[Bologna Prime]

The wheel in the sky turns on.

Though it could be delayed, none so easily averted.

A momentum spurred over generations presses itself forward.

Winter is here, as it was then. Its solemn weight upon the land in parallel to that of anguished histories trailing in the wake of wings resolute. Frigid is the air, and fraught with the tension of a future waiting to break through.

The restitution of something withheld from the miraculous majesty of Meranthe and its native peoples. The release from a curse which has made wrath and waste out of gifts taken from what proper place would grant its shape. The resolution of a paradox wrought where a grand sacrifice was made incomplete millenia ago. Upon Pavonis, over which stars will soon align once more. On to its summit, a host to ascend once more with all the power and promise to see through changes on a scale divine. So it goes:

To lay to rest that tired image of One.

To rectify the err in Giantkind's emergence.

The ticking of a hand sounds sharp and clear.
Marching forward, closer to midnight.

To brighten and embolden the colors of Many.

To realize a potential denied to all those blessed.

The ticking of a hand sounds sharp and clear.
Marching forward, closer to a new day.


Wednesday, March 25th.
5:30 PM, EST

[PostsforIncogs]

A PUBLIC LETTER TO MERANTHE
Wyrmia, Sage of the four divine.

Enough.
I will not indulge another sprawling declaration cloaked in prophecy, padded with silence where truth should stand. Say what you mean or I will speak it plainly in your stead. Whispers carry far. And what they carry now is this: that a gathering forms upon Pavonis, that once again hands reach toward the old wound, seeking to “correct,” to “resolve,” to “fix” what should have been left to wisdom long ago.

Giantkind.

Yes. Let us not pretend otherwise.
I have lived long enough to recognize this language the moment it begins to coil. It always arrives adorned, restoration, balance, divine intent. And yet, beneath the ornament, it is always the same hunger: to decide what should and should not remain in this world.

I, Wyrmia of the Monastery of Sheng, will not abide it.

If what you intend upon that mountain carries even a fragment of design to erase, diminish, or bring harm to the giants, then I stand in opposition. You do not mend a fracture in the world by removing those who bear its history. You do not complete an ancient sacrifice by offering living bodies in place of your own unfinished understanding. And you do not invoke the language of the divine to disguise acts that are, at their core, painfully mundane.

Giantkind is not an error in your design to be corrected. It is not a miscalculation to be adjusted, nor a relic to be quietly ushered out of existence. It is a people. A people who endure, despite centuries of interference, neglect, and—yes—foolishness of their own making. I invite you all to remember history and how giantkin lacks the willingness to study, to learn, to do something rather than wars in name of old tales.

And here, I will not flatter them either.
Giantkind stands diminished not by fate alone, but by the absence of foresight, by the poverty of political sense, by a history too often repeated without reflection. While others scheme and study, they gather and gesture, naming it light, naming it sorcery, as though intention alone could substitute for understanding. Few among them have opened the books that would have spared them this cycle.

Fewer still have learned.
And yet, even so, 

That failure does not grant you the right to unmake or even REMAKE them.

It does not grant you the authority to play at godhood upon a mountain, as though existence itself were a script awaiting your revision. 

SHAME ON YOU!

I miss the days when people actually feared the divine.
And for that, I also blame Delphina, playing God. And I also Blame Illumitar
You paved this path.
FIX IT

What you call correction may very well be nothing more than arrogance refined over centuries. And I have little patience left for it. So proceed, if you must. Climb your mountain. Align your stars. Speak your ancient words once more into the cold air.
But do so knowing this

Whatever unfolds upon Pavonis will not pass unseen.

And if it brings harm under the guise of order, it will not pass unanswered.

Choose, then, with care what history you are willing to be remembered for.

[Hello!]

VULKAHN FOLHAMMAR

The First. Champion of Vdali

You speak of correction. Of Resolution. Of finishing what was left incomplete. You speak of Jotuns as though we are a wound to be closed, a mistake to be erased.

I am here to tell you otherwise.

I am Vulkahn Folhammar. I am the First. I stood in the vanguard when the world was young. I drank the ichor that carved my people from Ymir's own blood. I walked beside Vdali when mountains learned to shake and the Primordials learned to fear.

I have returned and I am the protector of Jotun kin.

Not because we have been wise. We have not. We have swung axes when we could have healed the world. We have bled when we should have bargained. I know our failures. I carry them. The empires that have burned. The kingdoms that fell.

But our failures do not give you the right to remake us.

Our silence does not grant you authority to play god upon a mountain.

You want to climb Pavonis? Align your stars? Speak your words into the air? You want to correct what was never broken, resolve people who have endured centuries of being told they should not exist?

But know this.

I will be there.

The ritual will fail. Not because I argue. Not because I declare. Because I stand in its path and will not move.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

NOW HEAR ME, YOU WHO CARRY THE BLOOD OF YMIR.

All of you. Scattered. Diminished. Wandering Meranthe with your heads bowed, your names forgotten, your strength treated as a relic of a past others would rather bury. You have been called a mistake. A fracture. Something to be corrected.

I call you mine.

I am the First. The root from which your lineage grew. The fire that broke the old world so that you could exist. And I say.

Enough.

Enough of kneeling. Enough of watching others decide your fate. Enough of waiting for permission to be what you were always meant to be.

They gather on Pavonis to unmake us. To finish what they started when they burned our cities, scattered our kin, and called it balance.

Let them gather.

Let them align their stars and speak their words.

And let them look upon the mountain and see what rises to meet them.

I call every Jotun who remembers what it means to stand. Every Giant, every half blood, every kin who has carried the weight of our name through centuries of silence and shared blood. Bring your axes. Bring your pride. Bring the fire that does not die.

We are not an error to be corrected. We are people. And we will not be erased.

If you have forgotten what it means to be Jotun, then stand beside me and remember. 

We climb together.

And when the ritual crumbles, when their correction becomes nothing but smoke on the wind, they will know.

You do not lay hands on my kin while I still draw breath.

- Vulkahn Folhammar

The First. Champion of Vdali. Protector of Jotun.

[Aphelion]

VULKAHN FOLHAMMAR

The First. Champion of Vdali

Your story deserves cessation. Your plea deserves equal parts of my cruelty and my kindness.

I am Dirge, heir of Vinaska's legacy.

A Beast of Endings, your kin by Disaster's line.

Vdali's will has been expressed in what remains. 

Your people's ancient rage must finally be reforged.

I will save you from yourself and deliver you to our mother, brother.
For in this time of greatest need, she deserves the opportunity to love and be loved.
In this time of greatest need, the Champions of Apocalypse can safeguard Creation against annihilation.

I extend my hand in violent fraternity.
Let us live by the ties that bind us,
and rebuke what tears us apart.

Let me be your savior.
I will drag you into our future by force.

Dirge, Beast of Endings, prepares to meet Vulkahn in personal combat.

If none interfere, it should prove a duel for the ages.

Settings as high as you'd like.