Gilgamesh, World

THE FALL OF GILGAMESH

Long before Tiamat visited the rocky world that would be Valorumn, she crafted life on the far-off world of Gilgamesh. It was a world nested at the intersection of many great Leylines of the Cosmos, and Tiamat found that all she crafted there was tinged with the arcane. Soon she was joined by her younger sibling, Ozymandias, and the two joyfully crafted a world of floating islands and continents, wells overflowing with magical waters, and creatures of all kinds with magical and wondrous character. It was on this world that Ozymandias, with the help of Tiamat, created the first humans. Curious, inquisitive, and with a penchant for troublemaking, they were very much made in the image of the Arcane God. After they were satisfied with their creations, Tiamat bid Ozymandias to move on and leave their creation to grow and flourish on their own.

Some time after the gods departed, their sibling Nostrodormu discovered the magical world they had left behind. By that time, the humans of the world had built a grand society, and named their world Gilgamesh. Powerfully connected to their magical world, the humans of Gilgamesh built incredible structures and devices, marrying magic and technology. Nostrodormu was enraptured by what his siblings created that he set right to work creating his own emulation of Gilgamesh.

He collected a lifeless rock, bathed in fire, and began replicating the work done by Tiamat and Ozymandias. He passed into a parallel plane, and began tugging on Leylines to wrap around this fiery new world. When he was done, he placed his mirror of Gilgamesh right next to the original, hidden in the new plane that he crafted for it. He named his own creation “Tartarus”, and the humanoid inhabitants he crafted “Devils”. Where enchanted waters flowed on Gilgamesh, arcane fires burned on Tartarus. While humans celebrated life, the devils would celebrate death. And while humans valued freedom above all, the devils demanded order and servitude.

Believing he had crafted a suitable foil to the magical world of Gilgamesh, Nostrodormu departed, leaving the devils of Tartarus to build their own society in the shadow of their human cousins.

With the incredible, twisted magic that Nostrodormu directed to Tartarus, the Devils of that world gained incredible powers, much like their human cousins. As the eons passed they refined this power, and created for themselves theo tools to become absolute masters of their world. Though much fewer in number than the humans, the Devils life-crafted a servitor race of demons to do their bidding. They learned to use the magical fires of Tartarus to grant themselves immortality. And, after many ages, learned to peer through the mirror and see their cousin world, Gilgamesh, hidden just beyond their own place.

The devils of Tartarus, led by an immortal demonic lord who took the name of their planet as his own, became obsessed with the verdant and prosperous world. He vowed to shatter the barrier between their world and take Gilgamesh as his own. It took another full age, but his demonic lifecrafters and technomancers developed a portal that would rend a hole between their worlds. Tartarus mustered all of his demon hosts, and on his command, the invasion began.

Gilgamesh was completely unprepared for the hellfire that rained from the sky the day that the demons invaded their mostly peaceful world. Sky isles were blasted apart by the force of the portal opening, and an endless wave of demons streamed onto their world, ravenously mowing down anything in their path.

The humans mounted a defense that slowed the progress of the demons, but Tartarus had spent a hundred years preparing for this conquest. Despite the great power of the archmages and engineers of Gilgamesh, all they could do was retreat. The leader of humanity, who had taken the name of his world much as Tartarus had done, ordered that all of their efforts be thrown into a plan for escape.

A distant world was selected with the hope that it would support life. While every great mind of the world took to the task of a building a portal to flee through, every great warrior joined Gilgamesh in fighting to stave off the advance of Tartarus and his army. In the darkest hour of humanity, the Exodus Engine was ignited, opening a portal for escape. Gilgamesh ordered his army to stand and buy his people time to make it through the portal, but the ignition of the device was no small event.

Tartarus came crashing down on the last bastion of humanity with all his fury. In the end, Gilgamesh and his entire army sacrificed themselves so that a mere few thousand of his people could live. At the last moment, Gilgamesh himself destroyed the Exodus Engine, cutting off Tartarus from pursuing them.

With incredible luck, the Exodus Engine opened its portal on the world of Valorumn. A devastated people, humans began the long and arduous work carving out a home for themselves among the many other races that shared the world humanity would from then on call home.