Agreements falter. Plans fail. Nobody knew that better than their group. The terrestrial plane corrupted everything it touched. Everything. The light. Darkness. Prophesy. Nothing was safe. The team had tried to warn their patrons, but were ignored. They were sent first. The vanguard. A squad of four emissaries and twelve sigillary hosts, they were meant to share miraculous wonder. Conduits to other planes of existence. The sixteen of them were hardened for the effects of this plane and yet, even they still ultimately sowed the seeds of distrust, uncertainty, and fear.

Abundance fostered greed. Healing bred more resilient disease. Open communication only exposed the secrets and lies that hid the fragility of peace. Fucking telepathy. Better than any, that vanguard crew understood how this plane warped and bent the absolute into something indefinite, conditional. They experienced it. They’re still experiencing it.

And yet, they were told to persist.

It was sheer arrogance to think that the terrestrial plane could be won in some thought game of judgment, let alone conformed by the victor. It’s a realm defined by chaos. The moment the patrons set foot there, it was obvious that everything had changed. No amount of hardening could have prepared them for the terrestrial plane. They were too pure, and the plane was too chaotic. Light became the Karui. Darkness became the Umbrati. A smear of dirt is most noticeable on an empty canvas; it doesn’t matter if that canvas is painted in white or black.

Durga was the first to notice. Even before Jörmaru’s sacrifice, she understood that there was an obligation to protect. Not just the terrestrial plane or its people. It was about protecting a balance that had been ruined by their arrival. Without balance, chaos would spread.

She’d led the insurrection. It was a noble, futile attempt to stem the tide from those that sent that vanguard crew. She was their captain.

The mission changed. It was better. The right path. It was also impossible.

That’s why Thegn had to kill her first.