The Providers

By J

We’ve all heard the stories of the legions, and how they came to be. And the Rivermen who shepherded them as keepers of the crossing between realms. Of the MAGIC they sought, to build and to protect. But few dare inquire on the origin of MAGIC itself, as you have done. The ancient wisdom is… mysterious at best. Still, if you are to embark on the quest ahead, you deserve at least the ability to speculate. Come close, and listen.

Perhaps you have heard whispers of them? Ancient legends lost so deep in the history of the gigaverse that most have forgotten why to speak of them sends shivers down your spine. So powerful as to be assumed gods, demons, or nothing more than children’s stories.

The Providers.

Yes, you feel it, don’t you? That inexplicable urge to forget what has been uttered, to avoid the truth. Yet, I assure you there is nothing more important to understand now, as our battered legions search to preserve a crumbling Bridgeworld. We will need great power, and great knowledge, if we are to avoid the impending collapse of our multi-chain system.

The Providers were the pioneers from whom all MAGIC has since flowed. Guardians of the realms, maintaining the fabric of MAGIC necessary for a productive gigaverse. Some even believe that hidden nodes continue to exist, scattered across the chains, wells from which liquid MAGIC can be drawn directly at the hands of the Providers rather than harvested through the work of the legions or emitted from the ancient treasures.

In the beginning, when the Great Rift opened up to bridge the worlds, the Providers with great risk unto themselves harnessed the eruption of MAGIC from the First Bridge. Before even the Rivermen and the Legions of Genesis paved the way across the bridges, the Providers fought to stabilize the flow of MAGIC. Of course, those who bear the title are only those who believed, gave, and survived the journey across the First Bridge. Many were lost to turmoil and the volatility of this mysterious power.

It is unthinkable, but it is even said that the Providers commanded the Legions of Genesis, who bent the knee to the great purpose of constructing and protecting Bridgeworld in a time when the gigaverse we know today was just a dream. It is said too that the ancient treasures, discovered by the Providers, were used by them to bind MAGIC in material form and stabilize its emission across the chains.

If all of this is true, why then do we fear them, and hope the whispers are just whispers? Why do we not worship the Providers in great temples and dip from their wells of abundance?

(to be continued)