The world as it exists today is but a fragment of what once was.
Time and time again we have seen this land be shaped by hands unseen. Forged as one, then shattered, then forged again. An everlasting cycle of life and death; of order and chaos; of rises and falls. No being who has lived through these ages of strife remain, and only the threads of their fate lie forgotten in the hidden places of the world: tales of a land called Elysium; of an age wrought by Discord; of primordial beings and their servants who once walked this plane.
Their fates have all but vanished from our world...
Their fates have all but vanished from our world...
And yet, as we all know, there has always been a single constant that has stood the test of time:
the Matron of Life, the All-Mother, the Beginning of All Things,
Anatheia.
We live in the Age of Gods.
the Matron of Life, the All-Mother, the Beginning of All Things,
Anatheia.
We live in the Age of Gods.
Though I have not been a witness to them, nor my ancestors before me, we know that we still yet live in their shadow. We know the gods once walked this earth. In every corner you can hear voices cry out to them, singing their praises, worshipping at their temples. Their language has shaped ours, and our flesh has been crafted in their image: their children. No. Her children. For it was Anatheia, our creator, who has nurtured our world with her touch since time immemorial.
But creation cannot exist alone; others will spring forth from the spring of life hoping to shape the land in their own image. And so, from Anatheia was borne the gods: titanic beings who once walked among their creations. Though those who were borne from Anatheia may have been more powerful, or more passionate, or more cunning than she who came before...
She was still the beginning. And the beginning of all things must be respected. And thus the Council of Divine Beings was formed. An assembly of Gods and Goddesses who, along with their descendants, placed their loyalty in the hands of Anatheia as divine ruler. Under her guidance, it is said the world knew a peace like no other.
...But peace is fragile thing, and this peace truly could not last. We live in the Age of Gods... No. Perhaps it is better to be said that we now live in a new age... one in which we are alone. The gods are gone. Their thrones lay empty. Chaos reigns across the land, and hatred festers against the divines who have left or turned on us. How could this have come to pass? How could a universe in harmony be brought low? How you ask?
Well... It is all because of Anatheia.
For it is said that she vanished from our world, and in the end left it in ruin. We know little of the War of the Gods of centuries past, and even less of how it came to be. All knowledge left of that time however notes one thing: the void left by Anatheia's absence caused a rift between those who sat on the Council of Divine Beings, and drove them to conflict, vying for a chance to replace Anatheia as the supreme divine. We do not know how long this lasted. Centuries? Millenia? Records from this period have been all but lost in the fires of war.
What we know for certain however is that of the original council of gods, only 3 remain today:
• Kvaldite, God of the Underworld and Lord of the Dead
• Arcadia, Godess of Storms and Fire; the harbinger of Chaos and Change
and
• Drachenfel, God of the Ashen Soul
• Arcadia, Godess of Storms and Fire; the harbinger of Chaos and Change
and
• Drachenfel, God of the Ashen Soul
This is the truth of our lives this day. Our world has been shattered. Anatheia is gone, or so is believed, and she no longer hears our cries.
Her lover, Kvaldite, has locked himself in his domain in grief, deaf to our pleas, and allowing the dead to run amok across our lands.
Arcadia's fury has sundered the land, and has sown the seeds of fear in the hearts of people.
...and Drachenfel... he who yet still dabbles in the affairs of the world... who can truly say if he is to be trusted.
Yet even still, other forces are at work in this realm. Pursuing their own agendas and vying for power in the shadows. What will befall us in this new age? We can only wait and see…
o-----o
Anatheia
• The All-Mother, Creator of all Living Things
• The Council of Divine Beings was an assembly of Gods and Goddesses, with Anatheia sitting on the throne above all, as the divine ruler. She was the creator of all living things - all living things are descendents from her first creations atop the sacred mountains. Those who descended directly from these first humans are to be the people of Anatheia - each of them blessed with an innocent soul and a compassionate heart.
They roamed the land, settled up and fed upon the gifts from their creator. Yet their time was not for long, for the mortal world was soon corrupted by the ways of bloodshed, by the Gods who had sought to remove Anatheia’s benevolent presence from her throne. And thus the spirit of Anatheia was wiped off the land, leaving her weakened as she was forced to hide within the realms of the ancient worlds, never to reveal herself lest order is restored to the world she had created.
Arcadia
• Goddess of Storms and Fire
• The Goddess of Storms and Fire is known to be cunning and deceitful - exploiting settlements through fear by threatening to destroy them, Arcadia is worshipped by many in exchange for protection from the wrath of the Goddess herself. While many question the genuinity of the reverence of her worshippers, Arcadia is known to demand the most extreme of sacrifices in her name - the town of Hamlet was not spared from this, having practiced the ritual of human sacrifice for decades.
Arcadia was eventually brought down by someone who out-manipulated her - Jolteus, the love child of Kvaldite and his human mistress, used Arcadia’s own sacred tablet to banish her from the land.
Kvaldite
• God of the Underworld
• The world cannot exist without disparity. Light and Dark. Time and Space. And of course... Life and Death. Neither can live without the other, for what is life without death but a stagnant and desolate shell devoid of meaning? After all, no man rules forever…
It is perhaps then not surprising that Kvaldite appears the most “human” of the gods, for how can one who watches over the dead not know of their struggles and fears in life?
Drachenfel
• God of the Ashen Souls
• It is a common mistake to consider the undead, and those touched by ash, as one and the same.
Those who have lost someone close would mourn their deaths, craving another moment to cherish with them. Naturally, the gate of death is a point of no return, but one god in particular plays around such law, bringing back loved ones and close companions to the mortal world.
All that is needed is to complete a ritual where the ashes of the dead is sealed in a special urn and a few verses from Drachenfel’s Black Grimoire are recited. It was not typical necromancy, for those risen resemble almost perfectly to their living counterpart, though not until you touch their skin. Flesh is replaced with ash, and they shiver and writhe in pain for every moment they exist. A remedy to sooth this is for them to consume flesh itself, rejuvenating their natural form though for a few mere months, after which their flesh withers back to ash.
Written by JKangaroo, Edited by Arelic
