#I don't have.a proper title for this yet

[eparch]

​Multi-Timeline Lore !

Part 1... maybe?

I don't know if I'll ever have the energy or brain power to actually make a comjc or a Big Damn Fic abt this so I've just written up some BIG LORE rambling that probably won't make sense to anyone + made a sketchy cover thingy for it-

I have multiple timelines/AUs and the main thread that ties them together is Scillareth's timeline (her people call it the Dawn world) allowing their Elder Dragons to rip open rifts through the Mists and into the other worlds to go eat their magic instead. They've dealt with the Elder Dragons by turning them into anime boys girls and enbies giving them new vessels to inhabit that Scillareth has some power over and for the most part, they're kind of okay with the arrangement (it's complicated feelings for everyone involved) but mostly because they get to do whatever they want in other worlds.

And naturally the Commanders and the Pacts and the Dragon's Watches of the other worlds are not gonna let this happen without fighting back, to varying degrees of success depending on the Commander and which dragon went for their world. Story wise this would start out focused on Lucilaeh's timeline ("Dusk") first, where they're fairly successful at holding a line against Dawn Zhaitan who is invading Sylvan Orr and manipulating the Risen once more.

Things suddenly get personal for Luci because Scillareth starts sending her brother Clerestion into various worlds to assassinate other Commanders, but rather than go for Luci, he kidnaps Benedicuore—her beloved brother—for unknown reasons instead. At this point though they don't really have a good understanding of what's happening and Ben just goes missing—what changes that is @/icebrooding's commander, Kaushue from "Gloom", falling through a rift with Dawn Trahearne in tow being chased by Awakened. Luci helps fight off the Awakened, closes the portal, and then finally gets answers out of Dawn Trahearne about the sudden return of Zhaitan and where Ben was taken to!

(Dawn Trahearne defected from Scillareth's Pact after years of being puppeted by her, disgusted with the way she used the Pact to forcibly "unite" the five races and how she went behind his back on killing Zhaitan. A few rising heroes of the Dawn world—Malyck, Braham, Rox—helped him escape and go on the run. Kaushue had been world hopping for Reasons, encountered him and then the two of them were discovered by Awakened soldiers...who are there because Scilla "teamed up" with Joko—)

Luci won't stand for all of this of course. She wants her brother back but she also very much does not like what Scilla's doing with the Elder Dragons on principle. Especially since the Dusk timeline successfully ended the Dragon Cycle, so she knows how things could have gone, could be better, despite all the sacrifices her world had to make. So Luci decides to use Dawn Zhaitan's portal to jump into the Dawn timeline and start her new heroic quest.

The Pact launches an assault, she and Kaushue and whoever from Dragon's Watch sneak behind enemy lines, etc—they successfully subdue Dawn Zhaitan and make him open a rift. But when Luci and Kaushue go through (DW stay behind to keep an eye on Zhaitan), they find themselves in the Mists instead, which is where they discover they're not the only Commanders officially caught up in all this.

This is where they encounter our other Commanders! So far that'd be:

Bikki (Isekai Commander) and Lily from "Prism", time travelers in their own world from 1000 years in the future who were sent back to become co-commanders by an unknown person. They are there because they found an unattended rift and went through to investigate. These two are pretty much the most level headed Commanders present and are fairly enthusiastic about getting to work with other Commanders and get to the root of the inter-timeline problems. Lily a little more than Bikki. Their world, strangely, was not attacked by any of the dragons, so who knows where that rift came from?

Nepenth (@/icebrooding's courtier) and Ardant from "Torment", our horrible courtiers who hate each other and can barely work together, from their commanders AU—their world was attacked by Dawn Mordremoth and they're here because Dragon's Watch hates them both and someone (Jory. It was 100% Jory) pushed them through a portal in the hopes they could both go away permanently and also take care of the problem at the same time. Ardant is mostly interested in getting out of there and saving his own skin. Nepenth frequently has a gun pointed at him and likely chained themselves together again (first time was in HoT) and has figured he'd see the entire thing through to the end.

Dosa (Branded Salad) from "Crystal" who is probably the strangest one to be here, being a Sylvari Commander who was somehow Branded (answer: was Awakened first). She's here not out of a sense of heroism and stopping the world ending threats, she's here because Dawn Kralkatorrik is encroaching on her world, where her Kralkatorrik won and she's been working with him to eliminate the remaining dragons while he continues to eat up the Mists of their timeline, and she wants to put a stop to the external forces.

This list isn't wholly complete because it'd definitely grow as I get more ideas for Commanders and it is skewed heavily toward Sylvari at the moment and I want to fix that, but these are what I have at the moment.

It's not too fleshed out past this point but the idea is that this group spends a little time in the Mists between worlds, working on finding a way into the Dawn world (Luci has realized that Zhaitan likely tricked them). They do meet various familiar faces along the way but they only make actual progress when they rescue and meet one more Sylvari who calls himself a Commander too—Yulan, a powerful Chronomancer from "Midnight" who lost his sister to the Dragonvoid, and has been traveling the Mists between worlds for some time now. Yulan explains that he's seen each of the Dawn timeline's dragons as they travel to and fro, always coming from the same locations within the Mists, and suggests using the next dragon's rift (probably Jormag idk yet) to finally enter the Dawn timeline.

and...that is pretty much what I've got plotted out other than some vague ideas of where things might go: they probably meet Dawn Joko somewhere in there—could he retake control of Branded-Awakened? Especially one from other timelines the way the Elder Dragons have been taking control of other timelines' dragon minions? Who knows!!! Dosa will find out. They'll also meet the Dawn timeline's group of heroes that do not like what Scilla is doing, basically the Destiny's Edge + the would-be Dragon's Watch + Malyck. They can't explicitly fight the Pact since things seem to have generally gone for the better with the Elder Dragons under control, but most of them just kind of feel like...this isn't right. And with Malyck, they'd definitely meet his mom tree in this timeline because I have that character planned out. Also Malyck is Vlast's Champion here btw and Vlast is probably around? Maybe? I still need to work out too what's going to happen to Aurene but I definitely want her to be involved somehow!

What I do know for sure is that they will eventually discover that Scillareth and her Elder Dragons are in fact being manipulated by someone else who will be the real final boss, but who that is...is gonna have to stay a mystery for now :V