The Zabbaleen are the Hour of cycles of nature, created by Viktor.
| The Antecedent | |
|---|---|
 | |
| "We call upon the Antecedent, who WIP, who WIP, who WIP." | |
| Origin | God-from-Stone |
| Titles | The Burning Wheel |
| Names | The Rag-picker |
| Aspects |
 |
| Date of arrival | The first being in existence. |
| Owner(s) | Viktor |
Description
History
The Antecedent was born when the first rays of Glory touched the Mansus-stone, bringing sentience, will, desire. Ever since, they have striven to reach that True Sun, and become as one with it. It is unclear if they were such a complex Hour and held Wheel from the very start, or if they began as something lesser, something that has hunted down other gods-from-Stone and claimed their powers, influence, and achievements. In any case, there is no one living to contest their claims.
At one point, to reach the light above, they have pulled themselves closer to the Glory, which shaped the Split Mountains and the Plateau, and burnt the Mansus-stone, turning much of it to glass. The highest point of the Mountains, the Scarred Rock, where the Antecedent pulled on the Glory-ray, spawned The Fulgurite, and from that wound sprouted the River of the Rocks. In other places, where the sands of seashores and deserts were melted, The Glassmaker was created. With the emergence of first life, and first death, in the Wake, the Antecedent spawned the Wood (or perhaps it was the other way around) and fashioned the Alabaster Door on its edge.
They have also created the Field of Reeds.
The Zabbaleen has always existed within The Antecedent, alongside other upcoming beings, The Promised Moon and the Rag-picker; they have emanated the latter as their Name. He was the one who has halted the blazing rotation of the Antecedent around the time of Industrial Revolution, which caused it to hatch, birthing the Scarabeus, creating the Webbed Door out of their discarded body / eggshell, and shattering the aspect of Wheel into precursors of Forge, Moth, Grail, Heart, and Winter.
Their presence can still be felt within the Zabbaleen, the Paper Shores of the River of the Rocks, the Ziggurat Reversed, and the Webbed Door.
Principles
Wheel, the precursor of Forge, Moth, Heart, Grail and Winter.
- Forge / Flint - for the treasures of the earth, and their revelation and transformation in fire; for remaking and change; for their ambition and vision.
- Moth - for their inner change and yearning for perfection and ascension; for nature; for shedding unnecessary things and skins.
- Heart - for life, for perpetuity and constance, for cyclical nature, for the drumbeat and the skins.
- Grail - for the food of the earth (crops, animals, fruits), for giving (feast, birth) and taking (thirst, hunger) of life, for the Moon and the tide.
- Winter - for remembrance and memories, for death and endings of phases/cycles before the start of new ones.