[Book III: Shattria's Egression] [02-017] Journal Entry: Eeros, Season of Autumn, Day 0137 Log 11 Name: Xeres

Aethabell Shattrius-Oniah. These words paint the picture of a continent that has has borne a tragedy great. It's once regal shores are naught but fodder for the black magics that taint them now. Shattrius-Oniah. A place that I once called my home. No longer can I claim these shores to be my own, but the product of the Spine of Chaos itself, the colossal string of islands to rip apart these once tranquil zones. Here I sit, from the capital of Asoriae so heedlessly stolen from us, from the darkened valleys of Etrian, through the northern gates of sorrow and the southern egresses, all of Oniah beholds the stain in the horizon between it. The Spine of Chaos claimed more than words could portray, than thoughts could ever imagine. I live in a world where my brother lives on one of end of Shattrius, and I, the other. Oniah. What a joke. In the ancient language it means United, One. Here it the continent is cleaved in two by the Spine of Chaos, the cultures on each side diverging further with each day. I still muse myself with the idea that my brother is safe, perhaps continuing his studies of Spell-Binding and Breaking despite the Black Radiation's impermanence through the lands of Shattrius. I even mused, when I had the time to spare, a world where the Spine of Chaos did not reap such high destruction on our peoples. The thought is for fools; the dragons-- they've disappeared. The magic, it's broken, the life-- it rests a single shade away from death. The Eastern Split's politics are a convolution of bribery and blackmail-- the Western's a mystery in itself. Of course, that's irrelevant now. I have no time to spare anymore. I engage in a constant struggle of survival with others who have also managed to make it out of this mess alive with any resources possible.

'Alive', I say. Hah. You're not 'living' if your humanity is just as shattered as Oniah. Because of the discontinued use of magic, denizens of Shattrius had to improvise in new and imaginative ways to get what they want. Some have chosen a path like I, to unite with the earth once more. Others yet choose the path of dissolution, taking what dark matters that the Spine of Chaos may present itself to them, and fashioning it into weapons most foul. Shattrius-Oniah has unveiled a new mode of terror, instruments of war, and objects of supreme chaos. I can only hope that I will live to leave this broken nation, and if my musings suggest, I may perhaps meet up with my brother once again. *~*~*~*