[Chance]

Year 2072, Month of Sae ♎︎

The controversial movement against the Animunculi would be scribed in the histories within Meranthe as 'The First Pylaen Crusade'. A foreign religion, forming its first prevalent identity within the Sainted Enclave sect, not recognized in any official capacity by the Holy Church of its homeland. 

The scriptures and teachings of Pylae do encourage crusades if the cause is just; for hope dwindles when men succumb to reluctance and inaction. Warfare, while unsightly as an unfortunate necessity for change, should not be feared, as pacifism is the death of a person's convictions.  You must be willing to put your body and soul on the line when pursuing the truths of the world, as a Magi, born of great power. The rising morning sun and its golden light is not indecisive, it is pure and true, and it is intolerant to the darkness. To embody Pylae is to be abhorred by the meek, and to inspire an army of the courageous. The golden spear that slew Moros is not the loving, gentle hand of Alacritas, after all. 

These convictions often pose difficulties: life is not a simple game of black and white, and hard choices must be made. While the ancients did not deal with the same problems as today, it is also written in the scriptures of Pylae that the flesh of man is a blessing, that we are made as we are and should not corrupt or alter our form through unnatural means. Whether by demonic manipulations or excessive experimentation. If we are to progress and uncover our potential, then it is the path of true magic, not metal, for conquering the mana within ourselves and around us is perhaps the key to uncovering the great mysteries of the cosmos. 

And so two ideals are put at odds. What begins as a localized feud within the desert garners the interest of the great kingdoms, mobilizing their forces across the world. Roughly a thousand did battle on that day, and the expanse wasn't quite so silent anymore. At the will of its Keeper the tree Solais reached out in hundreds of thin golden branches, casting a net of healing warmth much like the cradling embrace of Alacritas herself; miraculously all wounds were healed in the aftermath, though deaths and capture could not be prevented.

Despite the golden night sky, the sands were made red. The crusaders were ultimately outnumbered, yet their goal of breaking in past the security of the Frontier, into its depths to uncover secrets and deal critical damage was within reach. Managing to do so at a cost, they left the battlefield with sensitive research information and laying waste to much of the laboratories of the facility, no doubt setting synthetic advancement back by a decade or two.

Two possible futures were shown at the start. One where anti-electromagnetic runes are developed that instantly disable synthetics, and another where a memory bank module was developed that grants an excess of knowledge and experience to the non-organic it is installed upon. It seems, in the aftermath, we are far closer to the former than the latter, as the Sainted Enclave and its allies already works to that end as it reaps the fruits of its victory.

Something else occurred, not long after. The next day, the sun was especially hot, scorching, but only towards the Enclave: orange and gold, casting a beam of light down upon the oasis village. A sign of approval from the great beyond, perhaps? Some of the villagers unfortunately did pass away during the uncompromising light, like ants under a microscope glass, but the Priestess Palade, leader of the Crusade, shone a brilliant gold.