The History of Spyre

Spyre serves as the main campaign setting for Roaring Dawn. Spyre is the collective name given to the world by its inhabitants.

# The Dawn Age

The Dawn Age was the first age of Spyre. During this time, the gods brought forth creatures to inhabit Spyre, before splitting into two factions in the war against the  Primordial Titans: the  Prime Deities and the  Betrayer Gods. The age ended with the defeat of the Primordials, along with the Betrayer Gods, which made the world safe for civilization to flourish.

## The Protean Creators

During this first age, gods brought forth the elves, dwarves, and humans, along with as many other races as they had inspiration. Because the world was still a dangerous place, ruled by elemental chaos, many of their children were killed in the earliest days.

Saddened by the loss of so many children, the gods gifted mortals with arcane magic so they might better defend themselves. The Metallic Dragons were created to aid in the defense of the Children of Creation. With the dragons' help, civilization began to flourish and mortals first offered worship (and purpose) to their creators.

## The Primordials

These Elemental Titans had lain beneath the land since before the coming of the gods and now rose up to wreak havoc on the gods' creations.

## The Prime Deities vs. The Betrayer Gods

As the Primordials devastated creation, two factions arose between the gods. The Prime Deities wished to stay and conquer the Primordials, leaving the land safe for their children. The Betrayer Gods, frustrated by their losses, gave up; some gave in to madness, and some began twisting their creations.

The Prime Deities with the help of their mortal champions, ultimately destroyed the Primordials and banished the Betrayer Gods from the Material Plane.

# The Age of Arcanum

The Age of Arcanum was the second age of Spyre. During this time, mortals tested the limits of arcane power, and began to create powerful arcane based technology and weapons. The Laetas, The Pridesoul longed to be free and wanted to experience life just as mortals did. He descended from the heavens and became mortal. But his mortal death and return to divinity created a rift in reality where the Betrayed Gods escaped from their bonds and returned to the material realm.

## Arcane Ambition

Mortal mages grew ever more powerful, building entire castles in a day and even learning to create life-forms of their own. Then created the rise of powerful clockwork arcane technologies. Powerful arcane weapons and walking clockwork cities were all common across the land. The center of all of this was the Gnome capital of Fryndaul, as their innate skills in tinkering allowed them to create technologies and items far beyond that of other races.

## Laetas Descent

For ages Laetas, the Pride of the Gods watched as the creations of the gods grew and flourished on earth. He saw them grow up, find love and experience happiness and he longed to experience it too, to experience what it was like to be mortal. And so, Laetas descended from the heavens and was born mortal. He grew up, found love and experienced life. But as with all mortal life, he eventually died where he returned to the heavens and continued in his duties as the God of Joy.

## Bastion of the Betrayer Gods - Turraz-Ghul

Laetas mortal death created an opening in reality for the Betrayer Gods to break free from their bonds. The Betrayer Gods took this chance and escaped from their planar bindings and returned to Spyre. Upon arriving, they made a pact and allied themselves against the Prime Deities.

## Assault on the Prime Material Plane

From their union, the Betrayer Gods spread their influence and eventually made an assault on the bastion of the Prime Deities. The battle lasted twenty days and nights but, with the divine aid of the Prime Deities, the people stood triumphant, if battered, at the end.

This assault left both mortals and gods alike shaken. Mortals turned their arcane technologies to the forging of heroic weapons, and the gods prepared for war.

# The Razing

The Razing was the third age of Spyre 300 years prior to the current age. This age encompasses the second war against the Betrayer Gods, which devastated civilization and in some cases rearranged the geography of the world. The age ended with the defeat of the Shattered Oblivion and the construction of the Veil.

## Divine Warfare

Following the Betrayer God's first assault, conflict against the Betrayer Gods was rejoined. Most cities that had sprung up during the Age of Arcanum were reduced to ash. Historians estimate that no more than a third of the world's population survived this war.

During the war, one of the major players was the Gnome city of Fryndaul, who built large weapons of warfare known as Technomechs that were strong enough to fell even the strongest of Giants. But Tharizdun sent one of his most powerful servants, and entity known only as The Spiral which drove the Gnomes mad and deranged.

## The Razing

The Prime Deities commisioned some of Spyre's greatest mages to build a weapon to destroy the Betrayer Gods. The weapon they built was a spell ritual known as The Song of Echoes, cast from a structure known as The Cradle. All that stood left between the Prime Deities and victory was Tharizdan, The Shattered Oblivion. When the great weapon was fired, Tharizdan’s physical form was shattered and what was left was sealed beyond the material plane.

## The Divergence

The Gods looked upon their creation and saw all the pain they had caused. They made a pact with Asmodeus, the Lord of the King Hells, in it sealing away the rest of the Betrayer Gods and ending the war. They knew that they could never again take physical form on the material plane. Hoping to seal away the Betrayer Gods for good, the Prime Deities retreated from the Material Plane. Behind themselves and their defeated brethren, they erected a barrier known as The Veil, which would prevent any god from physically crossing over into mortal realms ever again. The sealment for this gate was an artifact known as the Covenant forged from the pack between the Prime Deities and Asmodeus. This pact determined which souls would go where and protect the material plane from extraplanar incursions. The departure of the gods from Spyre, and the diminishment of their influence, was an event that has since come to be known as "The Divergence."

# Post Divergence

The events of the current day take place 300 years after the Razing in what is known as the fourth age of Spyre. Mages and other historians label and number the years as BD and PD (Before Divergence and Post Divergence).

## Influence of the Gods

Though unable to physically cross over into Spyre, both the Prime Deities and the Betrayer Gods still grant boons from afar to their mortal followers.

## Vestiges of Divergence

Powerful relics from the war against the Betrayer Gods remain scattered throughout the planes of existence.

## Rise of the Atherian Empire

There was a tale passed down since the end of the Razing. It tells of a tower that resided at the peak of the mountain that pierced the sky, Mount Avonshire. Within lay a crown, inlaid with many rubies and a single central eye. Whoever was to claim this crown would inherit the world of man. Then one day, a brave adventurer climbed the mountain and braved the challenges of the tower, claiming his prize and crowned King of all of the men and women in Khoivare. But unbeknownst to him and to the rest of the world, this crown held a great curse This was the crown of Tharizdun on the Material Plane, forged from the souls of the damned. The new capitol was built along the base and the cliffs of Mount Avonshire. The people called it Athearia or “a New Beginning.”

The King was a just ruler, using the abilities gifted to him by the crown to solve the problems of the people. But as the kingdom of Atheran grew, the King’s body began to grow old and frail. Then one day, the ruby inlays of the crown went dark. The King called forth his most trusted mage advisor to inspect the crown. They looked deep inside the crown and found despair. This was when the king felt a great hunger, a hunger of a new kind of power. Within seconds the King's mage was devoured and the King regained his power. All those caught with arcane magic were taken to the King to be fed on. To enforce this, the King created the Inquisition Axis, a secret organization meant to seek out magic users and control order. In secret circles, muttered in the dark corners of taverns, Malachi gained the name “The Crowned Tyrant.”

## Disappearance of Corduin

In his hunger, the King declared war of the High Elf city of Corduin, who themselves were born with powerful innate magic. The armies of Atherea surrounded the elven city and their annihilation was inevitable. The most powerful mages within the city gathered and performed a powerful ritual, teleporting the entire city of Corduin to the Feywild. In its spot was left a large crater. No one really knows what happened to the great city.

## Founding of the City States of Cormyr

Farther from the influence of the Atherian Empire, powerful merchant states began to sprout up throughout Comryr, the most prominent ones being Brighthaven, High Court, and Aurorodan.