Fanon:Time Paradox

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A note of caution that should have been posted some time ago. This fanon is very heavy on transliterated Ancient Greek terms and Ancient Greek practices. I shall try to put wiki links for your convenience. Although I have already given the link to the abridged, if you aren't strong on such things (for example, you never heard of Europa Barbarorum or cleruchies: if you have, then chances are you should be able to read on without too much trouble), you'd best get the gist of the story here, which doesn't have the terms and is boiled down for your convenience before moving onward. Also, some people have noted about rather unconventional names. Move on, it's just transliteration over anglicizing (Eurydike over Eurydice)

Time Paradox
Location: Sunset Valley for the most part, extending partly to Bridgeport. Later on, Hekatonschoinos, Appaloosa Plains, and briefly Twinbrook.

What happens when a time-space rift brings in people from ancient cultures? What happens when this same rift radically alters the said characters? What happens when a neighborhood is filled with individual enmities?

First Time Warp: Prologue
The fleeing Alkmaionids suddenly find themselves in Sunset Valley: being given this new beginning, they decide to buy a house "El" Urban Sprawl and expand upon it greatly. Despite that, Alkmaionids had pretty much no presence outside their house, and took to an incredibly stringent isolationist policy. However, the Alkmaionids got some skills, and this eased their transition into the higher echelons of the Sunset Valley Society: Andromeda becoming a 5-star chef (something that not even Philetairos who was equally gifted accomplished, feat only duplicated way after in the second timeline by Chrysanthema). As mentioned, their social efforts were minimal, although the guests found their party quite enjoyable. The only significant outsider close to the Alkmaionds was Kleisthenes' work buddy Cycl0n3 Sw0rd, whose inappropriate mannerism had embarrassed Kleisthenes quite a bit. All in all, the Alkmaionids were just like any other residents, simple and quiet to say the least, and not even Eurydike, the crazy computer whiz who would eventually make it to the most elite segment of society, didn't make a whole load of ruckus at the time being.

The Arrival of the Attalidai
Then the story takes a new group of dynamic characters, the Attalidai. Unlike the Alkmaionidai, who were of the refugee origins and henceforth initially resistant to drawing attention, the Attalidai, a family mostly of Party Animals, were more than eager to draw attention to themselves. As such the Attalids usually threw about 2 to 3 parties a week, which would also be a factor in bringing in the Beauty 4 then headed by Demetria, a likeminded hard partier. This also coincided with Parthenope's goal of obtaining enough wine Nectar. To help in tackling Parthenope's goal, the Attalids paid a visit to Champs Les Sims and obtained skill books regarding Nectar Making. Before the trip to France however, Parthenope got pregnant and gave birth to twin daughters Olympias and Thetis, both growing up to be fine, Olympias growing as a pragmatic logician and disciplinarian while Thetis raised as a brave artistic bookworm. However, the true focus of the story belongs to Stratonike, who did not share the Attalid love of party (later on, this opinion was shared with the Simbot Theophania as well as the twins), and hence decided to stick to the study at the upper floor to master the art of invention aiming for a Simbot. But when it came to Simbots, Stratonike needed a Pink Diamond, and at Stratonike's request this led the Attalids to a trip to China, leading to the start of the Martial Arts tradition among the Attalids, although the instigator was surprisingly not Stratonike but rather Eumenes (although Stratonike quickly becomes the pioneer eventually). Having worked hard enough, Stratonike is rewarded with the pink diamond, which Stratonike gives it a heart-cut aided by having hunted other gems via the Collection Helper reward. However, with the Collection Helper, Stratonike hunted fruitlessly for life fruit seeds, but this had an important ramification in Stratonike's second trip to China.

Having obtained the pink diamond (and bunch of random seeds, gems, and ores), Stratonike gathers enough material with the assistance of Polyxena who helps with the cultivation of Life fruits (Stratonike eventually got access to one). Stratonike then successfully creates the first Simbot in the story universe, and bestows upon the Simbot the name Theophania, with whom Stratonike shared a close relationship. After some time of more parties and Philetairos' promotion to Chef de Cuisine, Stratonike and Theophania takes a mother-and-brainchild trip to China, where Stratonike is struck by meteor while in training (to be more exact, Stratonike looked in the telescope in hopes of getting logic skill). Just as all the joy was ebbing away from Theophania, by a stroke of luck Grim Reaper found a death flower seed from Stratonike's cluttered inventory, and miraculously did Grim Reaper spare Stratonike. Initially, Stratonike believed this to be the work of a life fruit seed, but after surfing some web and taking inventory, it was found out that it was a death flower seed. Being equipped with that vital information, Stratonike acquires more seeds, which Polyxena took and cultivated death flowers with all while being promoted to the position of Mad Scientist.

The Anabasis of Beauty 4
When the Attalid parties became virtually a ritual in Sunset Valley, the Beauty 4 came to town, led by Demetria who was by nature attracted to the Attalid parties. Alongside Demetria was Thessalonike, Achaia and Kallisto, most of them not as eager as Demetria to come into a town recently populated by a group of rich party animals, but none as opposed to that idea initially as Kallisto (Kallisto was very much like Stratonike in the reasoning). Demetria was very eager to party as wildly as their Attalid counterparts, and to do that called for a huge main chamber to party hard on. Of course, Kallisto was not pleased, and got a concession by having her living quarters upstairs, complete with an inventing table and a laptop. Of course, Demetria had no intention of having a negative net income, and as such had gained skills and rocked the Sunset Valley's population. Thessalonike also followed suit, blitzing to the top of the professional sports career with almost no problem at all. Demetria had been always eager to make friends with the Attalids (who themselves were quite amiable to say the least), and prodded the others to pay a visit as well, much to Kallisto's chagrin. However, all changed when Kallisto took notice of Stratonike and Theophania and took resolve into completing her lifetime wish to build a legion of simbots. It took several weeks and several deaging secret maneuvers first discovered by the Attalids (the makeover age reset) to turn the four into superpowers in their own right, Demetria and Thessalonike as mentione above blitzing to the top of their respective careers. Achaia on the other hand also fared pretty well, mastering Cooking, Sculpting and most importantly Writing, her main source of income, although Achaia for some strange reasons was temporarily enrolled as a Flight officer. Kallisto however became the second of the Renaissance Sims (Stratonike being the first, and Achaia being the third), and mastered handiness and invention, while also mastering Martial Arts for the same reason as Stratonike. Having succeeded in all of that, Kallisto also fulfills her lifetime wish, creating Briseis, Eurylochos, and Selene (while building one more, named Hieron) in that order, only to send them away as Kallisto deemed them to be in need of self-identities and political representation, allowing them to occupy the old Crumplebottom residence after Crumplebottom died of old age quite some time ago. Despite their monumental successes, they would succeed even more under an upstart...

Hypatia
Then, out of nowhere, Hypatia came in and occupied a house. Hypatia was an unusual sim to begin with, using that to first master Cooking, Painting, Handiness, Fishing and Gardening with which to establish herself with. Having mastered numerous skills, it was only a matter of time before Hypatia took notice of the Beauty 4 and took measures to subjugate them. Succeeding in that colossal task, Hypatia became the number one in Sunset Valley in terms of skills while making close friends with all the Beauty 4, especially with Kallisto while keeping them content having renamed the group Scholars' Alliance at that point by providing the subjugated with considerable autonomy. To Kallisto, this new leadership was a boon: the house was not as nearly as large as to open up opportuniites for mass parties, and as such things even with an extra sim (and another with Stratonike) were much more quiet (save for the music). Sure, even Kallisto had to make some compromises, such as allowing for occasional party or two, but the house was never known as a center of party culture at the times of Hypatia, much to Kallisto's relief and Demetria's disappointment.

Scholars' Alliance was an important step forward, especially when considering the current Meris Sophiston, as it was the first to indirectly institutionalize the doctrine of learning for learning's sake, while as Stratonike (and to some degree, Kallisto) did it for the Simbot, and the Beauty 4 originally did not have a clear aim at all with the skills, since the career concern was only secondary at best, and the fact that the Beauty 4 originally did not have any plans for power itself, starting out as a group with some heiresses and their pen pals.

This union of the old and new gains more momentum when Stratonike joins them, ensuring Scholars' Alliance's position as a household of elite sims. By the time Stratonike came into place, Scholars' Alliance had taken their first steps in time travel: Although even at the times of Beauty 4 (and even the Attalids) time machine was not unheard of, it was at the times under Hypatia that a local zenith in time travel took place, resulting in Salina Thalamaia and Lilian Syrakosia, both having vastly different traits than their descendants. All seems to go well... until another time warp occurs.

The Second Time Warp
The second time warp would bring back to life the expired Alkmaionidai, all passing away to old age. However, this came at the cost of all their skills, and it took time to reconstruct their once firm yet inconspicuous position on the neighborhood. The Alkmaionidai also takes in a newcomer, Lysistrata Amphipolita into their care, and Lysistrata becomes an excellent logician and practitioner of medical care. Lysistrata kept good ties with all of the Alkmaionidai, and this allowed Lysistrata to keep touch with them when she and Eurydike would eventually move away.

Return of the Scholars' Alliance
The Scholars return, although Hypatia's latest gains in skills were lost. This set the stage for the second period in the Scholars' Alliance, a time of tension, as Hypatia was no longer at that top. This superpower certainly alarmed the Altos (who were long gone by the times of Beauty 4 in the first timeline), and even mean-spirited Nick couldn't afford to make enemies on two fronts, and with suggestions from Vita, decides to scout them first while doing the unthinkable: ending the enmity between the Landgraabs just in case his mean-spiritedness would get the better of him, while keeping a good name with them by inducing Holly to befriend Kallisto. (some say that this led to Holly's eventual insanity) While all the Altos' diplomatic maneuvering was taking place, Christopher Steel became an epicenter for a potential disaster, kissing and captivating Achaia, Jamie, Ayesha and Hypatia. However, despite it being the catalyst to the first schism, it was not the only reason for it: Achaia also had a slightly negative view of Thessalonike, a clear decline considering their strong bond initially even under Hypatia, caused by Thessalonike's tendency to cheat several times, cheating on Leighton Sekemoto and another sim.

This led to a conflict in interest in the Scholars' Alliance: Demetria, who was first fed up with Hypatia leading the household to a direction of less party and more study (ever since the 2nd Warp, the Scholars' Alliance had hosted no parties, and parties were much rarer even in the 1st timeline), supported Achaia's claim to Christopher, causing a rift between Demetria and Hypatia. In response, Kallisto and Stratonike peeled away from the now-dysfunctional group, establishing the Union of the Insane, inviting Lysistrata and Eurydike, who were also insane. Eventually, Hypatia was fed up with feuding with Demetria, and with the invitation of Kallisto for whatever reason, ends up taking refuge in the domains of the Union of the Insane, only to join it sooner or later. This opened up an friendly skills race between Kallisto and Hypatia, which was then joined by Stratonike moments after.

This was followed by a torrent of enmities appearing almost as if they came from thin air. Altos made enemies of both the Bunch family and Achaia, while Christopher Steel made himself many enemies ranging from romantic rivals like Leighton and former lovers like Jamie Jolina. Even the Alkmaionids were not free from the tides of ill-will: Andromeda found enemies in the Landgraabs. In fact, the factionalism in Sunset Valley was at its high to the point where many people expected an violent conflict to bloom from it.

The Coming of the Romaioi Barbaroi and the effective dissolution of the Beauty 4
What has turned into a potential chaos was not abated by the coming of the Romaioi. The Barbaroi wishes to establish superiority, which didn't turn out so well as of this point. However, the Barbaroi did succeed in making enemies (and friends), Pompeivs making enemies with Kleisthenes. Barbaroi kept themselves at the periphery, even though Cato was all too eager to make enemies with the Hellenic overlords (ironic at hindsight since Cato ended up being good friends with one of the Hellenic overlords Hypatia), although Cato did not meet with any member of the Union of the Insane.

Meanwhile, Thessalonike's newfound tendency to go cheating in romantic relationships soon gave her an reputation, and with it came opposition from Achaia who had been faithful to Christopher Steel who grew more unpopular by each passing days. The difference between Achaia and Thessalonike eventually resulted in termination of their friendships. This led to a huge problem to Demetria, as Demetria wished to hold what remained. Demetria was devastated by the friendship gone sour between the remaining members: The very union that Demetria oversaw seemingly ready to crumble: Kallisto deserted a long time ago, and now the growing rift between Thessalonike and Achaia would only worsen things for Demetria, who attempted to cope with this with more parties. Despite the rotting foundation, the Scholars' Alliance would last, although its power and liveliness were greatly attenuated.

The Skill Race of the Union of the Insane
However, a clear lack of leadership position in the Union of the Insane led to a Skill Race, mostly between Kallisto and Hypatia with some participation by Stratonike. The presumed goal is to be the true number one, and henceforth implied leadership in the household. However, unlike the case with the now largely derelict Scholars' Alliance, competitions were quite friendly and frictions were rare for the time being: In fact, Kallisto and Hypatia remained special friends, although the main members still were a net of close superstar friends. Meanwhile, they began to plan for their eventual financial hegemony marked by property ownership, which would have eventually lead to a clash with the Romaioi, only if the Romaioi actually held up their position as the enemies of the Hellenic overlords as Cato had wanted. Despite this direction, most of them were oblivious to the Romaioi, with only Lysistrata and Eurydike having met Pompeivs and Ivlivs respectively and nothing else. In all of this constructive competitive atmosphere, Kallisto acquired a clone and named her Antigone, who would benefit much from her upbringing in a supercompetent atmosphere, which would end up in a tragedy for Antigone.

To some, the modus operandi of the Union of the Insane might be seen as cultish, as the Union was well known for personal development when the core members for the most part have huge arsenal of skills, surpassing that of even the Beauty 4 of the old: Stratonike, Hypatia and Kallisto have skillsets that are well above that of Demetria and Achaia, both respectable and well developed, if not unnatural due to their unnaturally long life. In fact, the unnatural operations of the Union was culminated by the acquisition of the Motive Mobile, allowing them to refill their motives as they pleased, allowing them to neutralize the need for sleep, and the Age Freeze potion, rendering the core members virtually immortal.

The Great War That did not Happen
Eventually, Christopher Steel hypocritically considering his tendency to flirt (he had cheated quite a lot, and had romances with at least 4 sims) accuses Hypatia of cheating on him even when Hypatia quit romance quite a while ago. This immediately sparks a publically known feud: with Jamie Jolina, Jamie's lack of celebrity status kept Jamie's meat against Christopher private, but with Hypatia, media was on to Hypatia's radar of things. Of course, Hypatia being publically humiliated asks Stratonike for assistance, when conveniently Lysistrata came to Hypatia's aid as Lysistrata was that centerpiece of the Medical community that Jamie was a part of. Lysistrata would go subvert the entire medical community against Christopher as a retribution for hurting an ally. Essentially, it was the World War I in a neighborhood scale without guns. Of course, Jamie was all too happy to have a powerful set of allies against her enemy, and would go on turning her friends to wage a psychological war against Christopher. Achaia would be shocked: Achaia now happened to be the girlfriend of the public enemy, and ended up envying Demetria, who had a relatively happy end so far being an fiancee of Abraham Finkel. With Jolina firmly allied to the Union of the Insane, the core members pour out what would be called the Great Bowls of Wrath, starting from Lysistrata's communal assault on Christopher's reputation to Stratonike's barrage of hurt.

Such was the predicted chains of event. However, Hypatia cut it short by preemptively terminating her relationship and reputation with the Clean Slate. Ivlivs however used the growing commotion and slipping past the radars of Kallisto and Hypatia made great friends with all the remaining members of the Beauty 4. In fact, Ivlivs would set himself to be quite a social guy, and one of the very few non-Greeks to have a sizeable network of friends. Despite the lack of victimization of Christopher Steel, Jamie would turn even more favorable to the Union of the Insane, although not enough to join its ranks, even though romance wasn't vilified yet.

The Insane Ones' Hegemony and the beginning of expansionism
Kallisto however was not satisfied with the Union's practical hegemony over Sunset Valley, and eyed a new town to invade. Kallisto chose the lively city of Bridgeport, proceeding with the plan by doing another unprecedented action: creating 3 true clones with identical traits, looks, and initial skills and dispatching the 3 to Bridgeport to establish a forward base of operation. Kallisto's imperial goals was no short of establishing a great empire no less than that of Alexandros for herself, and the others simply didn't care as they were quite occupied in overseeing their domains.

Even though Kallisto clones, due to their looks, had all the fame of the original Kallisto, but they initially were able to operate outside the radar of the established celebrities, since they were either too occupied with their party life or had feuds of their own (i.e. Vampiric war) The Kallisto clones would receive fundings from Kallisto, allowing them to buy a respectable house and enough initial funds to take over several real estates, from which they withheld initially to keep their presence and objectives covert as possible.

Romance Heresy
Unfortunately, the Union of the Insane itself followed the footstep of the Scholars' Alliance, not so surprising as many of its members came from the old power. While the core members strictly observed the rules and did not commit the heretic act (later codified by Kallisto) of seeking out romantic interests and giving any inch of impetus to quarrel, there was no infighting. However, the observation of such practices started to unravel when a defect Kallisto clone named Kallistrata moved right next door, who observed the beginning of the unraveling, where Stratonike and Eurydike verbally fought each other (although Eurydike was the one who preferred insulting, a rare case because later on it would be Stratonike who would have the rude tongue) and terminated their friendship without being hostile, while the growing conflict between Kallisto and Stephanophoros was less visible. However, the catalyst came into play when Hypatia revoked her vow to abstain from romance by involving herself romantically with Sam Sekemoto (keep in mind, Hypatia's rendered immortal with the lifetime reward like all other core members of the Union of the Insane), followed by Stratonike who was involved with Artie Page, Lysistrata following suit with Leighton Sekemoto (who is a young adult by the virtue of vampirism), while Eurydike, although not directly dating, fell for Pompeius. Kallisto could only find horror in this as largely a neutral in the infighting between the core members and was the only one to have good ties with all other members, conflict centering on Hypatia and Stratonike/Lysistrata, although Stratonike and Lysistrata themselves weren't truly allies: rather, Stratonike pretty much alienated every other core member save for Kallisto. Lysistrata and Stratonike left on their separate ways, Stratonike returning to the Attalid household while Lysistrata moved in with Jamie Jolina, while Stephanophoros himself leaving to join his sister-in-kind Lilian in the old Scholars' Alliance. Kallistrata did not come alone: next was the construction of two bars, one suspiciously foreign one named Banzai Lounge, other the Play Chambers, the latter owned and built by Kallistrata.

Scholars' Alliance had its own issues, nonwithstanding the outright hostility between Achaia and Vita Alto, not helped by Achaia's problem with Thessalonike. Demetria doubled her problems, gaining the most number of hostile relations while expanding her popularity, although her fiancee Abraham Finkel moved in. Thessalonike had no additional troubles, and actually kept her newest romance quite stable without cheating on him, at least not just yet. Dave Ramsey would join the suit, moving in with Thessalonike, while Demetria would find some solace in her marriage with Abraham.

Meris Sophiston
The codex established the Meris Sophiston, or the Order of Scholars. To accommodate for the change in operational methodology, Kallisto ordered the complete overhaul of the Union of the Insane housing, tearing down the old Epiteichma house and establishing the Naos-Stratopedon, the Chapel-Barracks (or literally, Temple-Camp), enacting to minimize bedroom quarters to an absolute minimum as standard in any barracks, while maximizing scholarly areas, having plenty of skill-related items and plenty of rooms to place them. Although the building is not yet complete, lacking the observatory, Kallisto established the basic guideline for the establishment of Chapel-Barracks should there be converts to the faith. In top of that, Kallisto took on the religious role of Chaplain, which merely meant chanting catechisms of anti-romance and scholarly attitudes, since the actual worship was actively developing technical skills.

However, their role as celebrities forced even the likes of Kallisto to accept one thing: they could not eschew parties, simply because the neglect to clean up after the scandals caused by false accusactions (of course, which was one of the reason why they lamented this) built up a sizeable backlash as well, most evidently with Kallisto, and Kallisto herself actively hosted parties to keep negative attitudes at bay, despite her Loner trait. After all, evangelism is very difficult in a hostile environment...

Kallisto's concept of redefining parties, away from the original definition of fun for host and socialization to that of public entertainment, was a key factor in additional changes: Kallisto went to establish the Amphitheatron to serve as a center of public entertainment by Meris Sophiston: it would lead to much success: Public opinion was affected very positively to a point where even a succession of scandals, mostly false accusations, did not create a surge of negative opinion regarding Kallisto. While Kallisto redefined the role of Union of the Insane, Kallistrata had the first convert in Thornton Wolff, whose Vampiric vigor provided a synergy to Kallistrata's already respectable teaching skills (having mastered the Skill Professor challenge), leading to a sudden awareness of the new religion in the Vampire ranks.

The birth stage of the religion meant that it was quite turbulent: Kallisto proposed the idea of establishing Initiate households, arguing that the core members' need to host public entertainment may lead the disciples astray, citing Epaphroditos who was a Party Animal as an example. Hypatia saw through Kallisto's ploy, since Kallisto did little to disguise her attempt at bringing back Lysistrata and Stratonike back. However, Hypatia couldn't do a thing to prevent it, since Eurydike and Antigone were apathetic about the issue, and Kallistrata's support for Kallisto's agenda led to Hypatia's defeat regarding the establishment of initiate households. Kallisto had her way, and appointing Epaphroditos as Lochagos to oversee Eunike and Demetrios' development, sent them away to a new Chapel-Barrack, which was unfortunately near a dance club (Kallisto wanted to counteract it by building an observatory near it, although that wasn't completed at the time). Having made room, Lysistrata instantly rejoined, and Stratonike followed suit and took Kallisto's counteroffer.

Success Of Mercantilism: The March of 500k
With the inclusion of Stratonike and Lysistrata, the Union of the Insane suddenly saw a huge explosion in revenue: Tiberium experiments were actually a loss: the experiment involving Tiberium Transfiguration was a fiasco, cutting return on investment by 1/8th. However, they had a sudden surge in income due to several factors: Lysistrata was back as the World Renowned Surgeon, although that wasn't nearly enough: it was mercantilism: Kallistrata started by investing in more nectar making devices: essentially seeking to quadruple output, while the addition of Stratonike sent the sculpting section at full run most of the time. combining all sales, salaries, tiberium, and others, the Union of the Insane suddenly saw a total profit of 500k in just 6 days, allowing them to surpass the wealth level of the Scholars' Alliance in such haste. This mercantilistic success was attributed to the Union policy, and Kallisto ensured that Stratonike and Lysistrata would be taught to fill in the gap that they had. With outstanding products, they suddenly saw themselves as uberrich. The sudden increase in nectar output also attracted the attention of the Attalids, particularly Parthenope, who was eager to establish trade agreements with Kallistrata to get her hands on the rich nectar produced by the Union of the Insane, now deemed far superior to most French products.

Kallisto, of course, had plans with that sudden influx of money: Kallisto planned to build an empire, for the Amphitheatron was just the beginning of Kallisto's grand scheme. Kallisto planned to turn the entire town upside down with new public projects, and thus mark the Golden Age of Sunset Valley by the Greeks, of the Greeks, and of course, for the Greeks (and allies). This was an expansion of Kallisto's previous ambitions, to spread the Union influence beyond Sunset Valley, where the Union would no longer be content with being influential or famous: The Union was already that. No, that wasn't enough. Union of the Insane was to be the new rulers of all Simkind, so aspires Kallisto.

Time of Imperial Splendor
With the formation of the religious structure of the Church of Alexandros, Chaplain Kallisto was soon working towards reducing squalor and economic importance of town by building public structures. In fact, Kallisto's agenda was to renovate Sunset Valley, making it an academic center worthy of being the seat of the first diocese of Alexandros. The first two projects were the Agora for foreign goods, especially books since the Union was very interested in importing skill books and recipe books, as well as breaking the monopoly previously held by the Attalids over books on advanced Nectar Making, and the Research Lab to supplement the preexisting Landgraab Science Facility, presenting life fruits to the public domain for the first time as well as increasing the availability of death fishes to the public, although exotic fruits were already introduced by the introduction of Oinopolis, now renamed Emporion Nektaros to remove the hinting of comparison to wine. In addition to the resources, the Research Lab is also the first public institution to offer experimentation with Invention, and also houses an observatory on top of that.

Having made those additions, Kallisto felt more accomplished, although Kallisto (and Kallistrata) felt something was missing: despite these additions, the religion was largely contained to the household, with few outside believers asides from the likes of Thornton Wolff, despite Stratonike's experimentation with introducing didactic house parties in which the Union Sims would depart skills to invited sims.

However, The Agora was a failure and a success: The Agora, despite being the most expensive public building and the 2nd most expensive behind the Naos-Strapedon class housings, has not attracted any foreign goods and tomes, disappointing as Kallisto's primary objective for building the Agora was to obtain the foreign tomes. However, the Agora was a success of its own: it was highly effective immigration factor despite the commercial debacle, attracting the likes of the Connor family, who were potential converts to the Church of Alexandros, which was convenient as the Agora also was graced by a big Chapel to the Church of Alexandros.

Despite the failure of Agora to generate income, the Tiberium aspect of Union's income has hit a peak, and along with nectar, sculpting, jobs, and others, the mercantilist policy continued to yield success, to the point where the Union's total wealth is more than twice that of the Scholars' Alliance and more than 4 times that of the Attalids. Kallistrata took inventory and removed fruits that are not of the perfect quality, ever increasing the quality of the nectar produced by the Union, and the quantity was also increased, thanks to Kallistrata's completion of the Master of Nectar Making. All while that was happening, Thessalonike eventually married Dave Ramsey, and Achaia eventually decided to leave, picking love over wealth: as Steel family was the poorest of the bunch with a bit over 10,000 simoleons in possession. Lilian and Salina also chose to part in their separate ways, moving into a house and naming themselves the Relics of the Past household.

With the Union, Stratonike benefited the most from her realignment, mastering Nectar Making and Cooking at brutal speed, putting her once again ahead of Eurydike. Lysistrata eventually made it into the core members cast, and although Lysistrata would remain the least skilled of the bunch, Lysistrata found herself at the better end of the deal, and Lysistrata once again became a major wage earner, reaching almost 20k simoleon per week alongside Hypatia despite Kallisto's order to take a week-long break to sharpen up skills. Kallisto however once again was struck by various scandals, many arising from both her ever-so-persistent image as a psyker and now, the jealously among some who were now envious of the splendor of the Union, despite the unmaterialistic attitude of the Union who didn't give a hoot about money as much as they did on making quality products and making advancements. Kallistrata wanted a disciple, and had the family engaging in many time travels in a vain attempt at a kid, although they did end up with rare normal tomes and money. Kallistrata eventually got fed up, and adopted Chrysanthema.

Inflation and Palace of Pella-Syrakousai
However, the overabundance of rich sims, as well as the general growth in wealth of sims in general, posed a huge problem: the Sunset Valley was a time bomb for an onset of hyperinflation, and this was something that the Union of the Insane was very aware of: although money meant little, the Union feared that this hyperinflation would cause their PR to suffer, as it was they who spread skills, and thus average human capital and average income of the entirety of Sunset Valley in general, which wasn't helped by their mercantilist policy, somewhat similar to Spain's travesty as their massive monetary accumulation led to massive depreciation of currency.

To counter the current oversupply of simoleons, Kallisto considered adding a property tax, but then chose to simply burn the Union's own treasury up with an extraordinarily lavish palace for the masses. Initially, Kallisto was against the idea of such a palace, since Kallisto feared that this would encourage love of luxury and thus heresy. However, the problem of probable hyperinflation which was suppressed only by a low velocity of money was greater, and since Kallisto did not want a disaster should other families spend more and thus increase the velocity of money, decided to agree with Kallistrata's proposal of an extraordinarily lavish palace: Of course, this would have to be of even grander scale than even the Agora: it would have to burn at least 1.5 million simoleons, so said Kallistrata.

Move to Hekatonschoinos
However, the relative monotony of Sunset Valley shook up the Union of the Insane, and according to urban legends, Kallisto with her ever-so-present (or at least, purported to be) psychic powers raised an entire set of landmass in the middle of the ocean: the theory supported by the fact that the landmass is very fragmented and unnatural: the region of Hekatonschoinos is very disconnected and thus multiple bridges are present to keep the entire community around Hekatonschoinos connected. Whatever the truth regarding the origins of Hekatonschoinos, The Union of the Insane migrated there where it would be the capital world of the Church of Alexandros.

Kallisto soon came up with a new direction: capture an Unicorn for study. Kallistrata was thrilled, since rumors had it that Unicorns could bless flora, and thus Kallistrata would benefit from the Unicorn's presence.

There, The membership of Church of Alexandros is as what follows, bold names denoting core members: With that, Kallisto once again pushed forward to build a complete variant of the Palace of Pella-Syrakousai to subjugate the population, and made other moves to keep people happy and eager to adopt the official religion of Hekatonschoinos: the initial population were mostly Greeks and converts, such as Thornton Wolff and the Mathetai. Eventually, however, massive employment opportunities drew foreigners like moth to the flames, and a body of foreign population quickly began to form, scattered throughout Hekatonschoinos. Meanwhile, Kallisto's push for a unicorn led to the adoption of Boukephalos, which developed to be a swift and agile horse befitting his name derived from the homonymous steed of Megas Alexandros.
 * Kallisto Syrakosia: Chaplain of the Hekatonschoinos Chapter of the Union of the Insane, founder of the Church of Alexandros.
 * Kallistrata Pellaia: Chief Librarian, Gardener, Nectar Maker, and Inventor of the Union of the Insane
 * Stratonike Attalida: Treasurer-in-chief of Church of Alexandros.
 * Antigone Syrakosia: Missionary in training of the Hekatonschoinos Chapter of the Union of the Insane.
 * Hypatia Pydnaia: The Chapter Mistress of Church of Alexandros, Head of the Sunset Valley Chapter of the Union of the Insane.
 * Eurydike Alkmaionida: Missionary of the Sunset Valley Chapter of the Union of the Insane.
 * Lysistrata Amphipolita: Librarian of the Sunset Valley Chapter.
 * Thornton Wolff: Residing at Hekatonschoinos, separate from the other Initiates due to trait issues
 * Demetrios Pydnaios: Resident of the Initiate Household at Hekatonschoinos
 * Epaphroditos Pydnaios: Lochagos of the Initiate Household at Hekatonschoinos
 * Eunike Pydnaia: Initiate member, residing at Hekatonschoinos
 * Immanuel Ames and other Mathetai: residing at the Initiate Household at Hekatonschoinos.

In addition to that, the Southwestern Nome of Hekatonschoinos became densely populated by Asian sims, to the point where the region there was given the alias Asian enclave, populated mostly by East Asian sims of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese origins, and sooner or later, many of the Greeks in Hekatonschoinos often referred to such sims as Klerouchoi, as many of the East Asian sims there were quite ambitious and certainly eager to get themselves involved in one of the most liberally educational organizations known, befitting the name Klerouchoi, since the historical Klerouchoi pointed to soldiers who were given a plot of land in return for military service, and in this case, they were given a place to live, work, and in the church in return for their alliegiance to the Church.

Maverick Antigone
Soon, Antigone grew tired of the initial partyless and artless environment of Hekatonschoinos, and made her way out of Hekatonschoinos. Kallisto initially believed Antigone to return to Sunset Valley, looking at the chapter members and to report any signs of romance (or heresy). Antigone however, had other plans. Antigone wanted animals deemed low by Kallisto, namely cats and dogs, and Antigone knew that Sunset Valley lacked the infrastructures to handle dogs and cats, and thus proceeded towards Appaloosa Plains, acknowledged by the Church as the Mecca of all things animal.

Successful Subjugation
Eventually, the equestrian development of the Hekatonschoinos chapter did them much good: Kallisto sooner or later developed Boukephalos into a great jumper, winning advanced competition without a problem. With most of the notable population having positive view on the Union there, Kallisto and Kallistrata (along with Stratonike) could focus on acquiring an unicorn, which they did through unnatural means, using telepathy to persuade the Unicorn. The Unicorn joined as a friend of all the Chapter sims, and the Unicorn, who was dubbed Diodotos, chose Kallistrata to be his best friend. However, The Union's focus on Hekatonschoinos weakened the Church hold on Sunset Valley: although the Sunset Valley chapter still owned most of the businesses there, the Altos and the Landgraabs sooner or later wanted to creep back into the business and establish their empire once more.

The Church's interest in horses, followed by their successful acquisition of an Unicorn, led to development of infrastructures to support equestrian endeavors: First came the Papal capital's equestrian center, followed by a public horse ranch to train horses. Other notable families also took up horses as well, such as the Attalids, who were the most enthusiastic in embracing horses. After all, the Post-Alexandros Kingdoms had the lessons that Philippos and Alexandros provided with their successful usage of heavy cavalry...

Dissident Movements
Kallisto's philosophy of all work, skills and no love was in direct conflict with Achaia's aims. In addition, Salina Thalamaia, who had been a staunch opponent of Kallisto alongside Agnes Crumplebottom, ended up allying one another and thus came the two new informal powers: first, Achaia's Free Love Movement, which had its followers back in Sunset Valley despite the absence of Kallisto, and the Liberty Party of Restoration by Agnes and Salina, the former movement was formed because of the direct conflict in beliefs, the latter movement simply because of their opposition to the established effective power. In fact, when Kallisto left, the latter movement did not directly oppose the standing members of the Union of the Insane at Sunset Valley: in fact, the Liberty Party was more interested in less "public entertainment" and more interested in equitable division of power. Hypatia, who had a favorable relationship with Agnes, immediately worked a truce between the two factions: the Church will not exert blatant policial force to fit the town to their beliefs, while the Liberty Party on the other hand recognized the Church ownership of most of the land and abandoned their move to force liquidation of Church holdings in Sunset Valley.

Meanwhile, Achaia's Free Love Movement was very obscure: very few were interested in the Free Love Movement, mainly because Achaia's attachment to Christopher Steel had led to the disintegration in Achaia's little influence that Achaia ever had in the first place. Although some interest was generated in the Flirty and Hopeless Romantic sims, a few sims laughed at even the idea of such a movement. In fact, Justine Keaton for one howled in laughter of such an idea: Justine was reported to say "Why doesn't the girl just get laid? Is this some excuse for a mass free love? I got laid, and I don't need to join that to do it."

Al-Dar and Tessa's first assignment
In Sunset Valley, two sims, named Usaim Hamdi and Ayham Bahri, moved in and created a group called the Al-Dar, meaning "The House." The Al-Dar were staunch environmentalists, and they were very socially conservative on top of that. Al-Dar, despite their initial lack of power, found the relative gap created by departure of Kallisto quite convenient. The Al-Dar chose to be aloof, to be minimally noticed to prevent them from being targeted by any major group in power. Eventually, Ayham became a Neurosurgeon, and as such contact with the Union was inevitable (Big 6 had returned to Sunset Valley at the time), since the only possible candidate for a boss happened to be Lysistrata and forged an amiable relation with Lysistrata, and thus moving towards amity with the Greeks. Meanwhile, the Altos chose not to wage an estate wars with the Union, since they still had the Landgraabs and other powerful families, such as the Roommates and the suddenly rich Jamie Jolina who benefited from her alliance with Lysistrata.

Nikos, a constituent of the 2nd Cultural Exchange, invited the Union members to the party at their abode to curry favors with the powerful group, and Nikos succeeded in befriending Hypatia. Soon, Hypatia believed that declaring hegemony may be a feasible option once again, since they had a great following, such as the Conners Family who migrated solely to see the Union.

Meanwhile, Tessa was given her first assignment, and was swiftly deployed to Appaloosa Plains in order to gather information about Antigone's activities. Antigone, despite her free spirit, was not interested in Romance as Kallisto initially believed. And so Tessa's intelligence efforts could not get anything heretical out of Antigone, and Kallisto remained suspicious, although Kallisto did not believe that Antigone would spread full-fledged heresy. However, Kallisto set eyes on the neglected Bridgeport, and wished to establish control of it as soon as possible. Kallisto believed that the native "nobles" there would not give up the power to the Church so easily, and planned on an coup to militarily establish an Church-oriented government there.

While that was happening, Achaia sooner or later found out about the Swansons and how they served as Kallisto's guinea pigs. Having publicized the news, Achaia soon got some support from romantics who all wished that the Swansons would find love as they would have wanted, and be set free from the oppression of the Church. Achaia knew that she alone could not take on Kallisto head on, and planned her move to Appaloosa Plains, where Antigone had her populist movement: Achaia hoped to link up with Antigone and add to Antigone's power base so that Appaloosa Plain would be free from any Church intervention, which would have meant immediate inquisition and any romances would be harshly dealt with, unless marriage was involved. And hence, Achaia and some other hopeless romantics such as Blair got together and immigrated to Appaloosa Plains and get themselves acquainted with Antigone, since Achaia and the others did not know Antigone personally since Antigone was rather kept well in the chapel before the foundation of Hekatonschoinos.

Plato-Patriarchist alliance and the Populist-Romantic alliance
Soon, Achaia achieved the first part of her goal: Achaia got herself aligned with Antigone's full-fledged heresy, and Kallisto cried anathema. However, Kallisto believed that an direct inquisition would do the church more harm than good, and decided to look for a 3rd party that is dissatisfied and eager for the job. Justine Keaton might be willing to take on Achaia, but Kallisto knew that Keaton will consider it only a secondary priority and Kallisto couldn't have that. Meanwhile, Lysistrata gave a transmission to Kallisto about the Al-Dar and her newfound coworker Ayham Bahri. Al-Dar were staunch patriarchists, and Kallisto decided that Al-Dar's discontent with the female-dominated Sunset Valley and the Church could be better directed elsewhere, as Al-Dar was all for arranged marriaged and romance was frowned upon when it conflicts with the familial goals. Hence Kallisto decided that a diplomatic sleight could be used to have Al-Dar to rail against the heretics in Appaloosa Plains.

The Third Timeline and the growth of the Resistance
One day, Kallisto decided to time travel to acquite some more valuable tomes for the Church, and accidently entered into what would be the Third timeline with Hekatonschoinos as a landmass intact. The Third Timeline was rather dystopian: Hekatonschoinos was essentially a battleground between the 3 East Asian factions, the Korean Alliance for Prosperity, the Great Japanese League, and the Chinese Greater Good Unity of People, each faction struggling to achieve hegemony of Hekatonschoinos. Each faction was led by a main family and subordinate families, all working for their own faction and preferring to stick to their own kind, and only a minority making any friendship outside of the ethnic barrier. The Combat Butlers and Rich Girls family was still there, serving as the main family for the Japanese faction, which exerted control over the Taxila/India Islet and the Lower Nome, while struggling against the Koreans for the control of the Asklepeion and the Stadion.

The Chinese on the other hand centered around the former Klerouchiai, having a solid grip on its assets, including its large grocery complex and the Science center. They also have claims over the Military islet and the Governance islet, and as such they had upper hand when it came to government. Koreans on the other hand centered around the Cradle of the Faithful, and as such had uncontested access to many of Hekatonschoinos' cultural assets, including the Palaistra, the Palace, and the Nectary (Emporion Nektaros). They also exerted control over the western side of the Commercial island, and struggled against the Japanese to take the southern jut of the said islet, since the souther jut was quite profitable due to it housing not only the formerly Attalid mansion but also the Asklepeion and the Stadion. The former Klerouchiai family, the Kang family, was the head of the Korean faction, although the family was now in its 3rd generation.

However, it wasn't always like that: before the real estate purchases (the indirect source of conflict due to fears of ethnic favoritism) began, the ethnic communities stayed relatively neutral to each other, with foreigners living alongside the 3 groups making friends outside the turfs: Herakleitos, who is a caretaker in the Japanese main house, has many friends outside of the faction of his employers: Herakleitos was especially pleased with the Philhellenic Eun Jin Choi, who later on became a critical character when Kallisto's mainly Greek factions made pushes towards their timeline. However, Kallisto's real push was on the fringe of the East Asian conflict, the Sunset Valley where unmotivated and incompetent families of the factions simply squander resources in partying or loafing around rather than grabbing assets and countering one another, much less shipping funds to their homefront in Hekatonschoinos. In Sunset Valley Kallisto deployed a clone offered by and created from Kallistrata named Arete Hekatonschoinika to establish the frontier and turn it into a recruiting neighborhood for Church operations back at Kallisto's timeline, conveniently connecting back to Kallisto's timeline by building the time machine.

Resistance to the Church and Church countermeasures
While Antigone and Achaia went underground to hide themselves from the imaginative (or better said no longer present) Church spy and steeling themselves for a Church offensive, another Swanson appeared on Appaloosa Plains, but not alone: Rachel, a cousin of Tessa and Nicole, was accompanied by her brother Louis and her boyfriend-to-be-husband Aneirin oi Lugos. Rachel and Aneirin was married on the whim in a sense, as they engaged and got married in just 3 days, while Aneirin wanted to establish himself as a crime lord, since he wanted to take down his rival Cocolitanos. Sooner or later, Rachel sent words to Tessa and Nicole about her marriage, getting Tessa and Nicole excited, as they also hoped to do the same thing. Little did they know that Kallisto tracked the message down, and decided to use Aneirin's ambition to set up a puppet force in Appaloosa Plains. This was to be helped by Aneirin's Vampirism, since the Church's tutoring ability made it very convenient for a Vampire to be positively aligned to the Church, as seen with the example of Thornton Wolff.

Of course, deploying Kallistrata who was specialized in converting vampire was obviously going to draw some flak against the Church and defeat the very purpose of establishing a puppet/allied force in Appaloosa Plains: they would create another Kallistrata Clone Arete style and deploy her to Appaloosa Plains. However, the discussion was ill-disguised, since Tessa ended up sneaking and hearing about the plan, shocking her to no end. Tessa thus chose family over political faction, and thus made contacts with Antigone's Separatists. Kallisto believed Tessa to infiltrate the organization as a double agent, and did not bother tapping Tessa's transmission to the pro-Romance forces. Once that transmission got through, Antigone decided to invite Rachel in private, hoping to tell Rachel about her cousins, as well as the threat of the Church, unaware of the fact that all three Swanson girls were puppets of the Church via mind control.

Meanwhile back in Sunset Valley, Agnes also had her own fish to fry: Agnes desperately wanted to eliminate Kallisto from the throne of power, yet Agnes had no intention of waging direct war against the Church: after all, Agnes was great friends with all 3 of the Sunset Valley Chapter members, Hypatia, Eurydike, and Lysistrata. And thus, Agnes wanted to convert the Sunset Valley Chapter into a state similar to that of Antigone's in Appaloosa Plains: Hypatia and Lysistrata have boyfriends and could be declared heretics any second, so why not? Having them as great friends with pro-Romance standings would do Sunset Valley much good, as it will retain its dynamo of development whitout the suppressive elements introduced by Kallisto. However, Hypatia and the others stood firm in support of Kallisto: none of the 3 were willing to challenge or break ties with Kallisto, who had now usurped effective leadership as well as reestablishing them as the central power. This also was not helped by Kallisto's goodwill gift of resending all of Hypatia's children (including the simbot and the stepson's imaginary friend) back to the Sunset Valley Chapter.

Success of interventionism and failure of laissez-faire discipleship
However, Hypatia's stepson and his imaginary friend, Demetrios and Eunike, were no ace students: on the contrary, they were below average for whatever reasons, a shocking thing since Demetrios was a workaholic, and Eunike fell to a D level, something that was seen as a shame particularly by all of the Core Members. The Sunset Valley Chapter then had been raising the dead and restoring to them youth, and as such had a surge of popularity and positive views by the neighbors. With all the good news came the Hekatonschoinos Chapter, paying a visit to the old friends, taking advantage of the festive mood generated by the native Chapter's necromantic philanthropy. On top of all that, Chrysanthema grew to be a fine core member, and Kallistrata as Chrysanthema's mentor felt very proud. Here Kallistrata dug up Hypatia's recordings about a strange plant that consumed things to yield more of those, and recognized it as the Omni Plant. Fortuitously enough, Kallisto was contacted by the restaurants' patrons from the other side regarding the Omni Plant, and decided to offer Kallisto the said secret after completing several tasks, and Kallisto (and mostly Kallistrata) did it without fail, and Kallistrata was able to recoup the initial cost in life fruits, no, Kallistrata gained more than what Kallistrata started out with, and came up with a new brand of nectar with 9 life fruits and 1 pomegranate, and called it the Sacred Nectar of Alexandros and stored that in the rack for it to gain value.

Eventually, on the day after the completion of the Omin Plant initiative, Esomena and Pyrrha also grew up, also fulfilling the parameters and thus qualifying for core membership. As a reward, Kallisto and Stratonike had set some plans for both: Hypatia, Lysistrata, and Eurydike would join with Kallisto, Kallistrata and Stratonike, becoming effectively nomads spreading the Church influence while Esomena, Pyrrha, and Chrysanthema would assume stewardship of Sunset Valley in behalf of the Church. Before they left, Kallisto and the others left a letter to the 3 disciples:

"Dear disciples, we say this in order to congratulate you on truly becoming one of us, having the perserverance, zeal, and enthusiasm for learning. As all 3 of you know, all of you are now core members. As such, us high members of Meris Sophiston welcomes you to help make decisions for advancement of our Church. But with power and priviledges come responsibility: We high members are to wander around the world, spreading the good word and building resistance to the mainstream heresy. We place trust in you and have left you in charge of our beloved Diocese of Sunset Valley. Manage it well, and perhaps with your talents somehow make it even better than the state that we have left it in. Farewell, We shall not see you again for quite some time.

Such is the epistle of Chaplain and Pope Kallisto, Chief Librarian and Archbishop Kallistrata, Treasurer in Chief Stratonike, Chaplain Hypatia, Librarian Lysistrata and Gardener and Treasurer Eurydike. Knowledge is power, and chastity a beacon to the lost. Guard it well, and spread it to the lost."

Meanwhile, Antigone eventually was drifted into Bridgeport after a turbulent escape, losing contact with Achaia in the process. Soaking wet, tired but free, Antigone took some comfort having escaped political ostracism of the Church in the party-loving Bridgeport, and proceeded immediately to set herself at home. But Bridgeport was not devoid of political factionism: Although the Kallisto clones have been deactivated for some reason, there was a faction of party-loving WooHoo maniacs led by Ray Dann (and shephered by the likes of Laan Blueshore and Peggy Brennel), calling themselves "the Elect" and looking down upon factions espousing celibacy as irrational and "altruistic" and championing something called "rational egoism," while rejecting dogma and particularly distrustful of philanthropy.and any call for chastity.

Redevelopment of Hekatonschoinos and the spoils of the Third Timeline
After the completion of the Omni Plant Initiative, Kallisto suddenly had a whim to revisit the practically abandoned capital world Hekatonschoinos: after Thessalonike helped Achaia escape, the whole population pretty much decided to move on, and lesser members such as the Wolffs simply chose to leave, and others like the Alkmaionids decided to retire from the hectic political scene, choosing refuge in Twinbrook. In fact, this was the Greek diaspora, spreading around rather than sticking to the major power at hand. Thus Alkmaionids were pretty much completely removed from the political scene, and the Attalids moved into Bridgeport, attracted to the big parties and clubs that they loved so much (especially since Stratonike was not there).

Demetria Rising
While Kallisto focused on expanding Church claims to the Third Timeline territories, Demetria had her own plans in Bridgeport. Demetria was quite surprised to see Kallisto's 3rd party clone Antigone out there, and was quite concerned about it since Demetria had some knowledge of Church history and agenda. However, given Antigone's status, it wasn't too difficult for Demetria to bond with Antigone, and getting Demetria closer to the 5-star rank that would be vital in Demetria's attempts at assuming hegemony over Bridgeport. Demetria needed a power base, and to have a power base, Demetria needed vassals: and Demetria found just that when the Elect hooted Demetria down, only to be curbstomped in a band clash. Here outside of Kallisto's sight Demetria expanded, first having made clients of the Elect, then forming an alliance with Lola Belle, and later on keeping friendly relations with the Attalids. Demetria was now a presence in Bridgeport to a point of even making a vassal of Tom Wordy after subverting Lil Bling to her cause. With full alliance with Antigone, Demetria brought even Antigone's friend Matthew Hamming under her banner. For Antigone, this was great news: Antigone might not be so eager to side with the "vulgar, shallow" culture that Kallisto has been lambasting ever since her creation, but Antigone's finally got a sizeable allied force to consider resisting Kallisto's advances. Having said that, Antigone called for defensive measures, while Demetria had other plans...

Dawn of War
Main Article: Fanon:Council of Bridgeport

Kallisto's mad quest for conquest made Kallisto disillusioned with her previous attempts at using only subtle manipulation to gain power: Kallisto in her redevelopment of Hekatonschoinos (which wouldn't end for a quite some time) conveniently developed the art of orbital bombardment, granting her a terror weapon and a strategic element, since Kallisto could strike at any place of heresy in seconds with impunity.

Kallisto aimed the guns at Bridgeport, which Kallisto always viewed as heretical and beyond salvation outside Church leadership. As such, Kallisto decided to shake up the local population a bit with multiple artillery strikes, aiming at key places, such as the Filming Ground (ironic since Kallisto was a director at the time) and houses of notable Non-Greek celebrities. The attacks did not cause any deaths surprisingly, although many sims were singed from numerous attacks. This caused a huge murmur in the city, and the media was getting flared up about this unusual event which just about all the sims believed to be a VERY unlucky (and lucky in some sorts) day, a huge unlikely coincidence. Although property damage was minimal, there were a few exceptions.

Of course, Antigone felt fishy about the entire event, and called upon Demetria to host a party: Of course, it wasn't a party for its own sake, but rather a disguise to hold a council regarding the act of aggression (Kallisto wasn't fooled and decided to spy on it). Having hosted the party, Demetria was given the unsettling exposition by Antigone, and the meeting was rather rowdy, continually stirred by the anger that someone is actually bent on destroying their way of life. However, Demetria and Antigone were well aware of Kallisto's assets, and to this the other big celebrities, such as Matthew Hammings, agreed: they did see Kallisto clones in their city, although they weren't so aware of the other aspects of Kallisto's machine. Demetria wished for a diplomatic action, settling for a compromise: Kallisto taking control of the city itself, while leaving it as an autonomous city in which Demetria et al. would make the decision, paying tribute to the Ecclesiarchy. Antigone disagreed, believing Kallisto not to be someone open to compromise which would result in anything less than complete social transformation towards a more Victorian paradigm.

Then Demetria pulled a surprise meeting, pretty much making everyone groan due to the shock value that some of the old constituents, such as Matthew Hamming, did not make it. But in turn, the second meeting had been a greater one of a sort, since the attending members here introduced new demographics asides from the snobby celebrity elites such as Elvira Slayer (a vampire) and Jeffrey Cook. From there, Elvira promoted an idea that the defense should be oriented towards mobilizing present resources, i.e. the dissident Vampires such as Wogan Hemlock and Jessica Talon so that the Vampire demographic group would be united in arms against Kallisto's aggression and not be frustrated by infighting. Given Elvira's not-so-benevolent mindset, there were immediate backlashes by Emmy and Jeffrey, which was quickly quelled by the fact that the alternative is probably worse. However, Antigone insisted that the self-preparation clause should be a guiding factor, and Elvira did not oppose to that, and thus Demetria decided to get Antigone to group up with a few others to launch an expedition to China. Antigone chose Tom Wordy, Emmy Starr and Richie Striker to accompany her in the trip to China, and Demetria found the idea good. As for Elvira, Elvira found a half an effort not so bad, since Elvira found a supplier...

Isis Stone, the beneficiary
While the ruckus of preparation gripped Bridgeport, and Hekatonschoinos was busy at renovation and mobilization, Isis Stone, who had a serpentine look, immigrated to the newer town of Starlight Shores. Isis had already some skills (and reputation), having some logic at her disposal. Having said that, Isis immediately decided to work in the Criminal career. Isis was at the surface a pickpocket, but in reality Isis's true job was a minor vendor in the black market: essentially, Isis emulated Kallisto's policy at dealing with the East Asian powers in the third timeline: supplying materials to hostile factions. The good that Isis sold? One of them happened to be plasma fruit. Although the plasma fruit Isis dealt with was nowhere as near as good as what Elvira would have wanted it, but Isis had found the underground trade profitable. With that being said, Isis had to build her assets from near scratch, having little capital to begin with.

Having said that, Isis was never content with being a simple underground merchant: Isis wanted nothing less than her own "evil" state no less in grandeur than that of Kallisto (though not so much in scale: Isis believed that an unmanageable empire is no better than none). In fact, Isis built up some wealth, and ended up taking in Akio Isador, which was surprising since Isis didn't appreciate most of Akio's antics (he was childish), who was offered a partnership by Isis in the first place because of his computer skills, which Isis thought would be invaluable in cracking the coded transmissions exchanged between the Ecclesiarchal nodes. Akio, however, was also a psyker himself, although due to his relatively low rating (a Theta psyker, in contrast to Kallisto's Beta rating) Kallisto never gave any concerns: after all, Antigone with her Eta/Zeta rating was quite inconspicuous to Kallisto's psyker scans (although detectable, this not being helped by Kallisto being near Kallistrata, who also is a Beta and the other Big 6, who had been given psyker abilities). As a psyker, Akio could pick up the Church transmissions that are sent psychically with a bit of equipment, which weren't as nearly as heavily coded as their electronic counterparts. Long story short, Isis used her tinkering ability to help tune into the psychic messages, and Isis thus was able to intercept Kallisto's Chrononomion project, which would essentially allow Kallisto to access the third timeline at will, essentially connecting the two timelines without causing the paradox element. To Isis, this would deny her the chance to eliminate Kallisto: if the Chrononomion is complete, then Kallisto would be rendered invulnerable to the paradox element that would wipe her out should the first timeline self be eliminated, and hence Isis had to figure out a way to develop a time traveling method that would be reliable as possible, without the stabilization aspect associated with the Chrononomion.

Ecclesiarchal Double Whammy
Eventually, Kallisto ended up noticing the extreme absenteeism of the African Klerouchoi, the Aithiopioi, the Karchedoi, and the Kyrenaioi. Kallisto believed that they were pushing their luck, until Kallisto found out that the road was broken (that is, the road connecting to the bridge between the India Islet and the Lower Nome) thus preventing their travel to the workplaces. Having corrected that, Kallisto also fixed the time slowdown issue of the capital world, and having rejoiced in that monumental accomplishment, Kallisto pushed on with the capital accumulation. With the internal matter resolved, Kallisto wished to push towards the external issues: a campaign against Bridgeport.



While Kallisto finally overcame the great barrier that made Hekatonschoinos a mess, Esomena pulls her head out and surprises the entirety of Sunset Valley by committing a wholescale renewal by demolishing every new feature that the Church before its conversion to a state had created, while building new ones in replacement. One major part of Esomena's revolution was the removal of enemies, which meant the Patriot Party, which was low on popularity and was falling apart from the inside, was removed. The Romaioi, despite the actual amity that existed between them and the Ecclesiarchy, decided to take their leave with a bitter taste in their mouth. On the other hand, the Aidouoi led by Cocolitanos chose to remain, as did the Al-Dar. By then most of the first generation was gone, and this meant a fresh influx of population. Esomena planned a wholescale transformation, which would become problematic when Esomena's great project had led some in SimNation to believe that the Papal State had plans to annex Sunset Valley (which was not untrue: Kallisto was happy to take the town), which gave more media leverage to the Council of Bridgeport, which grew paranoid when a shipment of scraps, palladium and pink diamonds were detected in the city. Having what they believed was a solid evidence, topped by Esomena 's action, the Council of Bridgeport finally called for a meeting between all the SimNation representatives (save for that of Sunset Valley). However, the unfortunate implication was that delegates had to be involved in politics or law, and the one who is most aligned with the Council was no other than the corrupt Jeffrey Cook. Given the city's reputation as a city of snobby celebrities, Cook was not well received by the others.

For example, the Twinbrook delegate, Scout Sargeant, pretty much derided Cook with this statement: "Look, Cook, just because a few meteors fell on your party and soured it doesn't mean we have to use soldiers to fight a nation who isn't proven to have committed the act." Holly Greenwood, the Political delegate of the same town added, "Scout is right: we cannot afford to put more money on the military-industrial complex while needlessly shedding blood." Antigone was not a politician, and nor was Demetria, so they were not eligible to be present to present the evidence. However, Chuck Hobble of Appaloosa Plains popped out, and stated that there were complaints by a man named Louis Swanson claiming that his sister Rachel has been missing ever since two females with strange hair passed by. Immediately Cook exclaimed that those two must be Kallisto and Kallistrata. Scout had heard some news about Kallisto et al., and knew about the anti-romance stance (which was pretty much public knowledge anyways) and the strange colored hair. However, Scout still had reservations regarding this: "Yes, it may have been Kallisto who had taken Rachel, but how does this relate to the mass attack? What proof is there of the shower being artificial?" Cook took out the samples that Antigone gathered, as well as presenting the pink diamond and the palladium sample garnered. Holly responded, "No... This cannot be..." Scout was in agreement, "Alas, our dossiers do report that Parthenope has not made any simbots, and even if she had, Parthenope has not been sighted in your town anymore." However, this was interrupted by Kallisto's transmission: "Greetings, foolish resistance and unwary would-be-conspirators." Chuck could construct from Louis' report that Kallisto has been one of those interlopers and stated, "What do you want with people? Why do you kidnap people?" Kallisto responds, "I am merely claiming the lost, foreigner. But now I have a declaration to make. I presume you aren't planning on war, am I right?" Scout responds, "Your actions are in direct violation of the peace codes of SimNation! This kind of act is not tolerated!" Kallisto: "Hah, such clinging to the old laws... I pity thee, O Scout. You'd make a fine addition to the Ecclesiarchy if you would simply drop the old meaningless ways..." Cook responds, "We want a covenant of nonaggression and reparation! This is a just demand!" Kallisto: "I'm afraid I will have to reject that demand, Cook. You see, you fools were so high on your horses and rejected our presense: Oh wait, you don't remember, this was in another timeline. Have you fools opened up to one non-celebrity foreigner?" Cook's response: "Is it your concern?" Kallisto: "Obviously. Foolish celebrities only can think of themselves and their meaningless stardom as well as their worthless lounges to the point where they cannot comprehend anything outside of that. And by the way, politician, tell Demetria that her old friend wants to have a meeting soon." Scout adds, "So, Kallisto, have you triggered this event in Bridgeport?" Kallisto responds, "Maybe, the warheads could have flown somewhere else. I dunno, maybe it fell on Wall Street or right on your house, o Law Enforcer." Kallisto's nonchalant response was more than enough to lead to a declaration of war, and the news spread all over SimNation. However, Stratonike was known as a legend in the military ranks, saving SimNation's fledging Space Exploration numerous times, and was pretty much an idol in the military ranks. As soon as the military received orders to plan offensives against the Papal State, about half the military defected, not wanting to fight the very legend who was pretty much the bulwark. In the process, the rogue military seized control of Twinbrook, and a local warlord, David Pollair, established an Papal garrisoned allied state there, receiving aids and directives from the Papal government. Meanwhile, this also led to infighting in Starlight Shores: despite the fact that Stratonike's exploits were known the least there, some soldiers grew tired of the obsession with stardom here, although due to the fact that Starlight Shore wasn't as nearly centralized in culture countermovements were much more viable. On top, the pro-Papal forces largely decided to reside in Sunset Valley, effectively turning Sunset Valley into a military colony of sorts made convenient after the depopulation that Esomena had caused.

Annexation of Twinbrook
However, Pollair's allied city-state of Twinbrook suffered from serious issues: notably, Twinbrook was quite an backwater, and it was ill-situated to run anything independently. Given that an trade deficit was inevitable given the lack of economic infrastructure and much less an manufacturing branch, Pollair ends up sending an request to Kallisto to get the Papal State to annex Twinbrook. To further his appeal to Kallisto, David decides to create a Twinbrook chapter, consisting of himself alongside Liganus Diomedes, Apollodoros Delphos, Graham Madison, Galatea Schmidt, Caleb Laughlin, Kenneth Mundo, and Lindsey McLenden. (With Lindsey and Caleb as chapter serfs)

When the news came in, Kallisto was rather cautious initially, given that an annexation could turn the hostile relations with the mainland SimNation into a premature hot war. However, Kallisto could not skip an opportunity to have more followers living according to the principles set by the Codex, and with much deliberation, Kallisto decided in favor of annexing Twinbrook. By doing so, Twinbrook was also rid of the pesky paparazzi actions that plagued the mainland SimNation, especially severe in Bridgeport where paparazzis took advantage of the Kallisto scare to spread rumors stating some of the celebrities may be accomplices to the Ecclesiarchal expansionism. On the other hand, the Twinbrook chapter was not nearly like the counterparts in Sunset Valley and Hekatonschoinos, given that the members of the Twinbrook chapter lacked a core member (Pollair himself mastered no skills, and had about 30 points in skills) and the fact that the chapter itself lent itself to more outdoor activities given Pollair's preferences. But given the Ecclesiarchal view that the biggest problem is romance, Kallisto decided that the Twinbrook chapter be best left alone, as long as they were not going around committing heresy.

Kallisto delayed on deploying some of the Deutarchontes to the Starlight Shore area, but even without Papal intervention, the civil unrest escalated in Starlight Shores. The prospect of being held up as they were in 1960s US was quite appealing to the scientists. With help of pro-papal military that constituted roughly half of Starlight Shore's military presence, the scientists launched a campaign of demolition. When the military was ordered to stop the scientists, the pro-papal sect defected, plunging Starlight Shore into a field of civil warfare. Both the Papal State and the SimNation couldn't afford to send aid: the Papal Force could not dedicate aid given that they had to make expansions, such as developing their recent acquisition of Alexandreia and construction of the new Papal colony in China Attaleia-Stratonikaiopolis, while the SimNation couldn't send aid either, given the threat that still loomed over Bridgeport ever since Kallisto's bombardment. The Papal State also had additional constraints: despite their higher average human capital, the Papal State was still significantly smaller than SimNation. On top, the popular opinion in SimNation still leaned toward SimNation rather than the Papal State, despite increasing immigration to the Papal State.

Soon, popular opinions also started to polarize in Starlight Shores: both the Best Family and the Gooder Family, despite their enmity against one another, supported the Papal State: Edward wanted to expand his business, and believed the Papal Nectar an excellent investment. Paul Best also noticed the superior quality of Papal produce, as well as the story of good fishing sites at Papal territory. Evan Best, however, did not share the love of the Papal State, believing them to be terrorists who have subverted the scientists into the campaign of terror. Conrad Anderson, one of the 3 scientists alongside Sonoko and Emily, was very pro-Papal, while Sonoko and Emily largely kept neutral. On the other side, the Buckshots were firmly aligned with SimNation, and Talan also preferred SimNation, given Rehman's thoughts of sending Talan to Hekatonschoinos to receive top notch technical education. The Luck family also sided with the SimNation, given Papal indifference to the performing arts. None, however, knew or wanted to know the position that the most sinister looking of them all, Isis Stone (locally nicknamed Snake Woman), held. Nor did it matter to Isis: Isis was already the crime boss having displaced the former one, all while Akio built up a reputation. Many thought to themselves, "Why did the Baker Librarian join up with the Snake Woman?" Given Akio's generally good manners.

Global Affairs of the Papal State
Despite the general hostility of the Papal State with the SimNation, particularly the factions friendly to the Bridgeport Celebrities, the Papal State was not so hostile to SimNation as a whole. In fact, the Papal State was happy to make ties with any towns or cities with interesting elements. This was most evident when the Ecclesiarchy started the construction of the Balaneion, and they've realized that the Caldarium (the hot room) was lacking given their preexisting tools. As such, they've scouted SimNation, and found Sunlit Tides, which seemingly possessed the utilities that would be useful in building the Balaneion.

Not missing the opportunity to reenact the ancient Balaneion (or in the Roman Barbarian tongue, thermae), the Big 6 ordered a business trip to Sunlit Tides, taking with them some people such as the Kang family and the Hugo's Orphanage with them. In addition, the Supernatural Revolution and the development of the alchemy industry in the Papal State, particularly Hekatonschoinos, has attracted the attention of the Alchemy League in Moonlight Falls, and it has been one of the first groups in SimNation to actually show interest in associating with the Papal State. With this, the conflict between Papal State and SimNation went farther in the Cold War direction, save the proxy conflicts such as the civil unrest in Starlight Shores. Meanwhile, Isis Stone, now the hegemon of the crime network in the said region (as well as the aspirint Empress of Evil) also decides to take a break with the associate Akio Isador, and also made a move to visit Sunlit Tides: Here, Isis Stone would meet the rivals that she has designated herself. However, before Isis could actually interact with Kallisto, Isis is met with unexpected news: Kallisto has somehow annexed Sunlit Tides into her Papal State, and thus many of the romantics and flirts are weeping as the incoming ordinances and enforcement would stem their activity.

Although only the insiders would know, the sudden disappearance of Alana Kahale that preceded the sudden annexation was no coincidence. To the contrary, Alana's fall was the price offered by Silas, who grew frustrated by Alana's superior intelligence, to Kallisto in exchange for the allegiance of Sunlit Tides. Not surprisingly, many of the politicians and law enforcers were outraged by Silas's unwarranted decision, especially as Silas made no attempt at discussion, much less even asking for such permissions. Needless to say, Silas was considered a traitor, and he eventually left the town in shame. As for the other politicians, although they had no intention of having another overlord, they knew Kallisto was capable of ruining their lives without fear of retribution, and they were compelled to accede to the terms established by Silas.

Internally, the Supernatural Revolution that started in Hekatonschoinos finally spread to Sunset Valley: Esomena, the key city planner of the Sunset Valley Chapter of the Ecclesiarchy, started to find the supernatural quite the lucrative subject after receiving reports regarding sustained growth in the Papal capital. However, Esomena and the rest of the Sunset Valley Chapter, as well as the Order of the WooHooium Hunters, grew rather inert, and given their relative slack (especially in light of rather adventurous activities of the Big 6), they were not able to make significant changes to the cityscape. Esomena knew that the alchemy was lucrative, and ended up building a temporary cookie-cutter Alchemy Shop to reap the benefits, although Esomena believed that a better one can be easily made. Also, the bathing technologies garnered from Sunlit Tides were also noted by the Sunset Valley Chapter, and Esomena was all too eager to build the Sunset Valley's counterpart to capital's Balaneion.

Defect Tiberium
However, after the acquisition of Sunlit Tides, the Ecclesiarchy became surprisingly dormant, sticking to renovating the capital continually, while accommodating for more immigrants. Things seemed to be sleepy in the Papal State, until the Kostopouloi arrived.

Frankly, the Kostopouloi weren't too unusual, asides from the addition of Kyriake who was in the same stereotypical parameter with Yuri and Eun Jin. However, Kyriake took a niche in nectar making, while taking on harvesting abundant tiberium as a secondary business. Things seemed to go smoothly for Kyriake until a robber came in and stole one of Kyriake's specimens, which drew swift retribution from Kallisto who found Kyriake very much to her liking. Kallisto then visited the Kostopouloi household again, forking another piece of tiberium to Kyriake. Things seemed like it would be settled, until it was found that Kyriake's tiberium piece was defect. However, the ironic thing was that the defect was quite something to behold by the academia, which was led by none other than the Papal State. As a result, Kyriake had created more cash for the Kostopouloi in a blink of an eye, while this had become an extremely heated issue amongst the Ecclesiarchy. Things seemed to grow normal once again, until Kallisto replicated Kyriake's results, sparking massive celebrations amongst the Ecclesiarchal parties. In fact, Kallisto had sent word to both the Sunset Valley and Twinbrook chapters, forking both factions with huge bundles of cash to promote tiberium seeding.

Isis's Operation
Meanwhile, Isis Stone, who visited Sunlit Tides to get a glimpse of the Big 6 that she was so intent on outdoing, never got a chance to meet them given their swift departure. Given that, Isis decided to salvage the failure by doing something with Sunlit Tides itself: Kallisto had been kind enough to remove the old criminal order, and Isis had in mind taking over as the new criminal order, something that the residents of Sunlit Tides was used to. Frankly, Isis didn't have a sim that is akin to Kai Kahale, but Isis's intellect matched and probably surpasses that of former Alana.

One day, Isis visited the mausoleion, and conveninently enough discovered the ghost of Alana, who was then begging for vengeance, or at least the protection of her daughter, given that Kai's career was suspended by Ecclesiarchal order, and Lealani to be transferred to an Ecclesiarchal chapter. Isis decided that an ally is a good acquisition, and decided to seek someone who was able to make ambrosia.

A solicitation to Hypatia
While the Big 6 was busying themselves with the hopefully final renovation of Hekatonschoinos, Hypatia was given a mail from a mysterious man, identifying himself only as Sokrates. The Big 6 knew that the mail couldn't be a love letter, given the Big 6's strict views against online dating sites, and had opened the mail in a group.

The letter read,

"To Dearest Hypatia,

It has been over 1600 years now since you were taken down by the mobs of Alexandreia. Although I would have never knew this, but you have returned from the graves. Listen to me, I have attempted to vindicate your fall by writing a historical reflection of what happened in 415 AD..."

Hypatia was unamused: Hypatia may have been named after the Neoplatonic mathematician and scholar who died in 415 AD, but Hypatia was pretty sure that she was no reincarnation of the said mathematician. The rest of the Big 6 were also only amused at the connection, and had continued onwards.

"You were a candle, teaching people regardless of their religious backgrounds. However, it seems like your affiliation is growing too close to religion for me to see and do nothing about it. You must come to us at once! It is imperative that academia stand against all sorts of religious oppression! Come join us at the Lucky Falls, we shall be most thankful for your wisdom garnered from your long reincarnated self with your fellow monks.

By your dearest supporter,

Sokrates"

Kallisto immediately started laughing, stating that Sokrates was a fool: The Ecclesiarchy does run on a religious doctrine, but the Ecclesiarchal doctrine is not an antagonization of academic thought, only those that stand against it. Kallistrata however thought that if they were academics, they would enjoy the Papal sponsorship of academic works, and thus had in mind getting Hypatia to persuade them.

Rise of Aigyptos
With the Papal State turning inwards to improve its own domain, the success of Papal State's secession and strikes against the celebrity-aligned forces of SimNation has inspired several disillusioned people not happy with the privileged lifestyle that the residents of more developed regions enjoy. This sentiment struck hardest at Al-Simhara, which has recently suffered massive damage from oil spill that polluted the river, destroyed the estuary, and threatened the livelihood of people who depended on agriculture and fishing.

Finding that the time was ripe for something to happen, Al-Dar stepped in, providing massive relief effort and cash to the Al-Simharan residents through rebels friendly with them. With the aid, the impoverished population soon grew more favorable towards radicalism, and sporadic uprising in Al-Simhara drastically reduced the stability of SimNationian order. The final blow to SimNationian authority took place in the start of the new year of the Egyptian Calendar, and thus it was called the Thoth(Dwth) Offensive. Meticulous planning and vast amount of supplies provided by Al-Dar and others were involved, and it was on the first day of Thoth that the attacks sprung. Unlike their Vietnamese counterparts, the Simharan rebels were often well-equipped, well-trained, and most importantly, they did not carry out blacklisting. Unfortunately, the Thoth Offensive was a pyrrhic tactical victory: SimNationian personnel fought bravely and dealt good damage against the Simharan rebels, and the Simharans won primarily through outnumbering the enemy. SimNation's public was outraged by this, and popular support for retaliation was very high, all while the rebels established Aigyptos with the stated goal of overthrowing the SimNation's soulless consumerism and pop culture.

Massive retaliation campaign on the side of SimNation ensued, with Lord Plutonium and Baron Uranium dispatched to advise the Council of Bridgeport called to lead a portion of the forces. The Council of Bridgeport's celebrities offered to follow, hoping to gain fame through supporting the popular war effort. This would turn out to be a disaster, since the Council of Bridgeport was given a large say in maneuvering of the expedition force given their political clout, and the vast majority of them had absolutely no military training whatsoever. While Demetria had some knowledge given her largely pressured studies under Hypatia at the times of Scholars' Alliance, Antigone remained the best: after all, Antigone had Kallisto's teachings, one of which included rudimentary art of war.

With the celebrities effectively playing the role of commissars, celebrities often urged soldiers to go forward towards unconquerable positions, or hold on to an indefensible positions. Needless to say, casualties mounted against the well-equipped Aigyptian troops, many with the experience gained form Thoth Offensive. While the central 2 regiments, one led by Lord Plutonium and Demetria, other led by Baron Uranium and Antigone, held largely intact, the army's morale sunk at subsequent needless defeats inflicted by celebrities' desires of becoming leaders of victorious armies (and thus becoming even more of a star). The central regiments also withered hard attacks, one of them including mercenaries supplied by Silver Lilies' own ranks. As the situation grew less favorable, the expeditionary forces grew weary, as did the public absolutely appalled by the strings of tactical defeats. The Council of Bridgeport's celebrities were celebrated as heroes for leading the troops even in times of defeat, minimizing their role in the crushing defeats, although those who had more reliable sources, mostly those of the intelligentsia and a new wave of politically active students, protested the incompetence of the Council of Bridgeport, although the pro-SimNationian moderates complimented Antigone and Demetria while denouncing the rest.

Notes, Footnotes and Trivia
Moved to Fanon:Time Paradox/Trivia