Thera groaned as it re-awoke. The Ebony Warlock smiled grimly. My work is done for now. Time to rest, and feast upon souls once more.

This is why I love CF.

It was night not unlike any other night in the Imperial Palace. The Lich Ahtieli, Dread Lady of the Empire, pored over yet another seemingly useless tome dredged from some dusty library.

The skeletal form's mouth-opening twitched in what might have been a smirk on a human face as "she" remembered her time as Empress. Most saw her fall as something to be ashamed (or at least angered) over. Not her. Everything went as planned, for she needed less distractions from her true endeavors.

If the simpletons who had been named Emperor after her had ever suspected her plan, they might have named her Anathema...or, if they were wise, they'd have demanded to be part of them.

For who, after all, could sit in the Throne of the Emperor and not lust for more power than the Gods themselves wielded?

Making a "tsk" noise, the Dread Lady returned her attention to the dusty tome, re-reading what she had skimmed while lost in reverie. "Nothing here" she mused, and moved to toss the book on the pile of discarded knowledge. As the skeletal fingers began the motion, though, a scrap of paper fell from between two of the pages, fluttering harmlessly toward the floor.

Moving with inhuman speed, the Lich snatched the paper in mid-air,
eye-sockets narrowing. Reading quickly, and then more slowly to be sure, she gasped in shock - shock for the first time in remembrance. This was it!

Do you read my mind or something?

The Dark God Jullias chortled to himself from the shadowy recesses of the Imperial Black Sect Hall. "These Liches are far too easy to dupe into doing my bidding."

The Dread Lady was about to finish her incantations and (she believed) draw the power of the Gods into herself, raising herself up above them all, to truly rule Thera and beyond.

In truth, she was about to draw their energy to Jullias. He grinned in anticipation, rubbing his greasy duergar hands together greedily.

"Aha! I've found you at last, betrayer!" The God of Magic, Twist,
coalesced into being directly beside Jullias and struck with all of his mystical might.

Sensing Jullias' plan, The Ebony Warlock Zulghinlour arrived suddenly, swinging his massive unholy axe toward the Lord of
Deception.

Similarly, Lord Daevryn, feeling a shift in the Balance, arrived and struck quickly at the Duergar Lord. The combined power was far too much for Jullias to deal with...

Just then, the ritual was being completed.

The Dark God fell, incapacitated and his dark energies dispersed. The
energies of the gods was pulled from them at the same time. With no
destination, now that Jullias was destroyed, the energies ran rampant.

"No!" Twist cries. "It will not happen again! Noooooo-"

Blink. Devils, capering in the Nine Hells, froze in place and then ceased to exist.

Blink. Two paladins, communing with the Lady Baerinika, flickered and
disappeared. Baerinika stared confusedly for a moment as her shrine faded to nothingness, and then she, too, disappeared.

Blink. As a rampaging dwarven berserker brought his mace around to strike the head of a fierce shapeshifting grizzly bear, the bear disappeared. Before the berserker could curse "this new mage trickery", he too disappeared.

The same scene played itself throughout Thera - wizards, warriors, cityguards and street urchins, all fading to nothingness, as if they were a dream all along.

Soon the entire world was gone. And then other planes of existence. Until nothing was left but a vast void. Nothing existed but raw energy.

Of those denizens of Thera, there existed one who had faced this void
before. One who had, by luck and sheer force of will, found a way to
re-form himself.

First was awareness. "I am."
Second was understanding. "I exist."
Third was recollection. "I was undone. No! We. We were undone. ALL was undone."

Eventually, he who had been banished before was able to re-form himself once more. The awakening was enough for other beings who had been powerful enough to re-form themselves as well. Together, understanding of what had happened dawned upon them all. And they began to create. Again.