage to the entire South American ecosystem due to its proximity to the Amazon River. After an emergency session of the United Nations and the member countries of Project Armour, the decision was made to mobilize Mithril to combat the Elder God Qrodkilhar the Effervescent. Dr. Baranov voiced his concerns, but the decision stood: Mithril would be going into battle on July 1, 2034. Reluctantly, Dr. Baranov agreed to mobilize Mithril on a single condition; he would be the one to pilot the Armour.
The First Victory
“What we have witnessed here today will go down as one of the greatest moments in human history. I still can’t believe it myself. But what we need to remember for future generations is that it wasn’t the politicians or the soldiers that took down an Elder God today; it was mechanical engineer named Aleksandr with one hell of a right hook.”
Field Reporter Ryan Coolidge on CNN Breaking News, July 1, 2034
With only a few weeks to prepare Mithril for the Fifth Godfall, Dr. Baranov’s team worked around the clock to get the Armour ready for combat. As a prototype, Mithril was never expected to see combat, so it lacked some of the key components that it would need to survive an encounter with an Elder God. In the weeks leading up to July 1, 2034, Mithril would transform from a metallic, skeletal frame into a heavily armed and armored war machine. While future Armours would have custom plating for defense, Mithril’s protection was re-purposed from Russian T-14 Armata tanks. According to sources at the site, more than five-hundred Armatas were stripped to provide enough material to create Mithril’s protective suit of armor. For weaponry, the crew went with a mixture of close-range and long-range weapons. A main turret was salvaged from a retired US battleship and mounted to Mithril’s left arm, with a custom-built reloading mechanism designed from scratch and installed in the turret’s housing. There were a variety of options on the table for melee weaponry, but it was eventually decided that a sword would be the best fit, as Dr. Baranov had been a fencer in his youth. The team utilized the wing of a Boeing 747 as the foundation for the sword, before reinforcing it with leftover plating from the Armata tanks and crafting a massive hilt that had special contacts that allowed the Mithril’s graviton field to be shared with the sword, ensuring it wouldn’t collapse under its own mass.
The major problem facing the Mithril was not its armor or lack of armament, it was the Armour’s control system. The cockpit that they had installed in the head of the Mithril had rudimentary controls that allowed the Armour to do little more than walk around and move the arms through a variety of pre-programed gestures. For the Mithril to be able to fight against a living creature, it would need a control system that would be able to react and adjust to the chaotic nature of combat. For inspiration, Dr. Baranov turned to every source he could think of, including movies, television, literature, and video games. They tackled locomotion first, implementing a fly-by-wire system that electronically controlled the movement through a series of controls at the foot of the pilot’s chair. The pilot would give the computer an input with the foot pedals, and the computer would instruct the Mithril how to go about completing that input. The arms presented a far more difficult challenge as Dr. Baranov wanted a system that could produce a 1:1 movement from the pilot to the Armour. He found his inspiration in the controls of VR devices and crafted his own system that he dubbed the marionette. The marionette gloves were connected to a series of wires and sensors in the gloves and around the cockpit could track the movement of the hands precisely. Sensors would be connected up the pilot’s arms to aid in tracking this movement, and the Mithril’s computer would translate these commands to the Armour’s arms, allowing for as close to a 1:1 tracking as they were going to get in the limited time they had before the Fifth Godfall.
On Thursday, June 29, 2034, Mithril was transported to the Alto Rio Negro region of Brazil via heavy transport helicopters. The Armour was stationed roughly half a mile from the glyph as final preparations were made for the Fifth Godfall. Dr. Baranov had barely had the time to test the new control systems, let alone put them through any of the rigorous trials that should have been completed before sending the Armour into combat. News Organizations around the world were covering the glyph site around the clock, and expectations for the Armour were at a fever pitch, as the weapon had been sold to the public as the “savior of humanity”. What the media didn’t show was that precautions were being put in place in the event that the Armour would fail. An artillery line sat at the ten-mile mark and an NG Mine had been placed within a mile from the glyph as a last resort. On the day before the Fifth Godfall, Dr. Baranov was seen with members of his team painting an emblem on the chest of Mithril that depicted the double-helix structure of human DNA. When asked about his decision to paint a DNA strand on the Mithril, he said, “That’s us. That’s all of us. No nationalities, no religion, no race, no gender; just humans. That’s what we fight for.” (Dr. Aleksandr Baranov on China Central Television, June 30, 2034)
At 7:16 AM AMT on July 1, 2034, the sky cracked and split open and Qrodkilhar the Effervescent fell into the Amazon rain forest of Alto Rio Negro in Brazil. Qrodkilhar was nearly the same size as Slargatchh had been, but was wildly different in appearance. Its body was vaguely humanoid, with a pair of long, unguligrade legs to support its thin torso. Four arms connected to the torso; a pair of thick, burly arms that ended in a single, lengthy claw, and a pair of smaller, multi-jointed arms emerging from the front of the chest that had a trio of grasping fingers. Qrodkilhar had a clearly defined head-like appendage that protruded lower and far more forward than a human head. This head did not contain any noticeable sensory organs was little more than a giant mouth filled with countless jagged teeth. The most memorable feature of Qrodkilhar the Effervescent was the six fleshy smokestack like tubes emerging from its back that emitted a constant purple gas that, according to those at the site, smelled like a mixture of cinnamon and oranges.
It was at this moment that the world would witness the first successful deployment of the Shrödinger Field. The moment Qrodkilhar made contact with the Earth, a wave of shimmering light burst from the chest of Mithril and enveloped a ten-mile radius around the Armour. When Qrodkilhar opened its mouth to unleash its RR Field, all that came out was a deafening scream. The Shrödinger Field had successfully negated the Infinite Probability of Qrodkilhar’s RR Field, preventing a repeat of what had happened just over two years prior in the United States. This moment is the one that many historians mark as the moment that humanity truly began to fight back against the Elder Gods.
The actual battle between Mithril and Qrodkilhar the Effervescent lasted less than ten minutes. The makeshift nature of Mithril’s weaponry proved to be problematic for the Armour, as the arm mounted cannon tore itself free from its housing after the very first volley, rendering it useless. The three 16-inch armor-piercing rounds launched by the cannon did manage to make contact with the Elder God, but the damage they did was minimal. Mithril’s sword proved slightly more effective, lopping one of Qrodkilhar’s larger arms clean off at the elbow. Unfortunately, the sword buckled under the impact and the repurposed wing that made up the “blade” of the weapon was rent from the hilt. With its weapons rendered useless, the fight between the Armour and the Elder God degraded into a brawl between two giants. The two behemoths traded blows and grappled with one another, neither gaining much ground. After coming together once again, Qrodkilhar crippled one of Mithril’s legs with the large claw on its one remaining primary arm, forcing the Armour to its knees. When the Elder God came in to finish the wounded Armour, it was met with a right hook punch to its head that launched the Elder God from its feet and sent it crashing into the jungle floor. Mithril then threw itself on top of Qrodkilhar and grabbed the monster by the head. With a hand on each of Qrodkilhar’s jaws, Mithril pulled with such strength that it tore a chunk off the monster from head to belly, killing the Elder God and bringing the Fifth Godfall to a close. For a few moments, both the Elder God and the Armour laid still on the ground until Mithril raised its fist above its head, signaling mankind’s first victory over the Elder Gods.
The Vault of Terra
“Once we realized where the Elder Gods were heading, it was just a matter of figuring out why. Who would’ve thought that underneath the city of Pittsburgh – Pittsburgh of all places! – would be the most important discovery in the history of mankind. When I first saw inside the Vault, it changed me in forever: you tend to look at mankind a little differently when the construction directions are laid out in front of you.”
Head Librarian David Faraday on Good Morning Earth, November 11, 2052
After the world witnessed Dr. Baranov’s victory over Qrodkilhar the Effervescent in the Amazon, Project Armour was kicked into overdrive. Every country in the world was on board now that they saw that we could defeat the Elder Gods without destroying the planet in the process. The second Armour, named Yanyuedao, was ready less than a year later in time for the Seventh Godfall, piloted by none other than the Xiong Fan, the young former spokeswoman for Project Armour. Named after the glaive carried by historical Chinese warrior Guan Yu, Yanyuedao was a vast improvement over the Mithril and began the tradition of naming the Armours after historical weaponry. Project Armour also learned during this time that activating the Shrödinger Field required, as Dr. Baranov described, “a supreme belief in one’s self and their place in the world. Not arrogance, but unflinching self-confidence” (Interview with Anderson Cooper, CNN, July 20, 2034) Testing sites around the world were established to find future Armour pilots, by activating an extremely small scale Shrödinger Field and maintaining the output for a length of time. Out of over ten thousand candidates who took the test, Xiong Fan was the only one who was able to not only erect a Shrödinger Field but also maintain it at full strength for an extended period of time. Her control of the Shrödinger Field was so good that her measurements would be the baseline on which future applicants would be measured.
The next few years of the conflict with the Elder Gods saw a mixture of successes and failures. While several of the next Godfalls were successfully interdicted by Armours, losses were sustained as well. The Sixth Godfall saw Mithril fall in combat and the deployment of an NG Mine in Eastern India. The Ninth Godfall not only saw the destruction of the third Armour, Icingdeath, but resulted in the Southern European Exclusionary Zone in Italy when an NG Mine failed to activate, giving the Elder God Fferynword the Believer enough time to deploy his RR Field along a path of two hundred miles before he was defeated by the Armour Yanyuedao. During the Tenth Godfall in Tunisia on January 29, 2040, the painful lesson was learned that only one Armour can engage an Elder God at a time as the Schrödinger Fields of Yanyuedao and the fourth Armour, Gram, negated one another, which allowed Xlerundit the Infinite to activate its RR Field. The Yanyuedao and its pilot, Xiong Fan, survived the encounter and managed to defeat Xlerundit, but Gram was transformed by the RR Field into a gargantuan tree, which still stands to this day.
It was quickly discovered after the Sixth Godfall that the Elder Gods had no apparent interest in national capitols, as originally assumed. After the Tenth Godfall, there was enough data on the movements of the Elder Gods post-arrival to extrapolate their destination. The geographic coordinates where all the paths of the Elder Gods converged were 40.4109778489147, -79.98763554027806, placing their destination directly atop the Mount Oliver residential district of the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh was one of the many areas that was forced to be abandoned after Slargatchh the Creator’s death after a massive nuclear strike in 2032 due to the resultant nuclear fallout. While radiation levels in the city had dropped significantly in the eight years since the attack, there were still radioactive hot-spots that kept the city from being resettled.
The U.N. dispatched Dr. Faraday and his Elder God research team to Pittsburgh in the hopes of discovering what the Elder Gods were trying to accomplish with their incursions. After two years of excavation, on April 13, 2042, Dr. Faraday’s team discovered what would become known as The Vault of Terra. The Vault had been briefly referenced in the Book of Nebuchadnezzar, but due to the sometimes poetic nature of the tome, it was thought to be a metaphor of sorts. Instead, they discovered a vast, ancient labyrinth almost a mile beneath the surface after tracking several deposits of divinium, the same material that the Elder Gods glyphs were comprised of. The Vault itself was the central structure of the labyrinth and was completely inert until Dr. Faraday accidentally sneezed on it. He postulated afterwards that it was human DNA that activated the Vault, but was unable to test this hypothesis further as the Vault remained active after the initial contact. The contents of the Vault are referred to as the Codex of Mankind. To this day, only a small number of Librarians of the Vault have seen the Codex, which they describe as the origin of all mankind, past, present, and future. What little is known about the Codex is that it is a quantum anomaly, seemingly existing in every point in time simultaneously, much like the Interstitial Point that Nebuchadnezzar III had inhabited, as best hypothesized due to the positron and tachyon radiation that the Codex emits.
With the discovery of the Vault of Terra, the next question that needed to be resolved was why the Elder Gods were so interested in it. The assumption is that the Elder Gods are after the Codex of Mankind, but for what means is still unknown after all these years since the war’s end. The Vault would remain unbreached throughout the course of the war until the One Hundred and Eleventh Godfall, also known as the Final Godfall or the Siege of the Vault. There were many guesses as to why the Elder Gods wanted to access the Vault of Terra, the most prevalent being that they intended to wipe humanity’s entire existence throughout time from the universe. Unfortunately, with the war’s end, it seems likely that we will never know exactly what the Elder Gods were plotting.
Protection of the Vault of Terra became a matter of international debate shortly after its contents were discovered in 2042. The United States attempted to stake claim to the vault, with President James Matthew Kennedy arguing in an international quorum regarding the Vault that since it was found on United States territory, it should fall to the United States to take responsibility for its protection. This proclamation brought the United States, which was still a shadow of its former power in the world after the First Godfall, to the brink of war with China and Russia, who both argued that the Vault needed an international response as it affected all of mankind. The United Nations agreed to step in as custodians of the Vault, but several countries objected, such as Brazil and India, due to the UN’s general ineffectiveness in resolving international disputes. The inability of the world leaders to find a compromise saw nations mobilizing their armed forces against one another for the first time since the First Godfall.
After weeks of debate and several incidents that nearly resulted in military action, Dr. Aleksandr Baranov took center stage at the quorum. Dr. Baranov had been paralyzed from the waist down during the Sixth Godfall when his Armour Mithril was defeated in combat with the Elder God Bravtlik the Undeserving. Dr. Baranov made an extreme proposal that would change history forever. He proposed to establishment of a stateless nation of Terra in a fifty-mile radius of the Vault of Terra. This area would serve as a home for those that would research the Vault with only a single requirement; they would have to renounce their previous national citizenship. In addition, all future production of Armour and related research and development would take place in Terra. Armour pilots would similarly renounce their national citizenship and take up residency in Terra. Terra would be funded and resourced by the international community, and any nation that contributed would fall under the veil of what became known as the Terran Protectorate.
The Terran Protectorate and the Order of the Knights of Terra
“The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools.”
Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War
The establishment of the Terran Protectorate in 2042 was the single largest shift in political power in the history of mankind. It saw the superpowers of the mid-21st century voluntarily cede their power for the greater good of humanity as a whole. China, Russia, the European Union, the African Union, and, albeit reluctantly, the United States agreed to Dr. Baranov’s proposal and the Terran Protectorate was born. United States President James Matthew Kennedy was initially reluctant, as the United States had already lost the most territory and a large portion of its military might to the conflict, but quickly realized that the country couldn’t hope to stand against the likes of a united Russia and China. This move would be the beginning of the end of the United States, with several states on both sides of the political spectrum drafting articles of secession before the year’s end.
Despite the promising start, there were several nations vehemently opposed to the Terran Protectorate. This coalition of nations, led by Brazil and India, withdrew from the quorum after it was clear that the Protectorate had garnered enough support to become viable. Fortunately, over the course of the next few years, these countries fell back into the fold as the Terran Knights lived up to their word and did not offer their support during Elder God incursions. The Seventeenth Godfall took place outside of Ankara, Turkey. Instead of going to the site of the glyph, Sir Rosheen Fallon and her Armour Leg Biter waited on the Greek side of the border and intercepted the Elder God, Porxilia the Graceful, once it had fully entered Greek sovereignty. Turkey agreed to the terms of the Terran Protectorate within a day of the Turkish Exclusionary Zone having been created by the Elder God’s passing, losing their two largest cities in the process. Of the fifteen nations that initially refused to join the Protectorate, fourteen joined within the first five years of its formation. The lone holdout was India, which established itself as an autonomous zone and even managed to create their own versions of Armour, known as the Arms of Vishnu. The Indian Autonomous Nation is the only nation-state on Earth that is still not part of the Terran Protectorate and while they maintain trade with protectorate nations, travel to and from the nation is incredibly limited due to concerns about security and distrust between Terra and India.
The Terran Protectorate was organized into two branches; the Library of the Vault and the Order of the Knights of Terra. The two branches made up the governing body of Terra, with Dr. Baranov serving in an advisory role as Steward of Terra. The Order of the Knights of Terra, organized under the watchful eye of Knight-Marshal Xiong Fan, was responsible for the defense of Terra and engaging against the Elder Gods during Godfalls. Knight-Marshal Xiong envisioned the Knights in a role not unlike that of Socrates’ Philosopher Kings, as described in Plato’s The Republic. Not only were the Knights the military arm of Terra, but they also took an active role in governing the Protectorate and educating future Armour pilots, known as Squires. When a Knight was no longer able to pilot an Armour, be it to age or injury, they became a Knight-Exarch and took on a role in education and advisement for the current Knights. At the inception of the Order of the Knights of Terra, there were five active Knights, one Knight-Exarch, and a class of twenty-five Squires. Those that wished to be Squires but could not operate a Schrödinger Field would have a trio of options available to them: join the Library of the Vault as an understudy, join the ranks of the Terran Guard which protected Terra from more “traditional” threats, or have their original citizenship to their country of origin reinstated and return home.
The second, but equally vital, branch of the Protectorate was the Library of the Vault. The Library was responsible for all the research regarding the Elder Gods, the Book of Nebuchadnezzar, the Vault of Terra, and the Codex of Mankind. While the Library did have a political presence in Terra, they often left governing to the Protectorate in the hands of the Knights. Instead, their focus was on learning as much as they could from the artifacts and then applying what they learned in the service of all mankind. Countless technological advances had their roots in the research done by the Librarians of Terra, which they shared freely with any member state of the Protectorate. Leading the Library would be former UN Elder God Researcher, Dr. Thomas Faraday, who took on the role of Head Librarian for his tenure with the Library. During this time, he promoted the Library as the finest institute of higher learning on the planet, drawing countless students from around the globe. Those who graduated from the Library were given options similar to those of Squires, in which they could return to their country of origin, become a Librarian, or attempt to join the Order of the Knights of Terra.
Terra itself was a project that took more than a decade to complete as they transformed the area that had once been Pittsburgh into a fortress that housed both the Library of the Vault and the Order of the Knights of Terra. A wall three hundred and fifty feet in height and fifty feet in depth was constructed around the city, centering on the Vault of Terra under Mount Oliver with a radius of ten miles. Approximately sixty miles of this massive wall was constructed, finally completed in 2050, sectioning off an area of over three hundred square miles that would become Terra. The abandoned city was bustling with life once again, as individuals from around the world renounced their nationalities and worked diligently to bring Terra to life. The walled city continued to expand and grow, becoming a cultural, educational, and economic hub for the nations of the Protectorate. By 2062, twenty years after its inception, the Fortress city of Terra would be home to over a million people and the political center of the modern world. Even with the ever present threat of the Elder Gods, Terra’s rise to dominance would begin what many historians consider being a Golden Age of humanity.
The Golden Age of Transdimensional War
“For the first time in the history of the world, we are at peace. Look around; nowhere on the globe is there conflict between countries or ethnicities or religions. Resources aren’t just available, but abundant. And to think, all it took to achieve this was for horrible monsters from the darkest corners of the universe to fall from the sky every now and then. If that’s the price we pay for world peace, then I personally think we got one hell of a deal.”
President of the European Union Maurice Dufort during an interview on CNN, April 17, 2065
The ascendance of Terra to its position of power on the world stage ushered in an unprecedented era of stability around the globe that would come to be known as the Golden Age of Transdimensional War. With mankind united against the common threat of the Elder Gods, nations put aside old rivalries and biases in favor of working towards a better world. The start of the Golden Age was marked by the official signing of the Terran Protectorate by the 194 member countries on June 24, 2049 and would last until several years after the Siege of Terra in 2096.
While most countries prospered during the Golden Age, there were some notable exceptions. The most noteworthy of these was the dissolution of the United States of America in 2051. After the establishment of Terra in 2042, the states of Texas and California both filed articles of seccession from the Union, beginning the rapid decline of the nation that had long been the one of the most powerful on the planet. The Republic of Texas would ratify its Constitution on February 23, 2044. Two months later, Texas declared war on Mexico after multiple border skirmishes. The Texas/Mexico Was lasted two weeks before the Mexican military swept through the newly formed republic and annexed it as the thirty-third Mexican state. California, Oregon, and Washington would form the Socialist State of Oceania on July 4, 2047. Unlike the Republic of Texas, Oceania sought global partnership as opposed to isolationist nationalism. It is in part to these policy decisions that Oceania now boasts one of the strongest economies and is home to some of the most progressive policies and social programs in the world.
With the loss of the west coast and Texas, it was only a matter of time before the rest of the United States collapsed. Texas and California had been two of the largest drivers of the nation’s economy, and the military never recovered from the losses sustained in the First Godfall. On May 7, 2051, President William Ryder Romney gave his final address as President of the United States. “It is with great sorrow and great regret that I stand here before you today, a President without a nation. I look back proudly at the accomplishments of the brave men and women that came before me and the nation that they built, knowing full well the foolishness that would be to prolong the inevitable demise of this once great union. It is my hope that the former members and citizens of the United States find their place in this new and unknown world before us, for today, at three PM Eastern Time, I must regretfully announce that the great American Experiment has come to an end. May God bless us all during these uncertain times.” President Romney’s final act in office was to enlist the aid of Terra in negotiations between the former states of the Union. This became the first time that the Knights would take an active role in international arbitration, beginning a trend that would become commonplace whenever a dispute arose between members nations of the Protectorate. With the Knights’ guidance, the Former United States was divided into four independent nations, five including Oceania. The northeast states, including New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, formed the Berkshire Union, a democratic union of states modeled after European social democracies. South of the Berkshire Union and east of the North American Exclusionary Zone would abolish statehood all together and formed Evangelical Appalachia, an evangelical Christian theocratic autocracy. Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona formed the Rocky Mountain Republic, a conservative democratic republic akin to the United States pre-collapse. In between the Rocky Mountain Republic and the North American Exclusionary Zone became the Great Plains Federation, an agricultural corporate state. Hawaii initially planned on becoming an independent nation, but near the close of negotiations opted to become part of Oceania instead. Alaska would become the eleventh province of Canada in a unanimous vote by both the Canadian parliament and the Alaskan state senate.
In an effort to maintain some semblance of stability on the continent, and in turn secure Terra’s borders amid these new nations, the Knights drafted a series of treaties between the five new nations and Mexico and Canada. Titled The North American Accord, the treaties covered everything from trade to military between the nations. The United States had been incredibly politically polarized in the four decades leading up to the dissolution, as evidenced by the very distinct government styles selected by the new nations. If left unchecked, this could create an environment as volatile as the Middle East during the late 20th and early twenty-first centuries. Under Canadian and Mexican guidance, and an ever vigilant Terra, the North American Accords would serve to keep the nations of North America in a relatively stable peace throughout the one hundred and twenty years since their inception, with only a minor dispute in 2140 when Evangelical Appalachia momentarily declared a crusade to “cleanse the socialist heathens and satanists of Berkshire from God’s Earth.” (Easter Sunday Speech by High Cleric Duncan Thomas Robert from New Jerusalem in Evangelical Appalachia. April 3, 2140) This incident, later known as the Appalachian Crusade, lasted exactly eight hours and ended with zero casualties as the Appalachian Holy Army was met at the southern Border of Berkshire by the combined military of Berkshire, Oceania, Canada, and three Knights of Terra in their Armours. After a few hours of communication between the Appalachian military commanders and their government, High Cleric Robert released a new statement claiming that their demonstration of power at the border had been a huge victory and quickly recalled the Appalachian forces. Berkshire took a strong stance condemning the actions of Appalachia, but under advisement from Terra, did not pursue any further military or political action against them.
Other than the dissolution of the United States, the world was relatively politically stable throughout the Golden Age. Most historians credit this stability to the arbitration skills of the Knights of Terra, as well as the ever-looming threat that was the Elder Gods. After the success in the North American Accords, Knights were often called upon by member states to assist in disputes between nations. On many occasions, the simple presence of a Knight in their Armour would be enough to encourage parties to find a common ground, while in other situations the Knights would take a more active role in the negotiations, mediating between the nations and finding an outcome that was beneficial to all involved. There is some postulation that the nations would so readily agree to the Knights’ terms not due to the quality of the solution, but rather at the fear that Terra would no longer view nations that disagreed with them in an equitable manner and withhold aid in the even of an Elder God incursion in that nation. While there is no evidence of this ever being the case, those with less than favorable views of Terra’s role in world politics are quick to lend credulity to this theory. Officials from both the Knights and the Library have publicly repudiated this, emphasizing that matters between member nations of the Protectorate are between the involved nations and that dispute arbitration by Knights was completely optional and never forced upon those nations and that Terra “absolutely would not withhold the promised protection of the Knights in the event of an Elder God incursion.” (Knight-Marshal Yuri Baranov during a press conference in Terra. August 3, 2184)
Due to the relative international stability and the advent of Black-Star energy, for the first time since the industrial revolution, the world witnessed a massive redistribution of resources. The oil industry crashed as Black-Star reactors flooded the market, powering everything from handheld devices to national power grids. The inexpensive and infinitely renewable nature of Black-Star fusion allowed money and materials that had previously been tied up in the oil industry to be redirected elsewhere, fueling innovation in the sciences and the arts. Social programs that had been previously considered financially inviable, such as public housing and universal basic income, were now commonplace in even the most conservative of nations. This financial stability allowed people to pursue their passions and drove the most technologically aggressive advancement in human history. Gravity manipulation devices were commonplace and revolutionized the transportation industry, leading to the advent of anti-gravity vehicles replacing the classic terrestrial transportation of the 20th century. International transportation was fast and efficient, and implementation of gravity manipulation in space flight led to the rapid establishment of the first two permanent settlements off-world; the city-sized space station Laputa in geo-synchronous orbit above Quito, Ecuador, and Luna City on the Moon. Research by the Library on the Vault of Terra also led to breakthroughs in many fields, most notable computing and medicine. By studying the quantum nature of the field surrounding the vault the Library was able to make massive advances to the field of quantum computing, allowing it to be used in a more practical manner than it had been previously, where it had been relegated to utilization in super-computers only. Additionally, the careful study of the Codex of Mankind led to medical breakthroughs that had previously only been envisioned in works of science fiction. Cancer and many other conditions that had once been fatal could now be easily dealt with by medical professionals in a matter of minutes thanks to the medical equipment that could manipulate the human body at the genetic level. Therapy to reduce the effects of aging and regenerate lost limbs became common place, extending the average lifespan and drastically improving the quality of life for the majority of the world’s populace.
Despite the great social, political, and technological advancements of the era, it is still important to note that over a hundred Elder God incursions occurred during the five decades of the Golden Age, each one presenting a existential threat to the entirety of humanity. There was no shortage of volunteers from around the world to undergo the testing to see if they could become a Knight, resulting in the ranks of the Knights growing rapidly in the first few years after Terra was established. Construction of Armours was a bit slower due to the immense amount of resources required for each one that was constructed. By the time the walls around Terra had been completed in 2050, eight Armours had been constructed and of those eight, five had been destroyed or damaged beyond repair during battle with Elder Gods. With the walls complete, Terra refocused its manufacturing and production centers on the construction and advancement of the Armours. The first major obstacle to overcome was the antiquated means of controlling the Armours, which had changed little since Mithril first launched during the Fifth Godfall. Manual controls were almost completely scrapped in favor of virtual control systems. The cockpit itself was redesigned with an armature system that secured the pilot while also allowing a full range of movement. Pilots would wear an advanced suit which interfaced with both the armature and the virtual tracking systems that allowed for 1:1 movement tracking. Artificial muscle fibers inside the pilot suit would provide resistance to the pilot’s movements, realistically simulating the speed and force of the Armour’s movements. In layman’s terms, the Armour would mimic the movement of the pilot almost perfectly, and the pilot would be able to be able to “feel” the contact that the Armour made through the feedback provided by the pilot’s suit. Advanced artificial intelligence named GAIA (Guardian Artificial Intelligence Assistant) would act as a copilot in the Armour, handling much of the background computations and controls in the pilots’ stead. GAIA was programmed with an evolving voice control system that allowed the pilots’ to give complex commands to the AI. In 2052, the Armour Claíomh Solais was launched and became the first of what would become the standard for modern Armours.
The rapid technological advancement in Armour tech also brought about a change in the trajectory of the battles with the Elder Gods. The first two decades of conflicts between Elder God and Armour had been tense affairs, each engagement incredibly perilous and just as likely to end in defeat as in victory. However, with Claíomh Solais’ introduction, the success rate of the Knights drastically increased, to the point that victory not only seemed certain during Godfalls, but in many cases seemingly inevitable. Knights became so successful at interdicting Elder God incursions that the public came to view Godfalls more of a spectacle to behold as opposed to a potentially world-ending event. It became commonplace to find spectators traveling from around the globe to observe the incursion from just outside the ten-mile quarantine zone. News coverage of Godfalls shifted drastically in tone as well, framing each engagement in a fashion similar to sporting events. Knight’s statistics, such as their victory count, blows dealt and received, and length of engagements were all tracked by the major news outlets, and gambling on the outcomes of Godfalls was incredibly popular on sports betting websites. It was of little surprise that Knights would begin to take on a celebrity status in the eyes of the public. Dramatic recreations of Godfalls in Hollywood and Chinese cinema dominated the box office, most notably Quinn Cameron’s The Fifth Godfall sweeping the Academy Awards in 2045 and smashing box office records that had been set decades earlier by his father, James Cameron. Companies from around the world sought partnerships and endorsements from both Knights and Terra, but were turned away in an effort by Terra to maintain impartiality and neutrality.
Despite the fact that Godfalls had become public spectacles, the danger that the Elder Gods presented to the Knights, and to the world, was still present. There were a few notable occasions during the Golden Age that served as blunt reminders to the populace of the threat posed by the Elder Gods. During the Fifty-Second Godfall, Sir Erasamus Van Buren in the Armour Tizona faced off against Jbaadlfr the Apocalyptic. Underestimating his foe due to its size (Jbaadlfr the Apocalyptic stood just over two meters in height), Sir Van Buren toyed with the Elder God and was subsequently vaporized when Jbaadlfr released a thermonuclear blast from its mouth. Fortunately, Sir Xin Pi in the Armour White Sword was on standby, and was able to step in and eliminate the Elder God and minimize the damage done by the Jbaadlfr’s RR Field. Another loss was during the Ninety-Fourth Godfall, when Silobrightx the Intangible, an Elder God comprised entirely of highly caustic gaseous particles, melted the Armour Gáe Bulg upon contact. Sir Obafemi Dibya was able to eject safely before the Armour was destroyed, but Silobrightx’s RR Field made considerable alterations to the surrounding area just outside of Cairo, Egypt, before it was destroyed with an NG Mine. There were a few other losses during the forty-seven years of the Golden Age, but the victories by Knights in their Armours vastly outweighed the defeats. Of the ninety-two incursions that occurred in that time period, only eight resulted in the loss of an Armour, and only three of those eight required the utilization of an NG Mine to neutralize the Elder God. This success rate spoke not only to the quality of the Knights and their Armour, but as Head Librarian Aziz Salah stated: “The victories of the Knights is the encapsulation and personification of mankind’s fervent desire to overcome any obstacle and continue to exist, even when that obstacle is the Gods themselves.” (GNN interview in May, 2072)
Unfortunately, everything that we thought we had known about the Elder Gods was effectively for naught, as on October 31, 2096 the One-Hundred-Eleventh Godfall, more commonly referred to as the Last Godfall, challenged everything that was thought to be known about the conflict with the Elder Gods, and brought humanity to the brink of complete destruction.
The Siege of Terra
“To my fellow Knights; today is how history will remember us. Will the five of us be history’s greatest failure, or greatest triumph? Truth be told, it matters not what history thinks of us; all that matters is that today ends up being part of our history and not the end of it. There are a dozen gods in front of us set on ending mankind. So I say let’s fight like devils and show these monsters what mankind is made of! Semper Terra!”
Knight-Marshal Yuri Baranov, Speaking from the Armour Durandal just before engaging the Twelve during the Last Godfall. October 31, 2096.
At 12:32 PM EST on October 24, 2096, twelve glyphs appeared simultaneously, each exactly fifteen miles from the Vault of Terra, or five miles outside the protective wall, and equidistant from one another. This marked the first time that multiple glyphs had appeared simultaneously and, as such, the Knights were immediately placed on high alert. The Library immediately dedicated its resources to identifying the Glyphs in the Book of Nebuchadnezzar to determine which Elder Gods were arriving next and hints on the best ways of neutralizing them. Dubbed the Twelve by Nebuchadnezzar III, information on these Elder Gods was limited to their names and their titles, but he had noted in his tome that of all the Elder Gods, this dozen was by far the most devious and dangerous of the Elder Gods, and that an incursion by any of them should be viewed as a far more potent threat than other Elder Gods.
The appearance of multiple Elder Gods simultaneously presented a challenge to the Knights that they had long since stopped preparing for; battling multiple Elder Gods at the same time. The semi-regular incursions had always been by a single Elder God, and the standard response was one Armour to engage the Elder God, and another on standby in case the first Knight was defeated but staying well outside the range of the first Armour’s Schrödinger Field. This precaution was put in place after the tragic events of the Tenth Godfall (see the section on the Vault of Terra). Since Godfalls happened no more than three times a year and only two Armours were needed at the Godfalls, the Armour fleet was kept to limited numbers, opting to dedicate resources to a small number of high-quality Armours as opposed to a large quantity of lesser models. Because of this philosophy, at the time of the Final Godfall, there were only five active Armours; Durandal, Excalibur, Zulqifar, Arondight, and Caladbolg, with a sixth roughly half a year away from being completed. For the first time in the course of the war, it would be a full scale battle between both sides.
The battle plans for the One Hundred Eleventh Godfall were quickly drafted up by Knight-Marshal Yuri Baranov and Head Librarian Byun Hyun-Jae, while the Terran Guard immediately began evacuating the city. The defense of the Fortress City of Terra would be a battle of attrition, with the defenders outnumbered and surrounded on all sides by the invading Elder Gods. Marshall Baranov’s plan called for multiple lines of battle with a number of fallback points both inside and outside of the defensive wall surround the city. NG Mines were placed on each glyph, as were additional mines halfway in between the glyphs and the wall. Atop the wall would be the Terran Guard’s artillery line, which would batter any of the Twelve that managed to survive the first round of NG Mines and strict orders to withdraw should any of the Twelve survive the second series of NG Mines. The Knights were positioned just outside the wall in the cardinal directions; Sir Raaina Shakir, daughter of the late Knight Sir Samara Shakir, in the Armour Zulfiqar at the southern gate, Sir Mickey O’Callaghan in the Armour Caladbolg at the western gate, Sir Obafemi Nguyen in the Armour Arondight at the eastern gate, and Sir Usagi Sone, long considered the most talented Armour pilot in history, in the Armour Excalibur at the Northern Gate. At the heart of the city would be Knight-Marshal Yuri Baranov in the Armour Durandal. In order to avoid a repeat of the overlapping Schrödinger Fields, the field generators in all the Armours, except for Durandal, were removed. Durandal itself was wired directly into the city of Terra’s power grid and its own Schrödinger Field generator was amplified to be able to cover an area almost twenty miles in radius. Head Librarian Byun hypothesized that with enough power and focus, Marshall Baranov could successfully counter the RR Fields of all the Twelve, minimizing the damage done to the reality of the area by the invading Elder Gods. Unfortunately, they would not have a chance to test this enhanced version of the Schrödinger Field, dubbed the Schrödinger Bulwark, before the Twelve arrived and the Last Godfall began.
At 8:14 AM EST on October 31, 2096, the sky over Terra turned a deep hue of crimson. Directly over each glyph, the wall between our reality and the one from which the Elder Gods came shattered, and the Twelve arrived. Fortunately, preparations for Marshall Baranov’s defense of Terra had already been put in place. The defenses had been set expeditiously at the suggestion of Head Librarian Byun as he believed that any “rules” that they had believed to part of this war should be discarded based on the first ever appearance of multiple glyphs at once. When the Twelve emerged, they were each met with the blast of an NG Mine. The blast was so bright that it lit up the sky as far away as Oceania and Europe. When the dust settled from the explosion, it became tragically clear that for the most part the NG Mine’s had been ineffective, with only one of the Twelve, Kryzthich the Noble, being neutralized by the blast. The remaining eleven began their march towards the city under a constant barrage by the Terran Guard’s artillery. The Elder Gods quickly converged into four distinct groups, with each group slowly making their way towards the gates guarded by the Knights. When the Elder Gods reached the point three miles from the perimeter, the Terran Guard ceased their barrage and began to fall back to the Vault of Terra. The second wave of NG Mines detonated, once again lighting up the sky for hundreds of miles around Terra, but only served to slow the advancing Elder Gods ever so slightly.
The first of the Knights to engage with one of the Twelve was Sir O’Callaghan. After the second round of NG Mines detonated, only a single Elder God was approaching the western gate, Gyribaldr the Fatal. Sir O’Callaghan left his post at the gate, opting to meet Gyribaldr in the open field with Caladbolg. Caladbolg struck first when the two came together, severing one of Gyribaldr’s many tentacles with the Armour’s sword. The battle lasted less than a minute, as with its first attack Gyribaldr bisected Caladbolg from shoulder to hip, directly through the cockpit in the chest of the Armour. Sir O’Callaghan died instantaneously and the Elder God marched over the ruined frame of the Armour Caladbolg as it continued its march towards Terra. The remaining Knights stayed at their posts, meeting the enemy forces just outside the gates of Terra. Sir Shakir in Zulfiqar was met by three of the Twelve at the southern gate; Yhafdeji the Defiled, Draadlic the Excitable, and Byl the Absolved. At the Eastern Gate, Sir Nguyen in Arondight was beset by a quartet of Elder Gods, Mnemoph the Vicarious, Huugrinald the Powerless, Eagnofir the Relentless, and Xthulian the Refined. Excalibur and Sir Usagi defended the North Gate from the trio of Lyyxandir the Complicit, Agamendrit the Unliving, and Viurnaltyx the Devourer.
Zulfiqar was the second to fall while protecting the southern gate. A Terran Guard unit had gotten delayed in withdrawing, and Sir Shakir refused to leave the unit to the approaching Elder Gods. She fought three of the monstrous beings at once, giving the guardsmen enough time to withdraw back into the city. During the battle, Zulfiqar lost one of its arms to an attack from Draadlic, but not before using the Armour’s axe to decapitate Yahfdeji. Sir Shakir then proceeded to bludgeon Draadlic to death with the lost arm. Byl would finally land the killing blow after breaking both the legs of the Armour and crushing the cockpit with one of its tentacles.
Sir Nguyen fell shortly after the four Elder Gods reached his position at the eastern gate. Mnemoph the Vicarious had an appearance similar to that of a massive serpent, and constricted the Arondight early on in the battle, allowing the other three Elder Gods to attempt to get by and attempt to breach the gate. Realizing that he wouldn’t be able to get Arondight free from Mnemoph’s grasp, Sir Nguyen triggered the Arondight’s self-destruct. The blast from the Arondight’s Dark-Star reactor not only destroyed the Armour and Mnemoph, but unfortunately created a massive breach in the protective wall, allowing the other three Elder Gods to breach the city’s perimeter.
The only gate that was successfully defended was the northern gate, due in no small part to the uncanny piloting ability of Sir Usagi. They danced around the trio of Elder Gods that attacked the northern gate, utilizing the Armour’s twin swords to rapidly and meticulously dispath all three of their opponents. Excalibur’s blades reduced Agamendrit to a quivering mass of flesh in the first pass, before moving onto Viurnaltyx. A series of quick sword thrusts perforated the core of Viurnaltyx, leaving it bleeding out on the soil outside of Terra. The centipede-esque Lyyxandir attempted to avoid the fight, opting to ascend the wall quickly, but Sir Usagi threw one of Excalbur’s swords at the fleeing Elder God, pinning the creature to the defensive wall before moving in for the killing blow.
With three of the four defensive Armours destroyed and five Elder Gods having breached the city, Marshal Baranov was forced to disconnect Durandal from the city’s power grid and join the battle directly. This was an incredibly dangerous gambit on Baranov’s part as if Durandal was destroyed, the city would be defenseless against the RR Fields of invading Elder Gods. The Schrödinger Bulwark had proven successful, but they had not had the time to develop a contingency plan for the event of if the Bulwark should fall. The Durandal headed towards the eastern gate to engage the trio of Huugrinald, Eagnofir, and Xthulian, while Excalibur made its way from the northern gate to intercept both Gyribaldr and Byl. Excalibur made quick work of the already wounded Gyribaldr before finding itself in a much more difficult match up with the seemingly impenetrable hide of Byl. The battle between Excalibur and Byl would leave several city blocks of Terra in ruins and only ended when Sir Usagi sacrificed one of Excalibur’s arms to reach down Byl’s throat through its mouth and rip out the Elder God’s organs from the inside.
Knight-Marshal Baranov faced a difficult challenge as well, battling all three of the Elder Gods from the eastern gate simultaneously in the tight confines of the city. The Durandal’s weapon of choice was a long spear, which proved less than effective when there was little to no room to swing the weapon. He did manage to land a killing blow on Eagnofir with a thrust of the spear through a residential building, but lost the spear in the process. Xthulian used this opportunity to pounce on the Durandal, bringing the Armour to the ground. Fortunately, the Terran Guard unit that Zulfiqar had been destroyed saving launched a close range salvo of heavy weapons fire at Xthulian’s head, distracting the Elder God long enough for Durandal to rip Xthulian’s head from its body. The Durandal recovered the head of its spear from Eagnofir’s corpse and plunged it into the head of the rapidly approaching Huugrinald, killing the wolf-like Elder God.
With the last of the Twelve fallen, the world breathed a collective sigh of relief. The news networks had been following the battle every step of the way, broadcasting the exploits of the five Knights of Terra to the entire world. Massive celebrations erupted at the news of the Knights’ victory over the Elder Gods, cautiously optimistic that over sixty years of conflict with the transdimensional Elder Gods may have finally reached its conclusion, and the humanity had against all odds emerged as the victor. Unfortunately, as it was discovered in the days following the Siege of Terra, the glyphs of the Twelve were in actuality a part of a much larger glyph, a twelve pointed glyph that was centered over the Vault of Terra. Less than an hour after the last of the Twelve was killed, the sky above Terra, still crimson red, shattered and an Elder God unlike any of the others, emerged from the rift. Exohavohej the Returned, a being that even Nebuchadnezzar III knew little of, had arrived on Earth and all that stood between it and the vault were a pair of Knights and their Armours.
Exohavohej was a completely different creature than any of its predecessors. It stood almost four-hundred feet in height, had ghostly white skin, and resembled an emaciated, genderless human. Where its face should have been was nothing, just a blank patch of flesh and floating above its head was a halo of pure, blinding energy. As it landed in the heart of Terra, it leaned back and let out an agonizing psychic scream that could be felt in the minds of every human on the planet. A pair of skeletal wing-like appendages sprouted from its back moments later, showering the city of Terra in a deluge of the Elder God’s blood.
Marshall Baranov and Sir Usagi wasted no time in engaging Exohavohej. It was clear from the moment it arrived that this foe was more of a threat than the Twelve and every other Elder God combined. To make matters worse, Exohavohej had made Godfall directly above the Vault of Terra, placing it dangerously close to its ultimate goal; the Codex of Mankind. The coordinated attacks of Durandal and Excalibur were shrugged off by the massive Elder God. It barely seemed to notice their presence as it slowly plodded around the center of the city. With their own weapons ineffective, Sir Usagi took up one of the bladed limbs of Gyribaldr in Excalibur’s remaining arm and slashed at the stomach of Exohavohej. The attack proved effective, drawing a deep crimson gash across the torso of Exohavohej and eliciting another psionic shriek of pain from the Elder God. It immediately stopped its slow plodding and leapt into action, closing the gap between itself and Excalibur in mere moments. Exohavohej pinned the Armour to the ground and proceeded to tear it apart, throwing pieces of the Armour across the city. Sir Usagi attempted to eject, but Exohavohej caught the escape pod as it burst from the shoulder of the ruined Armour. The Elder God’s face split open, the flesh tearing apart and revealing row upon row of jagged, serrated teeth. Exohavohej carefully placed the escape pod with Sir Usagi Sone inside, and crushed down on it with its teeth. Blood streamed from the Elder God’s mouth as it chewed and eventually swallowed the Knight.
With the Excalibur destroyed, Exohavohej turned its focus towards the Durandal. It leapt multiple city blocks in a single bound, crashing down upon Durandal. The ground beneath the Durandal and Exohavohej collapsed, sending the Armour and the Elder God falling into the cavernous Vault of Terra beneath the city. At the center of the cavern was the actual Vault, safeguarding the Codex of Mankind. With its goal in reach, Exohavohej left the Durandal and Marshal Baranov and starting moving towards the Vault. As it approached the Vault, the energy halo above Exohavohej grew in intensity, and a similar energy poured out from its skeletal wings. The Vault, which typically only opened when it came in contact with human DNA, opened as the Elder God approached, revealing the Codex of Mankind to the Elder God. For a few moments, the Elder God just stood near the Vault, motionless, until it reached one hand out towards the Codex. The hand stopped just short of touching the Codex as Durandal drove the severed bladed limb of Gyribaldr up through the chin of Exohavohej and out the top of its skull. The Elder God fell, collapsing mere feet away from the Codex. Durandal, barely functional after falling into the Vault with Exohavohej, fell next to the Elder God. Marshal Baranov climbed out of the ruined cockpit of Durandal and stood upon the shoulder of the Armour. It was from that spot that Marshal Baranov watched in horror as the tip of Exohavohej’s finger pierced the field surrounding the Codex.
Conclusion
“We don’t know if the threat posed by the Elder Gods is gone. What we can say is that it has been five years since so many lives were lost during the Siege of Terra and in that time, not a single Elder God has made Godfall on our planet. But rest assured, should they decide to return, the Knights of Terra will be ready for them and will fight them to the very last. This is our promise to you, the world, on this Remembrance Day.”
An excerpt from Steward of Terra Yuri Baranov’s Remembrance Day speech, October 31, 2101
Six hours.
This was the amount of time lost by every person on Earth the moment that Exohavohej the Returned prodded the Codex of Mankind with its finger during its dying breath. One moment the whole world was watching the events unfold in Terra, and the next six hours had passed seemingly instantaneously. For many, they had been traveling one moment to find themselves suddenly at their destination. Any video footage of this time was corrupt, as if the time itself had been wiped from existence. Animals around the world seemed to be slightly more aware of the time loss, but for humans, it was 3:12 PM GMT one moment and 9:12 PM GMT the next. No one could rationally explain the phenomena, but it was universally agreed upon by those in the Library that the contact made between Exohavohej and the Codex was responsible for the lost time.
Worse still was the knowledge that it would be impossible to know what, if any, changes Exohavohej’s contact with the Codex may have made to humanity. Due to the quantum nature of the Codex, it was likely that any alteration to the Codex would not only affect humans going forward, but rather affect them at every point in human history, meaning any change made in the present to the codex would have always been made, and thus modern humans would be unaware of it. As Head Librarian Byun explained, “if you didn’t have a brain and someone gave you a brain that was programed to tell you that you always had a brain, then wouldn’t you have always have had a brain?” (Recently declassified documents from the Library of Terra. January 12, 2099) The fact that Exohavohej had even come in contact with the Codex had remained a tightly guarded secret until the middle of the 2120’s when a union of Protectorate nations demanded that the Terran Library share the information it had regarding the Vault, the Codex, and the Elder Gods.
Unfortunately, it seems highly unlikely that we will ever know for sure what the objective of the Elder Gods was. It can be assumed that whatever their goal was, they succeeded, which is why they have not returned since the Last Godfall. Humanity remains mostly at peace almost eighty years after the end of the Lovecraft War. As a historian, it is not my place to speculate, but rather to give an unbiased, unaltered recollection of the events of the past, but a part of me often wonders if the goal of the Elder Gods was not to destroy us, but rather to unite us. Yes, it goes without saying that the tremendous loss of life during the war was horrific, but I would be hard pressed to find someone who didn’t believe we are in a better place now than we were before the First Godfall. War is essentially a thing of the past and humans are exploring ever further into the depths of space. People are living longer, healthier, and happier lives and few on the planet go without their basic needs being met. Maybe, just maybe, the Elder Gods were our saviors in the end.
But of course, that is merely my speculation.
-Archivist Donello Fauldi, The Library of Terra
Patrick D Quinn 
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