77,000 BCE – The Final Days of the Isu
The sky shimmered unnaturally, as if the very fabric of the world strained under some invisible force. Above the golden towers of the Isu, an angry sun wept deadly rays, unseen by mortal eyes but felt deep within every soul—human and Isu alike.
The Cataclysm was near.
In the great archives of Thule, the last bastion of pure knowledge, a lone figure moved with desperate purpose. Vael'Ruun, Scholar of Memory, Guardian of the Living Thread, ignored the quake that split the marble beneath his feet. His hands, elegant and crafted beyond perfection, danced over an ancient device: a shimmering obelisk etched with glyphs older than language itself.
They had warned him.They had called him a traitor.
But Vael knew the truth. The Isu had ruled, yes—but their reign was always meant to end. Humanity was not a mistake. It was evolution.
And he would endure long enough to see it.
At the center of the room stood a relic few Isu even knew existed: the Aeternum Engine—a fusion of the Pieces of Eden, capable of doing what none had dared attempt—binding consciousness not to a body, but to existence itself.
"Forgive me," he whispered, not to his gods, but to a woman.
To Isara, the human he loved.
The earth rumbled violently. The protective field around Thule flickered and died. In the distance, the great capitals of the Isu burned with brilliant light—cities becoming ash in moments.
Vael activated the Engine.
Pain like fire and ice lanced through his being. He felt his form dissolve, felt the pull of time trying to scatter him like dust. But he clung to one thought, one memory, one name.
Isara.
His body fell lifeless, but his essence endured. A fragment of will, anchored to the river of time, destined to awaken again and again—hidden within the bloodlines of mankind.
The Isu would fall.The world would forget.But Vael would remain.
The Legacy of the First had begun