animegirl20
Ten Thousand Club
There wasn’t much in the beginning, because the Gods simply didn’t want anything. They didn’t need anything. So the Gods watched the world, wondering what to do with it. All there were on the planet, were Humans. They were all of equal strength, and it was unknown what they should do. Each God or Goddess wanted to more power, to become the supreme; but it didn’t seem that any of them could top the other, and if they did fight, there would be alliances, and the eventual destruction of reality as they knew it...and for some reason, they knew not to do this. So instead, they watched the world, doing what needed to be done, and kept the world moving. But that of course, couldn’t last. The beginning years, known as the Lacking (called this by scholars because of the lack of purpose that all life felt), was very uneventful, and is hardly marked at all in history. However, the end of the Lacking marked the beginning of the world as we know it…
Enivri, the God of Neutrality, was the first to figure out that Human souls held power, and lots of it. He knew that when Humans died, their souls were cast back into the single realm of the Gods, and the Gods drew upon their realm as humans draw on air to breathe. This was the natural order of things...until Enivri began to think. He wondered, and began to figure something out that had never been thought of. Instead of having human souls go into the realm of the Gods, what if Humans devoted their lives to one God, and that God would benefit solely from the power of human souls (insignificant as a single being, but when thousands piled up, that could mean some real strength. Well, long story short, Enivri began performing miracles on the material plane, and soon, he became noticeably stronger than the other Gods, which promoted envy throughout the rest. It was strangely fortunate that Enivri was the one to discover this theory first, or the world might have been brought under the domain of one God right there, but Enivri was content to have his own power and make sure the rest of the Gods didn’t fight. Of course, the rest of the Gods rushed to get followers themselves, not content with sitting in second place. This marked the end of the Lacking, and began the Age of Dreams, as Gods rushed the world trying to perform feats of wonder trying to gather as many followers as they could. Of course, there was a lot of Gods looking for power, and not near as many humans to actually supply all that power, so the Gods began to have proxy wars to gain followers. There was no actual fighting, but propaganda and whisper campaigns to discredit other Gods began to spread, as Enivri watched with growing concern.
Perhaps what ended the age of dreams was the Queen of Darkness (Asha), watching her brothers and sisters fight amongst themselves for humans, decided that instead of trying to attract humans to her cause through miracles and wonder, she decided to tempt humans by giving them some of her own power, and thus the first clerics were born (it is a highly disputed idea whether or not the first clerics were evil, but really that is just the good clerics unable to swallow the truth). These Clerics of darkness proved to be a far more effective weapon than the miracles being performed, as envy spread through the men of the world, and they all rushed to the Dark Queen in search for powers of their own, as the beginning of imperfection began to course through them.
Of course, the rest of the Gods looked at this in fear, wondering how exactly to compete with this. The first one to act was Elrath, the God of Light, who began to train clerics of his own, and a new breed of warrior, a paladin-one who was such a good person in life, and so devoted to Elrath, he was gifted with holy power, but was also able to fight. These men were made to actually deter war, but sadly, they may have been the cause of a much greater war to come. Enivri however, was busy himself. He saw the natural greed in humans, and sought to create a new race that was would be more...well, more perfect. So he created Elves to walk the land, who turned out to be quite the people, that were at first servants of Enivri alone, and the first Clerics of Neutrality were created. These are better known as Disciples of Order, as their sole purpose was to keep order. The elves were much more enlightened than the Humans, for Enivri saw a great war coming, and wanted the Elves to prevent it.
Asha couldn’t create Paladins of her own, and she couldn’t figure out why. It would take her a while before she finally understood that Humans did not respond well to her dark magic, and because they were naturally more good than evil (which would change in the coming years), and while they could command her magic, they didn’t have a drive to be extremely evil like Humans did to be good. So she created her own creatures, Orcs and Trolls, Goblins and Ogres, in the secrecy of Mt. Blackheart, a dormant volcano. For many years she worked on this, and during these years she realized that the best way to get people under her command, would be to march on the world, and take it by force. This was the first of the Creation wars, where Humans and Elves desperately fought against the swarms invading from the north, filled with the Queen’s dark energy. The situation began to grow dire, and as a second effort, Enivri created the Dwarves, who joined the war on the side of the light. At this point, Enivri was not serving the light, but he was certainly aiding them. This was the beginning of what would be his eternal role- keeping balance between the forces of light and darkness, and to this day that is what his servants do.
The Creation wars lasted for about 35 years, before both sides begin to give out from the constant war, and both sides would make a series of ceasefires and truces that would be broken and reforged; then rebroken and remade time and time again. However, despite all the war that had gone on, 3 Gods had triumphed over the others- Enivri, Asha, and Elrath. These 3, because of the war, had become the strongest of all the Gods, and the other Gods began to scramble for spots behind them, who were either neutral or didn’t take part of the wars. Humanity, Elves, and the Dwarven beings were scarcely closer at this time than any throughout history.
But of course, this could not last. During a period known as the pax tempora, civilization began to grow. For the 3 races of the light, their cities and lands grew and grew, while the races of evil couldn’t seem to get solid kingdoms set up. Because of this, Asha saw the humans, dwarves, and elves create the Angelic Alliance, which held for many years after. She of course, after unsuccessfully creating an alliance of her own, realized that the only way for her to ever come out on top, would be to corrupt those in the Angelic Alliance.
However, before she could put any plans into action, the Angelic Alliance launched several attacks and battles that would conquer most of the continent, and all 3 races prospered. Dwarves made brilliant cities in the great mountain ranges of the Bjorne Mountains, the Elves made their hidden cities in their massive forests, and Humans made some of the grandest cities (some still stand today) that have ever been made. Ironically, it was this great expansion of the forces of light that would lead to an era of darkness.
For one, both Enivri and Elrath began to get a bit careless, and as their nations prospered, they began to turn their eye to other things. The second greatest factor, was the fact that the forces of evil were hardly even forces anymore, and now chaotic monsters that would rarely form small civilizations that would be snuffed out. Because of this, the Angelic Alliance thought they had won, and began to turn their own eyes away from the dark forces that beset them and focus on their own growth and advancement, which of course, meant competition. There was nothing wrong with a little competition, but of course, it would cause minor divides, divides that Asha targeted. She began to prey on the minds of humans and dwarves, and even elves. She whispered, did minor tricks, and slowly but surely wrapped her hands around the minds of great leaders…
The first ones to fall were the Dwarves. Through their great Kingdoms, the far northern clans began to grow jealous of the prosperous south, knowing that the frosty climates that they lived in were much worse than the great volcanoes or mountains with trees and rich with gold. It didn’t take long for Ortik Blackiron to fall to the Queen’s whispers, and launched a secret attack against their cousins living to the southwest, in the great volcanos. The war was swift and bloody, and soon the Black Iron Dwarves controlled a much greater share of the Dwarven territory than they deserves, sparking a massive civil war between all clans. Many historians speculate that if the Dwarves worked together to eliminate this threat, much of the darkness that exists today would have never formed. The Dwarves, instead of rallying to their King’s call, grew frightened and petty, believing that a war was just what the King needed to assert absolute power over all the clans, and instead of joining the war, they rebelled themselves, creating a mass of fighting that was worsened by the returning goblin hordes in the western Bjorne, led by Xaxus, the Goblin Shaman (this turned out to be the first ever Demon, created by Asha herself and spawned into the world).
The unfortunate cause of the next darkness was not what the humans did, but what they didn’t do. They saw the Dwarves and their struggles, but instead of rushing to their aid, they fought amongst themselves over what would happen to the dwarves, and what clan to back. Their extreme lack of decision was tasking on the dwarves, and it didn’t take long for the Dwarves to turn away from the Humans altogether. The dwarves began to stop humans from moving through their mountains, creating greater and greater tension. The men of the world knew what they needed to do, and began to plot how to open a new pass in the Bjorne mountains. Humans began to fight here, taking words to arms, and began fighting each other over which clan to attack and get passage. Of course, by this time, they no longer cared about the dwarves, and now just wanted to prove to be the greatest empires, and wars were fought all over. Some Kingdoms spurred Elrath’s teachings, or just found war more important. In fact, because of the division of the land that was caused by the Dwarves’ seclusion, the northernmost human settlements began to slowly fall into Asha’s hands, and soon the Humans to the north were as corrupted and evil as the orcs and ogres who had once caused them so much trouble.
The humans in the south, ravaged by a civil war which had now divided the empire into two major powers, East and West Erathia, were desperate for some sort of help. Rumos began to spread of the Ogres and Trolls returning to ravage the lands in legions, and there began to see a major push from the west to take over. East Erathia turned to the Elves for help, whom they shared a border with, but the Elves had seen the corruption that underwent the humans, and turned down their cries for help. They went as far as to hold their borders off against the humans, creating a wall and allowing the west to completely takeover Erathia. The elves then warned the now whole Erathia to not mess with their borders, then retreated far into their forests, waging secret wars with the dwarves, and cutting off connections from the humans.
It has been questioned by historians why the Elves would do such a thing, and those well versed in History would know exactly why. The Elves didn’t do nothing when the Black Iron Dwarves assaulted the rest of the clans. They had watched the dwarves fight, wondering how to stop the conflict. Some of the Dwarves, known as hill dwarves, had reached out to the Elves, trying to get their aid in the war. The Elves gladly joined the war, and began to turn the tide against the Black Iron. However, Asha saw this threat, and began striking her influence into the Elves. She found it much harder to corrupt the Elves, but in time she was able to, and thus the first Dark Elves were created. These Dark Elves didn’t take to the Queen’s magic very well, but as Elves had great magic in their blood. Through secret unknown techniques, the Dark Elves developed traditional magic, the first of its kind not given naturally by Gods. There would be many wars fought over this between Clerics and Magi, but that is a story for another time.
The Elves blamed the Dwarves for letting the Queen corrupt them, believing that overexposure to the dark queen’s influence was the reason why they had been turned evil. A small civil war was fought within the Elven territories, which eventually broke up into a much larger war because of the differing opinions on how to solve the Dark Elf crisis, and of course how they should respond to the rest of the world. About this time, East Erathia came plunging into their territory looking for help. Plagued with war and already having a pretty bad view of other races, the Elves blocked them from their lands, and left East Erathia to fall to the west, and as Erathia united under one banner, the elves divided into definite factions.
Of course, Enivri and Elrath weren’t just sitting around this whole time. They had sensed the presence of a demon in the Bjorne Mountains, and knew they would need to act. So as the world splintered into bits by war, they created Angels and Spirits of their own. The first Angel, known as Azalia, came down into the world to aid the Humans, and show them that light still lived. For a few years, the wars that divided the races began to shrink, and peace began to flow back through the land as Elrath sent more and more Angels down into the world to cure them. Enivri sent his spirits of Order to calm the Elven lands, and banished the Dark Elves to the northernmost part of the world where the Humans (now under the banner of Soulscar) of Asha and the Black Iron dwarves lived, and there they stayed. It seemed as though good would finally end war, and balance would be restored, as it seemed the world was divided into North and South, with a strange balance to hold them. Life seemed to be ok. This period was known as the Age of Life, as both sides of the world built their empires and became the Empires similar to what we know today. Of course, there would be one final war before recent times…
Enivri got to work once again, knowing that it would be bad for anyone except the most devoted disciples to ascend into the realm of the Gods (which at this point was still one whole realm), and created the Astral Plane, and the Ethereal plane, where spirits would go once they died. This seemed to work, as neither side got the jump on each other, and stayed at a general power level...but this of course, could not last.
Asha saw that wars in the south had ended, and her northern powers had reached a stalemate with the southern world, and her evil was stagnant. She knew this could not be, but with the packs of Angels flying around Erathia it was nigh impossible for her to send her armies down South. Her Demon, Xaxus, came to her one day and suggested she create more of his kin. He sacrificed himself, so that the most fanatic of her disciples could drink his blood, and hopefully create more demons that could tip the tides of the scale of balance (Demons were much harder to make, especially during times of relative peace). The 13 that drank from the Demon’s heart were known as the Forsworn, and walked from the Demon’s corpse as changed, and very hollow men. There were 2 dwarves, 4 Humans, 3 elves, one orc, and one ogre to drink. The final one to drink seemed to be overcome by the worst change, and to this day it is unclear what race he was before. Whatever he was, it hardly mattered, because what he became was an abomination that is indescribable by any words we know today. All we knew about him, was that he was the leader of the Forsworn, and began an order to create yet another race of creature upon this world- Draconians. Of course this time, Asha was not responsible for making this, this was done by the disciples, forcing evil spirits into eggs of dragons, hatching them into dragon men that walked the world with one thought: War. Soulscar, the Black Iron Dwarves, and the Dark Elves, created a great alliance-The Black Hand, and prepared their armies to march upon the world of the South, waiting for Asha to give them a sign to begin the charge.
This sign came on what is marked in history as “The Darkness”. It came one morning, when the people of the world awoke, they found the sun had not risen. It stayed dark, with no stars to light the way, and no moon to cut through the darkness. This was the sign they needed, and the South silently screamed as the Northern legions poured from the Black Iron mountains into the world.
Elrath was the first to respond, and on the fourth day of the assault, he released a great light that shot through the sky, bringing an end to the Darkness. Angels flew from the heavens to aid the Angelic Alliance, which had been resurrected to fight the oncoming threats. A bloody war began, but it seemed clear that the Alliance would once again prove to be the victor, as the Angels who aided them were much more powerful than any single spellcaster or general the Black Hand could Muster. Victory seemed close, until the 13 Forsworn flew out on Demons, great Black demons plagued in Shadow, and assaulted the Angels. This particular battle is known as the Falling, because every time they killed an Angel with their cursed blades, a fallen angel would rise from the cursed grave, and turn on its brothers. The war continued, and it got to a point where Asha could now freely make Demons just as Elrath created Angels, and both Asha and Elrath urged their diciples to make rituals to summon these creatures, telling them that this was the quickest way to achieve victory. All this did, however, was create a war between Angels and Demons that ravaged the material plane, where soldiers-evil and good alike-fled from the wrath of the God like creatures battling each other before them. Soon enough, the Angels and Demons convinced their allies to begin creating the biggest ritual of all, one that would bring the GODS themselves onto the plane. This would win the war, and whoever summoned the God first would win. So the Alliance and the Black Hand raced to see who could summon their lord first, and shockingly enough, it turned out to be the same day.
Elrath and Asha had been busy, building networks of allies within the other Gods. What Enivri was doing during this time was unknown, but he put no stop to the two Gods plotting what would be the worst war the material plane has ever, and hopefully will ever face- A God War.
Asha and Elrath charged out of the realm of the Gods, followed by their newly made allies, and attacked their enemies, mortal and immortal alike. Never before had the beings of this world seen such power, and all they could do was cower in fear as the Gods destroyed the world that they had worked so hard to preserve.
Much of history is lost here, as the Gods tore apart the world through fire and flames. All that is known, is Enivri returned now, and one by one banished any Gods left alive to their own realms, then returned to the Original realm of the Gods, now lived in alone by Enivri. He had severed the realm, and created pockets of it where each God would live in. For Paladine he created the 7 Heavans, and for Asha he created the Abyss. He then cast a great spell that used most of his power, that sealed the Material plane off from the Gods, so that while they could still share their power with Mortals, they could no longer enter the land that mortals walked on, and this marked the end of the God War, known as the Cataclysm.
We are almost caught up to the current times, but while the world tried to rebuild and put it’s broken pieces back into place, a few things happened.
First, because the Gods were too busy fighting, much of the Souls who died in the war died angry and unforgiving, hating the Gods for who they were and what they did. Because of the hundreds of thousands of souls that felt this way, and with nowhere to go, they ripped a part of the Ethereal plane apart, and created what we know now as the 9 Planes of Hell. Asmodeus, once the great Archmage of the Black Hand, now ruled the planes of Hell with a cruel and unforgiving reign, and would continue pulling Mortals into his new realm, to be tortured for eternity. On occasion, he would ally with Asha in plots to destroy the world. His goal is to bring the entire material plane into the Hells, so that he will reign supreme over all.
However, on the other side of the scale, the spirits that were not angry, but sad and wished for new life in the next world, took a part of the Ethereal, and created their own plane: The Fey. The Fey served as a place where peaceful spirits could go, and these spirits would be the reason for the creation of Lycans, Beast Kin, and other creatures that would begin life without a curse. Fairies and sprites became a very powerful messenger or guardian for the Fey, as they could move along the Prime Material plane in secret. They used to be steadfast servants of the Fey, but in more modern times they began to take more to themselves, and some serve not the Fey but themselves, or even other masters. Another such creature, known as Kitsune, came out of the spirit realm and began to torment the mortal realm. They danced between the Fey and the 9 planes of Hell, not really having any home to call their own. They are typically disliked by both mortals and spirits, but some break those rules.
The civilization with an army of the dead. It turned out that the Lich’s takeover was as easy as taking candy from a baby, because no empire could stand up to him at all, and it would seem that Evil had the last laugh. Men, Dwarves, and Elves alike tried to form weak alliances that would fall final event before our more modern times came with the rule of the Lich King. Amazingly enough, there were a few survivors from the Cataclysm (mainly those who lived on the farthest poles of the world, or underground), one of them being a man named Sandro Blight. He knew of the millions of dead souls and bodies that littered the world, and marched upon any sign of before the might of the undead. The only significant battle that held some sign of victory for the light, was the battle of Solace Bay. This coastal city was besieged by the undead from the land (which is how many great cities fell. Undead don’t need to eat or sleep, people do). A few of the Elves that had left a few thousand years ago when the first Dark Elves were created, had fled to the sea, and were granted a new life by Enivri in the water-known as Sea Elves. Well, knowing that the land they had called home so many years before was under threat of total annihilation, Enivri suggested that they return and defend the land from the undead swarms. Of course, much distraught was brought from this as many of the Sea Elves hated the world above, and didn’t want to return to the land that was responsible for banishing and corrupting their ancestors. An unfortunate civil war was fought, one that should have been avoided (many today speculate that if it were avoided, perhaps Sandro might have eventually lost at Solace Bay). Many of the Sea Elves died, and eventually divided into two factions. Those who would forever turn away from the world above were granted another gift by Enivri, and became merpeople. Those who didn’t, remained Sea Elves, and rose to the surface to provide a much needed and rather surprising amount of aid to the humans and elves and dwarves that held the keep. This was one of the few true victories of the time, as the necromancer Xsi was defeated, and eventually killed in the battle. Unfortunately, while Solace Bay held against yet another attack, Sandro eventually led a final assault that crushed the city, and ended the last bit of resistance in the world. A few people that weren’t fully in the dark would go into hiding, and would stay there for the next several hundred years.
Asha was responsible for turning Sandro from mortal to a lich, giving him the ritual that would bind his soul into his dying body. Asha aided the Lich in his efforts to take over the land, and united it under his banner under Ashan, named after the Dark Queen herself. Known as the Age of Fear, Sandro sat on his throne of death for over 800 years before one day shutting himself in his Palace in the cursed city of Sanctum. From there, he performed a new ritual that he created, that made him into a Demi-Lich, one no longer bound to the realm of Mortals. From there, he created what is known as the Shadow World, The Further, or The Dark. and vanished from the minds of men. It is rumored that Sandro now IS the entity of death, the reaper, and regales in taking their souls. Nobody is sure if he is related to Asha anymore. However, the ritual he used to ascend from mortality itself was perfected after years of trying with other necromancers, and even another lich (the great battle of Xath-Serum was the only recorded battle of two liches in all of history). In this process, Sandro created the Vampire, and though it wasn’t what he intended, they turned out to be an extraordinarily powerful being which, when bound to his will, became perfect hunters, servants, and soldiers. In Modern Times, Vampires run free to their own will, or sometimes to the will of their creator.
Now, while his old corpse sat in his cursed throne in Sanctum, Elrath made a new push to rebel against Ashan, and with the help of Caldwell Griffonheart, he was able to drive back the Nercomancers and undead of Ashan, and reforged the Empire of Erathia, taking Steadwick back and making it the capitol of light in the world. This began the Age of Might. He became the King, and began to regrow and recreate his Empire. Asha tried hard to regain her shattering Empire, but there was never a rebuild as powerful as Ashan. Now the Age of Might was an era that wasn’t quite peaceful because Erathia was no longer the only empire of man; and there were several dwarven empires that drifted in and out of war. Elves became much more rare, and the world began to progress as history would. The Age of Might lasted 350 years, before the Griffonheart line faded, and it is unknown how such happened. With the Griffonhearts out of power, Erathia began to crumble, and a new power from the south, known as Avalon, began to take land and power, and soon became the new power of the world. This ended the Age of Might, as it seemed power struggles began to stagnate, and Avalon seemed to stay on top.
That is where our story ends, The Gods watching the world, and it’s development, both eternally trying to get the edge. Evil wants to destroy the world, good wants to destroy evil, and Enivri watches silently, trying to maintain balance in the world, so that the cracked reality of the Mortal plane doesn’t shatter once and for all.
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