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==Summary==
The Second History was smiled upon by the Hours, whom chose to be more involved in its development than the Third. So favored was it the occult was more powerful and more openly embraced than the Third, Fourth and most certainly the Sixth. Perhaps the Hours hoped that by taking a more direct approach in the development of humanity, the History would not fall into the self destructive chaos and anarchy as humans were not to when bereft of supervision. The Apple of the Eye gave the history blessing of beauty and knowledge. the FNORD blessed their FNORDS
===The Rise of the King===
Early in this History, a great Kingdom rose in the lands known as the Levant. Powerful and rich in natural resources, it quickly established itself as a mighty nation. From these people rose a king unlike any other, whose wisdom and justice was matched only by the wrath he visited upon his people's enemies, with a ferocity uncommon for inhabitants of the Second History. He established a mighty dynasty that saw the repulsion of all would-be foreign conquerors and catapulted the kingdom to the status of one of the greatest empires of the Second. The land became known as Bayal, a name still known and respected in both the Second History and [[The First City]] itself.
Studious and intuitive, the King was a scholar as well as a warrior, and took great care to learn the Higher Mysteries of the Invisible Arts. Just and fair, he did not give in to the temptations of the more ruinous powers that sought his service, but rather used what what he had learned to better the lives of his people. Wise men and brave youths traveled from far and wide to petition entry to his court, but only those of great might and wit were permitted to share in his knowledge, for he strongly believed that only the worthy were deserving of these blessings, lest they fall into gluttony and indolence.
But although he drowned, his story did not end there. Through his own indomitable will and the significant power in the occult he had amassed, he resisted the pull of [[The Ferryman]] and instead ascended to the Sea-Dragon's Palace. Not as a mere Dead, but something much, much greater. He rose stronger, forever changed. The King became the Architeuthian, the Dweller in Depths who rules over forbidden knowledge and survival of the fittest.
===The Golden Age of Progress===
The Empire was beyond distraught to learn that their beloved King had perished at sea. But for many this sorrow became rejoicing when the priests proclaimed that their King was not Dead, but merely ascended to the realm of the gods to take a seat amongst the pantheon. This news assuaged the fears of many, but not all. A land of scholars and intellectuals, many skeptics took this merely to mean that the King was simply dead, and was certainly never coming back. Debate raged in the high halls of learning as to the whereabouts and status of the King's soul, but at this point in time it was widely accepted that the King was still watching over them from above.
In their eagerness to help others and improve the lives of their countrymen, they gradually increased the generosity with which they shared the advanced knowledge they had accumulated over generations of deep thought and communion with the Hours. Perhaps ''too'' generous. It was the King's way that all should have to work and struggle for their power, so that only the worthy would possess it, and would not take it for granted. And as knowledge and power over the course of generations was freely shared more and more, that was what began to happen. What was once considered to be a luxury became a common convenience, an knowledge once treasured as sacred mysteries to be learned only by the greatest of sages became common knowledge.
===The Great Heresy=== As it is said, idle hands are the Devil's playthings. And as the kingdom grew ever more prosperous under the guidance of the magi and the abundant blessings of the Hour's, ever deeper did grow the people's own indolence. Ever deeper did they drink from the Grail, and ever more did they become addicted to its Redmost delights. Decadence, like a stain, began to seep into a spread through the bedrock of society. What started as just pride in their heritage and ancestral achievements became ''arrogance'', and a inherent sense of superiority over the rest of the world.
"Look at them, these lesser people. Those not favored by the Hours as we are. What divine blood do they trace their heritage back to? Why should we be bound to the same rules as they? Why shouldn't we carry ourselves as their inherent superiors, their rightful rulers? What could they possibly do to stop us?"
And in their hubris, the magi responded to this Truth with a question: "Why not?"
==Crime of the Sky=Led Astray===As these things had transpired, the blessedness and the skills of the people of the Second History shined like a Beacon to the Mansus. Many new Hours became acquainted with the people of the land of FNORDBayal, and began to offer their services. Many first in ways benign, then increasingly less so as the irresponsible magi underestimated the passions of the Hours and their ability to withstand them. The Hour of [[The Dolomedes]] rarely if ever turned its attention away from the Moon in those early days. But the people of the Second History were so lost in their greed and materialism they were even willing to invoke its name when they wanted something their affluence could not simply attain for them. Eager once invited in, it began to ply its services. The people of Bayal were rich and fat, and were practically dangling on the fishing spider's hook when it offered its bait of rare delights mere money could not buy. Many humans disappeared, or were found to be so thickly bound by oaths to the spider they couldn't be even said to have free will anymore. Even worse still, some of the History's brightest minds traded some of the Kingdom's unique findings in the schools of magic to the Spider, who plucked the knowledge straight from their heads, and has prevented people from learning them again, setting the advanced kingdom's development irrevocably backwards. Not everyone forgot the old ways, however. There were still those that campaigned for a return for the way things were before the moral decay, who preached austerity and temperance. For a time it seemed like these groups might make some progress, until their subconscious enmity for their own countrymen unwittingly attracted the [[The Cuckoo]]. The spiteful old Crone fanned the embers of their resentment and polished their pride. From humble men and women of the people they became warped into zealots and narcissists who vaunted their supposed virtue and false modesty. Donations to their cause eventually dried up, and the public were driven away into the arms of the profane cults festering like tumors in the corpulent empire. Perhaps the greatest sacrilege occurred when the Hour of [[The Maker]] took notice of the History. Not yet as twisted as it would eventually become, the Great Craftsman saw how Bayal's prosperity and advancement allowed its citizens to dedicate themselves to leisure and artistic pursuits. It offered its aid. Soon, Bayal was swept by many new artistic movements. Architects and craftsmen redecorated and reshaped the streets and great temples into new and fascinating shapes, giving new life and identity to old and tired buildings.
But the Maker was never known for being able to tell when the time had come to ''stop''. The hour of improvements continued until eventually there was precious little left to renovate, or at least nothing that the true loyalists would allow the fnord befan Maker-touched to ply its serviceslay their shaping hands upon. They turned inwards upon themselves, "improving" again what they had already touched. At first providing Temples twisted into bizarre spirals and spheres that eventually rendered many rooms inaccessible. Holy idols and sculptures that dated back to the people with gifts of fnord King's time were twisted perversely, taking one new limbs, features, and fnordingshapes until they were unrecognizable in their horrific grotesqueness, over but somehow managed to be captivating all the same. Over many years the blessing came to drive many of the Histories' brightest minds to madness and mutation in pursuit of the fnordPerfect Shape. The fnord also took interest Perhaps this perverse, wide-scale demonstration of the Maker's power was what brought it to the Dweller in Depths' attention, and fnorded them right in sewed the fnordseeds of both his enmity and his jealousy.
And through it all the sect of Architeuthian "worshipers" that asserted he was not a Hour at all continued to gain traction. Organizing themselves and amassing new followers, they grew so powerful as to possess a ruling majority in the kingdom's government. If the Architeuthian was not a Hour, they argued, then it was their duty to return him to live so that he could make their kingdom great again, but leading them in asserting their dominance over lesser people. Death, they promised, would soon be a fear known only by lesser peoples, as the people of the kingdom lived forever in an empire that would last over a thousand years. They came to be called [[The Church of the Second Flood]] for their promises of a return of their watery liege to power and the spread of fnordian rule over all the world like a great flood swallowing all in its path.
There was great unrest in both Bayal and the Mansus as to what such an undertaking would mean. FNORD
Eventually, [[The Rider]] was summoned to tell the Hours and the Flood what such an undertaking would mean. Should they be allowed to continue? The Rider in Histories was always as enigmatic as it was powerful, and warned that the roads of the future were always shifting and changing, the meanings of what it had seen on its journey not always immediately clear. Nonetheless it showed them. It showed them visions of Dead men walking with the living. Of a kingdom united once more. And most importantly, a tentacled figure, sitting triumphantly upon the FNORD Throne.
The Flood rejoiced, now utterly convinced that their mission was destined to succeed, that they were the Chosen Ones to bring back their god and king and rule by his side. The people were convinced as well, and began to eagerly await the time that the tyranny of Death would end.
These desires, of immortality and the fear of death, were reflected in the people's dreams and prayers to the Hours. These subconscious whispers of mankind over time reached the ears of Hours sympathetic to their fears, or their perverse desires, and/or were by nature anathema to the concept of death.
[[The Silver Owl]], that enigmatic Hour of freedom and the amassing of secrets, lent its aid to the Flood to see innocent humans free of the shacking to . To her the way the Ferryman shacked all humans inherited to itself due to their foolish ancestors' deal was a gross tyranny. [[The Caladrius]], that Hour of Life and Healing, was ecstatic at the notion of a world free of death and the chance to once more save those whom it at once already lost to the Ferryman's grasp. The Peacock, that perverted, broken Hour of Generosity, acted to abolish death in accordance with the twisted wishes of mankind, which it "loved" dearly. And last and least, the Cuckoo, that Hour of deceit and selfishness acted for selfish notions. Compared to the altruism or complex schemes that motivated the other Hours to act, she sought to steal relatively little from the Hall of Silence. She sought the victims and witnesses of a certain Crime that occurred long ago in a Mansus long gone, so that she could make it as if it had never existed.
Regardless of their other motives, they were all salivating at the prospect of uncovering the forgotten knowledge and no doubt potential eager followers that awaited in the mysterious Hall of Silence, where those Taken by the Spider are left to languish forever.
==Crime of the Sky==