ORIGINS

Antistrophe either descended into the Multitude at the exact moment of Radiance or immediately thereafter depending on which telling. Unlike Radiance, however, Antistrophe was unaccompanied when he rose out. His form inspired awe and terror in those that witnessed him for he bore black wings like great shadows that stretched into eternity, talons on hands and feet that could tear planets asunder, and great horns upon a his head. He visited all of the angels’ dwellings about the universe and leered but then assured no harm to all he encountered. In Alun, Izzah called him Aternal for his presence dimmed the luminance of the First Light which still lived in him and the lesser angels. Antistrophe took no offense and was, in fact, inspired by Izzah’ title and courageous words to him. He went to Caelum to recount Izzah’s composure and tact to Radiance; though Radiance smiled he grew more wary that the darkness which loomed about Antistrophe might extinguish the First Light. He bade Antistrophe leave Caelum and not return, but that he collect no more than ten thousand angels from both citadels as a favor, that he might form his own populace somewhere far away. In this endeavor Antistrophe was quite convincing and found most of the ten thousand who believed to follow him was proper and the First Light faded from their hearts. When he had traveled to the distant reaches of the universe he was missing only one of his great host. He came upon the remains of Solum and commanded that his followers inhabit it while he searched for the last angel. He went back to Alun and ordered an audience with Izzah and Chaya, then that he had chosen one of their sons for his host but that they would decide which of them would go. Chaya protested, begging Izzah not to submit and so Izzah denied him firstly. Antistrophe repeated his request, Izzah denied him more forcefully for the second time. So Antistrophe took him and Chaya to the Alaen to meet their sons. He called all those who dwelt there to the center of the city where he raised his great taloned hand and cleft Sul’s body in two. Layl cried out in unison with many of the others who had never seen death, and begged Antistrophe that he return to Solum as his final prize. He plucked one of his brother’s golden eyes from his head and took it with him in remembrance. When he departed Alaen, his mother and father, and the other angels, he became their enemy.
When Antistrophe and Layl came back to Solum, the populace there had turned violent and half were killed or had consumed each other. Solum was covered with blood and the remains of the dead. Those who survived no longer resembled the angels they had been, they were pitch dark figures even in peering from the shadows. They craned their necks to see the return of their sovereign and hissed at Layl. Layl silenced them with a word, but when he turned to Antistrophe for counsel he found that he had been abandoned. He fought some of the remaining survivors that rebuked him and commanded the corpses be cast into the deeps of space. The others pointed what fingers remained on their hands and wept at the sight of him, calling him “desolate”, and begged that he not reveal his name to them. They called him Mazhran, “The Great Rebellion”, and soon thereafter submitted to him as their master.
Mazhran looked over the whole of Solum for ages, walking its corridors and pressing an ear to the walls to listen for always he heard murmurs which beckoned him. Some were sorrowful songs, others fits of rage or threats of violence. When he had committed them to memory he too began to change from his first form, though it escaped his notice until one of great and ruinous stature among the dwellers approached him. He introduced himself as Viga, asked for Mazhran’s favor, and led him to the only pool of still water in Solum that had not been touched by the carnage of the others but where some ruins of the bastion had fallen into it, a place that Mazhran strangely had never come upon. When first he looked upon the pool, Mazhran recoiled and wept at his own reflection for what he’d become, but Viga was unmoved and simply stretched out his hand and gestured that Mazhran look again. The two stood at the water’s edge for a time before Mazhran glimpsed Viga’s intention for there was a faint glimmer beneath the surface. Mazhran then waded in to look closer; he went down to retrieve the aged vestments of an angel whose body lay at the bottom untouched. Viga rejoiced when he emerged and dressed him in this vestige, praised him for his magnificence, and called him Aternal. At this, Mazhran welled at first with contempt, but then with triumph and named Viga as his companion and next-in-command. They went about Solum making plans and rallying the other dwellers who all yielded to Mazhran’s leadership. He tended them and claimed them as his lineage, thus the race of Aternals was truly born.