There are many versions of history and it is said that history is written by the victor - the one who survives. Well, this is a version some claim to be the only true one.
42 000 years ago, when the old races still walked this world and what passed for man grovelled in caves, the pinnacle of one of those races' was the continent nation of Ékosh. To defend this nation, its peoples formed a unique synthesis of science, psionics, magecraft and warriorship. The embodiment of this synthesis were the Schaoming - an organization dedicated to developing these sciences ... these arts to their ultimate form.
For 10 000 years, Ékosh grew and prospered under the Schaoming. They who mastered the continent and then the world, who traveled the void between worlds and then the void between dimensions, who killed gods and demons. They who created the 9 gems of power called simply, The 9 - sentient biocrystalline computers that accumulated knowledge and power till they could manipulate time and space itself. The Schaoming who hunted knowledge and power till they rivaled the gods. For, it is said that the universe trembled at their name: Schaoming - tech, psi, mage, warrior! The mightiest warriors ever produced by the planet Earth.
But in the great flow of life, all things must either change or come to an end. For the Schaoming, it was a schism between those who hunted knowledge for betterment and to aid, and those who hunted knowledge to increase their own power. The final conflict began when the 9 chose sides, for when they clashed, no one survived. From Earth to the most distant corners of the Milky Way, the Schaoming were no more. Ékosh had ended ....
Time passed and saw the disappearance of the old races and the rise of the new ones - the rise and fall of Lemuria and then Atlantis. Finally, about 2000 years after the birth of he who was called the Christ, in 1965, an archaeological student was cleaning an ancient gem encrusted with the grit of untold years. He was musing over his dissatisfaction with life and yearning for more when the gem activated. Several thousand souls including himself fell into a 15 day coma and entered the Dreaming. The Dreaming is the training ground of the Schaoming controlled by that gem, the "Motherstone," first of the 9. Thus began the first cycle.
Working covertly, 15 years later this same student, now a multi-billionaire parapsychologist, manages to acquire the same gem - from sources best not spoken of ... - and tries to control its activation. He succeeds, at least he thinks so. For this time, just over a million souls are trained in the Dreaming for 15 days. Thus beginning the second cycle.
However ..., he is unable to wake his test subjects, for 15 more days they remain comatose and unknown to him being forged by another of the 9. It initiates the ancient struggle of knowledge versus power. This initiation is called Sou-O-Tose, a 15 year bloody and insane magewar! If it was not for one of the first cycle, the High Lord Mindoc, who knows what other foul magics that generation would have created? Sadly, for his efforts to end this war, Mindoc was outcast and called the Dark Lord. But that is another story.
These are the stories of one of these million odd souls of the second cycle. Warlock - illusionbreaker, spirithealer, stormbringer - who was forged very deeply by the fires of Sou-O-Tose and unfortunately ... or fortunately became one of the Lord Mindoc's 14 elementals. For Mindoc had taken these 14, and bent, pounded and shaped their energy forms till they could wield power unlike any other. Thus had Mindoc with his 14 broken the enchantment that held the second cycle. Some would ask, "what is the price of freedom? What would you do to be free? Would you sell your soul? Would you chance madness? Would you chance perpetual unbalance? Would you chance having your mind split in two?" Ahh ..., who but the 14 and Mindoc really know the price they paid.
I don't know about you gentle reader but I am afraid ... terrified. For once again it is whispered, the mightiest warriors ever produced by the planet Earth - the Schaoming: tech, psi, mage, warrior - walk this world!