THE TEMPLAR A legion of knights, organized by the Pope, existed between the crusading years of 1095 A.D. and 1314 A.D. Unlike other knights at that time that fought for wealth, land, or power, the Templar fought for religious reasons under the motto "Not for ourselves, but for God." Their original purpose was to protect the pilgrims on their journeys to the holyland, but over the years their purpose changed to be more political. In the end, in an attempt to acquire their wealth, Philip the Fair (King of France) banned the order and had them arrested for heresy. Many were tortured and even burned at the stake. Yet, among them were many righteous and holy men for whom God felt pity. At the moment of their death, he dispatched angels to retrieve the Templars with the purest of hearts and gave them positions in the holy order between the angels and mortals. They were able to continue their lives, but from that point on, their reason for existing would change drastically. They became "Hosts" in which they accommodated within their own being, a multitude of troubled souls that refused to enter Heaven. These souls are entities that once lived mortal lives in minds that were so malevolent, they became scarred by their experiences and thus believed that they were unworthy to enter Heaven.
They roamed between planes as ghosts in a self-imposed exile, pitying themselves and hoping for redemption for their numerous and adverse deeds. God, who felt the exiles were self-destructive, combined them with Templar individuals, allowing the souls to be witnesses to great and good achievements. In turn, this would offer opportunities for redemption and grant them "grace", a second chance to enter Heaven. Due to this joining, the Templar gained powerful abilities such as; immortality (coupled with perfect health and a quick heal rate), dimensional (or planar) transference, and psyonics. Through psyonics, they are able to break down language barriers, channel the history of an object, and protect themselves from potential psyonic attacks. The only thing that God ask from them in return is to protect the good of the universe in his name.

THE UNIVERSE Time and event are two completely different concepts that tend to become intermingled to mean the same thing.  Upon the realization of their stark difference,  it would be obvious to define time as a measurement of the span of an event (that is, if one can accurately mark the beginning and the ending of an event). So why is it necessary to measure the span of an event? So that it can be recorded for historians sake? So that one will be able to know how much time is left in their short life? Another way to measure distance? Impatience? Yes, to all these reasons. However, if death was not an issue in ones life, one would become less concerned with the concept as the centuries passed by. The only thing that would be relevant would be the past and the future, unless, of course, you could move among those events as you and I do on a highway.

And, what effect would it have on the individual if they could move not only through time but also through the shadows of events? First one would have to understand the concept of shadows of events. Imagine a single drop of water falling from something so far above your head that you could not see its origin. This is the past. This single drop of water will eventually hit a pool of water below. When it makes contact, that moment will be the immediate present, otherwise known as the Initial Event Plane. Then lets say, for the sake of this analogy, the single drop of water could fall beyond the surface of the water into a bottomless chasm. That would be the future. All of what has been described so far is part of the Primary Event-Line. Finally, there are the shadows of events which are the ripples of water that the single drop would make when it meets the surface of the pool. This is where time and space can coincide in different places, making alternate planes of existence. These alternate planes of existence are mirror universes of our own. This is the area that is beyond the Primary Event-Line, it is called the Planar Expanse.  In these universes there can be differences, stemming from the insignificant (which would be the ripples closest to the Initial Event Plane), to drastic (ripples further from the Initial Event Plane).

But this space does not derive from the Initial Event Plane only, it exists in the past and future also. The ripple travels further and further away from the Initial Event Plane until it enters a state of dissipation in which time, events, matter, and essentially everything else that exists become elements in a realm of disorder. Timelines will cross, places that were once on opposite sides of the universe share the same space, and even races are mismatched and possibly genetically spliced. It is complete chaos otherwise known as the Outlands. And then there is THE DARK. It is an area that no one knows anything about other than what has been observed from the outside. some who were akin to the templar have attempted to explore this emptiness in the planar expanse but once they entered, they were never heard from again. it is thought to be the place where evil grows, enveloping everything in its wake like a black hole but much more powerful. It is considered off limits. This understanding of the universe is the domain of the Templar in which they can travel from place to place at an instant, called Phasing, no matter the distance. At one time, this endowment was allowed only to the spirits of God (angels), but after Gods' creation of those who are like the Templar, it was deemed necessary to extend these abilities so that they would be more of a presence in the universe. This ability has its price. Consecutive phasing can drain them of their energy much like a long sprint. A single phase is harmless. however, depending on the strength of the individual, several phases in succession without resting can be debilitating.   THE SORCERDEMAIN The Sorcerdemain is a winding current that runs through time and space. This current empowers those who know of it's existence to alter reality to a degree. It is believed by many races to be the remnants of God's hand when he created the universe. When it flows strongly through galaxies, those worlds that are in its path have a inclination to produce many beings who can manipulate this force. In fact there is a part of the the universe where the Sorcerdemain flows so strongly that there are entire worlds enhabited by (who could only be described as) "sorcerers". These races believe that they have merely progressed to the ultimate stage of evolution and that the power actually resides in them, not the Sorcerdemain. They are wrong. For if they became far removed from the Sorcerdemain they would quickly discover who they truly are. This long affected area has been a major headache for the Templar. It has been on the brink of an interstellar sorcerer war for centuries. The Templar are afraid that a war of this magnitude and its subsequent and enormous tapping of the Sorcerdemain, would create a major rift in the space/time continuum (and we all know how much of a pain in the ass those "rifts in the space/time continuum" can be). At one time, thousands of years ago, the Sorcerdemain flowed through Earth. The Earthlings, having discovered it, harnessed it's power and called it sorcery or magic. But in time, the current changed course from Earth leaving only residual traces of it's once powerful presence. From that point on, only the most knowledgeable of sorcerers were able to use it's remains. Unfortunately, over time these indivduals became extinct and the knowledge of tapping the Sorcerdemain along with them. The remains still exist today but no one knows exactly how to draw upon its powers. Yet, who knows, perhaps the Sorcerdemain will flow through the Earth once again.

Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000 by Kelley Cain