Apostles of Doom

Now, clearly, lesser bifurcations can exist for years or centuries; however, for someone within the timeline who is time traveling, all they are really doing is shifting their perceived consciousness to another version of themselves. The old version in the old timeline may still exist or may be ended, depending on events.

This of course, applies only to individuals within a timeline using time travel. For individuals from outside the local timeline, manipulating the timeline of other planes of existence is a very, very different issue and as mentioned, the Rules of Temporal Manipulation are quite firm, and violation of them may result in very serious sanctions.

Local Universes

Mortal scholars often refer to the material plane/timeline they reside in as their local universe, or localverse. A localverse is a single timeline, a single plane of existence. The alternate worlds in a localverse are not on other planes of existence, they are simply other planets orbiting other stars in the same universe.

Further, because the further one must travel in space within one’s localverse, the more energy is required, the categorized or known worlds in that localverse are often the worlds closest in space to one’s own planet. The power requirement for contacting worlds within one’s localverse that are in other galaxies, for example, is often larger than that required to go to a completely different universe.

Chapter 126

Isle of Doom (Nysegard): DOA + 5, Late Third Period

Valg Death Cheater slowly rotated clockwise, scanning the horizon for incoming threats. He had been getting odd premonitions of something building for the last day or two. Something was coming; he just could not define what it was. Neither his shaman Eagle Sight nor his D’Orc sight saw anything unusual on the horizon. No dragons, no undead pterosaurs winging their way over the plains of the Isle of Doom.

Valg smiled tightly, as he always did thinking of his homeland. He, his family and his ancestors had lived on the so-called Isle of Doom for thousands of years; its name was a source of rich irony for Valg. First, the “island” had an area of nearly two hundred and fifty thousand square leagues, which should qualify it as a continent. Secondly, for most of its history it had been one of the safest continents in Nysegard thanks to his ancestors, many of whom were still alive. Such as his great something-or-other grandfather Targh Bowelsplitter.

Of course, keeping it safe had gotten exponentially harder several thousand years ago, long before his time. According to the stories of the Oracle (as Targh Bowelsplitter was known), the volcanic fortress in which they lived, the Doom of Nysegard, was once connected to Mount Doom in the Abyss. It was from this legendary place that the D’Orcs had come to protect and save the various peoples of Nysegard from the predations of the Unlife.

For thousands of years, the Isle of Doom had been a safe haven for all those seeking to escape the Storm Lords and their minions. It had not been completely clear what had happened, at least not at first, but their volcano had started losing power and eventually shut down. It started with the links to Mount Doom being severed and ended with the magical defenses shutting down, leaving the fortress and the island in rather dire straits.

The Storm Lords had not discovered this immediately, but when they had, they wrought devastation on the Isle of Doom. The D’Orcs and their non-D’Orc allies had fought valiantly and eventually, after several centuries, managed to once again repel the Storm Lords. However, it had been an uphill battle ever since to keep the island safe. It was not clear how many more centuries they would be able to hold out.

After a few D’Orc warriors were slain and then summoned back from the Abyss by shamans, they had eventually learned the fate of Orcus and Mount Doom. That had been extremely demoralizing for the D’Orcs on the island; that demoralization had probably hindered their efforts. They had struggled on, however, and a few D’Orcs from Mount Doom had agreed to be summoned to Nysegard to aid them, but Mount Doom had suffered even greater losses and had not had excess forces.

It took a lot to kill a full-blooded D’Orc, and fortunately, none had died in the last two thousand years. While those that died could be summoned back, the dead D’Orc would need to fully regenerate in the Abyss before a shaman could bring it back. That would be time they very seldom had. Their D’Orc resources were stretched thin over the island. There were currently about one hundred full-blooded D’Orcs in Nysegard.