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As you enter the Library a strange blue worm-like creature floats up to you. He is wearing oval-shaped reading glasses on his rounded head, a well groomed mustache extends from his upper lip, curling upward ending in loops on either side of his face. Six small insect legs are folded along his naked blue torso, his stubby little tail wiggles underneath him as he floats before you with a wide smile.

“Hello,” he says. “Do you need a book?”     "No?"

“Ohh, they sent you here to learn about the Omni-verse,” his face lit up with excitement, “Then sit right down and tell me what you want to know more about,”

1. Of the Sund’i’Kia, and the Unraveling of the Ancient Universe

2. Of The Maek’tai, the Great Mending, and the Founders.

3. Of the birth of the 3^rd Gate Defenders.

4. What are the Power Gems? 
5. Tell me about Power Gem Combos.
6. The Defender Sub-Classes and Abilities
7. Of the Pilgrims, And their worship of Gate 3
8. Gates, Portals, and Rifts  What's the difference?
9. The 25 Known elements of the Omni-verse
10. The 17  Immortals

Of the Sund’i’Kia, and the Unraveling of the Ancient Universe

Before the dawn of time, There existed only the Creator, A massive force made up of three parts; Energy, Mass and Consciousness. Then, in a time so long ago that our own knowledge of it is limited to this tale I tell you now, the Creator expanded beyond his singular existence. The Creator exploded in a massive Big Bang, spreading all three parts of himself about the newly formed area in many varying combinations. This colossal reaction formed the beginnings of the Ancient Universe.

Energy, Mass and Consciousness turned into Suns, planets, and eventually the life-forms who would evolve into the intelligent beings of the universe. For a time this Universe was at peace. Good and evil were set in a never ending balance by the power of the Creator. The early universe had order, the essence of the creator was still instilled in all things and beings and forces of great power were kept separate from the lesser, mortal races.

After long eons of this stable universe, a group of powerful beings rose to greatness. Their true name is lost to history, but forever after they would be known as the Sund’i’Kia (meaning Worldly Sunder in the language that named them.)

These 7 magical beings realized that the Creator was still connected to all three parts of himself throughout the universe. With this realization they also determined that all of existence was still proceeding like clockwork, from the moment the Big Bang began, in exactly the design the Creator laid out for it. Being of a higher intelligence, these creatures deemed that in the state the Universe was in they had no free will to grow beyond the Creator’s design.

Using their vast knowledge and power, the Sund’i’Kia conspired to separate their Realm of Existence from the Creator, their hopes were to control their own destiny. They honed their craft to perfection until they finally knew enough about the Creator to put their plan into motion.

In a feat of extraordinary power the Sund’i’Kia pulled their Realm of Existence from the Linear Universe. In a sense, they cut a patch out of the Fabric of the Universe, in this way they gained full control over their own Realm and(they thought) their own destinies within.

But in their greed the Sund’i’Kia failed to realize one very important fact. The Fabric of Universe had been sewn out of one single string. By cutting their Realm out, the Sund’i’Kia unraveled the very precise and tight boundaries which separated the Different Dimensions of Existence. Instead of a Flattened quilt with distinct barriers, it became a chaotic ball of string.

Beings of good and evil, powerful and weak, immortals and mortals, demons and spirits, all were thrown together in random mixes. The result was a Multi-dimensional, Multi-Planar layer of Worlds, a sort of Omni-verse with no rules. This turned out badly for many lesser races who were forced into slavery or worse, like being harvested to feed the appetites of Demons of great evil. Even the Sund’i’Kia found themselves in a world where their new-found power was not as up to par as before. Their only advantage was that they knew what had happened. The Sund’i’Kia survived and lived out their days, but their line eventually died out, leaving behind what little knowledge they had of what they had done.

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Of The Maek'tai, the Great Mending, and the Founders.

Out of this Chaotic mess left behind by the Sund'i'Kia, a group of five magical beings even more powerful emerged. Though they could not undue what had been done, these beings did their best to mend the barriers between the Realms. It remained a massive jumble of worlds, but the boundaries between them all became much more distinct. These beings choose to keep themselves nameless so that others could not determine their source of power, or undue what they had done. We know of them as the Maek'tai, (meaning Menders in the common language their descendants created within all the Realms).

The Maek'tai combined their 5 essences to create a giant fortress made of their own hardened matter, right in the direct center of the new balled string of the Omni-verse. From this fortress (later named The Fortress of Stability) they projected their Magical essence outward, It oozed around the strings of the Omni-verse, spreading like water soaking a towel, thus creating barriers between the worlds.

But the barriers were not perfect. The Maek'tai did not have the power to completely cut the Realms off from “The Source” (the collective energy of the Creator which could never be created or destroyed, only altered). Each world was left with a small breech in these new barriers, a type of umbilical cord which connected them to The Source. Around each of these breeches the Maek'tai created an inter-planar Gate. When closed, these Gates would allow only the energy of The Source to pass through, therefore keeping physical Demons and most corporeal life-forms from crossing between the breeches in the barriers.

It was not a fail safe system, The Maek'tai left their most promising offspring to populate the Giant Fortress which sat at the center of this new complex web of barriers. In all, the 5 Maek'tai left 17 of their descendants behind to figure out how to maintain The Fortress of Stability indefinitely, until all evil was destroyed or a way could be figured out to truly repair the broken Omni-Verse. The Maek'tai themselves hid their home world with what remained of their magic, They will forever guard their lost Realm and with it the true origin of The Source.

Within the walls of The Fortress of Stability, the Maek'tai had created 4 more large Gates, or Portals. From these Gates one could emerge into any other world by way of it’s own Gate. Using these gateways, the 17 descendants of the Maek'tai (known as The Founders) traveled to world after world, liberating lesser creatures from the clutches of Evil Demons who had been trapped in Realms other than their own when the Barriers went up.

Eventually the freed people of these worlds began to rebuild societies and soon Nations began to arise. Time passed and the Founders secured world after world, within 100 years the 17 Founders liberated close to a thousand Worlds and sent misplaced Beings either to their doom or back to the Realm they belonged. The Founders did all this themselves, never asking for any kind of aid beyond the metals they needed to bolster the ever-eroding walls of The Fortress of Stability.

The Founders maintained good relations with the newly formed nations. It was easier to guard a World’s Gate from the inside, plus they traded with these new Nations for the precious metals they needed. These people were all too eager to trade since the Founders had access to all sorts of exotic materials from other Realms. The Founders taught these people about what their parents had done, and that The Source was the one true power to believe in. For The Source was now the last remnant of the Creator, who’s will no longer directed the fate of conscious beings.

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Of the birth of the 3^rd Gate Defenders.

In the 175^th year after the creation of the Fortress of Stability, the Founders began to feel their powers diminishing. They had not been young when the Maek'tai left them behind, and now they started realizing the effects of old age creeping in. They knew they would eventually die out, as all things do, and that the defense of the Gates would have to be left up to the lesser races of the Realms.

The Founders went to the leaders of each Realm in turn, telling them of the situation and beseeching the Rulers that if of each Nation would give their 3^rd Born child to the cause, then the barriers between the Realms could be maintained indefinitely. Many Rulers agreed, feeling honored at being able to repay the Founders for their long toil against the forces of chaos. At the age of 18, these 3^rd born were sent to the Founders.

Within a month, out of 1,125 Realms, nearly 700 3^rd born princes arrived at The Fortress of Stability. The Founders took in and trained these princes in the use of the Gates and in the crafts necessary to fight the Demons of the many Realms yet un-stabilized. For it would soon be up to them alone to guard the Gates and maintain the Barriers between the Realms.

These first 700 princes named themselves The 3^rd Gate Defenders. Each generation after, the Rulers of the Realms sent their 3^rd born child to the Fortress on their 18^th birthday. Their numbers continued to grow, and by the time the last Founder passed away, many thousands of 3^rd born’s were busy in both the Fortress of Stability and in other strongholds throughout the Realms. They had learned everything they could from the Founders, They were all that stood now between the tentative peace and total chaos.

It is now 2,391 years since the birth of the 3^rd Gate Defenders, and the Fortress of Stability still stands in the center of the chaotic torrent of Realms. Even though thousands of worlds had been liberated, fewer and fewer of the older worlds now send their 3^rd born. The Defenders do not begrudge these Realms, still helping them in times of great need, but they are much quicker to respond to threats within the worlds and Nations who still help fill their ranks.

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What are the Power Gems?   

Here for examples.

Some Members of the 3^rd Gate Defenders known as Soul Catchers have the ability to capture the souls of powerful beings when they die. These souls, or Essences, contain the beings magical energy and also the elemental properties the Creature exhibited in Life. While most soul catchers can capture this energy, some high-level Soul Catchers can reshape this energy to their own uses, even infusing the essences into other objects, most of the time into a small precious jewel, sometimes into pure gold or Omni-Metal, which is then alloyed with other metals to create rings, amulets, helmets.  

A Power Gem refers to a precious stone which has been infused with this energy.

Each of you has your signet ring set with 5 diamonds on it in a circular pattern (Like on the back of a Magic the Gathering card). These 5 points of the circle represent the Maek'tei, the powerful beings who created the Great Barrier and Mended the Omni-verse. These Diamonds can be removed, leaving 5 empty slots.

Soon after joining the Defenders you will each receive 2 power gems and replace 2 of your diamonds with these gems.
This leaves room for 3 more Power Gems on your ring (you will acquire more as we go)

Each of your weapons also has 1 set of 5 small holes in the same circular pattern in various places depending on the weapon.

If you've ever played Final Fantasy 7, The gems will work in a similar manner to Materia. For those who haven't played FF7 :

Say you kill a demon and your Soul Catcher captures it's essence. This essence will contain elemental powers. Say Fire, Poison, etc...

The poison (or other) element could then be infused into a semi-precious gem. Setting this Gem into your Signet Ring would grant you limited immunity to certain poisons (the ones associated with the original Demon or poisons from that Demon's Realm).

Now, for weapons, you will be able to acquire certain "Enhancement Gems". Placing an Enhancement Gem next to this poison Gem within the slots of your weapon, will imbibe the weapon with a poison ability. Any creature hit by that weapon must save vs. poison or suffer the consequences.

Placing an Enhancement Gem next to a poison Gem on your ring would allow you to actually gain HP from Poisons. Each element works in a similar way.

You will come across many different Power Gems and enhancement Gems as we move along (especially once our Soul Catcher is able to infuse them himself.) You will have nearly infinite combinations to experiment with to give you different powers. And you can change your combos 'on the fly' (well, in a round or two) to deal with different situations.

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Of the Pilgrims, And their worship of Gate 3

You may have noticed the multitude of 'religious' people who come to the Fortress of Stability, staying just a short while just to travel back home trough Gate 3. You may also have noticed the gigantic, gaudy Shrine located between gates 3 and 4.

At some point in the past a group of people from varying Realms began teaching that the four Gates of the Fortress of Stability were Sacred and Holy places, It was from there that all their realms had been liberated from Chaos. The Founders had told all peoples that The Source was the power of the Creator. So it was only natural for them to assume that the Gates (which utilize the power of The Source) were parts of the Creator as well. When these people first heard of the 3rd Gate Defenders they thought, erroneously, that "3rd" in 3GD referred to Gate 3. And that if 3GD was so keen on Defending it, then it must be the one true gateway through The Source.

Myth became legend and soon a religion was born. Their god was The Source, and Gate 3 became their way to touch God. Known as Pilgrims, they believed that by traveling through Gate 3 one could touch the Source and be shown the true nature of their existence. This was not true, of course, but the 3rd Gate Defenders saw no harm in the belief so they allowed these Pilgrims to build a shrine near gate 3 so the people could marvel at the Founder's creation. In fact, the Pilgrims do much good in the liberated Realms, helping to ease suffering and provide materials for the needy.

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Gates, Portals, and Rifts

Though virtually the same thing, (alley-ways through the astral plane from one Realm to another) we have different names for these alley-ways depending on their origin.  A Gate refers to the natural gateway between the 4 Fortress Gates and the gate of each Realm ,which the Maek'tai created during the Great Mending.  A Portal is an opening created by a Planeshifter between two realms, a Realm's Gate is not used in a portal, but the Portal itself must travel through a main Gate and back. Portals close up when a planeshifter let's it go. A Rift is a tear in the great barrier connecting two or more worlds, usually fashioned by powerful beings or design flaws in the Great Barrier. Some Planeshifters do use Rifts also, they would then use their ability to repair it right away.

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The 25 Known elements of the Omni-verse

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The 17  Immortals

 The Immortals are what we call Super-Beings. These beings can exist in Multiple Planes of existence at the same time. Many of them exhibit God-like powers and are even worshipped in some realms. Especially the Evil ones, who rule as God-Emperors in many un-liberated Realms. Some of them give aid to the 3^rd Gate Defenders, at times, but most are only interested in their own needs and designs for the Omniverse.

Hydr'o'cos- An energy Being made up of millions of atom sized Nuclei. Each of these Nuclei contains the collective, diabolical soul of Hydr'o'cos. These Nuclei are synthetically similar to a Hydrogen molecule, needing only one electron to bond with almost any molecule of matter. Basically this means that Hydr'o'cos can take any form it wishes.

We’ve not put a number on it, but we know that Hydr'o'cos can exist in at least 500 different Realms at once. It needs only a few of its Nuclei to take over any weak or unprotected creature’s mind. (The Topaz Power Gem protects all 3GD from that fate)

Hydr'o'cos is obsessed with the Sund’i’Kia, and the Maek’tei. It scours the Realms looking for clues to their ancient magic. We can only imagine what Hydr'o'cos wants it for.

Hydr'o'cos’s only weakness is that its Nuclei cannot pass though any Gate. It can use a form of Limited Transportation, but it mostly travels between Realms Via Rifts (which it rarely closes, leaving us a clue to its movements). But It has always been denied passage to what it most desires. To gain access into the Fortress of Stability would be to know all and rule all for such a powerful being. In fact, Hydr'o'cos is always trying to break down the outer walls of the Fortress, beyond which are the Outer-most Demon Dimensions. Only the Greatest of the 3GD fight on the front-lines of that battle. 

Xergd’zdat –Xergd’zdat the Deceiver- Mischievous energy being. Complete, frustrating bastard!!  If he's involved, Nothing is what it seems  ... Xergd'zdat keeps tabs on and makes life generally annoying for all of the other Immortals, and also the 3rd Born Gate Defenders. He takes delight in frustrating and manipulating others to do his will.

Daz'Zaga - A being of pure darkness, death, and evil, he excells at mind-sucking and enveloping realms in a strange Omni-metal mist whose origins and purpose have yet to be determined. Daz'Zaga is by far the most evil and vicious of all teh Immortals, he and Hydr'o'cos are at constant odds. 

Ip’a’losix- the Time keeper, Friendly, but sometimes indifferent to 3GD. More interested in calculating Quantum physics of the Omniverse. 

More as I make them up, or they become relevant to the Quest :)

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Author:  Damien Bezio, The ATARI HeRo.
Copyright © 2004  [D&D]
Revised: 01/30/07.