The Megalith, the Great Rain of Fire, the Radiance and the Wrath of the Immortals
by RobinUnlike most I followed the line of the Megalith description, together with is skyshield, worldshield, cellular build uplike an organism, and that combined with the magical spells assumed to be usable to such a creature following the Immortal rules. The Shield, Protection From Normal Missiles thus seemed the most logical if I had been such a creature, following the spell descriptions together with the organic build up, making a very plausible resolution to the Great Crater Conundrum
As to the GRoF disaster; several effects were imposed on the creature...WITHIN its protective Skyshield, before, during and after the event itself. All following the faint notices canon.
Before 1); Poisoning the natural magic available since the crashlanding of the USS Beagle 3500BC, with benificial effects to the life ON the Megalith; making it easier to use.
Before 2); Due this Radiance pollution biological effects (like the Shadow Elf Crystals trying to absorb the pollution) in the corporeal body of the creature.
Before 3);Due to increased capabilities of the sentient life on the creature, massive investation of this life, great wars with Giants, Dragons, the races themselves(with magical, Temporal, Elemental, Technological, Life/death(humanoids creation) and Radiance damages), industrial sized plundering the usable resources of the creature,
During 4); The Blast itself was so large the planet tilted. As such a thing can only be done if the blast was NOT vertical to the planet's surface, the blast can be assumed to be in some lower angle than 90 degrees; THIS would tilt the natural axis without too much problems
During 5); This also means that the force of the blast had a force opposite of this direction, which is INTO the planet/creature. This would suffice to alter the map to the current continental shape ON and Close to the explosion. It would be a massive internal wound.
During 6); The outward force could have very well been directed over the original smaller northern polar gate. Assuming these polar gates are the creatures breathing ports, the overradiated blast would be inhaled by the creature, infecting the Hollow World. the Immortals were too late to rescue most of the surface dwellers close to the Blast, yet were able according canon to close the original smaller polar gates and reopen new gates. That is some serious cosmetic surgery. Due this the creature was further able to breath, slowly heal itself, and enable the surviving life on and in it to escape extinction.
During 7); The healing,the wound, the falling ash, together however caused the temperature of the creature to drop significantly, causing a short (only a few centuries) ice age, forcing many surviving races to a more primitive state.
After 8); Prolonged and increased Radiance pollution, which according the Shadow Elf Crystals (and I assumed others too) started to grow to absorb this vile pollution as part of its healing process. The increased magic, however allowed several races to use magic normally NOT available to them (Carnivex, Nithians, Alphatians, Glantrians, several new and old Immortals, just to name a few) in such a way the Immortals were forced to take action on all these occasions.
After 9); The creature was assumed dead by most, and unresponsive to communication by many (even Immortals) to such a point most commoners aren't even aware they are walking on a living creature.
After 10); Vermin (like Worms, and Burrowers) already existent within the creature took their chances with rhe less corporeally active Megalith and grew or multiplied, with their own bad effects to normal life.
After 11); This caused races like the Taymora and Nithian to grow in power, where the Taymoran used their power in or from the creature, causing it to collapse many cells and flooding the region.
After 12); All the while the creature is recovering from the damages, the new Immortals "dance " on the body of the Megalith, gain more members, misuse the mortals in their plots and counterplots
After 13); All this up to a point tha external objects are propelled into the creatre while these meddlesome ignorant Immortals being unaware what is atually happening try to beat one another to a bloody pulp, using the mortal life to do so.
After 14); at the same time the rediscovery of a section of the USS Beagle still in existance , still spreading Radiance, is used to further the agendas of several immortals, resulting in regular depletion of magic, and such a massive damaging effect (the Doomsday device) to cause the creature to implode the cells underneath this section and causing it to become fully inundated.
After 15); The Immortals remove a large section of this scab(alphatia) and place it in the Hollow World to allow the creatures to survive (albeit the spell of preservation both alters their magic based culture, and at the same time forces it not to change, while all aware they are in a different circumstance, wit knowledge of magic in such abundance it would certainly affect the other nations, even if the spell of preservation would keep them from using that new magic themselves.
Suggested 1); I earlier suggested the biological effects to help decreasing the effects of the Radiance, and evolution of magic, this continues the same healing line of the Megalith.
Suggetion 2); The Megalith needs life in and on it to grow. Urt/Mystara is far from being full-sized, and yet I assumed (in this article further up) that it birthed an offspring (Patera/Myoshima). With this combined knowledge I assume that Urt/Mystara was actually TOO young to give birth to offspring, and that the Spell of Preservation was not used to keep the life in the Hollow World as a stable culture (that is in this assumption a mere benificial side effect, wanted or not) but was more used to preserve the inside of the Megalith as intact as possible. Why? because Mystara/Urt might be the only known Megalith to birth offspring (and here I use the article of Threshold 9 as a base, yet that it is not a common planet, but a young megalith instead...something completely unknown to any Immortal (as the oldest even have forgotten their own past, they would also not know this). This would be soo knew and wondersome, the Immortals would try to help the creature survive the birt, healing, and other ordeals it went through, and thereby growing themselves (instead the creature,--Linked assumption; as Immortal grow in power by their number of followers, this tells that following is granting energy in some form to that immortal. As more immortals have spawned due the easier magic on Urt/Mystara, more followers were reqquired, to "feed/energize" these Immortals. With doing so, less of this ebergy became available to the Megalith, stunting it in its growth and evolution, and even when agreements have been made, the growth of the creature should not have been impeded....and yet Urt/Mystara has not grown an inch according the canon sources, so the creature is derived of the sources to do so...
Suggested 3); Eventually the Radiance will be no more as the creature's healing processes removed this, and the artifact itself explodes in 1751AC. Magic will become more difficult to use, the rebirth of older natural (aka Planet-Mana-crystals-geomancy, Elemental(Ethereal, Matter, Thought, Energy, Time), Entropic(limbo/death), Life(fairy), etc) magic will happen and the amount of magic users already lower due the depletion of the Radiance, will also decrease the amount of Immortals, especially with the effect of plot vs counterplot, wars and lower ammounts of followers.
pweew. A serious train of thoughts on effects effecting other effects effecting more, until slowly a balance and healing is made...over an amount of time not even the Immortals are aware of. Maybe this is the reason the Old Ones reacted in WotI.
And at the same time I look around, and see a Real Life polluted overpopulated plundered world that reacts with unknown and unprecendented onslought though various means to tho who are doing the harm. Then Who am I to say Earth is not alive? Just something to ponder upon...and reflect this towards the view of Mystara.
This whole post, I almost felt if I was speaking with the words of Benekander and/or Gareth being aware of all this.
(please refrain from any reactions on this last sentence as that would go beyond the meaning of this post/article.)