Starless Nights

### General

Solar Elves (religious turmoil over patron constellation vanishing from the sky. Not directly involved in this event)

## Casualties and Creations

### Casualties and Losses

Queen Gwyneira (indrectly killed by Jester), S’olär (absorbed by Pixie Prince), Amity (killed by revived Atlus)

## Common Knowledge

It is a common practice to wish upon stars in the night sky, for anything from kindness from others to grand sweeping changes.

Historians of the distant past might know that over a thousand years ago, stars would sometimes disappear from the night sky. Historians of Jericho might even know that some stars and constellations have physical appearances, based on accounts of Elysium.

In 10,016 A.B., right after the end of the Planar War, the stars all mysteriously vanished from the sky, only to mostly reappear at the end of the spring with the exception of part of the Mermaid constellation.

## Contributing Factors

### Constellations

Millennia ago the Beast Below was sealed away, and the God of Madness locked in the Phantasmal plane. In being locked away, his child god Everlife lost connection to him, and was left to his own devices. Everlife would take the new identity of Polaris, the North Star, and create a demiplane connected to the sky called the Astral Plane. There he created Astrals and Night to populate the plane, and then combined the Astrals to create beings like him: Constellations. Hades the Keeper, Lotus the Flower, S’olär and Lün’e the Mermaids, Jester the Traitor, and Majyk the Spellbook. Each of these Constellations had the power to grant wishes, though many played fast and loose with the terms of these wishes, and when they descended to the Material Plane the Astral stars that made them would vanish from the night sky.

A violent disagreement with Death led to Polaris fleeing to the Astral Plane one thousand years ago, and sealing it off with him and his children inside it. For one thousand years, the night sky remained stagnant, and though people would still wish upon stars none could be granted by the Constellations’ power.

### Planar War

The Planar War, a prophesied collision between the Material Plane and the other planes of reality, shattered the protective barrier on the Astral Plane and allowed the Constellations to once again roam the Material Plane

### Empress Amity and Belladonna

Empress Amity Malovazen and Belladonna, two allies in their quest to eliminate magic once and for all, took notice of the disappearances of the stars from the night sky, and realized that the Constellations once again walked upon the Material Plane. This in mind, they put a plan to eradicate all magic into motion.

## Binturian Involvement

Though originally deceived into locating the Constellations by Empress Amity, the Binturians saved Lün’e, protected Elysium from the Magisters’ army at Jericho, released all the Constellations, and defeated Hades.

## Order of Events

When the planes collided in the Planar War, and the Beast Below woke up for a brief period of time, Polaris stayed asleep but his barrier was destroyed, allowing the Constellations and Astrals to return to the Material Plane. The Astrals were quick to spread out, some “falling” to the Material Plane, and some of the Constellations came down to see how the world had changed in one thousand years. People began to notice that the stars were vanishing from the sky and, seeing as most did not know anymore that the stars were representations of actual beings, started to question what was happening.

The Constellations began to once again have effects on the Material Plane: Atlas took back his Fifth Archive; Jester returned to playing pranks and granting wishes, one of which ultimately led to the death of Queen Gwyneira of the Butterfly-Folk Winter Court; S’olär and Lün’e began to once again mingle with the mortals and throw extravagant parties that most tended to not remember the next morning; and Elysium found herself in Jericho, where the people revered her and made her their matron entity. She also began to distance herself from the Brightstars, as they had grown corrupted, and instead formed the Astral Court, which was made up of righteous Paladins she gifted with the power of Manifestation.

The sudden return of the Constellations was noticed by the new Empress of K’vesten, a woman named Amity. She wished to get rid of the magic of the Material Plane and use it for her own devices, convinced that magic could only hurt if used by others, so she set out to capture the Constellations. She tricked the Binturian Party into going out and helping her track them down. Pixie Prince also rose to power among the Pixie Court at this time and began to consume other Pixies for power, and ended up killing and consuming Solar, as well, after S’olär got trapped among the Pixies, leaving Lün’e as the sole twin remaining of the Mermaids.

Amity, with the help of the newt-folk witch Belladonna, sent out her Magisters to capture the Constellations.  They managed to capture all of the Constellations except for Elysium, who was protected by the people of Jericho, and the late S’olär . The Magisters then absorbed the Constellations except for Atlas, who they kept contained in an attempt to bait Elysium, in order to use their magic to take down other powerful magic-users and anyone else who stood in their way, including the Binturian Party. Jester, still slightly out-of-control with energy he needed to release from being trapped for so long, was willingly absorbed by one of the mages and thus maintained some control of the mage.

The Binturians sought out Polaris in order to figure out how to free the Constellations from Amity’s grip and managed to walk in his dreams and seek out his help. They soon also realized that Polaris, as he slept, would walk among mortals as a Viveridaen peasant girl named Astrella del Norte, who he could possess. Astrella gave the Binturians a cleansing spell that only non-magic users could cast that would free the Constellations, and also warned Neona Tishkaw of the party to never let Atlas and Elysium fuse.

The Binturians found the dark mages and managed to free all of the Constellations, including Jester, who simply wanted to fight the Binturians because he thought it would be fun. They also managed to free Atlas from his prison and reunited him with Elysium who, despite the party and Atlas’s warnings, forced him into fusing with her into Hades. Hades easily killed Amity, but Belladonna managed to escape his wrath. Hades thanked the Binturians for allowing him to return and then proceeded to wreak havoc upon the plane himself. The Binturians had to once again seek out Polaris and walk through his memories in order to locate his Axe of Doom, which they retrieved from its ruin and used to cleave Hades back into Atlas and Elysium.

Polaris woke up from his slumber once Hades was defeated and descended into the Material Plane in order to reprimand Elysium and “ground” her from leaving the Astral Plane. He revoked her title of “ruler of the Constellations” and instead bestowed it on Atlas.

## Aftermath

The Constellations were freed from their imprisonment at the hands of the K’Vesten Magisters, and may now freely travel to and from the Astral Plane (though this has decreased recently thanks to Night and the Binturian Party). K’Vesten was left without a ruler, which Hierophant Xaoc would later exploit following the Fel Invasion. Elysium began distributing the access to the Radiance, bringing the first Paragons and Paladins into the world (such as the Binturian Thanatos). Additionally, Polaris named Neona Tishkaw his second Paladin.

## Further Information

* Amity
* Astral
* Astral Plane
* Axe of Doom
* Belladonna
* The Binturian Party
* Constellations
* Death
* Fel Invasion
* Jericho
* Khione
* K’Vesten
* Pixie
* Pixie Prince
* Planar War
* Radiance
* Thanatos Blood-Fist
* Winter Court (Gemred)
* Xaoc