The Warring Throne

"Your network lies in ruins. The Undari hunger for your territory, as do the Selemon. In exchange for our protection against these two factions, we require payment."
"Name your price."
"From your territories, we shall extract a tithe. You shall give us a twentieth of your existing Transcended Exalts and Old Brethren Lawbringers. From that point forward, a tenth of any new Exalts and Lawbringers will be brought to us."
"...Please allow us a cycle to discuss these terms."
The Warring Throne is the current regional hegemon in the niche once occupied by the Weave. Encountered relatively late during the Weave's expansion, the Warring Throne was its peer until the former's collapse during the Tor Crisis.
== Description ==
The Warring Throne is both the name of the faction and the incredibly massive Pool of Possibility it occupies. The ruler of the Throne is the Outer God Sectem, a former student of Szchest. Under them are many multiple subordinate Outer Gods and countless Sovereigns. Sectem's rule is relatively loose by choice, provided that those under them follow a set of edicts. Aside from crucial occasions, Sectem does not involve themself in the usual affairs of their empire.
The Pool of Possibility the faction occupies has evolved over many millions of years, absorbing other Pools into itself to reach its size in the present. Where the Weave was a loose coalition of countless civilisations and polities spread over a vast swathe of the Void, the Warring Throne is slightly less than half its size, but far denser and more centralised in its component civilisations and polities. The faction often sends out drones with specialised AI to uplift civilisations far outside of its borders into Transcension and Exaltation, before sending Sovereigns to bring them back to their Pool of Possibility.
"From this moment, you belong to the Warring Throne. Now that you have Transcended and Exalted, you will be brought to our borders as Sovereigns. Be proud, for you have achieved something very few can claim."
Gira, Roaming Sovereign
The Warring Throne is best known for its Sovereigns; Transcended Exalts and now Old Brethren Lawbringers whom have had a Throne fused into them. Each Throne is a metaphysical augment that acts an altered Pool of Possibility able to absorb realities and other Pools. Each Sovereign is effectively a living multiverse able to subsume realities into themselves. Younger Sovereigns are roughly equivalent to the Patra and Ulemedi nobility, while the most ancient are known to match Outer Gods. Older Sovereigns spend much of their time outside the Warring Throne, looking for Bound civilisations to uplift with Transcension and guiding as many as they can towards Exaltation. Those that successfully Exalt are then augmented with Thrones of their own and brought back to the Warring Throne for further training. These travelling Sovereigns sometimes also bring along younger Sovereigns to mentor them and allow the latter to gain experience in a controlled setting. 
== History ==
The Warring Throne had its origins in Sectem, after they had left Szchest's tutelage. Sectem originated from a pre-Weave civilisation that had collectively Transcended left their home reality for a more nomadic existence. Sectem wandered with their people through the Void until they encountered Szchest, whom had been taking a stroll in a Pool of Possibility outside the Thinker's Garden. Szchest invited Sectem's people to the Thinker's Garden and it was there that Sectem chose to study under the Outer God. It was during these hundreds of millions of subjective years that Sectem ascended to become an Outer God themselves, alongside a few others from their civilisation. After Sectem's ascension, he received more personal tutelage from Szchest and for a time the newly ascended Outer God felt fulfilled. This would not persist for long, as a few million years after their ascension, Sectem found themselves increasingly directionless despite throwing themselves further into their studies. In their newfound power they wished for another purpose, as they felt that their greater abilities should come with some sort of aim or greater goal. Confiding in their teacher, Szchest advised their student to travel and witness the greater multiverse once again, like Sectem had in their youth. 
Sectem set off on their travels shortly after, starting by retracing their original steps in their pre-Godhood youth. They came across many civilisations and factions, either solving problems for the local inhabitants or extinguishing threats to the peoples they encountered. Their deeds had earned them a following, and Sectem came to care for the civilisations that had come under their wing. Choosing to settle down far from the Thinker's Garden, the Outer God used what they had learned from Szchest to create a large Pool of Possibility, creating multiverses for their followers to live in. In this infinity of realities, Sectem ensured that the innumerable laws of each and every multiverse were to the comfort of their charges. For a few million years Sectem acted as guide and mediator for those who followed them, and during this time they kept in contact with their teacher for advice and reflection. Sectem's old people were privy to a few of these conversations between teacher and student, after which some of them expressed their desire to move to the latter's new home. Sectem returned to retrieve those who wished to move to the home they created. Sectem was welcomed back by his peers and Szchest, though these celebrations were cut short when Sectem was alerted by one of their listening posts alerted them of a force rapidly approaching their new home. Sectem recalled to their home, watching as the force closed in. The entity stopped in the Void just short of Sectem's home. When the Outer God called out to the being, the entity introduced themselves as Galerend of the Infinite Cuts, and stated their intent to cut apart Sectem and their home. Galerend was an immense entity, their subjective size in the Void rivalling that of the largest Pools of Possibility. Trapped within the force were countless remnants of realities and Pools that had been subjected to their mission, each holding the Void Cores of Transcends unlucky enough to be in the Galerend's path. 
"Existence is but a hypothesis to be tested. Violence is the truest method to do so. Life, laws, concepts and realities: none shall be spared the blade. Only that which stays unsplit is worthy." 
"Evidently, there are many you cannot cleave. Those Void Cores trapped in you being the greatest proof." 
"Of course. Existence must constantly be asserted. Even those who remain intact after a single strike must be tested further. These ones have proven worthy so far, even after an infinity of cuts. I shall subject them to an infinity more, as dictated by my grand mission." 
"You couch torture and wanton slaughter in lofty words. You've stated your desire to inflict those same things on those of my house. Begone, and never return. " 
"No. I have yet to test you, little God." 
As the Galerend struck towards Sectem and their home with innumerable cuts, the Outer God casually blocked each one and willed the force to shatter. The Galerend split into uncountable pieces, Sectem collecting each one. In a moment of spite, the Outer God reforged every piece of the Galerend into items of everyday convenience, to make the lives of weaker beings more pleasant. Just before the Galerend's consciousness was destroyed, Sectem made sure to fully impart to it the knowledge of what was happening to itself. The final scream of horror from the force was felt with great relief by its freed prisoners. Sectem quickly set to work assisting the Galerend's victims, settling them in the realities they had set aside for further residents of their home. To Sectem's dismay, the freed populations revealed to them that there was a tide of many more entities like the Galerend heading in their direction, each wishing fulfill their purpose; to subject existence to their chosen forms of violence. While Sectem wished to simply notify their peers at the Thinker's Garden and fortify their own home (leaving outside civilisations to their fate), the countless pleas from those they freed and their followers finally led the Outer God to relent. Sectem brought low the Galerend easily enough, but they were only an individual, and could only act in so many places at once. While the civilisations of Sectem's Pool of Possibility had collectively grown strong enough to match multiple Outer Gods, making a dent over such a spread out force would require them to spread their resources unacceptably thin. Thus, Sectem gathered their peers in a war council at the Thinker's Garden. After the meeting, Outer Gods and civilisations that had holdings outside of the Thinker's Garden mostly retreated to reinforce their assets. Those that remained were either held most of their resources in Szchest's domain, or were a minority of the former. 
These Outer Gods and civilisations quickly sealed their alliance in a pact, pooling their resources to expand their military and create a means to protect the vast territories in front of the tide. While Outer Gods could handily defeat any of the coming entities in a fight, there were far too few of them to be in all the positions needed to defend against the tide. Sectem proposed a solution to the council. When they shattered and reforged the Galerend, Sectem had taken the opportunity to study its metaphysical workings. They had managed to dissect the system of power used by the Galerend and from testimonies with the survivors of its atrocities deduced that the other entities worked in a similar way. The Galerend worked by forcing its rule (that of cutting) on beings, concepts, realities and Pools of Possibility, and should its target be even slightly affected by the rule then it would be axiomatically rewritten to suffer its full effect (being split). The force then absorbed whatever remains were left over from its strike, adding to the potency and the magnitude of its abilities. Sectem noticed that this system had no way to handle absolute effects such as Transcended immortality, or the abilities held by Exaltations. The fact that the Galerend could only imprison the Transcended it fell upon was evidence. Thus, the Outer God suggested a way to empower Trascended Exalts to operate on the same scale and magnitude as the forces they would be fighting. These metaphysical augments would become known as Thrones in the following conflict. 
After research and prototyping the very first Thrones, Sectem and their allies merged the augments with a select group of Exalts. Sectem had produced multiple large Pools of Possibility as the fuel that would empower these chosen few to act on the same magnitude as Outer Gods. After extensive training, Sectem and their allies ventured out to hunt down the most forward of the scouting forces of the invasion to see if their creation would suffice for the coming conflict. On this hunt, Sectem accompanied Kirm, bearer of the Mantle of Dreams. After a long hunt over clues and traces, the two found the Adjacency. It was here that the test of the first Sovereigns would begin. 
Kirm looked upon his opponent. It was an immense Pool of Possibility, merged with an equally vast consciousness. The Adjacency claimed that their grand purpose was to explore the height of experience and sensations alongside all living beings. What he perceived made him recoil in disgust. Within that Pool, he saw Bound beings subjected to such overwhelming stimuli that they thrashed around in mindless pain and ecstasy. He saw the same thing repeating in each endlessly branching timeline with every iteration of the victims. Within every victim nested many more realities where those iterations suffered the same fates, and within those too were nested universes in an infinite cycle of recursion. Acausal beings too weren't spared, and Kirm witnessed them suffering alongside the Bound victims. In a truly innumerable variety of material realities, psychic realms of thought, simulations of data and ever more exotic universes, he saw similar scenes throughout that entire infinity. 
The Galerend was a simple entity. It was a blade meant to cut, and nothing more. The Adjacency had built an existence defined solely by the extremes of sensation, where none had agency or even the will to act. Kirm could sense its beaming pride, he could feel its preening happiness as it displayed the creativity it dedicated to its travesty of a creation. For the first time in his life as a Transcend, Kirm felt true, unadulterated hate. In an instant, the shadow of his Throne fell across the Adjacency. Thus, the entity was no more, wiped away like a passing dream. 
Category:Factions