Gaia

The Essence of Everything and all, the absolute counterpiece to the Void. Gaia represents literally everything in existence and is one of, if not the only way, to kill off a Voidling for good without it just merging into another form.

Occurence

Gaia appears when a Voidling, or rather a Voidlord at that point, has merged with every single concept in existence, instantly killing it and leaving behind a small orb of Gaia energy. The energy will then float around the Void forever, until it eventually meets Io, where it will merge back into the Allmother.

Guardians of Gaia

The Guardians of Gaia is a small secret guild, founded by Callas Cunningus and Marie Tev. This guild has only one goal, and that is to protect the secret of the Gaia. Any Knowledge about the existence of this essence must be kept secret far beyond just anyone's grave. Members of the guild must swear that when they eventually die, they must have their soul merge with the Gaia that can be found deep inside the guild hall. There are never many members at the same time, just enough to always ensure that knowledge about the orb stays hidden.

Why aren't they just permanently borrowing it deep underneath together with the last guardian? Because time would eventually reveal the orb again, except this time there would be no one who knows about the dangers and powers of the orb, it would eventually become common knowledge and ultimately land in the wrong hands one day.

Every Guardian knows how to cast the spell Sphere of Truth in order to ask suspects what they know or who they may shared their knowledge with. They also carry a Blade of Gaia with them, to potentially permanently silence threats.

History

Guardians of Gaia - Origins

After the events of the Voidwar, one of the Voidlords around Tael got hit by a small fragment of the spark of Destruction, together with many other little Voidlings emerging from the exploding Voidlords, causing him to ultimately turn into an essence of Gaia. This essence landed on Tael many centuries later.

It was in the middle of the Night, barely any soul awake to notice its descend. Landing in the Cape of Golden Silence, right in the Valley of Endtimes. Two curious students from Scientia, currently visiting their hometown, found it after following the strange light it was emitting throughout the darkness of the night. Unbeknownst to what it might be, one of the students tried to gently touch the almost perfectly round orb of energy, only to drop dead the moment he made contact. There were no signs of pain, no wounds, no sounds, nothing. It was as if his soul just suddenly left his body. The other student tried to shake him up, but there was no response. His eyes were empty, there was not breathing, no reactions. Yet, somehow, there was still a pulse. Although not for long, as eventually his remaining bodily functions seized to continue due to the lack of brain activity. In utter shock, the student carefully wrapped the orb in cloth, ensuring to not touch it, and hid it in a nearby tree, hoping no other passer-bys would find and touch it.

On the next day, the student named Callas Cunningus went to a Medium with the hopes to reach out to his "friend that recently succumbed to an deadly illness", but to no avail. No matter how many times he asked the medium to try again, she couldn't find his friends soul anywhere in the Nachwelt, nor did his soul ever tried to reach out to him. Annoyed and confused, he went to a Farseer and Psychic next. "I am sorry, but despite all the details you have given me about your friend, i cannot locate him anywhere in the world. But the descriptions are so clear... Are you sure he even exists?" was the response of the Psychic.

"I can see that there was once a Duo, but there is a strange glitch in your fates."

Voice from the backroom: "Not just your fates, something strange has happened to your timelines as well."

Callus: "My timeline? And who..."

A hooded man wearing the Insignias of Tempus enters the room

Voice from the backroom: "Excuse me, my name is Lunn, that was my analysis. Marie, may i explain?"

Marie: "Of course, but why in the world do you look so pale all of a sudden, you looked fine a few minutes ago."

Lunn: "That is, because whatever this young man has experienced is beyond any physical or magically limit, we have ever witnessed. Not just here in this humble shop of ours, but in all of Tael."

Callus, while clearly still in distress from trying to understand what happened last night, suddenly had a shimmer of hope spark in his eyes, thinking "Finally, someone that doesn't think i am crazy!"

Lunn: "When you entered the shop, because you paid Marie here so handsomely to get such an spontaneous appointment, i figured i might as well check your timestream as well."

Callus: "And what did you find?"

Lunn: "Absolutely nothing, your timeline is perfectly fine."

Callus: "Then wh..."

Lunn: "However, when you asked about friend, i checked the timelines that you crossed with recently, and i think i can perfectly see that friend of yours you are talking about."

Callus: "You mean he is still out there somewhere!?"

Lunn: "Unfortunately, that is where things go even beyond my understanding of it. You see up until last night, your friends timeline was perfectly fine too, no indications of any harm, end or whatsoever, but then suddenly. The timeline just suddenly stops. No slowing down, twist, or anything as it would usually do when a person is about to die. It's just a straight clean cut suddenly, nothing beyond anymore. It is as if he got deleted from existence."

Callus: "How is that even possible!"

Lunn: "I... I don't know. In the entire scripture of the School of Temporal Magic is not a single mention of something like that. Can you tell us what exactly happened last night?"

Callus, hesitant: "I... I think it would be best to show you..."

Callus, Lunn and Marie went out to the hiding place of the orb the following night. The tree the orb is in has lost all his leafs, and many little critters lay dead before and inside the tree hollow Callus placed the orb in.

Marie: "Why would you two guys hang out in a spot like that in the middle of the night?!"

Callus: "Trust me, it did not look like that yesterday..."

Lunn: "By Tempus! What is inside that tree?! I detect Magic beyond anything known to mankind!"

Callus: "Whatever it is, do not touch it!"

Marie: "Yeaah... I think i can see why..."

Lunn: "Impossible, my magic detection can not tell what we are dealing with here, i need to Identify it more closely!"

Marie: "Lunn, please be careful, whatever that thing is..."

Lunn started to recite the Magic spell of Identify, but just as he finished the spell, he dropped down in agony, as his mind is filled with knowledge and concepts far past what is known to Tael, as well as far past what a mortal mind can even begin to comprehend.

Marie: "Lunn!"

Thinking quickly Marie breaks Lunn's spell with a quick Counterspell, but it was already too late. Lunns mind is being ravaged by Knowledge he couldn't even fathom to ever comprehend. While Lunn is screaming in pain, suddenly a spectral image appears next to the three.

Spectral Image: "What in my world has this guy seen?!"

Callus: "Whatever it is that is in that tree right there! Wait, 'My world'?" Callus turns around to investigate the source of the voice.

Marie, clearly in panic: "Lunn please! whatever is happening, stay with me!"

Spectral Image: "Excuse me, i felt a great spike of void energy sparking out from here, so i had to investigate."

Callus: "You are... Tael? Tell us, what in the world are we dealing with here!?"

Tael: "Almost, I'm merely a small part of Tael, a fraction of his soul if you will. I always send me out like this whenever i suspect a new Voidling arriving, just in case it has bad intentions. But whatever that is, i have never seen it before..."

Marie: "What do you mean you never seen it before!? You are literally everything in this world, how can you not know what this is!?" she screams with tears in her eyes.

Tael: "This world, yes. I am afraid whatever is going on here, is not from this world."

Lunn's struggles to comprehend seem to slowly die down as his mental fortitude collapses rapidly, but before giving up completely, he mustered his strength to scream out one last message:

"This Knowledge! Must never reach you! Secret... Hide... protect... at all cost..."

Marie screams in despair as Lunn takes his final breath, as she sobs with her head and arms crossed on his now lifeless body.

Tael: "Who was talking to just now? And... Huh? What is this?"

Tael quickly snaps his fingers, allowing both Marie and Callus to see the world as he sees it.

Tael: "Lady, i know it may be hard, but please look up for a moment."

Marie and Callus both look at where Tael is pointing at, and that is the Soul that is currently leaving Lunn's body. Even the soul is still in visibly great pain, but that is not what Tael is trying to indicate.

Tael: "Lunn's Soul. Usually they move instantly towards the Nachwelt, but look at this one."

Callus: "He is... headed for the tree?"

Marie: "Lunn what are you doing!?" she screams.

Tael: "He can't hear you, but it seems like he is trying to show us something."

Lunn's Soul, still in agonizing pain, let's out one last message in a surprisingly calm voice: "Goodbye Marie."

With these final words, he touches the orb and instantly disappears in front of everyone. Not a single trace left.

Tael, in clear shock: "What the?!"

Marie, who tried to reach her hand out to him shortly before he disappears, her tears drowning her face, is in such shock that she can't even speak anymore at this point.

Callus, also in complete shock: "What just happened?!"

Silence fills the night, as the three try to process what just happened.

Tael: "You know... usually death is nothing to be afraid of, it is just the beginning of the next chapter for a soul. But for this one? Even i don't sense his presence anymore. His story is... over?"

Callus: "How is that even possible! It goes against every single law of nature set in this world!"

Tael: "I am afraid i can't answer you this question. However, i have a hunch."

Tael: "Listen carefully, what i am about to tell you two is very important. Every time someone dies a part of his soul goes returns to me instead of going to the Afterlife, and with this part i will also gain some of the Knowledge of that person, which in return will very slightly be inhibited by any new life created afterwards, until something eventually becomes common knowledge, like dawn and dusk. With Lunn's soul sacrifice, i will never gain any knowledge of this orb, and therefore it will forever be unknown to all life. That is of course only if this image that you see right now is also to never return to me. Tael will be completely unaware of the existence of this orb, and that is exactly what Lunn wanted. Whatever Knowledge that orb holds, it must be powerful enough to cause a great risk to the entire world. In the wrong hands, it would surely be the downfall of everything we know. But not only that, there is also one other fear i have to test out."

Marie, wiping the tears of her face: "You are going to touch the orb?"

Callus, trying to understand where Tael is going with this: "And probably disappear too, so Tael will never know about this whole thing, us, the orb, anything"

Tael: "Yes, that is correct. If my theory is correct and i too disappear, i must ask you of something far greater than i would have ever imagined i would have asked of anyone."

He is trying to hide, but it is clear that even for Tael this is a hard decision, as he slips out tears himself.

Callus: "Tael... you don't mean..."

Tael: "I am afraid yes, i must ask you two to not only protect and hide this orb from the public at all cost, but also to take this secret... not to the grave..."

Tael is taking a deep breath, as he tries to correct his last sentence.

Marie: "You want us to touch the orb in our final moments, right?"

Tael: "...Yes. Lunn's sacrifice tonight probably already saved the world from certain calamity, i must ask of you to keep his legacy alive."

Callus and Marie: "Okay."

Tael, clearly about to burst into tears: "Thank you so much, no gratitude in this world can be enough to thank you two."

Marie: "It's okay, i know this is exactly what Lunn would have asked me to do too, if he could."

Callus: "This orb costed me my dearest friend, i am not letting it claim any more!"

Tael: "Thank you, both you of you. Unfortunately i can't help you much, because this is just a small fraction of myself, and giving you any sort of magical blessing might cause attention from me in the future... i am afraid you have to burden all of this without any celestial guidance."

Marie: "It's okay, we will find a way."

Tael: "I must also stress again, If our theory about what happens when i touch the orb is correct, even Tael won't remember anything of this encounter, he will not recognize you as any outstanding souls."

Callus: "And that's for the best, If the worst case happens, it's best for you to stay as far away from this as possible."

Tael: "Thank you."

Tael slowly steps towards the tree, hesitant, but also determined.

Callus and Marie: "We promise, whatever happens, no one will ever carry this secret to the grave."

Shortly before reaching out to the orb, he turns to Marie: "Before i leave, i want you to know, Lunn would have said yes."

With these final words, Tael turns back to the orb and reached out his hand.

And with one single touch, the image of Tael completely disappears without any trace, once again no sound, no signs of pain, nothing. Marie and Callus both look at each with determination and tears in their eyes, knowing exactly what they now have to do.