Alter Aeon The Great Library

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Note - as with any topic, researchers should question the reliability
and veracity of these texts.  The library's aim is to preserve
documents, not verify accuracy.

AABN:  16037
Title: a book titled "The City of Fonts"

Long ago, the Great Wars raged across the realm. Nations fell, whole races
vanished and the face of the world was bent and warped.

However, Alter Aeon was only one front of that conflict.

The Forces of Darkness and Realms of Light launched armies of staggering
size, millions strong. They fought in distant planes far beyond the scope
of mortals. Entire worlds were shattered in their wake.

The bulk of the celestial forces encamped in Purnima, least of the Planes
of Light. There they launched forays into infernal holdings via potent gate
spells. Armies of allied faeries and fair folk, as well as elementals, were
summoned in to bolster their forces. Likewise, the Demon Lords, aided by
the treacherous Evil Immortals, sent strike forces to assail the angelic
camps in Purnima. A vast swath of the plane was devasted by repeated
battles.

When the Accords were signed and the resulting peace fell across the
planes, a portion of Purnima was forever altered. The landscape had been
broken, the glorious angelic cities and fortresses reduced to ruins, and
land scarred and flattened by war. Decades of portals being open and closed
weakened the fabric of reality in Purnima, already perilously close to
Chaos. Turbulent time-storms shook the region, causing unstable portals to
nearby planes to tear open of their own accord. Most of the portals were
one-way, funneling in extraplanar entities. These portals became known as
Fonts, and the Field of Fonts was born.

Elementals frequent the Field of Fonts, and they have the most profound
effect upon the terrain. Rock is melted to lava by fire elementals, fields
are flooded into mires by water elementals, air elementals dry out the land
into barren sand, and so forth. Though conditions are harsh, wild beasts of
all sort prosper there, including various animentals. Ancient war machines
have also been seen, wandering about, pursuing unfathomable tasks. Vespers,
angels fallen from glory but not from grace, are drawn to the region,
seeking easy passage to other planes, or else they seek to battle against
the unsavory creatures that at times pass into the Field. A few vespers
simply hide in the unstable region, using the ever shifting terrain to
avoid those that seek them.

Since vespers congregate there, teraphim follow. These vespers seek to
restore their glory by gathering worshippers, creating mockeries of the
divinely appointed Choirs. The need to counteract the teraphim prompted the
High Inquisition to establish an outpost in the Field. Since the surface
was too dangerous to support lasting structures, the City of Fonts was
built underground in the ruins of a Myrmidon outpost. As per the Accords,
it is neutral territory. Demons, mortals, faeries and others are free to
visit, trade and otherwise engage with one another there.

Since the City of Fonts and the surrounding Field is neutral under the
Accords, the Inquisition must hire proxies to act in their interest in the
region. Formal relations were established with the Church of the Silver
Flame. A customary oathswearing with the Low Inquisitor allowed reinforced
Fonts to be linked between the City and Silver Flame chapels in Ramanek and
Gianasi. The art of creating crystal skulls was formally taught to mortals
as part of the Silver Flame's bargain, though this decision allowed demonic
tutors to teach the spell as well.

Many adventurers of renown have found their way to the City of Fonts.
Durham the adventurer famously tried to make maps of the Field. Some claim
that Saint Mordin of the Eye visits the city, pursuing errands for the
Archangel Selene. Even less known folk can find steady work escorting
vespers to safety or hunting down teraphic cultists. The Field itself
provides many unique resources, and charting its complex, shifting network
of plashets - minor Fonts that connect points within the Field rather than
other planes - is a challenge unto itself.