(Skip the italics if you don't care about background.) DM's note(for the outsider looking in): Over the summer of 2019, i had the pleasure of running a couple rpg campaigns within my friend group. Both campaigns took place in a mutual homebrew setting that involved elements of both systems being DMed - D&D 5e and Numenera - but diluted so as to be compatible. Due to my growing investment in this new setting, I felt like I wanted to tell more stories in it (in addition to future campaigns), and its scope (cosmically speaking) grew quite out of hand (comically) - speaking of which: this work originally took form as Fanfiction, in much the same way most inspirations do. The mentioned dilution and subsequent out-of-handedness…-ing means that any such setting elements have been distorted (via that beautiful creative fusion dance known as brainstorming) so that this work can no longer be considered a proper "Dungeons and Dragons fanfic" or "Numenera fanfic." Any resemblance to tabletop rpg systems living or dead has become… tangential and referential at best. However, the avenue of more blatantly incorporating such elements remains open, meaning the work may topple into the realm of fanfiction at any moment's notice. DM's note(for the outsider looking in): I expect to foster this setting for some time as I continue to hone the craft of writing, but I hope to also, in the future, tell stories within it that are more fairly inviting to any reader. What do I mean? Well…(the rest of this note prefaces the first chapter as the description has only so much space) DM's note(for the player looking out): If any of my players are reading this, don't get any funny ideas… I make the jokes in this household, no matter how bad they are. Author’s note: I have no idea what I’m doing. How are you doing today? Can I cheer you up or help you grieve? Memento I of The Divine Yard :05: The Timeless ones wake to discover themselves upon the doorstep of a new Epoch. With a new dawn, the cycles of new magics begin to tick onward, earlier than they ever have before. Disastrous forces already seek to claim them, but there is always a critical point. With Unlimited potential, each Epoch wells up and bursts with the new - new storms, new gateways… new heroes. Solace and resolution inevitably lie with those who, even unwittingly, choose to take up the mantle of being an era's hero. That mantle avails itself to anyone. Perhaps… …the exile, cast out for being unlawfully chosen?…the mutilated, scarred by a mistake not her own?…the assassin, unable to accept redemption?…or the innovator, hiding a past blotted by the demons - bound by an experiment yet in stasis? A resolution made so long ago is hard to remember, let alone keep. :05 Through these bones of time unguarded The Divine Yard | I. Praelvdivm | => II. Paralogivm