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Centuries ago, in the Kurayami Realm, the Humans discovered that when the Gods had created the world of Kurai, they had accidentally placed awe-inspiring abilities into their souls. They discovered that not only did they live on a Land that was created just for their race, but that the Lands themselves did as the Humans demanded. It was as if the Lands had become the slaves of the Humans, just as the Humans had become slaves to the Lands.

However, for every God, there is a Devil and for every mistake of a god, there is a plan of the devil. Thus was the case with the Kinzoku. The race that was never meant to be born:

Once, long ago, a devil named Kippai traveled to heaven and stole the robes of the God of the Green, Tsuchi. Then, disguised as the Wisest of the Gods, Kippai tricked the smallest village of powerless and depressed Humans into forfeiting their souls in exchange for a forbidden power. Kippai promised the Humans that the power that they would receive would not answer to anyone save for the Masters that he himself had chosen.

Eager to finally be able to defend their tiny village from the rouges of the other Lands, the people of the village Kinzoku agreed to the devil’s deal. With one final statement, the devil Kippai took the souls of the villagers, draining all color of hope and light from their bodies and replaced them with the demons that answered solely to him. Then the devil gave the demons one command: Slay All Life. Even the Humans That Host You.

Centuries passed and the Kinzoku remained in numbers no larger than that of a small village. However small these numbers might have been, they retained the command given to them by the devil Kippai generations ago. Until the day that the Human Hosts rebelled, pushing the demons far into the Nothingness that nurtured them and suffocated them for so many years.

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"In times ancient and forgotten, in a realm distant and lost, history was busy repeating itself. Archons of light and creation, the so-called 'gods' of the realm, were at war with darkness-manifest. For too long we had sat under their boot-heels, relegated to the lower regions where only desolation and lack greeted us, and there we waited for our day to come. Over time our 'divine' enemies began to be discontent, divided, and eventually - as long periods of uninterrupted peace so often trigger - openly at war with one another. From the midst of the chaos we rose, striking the weakened deiforms and rending their flesh and essence asunder. Their mistake had been forgetting us... for we had not forgotten them. Before it was over their divine realm lay in shattered fragments."

"Of course, it was only a matter of time until we followed our enemies' example and turned on each other; some of the Greater Houses realized this, and took measures to establish independent kingdoms for themselves in remote places. I, and the rest of the metal-born Kinzoku, sought a fresh battlefield for ourselves in one of the mortal realms. Our leader found a small outcast village in the midst of a world whose kingdoms had each enjoyed tremendous blessings from the gods during their rivalries. Virtually all of the world had powers and benefits - what you mortals might call 'magic' - with but one exception: this little village of gods-forsaken outcasts... an opportunity if ever there was one."

"The pact we made with them was deceptively simple: we would possess their bodies and those of their descendants by binding ourselves to their blood, and in exchange for letting us 'dwell amongst them' we would grant our hosts power and take revenge for the entire village. In reality the way it worked out was that we spent several generations on a bloody rampage across the planet's central continent and indentured all those not possessed in the village to serve our needs and whims. It was a golden era for the Kinzoku..."

"... one that wouldn't last. It happened when the vast majority of us were taking on new hosts from the younger generation. We were vulnerable at that point; it took time for the 'roots' of our control to take firm hold on new hosts, a fact we thought we'd kept them oblivious to. We were wrong. This bold new generation defied us, suppressed our control, and eventually drove us into the dark recesses of their beings - I think you mortals call it the 'unconscious mind' - and therein locked away our influence. For generations afterward my kind slept in this dark, passed on quietly from parent to child in complete ignorance that we yet lived."

"But our sleep is not forever, mortals. Generations later I awakened within Kassom, who freely embraced me. Others, too, will eventually stir from their slumber. We are the Kinzoku, the metal terrors of heaven and hell..."

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In a distant place,
A labyrinth of metal and darkness...

A single spark of light emerges, like one star twinkling faintly in the endless obscurity. Like a pebble of molten gold, forged in some secret furnace, rising still-hot to float upon the surface of a sea of jet-black ink. One instant. One brightness. Then it disappears.

And another. Then two. Five. Ten. Soon the lights are not just blinking into and out of being,... but dancing with one another as if upon the threads of a vast interwoven spiderweb. A web so immense that each point had as many as 10,000 lines jutting from it.

Light. Darkness. Movement.

Existence. Annihilation. Destination.

One. Zero. Time.

[Awaken.]

With the firing of billions of neurons, a brain is stirred to life and a mind becomes aware of one voice.

[Welcome back to us.]

A flood of memories... no, not a flood. More like a splash, a single feeble wave ringing with a hollow resonance. The flood was not the memories, but rather the voices... so many, speaking all at once and yet... with a strange singularity, a unity of tone and timbre. And something else... but he found he lacked a term for it.

The voices. He knew them, just as they knew him. They and he were one.

But why did they seem so... distant? He remembered them being so much closer, practically a part of him... a kind of heartbeat.

Was that why he felt so... hollow?

[Your apprehension is understood. We have not left you. Quite the opposite... for you have been enhanced.]

[Your purpose will be... special. The abstract emptiness and distance you perceive is because you have been adapted to fulfill that purpose.]

Suddenly, light! It seared not merely his eyes but seemed to pierce the very fabric of his consciousness, as if he had just been immersed in sea of liquid fire, white-hot. A primal urge, something so deep buried that he could almost feel it push violently towards his forehead from within his skull, quickly gained strength and eventually suceeded in overpowering any sembalance of defense he may have had.

He gasped, drawing in air with fervor. Then the scream exploded out of him. His whole body arched, threatening to practically fold on itself. The fire wasn't just engulfing him anymore; it had seeped through. It was inside his body, coursing through every vein. Pushing in through every pore. Invading... everything. His world was lost, buried and burned in the scream.

And then, enigma. It was an unearthly, indescribable sensation. Something akin to an out of body experience.

For a split second in conscious time, he became the blaze. He felt it possess him, and him possess it. For a mere glimmer of awareness, mind and maelstrom traded places.

And then the burning faded away, the hellish lake of fire cooling and vanishing from his perceptions.

[Good, very good. You are reacting just as we'd hoped you would. The shock of what you've experienced will not last long.]

There was silence for what seemed like a small eternity.

And then, abruptly, the fire returned. Not inside of him this time... but rather it stood in front of him, encompassing the whole of his vision.

[Adjust the settings with your cerebral interface.]

He could hardly comprehend what the instruction meant, yet some part of him seemed instinctively to know what to do. The flames seemed to waver, take on almost solid shapes and a wide assortment of hues. Some of these colors he recognized instantly: infrared, near and far ultraviolet, spectral frequencies. Others were like nothing he'd ever perceived before.

[Your former designation was Three of Five, Tactical Assessment Processor of Retainer Subcluster Zero-Zero-Two. That designation is no longer yours.]

[Your new designation is Syncretic Veil Prototype Unit Zero-One. You are not part of any cluster, matrix, or unit. You are one, and shall answer to my voice alone.]

[You will be referred to as Gevurah, of the Syn.]

He was aware of his surroundings now, able to discern between the multifarious array of inputs and energies that now represented his world. The room was a chamber of armored walls lined with pillars of black computerized display surfaces and green control symbols. Interfaces. Consoles of a sort. He could see beneath them, however... see the veins and shapes that represented concealed power conduits, components, hardware. They, too, were fire to his eyes, as if each was an unquenchable inferno bounded to precision by invisible force fields. The walls, floor, everything was much the same... some things, like the armored surfaces of the walls, though, seemed more like smoke than fire... like a hazy nebula of hot gasses drifting idly within its mold. Each material was a different color, lightness, and intensity. And somehow, he felt as though he could name them all by heart... even though he'd never seen them like this before.

[State your primary purpose, Gevurah.]

His purpose...?

"To analyze the problematic systems of other-natures commonly defined as 'magic', 'psionics', 'spiritual', 'supernatural', 'divinity', 'daemonity', and all other extant fields of abstract and norm-defying powers in existence." He spoke without hesitation, surprising even himself with the response.

[And to fulfill this purpose you have been given a degree of autonomy from the Hive Mind. Not total separation, but a form of distinction. Your role requires that you function differently from standard drones.]

All of this should have seemed overwhelming... yet part of him felt totally at ease with it. This was his role. His purpose. Why should he question it?

One reason came to mind.

"Am I sufficient to accomplish my purpose?"

[Clarify.]

Here he hesitated, trying to come up with the right way to phrase a reply. Yet his true thought came out in spite of himself. "I am only one. One mind. One body. Will there be others who share my purpose?"

[In time, perhaps. But you are the first. And you are not alone, for we go with you. But in order to succeed, we must see through your eyes.]

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When I had some initial difficulty creating the portal, never did I imagine what I would find on the other side. It was like I had stepped into a dream or a surrealist work of art. People and objects were still identifiable but they were hazy, misshapen,... distorted somehow. Everything that had seemingly been in motion had a wake of visual echoes, after-images of a sort, trailing behind it like a time lapse photograph. What's more, everything was completely and utterly still... the world had been frozen into a single moment in time, from which it seemed unable to go forward. I was completely aghast.
I know not how long I wandered from one ghostly scene to another, only that it seemed like an eternity. Somewhere in the midst of this trance I began wandering towards a city in the distance that seemed strangely dark... and when I looked up into the sky, that's when I saw it. A full eclipse of the sun... but not by the moon. There was something else... something with straight edges and a sharp, seemingly perfect geometric aspect occupying the sky. Somehow realizing that this object was a critical clue I flew upwards, leaving behind the phantasmal world of echoes and its still, stale air. The object, too, turned out to be an echo... but not of anything I had ever seen before. It was a massive cube of dark metal with a seemingly random, uneven surface that made me think it belonged more in the trash heap than casting its ominous shadow down upon the earth. Within I found even more horrifying sights: the cube was some kind of spaceship or battle station, crewed by an uncountable number of cyborgs... fortunately for me, they were all echoes as well. I knew the answer was in the ship somewhere and so I sought it out, eventually finding it in a chamber near the center of the cube.
It was the eyes that told me it was her... those pupil-less, soulless snake-like green eyes. The same kind of eyes that had stared at me mockingly on the day I'd confronted Lavos. That's when the realization hit me like a stone wall, turning my skin cold and sending icy shards surging through my veins. She had caused this! She had survived that day somehow, and returned... for revenge? Perhaps, but the very condition of reality - if this ghost-realm could be considered such - suggested far more than that. What had she done here?!?
I didn't want to admit it right away - the implications were just too vast. Even still, my familiarity with the workings of space and time left little room for doubt. Asheroth hadn't just come to kill one planet . . . she had come to kill an entire universe. These semi-physical echoes were the imprint of a backwash in time itself, caused as the universe I'd been born in came to a sharp, sudden, unexpected end. I could hardly fathom it... yet there was no way around it. It was true. The proof was all around me.
I don't remember whether I cried, but I know I raged. Over and over I, in blind fury, attempted to destroy the echoes of Asheroth and her nightmarish vessel, but like holes dug in a sandy beach every annihilation was undone as the moment washed back in over itself. I screamed, beating the quickly-returning echoes into floating waves of colored dust with my fists. Wrath eventually gave way to weariness and despair. Though I had been shunned and never accepted, it had still been my world, my place amidst the cosmos. Though there were others virtually identical to it, it had always had an extra weight of significance to me. I had hoped to return, to prove to everyone that I was worth something... and here it was, my "home" nothing more than light and shadow dancing on a broken fragment of time.

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+Reinforcement Aperture Generator Engine+ (the "RAGE torpedo")
One of the difficult realities in the wake of Starfall was that there was just no easy way to transport billions of drones in any resource-efficient fashion. While getting the drones off of the planet Media was no easy task, getting them to other battlefields is now a relatively simple operation. Designed to be a self-sufficient package that can be delivered planet-side (or, for that matter, into any solid object of sufficient mass) using the projectile launcher systems aboard most Syn vessels, the RAGE device will begin to unfold and self-assemble upon landing. This usually takes only forty seconds or so if the device is undamaged. Once assembled, the Aperture Generator Engine will emit a signal pulse that functions like a beacon, triggering a one-way portal opening fifty feet in diameter to the gas giant planet named Akrur IV (designated as Grid 102 Octant 12 Alpha, Universe Ӂ01036 of Dimensional Strata Ԅ572; or sometimes called "the Canaille Bastion"). It should be noted that the device only produces the coordinate signal pulse, not the portal itself. The portal opening is generated by powerful Syn technologies deployed on Akrur IV that work using the principles derived from Iconian Gateways combined with the technological tenants which control a Transwarp Hub, allowing drones to be sent en masse to the target coordinates. As long as the generator engine remains intact it can be used to adapt the portal opening against interference by energy fields and other barriers... but if it is destroyed the opening can no longer be modified (unless the device is replaced). As the portal system is specifically designed only for one-way transit, the prospect of an enemy forcing their way into the opening with intent to follow it back to its source is not only unlikely to be successful... but is highly dangerous at the same time. Any being powerful enough to force its way "upstream" through the portal's energies is likely to generate a trans-spatial distort wave that would collapse the inter-spatial manifolds holding the energy tunnel together. The most likely scenario, in this case, is that long segments of the tunnel would destabilize, creating violent subspace forces that would reduce even individuals with class 9 ("high tier") reality-bending powers to a subatomic paste before they could get halfway to Akrur IV. The atmosphere of the planet itself is inhospitable to even augmented life; the drones who wait there spend their time in several specially built facilities deep below the gas giant's surface before being teleported to a shielded launching platform for deployment through the portal system.

• Flamewind Gales: Waves of superheated air that spread across the Burning Sand Sea like ripples in a pond, capable of sparking nearly anything flammable into fire and collapsing the lungs of those who breathe in before it passes. They strike with little warning; visibly nothing more than waves of heat distortion in the air, only those with experience in the desert know the warning signs of one's approach. The safest thing to do is to bury yourself under the sand... but then there's the problem of getting back out. The flamewinds turn sand into glass a quarter inch thick as they pass over it.
  
• Western Rains: Sweeping up across the land from the southwest come the poisonous rains of Kurai, sending both man and beast scampering for cover. While not an "acid rain", this feared western downpour can be fatal to anything that breathes. It saturates the air with a toxic mist as it hits the ground, so although a few drops aren't dangerous to anything a full downpour can slay entire armies if they're unprepared. If caught in a storm, your best chance is to cover your mouth with a thick dry cloth until you get indoors. Also, avoid letting the water itself get into your ears, eyes, mouth, privates, or any open wounds... as death is the most likely result. And cover your hair if you can; the rain can bleach the color out of it entirely, leaving it streaked or entirely white for a few days before it starts falling out.
  
• Wyrms: (see image) Known in antiquity as "mountain serpents" or "underworld dragons", the wyrm is a fearsome sight indeed. They dwell in deep secluded caves, coming out to the surface only to hunt. Like alligators a wyrm can sustain itself for weeks on a single sizeable meal, meaning they do not have to hunt very frequently. Also like the alligator, wyrms will move slowly and silently right up until they strike their prey, which is when they lash out fast and powerful to devour the victim whole.

• Nasakenai Valley:
  The fabled homeland of the fearsome Kinzoku, Nasakenai is essentially an immense crater situated at the heart of the central continent. This is a place that most with any sense fear to approach; not only is the terrain often steep and treacherous until you reach the middle of the crater, but the entire area is bathed in a thick fog and heavy cloud cover that, combined with the dank and heavy air that results from Nasakenai's decreased barometric pressure, imbues a sense of otherworldliness to this dark and deadly landscape. For those who are familiar with Nasakenai Valley, it is the perfect place to ambush those who are less than prepared.
  
• Desert of Flames:
  A harsh wasteland to the south of Nasakenai, the desert is largely an unforgiving place where life is hard and the people have a weathered fortitude about them. There are essentially three key areas: the Burning Sand Sea, the Outskirts, and the Manticore Mountains. The Burning Sand Sea is utterly inhospitable, allowing only the most survivable plants and animals a livelihood and presenting numerous perils for unwary travelers: both sandstorms and flamewind gales in addition to mirages, scarcity of food and water, and the potential to get hopelessly lost. Travelers only cross the desert for two reasons: they have no choice (local marauders and warlords compete fiercely for the few safe passages through and around, charging obscene tolls for those who would travel their roads), or they hope to find relics in the ruined temples to the dead gods which are occasionally unearthed by sandstorms. The Outskirts are arid but habitable lands along the coast that support numerous small towns and villages... the ideal place to remove yourself to and start life over, or hide out until your troubles blow over. As a result there are at least as many thieves, con men, former mercenaries, AWOL soldiers, political dissidents, and "undesirables" as there are good honest people, and as a result tensions are always high and small outbreaks of violence not uncommon. The Manticore Mountains sit squarely in-between Nasakenai and the Outskirts, the calm "eye of the storm" right in the middle of the Burning Sand Sea. The mountains form a natural fortress, accessible only by narrow winding paths, treacherous cliffs, and a labyrinth of caves both natural and man-made. It is from here, in this desert stronghold, that the group known as the Inquisition of Virtuous Blood mines the powerful spiritually-enriched ore known as Gods' Blood and launches expeditions to dig up ruined temples. The mountains are also the natural roost for wyverns, winged half-dragon half-wolf creatures that soar upon the warm updrafts created by the desert sands during the day; the Inquisition has tamed many of these beasts and uses them as their battle mounts.
  [The Desert of Flames is bordered to the northeast by the Forest Lands and to the southwest by the Great Rift.]
  
• Forest Lands:
  East of Nasakenai lay the Forest Lands, a region of dense woodlands and foothills broken only by cities, towns, and the occasional river. This is a place thick with natural life, home to an abundance of birds and beast. The land is rich and fairly easy to cultivate, the hunting abundant, and the people generally able to live in peace thanks to the ruling hand of the Htaitalon, meaning "Council of Voices". That's not to say that life isn't dangerous here... just that the dangers lurk deep in the dark forest, terrorizing men with the aid of darkness and obscurity. "Don't wander off, child... or the monsters in the dark forest will eat you, or do terrible things to you..."
  
• Water Lands:
  It has been said that water is the quintessential element from which civilization is born. This notion is certainly affirmed by the Waein Empire, a prosperous Romanesque nation that rules with a seemingly gentle hand over the whole of the Water Lands. The Water Lands themselves - located to the north of Nasakenai - are full of streams, rivers, lakes, and reservoirs containing the cleanest, freshest, and the only drinkable water for humans on Kurai; if the Forest Lands are the breadbasket of the continent, then the Water Lands are the well for the entire planet. No one is quite altogether sure how it is that only this area is able to have nonpoisonous water and in such abundance - at least, no one who's willing to share that knowledge - but theories abound. Is it a form of natural filtration? Of machinery developed by the Empire in secret? A blessing left behind by the gods? The fruits of a deal with the devil? All that's known for sure is that the Protectorate freely shares its bountiful flow, although it only gives away so much at a time... and less (or less frequently) goes to those the Empire considers political dissidents, be they small villages or large cities. This is how the Empire wields almost unheard of political power, even over its most embittered enemies. The abundance of water also brings Achelous, the main city of the Water Lands, an abundance of trade; it is, in fact, the most important city for merchants and craftsmen due to its enormous shipping port and seemingly endless fleet of cargo ships (the source of the phrase "all boats sail for Achelous"). This has made Achelous a very rich and desirable city indeed... but the Empire has decided to limit immigration to only the most affluent or desirable persons, spawning dozens of small satellite towns within a day's walk of the city to accommodate those not accepted. If it were not for the Water Lands' limited ability to sustain agriculture and livestock, causing them to rely on massive imports from the Forest Lands, the Waein Empire would be the indisputable ruling power on Kurai (as far as humans were concerned, at least).
  
• The Valley of Wind:
  Situated on a large mountainous island about a day and a half's boat ride off the coast of the Water Lands is the Valley of Wind. Very few people or animals actually live in this barren rocky place hemmed in on all sides by towering peaks, but rumors speak of a hidden convent of female monks living somewhere in the valley who protect a large librarium containing countless powerful relics and texts dating back to the time long before the Kinzoku first took human hosts for themselves. Little is truly known of this enclave or the desires of its reverent guardians; talk of protective illusions, divine barriers, and other supernatural defenses cannot be confirmed as all those brave explorers who have sought and continue to search for this site have found nothing at all. The very existence of such an ancient monastic order is also suspect; without food from the Forest Lands and water from the Halcyon Protectorate no human settlement could endure for very long, and its members would have to be either immortal, impossibly old, or able to recruit from the mainland without anyone noticing. Still, the mystique of the legend causes it to periodically gain fresh attention in the public imagination and a good deal of short stories and novels about the so-called "Kialon Order" have been circulated from authors in the Protectorate to places across Kurai.
  
• The Great Rift:
  The inexorable dividing line between the Desert of Flames and the Water Lands, the Great Rift is Kurai's version of the Grand Canyon and carves a jagged line straight inland towards Nasakenai Valley. There are ancient legends saying that the Rift was created by a mighty stroke from one of the gods' swords during either the Celestial Civil War or the Kinzoku War - no one's really sure which - and its unusual features seem to support this notion. The Rift is deep, possibly miles deep, but its impossible to tell exactly since the bottom cannot be seen from the surface. The ground surrounding the rift is split and thrown back from the edge in a thousand rocky spires, clearly suggesting some event of great force was responsible for its creation. The gap from one side to the other is almost ten miles at the narrowest point, making it impossible for anyone without the aid of wings to cross the Rift.

• The Inquisition of Virtuous Blood:
  "We are the Inquisition, brothers and sisters: a knighthood born from the greatness of human blood, which the gods themselves found fit to entrust with holy power and mortal dominion over this world. We are this world's destined protectors, its rightful inheritors... and the inheritors of the divine gods' legacy. We are their chosen, their children, and we shall be their avengers as well!
  Too long have the demons of tainted blood been a threat upon this world. The time has come to purge the defiled wretches and their puppet masters and cast them into the darkness beyond heaven and hell. By the might of the Old Ways, the blessings of holy relics, and the manifest essence of the divine - the gods own blood poured out into the depths of this world - we, the righteous blades of Inquisition, shall retake what is ours and set the world aright!"
  (The Inquisition's home base of operations is not currently known, and although their activities have so far been almost entirely limited to the Desert of Flames it is fully possible that their crusader-knights are at work in the Forest and Water Lands as well.)
  
• The Htaitalon:
  A group of city, town, and village leaders representing nearly all of the human settlements in the Forest Lands. The Council of Voices is a republican governing body in its practices: two representatives are chosen by the people of each settlement and sent to the prosperous city of Masdiel where, in a large amphitheater-style building next to the mayor's manor, decisions and laws that will effect everyone in the Forest Lands are made. The Council usually convenes once every three months, but since rumors of the Kinzoku's return began to circulate the Council has held a number of emergency sessions. The mayor of Masdiel is present mostly to officiate and structure the proceedings, as the mayor himself is not allowed to be one of Masdiel's two representatives except in times of crisis.
  
• The Waein Empire:
  The Wae family was at one time a simple peasant family living on what little the land could provide them... but now, after decades of building an empire from the roots up, they reign over the Water Lands as unquestioned sovereigns and hold vast sway over the other governments of Kurai. Their secret? Water, of course... but how exactly they managed to establish such an iron-clad monopoly on the Water Lands' greatest natural resource remains a mystery to this very day. Some people speculate they have divine relics in their possession that gave them the power to achieve this, while others suggest that the golden road to the water-throne was built by force, guile, and subversion. Blood is thicker than water, after all . . .
  [see the Water Lands for more info]