"Who knows the end? What has risen may sink, and what has sunk may rise. Loathsomeness waits and dreams in the deep, and decay spreads over the tottering cities of men."
— H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
If you had one day to live, what would you do?
This was the question asked a thousand years ago when a cosmic entity obscured the sky in total darkness. All people saw a figure in yellow in front of them, wherever they were, whatever they were doing, and whoever they were with. Even those asleep did not escape the encounter. It was a one-to-one meeting indeed, and thus, they were subjects of a being capable of obliterating the entire world and wiping out the human race along with the history of its future.
It was said that it was the peak of human civilization. Modernization was in its highest form, from the transportation to the infrastructure. In all aspects, there was not a single trace where advancement was not evident. These were the glorious days for humans but also the darkest days of their race. For what they were about to face was the face of their death, and the face by which their end had been written.
"Who are you?"
Humans bound to the encounter asked the same question to the figure in yellow. He wore a robe and possessed many unfathomable limbs that sprawled with mists. He wore a crown of yellow and had a shadow for a head with dreadful, gazeful eyes of the same color as his robe. He had many names, such as the Yellowman, the Crowned Shadow, the Figure of Many Limbs among the others, but most regarded him the same: the Prince in Yellow.
And so the Prince in Yellow answered all of those for whom the encounter was meant: "I am the Judgment, and the End that walks. All life is frail as gossamer, and all death but a whisper before My breath."
Surely, as they had come to accept it, humans were doomed and were subjects of death.
But the Prince in Yellow was not death. He did not go there for retribution, nor did He simply want to reap souls. This cosmic entity was born to destroy, and should one see the Prince, then one was already destroyed. Hence all life was indeed frail to Him, like flowers that would wither in due time.
It was clear that the world had met its end. No advancement could kill a god that descended on His own, like the Prince in Yellow whose fate was the Earth's apocalypse.
But as the people saw fit, they knelt, pleaded, and asked, "Dear Lord, give us one day to live! For a day of living is a day worth of living!"
However, what would humans do if they got one day to live? Everything was vanity, and it was etched on their faces. Surely, they knew such a bargain would not work upon a being higher than them. Surely, they knew they were facing a god alone, but the God seemed to listen to their plea.
Hence, the Prince replied with His horrifying guttural and vicious ethereal voice: "A day for Me is not the same as the day you deem to be. But I will give you one day to live."
Indeed, a day would be worth more than a thousand days for the Prince in Yellow. Humankind had bargained for a feeble time before the Prince finally destroyed the Earth, as it was befitting to Him. Yet He desired that it would benefit Him as well, though the Prince was simply bored, yet a god would not do things out of goodness without a cost.
"In exchange, what would you give Me?"
But humans were not capable of answering, for they feared that one wrong word would utterly result in the destruction of the habitation they held most dear.
Without any response did the Prince in Yellow offer a bargain: "Then, how about I give you power, and in power shall you reach for Me, and frame a plan to defeat Me? I will give you a day to live, and in exchange you will give Me your freedom and spend the day thinking how to make Me flee. As you are weak shall I give you power, and yet for such power to not be broken, there shall be seeded in you a curse. An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth."
Humans did not think of the consequences, only that they wanted to live even for another day.
So they accepted the bargain and accepted the "coin" given by the Prince in Yellow.
The Prince of Yellow, bidding farewell for that day, said something: "I shall give you the four corners of the Earth in one continent, and four Gates you must conquer before you meet Me once more. Before the Day ends you shall be prepared, but know that your doom will always happen as it is written."
It was once said that the coin was both the price and the cost, as it, too, was both the fare and the pass. But for whatever reason, humans snapped back to reality with the Prince gone. When they did so, the world had already entered its own metamorphosis. The continents became one and all of modernity had been lost. It was as if everything went to zero, and they were back to a time when humans lived in caves.
It was the reason it was called Epoch Zero.
Humans lived for a day, as the day became a thousand years.
But the Prince in Yellow had not yet returned.
They adapted to their new habitat, and there arose a new era.
Where wizards once used wands, warlocks use a coin.
Such an era became the Era of the Warlocks.