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To prove his worth to the Great Serpent, he committed the very same betrayal he had executed countless others for attempting. He betrayed and murdered Arthur, to show fealty to his new liege. His pledge was accepted by the Great Serpent, and he became [[The Vizier]], the majordomo of the House. But while the Vizier acquired the power and authority he'd coveted, to his horror he learned that it had all been for naught. With the king dead and the vizier missing, Albion was unable to effectively govern itself, let alone control its subordinate territories across the continent. The kingdom fell into anarchy and rebellion, a dark age that would last a thousand years.
The next Hour to rise to the Mansus would come from [[The Second History]]. Another great king would arise from men, one who was both occultist and warrior. His name was Adonibaal, and his unparalleled battle prowess paired with his incredible magical power allowed him to defend his homeland from all would-be invaders. Under his leadership, his country unified the Levant into a mighty empire, [[The Empire of Bayal]].
The Second History was a history blessed by the Hours, particularly the Hours of the cosmic bodies. The Apple-of-the-Eye, the Star, and the Ferryman took a benevolent interest in the History. Under their influence, the History enjoyed the benefits of fair rulers that governed justly, inspired scholars, and an unrivaled abundance of wealth. But no ancient empire was as great as Bayal while Adonibaal led it. He shared his magic and his discoveries with his closest friends and disciples, warning them to share them only with the worthy to avoid the empire falling into complacency.
But no king rules forever. With peace and prosperity come the freedom to discover and explore sensations. These things drew the Butterfly Hatching to the Second History the Butterfly grew infatuated with Adonibaal, and sought to take this mortal for her own. She whispered to the king in his dreams, promising him eternal power and glory. All he needed to do was sail east into the Sun, and from there she would give him the power to conquer the Mansus and rule forever as a god.
The king was seduced by her whispers and took his fleet, his closest friends, and most trusted soldiers out to sea, never knowing he'd see Bayal again in this life. Once he reached the place his dreams had led him to, he found not divinity, but a trap. The Butterfly's wing beats stirred up a legendary storm, one she released into the Histories at that moment, capsizing and drowning the entire fleet so she could take their souls for herself.
However, the king was saved from being claimed by the Butterfly at the last moment by the intervention of a creation of the Caladrius. The Good Doctor was notorious for creating new and volatile forms of life, which it would then release into [[The Great Lake]]. Some of these creatures would later escape into the Histories to become legendary monsters, and one such beast now fused with Adonibaal to take his power. With his magical power, and the creature's otherworldly nature, the two combined to form [[The Architeuthian]]. The Butterfly raged, but could only take the King's now soulless body for her own.
Without Adonibaal to lead, Bayal came to be ruled by the council of magi. These sorcerers, while well-meaning, lacked Adonibaal's wisdom and foresight. They quickly broke the promise they'd made to the king, and shared their knowledge of magic with the common people. For a time Bayal prospered, but the people soon began to become ''too'' comfortable in their belief of themselves as a superior people.
Meanwhile, the Cuckoo was enacting a plot to rise to power in the Mansus. Weaving a great web of deceit, she gathered many religious sects to herself, throughout the histories. Through her lies, she convinced them they were praying to a Hour of love and joy, one that would watch over them forever. With a twisted, Butterfly-backed ritual, the cults all tore holes in reality simultaneously and rushed through, convinced they would be united with their god forever. But the only thing waiting for them on the other side of the portals were claws, beaks, and serrated teeth. To a man they were slaughtered, butchered so that their faith could be harvested.
For the Cuckoo sought not their worship, but the ''object'' of their worship. She wished to create a beautiful new Hour, so she could steal its power for herself and escape her wretched state. High above the Wood, the Gate of Crowns ''screamed'' in pained acknowledgement of a new Hour's twisted birth.The blood of the Dead and dying called out for a savior. And, finding no savior, formed one. And so the first of the [[Gods-From-Blood]], [[The Peacock]], was formed. The Cuckoo attacked the Peacock, in an effort to devour it alive. Despite being torn asunder and collapsing, the Cuckoo was shocked when, midway through her meal, the Peacock sprung back up and fled into the Wood, reforming as he went.
It was the Cuckoo, the oldest shame of the Maker, who finally came forth with the truth of the Young Upstart's true nature. In a shocking act of callousness never seen before or since, the Cuckoo had gathered together and slaughtered the sum total of her cults in the waking world, luring them to her with promises of pleasure and delivering only pain. All in the pursuit of creating a God-from-Blood. The Cuckoo succeeded, and while the infant Hour's guard was lowered immediately attacked and murdered it, seeking to take its power for her own and dominate the other Hours. She was the first to learn the horrifying truth: that the death of a Hour would lead to the creation of a new God-from-Nowhere. Rising again almost as quickly as it was slain, this not-Hour now knew nothing of death, and existed now only to spread its terribly warped notion of joy to the rest of the world. A Broken-Bird.
As the Anaconda learned the circumstances of the Peacock's creation, she decided she'd had enough of the Crone's endless thefts and lies. Brandishing her mighty sword, she swiftly traveled to the Cuckoo's Nest. Nestled high in the thick branches of the eldest Wood-tree, the bloated nest was piled high with countless stolen treasures and bloated corpses. The spoils of decades of plunder.
With but a single swing she severed the branches, sending the hoard and its unholy mistress crashing to the ground. The soil of the Wood, wet with the blood of Long and the deluge of water and viscous fluid leaking from the shattered House, turned to mud and began to greedily swallow up the Crone and her ill-gotten spoils. She screamed her unending hatred of the Serpents, but knew she could take no vengeance upon them. For every moment of her days must now be spent finding more loot to keep her hoard afloat on the mud. The thought of flying away and abandoning it did not even occur to her, as lost to greed as she was. The site of the nest's ruin became known as [[The Sunken Place]]. A cursed, evil place, where everything living is poisoned by the Cuckoo's hatred.
Some Hours moved to set themselves against this rising monstrosity, but by the time the truth was known, the damage had been done. The Peacock had amassed a wealth of stolen power from the other gods, its forces' numbers swollen innumerably by vast hoards of Long dominated by the Peacock's power and put under his control. This group came to be known as [[The Choir Unceasing]] for the unending, obscene cries and otherworldly music they made. Many Keys aligned themselves with this rising power, and for a time the unholy alliance of the Keys and Nowhere reigned dominant over the Upper Mansus.