Advent War Chronicle

The Advent War Chronicle is one of the chronicles of Ceal. It tells to story of the Advent of Nova, the creation of the Novean Species and the First Novean War. It takes place around AN 0 and can be divided into three parts.

## Part 1 ~ The Feeran Rebellion

Near the end of the Golden Age of Iserialogy, the Cemarelij of Ceal had created three major domains for themselves. The first was Ceal itself, which was primarily dominated by the Republic of Cetara, together with the Domain of Ninanjiro and the Kingdom of Phryconia. The second was Feera, which had been colonized and eventually gained independence as the People's Republic of Feeheira. And the third was the artificially constructed Ringworld around Ceal, which had also become the independent Ilyfkilo Commonwealth.

At that time, an Iserial Calm was approaching, and relations between the various nations were tense as they competed for the dwindling reserves of Iserial Energy. It was in this precarious political constellation, that a phenomenon appeared, which at first was thought to have been of natural origin, but was eventually revealed to be quite divine in nature.

A golden comet appeared in the skies above Ceal, behaving quite unlike any other celestial body, and it was not long until a cult began to form around it. This cult was particularly strong on Feera, and soon caused considerable political unrest. The people of this cult called themselves the Novean Adventists, and claimed to have been inspired by the divine guidance of the Comet Goddess Nova. Using Minayero, they staged a remarkably successful uprising, which was only barely beaten back by the heroes of the Advent War Chronicle.

Afterwards, the comet started heading for Feera and hostile Angels began swarming Feeheira, and eventually the Goddess Nova revealed herself and with the help of her Greater Angles - which were guarded by Divine Protection - successfully occupied all of Feera, while the only thing the heroes could do was to ensure that the majority of Feeheira's population could be successfully evacuated to Ringworld and Cetara.

## Part 2 ~ The War in the Heavens

A period of calm followed after the fall of Feeheira, during which the nations of Ceal and Ringworld mostly argued about the distribution of the refugees from Feeheira, and scrambled to bolster their defences against this new threat that had taken up residence on Feera.

Meanwhile, the Goddess Nova created the first generation of Novean Species on Feera, accelerating their growth and imprinting them with basic sets of memories and personalities so that they could serve her right away. Eventually, she began her attack on Ilyfkilo, tentatively at first, but then gradually growing stronger. Again, the heroes of the Advent War Chronicle played an important role in striking back these attacks.

Under the lead of one of Nova's generals - a wind-affine Sprite by the name of Bianca Anylekari - the Novean forces managed to secure more and more of Ringworld with the help of the Novean Adventists, and due to the Greater Angels' Divine Protection, the war was going downhill fast for Ilyfkilo.

It was only when the Archangel Lucifer betrayed Nova and bestowed upon the Original Species the secret of making Godslayers that the people of Ilyfkilo were able to turn the war around. This betrayal enraged the Goddess Nova, causing her to execute Lucifer's entire caste, and also make some rather costly moves in order to capture and execute Lucifer himself.

This event managed to turn the war around, as the people of Ceal now had an - admittedly rather costly - means of defeating the Greater Angels. Also, the rash acts performed by the Goddess Nova in her fury were turned into propaganda material to depict her as a cruel goddess of destruction, causing a massive drop in followers among the Novean Adventists.

The War in the Heavens came to a close as the Goddess Nova took to the field herself, and was for the first time in the First Novean War actually wounded by a massive Godslayer weapon built on Ringworld. However, what should have been a glorious triumph for the people of Ilyfkilo soon turned into a grievous calamity, as the Goddess Nova - defeated and enraged - abandoned the notion of conquering Ringworld altogether, and instead unleashed an incredibly powerful Minayero attack that rent space and time, cut right through the otherwise indestructible Creatanium of Skytower Fleto, and caused the permanent anomaly that is now known as Sky's Tear.

Even as Nova retreated to Feera to recover, the aftermath of her attack spread through the structure of Ringworld like cancer, rotting away the integrity of the Creatanium, and causing all of Ringworld to disintegrate within a manner of days. Although no efforts were spared to evacuate Ringworld, the time was to short, the number of people stranded too big, and the capacities for orbital transport too small to save the majority of people there. Furthermore, a good number of fragments of Ringworld rained down on Ceal, causing widespread destruction, while others flew off into space. A considerable portion remained in orbit, however, and eventually formed the Ring Ruins.

## Part 3 ~ The Battle for Ceal

The final phase of the First Novean War was fought all over Ceal itself. It started with another long calm brought about by the Goddess Nova having to recover from her wounds and the exertions of her divine assault. In fact, the calm lasted long enough for the nations of Ceal to not only fortify their defenses, but also for the Republic of Cetara to launch a counter-offensive against Feera, intending to take out Nova and end the war in one decisive move.

However, in doing so they had fallen into a ruse employed by Nova, who had intended to lure away the forces of Ceal and while the Cetaran strike force was being kept busy on the far side of Feera, she and her Archangels launched a well-coordinated attack on the now undefended Cetaran territories, and managed to secure the continents of Pelagia, Rida, Zelsia, as well as the Jel-Archipelago.

Still furious about her defeat on Ringworld, Nova set out to purge the lands she held of all Original Species, intent on settling them exclusively with her own Novean Species. This ruthless approach, however, started turning even members of the Novean Species - who had by now been alive long enough to develop distinct personalities - to turn against her, and while none dared defy the Goddess openly, ever since then there was a trickling stream of Noveans that quietly fled into the hills and forests, carving out little refugees of their own within a war-plagued world.

The heroes of the Advent War Chronicles - who had accompanied the Cetaran strike force to Feera and played a key role in resolving the stalemate there relatively quickly - eventually returned to find the world of Ceal being consumed by the flames of war fire. They did their best to beat back the Novean forces where they could, and on one such occasion by chance came across a refuge of those Noveans that had turned their backs on the Goddess. Though reactions were mixed, it was eventually agreed by the people of Ceal that this was a great opportunity for them, and from then on out, members of the Novean Species - which until then had generally been perceived as a particularly smart kind of Angel - were not only shown mercy, but also actively encouraged to defect from Nova's side.

Before long, the Goddess found herself losing followers left and right, and in retaliation unleashed another divine assault: A sort of Iserial EMP that destroyed almost all Iserial Programs and Iserial Crystals on Ceal, which at that time were a cornerstone of civilization, especially to the Cetarans. This gave the Novean forces, which relied mostly on their natural abilities, a great advantage, and directly or indirectly resulted in the largest amount of civilian casualties the war had seen until then.

However, by then, even a number of Nova's most trusted followers had already joined the people of Ceal, including Bianca Anylekari, as well as Pegasus, another of her Archangels. While Nova retreated to Feera to recuperate from her second divine assault, the heroes of the Advent War Chronicle defeated the remaining Archangels in the floating castle of Clyainlero, and then followed her all the way to her palace of Minayeiranro on Feera, where after a climatic battle they managed to seal her away within the Crystal Seal, thus marking the official end of the First Novean War.