(('The Oath' or 'why does queenie dislike gods, and where magic went 1000 years ago))
((Feeling like it so time for the big oath post. And the world before, during, after 1000 years. And maybe even after the oath.
But lets start at the beginning. In the beginning the universe was made. All the gods didn't really plan for this. And thus they began to meddle. And this continued. The world was rife with magic, the fuel for the gods. And also well, not very consistent. See, gods are very powerful. And when something happened that they didn't like. Well. Gods decided that it wouldn't happen. However they could not undo what already happened. So, well, multiple happenings would happen. Until too many gods had decided the course of events weren't up to their liking around one moment in time and space, and then finally no more gods could intervene. And after this arbitrary point? All those timelines would exist in the main timeline, and you could have a mess of things going on at the same time.
This had been known by the inhabitants of the universe as not great for the health of the universe. However they struggled to intervene. The one method they had come across was serving the various gods to ensure their outcomes, or something closer to it, would happen and thus limiting their periods of intervening in the events of the universe. Of course between unknown hundreds, or perhaps thousands of gods this could only stop so much.
Eventually a deal was reached between the being known as 'King Arthur' and just enough gods that agreed they wanted the universe to keep existing. With this they made a plan to keep the gods out of the universe, and to ensure its continued existence. This plan was centered around the oathblade and Excalibur.
The gods intervened in the universe using magic as their agent of change. But also it was the only way they could exist in the universe. And they needed a lot of magic to make changes. Excalibur was designed as a lock that could seal away all the magic in the universe, given 1000-or-so years. But in a mere 10 years it would seal away enough magic to temporarily seal away the gods. However it would not be a challenge for someone to just find Excalibur and undo the lock.
This is what the oathblade was made for. Arthur gathered up thousands of mortal allies they all swore an oath, and oath to keep the seal closed for 1000 years. After which anyone who swore the oath (or met the conditions of pulling Excalibur from the lock) could draw the blade and restore magic to the world. Queenie was one of the people who agreed to this deal.
In our 'real timeline' terms the oath was made in about 900AD. However up to the decade after the oath was made timelines were still mixed up and distorted, so the exact timing and location of when the oath was made was difficult to pin down. It didn't help that immediately after all the gods not included on the oath deal struck back at arthur and their closest allies utterly annihilating them. However due to a planned interference from the gods who Arthur had allied with, each god had struck when the oath was made to make sure they would be remembered after the oath was made. While they could not directly interfere people would remember and worship or act in their name. And from this the gods could gain a bit of power even from a universe they couldn't interact with.
And then after 10 years for 1000 years magic slowly drained from the universe. In the first 10 years over 90% of the magic of the universe left. Time became linear, and supernatural creatures slowly began to wither. First the dragons vanished. Sentient magic gathered up and given thought. With 90% of their fuel gone and going into the remaining living creatures. They withered and vanished. Slowly as more and more magic left over each of the remaining centuries beings with less and less connection to reality began to fade from it. The magic slowly drained. Until around 1900 when about half a percent was left.
What had kept it was a handful of immortal beings, mainly vampires, who lived from before the oath was made and had a faint hint of the world before still in them. Though the oath was trying to strangle magic out of the universe as half a dozen vampires and other immortals who swore to the blade still existed it couldn't quite finish its goal. Though it got closer and closer.
Around 1935 Queenie realized that it had been 1000 years and she began to search for a way to the oathblade. Despite the blade setup sealing away magic, the actual place it happened had been sealed away in a pocket dimension that could only be accessed by either someone who swore to the oath, or someone who met conditions to theoretically swear the oath. As Arthur was a noble someone or royal blood could theoretically wield the blade.
Queenie was, ultimately, the one to get to the blade and wield the oathblade. In the fine mechanics of the oath Excalibur was the plug sealing away magic, and the oathblade was the control adjusting how tight the seal was. Using the oathblade one could actually only partially unseal the oath and let in some magic. Queenie was immortal and had seen how the world had changed. And right now she was sure if she let back in all the magic there would be a lot of violence and death. And honestly? She didn't know who would live. So she unsealed about 10% of the magic, allowing lots of magical creatures to re-emerge, and humans to re-learn magic. But not enough to make magic omnipresent. And over the next 1000 years her goal was 10% a century. So far she's skipped ahead a bit and in the 2020's she's unsealed another 10% further increasing the load of magic in the unvierse. None of this has been enough to restore the gods, as magic has permanently changed, to no longer be the nourishment of the gods. However other things, like dragons, had begun to return to the universe.
