The Facsimiles

The Facsimiles are a collective name for 201 worlds that were put into place by The Great Creator at the dawn of time, which were worlds produced in likeness of a world known as The Archetype. Their exact purpose was unknown beyond that these worlds grew and developed in 202 different ways, with different types of inhabitants, biomes, civilizations, flora, fauna, and more appearing on each star in different ways to the point where they were all unique within a few centuries. The overall aetheric balance and stability of these worlds plays a pivotal role in *The Crest of Zabutur*, with the sundering of some of these different worlds triggering new Ages and eras. While no one is sure what happens if all of the Facsimiles are destroyed, no one alive imagines that the outcome can be good in any way—and with only four facsimiles remaining by the time of The Crest of Zabutur, the inhabitants of these remaining worlds are doing what they can to forestall their own destruction.

## Significance in Timekeeping

Each Facsimile has its own aetheric stability or balance, with aspects inclined towards the different Elements to give the world its diversity both in geography and lifeforms. However, when this balance moves significantly enough, it can disrupt the often delicate ebb and flow of aether and can cause significant damage and disruption to the world in question. If it is able to be significantly corrected before too much damage can be done, the affected star may be able to right itself, but if it is allowed to worsen, the very planet could unravel and disintegrate into a supernova type burst of aether. The appearance of one of these supernovae in the skies is an astronomical event that heralds the dawn of a new Age, and since they often light up the sky similar to massive stars exploding, sometimes these facsimiles are referred to as "Stars".

## The Archetype

The world determined as The Archetype, also well-known as Kalmora, is the original source world from which the Facsimiles were created. The Great Creator is said to watch primarily over this world, with it being His original creation. Many different races and peoples live here and have adventures that are covered in *The Tales of Kalmora,* and is an integral part of the Jalenga's history as well. Kalmora is home to a myriad of different races, some of which carry parallels to the Serenza races of Mencu. Most notably, a slightly more "tested" form of Kumenza exist there, known locally as the Kalesh. Kalmora is also the original homeworld for The Mavericks: Kada, Zoroka, and Aveline, although they are not the only characters to have traversed multiple worlds.

The Archetype differs from the Facsimiles insomuch that its overall stability and balance does not hang in jeopardy. It is believed that the very world is connected to the existence of The Great Creator, and thus as long as that entity exists, Kalmora will never dissipate the way many of the Facsimiles have. While it is not without its problems and its aetheric balance is not always perfect, it is believed to be under the protection of The Great Creator, even if there are some Facsimiles that have stronger stability than it.

## Notable Facsimiles

The events of The Crest of Zabutur take place primarily in the 197th Age, and as such, most of the Facsimiles have already been dissipated or destroyed. However, a few that remain or that have not been lost to recent memory stand as the most notable stars, and are well-known to immortal or other long-lived creatures such as deities or Jalenga.

### The 5th Star

The 5th Star, also known as Tokorima, is one of the four worlds that has survived with The Archetype into the 197th Age. It is a lush and green world populated with treacherously dense forest and jungle growth that covers the land like moss on rock, and the oceans are similarly full of aquatic plants even at daunting depths. The inhabitants are primarily smaller humanoid individuals with feathered wings not unlike the Serenghe on Mencu or the Linghun of Kalmora, although they come in far more varieties. It is also the ancestral home of the Tzengua.

Because of the abundance of resources, the inhabitants have to be just as aggressive against nature as it is against them to keep their cities from being overgrown and reclaimed by the fierce flora of the star. The largest city in Tokorima is an enormous multi-layered megalopolis known as Kadanas-Fe. Interestingly enough, this city and its suburbs inhabit the same area that the Sayenzi Greatwood covers on Mencu. While the flora of this world does seem to be an ever-looming threat, the overall aetheric stability of The 5th Star remains high, and thus is in little imminent danger of collapse as far as anyone can foresee.

### The 52nd Star

*Main Article: Mencu*
The 52nd Star, better known as Mencu, is the primary setting of the *The Crest of Zabutur* series. A notorious bastion of aetheric stability, the world has attracted a great many forces from other worlds, including the Jalenga, various deities, and even otherworldly invaders with far more malicious intent than the Jalenga. This aether-dense world is believed to have lasted well into the 197th Age because of its stability and because of the resilience of its versatile inhabitants, although with how many different pivotal events have occurred during this unusually long age, some believe that Mencu was primed to become the star that would unravel and trigger the 198th Age. However, if this is to be the case, none of the inhabitants seem keen on allowing it to happen, nor does the star show any sign of faltering.

The inhabitants of Mencu are vast and diverse, and many of these differences have led to conflict, making Mencu a very war-prone world. In spite of this, it maintains a certain balance both aetherically and culturally, with different peoples and societies ebbing and flowing over the years. It is also home to the largest population of Zaderei out of any facsimile or the Archetype, which is believed to be an unintentional contributing factor to the resilience of the world as a whole.

Mencu's notorious aetheric stability rivals that of The Archetype, and it has been an immensely popular world for visitors and interlopers from other stars and facsimiles. It became a particular hotspot for the Inzochal after the 195th Age, and was always an immensely popular subject of research for the Jalenga, who appeared so frequently on this world that many were considered locals or even natives. With a rare few inhabitants from other recently shattered worlds, its diversity has only increased over the Ages.

### The 93rd Star

The 93rd Star, known to many as Kulak-Fe, was one of "The Five Citadels", five facsimile worlds thought to be so stable as to be inexorable. For millennia it was, and its destruction was over 6400 years after the previous supernova, making the 196th Age one of the longest Ages in history. Commonly described as as having a "colorful breezy atmosphere", its primary inhabitants were humanoids like most other facsimiles, although it also hosted floating cities and many of the dominant races had wings or could float, fly, or otherwise levitate in different ways. Some of these locales were heavily researched by the early Jalenga, who were able to construct floating cities on other worlds as well.

The 93rd was a popular refuge for the Jalenga after the destruction of their home world, although once the elemental attunement of the world's aether began tilting dramatically towards Air, dangerous winds began to threaten the stability of the world and the Jalenga were blamed for causing this instability upon their arrival. This was exacerbated by the Great Jalenga War that had occurred on Mencu in the previous age, after which the Jalenga had been expelled from Mencu for several centuries. However, the Jalenga on the 93rd worked tirelessly to save what they could of their new home, with nearly all of them converging on this world to try and rebalance the aether and extend the star's lifespan. They managed to add another 200 or so years to the star's lifespan, but ultimately their efforts failed, and they along with all but a very select few individuals were erased as Kulak-Fe unravelled and dissipated.

### The 102nd Star

The 102nd Star, historically remembered as Kuzinak, was the historic home of the Inzochal before it was consumed in flames in an event that heralded the 195th Age. Little is remembered of the world before its destruction save that it was noticably hotter than most of the other remaining Facsimiles. This knowledge makes its destruction—an aetheric tilt towards fire—much less of a surprise. While Kuzinak hosted plenty of Jalenga like many of the facsimile worlds did, they were not the culprits of the star's destruction; rather it was attributed to the excessive use of fire magic, which many of its inhabitants excelled in. Prior to its destruction, however, some of the Jalenga utilized their world-travel technology to help rescue some of the long-lived Inzochal from their crumbling world.

While most of them fled to The Archetype, other destinations included Sayenzi-Jorgomna, Mencu, and Kulak-Fe. The elemental slants of Sepher, Zurado-Kura, and Tokrima were not to their liking, and thus these worlds received no Kuzinaki refugees. Similarly, the Jalenga helped save a small number of individuals from other races, most notably elves and dark elves. While the Inzochal still exist due to their longevity, the elves and dark elves that were brought over have long since passed away, and their descendants have intermingled primarily among Mencu's Shinzoka and Kumenza.

### The 148th Star

The 148th Star, generally referred to as Sepher, is a world with an aetheric slant towards water, resulting in a more humid setting and much higher sea levels. Highlands and mountainous regions are still high and dry, but at least 40% of the landmasses that are not beneath the waves on other worlds are under shallow seas on Sepher. The inhabitants have also adjusted and evolved accordingly, with most of the dominant races being reptilian and/or amphibious, not unlike Mencu's Madizi in their Stage 1 or 2 transformed states. The four most prominent species include the coastal Samaliens, the highland Zolons, the oceanic Bokalians, and the reptilian Morlaxes. All four of these civilizations are host to people who can breathe underwater, enabling massive underwater empires built not only in the shallow seas, but also to resist some of the pressure of the darker depths.

Most sentient races and species that could not adapt to a more water-aspected lifestyle have since died out or retreated to higher ground, although with the more robust and versatile Zolons in the highlands and the similar Samaliens in the lowlands, their competition has been fierce, and according to many recent records from the 148th, these races have since gone extinct. Despite this, most of the remaining dominant civilizations on Sepher were not very warlike, and so the decline of other species was more of a result of natural selection. In spite of its aetheric tilt towards water, Sepher appears to be a very stable world, still unquestioned even after the destruction of Kulak-Fe.

### The 197th Star

The 197th Star, notoriously named Zurado-Kura, is a world shrouded in darkness, an aetherical tilt it has held for millennia. The initial slant happened so long ago that many scholars of the day predicted that the 197th Star would be the one for ushering in the 38th Age. It has since outlasted 159 other Facsimiles, and is one of four that still remain as of the 197th Age. It is cloaked in an eternal night, although heat signatures and even seasonal cycles still occur. Incidentally, many of the races on Zurado-Kura evolved similar to the ones on Mencu, including a very wide presence of Zaderei. However, notable differences include an absence of parallel Todawa, parallel Arakos, and parallel Wakuda. The Zur, who are parallels of the Shinzoka of Mencu, are extremely rare and immortal entities who are entirely female, and as of the 197th Age, there are only 79 of them in existence, 35 of which are Zaderei, and 44 of which are not.

Since the event now only vaguely known as "The Final Sunset" occurred, many inhabitants of Zurado-Kura have evolved with some degree of night vision, bioluminescence, or both. Their consistent access to the night sky has put a lot of religious and cultural emphasis on the stars, and they are one of the only worlds that has a vast and almost universal awareness of the other Facsimiles. For numerous Ages this world has been a center of facsimile study, frequented by the Jalenga during their days of interplanar travel, among many others. Using patterns in the stars as well as knowledge gleaned from the Jalenga and a few interplanar Zur travellers, they have been able to correctly deduct almost every Age-triggering phenomenon since the 66th Age, as well as which Facsimile would be responsible for the event in question. As of the 196th Age when only "The Five Citadels" remained, they predicted the remaining ages based on stabilities of the remaining facsimiles. They were correct about The 93rd being the harbinger of the 197th Age, and should their remaining predictions come true, the harbinger of the 198th Age will be The 5th, the harbinger of the 199th Age will be The 197th, the harbinger of the 200th Age will be The 148th, and the harbinger of the 201st Age or perhaps the end of times, would be The 52nd.

### The 201st Star

*Main Article: Sayenzi-Jorgomna*
The 201st Star, infamously remembered as Sayenzi-Jorgomna, was the original homeworld of the world-travelling Jalenga, shapeshifting geneticists whose boundless inquisitive hubris led them to The Archetype and almost every other Facsimile as early as the 1st and 2nd Ages.

## Trivia

* Unlike the Kalesh of The Archetype, Nessa and Rozani are Kumenza in all but name. The name for the dark elves on Kulak-Fe was Kulzama.
* Monica and Moneta, like all other Inzochal, hail from the 102nd Star.
* While they are both technically dark elves, Nessa and Rozani both hail from the 93rd Star.
* That the 197th Facsimile survived into the 197th Age was entirely coincidental.