(Chalybis) The Lesser Remnants of Telluratus
In The Past:
At a first glance from some distance away, the Realm does not appear to be extraordinary at all, merely another piece of the universe, containing water, earth, vegetation and other such things. Yet, something appears to be wrong about it. A strange cacophony of sounds fills the air, although its exact origin is unclear, seeming to come out of the landscape itself.
A closer inspection of the terrain reveals that all is not what it seems here, and is in fact, far from normal. The earth itself is merely a thin layer of some artificial soil-like substance, covering a metal construction which contains an immeasurable – and possibly unnecessarily complicated – clockwork mechanism that runs beneath most – if not all – of the realm. The water too is not real water, but some kind of oily substance, meant as a lubricant and coolant which keeps the mechanism working, seeping slowly into the gears of the contraption below. Even the vegetation itself is a mechanical copy of the real thing, with the plants being fine and detailed contraptions, their branches and leaves slowly moving around as the countless gears inside them turn and interact. The omnipresent cacophony of sounds is merely the orchestra of machinery, the metallic sounds of grinding gears, whistling boilers, thumping pistons, and many more of such things working together in a technological harmony.
In The Present:
When Chalybis went dormant and suffered from millions of years of neglect, so did His realm. The rivers of oil ran dry; the mechanisms jammed and rusted, and over time, even the very laws of nature that held the place together broke down from neglect.
Currently, the once great realm has been shattered into many island-sized regions which all float around aimlessly now that gravity itself has become unhinged. The regions are made up from countless gears and other parts like they were before, now fused together into great lumps after aeons’ worth of rust and mould have gathered on top of them. In some places, actual organic life has even began to form
The only place that has remained relatively intact is the Citadel, which was once the core of His realm-sized machine. Although it is hanging in the void now that its fundaments have drifted away, the Citadel itself remains motionless and fixed in its position at the exact centre of the realm. It is still operational after all this time, producing a nigh-endless amount of mechanical energy and occasionally producing batches of Clockwork Servants. However, it has deteriorated somewhat, and the Servants it now produces are of much lower quality than those from the past.
Most of the original Clockwork Servants went dormant with Chalybis, except for those in the direct area of the Citadel, as they were capable of sustaining themselves with its power. As the aeons passed by, much of the knowledge they had gathered was forgotten, with ever less of them being around to remember it. Eventually, the technology of the Citadel, which had been rather ‘mundane’ to them in the past, became something of mystical proportions. (This is somewhat understandable, as it was a mountain-sized machine which created life, sustained life, and took life as it desired.)
The remaining Originals, together with the lesser Clockwork Servants the Citadel kept producing over time, began their civilization anew, basing it around the reverence and maintenance – or attempts thereto – of the Citadel, neglecting the rest of the floating islands around them and hastening its decay. Over time, they have achieved little, their fragments of knowledge they had not forgotten being insufficient to properly maintain the Citadel, and having no real need to do anything else as they were sustained by its infinite power.
They have also forgotten about Chalybis, and will probably be somewhat disturbed by His return as they find that they are unable to disobey as much as a single letter from His commands, for this was their original purpose. At the moment, they live in small groups which revere the Citadel as their new god, and the few remaining Originals – who are far superior to them in every possible way – as its Avatars.
The Revised physique still resembles that of the Orginals, based around spherical bodies which contain a single glowing eye and a large power generator, and to which at least six limbs are attached – four for locomotion, and the others as manipulators or specialized appendages. However, they are somewhat smaller and made of inferior materials which did not last through time as well as the Originals. Therefore they are now rusted and deteriorated like Chalybis and His realm.