What Is The Anchorverse
The Anchorverse is the grand framework and connective tissue that binds together all the worlds within Izaic York’s books. It is a mythic cosmos sustained by the Anchors. Every story, and series, draws from the deeper currents of the Anchorverse, revealing fragments of an ancient struggle between light and shadow, creation and forgetting. It is the invisible thread uniting York’s worlds into a single, sprawling epic.
Why Anchors
Anchors have been the enduring symbol of hope and is described as “an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” They represent our steadfast trust in God’s promises of eternal life and His faithful presence, even in life’s fiercest storms. We see that hope sustains us through trials, empowers perseverance, and orients every aspiration toward a future redeemed by the Light. Here in the Anchorverse, we craft stories that mirror this sacred heritage—tales that champion hope, illuminate paths through darkness, and remind us that, like the Anchor, our souls remain secure.
The Song of El-Shaddai and the Birth of the Anchorverse
In the beginning, there was naught but the void, a silent abyss where no light nor shadow stirred.
Then came El-Shaddai, the Creator, manifest as the Light Eternal, a radiance beyond comprehension, both many and one in His boundless essence. With a word of power, He sang forth the heavens, parting them into vast divisions, realms of splendor and mystery. From His Light, He filled these spaces, and from that fullness sprang darkness, a necessary shadow for the formation of free will.
From the Light, El-Shaddai wove the material and the immaterial, threads of substance and spirit intertwined. Thus were born the planetary bodies, their waters deep and shimmering, their firmaments a canopy of stars. Yet from the immaterial arose the invisible, a force unseen yet potent, pulling upon the material like a hidden tide, shaping the cosmos with its subtle hand. But in His many-oneness, El-Shaddai saw imperfection, a discord in His own harmony, and so He turned to craft a remedy.
The Birth of the Heavenly Hosts
With a breath of divine will, El-Shaddai summoned the heavenly hosts, beings of fire and song, sealed with free will and infused with knowledge at the First Instance—a moment when His intentions and plans were laid bare before them. In that sacred unveiling, the Evil One, proudest of the host, gazed upon the Light and coveted its throne. His heart turned to ash, and with a host of followers, he rebelled. Cast down by El-Shaddai’s judgment, they fell like meteors, roaming the lands in defeat, severed from the perfect infusion of knowledge yet retaining supra-knowledge and dark powers. Their exile was a wound upon creation, a promise of their end yet to come.
Those angels who remained loyal became stewards over El-Shaddai’s work. Among the most exalted were three, charged with cultivating the aspects of Faith, Hope, and Charity in the creation to come—mortal and fallible beings destined to walk the earth.
The Wellspring, the Anchors, the Ankoriales
In His crafting, El-Shaddai shaped many worlds, each a wonder reflecting His fingerprints. From His touch, remained the residue of his presence. The Ankoriales, also known on some worlds as the Anchors, or Wellsprings. It is a miraculous source of magic. A physical imprints and yet living manifestations of His presence. These wellsprings pulsed with divine essence, gateways not only for miracles and magic but also portals through which beings might traverse the vastness of His creation. Since El-Shaddai exists outside time and is all-omnipresent, the Anchors and Ankhoriales hold the echoes of His will, eternal and unchanging, a bridge between the seen and unseen, times known and unknown.
The Making of the Ensouled
After a time of rest, for all He had wrought was Good, El-Shaddai turned to the final act of creation. From the rich soil of the eldest world, He shaped the flora, trees that whispered secrets, flowers that sang in dawn’s light. Then came the fauna, beasts of the field and sky, each imbued with a spark of His joy. At last, He crafted the ensouled, beings of body and soul, born of His hands and breath.
First were the humans, molded from clay and breathed with life, gifted the magic to affect hearts and passions, their voices a flame to stir the spirit. Next came the Seelie, wrought from the gleam of the Anchors, given the ability to imitate and create, their hands shaping beauty from divine echoes. Then the Cinraaq, forged in the resonance of the firmament, bestowed the Word to enchant, their songs weaving spells of power. Lastly, the Vymprii, shaped from the shifting mists, granted the gift to change manifestation, their forms mirroring El-Shaddai’s creative might. At equal times, these four races emerged, living in harmony under the stewardship of the angelic hosts.
The War of the Evil One
For a time, all was well, a golden age beneath El-Shaddai’s gaze. But the Evil One, brooding in the shadows, bided his time, building an army from the warped desires of creation. Loving His children deeply, El-Shaddai felt each twist of their hearts as a pang in His own. The Evil One’s corruption grew, turning many against the Light, until at last he declared war—a hubristic rebellion against the Creator.
The war was a cataclysm, a clash of fire and shadow that scarred the worlds. Mountains crumbled, seas boiled, and the ensouled wept as the heavens trembled. Though El-Shaddai’s armies, led by the faithful angels, prevailed, the damage was irrevocable. Creation fell into opposition, its harmony fractured. Under a treaty forged in the aftermath, El-Shaddai permitted the Evil One and his demons to roam the universe, stripped of the power to directly attack, possess, or shift His creations unless legally allowed—bound by a pact of their own making. In exchange, El-Shaddai withdrew His form of power, promising to never return within it until the time of the Horns Call, a time unknown, leaving behind the signs of the Sacred Quest.
The Wager and the Stewards’ Charge
Before His departure, El-Shaddai made a final wager: upon His return, He would find more of creation freely aligned to Him than to the Evil One. This ignited the Evil One’s obsession to corrupt and drag as many souls to hell as possible. In opposition, the angelic stewards of Faith, Hope, and Charity—Seraphina, Lumielle, and Caritas—took up their true role. Infused with divine purpose, they began to guide and redeem the wounded souls, their light a counter to the darkness. To aid them, El-Shaddai’s champions, mortal yet valiant, were called forth, their virtues a beacon in the long wait for His return.
Thus began the age of struggle, where the Anchors stand as memory of the Good, and the ensouled strive to fulfill the Sacred Quest, their fates woven into the eternal song of El-Shaddai.
