Div

Terrans were warned in their research of the supernal realm about many creatures, but many of those warning fell short thanks to the skills of the Hunter's Guild Association, who already had first hand experience with almost all supernal creatures. But even the HGA gave ample warning to thaumatechnology and magitechnology researchers about the insidious supernal race known as the Div.

Divs originate from the various elemental planes, but their essence is now tied with the Underworld (also known to the Elven sorcerers as Abaddon). Div were originally genies and other elemental spirits which were bound to assist the sentient races of reality to create wonders, cities and civilisation, but as time went on, their ties to those sentient beings were weakened as worship of new gods took over and the ancient contracts they had were broken so much on both sides that their essence was forever defiled. They all gathered under a being known as Ahriman, the Great Despoiler, a servant of the \*Reason\* of \*Nihilism\*, an Archfiend of great power who never had his own legion of daemon to serve him as even the other fiends feared him. Even now, genies who are corrupted and go against what is right fall to the Underworld into the hands of Ahriman, who reshapes them into willing servants of \*Nihilism\*.

Manipulators and deceivers by nature, the Div much prefer driving mortals and other supernal creatures to ruin with schemes and traps rather then directly confront them. Their true goal is the destruction of all that is good and beautiful in the world, all that the genies would work on building and find revenge on those sentients that betrayed them so long ago. They will find whatever tools and people they can to further their schemes and often strike deals with creatures like the Gremlins who want nothing more then prank and cause trouble in order to drive forward their own schemes.

Those who are travelling through the Underworld will often find assistance from the weirdest place when they are plagued by Divs, as both fiends and psychopomp harbor no love for the fallen genies. Sadly, while they now originate from Abaddon, the Div have spread far and wide in the supernal realms, even having embassies in the Good realms like the Heavens where they push forward their agenda and their schemes in ways so covert none really see or understand them.

In the Prime Material Plane, or reality, while Div sometimes try to act as mysterious advisers to the powerful, many of them have found a much preferred niche: the destruction of colonies and outposts on remote worlds. As the Hunter's Guild Association tries to make sure there are no major assaults from supernatural creatures into this realm, a small group of Div, or even a lone sepid or shira, can easily destroy the balance of a small colonial city or mercilessly kill all the members of a task force set to safeguard a world before any major organisations were to notice. While not too many worlds are affected by this, or this would make it too apparent for the Div, this is becoming a surefire tactic many of those creatures use to learn how to fight sentient mortals in this dangerous new world.

## The races of Div

* Aghash: The embodiment of the evil eye, the Aghash are hag-like fiends that despise the physical beauty of the mortal races and curses many whom they despise.
* Akvan: The Princes of the Div, Akvan are mighty warriors who serve the will of Ahriman and have an innate hatred for all the deities and their representations in reality, but they also arbour an intense hatred for geniekind, which essence they are able to corrupt on their own.
* Doru: The least of Divkind, the Doru are the bringer of false news, spreaders of destructive rumours and all around disruptive influences.
* Ghawwas: Defilers of water, ghawwas will try everything to destroy mortals livelihood linked to this element.
* Pairaka: Beings with an intense hatred for love, Pairaka use clever illusions and destructive dreams to corrupt and destroy all the positive feelings of love and lead many sentients to a total feeling of despair.
* Sepid: There are many ways to corrupt and despoil, but Sepid are probably the least subtle in their ways, using the raw feeling of fear and despair from the death of friends to promote their goals.
* Shira: Spirits of the hunt, Shira are relentless trackers and hunters that want to leave those who live in civilisation feeling helpless when faced with the savagery of the real world.
* Ghul: While not really a Div, Ghuls are undead genies who often serve the same lords as the Div or were created by the Akvans.

## Ahriman

Ahriman is a mighty fiend who has existed for as long as genies did, which pretty much mean since the inception of the universe. While his true form would be that of monster with eagle talons, covered in snakes with tiger claws and a great maw filled with fangs like that of the greatest shark, he is no longer able to maintain it. Even a creature of his power and might can be brought low, and this is exactly what happened after one of his conflict with a group of the Immortal Souls which serve the Hunter's Guild Association. While his spiritual power is still monumental, enough to grant power to armies of priests and cultists throughout this reality and many others as an avatar of the \*Reason\* of \*Nihilism\*, his physical form was wasted and destroyed, which forced him to find refuge in an ancient suit of armor. Ahriman now travels his realm in the Underworld clad in a dark plate armour covered with sigils, runes and ancient curses, which he modifies whenever one part breaks apart, but he is bound to never again leave these lands or his essence be destroyed forever. Many of the other archfiends now pity him and regard this as testament to the power of the sentient beings of reality, and especially of the rules forever imposed upon the supernal realms by the founders of the Hunter's Guild Association.

## Nimrod

*1**And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.*

*9**Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
— Genesis 11:1–9*

Nimrod was a human king in the ancient days of mankind on Earth (now Terra), a man whose power was beyond all that of other mortals. His power was so great that he had taken all of mankind under his wing and decided to challenge the gods of heaven by building a tower which would rise all the way to it. The gods (or just God, depending on which version of the tale you want to listen to) were so angered by this that they struck down his construction and made sure all of mankind would never be able to replicate it.

While Orbital Elevator 1 is now known as Babel on Terra, where a copy of the preceding text is on a nice plaque in front of it, there is a being known as Nimrod who roams the Underworld and who has close connections with the Divs. It is hard to believe that such a being would be the biblical king, but this being story is awfully similar to this ancient tale, except for the fact that his "tower" was actually a magitechnological device which was meant to open gates to the supernal realm so that his troops could invade the outer realms. Nimrod's armies were crushed, obviously, but their king fought on forever and defeated thousands of devils, demons, angels, archons and azatas, becoming some sort of dark nemesis for all the supernal beings. No longer quite human but still not a supernatural being in his own right, Nimrod became what is known as a Demifiend, a being whose \*Reason\* is undefined but their soul and matter are made of the same material as supernal creatures.

Nimrod's hatred for the gods and the weakness of man drove him to serve Ahriman for what is now thousands of years, even if a Demifiend is never bound to a specific \*Reason\*. As the armies of Div cannot be led by their god anymore, Nimrod act in his stead. Standing easily 7 foot tall, clad in nothing by a simple robe of silver and gold cloth, a shining golden crown covered in pearls on his brow, Nimrod might not be the most physically impressive of all the generals of the forces of the supernal realm, but his mere presence is a grim reminder of his power as a man who shed his humanity to become part of the supernal realms.

## The Realm of Ahriman

The Underword seemingly stretches on forever, with the Rivers of the Dead, like the Styx, carving out chunks of it. This supernal realm is mainly home to the daemon nowadays, but Ahriman the Great Despoiler was able to build a sizeable realm within the depths of what the Elves sometime call Abaddon.

Ahriman was born a fiend to the Underworld, but his \*Reason\* was ever changing at first and he never felt at ease serving the Four Horseman or the other Archfiends. He retreated deeper and deeper into Abaddon until he found an ancient citadel, a thing which predated everything in existence, it seemed, where he settled down and became obsessed with the destruction of mortal creations and the fall of the genie race, which apparently had been the cause of Ahriman's creation. While he never could gather a lot of resources to build his own army, Ahriman learned of ways to twist the essence and souls of genies and created the first of his Div servants that way. Afterwards, he simply established his presence in nearby areas, where he pushed out more traditional fiends and some of the other ancient creatures of the Underworld.

Ahriman built quite a realm for himself when he attempted to spread his \*Reason\* to the mortal realms, bringing a large force of Div into reality. This was the cause for his downfall, as the mortals rapidly rallied behind the Hunter's Guild Association and sent his forces back to the Underworld. This also lead to the destruction of Ahriman's physical form and the destruction of most of his realm.

Nowadays, Ahriman's realm in the Underworld is limited to a few stretches of land surrounding his ancient citadel, where the Fiendlord spends most of his time. The whole building operates as a combination of factory for the weapons his Div soldiers need and spawning pool, where the essence of genies, souls of mortals and Dark Matter is combined to form new Div to serve Ahriman. The Despoiler knows not to spread his forces too thin or to expand his realm too much, as he now realises that it was his hubris that caused his earlier failing.

### The Ships of Despair

Ahriman doesn't maintain a large fleet of ships, at least not compared to other masters of the supernal realm. His Div work far better as infiltrators and destabilising agents, and therefore the actual military might of his realm is limited. The Underworld is also not the best place to build and move spaceships of any kind, due to the fact it is mainly composed of caves and other underground formations, and Ahriman has no access to the top levels like most other Fiendlord. As any good warlord, and under recommendations from Nimrod, has built at least a token fleet of ships which are used to trade with other supernal realms, carry some of the div on diplomatic missions or as a deterrent to other forces of the Underworld. This fleet is now known as the Ships of Despair, and are built following unusual methods.

Ahriman and his brood do not view civilisation and the advances of science with a very good eye, and his ships reflect this as well. The ships are built primarily to support boarding action and are not armed as heavily as other ships of their class. Most ships feature heavy armour, built from Underworld materials which are far more resistant then most materials that can be found on the Prime Material Plane, but have very limited powerfields. The main weapon on them are heavy railguns and close range missiles. The thing most significant among them however is the lack of symmetry or uniformity in the design of the vessels. Even two ships of the same class will look different, albeit to a limited extent, and no ship will ever have the form of balance and beauty witnessed in vessels of most other races.