Nova Mythology

Pre-History

The planet of Nova was created as a sidethought by the great wizard Gataphrax from another Universe, of which we don’t have time to go into. He created a pocket dimension where Nova sits alone in the aether, the planets and stars a purely fictional mirage held above the atmosphere, as a safe haven in hard times. When he eventually misstepped and the Immortal Guard came after him, he had forgotten all about the dimension he’d created, and Nova existed for millenia with scarce a thought paid.

The Old Dance

Nova was discovered once more by the demon Baethin, one more maddened and insane scream from Gataphrax’s lips as he was tormented by her in hell. She decided to investigate and followed the garbled instructions, discovering a small, insignificant paradise. Gataphrax had created this small world with all the trappings of his home planet, and so Baethin found a world lush with life for her to live amongst. She disappeared into it to live out her days, thinking the paradise was only known to her, escaping the souring civil war that had erupted across her plane of hell, and her life of servitude as one of the many generals beneath the commander of the Roxgaths, the ruling clan.

Gataphrax had also left instructions to open his dimension in one of his many tomes, a safeguard in case he forgot about it, and the the mages Talenn and Sorana discovered this footnote in his writings, themselves secreted in riddles and hidden alcoves of desolate lands. When they opened a door to the continent they found a land unspoilt by the ravages of civilization and potentially bountiful resources. It appeared from first inspection that there was no one inhabiting the planet, and they brought through several hundred families to colonize, of all races and social tiers. Talenn and Sorana let the portal close behind them and checked back every few years to see how they were getting on, and to collect the taxes that the ownership of the dimension afforded them.

It took several decades for Baethin to come across the colonists, by happenstance dwelling at that time on the Northern continents. She had spent her time modifying parts of the planet to suit her nature, as Gataphrax’s model was far too dull for her. She raised great volcanoes and cleaved ravines, mired swamps and grew inhospitable lands tangled with gnarled roots and huge, dark forests permeated with her evil.

As with every new thing she encountered, the colonists delighted her desire for torment and pain. She found they had expanded far and wide over the Southern continents, locating themselves near the most profitable resources and the most fertile lands. She drove them before her mirthlessly laughing, razing their prosperous towns and cities to the ground and forcing them to flee into the unexplored and uncharted wildernesses.

On the ground they had once called home Baethin raised a great fortress and began to create Entities, lesser creatures drawn into her service from other dimensions, and those of her own design. From orcs to dragons to creatures of the abyss, she brought them into the world and sent them forth to hunt the settlers. These were known as the Dark Days, and they were filled with terror and suffering as the settlers fought and ran, scattered into small bands from their original society.

When Talenn and Sorana came back to find the desolation of Baethin where the settlers had previously been, they were consumed with the need for vengeance. With her twisted sense of humour Baethin took running, fighting the wizards as she flew across the landscape. This was the beginning of what is known as the Old Dance, where Talenn and Sorana chased the demon across the face of the earth for many years. She was faster and sent some of her creatures to distract the wizards to let her escape, and her deep knowledge of the planet’s layout helped her evade them.

When they did find her, she was often waiting to ambush them, and the planet was scarred with the battles they fought over leagues of land and sea. Sorcery and enchantment were thrown from side to side, sometimes countered or parried, other times evaded, often resulting in lasting magical effects. The settler bands that had gone to hide attempted to stay out of the way of the conflict but many witnessed the earth shattering results firsthand, and many stories of the battles from their time survive in myth to this. Of course, many perished unknown to the combatants, caught in the collateral.

The Dance, as everything, came to an end. Talenn and Sorana took to making their own magical traps as they chased her across the landscape, and eventually managed to drive her into one. Baethin was badly injured, completely surprised by the rippling lightning prison that surrounded her, and forcing her way out caused her to lose her right leg. With the pair rapidly gaining on her, only a few short miles behind, she opened a portal to the Material Plane and disappeared. Talenn and Sorana arrived in time to feel the disturbance and telltale portal opening resonance and followed her to the Material Plane to chase her further.

They looked back with regret on the planet. The widespread devastation and evil that Baethin had created had ruined this once idyllic place. They had seen no significant signs of the settlers, not that they were particularly looking, given the situation, but they presumed them all dead. The pair decided to lock the dimension from further travel from the outside, so that Baethin could not simply return. They returned to chasing her across the Material Plane for the crimes she had committed in Nova.

First Settlers

The recovery of some of the bands together, through much strife and conflict with the remaining lesser creatures, led to the civilization reforming in small pockets over all the continents, the settlers having scattered far and wide in their flight from Baethin’s monsters. The New Count dating system marked day 0 as the day that Baethin, the Great Enemy, departed Nova. The extremely long yearly cycles of the planet around the fictitious Sun of this dimension are about five times longer than those on Earth, and so a long life would be to 13, with adulthood being 4. Years have 1635 days in them, days being slightly longer, 30 hours of our normal counting.

The world was still very dangerous and uncertain, with powerful creatures still roaming the lands and causing problems for the settlers, but while some cities fell, in time there rose mighty heroes to fight off the invaders. The evil races, gobins and orcs and so forth, developed their own societies in the dark places of the world, in the evil lands of Baethin when they found their way that far north, and they also prospered in the far reaches.