Stunned silence reigned across the cities of Sapience. In a seedy bar
deep within the slums of Ashtan, the last Erisians raised their glasses
in a bittersweet toast to the departed goddess. The Babelonians gathered
in their small sanctuary, too devastated even to weep, while Flair
scoured the lands in vain for the lost token. Both groups had lost their
beloved deities, and the poignancy of the event was too overwhelming
even for words.

Things continued in that state for days, then months. Slowly, painfully,
life began to resume its normal pace. The Babelonians returned to their
hunting, their research, and their forging with heavy hearts, often
glancing up at the sky in the faint hope that it had all been a dream.
Across the realms, shrines to Eris quietly disappeared as the lingering
shadow of Her influence slowly faded, and the sound of heavy weeping
echoed up and down the twisted passages of the Erisian Pyramid.

Then, unexpectedly, a deep, rumbling voice echoed out across Sapience.
"Entropy! Discord! Ancient powers of perfect ruination! I, Your former
warden, call to You now by the terms of the power given Me by Sarapis.
Return to Me!"

The very fabric of reality shimmered with distortion in answer to the
call. Something ineffable rose up in a distorted haze, congealing into a
cloud above the Living Spire like some great, animate wave of heat with
dancing flashes of otherworldly colour pulsing through its substance in
patterns of impossible complexity and undescribable beauty.

A moment later, the cloud descended on the Spire, and all was silent.

People of all races and affiliations swarmed to the crater in the
savannah, alarmed by the voice and the reaction it had invoked. Before
long, a huge crowd had gathered around the towering monument of the
Living Spire. No one was sure exactly what was going on, but after the
events of the past year, no one was willing to rule out anything.

Then, without warning, the Living Spire shuddered once and collapsed
into rubble. A foul black mist poured out of the ruins, swirling once
through the crater before parting to reveal the towering form of a
white-bearded immortal. Adorned in the tattered remnants of an ornate
black robe, He wielded a flaming spear, and a tall iron crown rose in
imperious majesty from His pallid brow. It was, without a doubt, Babel
Himself. At the god's disdainful gesture, the entire crowd fell
prostrate to the ground. He nodded once, then melted into a black fog
and vanished from sight.

Eris had drained Babel's essence entirely, carrying it with Her as She
passed between the Realms and into the infinite void of Chaos, but a
faint imprint of His personality had remained within the small jade
token attached to the Eye of Golgotha atop the Living Spire. Deprived of
His divine power and cut off from the world around Him, Babel hung
suspended in a limbo of complete powerlessness and complete
obliviousness. The unmitigated experience of absolute sensory
deprivation defined His state, sweeping aside all concepts of time or
purpose or self. The mind of the god slowly collapsed beneath the weight
of this overwhelming nihility, its features blurring and vanishing into
the backdrop of utter nothingness. But somehow, just as the last remnant
of Babel's personality flickered and vanished, everything changed. In
the moment of His final destruction, caught in the last instant before
He would become one with the void, Babel touched the infinite potential
of pure Chaos. Suspended beyond time and space, the dying vestiges of
His consciousness animated the unspeakable profundities of the primal
abyss. The void lent strength to the final burst of His will in an
eternal moment of unspeakable power, and His will had but one focus: to
return!

Thus did Babel return from the void, created anew in His own image by
the power of the infinite singularity. His mind bore the imprint of His
brief, eternal union with the Chaos Realm, and He turned with new
passion to His ancient role. The dispersed Chaotic energies of Entropy
and Discord had long been controlled by Eris, but Babel had been their
first master. His rumbling voice issued that irresistible command -
"Return to Me!" - and they responded, converging upon the Living Spire
where Eris had long ago established a focal point for their power. As
Babel once more bent the power of Entropy and Discord to His will, His
restoration became complete. The Living Spire crumbled to the ground and
He arose from the rubble, reborn and renamed the God of Oblivion.

Penned by My hand on the 16th of Chronos, in the year 477 AF.