The Sixfold Eclipse: How It All Began

Introduction: The Moment the World Started Ending

Let me tell you about the day one scholar looked up at the sky and saw the end of everything.

Not a metaphorical ending. Not a “dark times ahead” prophecy couched in vague mysticism. I’m talking about a literal, mathematical, countdown-already-started ending. Zephyrion Gwynbran, Auran scholar and professional “I-told-you-so,” ran the calculations and discovered that Eclipsia had maybe two weeks left before the sky fell. Actually fell.

And when he tried to warn people? They dismissed him. Called him alarmist. Told him to come back when he had more evidence.

Two weeks later, six moons shattered, six capital cities fell, and 320,000 people died. He had all the evidence anyone could want. Just too late to save most of them.

But before we get to that tragedy—and we will, because this is where The Gathering Eclipse starts—let’s talk about how one observation of a single crack in a moon led to the discovery of the most terrifying prophecy in Eclipsia’s history.

Because understanding how it began helps us understand why it was always going to happen this way.

The First Crack: When Lunara Failed

Three weeks before the end of the world, Lunara (the Silver Moon of Knowledge) developed a flaw.

Not a natural flaw. Not a crater from a meteor or a shadow from atmospheric distortion. A crack—a thin black line running from the moon’s northern pole to its equator, like someone had taken a chisel to reality itself.

Zephyrion Gwynbran noticed it first. At 32 years old, he’d spent his entire adult life studying celestial mechanics, moon patterns, and ancient prophecies that everyone else dismissed as superstition. He had Sky-Marks tattooed across his shoulders and back (magical connection to Lunara), a library full of texts nobody else bothered reading, and a reputation for being, as his colleagues put it, “academically obsessive.”

When he saw that crack, he didn’t panic. He calculated.

The Math:

Day 1: Crack measures 0.3% of Lunara’s circumference
Day 3: 1.2% (exponential growth confirmed)
Day 5: 4.7% (trajectory projects complete fracture)
Day 8: 18.9% (visible to naked eye from ground level)
Projected Day 14: Total structural failure

Fourteen days until the Silver Moon broke. And when it broke, Aetheria—the floating capital city held aloft by Lunara’s magic—would fall. 243,000 Aurans lived in Aetheria. They had two weeks to evacuate, and nobody believed him.

Why Nobody Listened:

The Auran Council, in their infinite wisdom, needed more evidence. They asked for:

Independent verification (would take three weeks to organize)
Peer review of his methodology (would take two months)
Alternative explanations ruled out (would take a year)

Zephyrion had two weeks. He spent three days trying to convince them. They voted to “monitor the situation and reconvene if circumstances changed.”

Circumstances changed on Day 14 when Lunara shattered and everyone fell from the sky.

The Scholar Who Saw Too Much

Zephyrion Gwynbran wasn’t supposed to be a hero. He was supposed to study stars.

Before the crisis, his life was comfortable: research position at the Observatory of Winds, access to the best instruments in Eclipsia, a cozy apartment overlooking the cloud layer, and zero responsibility for anyone but himself. He read ancient texts for fun. He mapped celestial mechanics because it was fascinating, not because he expected it to matter.

Then he found the prophecy.

Physical Profile:

Age: 32 (young for an Auran scholar—most ancient knowledge keepers were 200+ years old)
Appearance: Typical Auran—6’2”, slender build, silver-white hair kept in a practical braid, pale blue eyes that reflected moonlight
Sky-Marks: Tattooed across shoulders and upper back in intricate patterns (magical connection to Lunara)
Personality: Introverted, methodical, preferred scrolls to people, terrible at convincing anyone of anything

What He Wanted: To finish his dissertation on lunar decay patterns over the last millennium. Maybe publish. Maybe teach. Definitely never lead anyone, anywhere, ever.

What He Got: The burden of knowing the world was ending and being the only one who could prove it. The role of Prophet (capital P). The responsibility of gathering six representatives from six races and convincing them to walk into almost certain death at the Eclipse Nexus.

The irony: Zephyrion spent his life studying catastrophe from a safe distance. Then catastrophe looked him in the eye and said, “Your turn.”

The Prophecy of the Sixfold Eclipse

While the Council dismissed his warnings, Zephyrion did what any good scholar would do: he went deeper into the archives.

The oldest texts—fragmentary, written in the first century after the world’s creation—spoke of the moons as more than celestial bodies. They described them as locks. Six locks holding back something that had been deliberately erased from memory.

The Prophecy Text (translated from archaic Auran):

When the six moons fall, the six locks break. When the six locks break, the Seventh Seal weakens. And when the Seventh Seal fails, the Door opens.

What lies beyond the Door has been forgotten. But forgetting does not erase. It only delays recognition.

Translation of the Translation:

The moons weren’t just magical power sources. They were prison seals. Solara (the Primordial Goddess of Light) had fragmented herself into six pieces, and those fragments became the moons. But they weren’t created to give light or magic—they were created to keep something locked away.

The Forgotten One. Entropy made conscious. The universe’s final, inevitable word.

And when the six moons fell, that prison would fail. The entity that had been deliberately erased from all memory would emerge. And nobody would know what to do about it because nobody remembered it existed in the first place.

The Chilling Detail:

The prophecy didn’t say the moons might fall. It said when they fall. Not if. When.

Which meant this had always been coming. The system was designed to fail eventually. The gods had bought Eclipsia ten thousand years, and now the bill was due.

The Eclipse Nexus: Where the Locks Meet

The prophecy mentioned a location: the Eclipse Nexus.

Zephyrion found it on ancient maps buried in the deepest archives—a convergence point where all six moons’ influence overlapped. Geographically, it was in the heart of the Disputed Territories, the most dangerous neutral zone in Eclipsia where all six races had territorial claims and none had control.

The Nexus Location:

Roughly equidistant from all six capital cities (not by accident)
Built on ancient ruins (pre-moon architecture, origin unknown)
Stone platform carved with symbols in a dead language
Surrounded by unstable terrain (volcanic vents to the south, tidal zones to the west, dense forest to the north)
A place where reality felt thinner, like the walls between worlds were stretched too tight

What the Prophecy Said About the Nexus:

When the moons fall, six channelers must stand at the Nexus. One from each race, marked by their moon, willing to bear the cost. They will channel the dying power, reinforce the locks, hold back the Door. They will sacrifice everything.

What the Prophecy Didn’t Say:

Whether it would be enough. Whether they’d survive. Whether the world could be saved or only delayed.

Zephyrion read that part seventeen times, looking for hidden reassurance. There wasn’t any. The prophecy was honest: this was a desperate measure with no guarantee of success. The only certainty was the cost.

The Astral Warning: When Lunara Screamed

Ten days before Lunara’s fall, the moon stopped being subtle.

It was night in Aetheria. Zephyrion had fallen asleep at his desk (again), surrounded by scrolls and star charts. Then pure white light flooded his window—not sunlight, but moon-light cranked to unbearable intensity.

Lunara was throbbing. Hanging directly overhead, unnaturally large, glowing with urgent distress. The crack across its surface was a black wound splitting the light.

And then it sent a message. Not in words. Not even in images. Just pure understanding forced directly into every Auran mind simultaneously:

FIND THE OTHERS. REACH THE NEXUS. CHANNEL THE FALL. OR ALL IS LOST.

Zephyrion’s Sky-Marks burned—actually, literally burned, tracing fire across his shoulders. Around him, thousands of Aurans were receiving the same message. The screams started seconds later.

What This Meant:

The moon was dying, and it knew it. Lunara—or whatever consciousness Solara had left behind when she fragmented—was desperate enough to break the gods’ ancient rule: never interfere directly. The gods had promised to let their children live freely. But when extinction was imminent, Lunara screamed for help.

The Council couldn’t ignore this. The world couldn’t ignore this. The countdown was now public knowledge, and Zephyrion had eight days to gather representatives from six races, cross the most dangerous territory in Eclipsia, and attempt an ancient ritual that might or might not save the world.

No pressure.

The Three Factions: How the World Responded

When the moon screams a warning visible from every corner of Eclipsia, people tend to have opinions about what to do next.

Within 48 hours of Lunara’s astral warning, three distinct factions had formed across all six races:

1. The Keepers of Balance

Leader: Zephyrion Gwynbran (Auran scholar) Philosophy: “Preserve the system. Reinforce the locks. The moons protected us for ten thousand years—we owe it to them to try.” Plan: Gather six channelers, reach the Eclipse Nexus, perform the ritual, prevent the Door from opening Estimated Followers: ~40% of the population

The Keepers believed:

The prophecy was accurate
The moons could be saved or at least their power preserved
The entity beyond the Door was dangerous and must remain sealed
Tradition and divine sacrifice demanded they try

Key Quote: “The gods gave everything to protect us. The least we can do is try to hold the line they drew.”

2. The Harbingers of Change

Leader: Tarak Kanati (Scalian warlord) Philosophy: “Let the old system burn. We’ll build something stronger from the ashes.” Plan: Allow the moons to fall, seize their power during the collapse, use it to establish a new order Estimated Followers: ~30% of the population

The Harbingers believed:

The moon-based system was flawed and fragile
If the moons were dying anyway, their power shouldn’t be wasted
Whatever came after would be determined by whoever was strong enough to shape it
Chaos was opportunity

Key Quote: “The moons failed us. Why die protecting a system that was always going to collapse?“

3. The Neutral Observers

Leader: No unified leader (philosophers, skeptics, pragmatists) Philosophy: “We don’t know enough to choose. Let’s see what happens.” Plan: Wait, watch, prepare for multiple outcomes, don’t commit to either extreme Estimated Followers: ~30% of the population

The Neutrals believed:

Both factions made valid points
The prophecy might be wrong or incomplete
Committing to action without full information was dangerous
Survival required flexibility, not ideology

Key Quote: “When gods start dying, maybe the wisest move is to step back and not get crushed.”

The Problem:

These weren’t three groups having polite philosophical debates. They were three groups willing to fight over which path to take. And with two weeks until the first moon fell, there wasn’t time to build consensus.

The Keepers wanted to save the moons. The Harbingers wanted to steal their power. The Neutrals wanted everyone to calm down and think rationally.

None of them got what they wanted.

The Six Who Were Chosen

In the chaos of those final days, six individuals from six races stood out—not because they were the strongest or the wisest, but because their moons chose them.

Zephyrion Gwynbran - Auran (Lunara’s Chosen)

What He Was: Scholar, prophet, reluctant leader Why Lunara Chose Him: He saw the truth first and refused to stop warning people His Burden: Guilt that he couldn’t save more lives

Tarak Kanati - Scalian (Pyros’s Chosen)

What He Was: Warlord, pragmatist, Harbinger leader Why Pyros Chose Him: He was strong enough to survive what was coming His Burden: Rage that strength alone wasn’t enough

Nerai Abyssborn - Hydran (Thalassia’s Chosen)

What She Was: Diplomat, empath, bridge-builder Why Thalassia Chose Her: She could adapt to anything, even transformation Her Burden: Losing herself to save others

Ronan Wildroot - Chloran (Verdanis’s Chosen)

What He Was: Elder, life-bringer, nurturer Why Verdanis Chose Him: He understood that growth required sacrifice His Burden: Watching his garden die

Shahrzad Nafisi - Mauve (Noctis’s Chosen)

What He Was: Dream walker, philosopher, reality-skeptic Why Noctis Chose Him: He could hold seventeen futures in his mind without breaking His Burden: Letting go of infinite possibility

Nyx Grimhelm - Cimmerian (Umbra’s Chosen)

What She Was: Observer, truth-keeper, analyst Why Umbra Chose Her: She saw patterns nobody else could see Her Burden: Knowing the truth nobody wanted to hear

What United Them:

Nothing, initially. They came from different cultures, held opposing philosophies, and several actively hated each other. Tarak led the Harbingers. Zephyrion led the Keepers. Nerai was trying to prevent civil war. Ronan just wanted everyone to stop screaming.

But their moons chose them anyway. And when Lunara fell on Day 14, they were the only six people standing at the Eclipse Nexus, hands raised, marks burning, channeling power that should have killed them.

They became The Six. And they saved the world by breaking it.

The Fourteen Days: A Timeline of Catastrophe

Day 1: Zephyrion discovers the crack in Lunara. Auran Council dismisses his warning.

Day 3: Crack measures 1.2% of Lunara’s circumference. Zephyrion begins mapping the Eclipse Nexus location.

Day 5: Crack visible to naked eye. Other races begin noticing their own moons showing signs of stress.

Day 8: Lunara sends astral warning to all Aurans. Panic begins. Council finally takes Zephyrion seriously.

Day 9: Similar warnings sent by Pyros, Thalassia, Verdanis, Noctis, and Umbra to their respective races. Six moons screaming simultaneously. Factions form.

Day 10: Zephyrion broadcasts the prophecy across all six races using ancient communication arrays. Harbingers of Change declare intention to seize moon power. Keepers of Balance begin gathering at the Eclipse Nexus.

Day 11: First violent clashes between Keepers and Harbingers. Tarak Kanati leads Scalian warlords toward the Nexus, intending to steal the channeling ritual.

Day 12: The Six meet at the Eclipse Nexus. Zephyrion, Tarak, Nerai, Ronan, Shahrzad, and Nyx—none trusting each other, all marked by their dying moons. Temporary truce formed: “Let’s try the ritual first. We can fight about who’s in charge after.”

Day 13: Final preparations. Ancient stones at the Nexus activate, glowing with symbols in dead languages. The Six feel their moons pulling at them, begging them to channel the power when it comes.

Day 14: Lunara shatters. Aetheria falls. 47,000 Aurans die. Zephyrion channels the Silver Moon’s dying essence while watching his home plummet from the sky. He survives. Barely.

Day 14-19: Five more moons fall, five more cities die, five more channelers nearly break. The Door weakens. The Forgotten One emerges. The impossible choice is made.

Day 19: The Sundering. The world breaks. 637,000 → 320,000 survivors.

What the Prophecy Got Wrong

Here’s the thing about prophecies: they’re great at predicting what will happen. They’re terrible at predicting how it will feel.

The prophecy said six channelers would stand at the Nexus and reinforce the locks. It said they’d sacrifice everything. It didn’t say:

That “everything” included watching your home city fall from the sky while you’re helpless to stop it
That channeling a dying moon’s power feels like your soul is being ripped out through your marks
That “reinforcing the locks” would only delay the inevitable by days, not centuries
That the entity beyond the Door wasn’t a monster but a philosopher, curious and patient and absolutely correct
That the only way to save the world would be to break it

The prophecy prepared them for ritual and sacrifice. It didn’t prepare them for the choice: let everyone die slowly as the Door opens, or shatter Eclipsia into fragments and save whoever can survive in the void.

Zephyrion had spent his life studying predictions. Turns out, knowing what’s coming doesn’t make it easier. Sometimes it just means you get to watch the tragedy unfold with perfect clarity and no power to stop it.

Conclusion: The Prophecy Nobody Wanted

The Sixfold Eclipse wasn’t a story about heroes saving the world. It was a story about people trying desperately to hold back an ending that had been written into the system from the beginning.

Zephyrion saw the crack in Lunara and thought, “I can warn them. I can stop this.” He was wrong. The crack was already too wide. The countdown had already started. The best he could do was make sure someone was standing at the Nexus when the first moon fell—make sure that when the inevitable happened, there was at least a chance to shape what came after.

The prophecy said six channelers would sacrifice everything. It just didn’t mention that “everything” included the world itself.

So when you read The Gathering Eclipse, remember: the moment Zephyrion looked up and saw that crack, the ending was already written. The only question was how many people would survive it. And whether survival was worth the cost.

Discussion Question: If you were Zephyrion, seeing the crack in Lunara and knowing the Council wouldn’t listen, what would you do? Try to convince them anyway, or evacuate who you can and let the rest discover the truth when it’s too late?

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