The Old Testament is Arcanoria's original timeline after the Auric Aria broke from her silence of the Lost Cycle. It is also known as the First Reset and encompasses many different Events, Age Crisis, and in general fates for many characters that were born in both timelines.
The core difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament is that the Auric Aria decided to intervene directly by guiding Humanity to impose Mastery Over Chaos, and stop suffering. However, this tragically devolved into institutionalized cruelty that ended in Paradise Lost across several massive wars, and Events called the Genocides of the Auric Aria.
The Age Crisis are completely different because some of the Auric Aria's policies, regulations, and interventions fundamentally stopped the Age Crisis of the New Testament:
- The Inescapable Hunger never happened because through the dreams of mortals, the Auric Aria gave the schematics of ecology, how to properly grow crops and develop crop rotation to prevent starvation.
- The Great Plague of Euphoria never happened due to her intervention and as her enforced policies on Lunehymn regulation through the Auric Codex.
- If she does, she would get everyone killed because of the Shrieking Terror hunting all Scorching Truths leading to mass death over the truth. She weaponized and proved this by revealing the truth during the summit of the Grand Auric Cathedral, and in the aftermath every single person present got marked for death by the Shrieking Terror. No one survived the truth.
- Aside from the protection component, she would have to admit her inadequacy and her most profound trauma of creation, destabilizing the Auric Order as much as she would destabilize herself due to her foundational trauma and profound guilt being public knowledge.
In summary, it's impossible for her to explain the truth as it's as much of a personal issue on shame as it is an actual existential issue of not getting everyone killed.
The Old Testament is the proof of the God Paradox, both action and inaction lead to the same result until the intervention of the Third Actor as Civilization breaks the fundamental Cycle by revealing to them The Truth of Arcanoria on the end of the doomed timeline of the Second Reset.
The Sonata of the Golden Sovereign
The core of the Old Testament is discovered by Civilization during the Sonata of the Golden Sovereign, as part of the necessary elements of the main story of the Auric Aria. The introduction to the Old Testament begins when she incarnates thanks to Civilization's help, after learning about the Scorching Truth of the Eighth Cycle and The Auric Aria's Suicide.
The hint at the existence of the Old Testament is done by both the The White-Touched Archivist, and the Auric Aria during Ages IV, and properly spoken by the Auric Aria during the Holy War of Ages V when vanquishing Formless Father on the crusades of the Auric Angels.
The Timeline of the Old Testament
When she returns, drawn by the desperate prayers of survivors, she has the first Attunement for Magic with the pilgrim of the sapling. This profound connection makes her realize that while she lacks the Sufficient Precision to weave perfect life directly, she can influence mortals through Piety as means to guiding them by seeding her Consciousness in them.
She canonizes herself as The One True God based on the Auric Order that her first witness on the cliff had formed. This is the beginning of the Old Testament, and its 21 Events that dictate the major acts of the First Reset.
Ages 0
1. Dreams on Mortals
- The Auric Aria personally directs Humanity's hand, which creates a deep dependency as she's too eager to share the answers to most things directly.
- As Civilization progresses, naturally Dissonance appears as wars, slavery, and other horrific acts are conducted by the first clashes of Corruption, Humanity and Demi-Humans.
- Some of the knowledge she gives, is weaponized by leaders of Humanity and Demi-Humans alike as they now hold the power over each other.
2. Age Crisis: Demi-Human Wars, Corruption, and Enslavement
- The situation escalates when both Humanity, Demi-Humans and Pure Light beings begin enslaving each other and their own.
Ages I
3. Manifestation to Mikael & The Auric Aria's Incarnation
- To solve this the Auric Aria determines that remote governance is insufficient and finds the task to incarnate, she manifests in the dreams of a young adult named Mikael, he is the first to hear the Resonance of the Auric Aria after his own town has been ravaged by the ongoing violence with the Demi-Humans.
- She mourns with him atop the burning village, and after his Motif Awakening to Resonance she tasks him with the mission of gathering each of the classical magical materials, Emberwhisper, Aetherlight, Lunehymn, Glimmerfern, Sky Glass, and a Rose Seed to imbue a Fated Flower from which she will build the first commandments.
- The "quest" isn't really a quest because she needs it but rather to see if Mikael would do this as a test of free will. She wants to confirm that he isn't acting out of terror but rather as an active labor to participate in her order. As he completes everything, it confirms to the Auric Aria that he is Devoted and willing to be pious for her without her having any coercion on him. This is the proof she needs that Humanity can choose her freely.
- When the Auric Aria incarnates for the first time after the Eighth Cycle, she commands him as the first of her Seven Archangels. The proposal is given by Mikael who desires to keep helping her liberate the ravaged cities, and born from the experience of choosing the Auric Aria when no one had made him after searching for meaning in Mastery Over Chaos.
4. Formation of the Auric Codex
- The tethers with the Auric Aria are fairly fragile but every so often these rituals of her incarnation are targeted to liberate the enslaved societies. From one of these liberations, Mikael communes with the Silver Blood Medea introducing her to the theology, and create the structure theocratic institution under the direct authority of the Auric Aria. This marks the foundation of the "Auric Order of the Golden Sovereign." and the first Auric Codex with the minimum laws of Resonance in Article I for liberating societies that are oppressed as fervor and divine mandate for a better world build on love.
- The Atonalis and the corrupt slavers are struck, formally Auric Angels appears as the strongest Resonance Anchors of Piety of the Auric Aria. Some individuals ascend as Auric Angels, and some even become the next of the Seven Archangels, including Selah, and Adel.
— This article is abridged. The full record runs longer in the archive.