1384

Coming in to 1384, the world bore little resemblance to what it had in the original timeline. The events and flow of that reality were forever gone in what was now an accelerated push toward the extinction of humanity, if not all life on earth.

Not to say justice and liberty were fading: just the opposite. The CMC carried fair judgement and freedom from slavery around the world in 1383, but even in that, there were discoveries that slavery was a depressingly common human trait, found around the world, as was justice going to the highest bidder. Battling that, in small steps, was Iberia now united, and the inclusion of the Chinese kingdom of Henan and the Western Hemisphere Kingdom of Inca under the *Commonwealth of the Magna Carta*.

There were advances in the preservation of food and the support of life, from refrigeration to calorization. There was the exploration of the world itself, with the circumnavigation of the globe accomplished. Magical construction had evolved to the minor, non-CCC craftsfolk, magic cleaning helped make the world a bit more sanitary against disease, magical healing potions went on sale, a magical portal network could get someone from London to southern Italy in the space of a day. Humans had achieved flight, first mundane (with a balloon) to magical.

For all that life-giving progress, the defining event of 1383 was *The Eschatus*, the beginning of the end. It was a battle for the world, where the battle lines themselves should've been crystal clear, but when the archangels are bent on destroying humanity, it threw everything humanity thought they knew into doubt.

1383 ended with the Ricardian Crown unifying Scandinavia after unauthorized military magic found its way to Sweden. There was no desire to leave the Swedish defenseless, but they had to be part of the system to use the magic – *they needed to be educated*. Even to the educated, magic was incredibly hazardous as proven by the 1382 *Shaking of Kilkenny*.

While the CMC had limited jurisdiction, the influence and reach of *Eschatus* was world-wide. The Order or Merlin was sworn to fight for humanity, and there was now no place on earth outside the *Sphere of Magic*.

## **The Sphere of Magic**

### **January**

* **The Imperfection of the Heavens:** advancements in the science of astronomy point out areas that once would've been heretical observations of ellipses instead of perfect circles. The modern Church took it in stride, all things considered, and was already a step ahead with trying to figure out where the 18,000 worlds of the archangels were.

### **February**

* **The Lights Over Giza:** In and over Egypt, especially near the massive pyramids, there were new sets of lights in the sky. These were oddities unlike any seen before. Part of the Egyptian authority was at a literal loss after the lights, as a portion of their leadership and treasury had disappeared. Likewise, the market for the automatons slowed considerably.

### **March**

* **Mobile Portaling Developed:** travel by portal was extremely different than teleportation, which was itself extremely secret (and allegedly a scary way to travel). Travel by portal was relatively calm, and by now, the OM had developed both single and dual portal technology. Mobile Portaling was a modified form of single-portal technology that allowed the gate projector to be carried through, resulting in the capacity for unlimited long-distance travel jumps.

### **April**

* **The Discovery of Rubber:** in the dense jungle of the lower Western Hemisphere, the RANP was at work down the massive river. Part of it was simply cataloging the flora and fauna, but also the modified megafauna in the region while looking for human survivors. In the process, the gummy tree byproduct that would come to be known as rubber was discovered.

### **May**

* **Abyssinia allies with Israel-Zion:** the RANP was working their way towards central Africa and established relations with the still-Christian kingdom. This was upper northeast coast of Africa, and the entire east coast of Africa had been well-explored and contacted by both Arabian and Persian explorers. Abyssinia had endured the "surges" – unlike any other place on earth – but was surviving. With a tasteful, peppy coffee bean as export, they established trade relations into the CMC network.

### **June**

* **Hephaestus’ Forge:** The OM had stepped deeper into transmutation, and there was a growing gulf between those at the cutting edge and those at the periphery. Even with *Books of Learning*, there was a common misconception, even among the magically trained, that alchemy and transmutation were interchangeable. That wasn't the case: alchemy changed elements, while transmutation changed the form of elements. One couldn't turn coal to gold with transmutation, but one could turn coal to diamonds. The better a wizard was at chemistry, the more efficiently they could transmute one substance to another. Volumes transmuted depended on the purity of the source material, the strength of the mundane chemistry and the available magical energy.

### **July**

* **The Battle of Moon's Shadow:** The battle in the sky flared up on July 17th and just kept growing, now extending through the peak of the New Moon. This five-day exchange was farther out – but much, *much* bigger, and seemed to be the finale of the War of the Celestials. Visible as long as the moon was, with the bulk of the fighting always appearing in front of the moon. There were blasts so big they lit the dark lunar face and some made the night as bright as noon. By now, there were six massive, identifiable entities versus a cloud of smaller entities and terrestrial observers could see which side was which. There was a great deal of fear of what would happen if the archangels won, but by July 21st, it was apparent they'd destroyed each other.

### **August**

* **The Aegis of Gaia:**The aftermath of the Battle of Moon's Shadow left the world shell-shocked and numb. Surviving that terror wasn't fully expected, and now that it had come to pass, there was uncertainty on the next steps. The Order of Merlin was taking action, building a measure they predicted would've helped – and still could if the angels ever returned. The details, however, were mostly secret – and mostly unintelligible technobabble where they leaked.

### **September**

* **The Rise of the Cults:** collections of believers in the warring celestials (especially the ones known as the gods or archangels), were destabilized by the disintegration of their carefully-constructed religious paradigms. In the wake of the destruction on earth, several groups are identified that now sought to complete what the celestials could not: bringing an end of life on earth. Suicide cults on a planetary scale, they're looking to achieve the "greater good" and believed they had moral superiority.

### **October**

* **The Portal of the Mists:** appearing near Delhi, and similar to the strangeness that once afflicted York, but an order of magnitude larger. The portal emits mists, actual fog, but nothing else appears. Given the archangelic wrath at York, this is deeply disturbing to the Indians. The portal fades after three days with no other explanation beyond that it was definitely a portal. The OM presence in Delhi at the time had been minimal, so nobody was equipped to study it.

### **November**

* **Western Druids Demand Change:** the CMC methodology for dealing with megafauna had been decisive and lethal. It had saved human lives when it mattered, but now that the situation was (more or less) stabilized in favor of humanity, the new druidic power rising in the Western Hemisphere wanted to make peace with the mega-life as it was.

### **December**

* **The Rise of New York:** from the ruins of York, destroyed September 1383, a new city rises from the ashes. In the Wake of the War of the Celestials, in defiance of those once called "archangels," the people of northern England return to the ruined area. The area is still toxic, and they seek the help of the OM neutralize those threats and begin building anew.