Temple of Radiance (Lost Aeons)

Creative Content Literature
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TEMPLE OF RADIANCE

About the setting and the story

This is part of my new BIONICLE world, the LOST AEONS.
Lost Aeons will be my main setting for my Bionicle fanfiction for some time, alongside with another upcoming setting.

The second setting is currently named Haona Ri Chronicles, through name may change. The map I posted of the island of Haona Ri is related to the second world, being main location where the story will be set.

The two settings are very loosely connected, with Lost Aeons taking place astronomical amount of time before Haona Ri Chronicles.

Lost Aeons is a rather strange and eldritch version of Bionicle, as you shall soon see. It will be setting of several stories, chronicling different points of its timeline. Some will be oneshots, but this one is several chapters long. Now, without further addo, let’s begin the Temple of Radiance.

Prologue-The Ages Before This Age

Before all ages was the Aeon of Oblivion.

Nobody can remember the Aeon of Oblivion. Even the Eldest Things, who ruled the universe in that age, cannot remember.

First age was the Aeon of Grey Tigers. In that age, the Grey Tigers ruled the universe, emerging out of grey mists.

A Grey Tiger, also known as Shedari, is so big that a Zoru could fit into their eye. They are utterly grey, save for their eyes, which shine with all colors and their maw, which was the blackest black. If you somehow meet a Grey Tiger, do not look into that maw, for to look into that void of blackness is to invite certain doom upon oneself.

It is said that there was no constant ground and sky in the Aeon of Grey Tigers and that one could fall in other directions than downwards.

Second age was Aeon of Squid-Headed-Ones. In that age, the mists receded to the edge of the universe, and henceforth the Squid-Headed-Ones ruled the universe.

The Great Ones were far larger than the Shedari, being so titanic that to them the great depth of the ocean was but a shallow sea to be walked through. Each Great One was colored in a vibrant color, at same time being pitch black. They were thoughtful and wise beings, who conversed with each other through lightning and thunder.

The Great Ones were so big that entire worlds existed within them. In these worlds, Organoids lived, maintaining the greater whole they composed. Unlike the Great Ones, the Organoids thought not, being solely focused on their purpose in sustaining the Great Ones.

Third Age is the Aeon of Temple Spirits. In that age, the Squid-Headed-Ones died out, falling over into the sea and from their corpses, the Organoids emerged.

No longer having the Great Ones to preserve, the Organoids became wild beasts, living on their own in corpses of their former wholes. Over millenia, they diverged in form into various types of beasts, and eventualy, some of them awakened, becoming us, the Zoru.

From the corpses of the great old ones, we built towering monuments into the sky, and there, we met the Temple Spirits. We gave them offerings and veneration, and they blessed us with prosperity and power over elements.

Yet now as I write, the Temple of Radiance seeks to rise over all other temples, to become greater and ascend. They think that by converting others to their way, by word or by sword, they are bringing salvation to Zoru. Yet I can say that only thing they are bringing to the Zoru is doom, for I saw what I saw and heard what I heard.

Read this chronicle, you of a future age, and discover what brought the end to the third Aeon.

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Ooh sounds interesting! I’ll be wanting to see what else you come up with.

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oooo me interested!

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This is super cool

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Appendix 1 - Of Names and Languages

My Long Name is Wakachiri Vikua Katadu.
My Short Name is Wakari in the new manner, Wakachiri in the old manner.
My Elder Name is Xathp Tmntaph Zhrkm in long form, Xatph Zhu in short form.

I was summoned to this world by Parakehi Wasu Darui and consecrated in name of Lord of Abyss.

With formalities out of way, I should explain myself. This is how I should introduce myself according to the antique conventions for writing chronicles. Aside from this, I shall not follow these long abandoned conventions, for sake of my ease and my reader’s sanity, for my reader most likely is from entirely different Aeon and thus from a culture to which we are alien and unknown.

Long and Short names are both derived from our present language, while Elder name is a remant of an ancient tongue otherwise extinct. In most conditions, the Short name would suffice, with the Long name reserved for special occasions, and the Elder name being known and spoken extremely rarely. In this world and age, different cultures exist, with different languages and naming conventions.

Different areas of the world speak different languages depending on their culture, and even in a single culture and language, the dialects can vary. Corpse-Islands often form archipelagos, and this geography affects distribution of the tongues. Our history is long, and many languages are either dead or completely forgotten.

To elaborate upon matter of languages, I shall explain to you how we and other beings speak.

The Eldest Things speak through telepathy, the Grey Tigers can roar but lack a true language, the Squid-Headed-Ones spoke through thunder and lightning, and Organoids communicated through sounds and smells. We, the Zoru use sound to speak like the Great Ones did. Unlike them, we speak through forming words out of the sound, and do not use light as part of our speech.

Appendix 2 - Of The Summoning and The Consecration

A Zoru, like a Organoid, can replicate. Unlike the Organoids, who replicated through division as do some of beasts, and unlike the beasts who replicate from shed limbs, we replicate through the Summoning of New Ones. This process can be done a limited amount of times per person, and is mentaly exhausting, as it involves manifesting a Zoru through sheer force of will.

Now, for a brief description: When the summoning is initiated by activation of a hidden part of mind after meditation has opened the mind of the summoner, a ghostly apparition of a Zoru steps out of the summoner’s body, and stops a certain distance before the summoner. This ghost then slowly materializes, eventualy awakening into a Zoru.

When they first awaken, a Zoru is understandably confused, as he or she lacks all memories, being freshly manifested into reality. A part of the process that is explaining to the Zoru the world is consecration, when they recieve their Elder Name and establish a pernament, albeit weak link with a Temple Spirit. I myself was consecrated to the Lord of Abyss.

Temple of Radiance now demands that all converts re-consecrate themselves to their Lady of Radiance. This is a sharp break with tradition, for the Temples always allowed those consecrated to other Temple Spirits to join, through preference was often given to those of their own spirit in matters of advancement through the hierarchy.

Those that have enough time often belong to multiple Temples, and many more at least visit multiple Temples, through there always were many who were devoted to a single Temple Spirit. But that devotion was personal, and they recognised that other people belong to different Temples.

But the Temple of Radiance in its current form does not recognise the other Temples and their Spirits. Instead, they give their devotion solely to the Lady of Radiance and attempt to force their way on the others. They think that they are saving the Zoru by this crusade, but I know that they are instead bringing the End of this aeon, whether they know or not.

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Chapter 1-Of the Past and of the Writer

I, Wakachiri Vikua Katadu, writer of this chronicle, come from the Central Civilisation. Now, I will recount what is known about its origin. Long ago, when the Zoru built the monuments reaching towards the heavens, there were several distinct civilisations. Discovery of the Temple Spirits happened independently several times, and so, the various civilisations made different covenants with the Temple Spirits.

While cultures changed from that time, the covenants made in days of ancients formed basis of what is now known as the Civilisations. In the Central Civilisation, the ancient tongue used to make the covenant remains in form of the Elder Names.

While each Civilisation shares most of the Temple Spirits they venerate, some Temple Spirits are present in some Civilisations, and absent in other, while few are even unique to a Civilisation. Within each Civilisation distinct cultures tend to exist. Even religion tends to vary slightly within a Civilisation, for later additions of various customs were often made to the covenant by cultures within a Civilisation.

In return for offerings and veneration given to the Temple Spirits, we, the Zoru were blessed with various gifts. These can be among others knowledge, protection, general prosperity, elemental powers related to the Temple Spirit’s sphere, or even material artifacts, such as Masks of Power.

I am Wakari, a writer of travelogues. I venture into faraway lands, and return back to home with knowledge about these lands and their inhabitants. This means I travel lot. When the Temple of Radiance had their revelation, I was very far away. When I returned from that voyage, I excepted to see familiar land.

Instead I saw a land in turmoil. Then, I discovered that the rise of the Temple of Radiance was based on something dubious. In my quest to discover more, I saw and heard things that strengthened this belief, and showed some light at what was going on. And then, things were revealed to me by the Temple Spirits that made the truth apparent.

Through it may not seem such to people of this age, as I write these words, the fate of this Aeon is already sealed. Nothing can now be done to prevent the end, an apocalypse that will usher in a new age of abomination. Yet I know that this atrocity inflicted upon the reality shall be avenged, and that the flow of time shall return upon a correct course, that age of abomination forever confinded to the abyss of the past.

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