Deathless Days

### Binturian Enemies

Metrion +Undead Legion, Knowledge +Celestial & Mundane Dragons, Fae, Elementals & Spirits, Aiur (Partial)

### Neutral

Put neutral but still involved parties here

## Casualties and Creations

### Creations and Gains

Thinned planar barriers, United Orelisian Council formed

## Common Knowledge

For about three days in 10,019, nobody could die and infants born were dead upon birth. Around the same time, many nations of Orelisle nearly went to all-out war. The UOC was formed following this period of time.

## Contributing Factors

### Planar War

In 10,015 A.B., the planes surged through the void towards a collision point centered on the Material Plane. In order to prevent this, the Binturian Party established four Pillars to keep the planes at bay, each tied to an anchor on their respective plane.

### Banishment of the Elder Gods

In 10,017 A.B., William Willson performed a ritual to banish the most powerful Elder Gods from the Material Plane to stop the havoc that Madness’s Fateweaver Belladonna was inflicting upon the world. This process should have been extremely intricate, but the Binturians chose not to acquire some necessary components for Will’s ritual. Though the ritual succeeded in banishing the Elder Gods and keeping them out, it also kept many other powerful beings from passing through it.

### Death’s Collapse

The most important creatures to pass between the barriers between planes, the Reapers who carry souls, could not penetrate the newly-erected walls surrounding the Material Plane. Each time souls needed to be carried one way or the other, Death would use his own reserve of power to punch a hole through the barrier to permit a temporary gateway for Reapers.

Death created such holes scores of times a day, every day, for two years straight. With no time to recover his strength, Death was eventually drained of his power. Just before collapsing, he travelled to the one place that he knew he could get help: the guildhall of his brother William Willson and the Binturians.

With the collapse of Death, no single creature was strong enough or willing enough to keep punching through the faulty barrier, and so no reapers could bring souls between the planes. Death was no longer permanent, and new life could not be born.

### A Badly Timed Political Coup

By sheer coincidence, a coup was attempted against Aiur’s Prince Rightangle moments after Death collapsed. An arrow tipped with an instantly-lethal poison pierced the Prince’s chest, but he survived with nearly no injuries. This was, understandably, a shocking letdown to the revolutionaries who had taken residence in the capital.

This incident had been orchestrated by Talios to prevent Aiur invading their ally Cathais without military intervention, and with no other option Talios mobilized an army to pre-emptively strike Aiur, which had ramifications across Orelisle.

## Binturian Involvement

In order to resolve the situation, the Binturian Party was charged by Possibility to complete two tasks, and then independently of her they took on a third. Firstly, the Binturians needed to secure three objects of ritual significance from the Material Plane, the Overbright, and the Abyss. The Binturians then needed to secure the aid of the Elder Gods to fuel the ritual, consulting with Knowledge, Madness, and Protection, as well as temporarily releasing Metrion from his prison to act in conjunction with his siblings. Lastly, in order to prevent a total geopolitical breakdown once death became permanent again, some Binturians called together a council of nations to mediate the coming world war before it could begin. This meeting would lead to the reformation of the United Orelisian Council.

The Binturians accomplished all this, were present for the subsequent ritual, and defended Material Plane from four separate incursions from other planes while the barriers between them were lifted. This event would be known as the Battle of Binturia.

## Order of Events

### Incomplete Delivery

The Binturians are approached by Polaris. Lune is finally dead, and he wants the Binturians to escort her to the soul plane. After travelling through the astral plane, they find an impenetrable barrier keeping them from leaving the Material Plane. Having failed the task, they return to Adria

### Collapse of Death & Finding Possibility

Shortly after returning to the tavern, Death appears from a tear in space. He declares “I am tired,” and collapses to the ground. With no Death to breach the barrier around the Material Plane, no creature can die and no creature can be born. William Willson appears and tells the Binturians that he will take care of Death, but they need to find someone named “Pam” who can help them. After an admittedly-haphazard ritual of triangulation, they found that Pam was somewhere in Aiur’s capital city of Hexahedron. They set out aboard the Valkyrie to find her.

In Aiur, the Binturians find Pam in a cafe, quietly enjoying a cup of tea. Pam formally introduces herself as the Elder Goddess of Possibility, and explains that she can perform a ritual to fix the barrier. Ultimately it’s in everyone’s best interest if the barrier remains (to keep Madness out), but it needs to be thin enough for other things to get through. This ritual will need the following:

* A queen’s ransom, a gift of malintent, and the heart of a fallen land from the major material planes
	+ This would be the Material Plane, Overbright, and Abyss
	+ One had to be from each, and each had to fit a different category
* An object from the Celestial Plane and the God of Knowledge’s blessing
* An object from the Phantasmal Plane and the God of Madness’s blessing
* An object from the Elemental Plane and the Goddess of Protection’s blessing
* An object from the Soul Plane and the combined power of Azarath, Metrion, and Zinthos

She suggests they split up: some of them start collecting ritual components while the rest deal with the assassination that’s about to happen.

Just as Pam says that, a passing military parade stops short when a poison-tipped arrow pierces the chest of Prince Rightangle

### Ransom of the Beeple

To acquire a queen’s ransom, the Binturians return to the Binturian forest to seek out their allies, the Beeple. They capture the Beeple queen and hold her for ransom. They receive a payment of Royal Honey, the Beeple’s most prized resource, and return the Queen

### Aftermath of the Coup

The Binturians chase the would-be assassins back to their hideout, and learns that they were secretly supported by a cabal of Talian mages attempting to stop Aiur’s coming invasion of Cathais without military intervention

### Stabilizing Death

The Binturian Naimuna, adamant worshipper of Death, permanently gave up the Eye of the Conduit (a powerful relic that harnesses energy from the Conduit itself) to keep Death alive. Though he was not yet conscious, the Eye stabilized his condition.

### Return to the Abyss

To find the heart of a fallen land, the Binturians ask the Hierophant Suuzi to open a rift to the Mordant Realms to find its throne. Suuzi agrees, but makes it clear that the Binturians will owe her a favor in exchange.

They battle their way through many of the Realm’s layers and its Fel-corrupted denizens, and eventually steal the throne from an uncorrupted, but still ultraviolent, Demon Lord of Pride.

### Celestial Bureaucracy

In order to travel between planes, William Willson mounted an object to the front of the Valkyrie called Death’s Chalk. Death’s Chalk is one of many items that Death uses to travel between planes, and it allowed the Valkyrie to open pinholes in the planes to enter and exit them.

In the Celestial Plane, the Binturians maneuvered their way through massive draconic libraries and mountains of metaphorical red tape. Lots of paperwork and checkpoints. Upon reaching Knowledge, they presented their case to him and expected him to agree Instead, the Elder God of Knowledge said that he had expected this from the beginning and would not agree to assist under any circumstances, as this was the outcome he had anticipated from the moment that the Binturians asked for his help in 10,017. According to Knowledge, the planar barrier kept everyone inside their own plane, and that was a better way of keeping things orderly. Nobody could die or be born, but in time creatures would learn to have longer lifespans just as the elves had.

Having failed to convince Knowledge, the Binturians returned to the Valkyrie with a book from the Celestial Library. William Willson stayed behind trying to convince Knowledge to change his mind.

### Assembling a Council

The Binturians speak with King Gwynn of Talios, King Nerius of Cathais, Prince Ernei Rightangle of Aiur, King Aquano Silfedis of the United Sanctuaries of Orelisle, King Oswald of Oscoria, the members of the Brennosian Union Grand Council, and an Exarch of the Silver Horn, and convince all of them to meet in Kendricksburg, Oscoria to hammer out a ceasefire. In order to make Prince Rightangle agree, the Binturians agreed to at some point help him root out the revolutionaries within Aiur

### Phantasmal Games and Weaving Fates

In the Phantasmal Plane, the Binturians weaved through spaces that defy the conventional laws of physics and skillfully avoid most Fae asking them to play games. Upon reaching Madness, they presented their case to him and expected him to disagree. Instead, the God of Madness agreed but asked for a single condition. In order to balance out Knowledge’s Fateweavers on the Material Plane, Madness wanted six of his own Fateweavers. He admits that having only one Fateweaver of Madness might have been a bad idea, and that by distributing the power among six people hopefully that would prevent a repeat of Belladonna. The Binturians agreed, and left the Phantasmal Plane with Madness’s support and an object with infinitely changing shape.

### The Worst Ball Imaginable

To receive a gift of malintent, the Binturians organized a diplomatic meeting between the feuding dove-folk and giants of the Overbright, and then went out of their way to make the ordeal as difficult as possible without overt violence. At the end of a long, tortuous evening of impromptu song numbers, discussions of race and ethics, and an unfathomable amount of awkward glances, gifts are exchanged. Any of the ones received likely qualified for “malintent”, but a rotting log with a mushroom growing from it was selected for the ritual. Incidentally, this meeting actually eased tensions between the warring factions, and a ceasefire still stands now

### Elemental Diplomacy

In the Elemental Plane, the Binturians found the Goddess of Protection almost immediately. She agreed to assist them, but asked them to resolve a brewing issue for her first. The Elementals of the Elemental Plane believe that Protection is showing too much favoritism to the Spirits, and are now at war with the Spirits. The Binturians mediate a negotiation with both sides, and it is decided that Cinead’s successor will be an elemental from the Fire family (? what does that mean tho). The Binturians leave with Protection’s support and a flower from the Elemental Plane.

### Negotiating a Ceasefire

All member nations at the meeting (except Taphran) agree to meet quarter-annually and commit a percentage of their military to a United Orelisian Force. An overall ceasefire is agreed upon, but the details of a formal peace are not negotiated.

### Soul Infiltration

In the Soul Plane, the Binturians snuck through an enormous legion of ghosts gearing up for war. In order to blend in, the party travelled in the spectral form of ghosts and left their mortal vessels on the Valkyrie. At the back of the army they found Metrion in a massive prison of blades, and released him.  He agreed to help in the ritual, but wanted to be set free from his prison permanently in exchange for his help

Metrion cleared the path back to the airship with no issue, but was thoroughly unpleasant the entire time. The Binturians leave the Soul Plane with Metrion in tow and a couple of blades from his prison-fortress

### Battle of Binturia

In the presence of the Beast Below, all Binturians past and present gathered around the ritual circle. Pam and four Binturians conducted the ritual, with Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos, and the Elder Deities of Madness and Protection channeling their power into it. The Elder God of Compassion kept a presence over the Beast Below to keep them from awakening. Upon completing the ritual, and speaking the names of the Elder Gods, the Beast’s eyes flared open in a burning white light for just a moment, and the Binturians found themselves standing in a field in the Binturian Forest

A result of the ritual was that for several minutes, the barriers between planes were lifted and anything could come through. Rifts to other planes began opening up and flooding the battlefield with Fae, Dragons, Elementals, Spirits, and Ghosts. William Willson was cast down the Material Plane after punching Knowledge and backed the Binturians up, and Pam called upon the aid of every ally of the Binturians to bring them all to Binturia to defend the world from the following:

* Elemental (dissidents) who disagreed with the ruling the Binturians forged
* Fae and Archfae who just wanted to cause chaos
* An army of ghosts, which Metrion had built up anticipating this very ritual
* An army of dragons, infuriated that their patron god was being defied and proven incorrect

At the end of the battle, the rifts sealed shut and a cheer rang out over the battlefield.

## Aftermath

### Reopened Planes

The planes of existence are reopened, and beings can travel between them with some difficulty while the Elder Gods still cannot enter. With the path now opened, the soul of the Constellation Lune passed on to the Soul Plane, and the Mermaid Constellation disappeared from the sky forever.

### United Orelisian Council

The United Orelisian Council was formally established, and its meetings continue into the present day.

### Fates of Those Involved

#### Metrion

Metrion did not get what he was promised, and was instead re-imprisoned by Death.

#### William Willson

William was effectively demoted from his position as “King of the Unseen”, and suffered a major decrease in power.

## Further Information

* The Abyss
* Aiur
* Aldenlied
* Amrali Republic
* Arlaven Glades
* Beeple
* Belladonna
* Binturia
* The Binturian Party
* Brennon
* Cathais
* Constellations
* Daugon
* Death
* Dove-Folk
* Elder Gods
* Elemental
* Elu
* Fae
* Faidor
* Fel Magic
* Giants
* K’Vesten
* Kuragma
* Magic
* Marujai
* Metrion
* The Mordant Realms
* Oscoria
* Overbright
* Planar War
* Reality
* Reaper
* Silver Horn
* Soul
* Spirits
* Talios
* Taphran
* United Orelisian Council
* United Sanctuaries of Orelisle
* William Wilson
* Zondros