Poem of Ending

The Poems of Ending are artifacts created by particularly gifted Shardbearers for the purpose of neutralising extremely dangerous entities.

## Description

Poems of Ending are verses imbued with a Shardbearer's power, controlled through codes and phrases that are usually formatted in the style of a poem. These poems can be written on any object, item or life form, from nanoscopic devices on the scale of particles, to megastructures light years in size. A Poem of Ending is an extremely potent weapon, able to instantly erase entities without the specific defenses needed to resist them.

## History

The Poems of Ending originated during the middle of the Second Aeon War, when the Weave fought outside powers. During the conflict, a Transcended writer and a Shardbearer artist serving as commanders in the Aedentide's warship fleet forged a bond with one of their peers. The writer, Ulmun, fought alongside the Shardbearer Herendekar, whose battlegroups were both in the same fleet. Herendekar was particularly fond of poems and as a result often spent time reading his friend's pieces, while at others he brought their stories to life in stylised simulations. During lulls in the fighting, both would often contemplate retiring from the military together to pursue their passions.

The friendship between the two met a tragic end just before of the final battles of the war. Ulmun met her end by ego death at the hands of a warlord known as Kolven-Ra, who used an Opal Light to scour her mind after ambushing her before the battle. Ulmun was writing hundreds of works at the time of her ego death, leaving many of them unfinished mid-sentence. After she met her fate, Herendekar was left with her will. In the event that she met her untimely demise, she had prepared backups of her own memories for her friend, so that any works that she hadn't yet finished could be completed. In order to pay his respects to her, Herendekar first completed one of her ongoing works, a series of poems of her own life up to the point she fought in the Second Aeon War. Herendekar wrote an additional verse into the poem, based on Ulmun's memories of her service in the war up to her last moments.

Herendekar wrote this additional verse into a small ring, one that he would wear for the assault on Kolven-Ra's stronghold universe. For this purpose, he also imbued some the of Silence's presence into the verse from his Shard, using the words in them to direct the power in a way he saw fit.

Come the assault on Kolven-Ra's stronghold, Herendekar opens the battle by reading the verse from the ring. Activated by his voice, the verse targets Kolven-Ra with its power, ignoring or destroying all the defenses Ra had placed on his stronghold within his fortified universe. With the last word from the ring, Kolven-Ra was permanently erased from existence. The non-automated troops under Ra's command faltered at the death of their leader, retreating and fleeing from the fortress.

After the war, Herendekar tackled the rest of Ulmun's unfinished works in order to complete them. His ring was eventually given to one of Ulmun's former students, who wished to take up her legacy. It was during this time that Herendekar's tale became widespread, leading to many Shardbearers incorporating some manner of artistry into their work. Herendekar's example slowly solidified into a tradition for powerful Shardbearers, who mixed verses of poems into items and devices that have been integrated with their power to create more Poems of Ending.

## Mechanism

Poems of Ending are created when a Shardbearer imbues some of The Silence's presence into an item or device, using verses of a poem to direct the power. The verses of the poem act as instructions and parameters for the Poem of Ending's targeting and activation, granting it precision in its action and execution of the target. Once activated, the Poem follows its instructions to target the entity it has been assigned to, be it something physical, intangible or metaphysical in nature. Poems vary in power and magnitude depending on how much presence the Silence has in the verses; a small presence is usually reserved for the killing of smaller physical entities, while vast presences could be used to permanently erase concepts from a reality or even a multiverse. The Poem acts in the same manner as that of the Silence, forcing and enacting the concept of death and erasure on whatever it is targeting to ensure its permanent end.