History (Existence Supplement)
| Existence's Contents |
|---|
| Information for Everyone |
| World Information |
| Information for the DM |
Notes[edit]
Though this is the history of Existence, it should be noted that only the DM reads this. The reason being is how much information is provided in regards to the campaign setting that the players should not know. For the players to gain a better understanding of the world's timeline, they should reference the Timeline. This timeline gives a much more general feel of what has happened, and more accurately portrays just what the characters would know. The amount of information here would take lifetimes worth of research, exploration, and divination to learn.
Pre-World[edit]
Long before the world existed, the gods and the planes existed. Back then, well before any mortals had arisen to cause issue, the planes were organized in a much similar manner than they are today, yet with subtle differences.
The Outer Planes remained a great shell the encompassed almost everything in existence, much like the peel of a fruit. The highest layer of this plane, that nearest the core of existence, was were the gods of goodness resided, with vast lands suited to their desires and they were able to freely mingle with one another. Beneath this layer was the layer of neutrality, where those who did not seem themselves good or evil, simply existing, could be found. The outer most layer was dedicated to those gods of evil, out to hurt others to gain for themselves, caring only to grow stronger and to cause hurt and suffering to others. Outside of this peel is known only as the great beyond, vast nothingness that even the gods could not traverse. The Inner Planes existed at the core of the known universe, separated into six parts, Positive and Negative Energy, Fire, Earth, Water and Air. The Negative Energy, Water and Earth planes all started towards what was considered the “top” of the core of existence, flowing downwards towards the “bottom” of the core. The Positive Energy, Fire and Air all started at the “bottom” of the core and flowed upwards towards the “top”, being far lighter in essence than their brethren planes. Though these planes all flowed together, and would lightly touch one another towards their edges, each remained indistinct and separate from one another.
Outside of the Inner Planes and inside the Outer Planes exist the Astral Plane, a vast warm, peaceful golden space that connected the Outer Peel to the Inner Core and allowed for movement between the two. Any creature inside this plane was at great ease, and many would simply relax here for untold time, favoring the peace they found within themselves. Such was the way of the cosmologies for an untold amount of time, with denizens of each plane coming into existence, living and finally dying and becoming a part of the planes once more, though none having a soul to live on after death. Many of the gods feared that they too were nothing more than a more powerful version of these creatures and that in time, they too would simply meld back into the planes and cease to exist. As time passed and this fear grew, some began to look at ways in which to avoid this fate, at any cost. Two of them, brothers whose names have long since been forgotten, came to the same conclusion as one another at the same time. To live on, they needed more power and to gain that power, they had to kill the other gods. How they came to such a conclusion is unknown, but it is believed that those who were later known as the Five Horsemen are the cause of it all.
When they both realized that the other had the same plan, fear grew of betrayal, and so each planned their own betrayal first. Meeting up at the very center of the universe, at the very core of all of existence as suggested by the Horsemen, both betrayed the other. Attacking, their battle raged on, and became so violent that the other gods could not help but notice what was happening. Though they did not understand, they watched, and talked, and asked each other. None knew why the two brothers fought, but when one dared to ask a Horseman, he was told that to remain forever, one must take the power of other gods. Word spread quickly among the divine, and though few believed it, many came to understand the brothers had embraced it. For time untold, they fought, until suddenly one managed to fatally wound the other. In his moment of glory, he let his guard down, and his brother mortally wounded him in turn. Both dying, they moved to quickly kill the other, instead falling victim to their wounds.
With their death, an explosion occurred, their power rocketing outwards as their essences tried to return to the plane that spawned them, but this power was trapped, a trick set up by the Horsemen for reasons unknown. Unable to escape the flowing of the elemental planes, their essence expanded more and more until the power was engulfing the very center of all the inner planes, and all the gods tried to escape, but many had been to close and were caught in the growing energy. With the addition of more gods to the energy, and the addition of all those elementals caught in the blast, the energy grew stronger and stronger, pushing against the inner Planes and leaking into the Astral Plane, though it was this very first leak that had an unforeseen consequence. The moment all of this mixed energy touched the Astral Plane everything changed. The Astral Plane’s very essence was torn from it, causing all of the warmth, golden shine, and peace to be sucked out and slam into the growing essence in the center of existence, flowing inwards instead of outwards, and when these two essences met, everything collapsed. The power fell into itself, forming a singularity that exploded once more, only this time with such raw power that the very elemental planes were sheared in half as it formed what would later be known as a plate between the heavy and light planes. What remained of the heavy planes below this ‘plate’ slowly fell away into the Astral Plane, just as those light planes above the ‘plate’ dispersed into the Astral, creating the Astral Plane as it is today. And this plate, where all the planes finally met for the very first time became the Material Plane, with its darker shadow, the Shadow Plane, and the space in-between the Ethereal Plane.
This new plane both intrigued, and scared, the gods. Such power had been unleashed that the very nature of existence was forever changed, and with it came the birth of life. Instead of fighting, as the five horsemen had wished, the gods swore not to battle one another, for fear of destroying everything, and began to watch the life as it started to grow on this new plane of existence. For a while, it seemed no different than any other plane, creatures grew, existed, died and became a part of the plane again, but one day a god called all other gods together for a meeting, the first ever held. Though not all showed, many did, and at this meeting the god produced something that had never been seen before, a soul. This was a soul of one of the creatures they had been watching, recognized because he had been doing many interesting things while alive, and though he died a violent death, he had been found upon the inner most of the outer planes. With this revelation, the gods started to recall how they too had started to see these souls around the planes, but thought nothing of them since the planes created new creatures all the time. The idea that this material plane was actually able to create a creature that when it died, it went to live on once more on the outer planes surprised, and scared the gods. What soon came next was even more shocking, and started what would eventually be seen as the downfall of the cosmos.
An evil god, now long forgotten, went to the world after some time, bored with his very existence. While this was not unheard of, what he did was. Instead of simply watching, he went and killed a mortal, cutting him down before his tribe with great ease. Upon seeing this god kill their greatest warrior with ease, the tribe started to worship this god as something far more than he really was. To him, they gave the credit of the universe, they gave credit of all life, and to him they claimed all things could happen. With malice in his heart, the god ordered his people to attack their neighbors, to kill them if they would not convert, and to revel in the blood spill. From his own tribe, he mated with their women, finding a sensation never before felt, pleasure, and in time he became a father to many off-springs, creatures later known as Tieflings.
At first, though the other gods watched in horror at this act, they did not stop him, because it was something new, something interesting, and they wanted to enjoy it. When his followers died though, what they didn't learn at first was their souls all went to the outer most layer of the outer planes, the layer of existence he himself had been from. So too did those his followers killed, for when they died, he would follow and grab their souls, dragging them back to the hell he came from. As the initial tribe became stronger, backed in power by their god, more and more converted, and soon nearly a third of the world worshipped this god, and that was when many stated to learn what happens when a god is worshiped.
With so many converted, a goddess had decided that enough was enough and went to the material world to start her own worship, and it quickly caught on. As a goddess of love and warmth, she was much loved by her people, instead of feared, and worship started to spread, but the god would have nothing of this. He ordered his people to attack, and slaughter these other tribes, and soon the blades of war came and cut down her people. When they died, she took most of their souls to rest upon her plane, allowing them to prosper and enjoy their eternal afterlife, though while she was gone, the god would sneak into the battles and steal those souls that worshiped her and died, dragging them back to his own plane to torture for eternity. When the goddess learned of this, she was enraged and attacked the god directly. Her people, nearly wiped out, offered little in support to her power, while his own followers numbered in the tens of thousands and granted him far greater power.
She struck the first blow, a sword at his heart, but it did not penetrate his skin, reflected thanks to his power. When he in turn struck back, his blade cut deeply into her shoulder and showed all other gods just how powerful he had become. Using this strength, he beat down the goddess, and captured her, dragging her kicking and screaming back to his realm before the very eyes of all other gods and goddess, but none interceded. She was tortured in this hell by the vicious god of lust and rage, abused and beaten, but never killed. Her suffering was well known, and the other gods feared for themselves, paying homage to this greater god while plotting in the dark. Two gods would clash, one of evil and one of good, when the evil one learned of the plot against the great god. They fought for a long time, and though the evil god was not nearly as strong as the great god, he was much stronger than the good god because of the number of souls on the outer most plane of the outer planes. When the battle was ended, the good god was defeated, but instead of bringing him back to be tortured, the evil god killed him and revealed in the power he gained.
Urged on by a dark power, the evil gods started to attack all other gods, and in their division, they stated to quickly fall. Fearing the death of all gods not evil, those who were good and neutral agreed to an alliance, and thanks to their ability to trust one another, they began a war with the gods of evil. One of evil could not trust other evil gods not to betray them, thus they had been independent fighters, but the gods of good and neutrality did not fear betrayal and thus fought in teams. Together, they managed to start to defeat the gods of evil, killing them as they had been killed. The battles were long and hard, raging throughout the outer planes, and by not only the gods but those creatures born of the planes, and the souls of the mortals as well. Hundreds of gods died, thousands weakened to nearly impotence, and it looked like the war would only end when one side was destroyed. Both sides were encouraged by some dark force, to keep fighting, to keep battling least they be destroyed for good, and the battles continued on and on, though as the heavens roared with the fights of the gods, the material plane was left alone.
The great god had not returned to the material plane for many generations, and worship of him slowly started to relax, though worship in general did not. Instead, it flourished as mortals began to worship ideas and concepts instead of actual gods, and when they died, they moved onto the outer planes as normal, based on how they lived and the concepts they worshiped. This allowed a balancing of powers to the gods, and in time, the evil gods lost their greater strength and the tide of battle began to turn very seriously against them. Fearing for their existence, these evil gods sued for peace, and though that same dark force tried to convince the good gods not to, their nature did not allow for the extermination of the evil gods when they surrendered. As such, the war was put to an end, on one condition; the great god was put to death. Not wishing to die, the great god refused, though all other gods agreed and decided to attack him anyways. The battle that ensued was great, and long. At first he was fought on the inner planes, but eventually he was pushed all the way back to his home plane and home fortress, a dark and twisted structure that the echoes of eternal suffering wailed from. Though weakened from a lack of mortal worshipers, so many souls had the great god collected, so many goddesses and gods had he captured and imprisoned, he was still unable to be completely defeated and killed. The gods, knowing they could never kill the great god, formed a new plan, one that would forever seal him away.
Sneaking into his fortress, a small band of the stealthiest gods and goddesses conducted a raid, freeing as many souls and captured gods that they could, and emptying his halls. So busy was the great god in his own private chambers that he did not realize any of this was going on, and thus the gods succeeded in freeing nearly everyone. The only gods, goddess, and souls left were those with the great god at the time of the rescue, and those were only the forced members of his harem and his most prized prisoners. Feeling bad for what had to happen, the gods agreed none the less that their plan had to be enacted now, while he was distracted, regardless of those few innocents that would be caught in the spell.
Binding their powers together, the gods created the first, true binding spell, sealing away the fortress of the great god in its own realm and throwing the realm into the very center of existence where reality and laws of nature did not function properly. Here, the great god, and all of his harem, were trapped in his fortress for all eternity, unable to escape and no way for any to enter. With the chaos of this created realm, the gods knew nothing of power could ever find its way free, and to try was to ensure certain oblivion, and for many ages, nothing ever escaped. In time though, a small number of devils, quickly found and destroyed, were found to be escaping, having learned subtle patterns in the shell that captured the realm and squeezing through. Where these creatures came from when nothing could enter, left only one possibility, and it was one that no god wanted to think of because of how heavy it weighed upon their hearts. This fact though did not come to be for some time, and thus not of consequence for what was to come next.
With the great god sealed away for eternity, the gods had to look towards their own future and what had caused such a divide.
With the war at last over, the gods, far fewer in number than before the start of all of this, turned their attention back to the material world. They now saw what had become of it, and smiled, for it showed a delicate balance much as their own universe did. The planet with the most lift, the one were the souls were coming from, had formed up into three nations, one to the north, one to the south, and one in the center and the great continent that made up most of this planet’s land. The northern nation, calling themselves Arya, were a cruel people, bent on domination and worshiping the darker aspects of existence such as pain, suffering and death. The southern people, called Nortilia, worshiped life, love and happiness, and though they fought well, they did not seek to expand and force their beliefs onto others. Zora, the nation in the center, worshipped the ideas of neutrality, the concepts of trade, knowledge, and strength, but without the desire to use them to influence things. With such a balance, the gods agreed that they would not interfere, each realm gaining a near equal number of souls and ensuring no faction of gods became stronger than another. Thus, for untold centuries, all was at peace once more.
Era of the Three[edit]
The Era of the Three lasted for an untold amount of time, and was a time of great prosperity as each nation grew in wealth and advanced in technology. Great cities rose up from the ground, spreading across the land, and huge ships sailed the ocean, exploring the entire planet and bringing back rare and exotic goods from faraway lands. Though skirmishes occurred, once the three nations solidified themselves, without a major war, none had anywhere to expand, and thus peace remained ever present, albeit tenuous in nature. All three of the great nations grew more powerful, built stronger armies, bigger cities, and raised larger populations. And thus, war was inevitable.
Zora, the smallest of the three nations and confined to a large island like land surrounded by large rivers, focused on growing itself and ensuring that knowledge and the arts of magic were free to all in its land. This focus ensured that, though smaller than either of its two neighbors, the military advances and the magic capabilities ensured that neither nation were able to simply over run them and claim the land as their own. Yet Arya, ever jealous of its neighbors, planned a war, and soon it started to send larger and more frequent raids south into Nortilia, attacking innocent towns and cities, slaughtering everyone they could not put into chains. Nortilia would have nothing of this and retaliated in kind, though their methods were not as cruel, they were just as effective. Zora, as always, attempted to stay out of the conflict, and yet such was not to be.
For over a hundred years, the war was between the Arya and Nortilia, and though massive damage was done across the borders to each nation, neither was able to get a footing on the other that would give them the needed advantage for a total victory. And so, at about the same time, both turned towards Zora and began to plot. Knowing well the advanced knowledge the island possessed, raids were sent across the river to attempt to gain this knowledge, and yet the raids inevitably failed. Next came small armies, sailing the rivers and attacking the island, and when these too failed, full invasion forces sailed.
Four hundred years of this, wars off and on, invasions, counter invasions, massacres, birth boons, and no one was getting an upper hand. The land was starting to suffer, the people no longer able to afford their lifestyles, and the navies no longer exploring the oceans. Attentions of all three nations were on one another, science all but stopping, magic research all but lost, and only military equipment was produced. Families starved, no matter how hard the nations tried to feed them, and as people died, the rest became desperate. Knowing they had no choice but to claim Zora, the nation of Arya gathered a massive army across the river, the largest they had ever placed in one point, and began to bombard the isle. Nortilia, seeing this happening, gathered up a counter army and begun to bombard Zora as well, both needing to be the first to the isle to gather the knowledge before the other had a chance to take it for themselves.
Zora was a small nation, and it could not survive a two front, full out war after such a prolonged time without proper trade for food and resources, and they knew they were doomed. The leaders of Zora gathered and spoke, finally admitting that no matter what they did, their nation as lost. It was a traveling mage, an elder man but more powerful than any mage ever before seen, that asked for admittance into the meeting of the lords. He was granted, albeit reluctantly, the admittance and went in just as the lords were trying to agree who to surrender to. A smile on his face was what he gave as he told the lords of a plan that could save the island, and perhaps destroy the threat of Arya and Nortilia for all of time. The lords listened, and with hope in their hearts, agreed.
All the mages of Zora gathered together at the center of the isle and learned what they were to do. Gathering their power, binding their most powerful artifacts to the spell, they began to cast the spell that would end this war. The old mage was gone, though none noticed his absence anymore, focus upon the spell so great. Both Arya and Nortilia realized something was amiss, the gathering power impossible to miss by even a blind mage and both took actions to protect themselves. The mages of Arya built up walls of spells, and figured they could stop whatever magic might be cast, while the mages of Nortilia readied spells to redirect the magic, fearing the power was beyond their control to stop. They were right.
When Zora finished casting their spell, raw magic exploded outwards, tearing across the planet in the four cardinal directions, the focus the city of Zora itself. To the north, Arya was unable to stop the spell and the magic destroyed their army, tore apart their land, and left over half the continent nothing but a giant wasteland. Nortilia had little better luck, their mages killed, their soldiers slaughtered, by the sheer power of the raw magic, but they redirected it as best they could, and instead of destroying the land it touched, it blessed it with life, the life of those who it had just killed. Almost overnight the Great Forest rose from the ground, the magic permeating the plants and water, forever changing the few who survive into the elves of today. Further south, the magic was far weaker, and instead only caused some slight mutations. The people there were ever on their horses, giant open land to be ridden, and even now many were mounted and riding around. Those who were mounted found their forms merged with the horse, and thus the first centaur was born, though so powerful was their link to their horses that even the women pregnant had their unborn child forever mutated into a centaur as well. The few who survived giving birth would birth natural humans afterwards, but for a time the land would be awash with the crying neighs of centaurs being born.
To the east and west, where the armies of Arya and Nortilia often had fought, the land was crushed beneath the waves of the power, forced lower down as the top layer of the earth was simply torn away. Beneath the land, great caverns formed, the power tearing above and below ground equally, these caverns connecting the oceans to the rivers and permeating the land above until it became a swampy wasteland. It was the city and island of Zora that suffered most, for the power was unstoppable and it tore through the land. The earth beneath was destroyed, the power of the spell sending it back to the native elemental planes it came from, leaving a vast valley into which the city and all cities around it fell into. Though not a huge valley, it was deep enough that the rivers started to flood into it, and the rush of the oceans through caverns quickly filled it with water. Few of the people had survived the spell casting, their life force being stolen for the magic, unknown to the mages casting it, and those few were quickly drowned beneath the growing sea. Where once stood the great Isle of Zora now was nothing more than a vast, inland sea.
The Dark Ages[edit]
With the destruction of the only two remaining nation’s militaries, and such widespread devastation to the continent as a whole, the Era of the Three was at an abrupt end. Where once there was a centralized, organized government, there now reigned chaos throughout the land. Without the ability to regulate trade and ensure food was dispersed where it was needed, the already painful food shortage turned into a global famine. People had to fend for themselves while still trying to figure out what these new races meant, and so war began to rage. Sometimes people needed food, other times water, sometimes fear alone was enough to cause one neighbor to kill another, but in the end, it was chaos, complete and utter chaos and the base nature of man came about. Without proper medication or magical healing, disease ran wild, killing thousands upon thousands when before only a few would have even become sick. In utter chaos and ruin, the people struggled to survive and the gods looked down in horror at what had become of their world. Only one group seemed happy, laughing to each other in the dark, the powerful neighing of their ever present horses adding to the dark undertone.
Only a few people lived on, and those that did lost everything they once had. Technology was no longer usable, as there was no power, weapons ceased to function and no shops to repair them. The great cities fell into ruin and small villages grew in their place. The gods, seeing this sorry state, decided to act once more, going to the world and giving assistance where they could, taking prayers and worship when they did. But like last time, this too provoked the gods, for some started to gather small tribes of worshipers, while others barely managed a few cults, and fear once more started to grow inside their hearts, urged on by a dark and sinister whispering. War was coming to the heavens once more, and this would reshape the entirety of existence once more.
Feeling the threat of an impending war, the God Zeus decided to try something new. Instead of fighting alone, he went to the gods Poseidon and Hades, forming an alliance between the three. It was this alliance that a new understanding came to be, for when it was formed, each god became stronger as the worshipers of one became as a worshiper of all. Though the mortals who worshiped Zeus gave him more strength then they gave Poseidon or Hades, the deep alliance they shared meant that some of the power went to each of the others as well, and their worshipers in turn added to the first. This alliance formed the first pantheon of gods, and soon many new ones formed as well. With the gods beginning to form pantheons, the outer planes themselves begin to evolve, where before each god or goddess simply lived and existed where they wished, they found themselves limited to a much smaller area. If a pantheon had a god from each of the planes, the location is stacked so the gods could shift between the planes to see one another and assist as needed. As a pantheon became stronger, by killing another god or simply gaining new worshipers, their land grew and the land of the other pantheons shrunk. This caused the pantheons to start to grow in number, and those that only had gods of one or two alignments to quickly be destroyed.
Battles raged in the outer planes for a long time, nearly four thousand years, and most gods ended up destroyed because of it. The pantheons often had many gods in them, for the more gods in the alliance, the more powerful they all became, yet this meant that the small pantheons were enveloped through death or joining another and left only a small number of pantheons around. Fifteen remained by 50 B.C.E., and this small number only made the war much more brutal, though quick. Two entire pantheons were destroyed, and the thirteen that remained were very drastically reduced in size, leaving them to range from three to twelve gods and goddesses amongst them. A new truce was declared, and the wars stopped in 3 B.C.E. The pantheons no longer fought one another, and the few gods not in a pantheon were allowed to exist independently if they chose. This allowed for later gods to be born and not instantly killed, but their numbers had been reduced from beyond counting to a mere few hundred.
During the raging wars of the heaven, the Five Horsemen became Four, and were forced to retreat into the Great Beyond, believed to be forever lost in the darkness. When this occurred, or how, no one know or speaks of, but it is suspected that the gods formed an alliance once they realized the dark whispering had an origin in these five.
With the truce in place, the pantheons new that only through worship would they gain new power, or at least keep what they had, and thus each of the pantheons started to take a much more active role in the affairs of the material plane. Oracles started to be born, and the tribal shamans started to be able to perform feats of magic through prayer, and thus the divine magic was born. By 0 C.E., four small cities built a temple to their pantheon, and went out to bring together local villages in both faith and economics. Thus were the nations of Urganto, Belgoria, Fertor and Aarlan born, each worshiping their own, dedicated pantheon.
The Renaissance[edit]
The foundation of the four cities to become nations marked the end of the Dark Ages and the start of the Renaissance. Though technology was very primitive, with stone the primary tool used in farming, hunting and warfare, as the four nations started to grow and establish themselves, new materials began to gain popularity amongst the people. Trade, also, started to become more common, with traders coming in from the Elemental Isles for the first time in recorded history, and the fledgling nations shipped goods to and from other growing city states. Though warfare was still quite common, the foundations of the nations allowed for a much more systematic approach to warfare, and the ability to focus not only on the concerns of the single village, but a group of them together. New nations rose, and fell, with only the strongest able to survive, and for hundreds of years, things seemed to be getting better.
The Grand War[edit]
In 498 C.E. the southern continent entered the beginning of a great war. It started off as a typical war between some unknown nations, but it quickly spread to the entire continent, and many nations were consumed, forming the known nations of today. This war cause much turmoil throughout the world, as trade all but ceased to the northern continent, which caused those nations to all but halt in their own growth. During the Grand War, trade with the Elemental Isle stops, and this last vestige of trade to the northern continent caused what little advances were possible to all but end as those nations had to focus solely on survival and their own dark battles. The Grand War is believed to have caused not only a complete stop of any real technological development throughout the world, but a reversal of it in most places. Where iron and steel were starting to become common tools of war, by the end it was back to leather and some bronze.
The reason the Elemental Isle stopped sending anyone to trade, and cut off all ties to the mainland is due to a massive religious revolution occurring within its border. The pantheon of gods begin to fight amongst themselves, and though the truce prohibits the gods from killing other pantheons and independents, it does not stop them from killing each other internal to a pantheon. The Lawful Good god has taken a new aspect and sees that chaos is the same as evil and attempts to purge his realm. He manages to consume the other good gods before slaughtering all but one evil god, the weakest of their numbers, growing to incredible strengths and having sway over all clerical domains. The pantheon only ever had a single neutral goddess, a true neutral, and this goddess he left alone, though why is unknown. It is believed he kept her alive, albeit trapped on her plane of existence, just to increase his own power by ensuring his dominion had sway over the Good, Neutral and Evil planes. The realm of Good is called Paradise, the realm of Evil Damnation, and the realm of Neutral is left unnamed and unspoken. Those that worship this god and lead a life he considers good are rewarded in Paradise, all those he sees as evil, including worshipers of every other deity out there, are thrown into Damnation and tortured for all eternity by the evil god and his minions.
The Modern Era[edit]
788 C.E. saw a delicate truce signed between all the remaining nations of the southern continent. Though no one believes that this truce will last, it allowed for nearly twenty years of recovery and the ability for trade to start once more. Though things are far from being where they were during the Renaissance, and even farther from the time of the Three, the basic stability allowed for at least a small growth in population to occur once more.
The gods have also decided to take a more active role in the affairs of the world, their avatars coming to the world time to time, and their heroes rising up to the challenges required, allowing for a more delicate focus of the world and the actions of the nations. Though the gods refuse to force the people to do anything, or at least most gods do, their intervention has allowed for a new organization to occur, known only as the Pathfinder’s Guild, with members from every nation. What this Guild is about, and what their goals are is unknown, but it is believed by many that this small union of all nations is the first step to a more permanent, ever lasting peace for the world.
With the unity finally occurring on the Elemental Isle, technology is able to advance rapidly, and the natural resources are put to good use, allowing the Isle to develop an incredibly advanced navy and army. The army is sent out to conquer the world, with their god having beings follow behind to capture the souls killed by their followers before the other gods can come and claim them. Once the army landed, it sent out what are called Prophets of the One. These clerics are incredibly powerful, almost minor gods themselves, and have a small group of elite warriors to guard them as they go out and spread the word. Those who convert will be saved, those who do not are put to the blade. The ship seen in 804 C.E. was filled only with Undines, and they scuttled their ship just short of the Dead Pass. From here, they used the underground caverns to swim from the Ocean to the Inner Sea where they created an outpost to prepare for the invasion.
The Demon attacks to the North are not over exaggerated. Indeed, demons are attacking the world, a dark portal opened in the Lost North that connects directly to the Great Beyond. Demons, a sight never beheld even by the gods, are being ushered into the world to bring about death and destruction in hopes that once more the entire Existence may once again go to battle. The Tengu are also planning a massive invasion of Tilia, but knowing their own weaknesses have devised a sinister plan. Their raids are to capture females of any humanoid race, and bring their captives back, using them to breed a new army, not of Tengu but of Harpies and other mixed breeds. These new harpies are sent to cause chaos from the Forsaken Pass, weakening the nations resolve so that when the time is ripe, the invasion of the Tengu may formally occur. The Tengu, as a race, are believed to be slightly tainted from the Fifth Horseman, for when he died no one consumed his essence and it fled to the Great Beyond, but a little was pulled towards the Material Plane and landed on the Cursed Lands.
Undead are swarming in the Wastelands, being united under a single, powerful, fallen Planetar Angel. This is a Planetar Angel with the Lich template and uses inflict instead of heal spells. This Planetar is a female that fell from grace with the new One God, but escaped to the Material Plane where she transformed herself into an undead to escape her god’s wrath. She now is in control of almost all the Wasteland Undead, having waged war against the many different fortresses around and either killing or subjugating all who opposed. She has a vampire lord conducting pirating raids along the Inner Sea and has formed up many small armies to invade the land around her kingdom to test their strengths. The demonic invasion from the north, while annoying, has not proven to be of a serious concern to her yet, so she continues to plot and prepare.
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