Lightning War

The Lightning War (called the Baraq Epoch by the El'yon) was the great cosmic struggle that sundered Solverse into it's empyrean and empirical expressions. It is the cause of all the sin, death, and destruction in the universe other than entropy.

The Lightning War was the fall of the Aion'ari'yon race. Both the A'yai and El'yon races are direct products of the Lightning War.

## Background

### Shevah

During the Shevah epoch of Solverse, the Shaeloah looked after the Universe from Kolob. Worlds were hand crafted and placed in orbit. Humans were innocent and as yet possessed no reproductive knowledge. A man, named Da'se'th'la, grew jealous of the power wielded by the Shaeloah. He wanted to create worlds and life. Though he was told he would do so in due time, he was told he must grow first as a guiding servant to other beings who would come to self reproduce and become gods.

Da'se'th'la, in his pride, rejected this in his heart, but did as he was told. He studied intimately the mechanisms of the Infinity Gate until he knew them by heart. He thought that he, too, could create something of his own to challenge that of the Shaeloah.

### Me'A

While the Ya'ri were constructing the the Ascension Gate on Rabah, Da'se'th'la went about deceiving others. He says that he possesses a secret that the others do not. In his jealously, he lies and says that he too is constructing something willed of the Shaeloah, and all who will help him build it will be made like unto the Shaeloah. The Shaeloah noticed the doings of Da'se'th'la and watched carefully. They gave to man agency and did not intend to violate that agency.

When the time for the Ascension Gate's completion came, Da'se'th'la ascended like the rest of the Ya'ri. But Da'se'th'la and his secret combination went to the farthest arm of the Andromeda Galaxy and created the world of Nar'ghul.

## War Begins

### The Black Gate

There, on the surface of Nar'ghul, Da'se'th'la and his co-conspirators created the Black Gate, allowing a single ascended man control over all matter, energy, space, and time - and agency- an imitation of the Infinity Gate. Each person who constructed the Black Gate was bound to it, for some of each person's essence went into it. And so a thousand people were bound to the will of Da'se'th'la.

### The Meeting

Da'se'th'la returned to Kolob in his pride, willing to present what he had created to his father. He brought back to Kolob a black stone from the Black Gate as a symbol of his dominion. El and Aion looked out upon what Da'se'th'la had created and saw only a population of slaves. The Black Gate had dominated their will, making them subservient to Da'se'th'la.

Da'se'th'la was cast out of Kolob and told his creation would be destroyed, for the good of humanity. But Da'se'th'la raced back to Nar'ghul and told his followers that the Shaeloah had rejected them, and that "if there was to be any gain from this universe it must come from within ourselves; if we are to become gods, we must be our own gods".

### Deception

So Da'se'th'la himself went out to various worlds and demonstrated his power with the Black Gate and worlds fell to his slavish rule. He found Exades on the Remnant Planet, and with that, a prophet. Exades proclaimed the greatness of Da'se'th'la to all worlds.

Together, with the Black Gate's power, they brought stones from the Gate and set them up on worlds as idols to be worshiped. They taught the people that if they would worship the stone, then they would become gods themselves. Innocently, the humans of other worlds did so, and in doing so, they enslaved their will to that of Da'se'th'la through the Black Gate.

He said of the stone: "I can rise up gods from these rocks before Aion will make a single god out of men. Pathetic worms."

### The Proclamation

On Nar'ghul, Exades made the great proclamation: "BEHOLD YOUR LORD AND YOUR GOD, RUIN. FEAR YE AND WORSHIP HIM - BESIDES HIM THERE IS NO OTHER." Sacrifices were brought and the first blood in the universe was shed. Exades instituted this as a great and blasphemous sacrament: "ALL WHO SHALL SPILL BLOOD FROM HERE UNTO ETERNITY DO SO IN THE NAME OF THE GREAT GOD RUIN."

All who were on Nar'ghul in those days fell in terror as Exades revealed himself in his terrifying and mighty power, bringing mountains down and quaking the planet surface. From that day onward, Da'se'th'la abandoned his name in favor of the title given him by Exades.

Ruin taught his followers a many things and organized a clear priesthood. Notably, he taught that he was the Shaeloah was a fallen God and must be destroyed and the universe with it; but Ruin would create a new universe. For that reason, his people were not bound by any of the laws and principles taught by Shaeloah. Materialism became the highest expression of Ruin's worship.

He introduces the blasphemous sacrament of Kha'me'ra, the creation of physically altered humans as a sign of devotion and loyalty to the new god.

### The Empire Retaliates

The so-called "god" did not go unnoticed. Kolob had been watchful. Shaeloah and the Empire were not willing to let worlds be set under cloak and shadow to his domineering rule. Mi'kha'el was a choice ascended being loyal to the Empire and the Shaeloah, and so to Ruin he was sent.

But the conversation did not go well. Ruin tried to convert unsuccessfully Mi'kha'el. Mi'kha'el returned to Kolob with the ill news of the rebellious Da'se'th'la and his slew of worlds.

### Upheaval

In one great moment of pride and anguish, Ruin decides he is going to claim the throne of Kolob for himself. Using the blasphemous technology of the Black Gate, he commands his human followers to arise in upheaval on all worlds as he and the rest of the ascended travel towards Kolob. There, he meets Aion, El, and the rest of the Aion'ari'yon. Aion asks him to surrender his control over the Black Gate and free the people whom he has enslaved; Ruin refuses, and a cataclysmic struggle occurs with both Aion and Da'se'th'la manipulating MEST around each other, inadvertently forming a singularity within the universe and sundering the universe from itself.