Latest revision as of 09:00, 2 July 2018

Long ago, in the Age of Empires, two brothers became entangled in epoch-spanning strife: one who became a Wanderer and slew the deities; the other would eventually unearth terrible secrets, and enact a plan of vengeance that would span far more of the history of Trinity than most consider possible. This conflict would be the backdrop of what became known as the Shattered Age, the end of the so-called Fourth Epoch, and would - through the Omega Event - usher in the Time of Echoes.

Overview

The Shattered metaplot lasted in-setting from approximately 396 CR to around 466 CR. However, due to time travel, many segments of the games over the course of this metaplot took place in wildly different times, including as far back as 12,000 years prior to the then-current time, and as far ahead as sometime in the mid-600's CR - not to mention various alternate timelines that were visited, created, and destroyed over the course of this story.

Seasons

The Shattered metaplot extended over what were effectively seven seasons.

Season 1: The Crew of the Phoenix

The first "real game" played in Trinity; though the Psionicle had it beat by several years, that was entirely online, and the Psionicle lacked a whole lot of Trinity-specific tropes that have developed since then.

This game resulted in the destruction of Kotrit Wayveri, Anabstercorian (though, due to time travel shenanigans, not really); and the Tyranid Hive Queen.

Season 2: The Toplanders

This game was. It saw the advent of Saint Uriah Morodov, as well as the destruction of the physical avatar of the Lucavi, Ajora. This season also saw the Second Tyranid Invasion.

Season 3: Angelus Errare

I'll be the first to admit that this game had serious problems, among them me (the DM) being overly-ambitious in terms of how many players we could reasonably accommodate, the then-feasibility of having long-distance players (not nearly as doable as it is today), and just generally terrible plotting on my part.

This game eventually self-destructed under its own weight, helped along by certain players who will remain nameless. The timeline the characters were in at the time was an alternate, which was eventually eaten by Lavos; that said, not everything from this timeline was lost, and the implications of that were alluded to in-setting throughout the remaining seasons.

Season 4: Iron Twilight

A band of adventurers get involved in a world- and time-spanning plot of epic - and quite possibly ridiculous - proportions.

Moogles in go-karts, time-traveling robots, plasma rifle-toting cultists, angry psionicists, chocobo-riding halflings, oppressive elves and divine dolphins: welcome to Trinity.

Technically, at the time this game began, it was intended as a gaiden - however, due to the implosion of the Season 3 group, this group became the primary group for the end of the metaplot. This was touched upon in-setting many times, and the fact that this group had to be literally in-setting ret-conned as the group fated to determine the fate of the world was mentioned repeatedly as they grew in awareness of the greater story at play.

This game is particularly notable because it started out with me trying to keep the mechanics as vanilla d20 as possible, and eventually we morphed into going full Trinity mechanics (because you can't have a real Trinity game without the physics the setting operates by, and since they were "real" actors, they needed all the relevant tools at their disposal).

Season 5: The Voyage Home

Continuation of the Iron Twilight group. This season mostly chronicled their adventures from the height of the Yuanaga back to what they knew as the present, dealing with Tetra's machinations throughout time and getting help from various folk along the way.

Season 6: A Prophecy Out of Time

Continuation of the Iron Twilight group. At this point the group was fully immersed in the madness that is Trinity, and this season was when they finally got going on setting up things for the final encounter with the Omega. Interestingly enough, this season also saw them have an in-character conversation with Tetra, as in I brought his player in to the group and let them have an actual, honest-to-goodness conversation.

Season 7: Wrath of the Omega

Continuation of the Iron Twilight group. This season saw them put the finishing touches on their tasks assembling the ring that would allow them to fight the Omega, as well as assemble the various artifacts that would need to be sacrificed to even get to him. Much of this season was taken up by the Omega Event, in which they systematically fought each of the Chosen Nine, then Tetra, then the Omega himself.