This work is a piece of historical fiction. While inspired by real events, cultures, and practices in human history, the story blends factual history with fictional characters, dramatizations, and creative interpretation.
It is not intended to promote, glorify, or encourage any illegal activities, substance use, or harmful behavior. All depictions of sensitive topics are included solely for narrative and historical context.
Reader discretion is advised.
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The Ark.
~514 BE (Before Emergence) ~ 1509 CE (Current Era).
While the war was running rampant in the Isthmus and the Judges' Council debated about roping in powerful variants for assistance, in The Ark, Aragorn was visiting Sarah Rogers, daughter of Margaret Carter and Steve Rogers—
The Goddess of Dragons and Bonds of the Drachantheon Therion.
Aragorn walked through a long, winding, hard-light bridge that connected a lone mountain—serving as the Rogers family's residence in The Ark—with the main ridge. Aragorn had called it the Lonely Mountain a few years after he handed The Ark to Emma, and the name was popularly accepted millennia later.
Aside from their rooms in Halo and their respective star systems, all Therions owned a residence in The Ark, which was considered the political center of the Fulgebunt Draconis Imperium.
While teleportation, warping, spatial omission, and countless other methods of instant transportation were available to Aragorn, he walked the long hard-light construct to enjoy the view.
The Ark was a marvel to gaze at, with its flower-like concave petals—nominally called wings—its eight satellite planets orbiting in the direction of each petal tip (two more had been added to the original six), and six stars arranged in a gravitational matrix. The Ark and its planets formed an incalculably complex array, all while ensuring a 24-hour day cycle.
The hard-light bridge Aragorn was treading connected the peak of the last mountain in a ridge to the lone mountain that housed the Rogers. Since the bridge connected both peaks, it offered a view as if he were walking through the clouds.
Behind Aragorn, multiple dragon eggs floated, following him. They came in different shell colorations but were all about the same size and had similar texture patterns.
A few hours later, after Aragorn had had his fill of the view, he arrived at the Rogers residence.
Contrary to the opulence customary in divine social circles, it was not exactly a mansion worthy of a family of deities that awaited him; if anything, it looked like a large American home in the suburbs.
KnockKnock
Aragorn knocked on the door, though it was unnecessary, given that the family of psychics must have felt his presence nearing.
Soon, Margaret opened the door. "Aragorn, how peculiar to have you visit our home," she greeted with a bright smile and opened her arms, asking for a hug.
Aragorn complied eagerly, hugged her tightly, and said, "You know, Margaret, this is the only door I've knocked on in millions of years."
"I think that has to be some type of achievement, right?" Margaret jokingly quipped. "'Get the eldritch terror to knock on your door,' or something like that."
"Maybe. I should invent an Achievements Subsystem when I have the time," Aragorn said.
"I bet the cat will love it," Margaret said. "Come on in. I believe you're here for Sarah, right?"
"Yes, I've come bearing gifts for the hatchling," Aragorn gestured to the dragon eggs floating behind him.
"Hey!" a voice shouted from further inside the house. "I've heard that! I even have a child, I'm no hatchling. I've long graduated from that nickname."
"Hmph! When you reach your first billion years, I'll consider stopping with the hatchling nickname," Aragorn shouted back.
"Agh! Grandfather, you're impossibly old. That's not fair," Sarah protested.
Eventually, Aragorn made it to the living room where Sarah was plumped on a bean bag—the preferred seating of the Drachantheon Therion. The living room, similar to the house, seemed fairly mundane, leaving aside certain high-tech devices.
"My Self traveling the Omniverse encountered some wyverns. They were draconic enough, so here we are." Aragorn floated the eggs to the seated form of Sarah. "I already modified and adapted their biology to our Multiverse. Jean breathed life into them, so you might want to thank the Firebird when you get the chance."
Sarah grabbed the eggs with her telekinesis and pulled them closer for inspection with a wide smile. "My divinity is definitely recognizing them as dragons," she said, her tone cheery.
"Mmmmm," Sarah concentrated a drop of her divinity and blessed each egg. "Thank you, Grandfather," she beamed. "I love them. I'll make sure to populate one of my planets with these little guys."
"That's great," Aragorn grinned approvingly. "My draconic empire has a grand total of four dragons: your mom, you, your son, and Noona—and the last one is a dragoness in name only. These have been shameful times," he dramatically lamented.
"Grandfather, so dramatic," Sarah shook her head while hugging the eggs tenderly.
"It's obviously shameful, a draconic empire with barely any dragons." Aragorn continued his lamentations. "By the way, where are the males of your family?"
As Aragorn had pointed out, Steve Rogers, Vladarion Draconisphilius, and Plutusdrakon Draconisphilius were missing.
Margaret, walking into the living room with a tray of beverages floating behind her, said, "Near one of our borders. We discovered a rogue giant planet on a collision path with one of our shared garden planets. The boys are handling it."
With Steve and Margaret sharing the divine field of Protection, they decided that it was best to rule over a star system conjointly. Sarah and Vladarion, being married, also chose to rule over a star system together. Finally, Plutusdrakon, as the God of Undergrounds, chose to claim the undergrounds of both his parents' and grandparents' worlds.
Since they had chosen such a close form of governance, they asked Aragorn for help in setting up two neighboring star systems, which was normally not possible since the stars would pull each other and eventually become a simple binary star system—or collide.
With help from a few Duskari planetary system dynamics engineers—an actual career in the Imperium—and Aragorn's psychokinesis to drag and set stars in the needed orbital paths and planar locations, two star systems were created with their planets orbiting each star and a few shared planets located in the outer orbits. These orbits were shaped like infinity symbols, since the planets in them moved from one star to the other.
In this case, Margaret was referring to one of these shared planets, with a rogue giant planet apparently set on a collision course with it.
"Ah, yeah, that's a pain in the ass to deal with," Aragorn nodded in understanding. "Are they destroying it, or do they plan to correct its course?"
"It was too big to destroy," Sarah replied. "The debris would have been too numerous, and some would have carried the momentum of the collision course."
"Yeah, that's why dealing with rogue planets can be a pain," Aragorn said. "So are they trying to integrate the planet into orbit around your stars, or do they wish to veer it off course to make it miss your worlds?"
"The former," Margaret replied. "We found traces of vibranium on its surface, probably thanks to meteorite collisions. There are also some other rare heavy metals, so we have a good portion of the Imperium working on changing its trajectory and gravitationally locking it to our stars."
"That's ambitious. How long will it take?" Aragorn asked.
"There are multiple corrections that will be needed throughout 167 years, but the main changes in inertia and momentum will be done in 38 years," Sarah replied.
"Is the planet worth that much? I thought the kids were already working on elemental recombination. Can't they transmute vibranium yet?" Aragorn asked.
"They did achieve that milestone about 80 years ago," Margaret boasted. She was proud of it because it was an achievement reached on one of her planets by a team of Duskari who majorly worshipped her family.
"But it's still cheaper to mine vibranium than to transmute it," Sarah explained.
Aragorn nodded at the explanation.
"By the way, are you staying for dinner?" Margaret asked.
"Sure, why not?" Aragorn beamed. "It's not like anything will change in the war with the Duskari pulling their punches so blatantly."
While Aragorn was sharing quality time with the Rogers women, recounting the origin of the dragons while also sharing information about the Multiverses he and Phoenix had visited, the Judges' Council was debating an idea that could potentially change how they went about the war, which was starting to resemble an uphill marathon.
"What other option do we have?" Judge Renslayer asked her peers. "We were able to analyze—based on Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) dating cross-referenced with Uranium-series dating (U-Th) on enamel found in teeth from the few burial sites and caves before the cleansings began—that this kingdom is about as old as humanity itself.
"We found evidence of societal organization dating to more than a hundred thousand years ago. You both know what this means. For all we know, they are tethering between Type II and Type III civilizations, with the only difference being that they focus more on an extradimensional approach rather than a stellar one.
"Instead of finding a capital city at the center of this zone of variation, a dimensional portal to their realm might be awaiting us. Nigh-unlimited resources—that's what we might be dealing with," Judge Renslayer looked into the eyes of her peers to convey how dreadful that could be. "This war, it might not even be a war to them. Maybe they are just using this clash as a weapons exercise."
Judge Gamble and Dox shared uneasy glances. Judge Renslayer was not introducing new evidence to the case; they all knew very well that she was speaking of known and corroborated facts. Yet, the solution she proposed went against the very notion of the TVA.
The TVA extricated time variants; it didn't introduce them—especially not to the Sacred Timeline, of all things.
"Would the variants bring about the change in impetus we need?" Judge Gamble asked. "If they are about as advanced as we fear, then what will the variants be able to achieve?"
"Currently, the enemy has us beaten in various sectors: aetheric (magical) warfare, psionics, unitary strength, and technological dynamics," Judge Dox said. "We can infer that the enemies are all enhanced—similarly to how a supersoldier is. Aetheric warfare is second nature to them, yet we haven't spotted the more advanced conceptual spells, like those of the Sorcerers Supreme.
"There's the psionic field that we haven't been able to disperse, which is what we suspect is their preferred method of information gathering. Finally, their tech. I assume you're suggesting we bring experts in these fields, right?" she asked Judge Renslayer.
"Exactly," she nodded and projected the profiles of the variants she had in mind. "Bringing a Sorcerer Supreme is not advised, since they could jump dimensions and escape our grasp, but Loki variants should be acceptable.
"To bridge the gap in strength, supersoldier variants ranging from Steven Grant Rogers to Robert Bruce Banner should be our priority. Currently, five to seven Minutemen are needed to deal with a single enemy, technology aside.
"For the technology problem, Stark variants should do." With that, she finished her exposition.
"Won't the Stark variants pose a similar risk to the Sorcerer Supreme variants?" Judge Gamble asked.
"Instead of using only the standard choker for prisoners, we could try more invasive measures," Judge Dox suggested.
"That, and we can also cordon off the areas around the outer faces of the walls," Judge Renslayer added. "So long as their only path is forward to the enemy, it won't matter if they attempt to escape our control."
After much deliberation, Judge Gamble finally said, "It's feasible. There are many precautions to be taken, but this may grant us the advantage needed to finally put an end to the Timekeepers' enemy."
The inclusion of the variants in the war didn't start at once. With many technicalities that needed to be sorted out first and the approval of Miss Minutes pending, it wasn't until a year later that the first variants were included in the war.
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Life tends to favor the powerful. That has been my experience with life ever since I can remember.
My father was a powerful man. He built his empire over the corpses of millions fallen to his weapons during the Second World War.
Being an arms dealer—a merchant of death—during a World War grants you advantages that others can't afford. Your weapons are needed, your business is prioritized, and your words carry weight. That's power.
My father's power could be quantified in the billions of dollars. And as his son, that power was mine to wield.
He wasn't very happy about that, but so what? It's not like he had any say in it. Offspring are the replacements of the progenitors. My father was his father's replacement, I was my father's, and if I ever have children, they shall be my replacement... Ha! At least they can try.
During my youthful days, my parents passed away in a car accident. Such is the frailty of life.
I was too young to take the reins of my father's power, according to the law, so I allowed Obadiah Stane to wield my power in the meantime.
However, I was no fool. I knew about the transformation humans experience after having a taste of power. I knew, since the moment I saw that man next to my father, that he had gotten a taste of it.
So, while that man wielded my power, I prepared myself for when the time for my power to return to my rightful hands would arrive.
I studied everything I believed would be beneficial for wielding my power: economics, business administration, the top 10 most important languages, finance and accounting, law, engineering in more than 20 different fields, physics, and more. My studies extended even to more bodily fields like many martial arts and weaponry handling.
When I turned 21, it was time for my power to return, but, just as expected, I found greed, resentment, reluctance, and even murderous intent in that man's eyes.
Bah! Such an idiot!
Oh, how much fun I had when he pleaded for his life under my feet!
The idiot even dared to use his Stark Industries-owned computer to contact a group of third-world-country terrorists. Sometimes I wonder how he even managed to run my company in the absence of a brain.
With the idiot mysteriously disappearing, the board had no choice but to fall in line and swallow whatever idiotic complaints they had.
Fools! It's called S-T-A-R-K Industries for a reason! Unless their birth last names were Stark, all they were expected to do was follow me like the dogs they were.
With me at its head, and the board under my feet, Stark Industries grew into something my father couldn't even dream about.
About a decade later, I had a stake in every economy of the world. I controlled entire sectors and even countries. But it wasn't enough.
No! I wanted something as grand as me!
So, to ensure the planet fell to my domination, I started World War III.
Stark Industries was born from World War II; Stark Industries would ascend in World War III. This was logical, obvious, a divine decree.
And like so, it came to be!
After a decades-long war, Stark Industries publicly and behind the scenes controlled the world.
But it wasn't enough!
No! I didn't want to settle for being the god of Earth! I wanted more!
So, I took control of the Tesseract, studied it, discovered there was an order of sorcerers outside my regime, sieged the order of sorcerers under my control with the assistance of my new line of Tesseract weapons, got my hands on a green stone of similar energy signature to the Tesseract, studied the Time Stone, and then uplifted humanity.
The Solaris Stark Empire was born.
Now, this was grand—still not up to par with me, but it was a start.
I continued expanding my empire, and 500 years later, I controlled most of the Milky Way. And just when I was about to move onto Andromeda, my timeline was erased and I was abducted by the TVA at just the moment after I tortured and killed Obadiah Stane.
The only reason I even knew this happened—that this was going to be my glorious future—was that my future sent me his memories through the power of the Time, Space, Mind, Soul, and Power Stones before the Temporal Reinstatement erased him.
Fuck the TVA! I was so close to getting a clue of the location of the last Infinity Stone, they had to fuck it all up.
And now, they have the gall to tell me they'll spare my life if I assist them in bringing down some thorn in their heel. It's obvious what my answer will be.
"Of course, plebeians, I'm willing to assist. The Sacred Timeline must not be disturbed!" I nodded enthusiastically.
I can't exactly remove all the countermeasures I'm sure they implanted in my body while I was unconscious without tools, can I?
After I get my hands on some instruments...
I brought humanity to the stars. What's gonna stop me from destroying the organization that only succeeded in dealing with future me by jumping present me?
Or even better, what's gonna stop me from joining hands with this enemy?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! FOOLS! They dared to stand in the way of Emperor Stark!
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By the second half of 1510, the advance of the TVA was not what it once was. Their approach to the enemy's technology had changed. They began bringing back pieces and scrap of tech left behind to Emperor Stark.
From the pieces collected, Emperor Stark began to work on extrapolating and drawing possible technological paths the Duskari may have taken. With this information, the TVA began to plan instead of react to the shifts in the Duskari armament.
Just like how humanity's technological path went from stone → metals → combustible fuels → electricity → Arc Reactor and beyond, Emperor Stark was able to approximate the Duskari's path with astonishing precision.
"At some point, they'll start wielding gravity as their weapon," Emperor Stark explained to the Judges' Council.
"How certain are you of this conjecture?" Judge Gamble asked.
"My certainty is not something a plebeian like you can measure, but in the hopes of enlightening the less evolved, I'd say about 85%," Emperor Stark replied with contempt.
Yet, none of the Judges batted an eye at it. They were used to it, and so far, despite his boastful and arrogant words, he had delivered. The Minutemen, Hunters, and even the Judges themselves could see it. They were no longer being bullied by their enemy.
"Also, there have been some irregularities detected in their tech," Emperor Stark added.
"What type of irregularities?" Judge Renslayer asked.
"Jumps, skips, and dashes in their advancements. The type usually found when a more advanced civilization assists a lesser one," Emperor Stark said.
He had seen such examples multiple times when his future self brought up to par newly conquered civilizations.
"We've suspected for a while that there's an unseen hand behind them," Judge Dox said.
"I suggest you allow me to develop a weapon capable of dealing with the shielding protecting their cities. An explosion to kill them all continues to this day to be one of the most effective ways of dealing with an enemy," Emperor Stark suggested. "While at it, I could find a way to pierce through the interdimensional phasing that protects those obelisks."
"What do you need?" Judge Gamble asked, interested in the idea.
"Access to on-site analysis of the shields and the obelisks," Emperor Stark said.
"Granted," Judge Gamble approved.
She was not afraid he could escape; they trusted their countermeasures that much. After all, on paper, this was a Stark variant from the time before he even became Iron Man. This was supposed to be a variant that became one because he killed Obadiah Stane preemptively... on paper, that is.
With the addition of Emperor Stark, and after acknowledging the results he delivered, the Judges became more emboldened to bring forth more variants.
Black Widow, Nicholas Fury, and Hawkeye variants were added to supplement the squads tasked with reconnaissance and other stealth-strong operations.
Steven Rogers, James Barnes, Johann Schmidt, Isaiah Bradley, Alexei Shostakov, Peggy Carter, and big hitters like Emil Blonsky, Bruce Banner, Jennifer Walters, and Thaddeus Ross variants were brought into the mix.
The Duskari, in response, did what they had always done so far—they went to the next technological level; though this time, they were not that pleased with the TVA's reaction.
The Duskari had no interest in the war beyond the point of testing weapons and acquiring tech, so they were happy with the way things were. But now, with exceptions mixed within the Minutemen? It was complicated to track empirical data when the dummies were exceptions.
They couldn't measure the lethality of a weapon when the dummy was a gamma-enhanced supersoldier. How many of those would they come across in their lives? What if the lethality is increased to match the gamma-mutates and they end up unnecessarily bloating the production costs?
The same went for regular supersoldiers. Not all supersoldiers were enhanced with the same formula, which meant that not all of them would have the same reaction to the same weapon or strategy.
Still, the Duskari did not yet pull the plug on the game. They noticed that the TVA was playing better cards than in the past years. They adapted faster, came up with new plays, attacked, defended, and overall performed better in this game called war.
And while the war grew more intense, Aragorn had to take a pause in his role as an observer to intervene with a little problem that would have negatively affected the Sacred Timeline.
The year was 1513, and historically, three years before that, the first permanent Spanish settlements should have been established in Central America—Panama, to be precise—but given that Panama, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua had disappeared from history after the Isthmus was claimed by the Imperium, this never happened.
With the obfuscation field—which appeared as a dome of heavy fog in mortal eyes—the shield restricting access and exit to the Isthmus, and no settlement to help the Spaniards, it was impossible for the conquistadores to even dream about making it to the Pacific side of the continent.
This was important because around 1507, the idea that the New World was not the east of Asia was beginning to take shape, yet it had not solidified. However, in 1513, Vasco Núñez de Balboa, a Spanish explorer and conquistador, was supposed to make it to the Pacific Ocean and claim its American coast in the name of the Spanish Crown. His discovery would have given substance to the idea that America was a new continent.
Yet, now this would be delayed.
Aragorn donned his Aquila cloak with shimmering stars and jumped to the border between the Isthmus and what would later be known as Colombia—specifically to an estuary that originally held little historical importance that would be known as Bocas del Atrato.
(This was the very artistic map I had provided of the Isthmus.)
(This is where Bocas del Atrato is located.)
He had guided the vessel carrying Vasco Núñez de Balboa to this estuary by controlling the currents and winds. Now, as the conquistador beached in a small oar boat, Aragorn stood there nonchalantly on the shore awaiting them.
This was the first time he had been seen since the discovery of the Libralisk. So while it was a period worth a few generations of humans, it wasn't that long, so it was only natural that Vasco recognized him. After all, there were plenty of portraits of his likeness.
"A-Apostle Aquila, this is an honor for one as humble—may the Lord bless this day, it's such an auspicious event for me and my men," Vasco frantically said.
It was not a strange reaction, since Aragorn, under his Aquila mantle, had been nothing but a walking dispenser of blessings to the humans. So in their minds: Aquila = Fortune/Blessings.
"May you receive the blessings of the one you worship, Conquistador," Aragorn said in a detached tone that was classic to him in the eyes of the mortals. "I've come to give you guidance."
"This can't be, ah! Such a blessing! Meeting one of such high esteem—AH! This is something even beyond their royal majesties. What can this be but godsent?"
Vasco was a normal human, and this was the reaction expected from a normal human at meeting a figure of such importance as Aquila. Hence, it took a moment for the conquistador to calm down and process Aragorn's words.
"Now that you've calmed down, we can continue," Aragorn said.
"Yes, Aquila," Vasco replied, almost like a Boy Scout.
"There's an empire I created behind the fog," Aragorn pointed to his left, where in the eyes of the humans was a fog wall; in his eyes, Death's scale was not so far. "Currently, there's a war being waged on a scale that is hard to understand for you."
"A war, you say? But Aquila, no matter the scale, you just need to say the word, and the entire world will come to your assistance," Vasco said, confused.
He wasn't wrong—no matter the culture, nation, faith, or barriers between them, if Aquila/Akila/A'Heelah/Achilla were to sound the war bell, all the human world would march to battle.
Not only do they feel like they owe him that much, but the thoughts of the rewards that could possibly come from him... well, even immortality wouldn't surprise them.
"Do you remember the bright flash that illuminated the night sky a few years ago?" Aragorn asked.
"Yes, Aquila," Vasco nodded. So did his men standing behind him.
"That was the result of an explosion," Aragorn revealed.
"A-Aquila, an explosion?" Vasco opened his eyes wide.
"I saw it from Port of Palos, in Andalusia."
"Yeah, from across the entire ocean."
"How much black powder was needed for such an explosion?"
"Is there even enough black powder for that?"
Vasco's men shared his astonishment and shock.
"Like I said, it's a scale of war that you won't comprehend," Aragorn patiently said. "I'm here to guide you across this stretch of land."
"A stretch of land?" Vasco asked, the wording catching his attention.
"There have been some talks about it, but you will carry back to the Old Continent the proof of it," Aragorn nodded. "This is a new continent, not the eastern coast of Asia."
"The New World?!" Vasco exclaimed. Aragorn nodded.
"There are a few things I want to explain about this continent, and you'll be the carrier of my message," Aragorn said.
Before beginning the journey across the stretch of land towards the Pacific Ocean, the Spaniards would need to assemble and build the first permanent settlement. Aragorn decided to assist them in that endeavor.
Due to the proximity of Bocas del Atrato to the Southern Scale, this soon-to-be port settlement would grow into an important population center.
He was still not quite sure about granting terrestrial pass to the Isthmus, and there was the chance that he might seal the entrances he created in both walls for the TVA afterward.
If both terrestrial passes were left open, then whatever settlements were built south and north of the Isthmus would most assuredly grow into metropolises with time.
But, even if the passes were closed and only maritime access through the Southern and Northern Canals was allowed, the settlements near the borders would still prosper, as they would in turn become the boarding points to take a ship to the Isthmus.
Thus, Aragorn decided to do the Spaniards a favor, and he began to 'terraform' the estuary and its coasts while creating the bases for a port. He didn't go as far as to use concrete and rebar; instead, he used stone given shape through molecular telekinesis and quite literally created the base for a city. The only thing left for the Spaniards to do was to build their houses with wood collected from the surrounding tropical jungle.
While they were at it, some of the local aborigines came into contact with the conquistadores.
"You should avoid the white people," Aragorn said while physically stopping the two cultures from approaching each other with a psionic wall.
"Ahuila, is there a reason for that?" the leader of the aborigines asked.
"You'll get ill," Aragorn cautioned. Smallpox was the bane of the Americans (as in people from the American continent of the era). "In fact, do me a favor and spread the word. The white people, to you, will be demons wearing human skin.
"They'll rape your women and children, enslave you, harm you for the sake of sadistic pleasure, curse you with their sickness, take your land, your riches, burn your cities, loot, steal, destroy your civilization and more.
"This is the end of your empires. This is the end of your era. If you're willing to part with your children, just shout my name and I'll take them with me. As for the rest of you... Weakness is life's sin, that's all I can say."
At the end of Aragorn's words, which were separately understood by both sides, the aborigines trembled in fear and dread while looking from Aragorn to the Spaniards and back.
They accepted Aragorn's counsel—Ahuila was to them as Aquila was to the Europeans—and sprinted in mad retreat into the jungle to spread the word.
"Aquila, was tha—"
"That was factual truth. In your hubris, you'll do what I just claimed and worse to these children. You have numbers, millennia of experience in warfare, the Church will turn a blind eye to it, and most importantly, you are greedy for their land and resources," Aragorn interrupted Vasco. "The same devils and demons you fear from the Bible—you'll be that to them. No need to deny your nature as humans, Conquistador."
His words exposed with unmistakable clarity what image Aragorn had of humanity, and yet, despite the pejorative words, they couldn't utter opposition or mount a defense.
As the settlement grew in size and neared completion, the activity its construction entailed drew the attention of the TVA's southern front.
"Initial scan showed a group of Conquistadores making to the estuary—nothing out of the ordinary—but the speed of their development caught my attention," one of the TVA's analysts said as she shared the results of her investigations. "They went from this:"
She showed an aerial view of the estuary before the conquistadores arrived.
"To this:"
She showed how the estuary now looked more like a port city without buildings. It was large in area, and even the estuary itself appeared to have been cleared and prepared to receive ships of a size that had yet to exist.
"Despite the obvious anomaly, the fluctuation registered in the Sacred Timeline is on the positive scale," the analyst concluded.
"Positive?" Judge Gamble asked incredulously. "How is that possible? A settlement that should not have been is, with people who should not have been there being, and at a date that should not be happening, yet there's a positive effect?"
"The starting hypothesis was assumed to be an error on the equipment," the analyst agreed with Judge Gamble's surprise. "However, after re-measuring with a new temporal divergence scanner and corroborating with the oracular caliper from the Null-Time Zone, it's undeniable that the effects of that spontaneous settlement are positive in the Aberration Index."
The judges exchanged looks before dismissing the analyst. Then, Judge Dox was the first to break the loaded silence the revelations of the analyst left behind. "Could it be the unseen hand behind them steering the Sacred Timeline?" she asked.
"Unseen is turning more and more into a fact written in stone," Judge Gamble muttered, dissatisfied with the fact that even through their best scanners, they weren't able to locate the origin of the settlement. "We should form a team with our elite and the most resilient variants to explore and carry out reconnaissance."
"The interaction of the said team with the locals could bring disastrous consequences to the Sacred Timeline," Judge Renslayer countered.
"While it's not standard procedure and repercussions are a very real possibility, we have no choice," Judge Dox said. "We lack information, and this is a chance to stop grasping at shadows and finally get a hold of the caster."
While Judge Renslayer was still not convinced, she couldn't refute the truth in her peers' claims.
The next day, a team composed of elite Hunters, Minutemen, Field Analysts, and a squad of Hulk variants for protection stepped out of a timedoor in the outskirts of the settlement.
Aragorn noticed them immediately—not because his All-Seeing eyes spotted them, not because they were caught in his psionic field, not because his soul fused with the planet noticed them, not because any of the countless automated enchantments he carries in his cloak for detection reacted to them—but simply because that instinct, sense, or cosmic perception that allowed beings like him and Death to understand how their actions could affect a predetermined result—like the Sacred Timeline—alerted him that something had changed in the timeline.
"Oh, what are these idiots doi—no, this is to be expected... I guess the fault lies in me for rushing to steer things in the desirable path without accounting for the reaction of the neighbors to the sudden generation of a settlement," Aragorn said.
Taking a step, he jumped space and appeared before the investigation team.
From the unremarkable TVA agents, he only recognized Mobius, but the variants accompanying them were, evidently, Hulks.
A Hulk was carrying an adamantium giant axe. His left arm was missing, and the wound appeared to have been seared shut. Normally, a Gamma-mutate would count on regeneration; however, this was a variant from an offshoot timeline of Earth-199999, which meant its origin was a weaker Hulk when compared to Hulks found in the multiverse.
Another Hulk appeared to be young and muscular—as if Bruce Banner were, in his base form, a teen obsessed with calisthenics. His body was not 'Hulky'; it was sculpted, as if every muscle in his body had been worked to perfection.
Then there was a Hulk with long greyish green hair, a stubble beard, and the undeniable gleam of intelligence behind his green eyes. This Hulk wore a tattered lab robe over scrubs, making him look like a doctor... A gamma-mutate doctor.
Lastly, there was a Hulk with a grey tint instead of green. Outwardly, he appeared to be the most unremarkable—aside from his difference in coloration—but this Hulk, in Aragorn's senses, seemed like the strongest of the present ones. About as strong as a soldier ant is to a worker one.
Aragorn's sudden appearance brought the squad to a halt. The combatants aimed with practiced ease at him, and the Hulks bristled in response to their instincts.
"What are you doing here?" Aragorn asked in the unemotive voice he used for strangers. "Shouldn't the organization tasked with protecting the Sacred Timeline know about the butterfly effect that their actions could cause by stepping into their quarry of protection?"
"ENEMY?" Axe Hulk asked, his voice loud, making the free stones on the ground tremble.
"Undoubtedly," replied Doctor Hulk.
"HULK ATTACK?" Athletic Hulk asked.
GROWWWWWL Grey Hulk's growl would have shaken the bowels of the TVA's agents, had it not been for their armor.
"Command, this is Alpha Seven Three Seven. Do you read? Over." The leader, with their weapons trained on Aragorn, contacted the TVA's control center.
-[Alpha Seven Three Seven, this is Control. Loud and clear. Report status. Over.]
"Command, we have visual of a possible hostile entity… it just manifested. Unidentified. Holding position, weapons hot. Over."
-[Standby, Alpha Seven Three Seven. Temporal visual confirmation pending. Can you ascertain hostile intent? Over.]
"Yes, I'm hostile," Aragorn interjected before the leader could reply. "But only within the walls of my territory." His tail pointed at the Isthmus. "At the moment, I just want you to return to the Null-Time Zone or go inside my walls where you won't mess up the timeline with your presence alone."
"..." The leader didn't know what to make of the situation. He wasn't alone in that—his men, and even the analysts, didn't know how to react.
"ENEMY!" Axe Hulk took what he considered pertinent from the conversation and reached the simplest conclusion. The only one that mattered.
"HULK ATTACK!" Athletic Hulk began drawing back a fist.
"I don't believe it's the time for that," Doctor Hulk said, trying to calm down his counterparts, even though he knew it was futile.
"RAAAAAAAAAAGHH!" Grey Hulk made a cry of attack before exploding forward in motion, his fist cocked back and his bloodshot eyes locked on Aragorn.
"Damn it! OPEN FIRE!" the leader shouted.
Yet, everything stopped. The Hulks, who were already mid-flight, froze, and the fingers ready to pull the triggers halted as well.
GROOOOOWL Grey Hulk struggled with his bindings. Athletic and Axe Hulk were no different.
"Return," Aragorn commanded while his gaze held the leader's.
"HULK... NO... STOPS!" Athletic Hulk roared in struggle.
"RAAAAAAGH!" Axe Hulk was no different.
"This is why I said I wanted us to calm down," Doctor Hulk said. "The psionic field blanketing the Isthmus appears to be projected from him." His glasses worked as a visual interface, and through them he was able to identify Aragorn as the origin.
"HULK NO STOPS!!!" Athletic Hulk howled in defiance.
"Noisy," Aragorn spoke with a coldness that froze everyone's spine.
From the eternal flame above him, three wisps of fire separated. The wisps grew brighter in intensity before floating above the immobile, loud Hulks.
With the swaying dance characteristic of flames, the wisps lowered slowly toward the Hulks.
Then, faster than their eyes or visual interfaces could process, the wisps consumed the Hulks to extinction.
"W-WHAT?!" Doctor Hulk shouted.
Aragorn gave him a threatening glare in response to the shout. It was written all over his face, 'are you being loud? Should I shut you up for eternity?'
"RETREAT!" With the little composure the leader had left, he ordered the retreat after opening a time door.
"Limit the war to the dome," Aragorn commanded calmly as they rushed to the timedoor, his words not only reaching their ears but also resonating in their heads.
With that taken care of, Aragorn returned to the settlement.
It took a bit over a trimester for the settlement to be completed. After that, Aragorn guided the conquistadores across the stretch and introduced them to the Pacific Ocean.
"We call it the Pacific Ocean," Aragorn said. "The New World is named America. Within the fog, there are two canals within the empire I built that connect both the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans. The war should last a few years more. After that, I'll lift the fog."
Those words were carried through the Atlantic and made it to the Spanish Crown. From there, the rest of Christian Europe.
And so, it became a frenzy.
Portugal, Spain, the British, French, Dutch, German, Italian, and even some landlocked kingdoms—all mobilized with a harmony uncanny to the many that had been at each other's throats since time immemorial.
One, Aquila had an Empire. Two, his empire was at war. Three, the New World was officially a new continent: America. Four, in a few years, a route to cross over the New World would open. Five, the aborigines were considered savages, but they held riches. Six, unclaimed land.
Every single one of these aspects was enough to turn a monarchy over—yet here there were six.
In a rush with no previous equivalent whatsoever, the humans from the Old World began to move to create permanent settlements north and south of the Isthmus.
While they erected these settlements from the ground up, from time to time, they would pause to gaze at the illuminated sky—the result of the numerous cleansings. The fact that these flashes, which sometimes could be seen across the Atlantic, were the consequences of a war sent a chill down the spine of many.
Sometimes they even felt the ground shake. Other times, the day sky would turn dark, as if God had covered the Sun. It was a level of warfare so intense that they coined it a divine war—since, in their minds, what was it but the clash of deities? No matter how heretical the thought was.
Well, given the records of Hestia and Selene in the church as deities backed by Aragorn, they at least recognized other deities as beings that existed below their God. But still, the thought was considered heretical by most.
As the colonizers of the Old World made way and progress in America, the war continued at its usual hectic, chaotic, aleatory, deadly, and unnatural pace.
At some point, there were different variants of Iron Man fighting against some eldritch offspring—between a beast, tentacles, and the very concept of machine—while at the same time, on another battlefield, there was a squad of Duskari summoning winged dogs that came from the heavens under pillars of light and a choir. The strangest part was that these winged dogs would then possess mechanized monstrosities and battle.
In another instance, there was a squad of Asgardian sorcerers—like variants of Thor who focused on magic, or variants of Freyja and Loki—fighting a squad of summoned quasi-spiritual extradimensional entities with various powers based on chakra.
Like that time the moon turned crimson with several concentric tomoes, and everyone was forced to live their worst nightmares, or the time they summoned a meteor shower across all the Pacific Islands of the Isthmus.
Then, as Emperor Stark had predicted, the Duskari began wielding gravity-based weaponry—and from there, there was no turning back. It was chaos, the type that made many wonder how the planet had not cracked.
"It bears similarity with the Void in a very poetic way," Aragorn commented.
"The Void? How come, Grandfather?" Mindee asked.
Mindee was busy authorizing the handshake for a conversation with a source that appeared to be contacting the Duskari from the southern base of the TVA.
"Take a look," Aragorn said while opening a window in space to grant a bird's-eye view of a particular sector. "We have the giant corpse of Tarantula-Man, a variant of Ant-Man that was bitten by Spider-Man's spider."
On a bay, there was indeed the giant corpse of a man wearing a suit with four extra powered limbs. The corpse was so large that it cut diagonally from the center to one of the corners of the bay.
"Near that cliff, we can locate the Exploding Hulk."
"HULK SMAAABOOOOOOOOOM—"
The Exploding Hulk was a Bruce Banner whose Hulk immolated itself in a fiery green explosion of Gamma every time it transformed. It would then fall unconscious for a minute or two and explode again.
"That Bruce Banner is in my top 10 of the most miserable Banners," Mindee commented.
"Yeah, even I feel bad for him. If he doesn't die in the next cleansing, I'll kill him," Aragorn said. "Moving on, we have the Carol Danvers units."
The window showed a squad formed by 10 units of Carol Danvers-powered mechas. No, it wasn't that Carol Danvers was powering a mecha while driving it; it was a squad formed by mechas powered by lobotomized Carol Danvers, driven by TVA agents.
"We've got the Spiderpeople fighting everywhere while making their enemies' and allies' ears bleed with their incessant yapping."
The window moved to illustrate his point.
"Run! That guy is wielding some futuristic insecticide!" a Spider-Man shouted while web-swinging between the legs of one of the angel doggo-driven mechas.
"Blockhead! We are arachnids!" one Ghostspider quipped.
"Yeah? What does it matter in front of that?!" another Spider-Man shouted while pointing at the 'futuristic insecticide.'
"Idiot, that's a flamethrower! A giant flamethrower!" Ghostspider shouted at the top of her lungs.
"That Spider-Man is an idiot, there's nothing futuristic about that!" a Spider-Man with Doc Oc's tentacles shouted.
"RUN! A FLAMETHROWER IS JUST A VERY EFFICIENT INSECTICIDE, also arachnicide," the idiot Spider-Man shouted.
"..." Mindee felt like facepalming.
"Anyways," Aragorn said, moving the window once again. "We have the low-altitude aerial combat, where we can find all Falcons, Ironmans, Irongirls, Ironlads, Hulkbuster Ironmans, Star Lords, Thors, Lokis, even a stupid Odin—well, stupider—and I think I saw a few Visions, but I don't see them anymore. Maybe they died easily without the Mind Stone."
"I can see that, Grandfather," Mindee nodded, "but how is that similar to the Void?"
"Just wait a second," Aragorn raised his index finger.
And then, it happened.
"INCOMING CLEANSING!"
"RUN!"
Like insects under an overturned log, the combatants on both sides scattered in all directions to hide from the incoming cleansing.
Then, starting from the center of the Isthmus, as if the heavens themselves had decided to rain heavenly judgment, the clouds in the night sky began parting way for pillars of light.
It was breathtakingly beautiful and scenic, except, everywhere these pillars touched, everything was turned to molecular dust. No explosion, no trembling, just molecularization.
From above the atmosphere, a glowing source of light was to be thanked for the pillars of light. Its light refracted and bent, creating an iridescent halo of light. From below, the halo appeared horizontally concentric to the source of light; from above, it appeared vertically concentric.
(Looking like this from below.)
(And something like this from the height of the last floor of an Obelisk.)
What was true, no matter the point of view, was that the light was cleansing everything in the Isthmus that wasn't inside the protective shields of a city or an Obelisk.
Like so, the once rowdy, chaotic, shifting, ever-changing, and deadly battlefield was cleansed and turned into an emptiness without equal. Silent, pacific, unchanging, and unmoving.
"See? It's just like the Void. A chaotic phase that gives way to utter nihility, only for nihility to cede the stage to chaos," Aragorn explained with almost a dreamy gaze. "Just like my Void-chan."
"Grandfather, didn't you say that Phoenix said that only you can see the chaotic phase?" Mindee asked.
"You're right, but maybe, poetically, you can appreciate the beauty of Void-chan through this battlefield, metaphorically speaking," Aragorn said.
"Mmmmmm," Mindee said, seemingly in deep thought. "If I harden my heart, close my eyes, and give myself an aneurism, then yes. I admit there's a beauty to this mess. Like a cycle of life and death, rebirth, and then cleansing."
"Yep," Aragorn nodded enthusiastically. He was still a bit in the slumps about Phoenix not being able to appreciate the entire beauty of the Void. "By the way, that photonic discharge was great. What do the children call it?"
"They call it a White Hole Halo," Mindee replied.
"I suppose it does look like a white hole," Aragorn said while eyeing the still-shining source. "Was it developed solely in the Imperium or was it a collab with the children from Abeyance?"
"The recipe for the molecularization was bought from the children of Abeyance—the so-called Dust Release—but the technological development was entirely a thing from the Imperium," Mindee explained.
"They are quite creative," Aragorn commented. "I had never thought of creating a bomb like that."
"You have little use for bombs, don't you, Grandfather?" Mindee chuckled.
"Yeah, but I like to tinker with tech from time to time," Aragorn said.
"You indeed created the Halo, The Ark, and Aunties Seraph and Spark, but I haven't seen you create much in the past eons," Mindee commented.
"I created a bunch of stuff, then stored it, and after that, Seraph and Spark have been in charge of innovation around here. Though to be fair, I help my girls occasionally when they come to me with consults," Aragorn said.
"I see," Mindee muttered. "That explains how the advancements of the Duskari are not leaving you behind, even though you go absent for centuries."
"I also review most tech once it makes it to the Grand Repository of Knowledge," Aragorn added.
Eventually, the source died down, and the night returned to its shadow.
By 1519, 17 years after the war started, something happened behind the scenes that preluded the premature end of the war. Emperor Stark disappeared from the TVA's radar.
It all began when Emperor Stark claimed to have discovered a way to pierce through the dimensional phasing separating the Obelisks from reality.
"This facility will be a huge pit for resources, Stark," Judge Gamble said as she read through the proposal. "What's the point of having to create a facility as such per each Obelisk? Assuming we streamline the process, it'll take about four months per facility."
"This is common knowledge, you plebeian," Emperor Stark scoffed with his classic disdain. "You invest before you reap rewards. This is the investment; the first prototype. After I have collected the necessary data, I should have no problem augmenting efficiency to at least 175%."
"..." Judge Gamble didn't reply. She continued reading through the proposal. After a while, she said, "You're not to step outside the control room, Stark."
"This plebeian sub-evolved human, you think you can tell this Emperor what he can't and can do?" Emperor Stark narrowed his eyes in a glare. "You should count yourself lucky that I have no need nor desire to step out of the control room."
"Granted," Judge Gamble said while pressing her thumb on the holographic approval form.
With the project green-lighted, construction began on the nearest obelisks to the Southern Scale.
The facility was built like a hadron collider around the base of the chosen obelisks—except it wasn't underground, and it was tightly wrapped around the boundary between the obelisk and reality.
Its design and construction were led not only by Emperor Stark and other Stark variants but also by variants of other smart people—like Hank Pym, Reed Richards, Bruce Banner, Shuri Aja-Adanna, and even variants of people who should have never been born.
With the facility built, the time for its first test arrived.
In the control room, Emperor Stark, the Judges, and several others stood while observing through a holo-screen as the facility began its loading sequence.
The thrum of power coursing through the structural rings of the facility made a foreboding yet pleasant humming noise that could even be felt from the control room.
"With its activation, a destabilizing pulse of polarity moving like a gravitational wave will converge on the boundary of dimensional phasing and allow for a controlled rupture to be opened," one of the Shuri variants explained to Judge Renslayer. "Effectively, it will grant us access to the obelisk by opening a door. The door shall remain open for at least 6000 seconds."
"Risks?" Judge Renslayer demanded.
"Aside from the standard detonation due to how much wattage is coursing through the facility's circuitry and the possible melting, it's a fairly secure operation," Shuri replied. "All the... 'magic' is happening in the boundary between our home dimension and the dimension of the phasing of the obelisks, but the impetus comes from our side."
"Explain," Judge Renslayer said.
"It's as if we were standing beside the backside of a cannon," Shuri said. "The danger is happening in front of us, and even if the cannon explodes, we are standing in a position of low risk. The danger would be on the other side, but considering we are at war with the other side..."
"Understood," Judge Renslayer nodded.
"Preload complete."
"Gravitometry in balance."
"Inflexion point locked and secured."
"Temperature within acceptable limits."
"Phasing polarity and symmetry in sync."
The multiple variants and technicians in the control room reported their metrics of jurisdiction while Emperor Stark, standing in the center of the room with his hands behind his back, nodded in approval after listening to each metric.
"We are ready," Emperor Stark declared.
"Go ahead," Judge Gamble gave the signal. The three Judges had to key in the activation sequence since they had been zealous about the trigger being only able to be pulled by the three of them, and the countdown started at five.
Five...
Four...
Three...
Two...
Emperor Stark grinned, a grin that rang alarm bells in the Judges' heads... but it was too late.
One...
Everything flashed, and for a moment, everyone thought they had died, or that the matter in the entire world had been changed to photons.
When the light died down, everyone checked—while panicking—their surroundings, their bodies, and their scanning devices. Finally, when their brains caught up to what was being displayed on the main holo-screen, they despaired.
[You thought you could treat this Emperor as your slave?]
Stark's malicious grin filled the screen.
They all turned to where Emperor Stark had been standing before the activation of the facility, and there was nothing but the slave choker that had been around his neck ever since the TVA abducted him. Had they had microscopic sight, they would have noticed other things aside from the choker.
[You thought that kill switch you injected in my brain could have stopped this Emperor? You thought the nanites would have killed me? Please, I invented nanotechnology! You stupid plebeians!
[However, I guess I should commend your security firewalls. I couldn't set to blow up this facility upon activation, tch! Congratulations, you have T-89 seconds before this facility is swallowed through a rupture as wide as a straw. HAHAHAHAHAHA!
[Fuck you, TVA! I bet the Imperium—oh! By the way, that's the name of your enemy, the Fulgebunt Draconis Imperium. I can't believe you couldn't even figure that out.
[As I was saying, they'll greatly appreciate the info I bring. Good luck, and fuck you!]
The message ended, and 'T-80' read on the holo-screen.
Like a panicked herd of herbivores, they stampeded to the nearest emergency exits.
Some fell and died to the stampede.
Some knew they were too far away from the nearest exit and accepted their deaths.
Some ran so fast that they might have qualified for the Olympics.
Some desperately tried to open time doors, but that was useless, since no time door could be opened within the Isthmus.
Some made way and carried the Judges to protect the leadership of their cursed organization.
Like so, when the timer hit zero, the entire facility—and anyone left inside or near it—imploded into a rupture with the circumference of a straw.
"FUCK!" Judge Gamble shouted. Her ankle was broken, and she was bruised all around, but she cared not for the injury. "FUCK!"
While Judge Gamble and her peers lamented in fury, inside the obelisk, Emperor Stark stood in front of Aragorn.
"That was smart. You made the place where you stood the real opening of the rupture and forced yourself to phase at the same frequency as this sub-dimension," Aragorn commented.
"As much as this Emperor would like to claim credit for that, when I got in contact with the Duskari, they gave me a few needed tips to achieve my escape. Otherwise, I would have dragged the kill switch and the nanites with me instead of phasing through them," Emperor Stark replied.
"I see," Aragorn said. "Well, your mind is approved. You are a narcissistic motherfucker, but that's normal in every Stark I know of. As for your soul... I had never seen such a neutral soul—not for lack of pollutants, but because of an equal quantity of pollutants and light. So you can stay in the Imperium until the TVA collapses, and then you get to return to your timeline."
"That's all desire," Emperor Stark said.
"Well, have fun then," Aragorn waved his tail, and a portal opened to the designated area where Emperor Stark would be housed.
"Am I allowed to assist in the war efforts?" Emperor Stark asked before stepping through the portal.
"Yeah, you can steal knowledge and tech as much as you want from the Imperium. We don't care, and I doubt that, so long as you share with them, the Duskari will oppose," Aragorn shrugged and waved Emperor Stark off. His intentions were clear as day even without telepathy or empathy.
"Huh?! I'm starting to fall for this Imperium of yours," Emperor Stark chuckled.
Aragorn closed the portal and chuckled to himself.
The Duskari cared not for other universes; they only cared about getting closer to their objective, the Drachantheon Therion, so they welcomed the addition of Emperor Stark, who had memories of an entirely different galactic empire.
And Emperor Stark? He was playing the long game. He saw his circumstances not as a dead end, but as an obstacle to overcome—and an opportunity to find the tools to create something bigger than his future self could have ever achieved.
With the Duskari overjoyed about their new playmate and the TVA bordered by absolute despair, the 17th year of war came to an end.
————————————————
OC Character Sheet #8
Slava Draconisfilia
Race:Homobestialis Magicae Canid
Beast: White Wolf
Tails: Eight
Ears: White
Hair: White
Eyes: Golden
Affinity: Entropy Negation
Divinity: Goddess of Truth and Sealing
Background
Slava was part of the Widow Program in the Red Room, belonging to the same generation as her sister-wife, Daria Draconisfilia.
She was abducted at a very young age, so early that she only uncovered memories of her biological parents after becoming a telepath and delving into her own subconscious.
Unlike many others in the program, Slava was among the few 'lucky' ones whose parents were not eliminated by the Red Room. Even so, she refrained from contacting them—even when Aragorn suggested bringing them up to the Halo.
Her reasoning was simple: her abduction had shattered her parents' marriage. They had since rebuilt their lives with new families. To Slava, they were as much strangers to her as she was to them.
Beyond the basic Business Administration courses Aragorn encouraged the maids to take, Slava pursued studies in Medicine, Law, and History. These skills proved useful when she returned to Earth-5H1N3, where she became the head of the law firm representing Aragorn Abner.
Personality
Slava is a passionate woman who throws herself wholeheartedly into her pursuits.
She was fiercely protective of Vladarion during his upbringing, viewing him as a shared child of James' family. That protectiveness later transferred to Vladarion's son, Plutusdrakon. However, as both grew into adolescence, Slava shifted from a helicopter mother into a cool, laid-back one.
To outsiders, she may come off as aloof, cold, or emotionally distant. But among those she loves, Slava is chummy, expressive, and caring.
Despite being one of the more serious Therions, Slava is a battlethirsty wolf when the opportunity arises. James was long responsible for helping her temper this side of herself. But as the Therions ascended and new powers demanded testing, even the calmest among them sought to refine their strength through combat.
Traits and Quirks
Long before her ascension as the Goddess of Truth, Slava had a deep aversion to lies. This guided her toward her legal career.
She prefers to sleep in cold environments, citing her wolf gene donor as a cold-weather beast. Aragorn contests this, claiming she simply always liked cold over warmth.
Like Aragorn, she has a soft spot for children—not because of their souls, but simply because she enjoys their presence.
She is one of the Therions closest to Gaea, serving as one of her personal maids on rotation.
While her divinity of Truth is not particularly suited for combat, her divinity of Sealing is infamous. She can seal senses, matter, and energy—and is nearing the ability to seal concepts themselves.
Dislikes
Lies—though she can tolerate minor white lies, her patience ends there.
Sour food.
Disorder—not chaos itself, but messiness and disarray (e.g., things not in their proper place).
James' worshippers who desire him carnally.
Selene, whom she blames for Aragorn's first death.
Believers and Territory
Slava's star system, Canis Aurum, is unusual in that it contains only one planet in the habitable zone—a massive gas giant orbited by over 200 moons.
Initially, only seven of these moons were capable of supporting life. However, after Slava claimed the star system (with help from the Imperium), all 217 moons were terraformed.
The gas giant itself has an orbit of 3.7 Earth years and a rotation period of 10.1 hours. Each moon varies in orbital and rotational velocity, creating a complicated system of timekeeping.
Because the moons range in size from lunar-scale to Ganymede-scale, each features a gravitational engine to retain an atmosphere and simulate Earth-like conditions. However, the moons remain under the intense gravitational influence of the central gas giant, causing powerful tidal swells in their seas—ideal conditions for surfing. Canis Aurum is now a famed location for the ancient sport, especially revered among the ancestrals (even before the Duskari became Duskari), who imitated their gods playing in the waves.
Most of Slava's followers work in law enforcement, utilizing her blessings to detect lies and restrain enemies through sealing techniques.
Aspirations
Like many of James' harem members, she eagerly awaits the day she can become pregnant.
She aims to develop a sealing spell strong enough to permanently imprison Kitty, who keeps escaping before her sentence ends.
She's determined to earn her ninth tail soon.
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OC Character Sheet #9
Sarah Rogers
Race:Homobestialis Magicae Draconic
Beast: Dragon
Tails: One
Ears: Pointed
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Light Blue
Affinity: Enhancement
Divinity: Goddess of Bonds and Dragons
Background – Personality – Traits and Quirks:
Daughter of Steven Rogers and Margaret Carter, firstborn of the Rogers family, and of the Draconic Progenitor, Margaret Carter.
First of the Therions born in Halo aside from Spark and Seraph, with the latter two being created, not born.
Sarah and Vladarion (son of James) were considered the babies of the Drachantheon Therion for a long time, until Luxena (Yelena's daughter) arrived. As such, they were babied the longest.
Since a young age, Sarah has been involved in the matters of the Imperium. As such, she is one of the first—alongside Vladarion—Therions the Duskari (before they were even Duskari) met who weren't adults. In Imperial history, she is considered one of the earliest proofs that their deities didn't manifest but were born instead.
Sarah is a woman whose face is most often lit up with a smile. Her mother tends to describe her as a free spirit. This could be the result of being raised in an environment where she was allowed to roam free, as there was no risk whatsoever for her since birth.
Due to the influence of her father and mother, Sarah fits into the category of a good person—not the type of 'good' people that most Therions are (which tends to fluctuate between chaotic and neutral good)—but the type of good that could be generally accepted as such.
Sarah is close with Luxena because she wanted to be an older sister to her when she was born, even though Sarah is closer in age to Luxena's mother (Yelena).
When she ascended and became the Goddess of Dragons and Bonds, her divinity caused her to show more physical characteristics of dragons in her humanoid form—namely, her sharp ears, tail, and golden horns.
Compared to her mother, who only shows slitted pupils, Sarah appears more akin to a beast-girl. Like Margaret, she can shapeshift into a dragoness, except, unlike her, Sarah's size is closer to that of Aragorn's King Ghidorah form, which makes her considerably larger than her mother.
Sarah also gained a combat humanoid form where her golden wings and dorsal blades emerge, coupled with her scales covering her body, akin to armor.
From a young age, she had a liking for dragons—partly because her mother was one, but also because Aragorn would play with her as her mount.
During her childhood, Aragorn would assume a draconic form about the size of a bull and allow her to ride him as if playing dragon knight. When she grew older, he would assume his full size and traverse Halo, The Ark, Earth, and even outer space with her.
Seraph once mentioned that he was grooming her into the divine position of overlording dragons, but this hasn't been proven. Due to this liking for dragons, she is second only to Aragorn in the amount of time spent shapeshifted as a dragon—sometimes going for millennia in that form.
Sarah was impregnated in her combat humanoid form, so she had to spend her entire pregnancy in that form. This was something which earned Vladarion the laughter and teasing of the entire Drachantheon Therion. They only did so because he was being shy about it.
Dislikes:
Dragonslayers
Paperwork
Staying indoors for extended periods
Believers and Territory:
As the Goddess of Bonds, her divinity is not only highly valued in the Imperium but also respected.
Weddings can take several shapes in the Imperium—from simple paperwork to complicated affairs that involve the blessings of Sarah through one of her theurges.
However, the standard practice for the union between two or more parties is usually to perform a 'Mortal Ceremony' first, and then a 'Bonding Union'. The first is a type of ceremony that is as binding as the union between humans; the second involves receiving the blessing of bonds.
A blessing of bonds, aside from only being possible when the bond between parties is desired and cared for by all parties involved, provides the partnered parties with the ability to get a sense of their partners' well-being.
Usually, the Bonding Union is done after a marriage has successfully lasted at least 150 years—when done. The blessing of bonds also transcends mortality and accompanies their souls all the way to the Abeyance. It only disperses when the souls enter Heaven or Hell.
Sarah and Vladarion conjointly rule over an A-type star system, with their son Plutusdrakon ruling over the Undergrounds of their planets. This star system is called LuminosusHeart, Lumen for short.
(Think of it as a very bright star.)
Lumen is part of a neighboring star system matrix with Sarah's parents' star system.
With help from a few Duskari planetary system dynamics engineers—an actual career in the Imperium—and Aragorn's psychokinesis to drag and set stars in the needed orbital paths and planar locations, two star systems were created with their planets orbiting each star and a few shared planets located in the outer orbits. These orbits were shaped like infinity symbols, since the planets in them moved from one star to the other.
Sarah's star system's main industry is tourism, with many visiting for Bonding Unions, wedding ceremonies, and honeymoons. Additionally, all of the Fulgebunt Draconis Imperium troops visit Lumen at least once for training under Vladarion, God of War and Progress.
Aspirations:
Dragons, dragons, and more dragons. Sarah is looking forward to populating a planet she's been saving for the dragons Aragorn had promised her since time immemorial.
She eagerly awaits the moment her shut-in son will make her a grandmother, though sometimes she wonders if this will take billions of years.
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{A/N: I added the pictures to the chapter comments.}
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{A/N:
Please check out my P@treon account! There are already 10 chapters ahead for premium members, which is at least 100,000 words. Premium members also gain access to a new chapter every week.
p@treon.com/ExistentialVoid
Free Members get access to all free chapters, and I upload free chapters about 12 hours earlier on P@atreon.
}