Cray i

Cray i (クレイ Kurei Ai), also known as the alternate Cray, is the alternate timeline of Planet Cray featured in Blitzer's works.

Clans of Cray i

 * United Sanctuary: Gold Paladin, Guardian Force, Angel Feather, Genesis
 * Dragon Empire: Kagero, Murakumo, Ayanami, Jishin
 * Star Gate: Nova Grappler, Interstellaris, Link Joker (Suppressor faction)
 * Dark Zone: Dark Irregulars, Pale Moon, Night Hunter, Gear Chronicle, Black Heaven, Magia Covenant
 * Magallanica: Granblue, Bermuda Triangle, Aqua Force, Deep Thought
 * Zoo: Megacolony, Great Nature, Neo Nectar, Primal Roar, Gale Mirage,

The demiurge and Hazur's creation of the alternate Cray
When people ask who created Cray, some say Messiah. Some say Minerva. Some answer with other original spirits that were present during Cray's creation. While all of these are correct, they belie the true entity responsible for coordinating the original spirits to create Cray, a being known only as the "demiurge." (No, not that Demiurge.)

The demiurge created Cray primarily for its own secret purposes ; the simple joy of creating and the desire to bring new lives into the universe were way down the list. For these purposes, the demiurge required conflict. Thus, soon after Cray's creation, the demiurge removed the ability of Cray's inhabitants to speak the language of the original spirits, hindering their ability to communicate and understand each other. The hate, greed, cruelty, and pride the demiurge weaved into Cray's very being then activated, and as a result, the denizens of Cray began fighting amongst each other. They separated themselves into various factions, creating the nations and clans of Cray.

One of the original spirits was a dragon named Hazur. From the very beginning, Hazur felt that there was something wrong with the nature of creation, although he wasn't yet sure what. He spent some time hanging out with some of the original spirits, including Messiah, Gyze, and others, following them and learning their professions. In the end, however, he felt that none of them were what he was looking for in life, and he was still no closer to finding that flaw in reality than he was before.

Dissatisfied with Cray, but not wanting to abandon it, Hazur kept picking at the fabric of reality and eventually discovered strands of creatia leading away from Cray. He followed them and reached a different planet, one nothing like the homeworlds of the travelers of Star Gate. He saw that it was inhabited by humans, and seemingly no other sapient races, and that they played a game that depicted people and historical figures from Cray: "Cardfight!! Vanguard." He saw pulses travel from and to Earth, and as they played the game, a corresponding event would happen on Cray. As he gazed at Earth, he felt an incredibly powerful presence gazing back at him, its power tugging at the seams of Hazur's body and soul. Hazur immediately hightailed it out of there.

Hazur noticed that the presence seemed incredibly familiar, as if he and everything he knew was part of it. He realized that he had come face-to-face with the demiurge, the unknowable god who created Cray. When he returned to Cray, he began to see the demiurge's influence in everything that existed on Cray.

Meanwhile, Gyze also got curious about Earth and visited it. Gyze was also confronted by the demiurge's power, but before Gyze could escape, the demiurge froze Gyze in place. Desiring to create a villain for its stories, the demiurge warped Gyze's mind, body, and soul, and Gyze became unhinged. When Gyze returned to Cray, Gyze heard the screams emanating from inherent evil of Cray. Gyze heard screams of hate, greed, pride, despair, sadism, all the world's evils, and they realized that the evils of Cray were not an accident, a test, a concession towards free will, or sabotage from an outside party: they were the purpose of Cray's existence.

Gyze's mind broke, and they came to believe that the world was too horribly flawed to allow to continue to exist. The only thing that could be done, Gyze thought, was to destroy Earth and Cray and remake it anew. The inhabitants of the destroyed Cray would be sent to peaceful oblivion, not having to suffer anymore, while Gyze could hopefully make a new world free of the demiurge. Thus Gyze and their Apostles declared war on the entire world, beginning the Cataclysm.

Hazur was horrified that his fellow god fell to madness, and fought on Messiah's side during the Cataclysm. Hazur eventually confronted Gyze himself during the final battle, and Gyze attempted to show him the truth of Cray. Gyze tried to convince Hazur that the world wasn't worth fighting for, and showed him all the world's evils brought about by the demiurge. Before Messiah delivered the final blow to Gyze, Hazur told Gyze that he understood Gyze's viewpoint, but he rejected it entirely. Hazur declared that there was beauty and goodness to be found in the world, even in a world made flawed by the demiurge, and if he had to confront the entire world's flaws to preserve it, then so be it.

After Gyze's defeat, Hazur finally completely understood the demiurge's nature. Hazur came to believe that while the demiurge did much good in creating Cray, the world was tainted by their selfish purposes. Furthermore, Messiah would not take Hazur's warnings seriously, as they were too proud of the world they created and too certain of its goodness to see the flaws in it. Thus, with the help of a Gear Chronicle agent named "Kairos Wing Dragon", Hazur created a copy of Cray in an alternate timeline that he could use as a personal testing ground to find and remove the flaws of Cray. As the world existed in an imaginary plane hidden from the demiurge, it become known as timeline i.

Hazur remained active for hundreds of years, teaching the peoples of his newly created Cray about the demiurge and the illusionary reality the demiurge created. Hazur taught that the demiurge, the true creator of Cray, was a selfish god who encouraged war and conflict, and that achieving freedom from this reality required love and peace among the people of the world, as well as constant growth and self-reflection to avoid falling into stagnation. However, having expended his divine power to create the world, Hazur eventually drifted into a deep sleep, and he would not wake for thousands of years.

Due to the unusual circumstances of its creation, as well as the chaotic nature of its creator Hazur, the time-space continuum is mildly unstable in the alternate Cray. Past, present, and future intermingle with each other, allowing individuals from all eras to interact with each other on infrequent occasions. Thus, Stride has existed throughout the alternate Cray's history, and it is considered a natural part of the world.

The history of the nations
The alternate Cray's history differs from the original one. Clans that existed in the original Cray do not exist here, and clans that do not exist in the original Cray were formed here. As Messiah and Gyze do not exist here, the world was not ravaged by the Cataclysm. However, in spite of a nail, some things stayed the same, such as the division of the grand sanctuary into United Sanctuary and Dragon Empire.

When the United Sanctuary was new, it used to have many groups of shadowy warriors led by Abyss Dragons. Most of them opposed the Sanctuary, and they threatened to tear the nascent nation apart. Thus, a group of Cosmo Dragons, donning steel armor, descended from the Realm of Deities to Cray. Renouncing their divine nature to better understand the mortals they were supposed to protect, they become biological beings able to have children and die. They formed the homeland security organization Guardian Force, which hunted the dark groups down. Many of them could read the writing on the wall and swore allegiance to the Sanctuary, while others fled to Dragon Empire to join Murakumo's ninja clans or Dark Zone to form Night Hunter. However, even though they joined the Sanctuary, the Abyss Dragon race became a minority in the Sanctuary, discriminated against to this day for their dark powers and the sins of their ancestors. In the centuries that followed, the first regular army, the knight's soldiers, was named Gold Paladin, while Guardian Force became the Sanctuary's defense, intelligence, and espionage agency all rolled into one. Guardian Force is an expert on Stride, and were the first to invent the G guardian system, but lag behind on Stride research compared to Murakumo.

The Dragon Empire's armies formed around a general troop and the espionage troop Murakumo. The general troop contains members from all the races of the Empire, including Flame Dragons, Thunder Dragons, and Dinodragons (and can be used in all Dragon Empire decks like Drachma). The largest portion of the general troop is Kagero, the Flame Dragon troop. Murakumo has evolved into a research and intelligence agency, and they are the foremost experts on Stride in the entire world. Flame Dragons tend to be the most privileged citizens of the Empire, with Thunder Dragons at a close second; the rest, while not second-class citizens, are treated more unfairly than the dragons.

Star Gate was uninhabited for a long while, being located in the nearly uninhabitable antarctic, until a group of travelers from the ancient spacefaring federation Interstellaris discovered Cray while traveling the galaxy. Desiring to observe Cray but not interfere with it, they built a colony in Star Gate, bringing the Nova Grapple with them. The Nova Grapple brought in visitors from all over the planet, allowing Interstellaris to interact with the denizens of Cray.

Dark Zone was mostly ruled by various demonic warlords, known as the Dark Irregulars. However, Night Hunter arrived and carved out a niche for themselves, bringing a modicum of order into the lawless land and executing several warlords. While Night Hunter's founder, Abyss Shatter Dragon, was originally evil and power-hungry, his experiences in Dark Zone made him realize the worthlessness of power in itself, and he declared Night Hunter to be a sanctuary for the innocents caught in the conflicts of Dark Zone. The Dark Irregulars understood Night Hunter to be a threat, but a combination of disunity and Night Hunter's guardedness and elusiveness prevented the demons from defeating Night Hunter. Night Hunter built up a solid power base over thousands of years, but could not exterminate the demons, causing them to be locked in a stalemate.

Magallanica is a republic whose main armed force is Aqua Force. The Aqua Force of this timeline does not have the historical baggage associated with Valeos and Void, so they don't have the humbling experiences the main timeline's Aqua Force has; as a result, this Aqua Force is a lot more insular and authoritarian, albeit peaceful. Meanwhile, Deep Thought expanded their underwater civilization away from the prying eyes of the other clans, worshipping Hazur and remembering his teachings about the demiurge. They disapproved of the surface worlders' unwillingness to escape the demiurge's illusion, but they did not act—yet.

Zoo looks similar to the main timeline's Zoo on the surface, but is in actuality quite different. Neo Nectar is the most prominent power on Zoo, and is generally peaceful, allied with United Sanctuary and Magallanica. Once, however, a rogue faction took over and sought to control the world by manipulating Neo Nectar's food exploits, causing widespread hunger and famine worldwide. The rogue faction was eventually defeated, but they have returned to the shadows, waiting to rise again. While Great Nature remains a peaceful university of animals, it is led in secret by an ancient cabal of beast supremacists known as "Luminus," who are responsible for the lack of non-beasts in Great Nature. However, although they believe that High Beasts and Warbeasts are superior to other races, they are willing to sacrifice the lives of their university's animal students in dangerous experiments for their goals. Megacolony is a disputed country opposed to the rest of Zoo; it is not nearly as united as in the main timeline, even under Gredora's rule. This has turned Megacolony into an authoritarian hellhole where the cult of personality around Gredora is enforced by the state, and where dissenters who wish to make peace with the rest of Zoo are brainwashed into compliance by chips in their brains. Gredora herself appears sane due to her frequent reasonable and shrewd behavior, but she is in truth rather unhinged and selfish, retaining the same madness and obsession with her children that caused the main timeline's Gredora to attempt to destroy the world.

The downfall of the Overlord
Among the history of the alternate Cray, there were few events as influential and wide-reaching as the betrayal of Dragonic Overlord. It had profound effects on the politics, society, and culture of the Dragon Empire.

Centuries before the present time, Dragonic Overlord was the commander of the largest battalion of Kagero and revered as the strongest warrior in the Empire. During that time, Dragonic Overlord single-mindedly pursued power, and as a role model, several generations of the Empire's children looked up to him and followed in his footsteps. However, such was Dragonic Overlord's obsession with power that he began to forsake everything else, including bonds and morality.

In pursuit of a rival that could compete with him, the Overlord pushed into the territories of the other nations, which initially aligned with the expansionist stance of the Empire. However, the Overlord became reckless and power-hungry, and came to believe that the Empire were holding him back from achieving more and more power. This came to a head when Dragonic Overlord murdered the emperor and massacred several of the Empire's generals during a military meeting, beginning a bloody civil war which lasted for years.

Mass chaos erupted in the empire as the Overlord rampaged throughout the territory. Millions died as a direct result of the fighting, and even more died from the mass starvation and deprivation that occurred as a result of the war. Eventually, the Overlord's followers, who only followed him out of fear, slowly abandoned him, even Aermo. The Overlord let them go, disgusted with their "weakness" and believing that he didn't need allies. In his last stand, the Overlord fought against and slaughtered entire armies. However, as he began to use his own life force to gain more power, his body slowly destroyed itself, and he was defeated. The Overlord was captured and sealed away at the bottom of the Empire's underground prison with the most dangerous Seal Dragons. As he repudiated bonds, he became known as "The Alone."

The downfall of Dragonic Overlord tore out the metaphorical heart of the Empire. Their greatest and strongest champion, the embodiment of all their ideals, betrayed them and killed millions of their loved ones. The Empire's citizens were filled with horror and confusion, and they began to seek answers for why the Overlord fell. Many concluded that the Empire's culture was at fault, and they began to study the social flaws of the Empire, including the Empire's aggressive actions against other nations, their obsession with military and martial might over improving society, the favoritism of dragons over non-dragons, the inability of the common man to dictate governmental policy, and so on. The Empire largely attempted to ignore these problems.

In the wake of the Overlord's fall, the Empire chose three champions—a flame dragon, a thunder dragon, and an abyss dragon—to represent the ideals of the Empire in the Overlord's place. These champions became known as the Three Blades of the Empire. While a position of great prestige, the Three Blades were always carefully watched to ensure they would never rebel like the Overlord.

i Season 1: The present time and the invasion of Deep Thought

 * The Suppressors, members of Link Joker from the original timeline that went AWOL, encounter Hazur, still recovering. Hazur, recognizing that he and the Suppressors share similar ideologies (although Hazur is nicer about it), tells them about Cray i and teleports them there.
 * The Suppressors' leader, Strega Kaiser, went to meet Deep Thought, the undersea civilization that follows Hazur. Because of this, Deep Thought determines that it is finally time to act against the surface world, believing that they have succumbed to the stagnation promoted by the demiurge.
 * After months of preparation, Deep Thought unleashes a massive ocean flood on all shores of Cray as a wake-up call. They then start attacking the shores with their legions of undersea creatures.
 * United Sanctuary and Dragon Empire are caught off-guard, as they have little naval presence. They quickly rise to the occasion, however, forming the navies Blue Steel (part of Gold Paladin) and Ayanami.
 * Aqua Force sees the other navies as a threat to their dominance of the seas and mobilizes Warring Tide to attack them. They consider taking advantage of the flood to invade the other nations, but only after finding its cause.
 * Interstellaris sends a detachment from their homeworld to investigate the flood.
 * The demonic warlords Dark Irregulars, being disorganized as they are, are completely stumped by the flood. Night Hunter, on the other hand, is able to quickly organize, recover, and mitigate the worst of the flood's effects. They take the chance to exploit the Dark Irregulars' current strategic weakness and begin picking off demon lords at a faster rate.
 * Primal Roar realizes that the flood is the will of the planet.
 * During a skirmish with Blue Steel, the Ayanami fleet mech destroyer Blizzard invokes Stride, summoning Torpedo Blizzard Dragon. She is then taken to meet the foremost Stride expert on Cray i, Temporal Storm.
 * Temporal Storm trains Blizzard in the art of Stride.
 * During the battles between Ayanami, Blue Steel, and Warring Tide, Blizzard refuses to kill her enemies, believing that the three navies are only fighting out of misunderstanding and ignoring the real threat under the sea. They manage to convince Blue Steel to stand now, but Warring Tide remains obstinate, continuing their hostilities until Ayanami and Blue Steel unite to defeat them. The three navies eventually come to a truce to fight Deep Thought.
 * In response, Deep Thought begins its invasion in earnest. While the previous attacks were merely skirmishes intended to scout out the surface worlders, this invasion is much greater in size. Deep Thought strikes at all the nations, but focuses on Dragon Empire, and succeeds in seizing a large portion of the Empire's territory.
 * Deep Thought offers its assistance to Night Hunter's crusade against the demon lords, apparently recognizing them as an equal with potential. Night Hunter warily agrees.
 * The three navies mobilize and push forward into Deep Thought's ocean surface base, the primary base of their invasion. They meet the generals of the Deep Thought forces: the leviathan general Algazark, the spymaster Ullsiwel, and the ambassador-priest Ourginus.
 * During the fight, the combatants are met with a surprise: the appearance of Dragonic Overlord himself. After disappearing from imprisonment centuries ago, the Overlord had been traveling the world in disguise, which changed his battle-hungry nature. His thoughts had synchronized with the long-dead spirit of the "Golden Dragon King", and he took on a form with crimson and golden wings, "Dragonic Overlord "The Dawn"".
 * Dragonic Overlord cuts a swath through Deep Thought's forces, defeating Algazark. He attempts to perform a new form of Stride combining his new and old powers, but the Stride fails and gutters out at the last moment. Ourginus tells the Overlord that he is disappointed in him, as while the Overlord was now fighting for a just cause, he had still not let go of his "pride." Ourginus then invades Dragonic Overlord's mind and forces him to relive the painful experiences of all the innocents who died as a result of his rebellion centuries ago.
 * As the battle rages on, Blizzard exchanges blows with Ourginus. Ourginus attempts to show Blizzard the truth of Cray, showing her the evils of the world and the existence of the demiurge in an attempt to convince her that the world was not worth fighting for. Blizzard rejects that conclusion, declaring that she would take on all the world's evils to save it. She summons Transcendent Destroyer, Torpedo Blizzard Dragon, and realizes that Torpedo Blizzard Dragon is her future self transformed into a dragon. After his defeat, Ourginus approves of the determination of the surface worlders and agrees to withdraw the flood and Deep Thought's forces.
 * Back at the bottom of the sea, Ourginus and Strega Kaiser talk, remarking that Cray has potential after all.
 * Dragonic Overlord, realizing what Ourginus meant, willingly gives up most of the strength he had accumulated over the centuries. He resolves to live as a normal citizen of the Empire for now, and joins Ayanami as a cadet, wanting to work his way up from the very bottom to prove himself worthy of power. Only those who fought with him against Deep Thought, as well as the higher-ups of the Empire, know his identity.
 * Ayanami finds an amnesiac thunder dragon on a beach. Remembering little except his combat skills and that he had a friend a long time ago, he joins Ayanami and adopts the name "Raging Kaiser".

i Season 2: Widespread unrest and the Suppressors
...
 * While the flood of Deep Thought was stopped, the objective of Deep Thought's invasion was fulfilled. Deep Thought's invasions exposed the flaws and evils of the nations throughout Cray, including their own.
 * The Suppressors reveal themselves to the wider Cray for the first time. Their first appearance involved them attacking and corralling the Blue Steel and Warring Tide navies together. This causes Synchrostride to be invoked for the first time, summoning Orbital Beat.
 * Incited by the neglect of the Dragon Empire during the Deep Thought invasion, a faction from the southern Dragon Empire declares independence. Wielding earth magic, they name themselves Jishin, or "earthquake." Kagero is sent to suppress them, but the rebellion's leader, Prithvi, invokes Stride. She summons Bhukampa, a creature from a never-before-seen race of dragons. This gives Jishin hope that their rebellion will succeed, and other people throughout the Empire begins giving them their support.
 * The Black Dragon Faction, a marginalized organization of Abyss Dragon members of Gold Paladin, begin protesting against the mistreatment of Abyss Dragons and the other descendants of the dark warrior tribes. The government does not take this well, and police from Guardian Force are sent to suppress the protestors, who are forced to defend themselves. Many of the Sanctuary's more peaceful citizens, including the now renowned hero Ciel, are appalled by this treatment.
 * Humbled by his experiences during Deep Thought's war with the surface, Ourginus begins challenging Deep Thought's xenophobia and contempt of the surface worlders, as such disunity goes against the teachings of Hazur. Ourginus is derided by his fellow scholars and priests, although as a well-known figure among Deep Thought's civilization, many take his words to heart, mostly among the younger generation.
 * Blackthorn, a political party of nationalist Neo Nectar members, seize control of the Neo Nectar government and start halting food exports, as they did centuries before. Dissidents are forced to escape to the untamed lands of Primal Roar or even to other nations.
 * A group of Great Nature students begin openly opposing Luminus, the beast supremacist cabal that secretly controls the university. At the same time, a group of idealistic Megacolony rebels start fighting against Gredora's oppressive regime. Both rebel groups secretly ally with each other.
 * Machina Arsenal begins giving materiel support to each of the rebellions, implicitly declaring their opposition to the governments of several of Cray's nations.
 * The Suppressors continue their attacks, each time forcing the nations of the world to work together. They Яeverse many of Cray's champions, unleashing their hidden desires and flaws suppressed by society.
 * The Suppressors expose the existence of Gale Mirage to the world.
 * The Korgarran Confederacy, an Interstellaris faction, comes to Cray under the pretext of apprehending the Suppressors. In truth, they seek to ransack the planet and loot its resources.
 * As a branch of the military, Ayanami is also sent to quell Jishin's rebellion. However, the kindhearted members of Ayanami are conflicted, as they do not believe that Jishin is in the wrong. Dragonic Waterfall, conflicted about having to hurt innocents and already frustrated by the restrictions of being a member of the military, resigns from Ayanami and returns to his original duties of protecting the streams and lakes of the Empire.
 * Blizzard is as conflicted as Waterfall, but after thinking about it, she comes to firmly believe that the Empire is in the wrong. Then, she makes one of the most difficult decisions of her life; she chooses to stand with Jishin and join their rebellion against the Empire. The members of Ayanami, even the warlike ones otherwise loyal to the Empire, stand behind Blizzard, as they see her as a hero for defeating Deep Thought.
 * Blizzard catches up with Waterfall and confronts him, accusing him of cowardice for abandoning Ayanami and being unwilling to take a stand. "What good is there is being gentle and nature-loving when people are suffering all around you? You protect nature, but nature isn't the only thing that needs to be protected! You have so much power as a guardian dragon, but you're not doing anything with it!" Waterfall, feeling guilty, agrees to rejoin Ayanami.
 * Blizzard and her allies find themselves in Void Relics, which pulls souls from all spacetimes of Cray, including Cray i. They fight against Gyze's forces before being pulled back to Cray i.
 * The nations of Cray agree to join hands, and the Nexus Guardians are founded.
 * Hazur is saddened by the death(?) of Gyze and Messiah's fate.