Solace

Solace is the country in the world of Spyre and home to the elves, orcs, dwarves, and many more races. It in many ways a typical high-fantasy setting, but it also resembles a much more modern America, due to their possession of Arcano-tech.

## History

### **The Emperor of the Red Waste**

Long ago, Solace was conquered and laid to waste by Divel, Emperor of the Red Waste, who commanded the Nightmare King . He ruled Solace for many years acquiring a vast amount of wealth until the only remaining monarch, Queen Alexandria of Solace, gathered her armies and defeated the emperor in combat, thus liberating Solace. The monarchy was soon disbanded and the first Council of Chosen was formed, which included 5 Elven leaders and Lobela The Elven Oracle and a Ben Whitehall as secretary of the Oracle.

After his defeat, the entirety of Divel wealth was destroyed, save for his flagship, "The Harpy", which had magical properties that could prevent the Elven Oracle from seeing the . Powerful illusion magic was cast to swap it with another ship, the Cerulean, and the true Harpy continued to sail under that name for many years.

Divel was then bound by Ben Whitehall using powerful spell scroll. The spell trapped him in more humanoid lionborn form to serve as Vice Principal of Barrington Bay Adventuring Academy, in the hopes that working alongside young adventurers would help him see the error of his ways. The binding could only be broken upon Whitehall's death.

Mere moments after the binding of Divel, the Oracle Lobela spoke a prophecy to Ben:

The Elven Oracle spoke with Queen Alexandria about this prophecy, and promised to return if there was ever trouble.

As a precautionary measure against Divel ever being summoned again, powerful abjuration magic was cast on the book "Watches and Wards", which prevented summonings or powerful conjurations from occuring on school grounds as long as it remained in the restricted section of the library at Aguefort. The ward prevented Divel from ever touching the book, or asking someone to remove it for him. Only Ben Whitehall or the Elven Oracle were physically capable of removing the book, as all others would be knocked unconscious.

### **The Prophecy Comes True**

Divel plans to once again be released into his full power on Prom night the year that Fantasy High takes place. He enlisted dozens of Solisian citizens to do his bidding in order to help the prophecy come about.

#### **Setting the Groundwork**

While acting as Vice Principal Cantrop, Divel began to slowly regain his wealth. He worked with the Harvestmen, a radical religious organization from Highcourt, to raise these funds as well as spark a war between the two nations. Coach Daybreak was paid an exorbitant amount of money through the school as its bloodrush coach, which he used to fund the Harvestmen's activities and deposit into a special account in BTC Bank, where Divel began to rebuild his hoard. The bank was built across the street from Aguefort Adventuring Academy, visible from the doors of the gymnasium.

Coach Daybreak used some of his salary to pay for the apartment of an orphaned student, Zayn Nightingale, turning him into a stooge for the Harvestmen. Johnny Spells, a warlock and criminal, fell into the Harvestmen after a job went bad at BTC Bank, and Zayn was able to acquire Johnny's warlock contract in order to reverse-engineer it and a create powerful cursed scroll. This curse would be used to create a hellmouth through Perditional Contradoxy (**Perditional Contradoxy** is an occurrence when someone promised to heaven is condemned to Hell. This event proves Sol a liar and causes a cataclysm within the faith. This event is so religiously significant that it could incite an apocalypse), which was considered a declaration of war between Solace and Highcourt.

After falling in with the Harvestmen, Johnny was also used for his criminal connections to run poisoned tea for Divel. Divel, as Vice Principal Cantrop, would serve the tea to Ben Whitehall in order to kill him and break his binding.

Divel also used the Harvestmen's connections to acquire palimpsests, powerful arcano-tech capable of capturing living souls. Through powerful divination magic, Aelwyn Abernant was able to alter a spell to create *Detect Maidens*, which was used to locate potential maidens for Divel's lair. Sometime before the school year started, several girls were befriended by Penelope Everpetal and dated and kidnapped by Johnny Spells. They were then trapped inside palimpsests until they were needed. These maidens included Katya Cleaver, Antiope Jones, Danielle Barkstock, and Penny Luckstone, Penny being the last one captured before the start of the school year. Biz Glitterdew, head of the AV club at the school, would get them out of the palimpsests and transport them to the Red Waste when the time came.

#### **The PCs Arrive At Barrington Academy**

As Divel's plan was put into motion, the Elven Oracle, Lobela, intended to travel back to Solace for aid. On the day before the PCs' first day of high school, however, she died aboard the Harpy, still disguised as the Crucible. The ship was sunk in a terrible storm caused by Aelwyn Valeheart, who was in possession of a piece of the ship, which allowed her to summon the storm directly over her target, and due to the Harpy's magical properties, the Oracle was unable to predict the storm. After her death, the next elf to become Oracle was Aelwyn's sister, Dalia. Aelwyn taunted her sister on the way to school that morning and dared her to steal a book from the restricted section of the library.