Capítulo 183: The Epochs.
"In general, the history of the world is classified into five epochs.", McGonagall spoke calmly while using her wand as a pointing stick and tapping a board.
"The first of the five epochs is Chaos. This epoch began when the Original Creator woke up, this caused him to shatter into existence as he split apart into the nineteen standard pathways that we know today."
"The world was in chaos during this time and there were no properly established pathways or even potions to advance through the sequences. People paid attention to mad ravings they would occasionally hear and concoct random potions and drink them in hopes of becoming a Beyonder."
"Of course as you might've guessed this caused them to lose control very easily. But all information about this epoch is very hard to come by and most of it is speculative and nonsensical since anything written during this time is mixed with the madness and corruption of the person who wrote them."
"How did the pathways come about then? I doubt it was all about experimenting, trial and error. There had to have been a method. And what about magic? Did people not have magic to protect themselves from insanity?"
McGonagall paused for a second to digest all of Loki's questions and then responded.
"Magic is a recent phenomenon in the world of the Beyonders. Although no one knows the exact date when Magic appeared in the world, everyone, the noble families with a long line of history, come to the consensus that Magic appeared only a thousand years ago."
Loki remembered how Walburga's answer to this question was the same but then he remembered something strange.
"Ollivanders…? I remember his store having a sign that said they were the best wand makers since Three hundred and Eighty-two B.C? What's that about? Is he lying?"
McGonagall nodded, "Good catch." and then patiently explained, "Although there are no existing records of the Ollivanders family existing that far back in time, the general consensus from the history of the Nobles is that the Ollivanders store has been making wands ever since the beginning of Magic since they all bought wands from it."
Loki's brows shot up.
'So if the Ollivander's however old grandfather made my wand then they had direct contact with the person who 'invented' magic?'
Loki nodded and McGonagall continued.
"The second epoch is the Order epoch. This is the epoch where the pathways emerged. It was said that in this epoch those who retained a semblance of sanity after drinking the Beyonder potions managed to discover a hidden ruin that was revealed in their search for the Original Creator. This ruin was called the Blasphemy Slate."
"The first Blasphemy slate is said to have recorded twenty-two pathways-"
"Twenty-two!?" Loki immediately interrupted, his heart started beating faster and his breath turned shallow.
"Yes, twenty-two. Unfortunately, we do not know the names of those pathways since records from the beginning of this epoch are unclear and by the time the Beyonders regained sanity and grew strong, the Blasphemy Slate vanished." McGonagall explained.
Loki's breathing hitched but he quickly managed to bring it under control, yet his mind spiralled into a symphony of thoughts.
'Twenty-two!?'
'So someone is purposely scrubbing off their existence from the universe.'
'But why?'
'Does this affect the True Gods too? What about the Outer Gods?'
'And how are they so effective in scrubbing them off that no one even knows their names?'
But McGonagall didn't wait for Loki's mind to catch up as she continued to explain.
"Often times the Beyonders of this epoch talk about how lucky they were or how good luck and bad luck often chose sides. Initially, this was assumed to be mad ramblings, but after a closer inspection it was revealed that this was due to the Goddess of Fortune."
"She is said to be the oldest and the wisest goddess in the Universe that reigns over one of the nineteen standard pathways. Specifically, she is connected to the Monster Pathway."
Loki's attention was immediately grabbed.
"So the Greengrass are more politically significant than expected?"
McGonagall nodded and then added, "In fact, I believe that only because you added Miss Greengrass to your newspaper business that the Nobles didn't retaliate seriously. Otherwise, a few might've already tried to annexe you as the Daily Prophet has been."
Loki made a mental note to thank the cold princess and then continued to pay attention to McGonagall but soon asked a question.
"What happened to those other pathways the twenty-two ones."
McGonagall nodded as she got the question and then explained, "As the world gained an order in this epoch, the Beyonders happened to notice something else."
"...?"
"They noticed that the demons that escaped the Abyss usually had three kinds of powers. They could either control other people in one way or they could steal other people's Beyonder abilities or they could cause trouble and escape."
'The hell…isn't that just the Fool, Error and the Door pathway?'
'So they do exist in this world.'
'But if demons have control over them…'
''She' has knowledge about them?'
"So they soon realised that these three extra pathways were ones that had been carved by mistake on the first Blasphemy Slate. Especially when at the end of this Epoch they discovered the second Blasphemy Slate which was more perfect than the first."
Loki at this point was lost.
'So they hid the three pathways in the Second Epoch.'
'But who hid it? Did 'She' hide them? For what purpose? To keep total control over it?'
'....hmmm, troublesome.'
"That was the end of the Second epoch. The third epoch is also called the epoch of Promised Rise. It was the epoch when the various True Gods woke up from their slumber and guided the Beyonders of their pathways to wealth and prosperity."
'So the Beyonders became True Gods after a while?'
'But what about the Wheel of Fortune Goddess?'
'Was it luck that helped her reach there the fastest?'
"The third epoch was also one of peace and prosperity for the humans. It was in this epoch that Magic was born. Some say that the Goddess of Fortune blessed them with this boon because she wanted to help everyone."
"Others claim it was the Hidden Sage that gave the world magic so that more people could pursue the true nature of the world."
"A few more have darker theories like the one which claims that Magic was invented to arm everyone in the world to fight against a common enemy that was targeting the world."
"But above all, Beyonders, magicians and humans coexisted in this epoch. Everything was going well and progress was being made on all fronts."
"All the gods and goddesses mostly lived in perfect harmony aside from the occasional squabble that was solved peacefully."
McGonagall droned on about the peacefulness of this era for quite a while and just as Loki was about to fall asleep she moved on.
"The fourth epoch was when it all went to hell. Seeing the prosperity of the Beyonders and the magicians, humans or rather muggles became jealous of our standing in society and chose to rebel. They instilled ideas of betrayal and greed and other sins into the other Beyodners and had them betray their own gods and goddesses."
"A quote from one of the diaries of a Beyonder who lived in this epoch explains it the best. It was as if 'the Goddess of Fortune has abandoned us!'"
Loki's eyes narrowed at that statement.
'Why would she do that?'
'Someone forced her?'
'Did she die and become a puppet for an outer god?'
"Things started to become ugly with several witch hunts and dark and desperate experiments which were aimed at extracting the powers of the Beyonder and wizards and giving them to the muggles."
"Eventually the remaining Gods and Goddesses of this epoch who were still alive managed to come together and form a pact of secrecy that would immediately come into effect to separate the Beyonders and Magicians from the Muggles to protect their utopia."
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