When humanity violated the afterlife the gates were forever closed to them. They were cut off from both the Realm Beyond where the dead could pass on and the Well of Souls from which new spirits could enter the world. Suddenly the only human souls were those already in the world. The dead would reincarnate without first having their soul cleansed of prior memories, and no infant would be born until a soul was found to occupy them.

With compounding memories bent over the undeveloped minds of children, souls started repeating and exaggerating the same actions, incarnation after incarnation. Petty tyrants became worse with every lifetime and mental disorders carried over to the next host. This quickly led to humanity’s descent into madness, tyranny, and zealous fervor.

After 800 years, salvation came from the stars. A blazing meteor struck the atmosphere, only to unfurl into a black-feathered phoenix made visible against the night by white flames wreathing each feather. The Firebird swept over half the planet, it’s eclipse flame touching only humans. Those caught in the fire would be swept back up to the immense bird and consumed. As the phoenix swept the night side of the planet, it came upon the threshold of dawn. As the sun’s rays hit it, the black feathers turned red and the white flames changed to a brilliant gold. The inferno streaming from its mouth ceased and soul wisps began to drift away from its tail feathers.

As the phoenix found a roost to sleep, those with experience of such things and enough sanity to investigate them found that the souls the phoenix had dropped in its wake had been cleansed of all prior memories. Thus before the vessel of purification could depart the world, the remaining sages devised a scheme to bind the Phoenix. As the great bird, slept architects built a wall in the center of the largest city near its resting place and artists painted a mural on either side. One of the Dusk Phoenix and one of the Dawn Phoenix. Finally the very mages who had rendered the afterlife inaccessible inscribed the binding ritual onto the wall.

When the Phoenix woke and made to depart the world, the ritual latched onto the fire bird and drew it into the wall. Once the seal was complete, the Phoenix manifested both aspects from its images. The body of a gigantic humanoid woman began to emerge from both the dawn side and the dusk side. The manifestations pressed out of the wall until they reached their elbows and knees. The dawn side awoke first, a crown of golden flame manifesting above her head, and started struggling in vain against her bonds. When the dusk side awoke with the sunset along with her halo of white fire, she didn’t make any effort to escape. Instead she let out a breath and everyone standing within 100 meters was lifted by eclipse flames lunging out of the cobblestones and pulled into the Phoenix woman’s open mouth. Dusk’s belly swelled as she consumed victim after victim until the space before her was empty. As the dawn broke the next day, Dusk’s stomach shrank away and the dawn side’s abdomen expanded to match. At noon Dawn began moaning and the same soul wisps that had fallen from the fire bird now emerged from the Dawn’s sex and pooled below it.

The mages swiftly determined that Dusk would consume anyone that approached during the night and Dawn would birth the cleansed souls the next day. A pregnant woman could claim a soul for their child from Dawn, while the old, infirm, and condemned could gather before Dusk to accept the cleansing fire.

Replicas of the wall were established in cities across the world and linked to channel the power of the phoenix. With a constant stream of souls entering and leaving, both the Dawn and Dusk aspects now boast prodigious bellies at all times. The dual nature of the Phoenix has earned her many names but the most common are “Tomb and Womb,” “Pyre and Hearth,” “The Cleansing Flame,” and “Forgiveness.”

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