Obsession Leads You Places
The stars were beautiful. They really were. In all of his lifetimes, every single night, Violet would stare up at the stars before he slept. On the nights when he was under a roof, he always managed to find a way out to see them. There was never a time in his life when the stars did not comfort him. If the clouds came, he moved them. If his eyes were pained, he healed them.
This night was no different. He had found his place on a tall hill before setting up camp. Putting up the tent, starting his campfire. The storming rain and lightning didn't dare touch his campsite, as if nature itself held fear of him. And it did. That wasn't to say Violet dislikes the rain. No, wherever he went, he made it rain. The soft pitter-patters and the comfort of the gray sky. He couldn't describe it very well, but there was just something about a storm that made him feel at home. But when he looked at the stars, he felt something entirely different. He felt paradoxical. He felt like a god and an ant. He felt like an incomprehensible being and a measly speck of dust. He felt like he was one with the world and something entirely different. He felt… like himself. And like he was a person entirely different.
And it was in the moment, with the beautiful visage of the stars and the calming sounds of rain and thunder, that Violet fell asleep. He drifted in the world of dreams, visions of light, death, water, pink, and the swirling void of imagination. He drifted into the world of memory. Visions of his long, long life. His birth into a world lacking technology and separated from the multiverse. His travels to worlds with different stories to tell. From the world of the hateful sun to the world of the malicious moon.
He remembered many years ago, when he formed the Archon Council. When he realized that he was akin to a god. And he remembered when he met the Whitecoats, the Jailers, whatever you wanted to call them. He remembered when he met his natural predator, the boogeyman hiding beneath the bed of a reality-bender. The man called Alto Clef.
He remembered those eyes, like those of a beast. The eyes of an apathetic apex predator. Had he not been as powerful as he was, he never would have survived. And that time was gone.
He remembered running, tearing himself from the Foundation. He ran from world to world, taking every person of his kind with him. Reality benders who would sooner be killed than let into society.
Then he found it. The perfect world. A utopia for his people. By then, they were called the Archon Legion, hundreds upon hundreds of men, women, and some children who had joined this traveling troupe of crazies in the mad hope of finding peace. And they had. A world where gods stood tall, where technology and magic went hand in hand, where in the social ladder it was the non-anomalous who were on the bottom. A world where the Archon Legion would be truly at home.
20 some years ago, Violet Ladell had waged war on planet Earth. And by the gods, he had won. The gods became their servants. Sniveling ants compared to their army. From Aphrodite to Quetzalcoatl, the world became theirs. And there Violet was, chief among them. A god among gods. The Savior of the World-Willers. So many titles.
And yet, here he was. Those years were nothing compared to how long he'd been running. It took him so little time spent in peace to lose the will to continue. And so, he sent a letter with a time and a place: this time, and this place.
Violet awoke and looked into the eyes of the beast again. He smiled. He knew what was coming. He had left his home for this. "What is a god to a non-believer?" Wonderful last words if he hadn't stolen them from a song.
"A conquest." And so, Violet Ladell, King of the Archon Legion, Son of Rainor Kingsley and Alyx Ladell, Dethroner of Jehova, a Class-V reality bender, was no more.
Olympus City Tribune
The Trusted Informant Of Archon Capital Residents
| OLYMPUS CITY | THORSDAY, 17 JULY, 2027 | 12 CREDITS |
THE DEATH OF AN I(AR)CON
| By Genie Deos (μGeronimaSike) and Callum Neveah (μQueenBusst1) |
Tragedy strikes the hearts of Olympus City citizens today as the Archon King himself has died. Having willingly left one year ago today, announcing the coronation of his son, Donatello Ladell. The Archon King left to explore the other worlds and has regularly updated his Versely blog.
It was two and a half decades ago, the holiday we now call Archonian Independence Day, when we were freed from the clutches of the Gods. The day that the Archon King took his place among us. The Violet King, Archon of Obsession. He was our sovereign ruler, and in his honor, the Olympus City Tribune is going to go over the story of Archon History since his arrival on our planet Earth. Starting with the arrival of the Archon Legion.
It was the 25th of March, 2000. During the age of the Gods and the horrific Whitecoats. Even today, it is rumored that the SCP Foundation still exists. The Archon Legion arrived in our very own Olympus City. Well over a thousand men and women from worlds beyond our simple planet. From shapeshifters to demons, they were an army of World-Willers.
Our very first introduction to the Legion was when they got onto our social media platforms. Through videos, blog posts, and even fanfiction in the case of the Love Archon, Lawliet.
The only marker of the Archon Legion, and subsequently the revolution, was the profile picture featuring the cover of the 1895 book "The King in Yellow" by Robert W. Chambers. "A representation of the Eldritch Gods like the Violet Queen, Green King, and Scarlet King," said Archon Griffith. "A way of saying 'the gods are no longer the predators.' A little on the nose, but it was Violet's idea, and we just went with it."
The revolution gained lots of traction after the reveal of Thaumaturgy, also known as Magick. Humans could do some of the magnificent miracles that the Gods could do. And the Archons held the power of World-Willing, originally known as reality-bending. With varying levels of power, the Archons could stand toe-to-toe with the Gods.
The first battle in the Archonian Revolutionary War was on the 12th day of August, 2001. The Archon King walked up to Zeus during his public conference in Olympus Square and stabbed him through the chest with the legendary Obsidian Sickle, which is on exhibit today in the Archonia History Museum in Yggdrasil City.
While God was not killed, his powers were stripped, turning him into one of us, normal humans. This was the beginning of the war, with 15 men lost when the Zeus Worshippers tried to fight the King. This marked the beginning of a two-year war, which ultimately resulted in the subjugation of the Gods and the rise of the Archons. "When I was in the crowd that day, I didn't realize what I was seeing at first," says Johnny Drew, History Professor at the Archonian National College of Thaumaturgy. "I thought I was watching another God fight, but when I realized that the kid wasn't a God, I became hopeful. It was a few days after that I learned my passion for history, and knew that I had witnessed the start of a revolution."
During the war, we learned more and more about the Archons and what they meant. New Gods who became symbols of hope, who, instead of ruling the humans in their domains, represent the humans in their domain. We established the democratic-republic system of Archonia based on each Archon and the people who follow them. Through interviews and many introductory videos, we learned about the regular humans who had accompanied them to our world.
On April 9th, 2003, the war was won. The Gods were stripped of their powers and punished with servitude to the Archons. The very first Archonian Independence Day celebration was the next day, and the holiday was the very first thing brought into effect by the Archon King. "I wanted to make something that could represent the new age of Archonian history," The Archon King said. "I hope it lasts longer than I do." And it did.
There is ongoing discussion to name this day Violet King Memorial Day, though for many, the name hardly matters. Across the city, people gather in silence, looking upward as they once did under his rule. The official service will be held at Elysium Park next Wednesday from 5:25 PM to 8:35 PM. In life, he reshaped the world; in death, he leaves behind a quiet absence. One that even the stars seem unable to fill.
