#eldstones

For only by commission of the Act would all Forces ken that Erda’s Ka had evolved, and only a world whose Ka has evolved may participate in the Great War, and only a world who has won many battles in the Great War may be granted custody of the Body of Light, and named its Guardian.

And so it came to pass that Erda was made anew, and the Void made its preparations within it, to ripen the world.

The one who would be First Archon was born, and the Sword made itself known to him. The Void, hungry, awaited. But the one who would be First Archon infuriated the Void, for it sensed the potential of the Act within him, and the Kingdom suffered for his existence.

The Void gave him the illusion of the Jack’s defeat, to thwart him. But the First Archon had a kenning that stretched beyond the Void’s reckoning, and he knew the Darkness was within him, growing, expanding. He understood the Darkness for what it was -- Sunderer, Devourer, World-Eater -- Mouth of the Void. And the Void was where it belonged.

He did not ken enough to know that it is not death that awaited him in the Void, should he journey there to expunge the Darkness from him, but a neverending life with no relief or solace. But kenning nothing except the duty to protect Erda, a duty that had been planted in him at the moment of his birth, a duty that he nurtured and never ignored, the First Archon entered the Void, and rebuked the Darkness, and cast it from him.

And so it passed that the Darkness only devoured the First Archon, his body and his mortality, and though the Darkness would return to harry Erda many times hence, it is recognised that these battles are a part of the Great War -- for Erda’s Ka had evolved with the Act of William Black, and the name of the Act is “Sacrifice”.