The City of Strings has several holidays in its 320-day, 10-month calendar. Some are commemorative affairs, such as the Day of the Great Shift, the date in which the City of Strings escaped the kingdom of Iskendar and affixed itself unto the asteroid it rides to this day. Some dates are cultural relics from another age, such as the Day of the Rival, celebrated the 13th of Urobos, a holiday from the times before the Great Shift, in which grievances and disagreements should be settled between friends and foes alike.
Of all these holidays, there can be no doubt that the Dawn Festival is the greatest. The celebration of a new day after the containment of the Singularity that destroyed Vastaria, Citadel of the Cosmos, some three centuries past.
It happened in the early days of the City of Strings, not too long after the Great Shift. The planar transposition called a lot of attention to the bastion, and not all good; after all, a teleportation of that magnitude can hardly go unnoticed. The dangers of the cosmos were unknown to the City of Strings, in those times. Only with great heroism--and a fair bit of luck--did the Order of Strings manage to overcome the situation. In this vein, the Dawn Festival not only honors the City's resilience against the existential threat of the Singularity, but also the man that claimed victory over it; the great Threadmaster Fallow, mage extraordinaire, Hero of the Cosmos, and Last Survivor of Vastaria. He who walked the dark between the stars and defeated the Singularity, containing it within an artifact of his own creation.
The first to make contact with the City of Strings after the shift were the Celesari, star-skinned alien folk hailing from the kingdom of Vastaria. At its zenith, the great Citadel of the Cosmos was the heart of an interplanar empire that stretched across the astral sea. Vastaria was said to be the center of the Higher Planes, the greatest hub of trade, power, and diplomacy since Asgard and Gyreon, in the Era of the Gods.
The envoys of Vastaria stayed within the nascent City of Strings for a year, trading and sharing their wisdom, treating the new arrivals to their domain as prospective allies, and perhaps even friends. They invited the City of Strings to join the Vastarian Coalition, and seventeen promising young minds accompanied the Celesari envoys back to the Citadel of the Cosmos. It was a cultural exchange that, little did they know at the moment, would be instrumental in the fight against Eternity. One of the lucky few that was selected by the Celesari was a very young Guilliam Fallow. Accompanied by many of the Threadmasters of current times, such as Runo, and Kara, he ventured through the astral towards Vastaria, and in that pilgrimage learned the ways of Omniturgy, the primal arcana at the heart of all magic.
It was during his stay in the Citadel of the Cosmos that he discovered a black star, almost imperceptible, making its way through the firmament. He took note of it while working on a research paper about star movements and cosmic cycles, and rapidly presented his findings to the Celesari. A dark star meant corruption, he knew, and none would be as affected as those born of the stars themselves. Such a discovery, however, should have been more delicately handled. A dark star in the firmament would mean certain Celesari were tainted by the corruption of the void, and the Vastarians were nothing if not prideful.
His presentation incurred the wrath of a zealous Celesari noble by the name of Zilar Thandros, who accused Fallow of attempting to undermine the celestial court in favor of the nascent City of Strings. Runo Fylsworth famously said that the whole affair could have been avoided, if it weren't for the damn pride of Zilar and Fallow. The ensuing political turmoil would have made the City of Strings anathema to Vastaria, were it not for another of the Threadseekers that was selected--Azra Salem, Kara Salem's sister, unparalleled abjurator, and Fallow's... more-than-just-a-friend.
Azra was a talented and determined young researcher, some say as gifted as Guilliam himself. She took it upon herself to prove Fallow's discovery to the Celesari. To that end, she sought the assistance of a certain ancient silver dragon, member of the celestial court of Vastaria, and the only high ranking individual within the Citadel of the Cosmos that was wise enough to heed the warning signs of the dark star: Yrith Garas, Platinum Dragon of the Astral Sea.
Meanwhile, Zilar Thandros challenged Fallow to a duel, claiming to fight for justice in the face of slander and treachery. You will be made an example, unless you repent your words, the starborn crusader proclaimed. Fallow stood by his research, accepting the challenge, and fought the Purifier in single combat in front of the entire Vastarian Court. Fallow was an extremely powerful wizard, for someone of his youth, but he was painfully unaware of just how mighty Zilar Thandros was, and intuition in the matters of people had never been his strong suit. His spells bounced against the purifier’s celestial skin, who braved evocation, enchantment and transmutation to cut the distance between the two. When the terrible champion of Vastaria was within arm’s length, his ideas of arcane warfare outmatching the crude tactics of melee warriors were entirely dispelled.
With the help of Garas, Azra managed to save Fallow in the nick of time, just when the Purifier was about to land the final blow. Queen Ysaih of Celestia, highest authority of the celestial court, interrupted the duel as Garas vouched for the existence of proof of the dark star's influence over the Celesari, rendering the pretext of the duel moot. Zilar raised his sword over Fallow anyway, and an unmistakable, light-swallowing darkness opaqued his otherwise gleaming starfolk eyes. The blade never met Fallow, however: Azra reacted with haste, conjuring a magic shield that just barely contained Thandros’ rage. Trained in the ways of war, he knew that you kill abjurers and healers first, and his next act was precisely that. Azra was brutally impaled before Fallow who, tragically, was too worn down by the duel to save his savior. The corrupted purifier turned to finish the job, but was lethally blasted by Garas’ breath weapon before he could claim the life of another brilliant thaumaturgist.
To understand what happened next, one must first know about Eternity. The Enemy of all, slayer of Gods, was defeated thousands of years ago, sealed beyond the veil by Divinity itself. Its mark, however, never truly left, and through the gaps in our reality, its influence slowly seeped into the universe. A powerful, corrupting force, this darkness took hold of entire celestial bodies and turned them dark, hollow, and hungry. In the vastness of space, such things were hard to find. How can one see absence? A thing that swallows light, in a sea of dark? Eternity is a long time, and no matter how slowly, it always prevails. Eroding. Dismantling. No one can escape it. That is how it operates. A slow death. It's how it undermined the Teng empire, until nothing was left of it but diluted descendants, shadows of their forebears' greatness. The same thing happened in Vastaria. The slow corruption spread under Queen Ysaih's watch, and many Celesari were born not of stars, but of void.
Zilar's corpse dropped to one knee, but didn't fall over. It's dead, black eyes were raised, and through him, spoke Eternity itself. The following words were recounted by Threadmaster Fallow himself, for only he heard them, while carrying the void-bitten, moribund Azra in his arms.
You… struggle. So much. Why? Why do you fight, knowing you will die, in the end? Knowing, in time, everything ends? It is quite the paradox, one I still cannot understand. The gods fell, so did the Teng. You believe Vastaria will be any different? My tendrils are wrapped around every Celesari born of corruption. It has already fallen, you simply don’t know it yet.
Every pitiful time, you try, each doomed effort lesser than the last. Vastaria is the greatest kingdom of your age, but nothing compared to the Silvermoon of the Teng, a thousand years ago. And that empire was but a shadow of what the Xildur Gods achieved, in their time.
The City of Strings will meet the same fate. That is, if you even survive my Singularity. It’s impressive that you located it, I’ll grant you. Its trajectory is bound to this Citadel… But you already knew that, no? Once it swallows Vastaria, the dark star will grow enough to allow my faithful through. And no one will stop me, for you will be too busy killing one another.
Watch, Guilliam Fallow, as I extinguish your light.
- Eternity, End of All Things
Zilar Thandros, and many other Celesari, were born of the Dark Star; the Singularity, a black hole of eldritch proportions that had been silently growing since Eternity fought the Gods. All throughout the Citadel of the Cosmos, and the Celesari empire at large, chaos ensued. What followed was a devastating civil war that culled the Starfolk population, crippling their great empire and resulting in the death of well over half of them. True starborn Celesari battled against void-touched ones, but many non-corrupted starfolk simply followed their local leaders, not recognizing them as apostates. This event was called the Night of Vastaria, and resulted in the collapse of the Celesari civilization.
Queen Ysaih of Celestia survived the great massacre, and come dawn, organized a small retinue of survivors, including the seventeen Threadseekers--or sixteen rather, with Azra gone--, to deal with the incoming Singularity. For his great efforts during the crisis, Fallow was named Knight of Vastaria, taking the place of the fallen Zilar in the Celestial Court. This improvised crisis committee settled on a methodical approach to the problem. The Singularity would encounter Vastaria in many years, still, perhaps even several decades. As such, Fallow and Garas were sent to more closely observe the Dark Star, in the hopes of finding some way of closing it, stitching this wound in the fabric of reality. Meanwhile, the other Threadseekers were to return to the City of Strings and put the entire might of the Order on the problem at hand. The Celestial Court would stay in the ruined Vastaria, preparing for the arrival of the Singularity.
Thus began Fallow's Quest. Riding the Silver Dragon Yrith Garas, he ventured to the heart of the Cosmos and found power beyond imagining. This story, however, is not one Fallow has ever publicly shared. Garas was also sworn to secrecy, for he accompanied the young Threadseeker through most of his journey. Ten years they flew together, or at least, that's how much time passed on the City of Strings.
Garas returned to the Citadel of the Cosmos alone, after his ten-year journey. With a broken heart, he shared Fallow's fate with the court. Against Garas' will, the young threadseeker had stepped through the Singularity, following a soul, long forgotten, into oblivion--Azra. A trick of the Enemy, most assuredly, to eliminate the would-be hero. And Fallow had always had more wits than wisdom.
All was thought lost. The City of Strings, with the power of several Wielders of Divinity, prepared to fight oblivion itself, alongside what remained of the Court of the Firmament. The allied forces of the universe were ready to face the Singularity, standing side by side in ruined Vastaria. If the black hole managed to swallow the astral kingdom, it was likely to spell the end of not only the Celesari and the City of Strings, but all the Higher Planes as well. First came the voidborn. The vanguard of the End Times descended upon Vastaria like a swarm of locusts. These minions of Eternity had managed to seep into our reality through the ever-expanding Singularity, and were now let loose to weaken any resistance, carrying the very will of the Enemy in their dark blood.
The battles were perilous and heroic; but in the end, hopeless. For every Scion that was struck down, a Herald took its place, and as the hours passed, the Singularity crept ever closer, without the defenders having even a moment to try and weaken its arcane pull. When all seemed lost, Ariadne, who'd been fighting among the other Wielders of Divinity, received an arcane message. A voice she thought lost called to her from the heart of the enemy forces, and running the risk of falling into a trap, she chose to listen. With the reminder of the Celestial Court, she led a daring advance through the Citadel of the Cosmos and towards the all-consuming Singularity. It was with a smile on her face that she saw Fallow again after so long, standing proud in the main square of Vastaria, channeling his power into a small sphere of glass and rune-inscribed metal shards.
Without doubting Guilliam Fallow, the last retinue of the Celestial Court rallied around him, protecting the wizard as he continued the ritual. Garas, Runo, Ariadne--even Kara Salem, who despised him for her sister’s fate-- every single one focused on giving him the precious time he needed to enact his plan.
The artifact that was being channeled to contain the Singularity was found by Fallow on the other side. Somehow, the Threadseeker managed to cross the veil and come back, unscathed, right on cue. What followed was nothing short of extraordinary.
The Threadseeker had done it. While we were preparing for war, so sure of our power, he had been to the darkest recesses of reality--nay, further still, in the howling void--only to return in our darkest hour. I remember seeing him atop the monument to Ast'Releh, in the middle of the square, and thinking the very Conqueror of the Stars had returned to us in the form of a mortal. He glowed in white-hot flames, yet did not burn. His clothing was alien, even to us, and though he was still young, his eyes had changed so much since I had seen him last.
The eager boy that accepted Zilar's challenge was gone. In his place was a man, a beacon of hope in a sea of dark, standing against the might of the Enemy, all by himself. I saw in Fallow the fires of the Teng, the will of the Gods, and thought I, Ysaih of Celestia, was inadequate. I saw our folly, our complacence. The very thing that killed the pantheon and brought down our ancestors. I truly understood our weakness, for in Fallow, at that very moment, there was none.
Then, Ameth Dusk-Eyed, Wielder of Curiosity, took her place alongside him, and so did the Divine Dragon Yrith Garas. The Fylsworth youth was not far behind, and so were the other fourteen Threadseekers. While our Purifiers were fighting their battles, the mortals of the Order of Strings banded together around Fallow, and lended him their strength. Just then, I knew. Vastaria had run its course, we had to pass the torch. The City of Strings would be the beacon around which the universe would gather, and hopefully, they'd do a better job of it than we, or the Teng, for that matter, did.
- Ysaih, Last Queen of Vastaria
With the help of Ariadne, who the Celesari called Ameth Dusk-Eyed, and many other allies, Fallow completed the ritual and sealed the Singularity within the Mauve Relic. Though the forces of the void were defeated and the black hole contained, the residual dark energy left a gaping abyss in the fabric of the universe, too much for the Citadel of the Cosmos to bear. The Order of Strings, along with the surviving Celesari, began to evacuate, while Fallow remained in the square, atop the monument to Ast'Releh, Conqueror of the Stars. He was the last one to leave that place, for his magic was what held Vastaria from falling into the void. Only when every single soul had left the city did Fallow teleport out, but not before staring down the dark shadow over the astral kingdom, silent as the grave.
The Celestial Court, or what remained of it, took residence in the City of Strings as refugees, before slowly trickling out into the universe once more, in the years that followed. Guilliam Fallow was the first recognized hero of the City of Strings. Even the Nephilim, Angels of Hell, extended their gratitude and paid their respects. Among the Celesari–those who don’t curse his name as doombringer, at least–he is hailed as the Last Survivor of Vastaria, before it was consumed by the void.
Thus was the battle won, but not without its casualties. The Celesari never recovered from that event, 300 years ago, and are still struggling to grow their numbers–their culture forever scarred by the Singularity. Though Queen Ysaih survived, she fell into disgrace, nicknamed the Blind Queen, for allowing such a tragedy to unfold under her watch. The following century held many great void-related crises, as residual dark energy began to build in the dark corners around the universe. To this day, many of the voidborn that haunt our galaxy are from the Singularity's retinue, and tirelessly hunt for the Mauve Relic in Fallow's possession, as to one day release the Singularity back into the Universe.
After the crisis, the City of Strings became the beating heart of defiance against Eternity, taking Vastaria's place as the hub of all who dare explore the stars. The fall of the Celesari dominion made the universe a much more dangerous place than it once was, as many ancient evils, previously in fear of the Court's might, dared to resurface, taking hold in several key Strings of Existence. Other unsavory entities approached the new balance of power with cunning, making deals with the flourishing City of Strings to maintain their domains, while helping the Order of Strings keep the peace across the stars. The Singularity was defeated; yet, there was much to be done, still, to achieve lasting stability.