Chronic Song

The universe known as the Chronic Song, named after the epithet of its most stalwart and everpresent hero, is part of the greater multiverse and has had contact with Orthos. Jaedyth Snow the Fiendscarred was originally from this world and rose to his original prominence there. Interactions between certain Outer Gods (a term in the Chronic Song which refers to any being of significant power who dwells outside of the universe) also caused alternate versions of some Chronic Song denizens to be born into Orthos.

## The Timey-Wimey Ball

The Chronic Song is characterized by a high frequency of time travel (with a good ninety percent of it perpetrated by Adoi Phanes - the Chronic). As such, this universe is quite unstable, with aborted timelines and pockets of neverwas leaving echoes through the major timelines. The universe was/will be/has always been rebooted four times since its inception, though there have always been ripples of potentialities hinting at the world's later forms (and there will always be scar tissue from the previous iterations). These Five Timelines were each pockmarked during their first ten thousand years by the actions of a young Chronic and his adversaries. After a cataclysmic event in his life, he resolved to be more responsible and do what he could to correct the damage that he'd done, prevent time travel shenanigans from causing more harm and protect the denizens of the Chronic Song whenever he could.

## Creation

Az'uretlath (Azaria) the Song and Djinnkhare the Discordant Harmony fought eternally in the dead void between the worlds. In one impossible corner of this Far Realm, echoes of these beings gathered other Outer Gods to their aid. On Azaria's side were Arcanus, Chronus, and Jokko-Ma. During the Great Battle of the Songs, Arcanus was lobotomized. Chronus, too, was savagely beaten. Djinnkhare pulled back his forces, allowing the grief to wash over his intended victims. Azaria and Jokko-Ma wept over Chronus, whose mind was slowly slipping. As they dwelt together, something altogether unexpected occurred.

Four figures appeared unlike any the Outer Gods had seen before. There was the aarakocran Jimminey, Laozi the Death Cow (Culler of the Herd), and a bard from a royal family who was the father of the Blake Out of Time. With them, unconcious, was Chronic 3.5 (Adoi Phanes took the form of a kappa in this body). This Vanguard of the Future had taken a bad turn during the Boorm War of the Green Timeline and accidentally jettisoned themselves to "before" the universe was created. They spoke with Azaria, who created an avatar in their image (who would go on to be called Kor'lun the Bard), and told her of the world she would sing into existence and how they fought against the forces of darkness to create a world that, even when darkest, carried the bright light of love inside of it. Jokko-ma spurred Azaria on and she agreed to create the universe.

Chronus looked upon the floating body of the Chronic and read through him the timestream of the universe that would be created and understood what must be done. As he lay dying, he told Azaria to wrap his body around the new universe to act as a barrier to keep out the true forms of the Elder Evils (of course, this would also prevent any other Outer Gods, even the "good" ones, from entering). He became the Unifying Timeline and the Agent of Change, and would go on to put the last fragment of his dying mind into the body of a gnome born in 7019 BFC (Before the Feyfell Convergence) under the name Adoi Phanes.

The corpse of Arcanus was infused into the universe and he became the Weave that allowed the use of magic. Following this event, the Bard entered the universe and began creating the finer aspects of reality.

With the universe created, the Chronic awoke and was able to (with Azaria's help) transport the Vanguard of the Future back to their home timeline, the Green Timeline. A timeline that would not exist until the universe had been rebooted twice. Once again, Timey-Wimey Ball.

## Four Jaedyths Over the Five Timelines

There were, strictly speaking, four iterations of the being called Jaedyth Snow over the Five Timelines. Each one was born by the machinations of Atropal, an Outer God who sought to ensure its own creation.

### The Blue Timeline

In the original iteration of the timeline, Jaedyth Snow left the universe after achieveing the status of an Estelar (the closest things to gods that the Chronic Song had within it) venturing into the space between universes (known as Xoriat or the Far Realm in the Chronic Song), past the Outer God that was more kin to him than any other, and found himself in Orthos. Here, he found new purpose and spawned the Snow Bloodline.

### The Red Timeline

In the timeline created by Anachronic's boormboom, the epic spell that Jaedyth performed in 425 BFC failed, resulting in the death of Surmount and rendering Jaedyth both immortal and incurably insane. He spent the rest of his days as a wandering madman, constantly shouting "Time boom!" and slamming his hands into things.

### The Green Timeline

In the snapped-back timeline, things went roughly the same as in the Blue Timeline, but this Jaedyth did not leave the universe. He instead continued his pursuit of apotheosis in the Chronic Song. He eventually succeeded and ascended to become Atropal, Master of Undeath. Since he became an Outer God and thus existed outside of time, he had always been there. To ensure his existence, however, he needed to create Jaedyth Snow. He allowed the original Jaedyth pass by, since he knew that it would be the third iteration who would become him.

### The Darkest Timeline

In the timeline ruled by the Beginning and the End, Jaedyth never existed. Jingo (the preferred form of the Outer God Djinnkhare) made sure to kill Jaedyth's father as he did not want any rivals in his brave new world. As Jingo remembered all of the previous timelines (since his mind was Djinnkhare and therefore outside of the universe), he remembered his intense fight with Jaedyth the Estelar in the Green Timeline and would not take the risk.

### The Amalgam Timeline/Brightest Timeline

In the patched-together timeline of the Chronic Amalgamate, Jaedyth never went back 400 years in time, because none of the Vanquishers of the Dark Torrent had to. However, he still performed his epic polymorph spell, turning him into the Fiendscarred and Surmount into the Dragon of Black and Gold. The Chronic Amalgamate allowed this to happen, so that Surmount could go on to be the leader and force for balance that he was destined to be.

Once more, Jaedyth began aquiring great power. Without Jingo there to hinder him, his ascension was much faster, surprising the Chronic. He quickly gained his ability to hide himself from anyone, but the Convergence of the Elements once more brought him to the fore. The Chronic, Surmount, and Surmount's Champions (Jingo's Champions in prior timelines) put a stop to Jaedyth and instead of obliterating his body (leaving a chance for him to return), they put him into a magical slumber via the *imprisonment* spell. Surmount watched over his body.

It was eventually discovered by Heledriel that Jaedyth had projected himself into the Plane of Dreams and had continued consolidating power there. He put a hit out on Surmount, creating the Rend of this timeline out of Ran's daughter, inserting a Quori into her body. This Raiann attempted to kill Surmount and the visiting Aoide with her army of quori-hosting undead (courtesy of Jaedyth). An unexpected time storm and the attempted intervention by the Green Flash caused Surmount and Aoide to fuse into the Electrum Dragon.

This unsuccesful attempt to free himself put Jaedyth in a foul disposition, but a new ally would soon set him at ease. The storm had been caused by an echo of the Chronic Flayer (a version of Chronic that became an illithid in an aborted timeline) forcing himself back into reality. With the Electrum Dragon and the Green Flash pursuing Rend, the Chronic Flayer broke the spell on Jaedyth and asked him to join a team he was putting together. Their purpose: destroy the Chronic and rule all of time. Jaedyth accepted the deal and pledged his Qouri and undead to the cause.

They dubbed themselves the Neverwere and began recruiting members throughout time. The Electrum Dragon and the Green Flash lost the trail of Rend because, unbeknownst to them, The Chronic Flayer and Jaedyth grabbed her from that point in time, for her Golden Voice would be of great use to them. To round out the leadership of their crew, they recruited the Dragon of Eons (who the Chronic Flayer had turned against the Chronic during their shared moments in the Plane of Time), the Dark Torrent (they went back and grabbed Kurumo's soul and placed it in Tera's body, giving her the wand Lisran), Malyanna (rival of Aoide and the creator of the *black blade of disaster*), Aika the Druid of Time (the Chronic's spurned ex; the Chronic Flayer found her Green Timeline version still locked away in the time shard prison the Chronic placed her in), and Khare (they found the last fragment of Jingo embedded in a red Blake mask and forced it on Vanitus Rentin before giving him similar powers to his nephew).

With the Neverwere, Jaedyth set himself against the Chronic Guard, which included the Chronic Amalgamate, the Electrum Dragon, the Oaken Flame (and his friend the Woke Flower), Zoe Jean (the Chronic's wife from the Far Future), the Green Flash (a much more heroic Ryul Rentin, if that hadn't been apparent yet), Garrett (saved from madness in this timeline and having great mental powers), and Leliana (who has not woven the epic *comprehend languages* into this timeline and thus is needed for translation).

Thus began the Time Skirmishes and they had barely started when Jaedyth began thinking of how best to betray his compatriots and turn this to his favour alone.