The Multiverse

Decayed, rotten, denied.

The multiverse was born at the Dawn of all things, the infinite flooding out in vibrant reflections, sailing forward on waves of unlimited possibility. At its center, the Causal Nexus balanced reality and its endless potential, each world that was an echo of another; the thrumming heart of creation.

During the Dawn, the Nephilim were created, entities often considered the Creator’s true second-born creations, second only to the aloof Ynevra. The Creator tasked them to steward reality, to ensure that all things were as the Creator demanded, becoming caretakers for the newborn multiverse. They were intended as temporary installations during reality’s infancy, to one day return to the Creator once their task was complete, to dissolve back into Its light and grace and merge with the infinite.

Some time after the Dawn, while the Nephilim policed reality in relative peace and ease, the event known only as First Contact occurred. Little has been recorded about the exact moment or the precise details, and any entities alive at that time have been reluctant to elaborate, but what is known is that the reaction was slow at first, with the need for immediate action growing more urgent as the dawning flames of the Lamia began to spread. The Nephilim stopped being caretakers, and instead ascended to the first generals in a conflict no one expected or understood. 

The emergence of the Lamian threat began the war, and since then the Nexus, and by extension all reality, has been falling into the dark, unable to prevent the spread of the Lamian infection. 

The Vanguard — at this time called Sjaveri —were created as a reply to the mounting threat that is now known as the Pantheon, swearing their allegiance to the Creator and forming an unbreakable covenant with the Nephilim. 

No one can say for sure who created the first Vanguard, and their name was not recorded. 

Over time, defections have diminished the Nephilim’s numbers. During the early periods of the Detriment era, they yielded their authority to the far more numerous Circle, who were able to control the ever-growing ranks of the Vanguard army. When a Nephilim defects, it sacrifices its infinite forms and collapses into a single, corrupted instance, no longer infused with its immortality or near-omniscience, and severed from the Creator’s light. 

Drawing their power from the ailing Causal Nexus has rotted the remaining Nephilim, inhaling its strength like imbibing a poison, and they await a return to the glory the Creator first denied them all those millennia ago.