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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Edena_of_Neith" data-source="post: 186672" data-attributes="member: 2020">THE TRIUMPH OF THE IRI will explain, now, what the taraakians were trying to do.  What the taraakians, succeeded, in doing.  Succeeded, because you made it possible for them to succeed.  The Demiplane of Hope, like the Demiplane of Dread - Ravenloft, has it's own inherent power.  That power is very, very, great.  Great enough that the Demiplane of Hope might have - I stress the might - withstood the explosion of the Shade without any help at all.  For certainly Ravenloft withstands the explosion, although there is serious damage and destruction across every Domain in it from the Shade blast.  What power is it, that the Demiplane of Hope has?  You could say it is just power, plain and simple.  However, power has a source.  The source of the Demiplane of Hope's power is good deeds.  There is no room for moral relativism here.  Good deeds in the most literal, and classical, sense of the word.  Why do you think Hazen was able to create the Demiplane of Hope in the first place?  The power comes from sacrifice, from faith, from resurrecting the fallen, from healing others, from acts of altruism, from acts of mercy, from the caring and love in the hearts of mortals.  Just as Ravenloft feeds off of the hate and fear in the hearts of mortals to make itself strong.  Just as Ravenloft feeds off of misery and horror, pain and death, hopelessness and hope crushed.  If you don't believe me, read the Ravenloft Campaign Setting core rulebooks.  It's all there, in the books, plain and simple.  - - -  The endorsement, the blessing, given to the taraakians, to use the Diadem, was an act of faith.  It was an act of trust.  It required that fear be overcome.  It required that hate be overcome.  You had good reason to fear and hate the taraakians - indeed, you have more reason now to fear and hate them than you ever had before.  They are not Angels.  They are a Warrior Race.  They are a race of conquerors.  They might very well have taken the gift, then simply left you to die - considering how you have carried on, considering how you have brought ruin and death to yourselves and so many others, they could have done so and rationalized it away as being perfectly justified.  Trust me when I say the now infuriated (and in many cases injured) Powers of the Outer Planes would have agreed with them.  However, you DID give the taraakians your blessing.  That was a supremely good act.  A supremely good act, committed inside the boundaries of a supremely good Demiplane.  Just as Ravenloft grows when evil acts are commited inside it, so does the Demiplane of Hope grow when good acts are committed inside IT.   - - -  And thus, your act begins the process of growing the Demiplane of Hope.  - - -  The taraakians pour all of their magic, the combined 12th level magic of thousands of taraakians, into amplifying this growth.  They sacrifice their ships, which go up in Novae, to accelerate this growth.  And to do something else.  Something very, very big and very, very important.  To start a chain reaction.  To this end, they use the Diadem of Dreams.  In their hands, a charge from the Diadem of Dreams - which in Vaeregoth's hands could put out stars - is much, much more powerful, for they command 12th level magic.  They throw that charge, that single charge, into altering reality, into causing that chain reaction.  However, even that is not enough.  Something more is required.  Something that only you could have given.  The God Emperor, in his endless selfishness - whether justified IC or not - almost doomed you all.  Had others not gone beyond the call of duty, he WOULD have doomed you all.  Did I not say that ALL your leaders had to bless the taraakian's gift of the Diadem?  Did I not imply that the taraakians would fail TOTALLY if a SINGLE leader did not bless them?  The God Emperor did a lot more than not bless them!  He used the situation selfishly, used it to enslave Anabstercorian, turning hope into despair, light into darkness.  He came within a few microns of killing you all.    A fact that will be known PUBLICLY IC when this is over.  Known PUBLICLY IC.  Please remember that.  Everyone, down to the last gully dwarf, will know who, in his selfishness, almost ended the last hope everyone had, almost saw your complete obliteration, body, mind, and soul.  And trust me, folks - it would have been TOTAL obliteration.  Nobody would have escaped.  Not Vaeregoth on Athas, not Talindra in Chorazin.  Even fleeing to the Outer Planes would not have saved you - if the blast wave did not hone in on you, striking clear through 50 layers of the Outer Planes to kill you, then the infuriated Powers of those Planes WOULD have killed you.  Had you fled to other dimensions, including the one the taraakians come from, the blast wave would have jumped across the multiverse to find you, honing in on you more surely than any God bent on vengeance, more surely than the Furies of the Greek Pantheon can hunt down someone the Gods decide need punishing.  But none of this happens.  It does not happen.  When Anabstercorian, a mass murderer and egomaniac, utterly without scruples and morals, choose to give himself in slavery to the God Emperor, that sacrifice offset the selfishness of the God Emperor.  That act gave strength and power to the taraakian effort.  When Iuz gave his own essence to protect his people, effectively perishing - a demipower renown for his evil, selfishness, and rotten heart committing the ultimate act of altruism - he empowered the taraakian effort.  When Vaeregoth blessed the taraakians - and Yours Truly did not believe she would;  Yours Truly thought she would refuse them in the end - she ennobled and empowered the taraakian effort.  Forsaken One is bemoaning the fact that his character will not go down in history as the doer of the great deed.  He is wrong.  The actions of his character, Vaeregoth, will shine forth, forever, in the histories of the Spheres, for it was the key action that made the taraakian effort succeed.  Vaeregoth, in her blessing of the taraakian effort, did more to save everyone's life than the taraakians ever did.  And all the others stood by the taraakians.  William's character.  Venus's characters.  Tokiwong's characters blessed the effort - I read the spirit in what they said.  'o Skoteino's characters.  Kalanyr and Black Omega's characters, and Zelda's characters.  Kaboom's characters.  GnomeWork's characters would have, I honestly believe.  Creamsteak's characters and Uvenelei's characters;  Festy Dog's characters.  And Kas.  Offsetting the selfishness of the God Emperor was Kas.  An equal leader in the Union of the Worlds, he openly blessed the taraakian effort.  The spirit of Ian Payne arose from the grave to give his blessing.  Erica Lesage would have given her blessing.  I am betting Forrester would have given his blessing also, even if it was given with his usual grumpiness.  It is enough.  Faith and altruism, the putting aside of fear and hatred, the generosity of Vaeregoth, the sacrifice of Anabstercorian and Iuz, the willingness of Kas to bless the effort, the willingness of everyone except the God Emperor to bless the effort, is enough.  It combines with the taraakian power, the power of the Diadem of Dreams, and the inherent power of the Demiplane of Hope.  It starts the chain reaction.  - - -  There is another titanic explosion, as great as the one in the Realmspace that was, but this explosion is golden, and it hurts nothing, and nobody feels anything from it but euphoria and a sudden frenzy of joy, ecstasy, happiness beyond all happiness.  The people of the Kevellond League and those who went there find themselves suddenly dancing up and down for joy without reason, trysting with strangers, kissing beholders on the mouth (and the beholders, return the favor), cheering and screaming in delight, running and shouting, without being able to help themselves.  On Athas, Vaeregoth sees the Dream come alive, the dream of a Demiplane of Hope light-years across.  Then she reels, and from her bursts a golden beam of light.  The beam is so intense anyone looking at it should have been blinded.  The beam is so hot everyone in it's vicinity should have been dead from gamma radiation.  It should have produced a hydrogen bomb like explosion in the atmosphere, there is so much energy in it.  It does none of the above.  It increases in power, increases until it goes off the end of the scale, until the whole of Athas is glowing golden, and the beam increases in size to the size of an entire world.  Another great beam erupts from Anabstercorian.  It spreads to all his people, and the drow and illithid immediately turn to good alignment if they were not already so, and they watch in joy they cannot comprehend, as the light pours forth from them.  Iuz is instantly resurrected, literally torn from death with the force of an enraged giant, put back in his body.  From him and Talindra the beam of light roars as fiercely as it does from Vaeregoth.  The light etches out the world Iuz was trying to  build, and completes it - decades, centuries of work compressed into a few minutes of time.  Chorazin roars with more energy than the heart of a supergiant red star possesses, and all this power floods towards the Kevellond League in a single massive streamer.  Power erupts from Hazen, from Kalanyr and Siobhan, then from all their people.  The Angels turn brilliant white, a single pure beam of white coming from the whole of their assemblage, screaming into the main glow.  Thayadon realizes that he is more powerful, at this moment, than Mystra herself.  That is a rather rare feeling.  He watches in joy beyond joy, as golden light tears forth from his chest, more powerful and potent than the greatest plasma weapon ever invented, screaming into the main golden glow.  Aurican and his dragonkind watch as they all turn golden, shimmering like stars, then the light bursts forth from them also.  Kessel GnomeWorks, ever a pragmatic gnome, who believed more in science than in faith, watches in disbelief (if that poor word could cover this situation) as his chest explodes in golden light.  From every gnome and dwarf, from every kender, the light bursts forth.  For perhaps the first time in the history of kender, all the kender in existence are silent.  They are in too much ecstasy, too much joy, and too much amazement, to make the slightest sound.  The light roars forth from Shantyra Starfire, leader of the Baklunish Confederation.  The light erupts from Alzem, Solar of Hope Isle, the creator of Hope Isle, the one who brought Angels down to Toril, and created a place so beautiful, so marvellous, that the Angels choose to stay and defend it.  Sanctus Punitor is instantly healed of all his physical and mental injuries.  Instead of despair and pain, he feels incredulous wonder and elation as the light bursts forth from him.  No sensation of joy he has ever felt, can compare with this.  There is no sensation that a mortal could ever feel, that could be like this.  Trysting, one of the greatest of mortal joys, is dwarfed by this, although the joy causes many to tryst, right then and there.  Love and hate, the strongest of mortal emotions, are swept up in this golden light, love triumphing, hate shunted aside.  Silver Phase, the leader of the Scro Star League, sees the light burst forth from ship after ship of the fleet, as if the fleet were bombarding an enemy with it's most potent weapons - but no weapons ever invented by the Scro Star League could hope to match the ferocity and intensity of the golden light tearing out of ship, tearing out of scro, tearing out of Silver Phase.  The character of Venus, Crystal, feels the exhilaration.  She wants to cry and laugh at the same time, and her face is flooded with tears.  Her people cry alongside her, as the golden light erupts from Crystal, and then from the rest of them, blasting out of them like they were volcanoes going off in sequence.  Prince Corond of the Kingdom of Ulek, feels the power scream forth from his heart, from his chest, then is lost in ecstatic joy as the golden light floods forth.  Ergoth-Nog, cries in elation, then cries, then screams in delight, as he arches, and from his body the golden light bursts forth in triumph and glory, joined by millions of other beams as his people join him.  The Knights of Neraka, cry in ecstacy and joy greater than anything ever given to them by the One God.  Even Mina finds her joy in service to the One God is dwarfed by this.  The One God has fallen away and was forgotten, long ago - now the great light bursts forth from her and the knights.  From the people of Mystara and Athas roars the light.  From the endless billions of Cydians comes the light.  From the illithid comes the light, the illithid experiencing feelings, realizing that rational thought is not all there is, confounded and incredulous, amazed at what is happening, then whelmed in joy.  From the hundred billion people of the United Commonwealth of Toril, comes a single, titanic shriek of joy, and an even bigger burst of light.  From every race, from every being, from everywhere, the golden light leaps, coming from all directions, from all dimensions, pouring together into a single colossal ball of gold.    Even the taraakians arch in joy, looks of ecstacy on their faces, Allenthrellus and Thracia weeping in joy, the great birds of the taraakians screaming in the delight their masters and mistresses cannot utter verbally, taraakian telepathy and illithid telepathy blasting forth in joy, whelming all rational thought, burying everyone in the blanket of ecstasy.  It is, indeed, a chain reaction, and it builds up higher, and higher, and higher, until all rational thought, all thought period, is gone, and there is only joy and ecstacy, physical pleasure beyond all pleasure, and those caught in this event are blind, deaf, and dumb, striken, incapable of doing anything but feeling, as the golden light still screams forth from them.  (NOTE - The God Emperor, alone, out of the entire IR, is excluded from this.  He receives no joy, and finds himself shunted OUTSIDE the Demiplane of Hope, back into the old lands of the Union of the Worlds.  Nor can he reenter the Domain of Hope.  Seeing the blast wave of the Shade coming, he decides - I hope - to flee to a far away dimension, for that is what he must do, if he wishes to survive.)  The golden ball reaches it's full power, hovering directly over the center of the Kevellond League.  With a burst that is felt across the entire Multiverse, causing an earthquake across the entirety of the Reality of the Spheres, shaking the Astral and Ethereal Planes, spilling the drinks of the Gods on the Outer Planes, causing the Sea of Holy Water surrounding Mount Olympus to rock, causing the fires of Hell to dance and waver and go out, causing the glasses in the Halls of Valhalla to tip and fall, shattering on the floor, the golden ball explodes.  A blast wave of golden light races outward, going at thousands of times the speed of light.  And as it goes, the Demiplane of Hope goes with it, growing, expanding, increasing in size at a rate beyond the calculations of the wisest gnome, the imagination of the greatest phaerimm.  Instantly, Oerth is a green-blue world again.  Instantly, all of those who fell in the IR are resurrected.  Instantly, all the wounds and hurts suffered are gone.  Instantly, all mental afflictions are removed.  Forests are back in an instant, trees tall and healthy and vibrant, filled with birds and animals, filled with life.  The Sea of Dust instantly changes back into the lush green forestland that it once was.  The Dry Steppes instantly revert to the lush forest and grasslands they once were.  Instantly, the geography of Oerth reverts to what it was prior to the IR.  Instantly, everyone is returned to their proper nation.  Kalanyr's people find themselves back in Ishtarland.  Uvenelei's people find themselves back in Lyrn and Aaqa, now filled with life, all the damage erased.  Festy Dog's people return to an Underdark filled with gems and precious metals that gleam with the reflected light of hundreds of underground lichen, throwing forth hues of every type, brilliant and fulfilling to look at.  The people of the Union of the Worlds find themselves back in their homeland.  Not their homeland as it was, but their homeland as it could have been.  The Union of the Worlds that could have been, if war had not cast it's shadow over them.  Great cities that were the dream and imagination of Kas and the God Emperor are standing tall, waiting for them.  Lush fields of crops stand ripe in the sun.  Great, colossal technological and technomanical infrastructures stand where none stood before.  The Cydian race project is completed - as is the Nightfighter project, months of work compressed into a moment.  The same thing happens to every Power on Oerth.  What your people return to is their homeland, fully healed and restored.  And more.  A homeland that could have been, should have been, if only war had not cast it's shadow over it.  Magnificent cities and colossal monuments, which were the dreams of those in the IR, and never fulfilled, are waiting when your people are sent back home.  Everything you sent to me via e-mail, every project, every dream, every hope - it's all fulfilled;  it's all there, waiting for you, when you return home.  Everything.  Even 12th level magic, if that was your desire, is now yours.  The great golden blast wave meets the incoming blast wave of Shade.  However, the two do not collide.  They pass right through each other as if the other did not exist.  For Oerth is now entirely within the Domain of Hope, and the magic that has made it so, makes it immune to the Shade blast wave.  The Shade blast wave, passes through Oerth, and has no effect at all.  The OLD Oerth, which only the God Emperor now perceives, is blown away, yes.  It is utterly destroyed.  The Oerth in the Prime Material Plane, the one fought over, the one ruined by war, the one the God Emperor condemned himself to with his selfishness, that Oerth is destroyed.  The Oerth of the Domain of Hope does not even notice the blast wave.    The Golden Wave reaches Oerth's sun.  It does not bring it back.  Oerth's sun is dead and gone.  Yet, the sun of Oerth shines brilliantly down on the Oerth of the Domain of Hope, amidst a clear blue sky, causing billowing, towering clouds to form, creating fantastic shapes across the sky.  When the Sphere of Annihilation reaches Greyspace, it utterly and totally destroys everything there.  The vision of the Angels comes true, quite literally.  All time and space ends.  Reality ends.  There is only the Void.  But in the Domain of Hope, Greyspace lives, and the sun shines brilliantly on all the worlds of the system, a beacon in the darkness of time-space.  It is what Vaeregoth herself said - it is Dream made into Reality.  It is hope, altruism, good, made into something tangible, something real.  It is Something emerging from Nothing, new Creation itself.  Within the great Sphere of Annihilation, that now devours Krynnspace, Mystara, and Athas, and finally Chorazin, Something forms out of Nothing.  That something forms as the Golden Blast Wave progresses outward, passing through the Nothing, creating Something in it's wake, and the Domain of Hope continues to grow, it's boundaries expanding at thousands of times the speed of light.  The golden light reaches the place where Realmspace was.  It does not bring Realmspace back.  But, for all that, the sun of Toril is back, shining bright and warm.  Toril is back.  Not the devastated Toril, shrouded in deep Mist, awaiting the Final Touch.  The Toril that emerges is the blue-green paradise that was, and further enhanced by the visions of Lannon, Erika Lesage, Forrester, and Hazen.  Hope Isle is back, brighter and greener than ever, no blemish or mark of war on it, it's people all resurrected.  The United Commonwealth of Toril is back.  Calimshan, Amn, and Tethyr are back, and once more the capital city of the UC towers miles into the emerald green Torilian sky.  Selune and Luna are back, and all their people.  Not as they were, but as Festy Dog and Uvenelei had hoped they would be, could be, dreamed of them being like.  So it is, across all of Realmspace.  The Crystal Sphere does not reappear.  Those on Toril looking out see a star in the distance - Oerth's star, only 2 light years distant.  Soon, they see another star, Krynn's sun.  Then, they see yet another star, the star that brightens Mystara.  Then another, as the star that brightens Chorazin emerges.  Finally, a bright, brilliant, red star - the star that warms Athas, emerging in the sky.  However, the Athas that emerges, after the passing of the Golden Wave, is not the Athas of the setting.  It is the Athas of the Blue Age.  Once more, water covers most of the world of Athas.  All of the unique undead of Athas are resurrected, the genocide of millennia is undone, forests spring up over tens of millions of square miles, rivers and lakes reappear, and clouds fill the Athian sky, dropping a gentle rain upon those below.  The Cerulean Storm is gone.  The Dragon Kings are gone.  Defiling magic, is gone - erased not only from the world, but from the minds of all who knew it.  Forgotten forever.  Even as the people of Athas watch, the sun reverts backwards, shrinking, changing from red to yellow, then back to it's original blue, now small in the sky once more.  On Krynn, the Cataclysm is undone.  All who perished in the Cataclysm, in the War of the Lance, in the Chaos War - even those lost to the Minions of Chaos - are resurrected.  Ansalon heaves itself up out of the water.  Istar once more rises into the sky.  Ergoth is once more connected to the mainland.  Kendermore is no longer a ruined badland.  New Coast is no longer a swamp.  The Dragon Overlords are converted to good, whelmed by the Golden Blast.  Qualinesti is restored, returned to the world.  The great, ancient realm of Thoradin is fully restored, volcanoes going dormant, the dwarven mansions put back together as if a God work reassembling them.  On Taladas, the great crater is filled, the smog and gloom ends, and the entire continent reverts to it's pre-Cataclysm state.  The climate of the entire planet warms drastically, the southern icecap melting, the subtropical climate of old Ansalon returning, the ice age caused by the Cataclysm over.  On Mystara, all of the nations banished to the Hollow World reappear on the surface.  Since there are surface nations there already, the peoples stare at each other in amazement.  Peoples thought to have been extinct for millennia are suddenly returned, and Thaytis, Alphatia, and countless others are back in the world of the living.  Furthermore, the degradation caused by the use of Red Steel is undone.  More importantly, the degradation to the magic of the world of Mystara, caused by the special use of a particular kind of magic employed by the Immortals and those few others that know the secret, is undone.  And in the new reality, the magic of Mystara can never fade, never be used up.  - - -  The Sphere of Annihilation finally stops growing, for Divine Intervention takes place across hundreds of Spheres, and from all the Outer Planes infuriated deities move to stop it's expansion.  The blast wave of Shade is also halted.  For the first, and last, time, Divine Intervention occurs in the IR, and the Eternal Nothingness is halted from spreading any further.  However, the dieties do not shrink the Sphere of Annihilation.  They leave it as it is.  Forevermore, there is a great Void in the Spheres, where Krynnspace, Greyspace, Realmspace, Mystaraspace, Athasspace, and Chorazinspace were.  No person from the Prime Material Plane can ever again enter this region, for there is only the Void, and all who enter are forever lost in it.  Yet, within that Void, is the Demiplane of Hope.  Those whose hearts are noble, can find the way to the Demiplane of Hope.  Those with 12th level magic, can enter the Demiplane of Hope.  Those who are invited in, can enter the Demiplane of Hope.  And as news of the Demiplane of Hope spreads, and bridges are built from it to those places that can be trusted, more and more beings will be able to come to this special place.  A place where good is supreme.  A place where good acts cause the Six Touches, and with each Touch you become more good, until you are turned into a Celestial upon the Sixth Touch.  All of the Powers in the IR gain a new Power.  They may declare what will work, and what will not work, on the worlds, or in the areas, they control.  The Kevellond League can declare whether technology will work or it will not work.  The Kevellond League can declare whether 10th level magic will work, or it will not work, or 11th level magic will work, or it will not work, or 12th level magic will work, or it will not work.  So can the Union of the Worlds.  So can the Republic of Selune.  So can the United Commonwealth of Toril.  So can the Scro Star League, within the physical boundaries of their own ships and immediately around them.  So can Ishtarland.  So can the Veiled Alliance.  So can the Hive Cluster.  So can the Alliance of the Crescent.  So can the Alliance of the Sunrise, where their domains are.  So can the Sky-Sea League, where their domains are.  So can the Under-Oerth Confederation, where their control extends.  There is no League of the Warlords in this new world of Oerth.  There is no Alliance of Dread.  No Black Brotherhood.  The Eternal Union is there, but it's leadership is gone, and the innocent people of the Eternal Union only want peace now.  There are no Corrupted Allies in this new reality, although I suppose they could be recreated.  The God Emperor will have to ask permission from Kas, and from others probably, to reenter his own dominion.  A new reality, a second chance.  The assault of the Shade, foiled.  However, Melkor the demipower is still out there.  The capacity for everyone to destroy each other, is still there - just because it's a new reality, does not mean the hearts of those in the IR are changed.  You can still make war.  You can start it all again.  You can once more bring ruin and darkness down upon yourselves and others.  You can still try to triumph over the corpses of all the other Powers.  The taraakians will not stop you, unless you once more strike beyond the Demiplane of Hope, and once more attack allies of theirs.  If you do, they will come again, and this time they will kill all who were involved in such attacks, or at least try to, without negotiation, and without warning.  The taraakians return the Diadem of Dreams, with it's two remaining charges, to Vaeregoth, Queen of the Swarm.  The taraakians, seeing that their work is done, take their leave of those in the IR, and depart, returning to their own reality.  Every Power in the IR is offered the right to come and visit the Taraakian Star Empire as they would, and to conduct trade freely.  The taraakians sign Pacts of Alliance with those who wish them (such Pacts are very important, and will be honored), and they offer treaties of friendship and trade with all the Powers of the IR.  The taraakians hope you will extend goodwill to them, and allow them to visit your lands and mingle with your people.  They agree to obey all your laws, and respect all your customs, while they are here.  And so, it could be said that you have triumphed.  The Demiplane of Hope now includes all the IR, and is many light-years across, creating a vast realm of time-space within the Spheres.  All your people are resurrected.  All your plans are fulfilled, if they did not involve destroying another Power - in which case you must yet work to fulfill that desire.  All that you had wished for, dreamed of, and lost because war cast it's shadow over your Power, is yours at last.  The Golden Light fades, the blast over, and the Domain of Hope remains, forever, in the Void where the old IR once was.</blockquote>

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