From whence you came, you shall remain
The Terminus was so very angry and bitter that day.
Sometime in the middle of Year 506's Summer season, what was once The Island and its entrances mysteriously snapped shut. All those who had begun to explore the rugged hills and confront the peculiar statues that dotted them, were forcefully ejected - through unfamiliar and wild rifts - back to their homes in Novus. Their travel was a mind-numbing blur and the nausea that followed was thankfully brief.
Inhabitants could still see the Island from the continental shelf at the Southern borders of Novus, but no one knew how to access it anymore. That day, the statues turned faceless and their eyes drifted shut.
But the sea... it was not nearly as forgiving. It did not, would not, forget the day it first allowed the Island to escape its depths and rise back to its former glory — then open to all the Novians to explore its magical, mystifying landscape. The sea knew the Island was on borrowed time, its magic too wild, too raw, too hungry.
And so in the blink of an eye, the violent waves' maws yawned wide and the Terminus swallowed it whole.
In its place, a rift... pulsing and churning, at the south of Novus near the circular isthmus pass between Dusk and Night, over the Terminus. Its edges are frayed and tattered, and its existence alone draws the gods to it.
First Vespera arrives — for she is the only one that had not been called forth first by her Court — and her mouth is set in a thin, stern line. Solis appeared by her side shortly. Oriens is next, his brow furrowed. And Caligo last, for she felt a greater duty to remain among her people than meddle with her siblings... until she felt the pulsating pull as the rift tugged at its seams and ripped its stitches.
The gods stand at the circular isthmus pass, staring out towards the rift. They murmur between themselves.
This is the formal, in-character demise of the Island and the subsequent (initial) introduction of its successor. Surely, the majesty that was once the Island cannot be reduced to a simple, feral rift... right?
Stay tuned to see what happens next ♥ The next installment in the coming days will allow interaction and be a special February event bundled into one!
