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Post by DC Dystopia Council on Aug 13, 2010 14:24:19 GMT -5
And so, the ultimate battle of this age came to pass.
Light and dark, good and evil fought to decide the next epoch of magic, to decide which would lay claim upon the millenia to come. Magic was at a crossroads, the likes of which had not been seen since the sea swallowed Atlantis and the great primordial Fae magics were lost as the dawn of man and science arose.
Tim Hunter was born as a conduit for raw, unfettered magic at the end of the First Age of Man. The forces of Light and Dark both vied to win the boy in his youth, to turn him to their side and decide the fate of the battle to come. The forces of Light failed. Tim turned to Darkness, and the final battle of this age was a foregone conclusion, a massacre and terror.
The particulars are clouded in uncertainty, as no party still living was witness to all the acts which lead to "The Breaking.” Lies and conspiracy also continue to spin their webs even today as parties fight for position of dominance of this savage new age. Here is a recounting of the events which ended the world past, and forged the world as is.
Tim Hunter was first approached by the Trenchcoat Brigade (Constantine, Phantom Stranger, Mister E and Doctor Occult) in the early 90s, while still in his childhood. They revealed to the boy his magical heritage, his promise, and his destiny to be the greatest magical force of this age. The men attempted to guide the boy towards the righteous, to be a force of good and usher in the next age as one of Light and Good. They thought they had succeeded.
They thought wrong.
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Post by DC Dystopia Council on Aug 13, 2010 14:26:17 GMT -5
The boy grew and was twisted by the forces of Dark. Etrigan the Demon (and others?) seduced the boy with the promises of the wild vast powers contained in the black magics. Etrigan dreamt of using the boy to overthrow Lucifer and gain dominance over the realm of Hell at last. Tim grew in power quickly, faster than Etrigan could control. His prophesied might emerged to consume the dark magics of the universe. Tim Hunter emerged from his teenage chrysalis not as a butterfly of hope, but as a winged demon of nightmare. He became simply Hunter, hunter of souls.
By the early 2010s, Hunter had grown into a man, bursting with magical power. He had gained dominance over the separate eternally-warring factions of the Dark. Hunter forced them together under his iron rule, and set forth to end this age, and begin the next which would rule existence for a thousand millennia.
The pieces all began to move in an unstoppable dance toward an inevitable climatic confrontation. Darkseid, Vandal Savage, the Black Lanterns, and many others allied with Hunter, each seeking their portion of the empire to come. And The Justice League, too late, became aware of the build-up of their enemies - organized and united as they had never been before.
It was the Apocalypse, Armageddon, Ragnarok, the end of days, the death of an age, the last trial of man. There are as many names and prophecies for that destined confrontation as there are peoples in the universe, each having some legend which foretold the battle. The forces of Hunter clashed with the Justice League, the Spectre, and anyone who would stand and fight for their fate.
The battles raged for weeks - all over Earth, all over the stars. The forces of Darkness were held at bay, nearly defeated in the all-consuming desperate battle. As powerful as Hunter was, Magic itself had grown weaker, fainter in this long Age of Man and Science. His forces formed a plan to gain more energy to power their numbers. Sinestro damned the universe with his betrayal, leading Hunter to the most powerful energy source in the known universe…the power source of the Lantern Rings.
The forces of Darkness attacked Oa, slaying the Guardians of the Universe and great portions of the Lantern Corps. Hunter joined with the Source, twisting its energy into pure, magical fuel for his being. The corruption of the battery sent out a great shockwave which spanned the entire universe. The energy was a wild magical EMP which destroyed and consumed science and technology, rendering machines and electronics inert and useless.
Hunter returned to Earth, coursing with the purest energy stolen from the heart of the universe, to begin his reign of the second great Age of Magic. Many died in the days that followed - entire cities and countries were ravaged, torn entirely from the globe. The Justice League was broken, and the final battle came to be between Hunter and the right hand of God, the Spectre.
The two became locked in final mortal combat, hand-to-hand brutality as primal magics of good and evil clashed in an uproar which burned the atmosphere. No one knows what happened, as neither Spectre nor Hunter have been seen since that day. They disappeared into the sun, hands locked at each other's throats. What is known is that the resulting release of energy that came a moment later gave the sun new explosive fuel. Perhaps it was the energy of Hunter's death, or that of the Spectre's death…or perhaps both or none. But the sun grew to new broiling power, increasing in size and strength so that Mercury boiled away into a charred husk.
The earth was forced into a new environmental balance, its planet-wide climate becoming one of a desert world. Great stretches of farmland and lakes withered to nothing, giving way to soil erosion and spreading dunes of dirt around the world. The oceans shrunk, and then became engorged once more as the ice caps melted a large percentage of their mass away. Flooding took the coast lines, then waters receded once more in the dryness, leaving ruined cities in the wake of planetary adjustment.
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Post by DC Dystopia Council on Aug 13, 2010 14:35:35 GMT -5
Now we come to the world we know today, a decade after the dawn of this new Age. Civilizations around the universe are slowly rebuilding, attempting to reclaim technology and science after the great Breaking. The forces of Darkness, though leaderless in the absence of Hunter, still contain great power in this new landscape, roaming freely to consume what they wish.
No answer from the stars in many years, those on earth left to struggle on alone. The Batman has begun to reclaim the East Coast, restoring an outline of order maintained by strict justice. Wayne Industries attempting to restore power and technology to society thrust back into the Dark Ages. The East Coast of the Bat is a dark, rough place, but one of the best hopes of mankind to survive in this new ruined, dry world.
The Midwest has been claimed by a newly risen warlord. Rechristened “New Krypton,” the Midwest belongs to the being once known as Superman. In the final battles Superman suffered to the point of no return. The Joker had slain his family and Lois Lane in the chaos, but Superman grimly battled on, if only to save the world he loved despite his personal pain. Then he was targeted by the forces of Darkness with a near-fatal dose of magically-modified Red Kryptonite, driving him wild with torturous pain and torment. The shards of Red Kryptonite embedded themselves into his being, fueling rage and hatred and altering his mind. The forces of Darkness had turned one of the greatest weapons of Good. But then, the sun grew in power after the release of energy in the final battle between Hunter and Spectre and Superman's powers likewise grew to new heights, further driving him wild beyond even the influence of the Red Kryptonite. The power of the heightened sun allowed Superman to escape the control of the forces of Darkness and now he seeks to build his own empire. He sees the world through a blood-red haze, his soul pained by the loss of his love and family, his body pained by the Red Kryptonite and the surging sun, and his mind broken under the stress of all of these things.
And so America is no more, the world reformed as the old maps burn away. Now only sparse settlements dot the dry landscape, with some larger cities rebuilding where mankind has drawn together to try and rebuild. Mankind tries to protect itself from the dominant Dark magical forces and the roving bands of demons or simple evil, opportunistic men. Superpowered beings who survived the great Breaking forge on, surviving as they can, with some traveling much-changed paths of destiny.
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