Prologue:
Exposition: The late Bronze Age.
During the late Bronze age, well over a millennium before the birth of Christ, the Minoan King on Crete held the Athenian King to ransom. Every nine years the Athenian King sent seven male youths and a like number of female virgins, the cream of Athenian society, to Knossos on Crete. Once on Crete, the Athenian youths were fed into the dark heart of the labyrinth; there to die at the hands of the dreaded Minotaur Asterion, unnatural son of the Minoan King's wife and a bull.
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One year, the Athenian king sent his own son, Theseus as part of the sacrifice. Theseus was determined finally to stop the slaughter, and to this end he was aided by Ariadne, daughter of the Minoan King, half-sister to Asterion, and Mistress (or High Priestess) of the Labyrinth. Ariadne shared with Theseus the secrets and mysteries of the labyrinth, and taught him the means by which Asterion might be killed. This she did because she loved Theseus.
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Theseus entered the Labyrinth and, Ariadne's secret magic, bested the tricks of the labyrinth and killed Asterion in combat. Then, accompanied by Ariadne and her younger sister, Phaedre, Theseus departed Crete and it's shattered labyrinth for his home city Athens.
Rising Action: Theseus leaves Ariadne for her sister Phaedre.
Ariadne, the Mistress of the Labyrinth, can only breed daughters. Theseus didn't need - couldn't use - daughters in the Aegean world. Ariadne was pregnant, stumbling as she was running alongside Theseus who had purposely set the fast pace. He was anxious to get back on his warship so he could sail in triumph with Phaedre, the powerful woman who could bear him sons. Ariadne was useless now, and she knew it. Thinking of 'to the betrayer comes the betrayal,' Ariadne conjured up plans of Irrelevance; Decay; Death; Catastrophe...
Climax: Ariadne swears revenge, and Asterion is reborn.
Among those plans, Ariadne goes into labor. Through the three long days and nights, Ariadne knew she wouldn't survive in the end. The Death Crone was at her back waiting for her to give in.Ariadne made a deal that the Crone couldn't refuse. Ariadne requested that her brother, Asterion, whom she had helped murder, be brought back to life, but only if she survived.
Falling Action: Catastrophe begins.
Asterion arrived and didn't intimidate Ariadne. Ariadne begged Asterion to teach her the ways of the dark craft so that she could destroy Theseus once and for all. She barely survived the night. Two days later, body still sore, Ariadne walked to the herb garden with her daughter in a wicker basket. There was a trellis of large white, open petaled flowers on the back rise. She intertwined flowers into the wicker basket, each flower representing a city. The game has been the protection of the cities of the Aegean world. Of which would be no more by the Catastrophe...
Resolution: The Aegean World was dying.
Ariadne's curse had spread throughout the Aegean world. Cities fell to devastation. The luckier cities, ones that were based on conquering others, thrived. A main point in the catastrophe was that, off the coast of the island Thera, which sat between Crete and Naxos, was the shining city of Atlantis. Thera exploded with such force that the entire island, save for a sorry rim of smoking rock, vanished beneath the waves. Thera poisoned every land, every city, every dwelling within four days of sailing.
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The cataclysmic explosion of Thera had shattered the equanimity and the confidence of the gods. It had also depleted their power and thus their means to try to undo what Ariadne had wrought. Thera's beautiful circular harbor had contained a great island - an island within an island - upon which rose the majestic citadel of Atlantis. Center of the Aegean culture and supremacy, Atlantis had also contained the ancient and mystical God Well, the major source and power for the gods. Without it, the gods were ineffective and they grew more and more so as each passed. With the destruction of Thera and Atlantis, Ariadne had dealt a killing blow to the gods at the very start of her curse. At the height of their powers, the gods could have stopped her; now they could do little but mouth feeble curses and succumb to the evil that stalked every part of the Aegean life.