Intermission: A Warm Hello from Toshinori, the Author!

Hey there! Thanks for reading Chapter 12 - The Ultimate Goal. It's one of the most important moments of Aeternitas: The Shores of Destiny (the other two being further on in the story), because it sets in motion the grand events of Elwin's saga. I'm glad you were able to witness it.

I'd like to take this author's note to introduce myself. I'm Toshinori Heiichi – you can call me Toshinori, or just Toshi for short.

As a traveler of many places and many worlds, some which I willed, some against my instincts, and some which I stumbled upon by sheer accident, I've unwittingly found myself as a chronicler of a thousand universes. Though each has its own story and heroes, none comes as close to my heart as the one cosmos named "AETERNITAS" – and it is this world whose stories I've come to tell. I am grateful that you are sharing a piece of time to accept my most sincere welcome to the Epic of Aeternitas, and to The Shores of Destiny, which marks its beginning. It follows the stories of humankind – and that of other fantastical beings – in a neighboring universe to yours.

As you no doubt would've read in the previous chapters, humankind of their world can control atoms of matter in the form of the 4 Elements. Long ago, with their power, they raised monuments to the sky, touched the very heavens, and once secured a semblance of eternity. There seemed to be nothing they could not do – when I close my eyes, I can still see to what luminous heights they'd aspired, how tall those spires and ziggurats were; how mellifluous their song, how magnificent their dress, what kind strength they had in their hearts.

But I also remember how they fell. When I breathe, I can still smell the sulfur of their weapons and iron-stench wafting from the rivers of blood; rivers that they themselves carved out across the continent in murder of those different than themselves – rivers which were joined by their own tears when the spires and ziggurats fell. When I lay my ears to listen, I can still hear their war-cries; how hoarse their clamoring, how desperate their exodus from the graces of the stars.

All things that have a beginning inevitably come to an end, and so too did humankind. Facing grave peril from the wars they waged and the sacrifices they demanded from the world, the great line of mankind was cursed to oblivion by forces that escaped their control. And yet, even in the midst of the most tenebris despair, there was a figure who defied fate and courageously assailed against the tide of time. That figure, whose name is now lost to the erosion of memory, re-stitched the rules of the world just enough for humankind to return and have a chance anew.

Though amnesic in many ways and possessing little glory of their brilliant past, the tenacious peoples of their world were able to rebuild and reclaim their shattered world piece-by-piece. With each year, they re-discovered fragments of their luminosity; though not without tribulations and tragedies, the remnants of humankind found modest success in propagating once again out into the greater world.

1877 years since their rescue, humankind and various other beings find themselves consolidated into three distinct polities, each following a distinct ideology. Inhabiting a broken peninsular from the ultracontinent that used to be, the Unified Mythrisian Republics stands its firm ground as those who vow to never repeat the mistakes of the past; further to the west across the sea, lies the Empire of Jin, adamant in its assertion as humanity's true successor; to the east across the tempestuous waves and storms of divine origin, lie the shattered lands of Avan, the alleged remainder of the ultracontinent which housed every being under the stars including humankind itself. But despite the clamoring claims of each, a fundamental mystery still remains: what happened to the ultracontinent of Yanasura, given that so little of the continent remains to be found? What happened between the fall of humankind and its revival that it fractured the Earth itself?

And better yet: did something shatter it? If not something, could it be someone?

There are only a few in their world who can answer these questions. And each knows that humankind will fall again should they fail.

One such person is Carl Eramir, an explorer from the Unified Mythrisian Republics, and father to Elwin Eramir who is the protagonist of our story.

Carl's revelations of an 'invincible enemy' that has prowled mankind for millenniums – while important – is overshadowed by an even greater revelation: that there exists powers that can defeat the undefeatable. These powers are the Four Epitomic Forms, the original powers used by the mythical Founders early in the dawn of human memory. These Epitomic Forms were used to ignite the fuse called human civilization; they are told in epic poetry to have reignited the dying Sun, to have carved continent-spanning canyons, to have brought all lands of the Earth into one ultra-continent, and to have unchained humankind from the hierarchy of the natural world. As they fulfilled their purpose, the Epitomic Forms eventually vanished into the sands of time, replaced by simpler Forms that were much easier and more accessible for the everyman to perform. But this came at a cost: ease of performance meant a commensurate decrease in the power that one could exercise with the given Element. People who came to live after the Founders slowly began to forget the greatness of their origin.

And nearly 11,000 years of this erosion later, this collective amnesia of mankind, Elwin takes his first step to restore what has been lost. The Dance of the Sun, the Rhythm of the Moon, the Melody of the Two Earths, the Song of the Heavens – each of these Four Epitomic Forms has the power to influence a domain of reality, and when all Four unify into One, Elwin's journey will end and a new chapter for mankind will begin.

Looking forward to seeing you stick to the end.

– Toshinori