- "No Oceans.
No Clouds.
No Rivers.
No Rain.
The world a wasteland of misery and pain." - —One of the Mysteries regarding the Trial of the Cities
The Trial of the Cities is a trial set for humankind by the Super-Ancient Beings, wherein the Three Immortal Weapons must be empowered for a ceremony at the Altar of the Cosmos.
History[]
Early History[]
At a currently unknown point in Earth's history, a race of Super-Ancient Beings devised a series of tasks and trials for any sentient species that arose to undertake in order to confirm they were worthy enough to survive the Omega Event. The fourth of these tasks came to be known as the Trial of the Cities.
The Ancients constructed three cities, Thule, Ra and Atlas, and left a mysterious blue gem deep with each city's vault which would need to be collected and added to the Immortal Weapons of a sword, helmet and mace in order to empower them for a final ceremony. They also created sets of bronze and silver guardians to act as obstacles in addition to the Cities' other defences.
Furthermore, an altar for a final ceremony to confirm the Trial's completion was established within what would later become the Rock of Gibraltar, known as the Altar of the Cosmos. The Super-Ancients arranged it so that a sample of blood would need to be given at the correct time to finish the trial, which would be when the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A-star in the center of the Milky Way galaxy emitted radio waves that would bombard Earth. If this ceremony took place during this time, then the radio waves would pass through the sacrifice and travel at great speed towards the center of the universe on a path cleared by the Hydra galaxy.
To make the completion of the Trial of the Cities all the more crucial to the next species' survival, the Super-Ancients devised a punishment and left deposits of their greystone powder at six locations around the world. Should the trial fail to be completed, these deposits would be exposed to the world's oceans, which would begin a domino-effect of drying up all sources of water the world-over, turning the Earth barren and leaving all life on the planet to suffer and die of dehydration.
Before The Three Secret Cities[]
After the Super-Ancients were gone, the Four Legendary Kingdoms learned about the tasks left behind by the Super-Ancient Beings, among them the Trial of the Cities. They were gifted with the three Immortal Weapons, which they shared among three of their Kingdoms, and discovered the locations of the Three Secret Cities. The Four Kingdoms assigned men to watch over each one, who would come to be called the Trismagi. When one of the Trismagi neared the end of their life or service, the Four Kingdoms would assign someone to take their place watching over the Cities to ensure they were not disturbed before the trial.
Thought the Four Kingdoms vowed to maintain the necessary knowledge for the Trial, they knew most of the relevant information for the Trial of the Cities and the Trial of the Mountains would be revealed to the King of Kings who received the Mysteries at the conclusion of the Third Trial. The Kings whose Champions won the three previous Great Games of the Hydra each received the Mysteries; the last, Zeus, made some notes regarding the Trials on a papyrus in the Word of Thoth, including the prerequisites for the Trial's completion and the punishment for failing.
The Kingdom of Land kept the location of the Altar of the Cosmos a secret for themselves since it was within their territory, while the Kingdom of Underworld came into possession of the stone tablet that was a part of the Altar of the Cosmos.
Though the Trial of the Cities was known to all members of the Four Legendary Kingdoms, only the Kings of each Kingdom (and few of their closet advisers) became privy to the knowledge that an offering of blood was needed for the trial's overall success, however, they had come to misunderstand that it was the sacrifice of an individual that was needed for the ceremony's completion. For millennia before the Trial of the Cities was set to begin, the Four Kingdoms made sure that the High Priest of the Cult of Amun Ra, otherwise known as the Oracle of Siwa, continued their bloodline as they considered it the Oracle's responsibility to be the "Supreme Initiate" who was sacrificed.
During the fourth Great Games of the Hydra that precluded the diverting of the Hydra galaxy, Cardinal Ricardo Mendoza explained to Jack West Jr how the Ancients' trials were set to test life on Earth, and noted the importance of the Three Cities to the future trials. When the Games concluded with the upheaval to the Four Kingdoms, Jack prevented King Orlando Compton-Jones from receiving the Mysteries, and King Anthony "Hades" DeSaxe noted that meant that all of the ancient knowledge regarding the remaining trials would have to be re-found. As the various groups fled the Underworld, Hades discovered that Orlando and Mendoza had survived, realising that they would soon be heading for the Cities to prepare for the next trial.
The Three Secret Cities[]
A few days after the conclusion of the Great Games, the mission to begin the Trial of the Cities began in earnest. As he joined Jack's team in heading to his New York apartment to obtain the tablet of the Altar of the Cosmos and the Helmet, Hades explained what he knew regarding the Trial of the Cities and showed them the Zeus papyrus, while Alby Calvin was able to determine when the Trial needed to be completed by. However, the group was interrupted as they tried to retrieve the artifacts, with Orlando, Mendoza and Sunil Malik taking them instead. Already in possession of the Sword, Orlando set Malik the task of locating the long-long Trident before setting out for the Cities.
As they had lost Hades and the tablet, Jack and Lily West infiltrated the Gallerie dell'Accademia to view a full rubbing copy of the tablet, only to discover that, while Thule was the first City where the trial would begin, it was suggested that allies were needed at all of the Cities since activating Thule would activate the Guardians of all of the Cities. As Orlando was unaware of this and in a hurry to complete the trials, Jack's team set about trying to locate all of the Cities and the Trident so that they could help to ensure the Trial of the Cities wasn't failed.
Indeed, unaware of the mistake he was making, Orlando prematurely initiated the trial at Thule and left Mendoza and his Swiss Guards to empower the Sword, only for the uninformed Cardinal and his men to find themselves caught between the Bronze and Silver Guardians. Meanwhile, the Trismagi Hardin "Sphinx" Lancaster and Dion DeSaxe had the Knights of the Golden Eight capture Lily for the Oracle of Siwa's role of sacrifice on the Altar of the Cosmos.
After Jack's team retrieved the locations of the Cities from Sir Francis Drake's coffin and recovered the Mace from Poseidon's tomb, they made their way to Thule, Ra and Atlas. With Sphinx threatening Lily's life, Jack and Aloysius Knight agreed to empower the Mace and return it to him. As each group from Jack's team came up against the Guardians, Jack realised the Weapons were the key to getting past them, and so his people were reach the inner vaults of the Three Cities. However, as soon as the blue gems were added to the Weapons, Sphinx and Orlando's people took them and made their way to the Altar of the Cosmos.
As the Kings of the Four Kingdoms gathered at the Rock of Gibraltar for the sacrificial ceremony to finish the Trial of the Cities, Sphinx arrived with Lily and initiated a coup by stabbing Orlando with the Sword while Mendoza killed the Kings of Sea and Sky. Setting the stone tablet in the sacrificial pool and closing Lily inside with the empowered Mace and Helmet, Sphinx proceeded to complete the Trial as the Sagittarius A-star's radio waves hit the Earth and stabbed Lily in the heart with the Sword. With the Oracle's death, the Trial of the Cities was successfully completed.
The Two Lost Mountains[]
As Sphinx was about to deliver the fatal blow to Lily, her twin brother Alexander, who had also been held captive by the Trismagi, appeared and shot Sphinx in the shoulder, only to be gunned down himself. Furious, Sphinx decided to have the mortally wounded Alexander take Lily's place in the sacrificial pool. Once the dying Oracle was in place, Sphinx successfully performed the ritual, killing Alexander with the Sword of the Rock and fulfilling the Trial of the Cities.
As the ceremony concluded, a crimson light revealed writing in the Word of Thoth on one of the chamber's walls related to the Trial of the Mountains. Additionally, five rings were revealed as a reward for the Trial's completion, which Sphinx empowered with the Mace of Poseidon's gem, giving him complete control over the armies of Bronzemen.
Trivia[]
- Although the Trial of the Cities is referred to as the First Trial throughout The Three Secret Cities and The Two Lost Mountains, it is the fourth task in the Super-Ancients' Age of Trials.
- Though no specific time was apparently set for the third trial, the Diverting of the Hydra Galaxy to be completed by, the Trial of the Cities was set to be completed on December 1st of 2016. As the Star Chamber is implied to have opened around mid-September of the same year, and with Arbrahamson's implication that the Hydra galaxy would not destroy Earth until two months from November (January 2017), it suggests that the Super-Ancients intended for the third trial to be completed as soon as the Star Chamber opened.
- This brings into question why the Four Kingdoms left initiating the Great Games for nearly two months, though with few pieces of information regarding the remaining trials, it may be that they were unaware.
- Incidentally, the implied time of impact of the Hydra galaxy with Earth (estimated January 2017) is suggested to occur after the due time for the Trial of the Cities to be completed. Therefore, even if the fourth trial was completed successfully, failing to divert the Hydra galaxy in time would have resulted in the Earth's destruction soon afterwards anyway.
- Additionally, the date for the Trial of the Mountains and the arrival of the Omega Event are set for December 29th 2016, thus the expectation must have been that all life of Earth would die of lack of water within the four weeks before the Omega Event.