- "«When the circle is complete... They who invoke the name of God will be judged!»"
- ―Locus speaking Adamic[src]
The Great Circle artifacts, also known as Great Circle stones, formed a collection of seventeen relics placed along a line which encircled the globe. Each of the uniquely colored and shaped pieces held a word in Adamic that when spoken aloud provided the means for teleportation.
Occupying a place where history and mythology collided, the artifacts were thought to have been instrumental in how a Noah-like figure had sheltered the world's creatures ahead of a cataclysmic flood attested to in the Bible and other cultures' folklore. In its aftermath, mankind's greed and/or curiosity led to many of the pieces being taken from their original sites.
By the early decades of the 20th century, the Christian Church had secretly secured most of the stones in an effort to protect the Great Circle, aided by a clandestine brotherhood of giants whose origins predated Christ by tens of thousands of years.
However, around 1936, Nazis led by archaeologist Emmerich Voss became aware of the stones and launched an extensive series of global excavations throughout the following year to capture the complete collection for the Third Reich which eventually pulled rival Indiana Jones into the hunt.
In the end, over Lake Hammar in Iraq, Voss activated all seventeen stones, inviting divine judgment and the bringing down a storm upon the area. The Nazi was killed attempting to control a force that was beyond him and Brother Locus took the artifacts, using teleportation to place them out of humanity's reach.
History[]
- "If Voss thinks those stone relics can help the Reich, we have to find them before he does."
- ―Indiana Jones[src]
According to legend, seventeen stone relics were entrusted to Noah by the Metatron, an angel acting as the Voice of God, and used them to collect examples of the world's animals to protect them from the Great Flood in a giant boat and repopulate the Earth afterwards.[1]
The artifacts were hidden around the planet aligned along a Great Circle. Almost all of the stones were made of a material locally sourced from the site which concealed them with the exception of the Allmaker Relic, which was buried with the Ark under the Ziggurat of Ur in Iraq but its geological composition was a closer match to minerals found in Antarctica.[1]
Idols were used to hide each of the Great Circle's stones.
Eventually, the Nephilim Order, a tribe of giants believed to have descended from supernatural beings, sought to keep watch over the scattered artifacts, most disguised within idols, and prevent their misuse. It was thought that they were trying to atone for their ancestors whose actions had brought the Great Flood down upon the world. During the rise of Christianity, the brethren worked alongside a clandestine agency within the Papacy over centuries to protect those pieces which had been found by individuals and at some point a decision was made to secure the artifacts from their origin sites where possible.[1]
By 1937, twelve of the relics had been sealed within the Vatican Secret Archive. However, Nazi forces led by archaeologist Emmerich Voss had become aware of the Great Circle artifacts and mounted an extensive series of excavations to claim them and their collective power for the Third Reich.[1]
Through sheer coincidence, in the summer of '37, Voss' American rival Indiana Jones discovered a Cat Mummy in Siwa, Egypt which held one of the seventeen stones. Under observation by Vatican agents, the archaeologist returned with the object to Marshall College where it was put on display. Brother Locus of the Nephilim Order successfully stole it back in October only for the Vatican's cache of now thirteen artifacts to be claimed soon after by Voss who was aided by Fascist Italy's Il Duce and Hitler ally Benito Mussolini, all of which was witnessed by Jones, who had infiltrated the Holy See to take back the mummy, and Gina Lombardi, a journalist investigating Voss for his role in the disappearance of her sister, Laura, an ancient languages specialist.[1]
Artifacts[]
In order of the activation sequence and translated from Adamic, the Great Circle stones, the material they were made from, and their locations, were as follows:[1]
- Wordspeaker - Raw blue sapphire - Preah Vihear (Cambodia)[1]
- Earthsplitter - Chert - Machu Picchu (Peru)[1]
- Sunsparker (Idol of Ra) - Citrine - Giza (Egypt)[1]
- Shadowbringer - Smoky quartz - Ollantaytambo (Peru)[1]
- Wavebreaker - unidentified - Sukhothai (Siam)[1]
- Namegiver - White marble - Nazca (Peru)[1]
- Lifebreather - Moonstone - Easter Island (Chile)[1]
- Deathmiser - Obsidian - Aneityum (Vanuatu)[1]
- Greenkeeper - Serpentine jade - Paratoari (Peru)[1]
- Lacerator - Red jasper - Persepolis (Iran)[1]
- Conceiver - Volcanic tuff - Pyay (Burma)[1]
- Provender - Anorthosite - Khajuraho (British India)[1]
- Farknower - Amazonite - Mohenjo Daro (British India)[1]
- Bearer (Cat Mummy) - Granite - Siwa (Egypt)[1]
- Absolver - Dolomite - Petra (Transjordan)[1]
- Adjudicator - Diatomite - Tassili n'Ajjer (North Sahara)[1]
- Allmaker - "Novel material" sourced from Antarctica - Ur (Iraq)[1]