A Brief History of Acala

A Brief History of Acala is a lore-based web series that covers the history of Acala's universe from it's very beginnings. It's airs weekly on Wednesday at 4 PM EST.

As of May 25, 2022, eight episodes have been released. You can read the transcripts of those episodes below.

## A Brief History of Acala, Part 1 – In the Beginning

#### The Chaotic Expansion

In the beginning, the universe was just a bundle of energy, no larger than an apple. It was held together by the fundamental forces of nature: gravity, electricity, magnetism, good, evil, law, and perhaps forces we have yet to understand. Sages and scholars speculate on what existed in that bundle. Some believe it was a world inhabited by beings of pure energy. We may never know. What we do know is, at some point, chaos was born. It destroyed the bonds formed by those fundamental forces, creating a massive expansion of energy, and a new universe.

#### The Weave

The first thing to form after the creation of the universe was a field of energy suffusing every point of space in existence. This field grew and expanded with the universe and exists to this day. Intelligent creatures would later learn to manipulate this field, inventing magic. They would describe manipulating this field as if working strings on a loom, thus naming the field the Weave.

#### Birth of the Primordial Gods

As the infant universe grew, energy and matter would begin to form stars, planets, and other celestial objects. It was during this early period of the universe when the first intelligent beings were born. Now known to mortals as the primordial gods, these were beings of immense power. Their forms would’ve been incomprehensible to the minds of present-day mortals. At first they were dozens, and eventually they numbered in the hundreds, spreading throughout the universe. While physically bound by gravity, electricity, and magnetism, they were mentally and psychologically bound by good, evil, law, and chaos, what some scholars refer to as the “aligning forces”. At the birth of the universe, these forces were simple. Law meant bringing order to the universe and chaos meant destroying that order. Good meant doing so for the sake of all primordials and evil meant doing so for yourself.

#### Cosmic Dissonance

Over time, the energy of the universe began to form what would become known as world spheres, large pockets of the universe walled of from the rest. When a world sphere formed, primordials in that part of the universe became trapped. In one particular sphere, a few dozen were trapped. But they weren’t alone. Our primordials were joined by a system of four stars and their orbiting planets. Which meant there was a problem. Unlike the primordial gods, the stars and the planets were not bound by the aligning forces. This created a dissonance in the primordials that was extremely unpleasant and sometimes even painful. And over time it became unbearable. When this dissonance started killing primordials, the others knew they had to do something. They created new planes of existence, governed by the aligning forces that controlled them and existing in parallel with the primary plane of the universe, known today as the mortal plane. The primordials retreated to these new planes, and the ones that are still alive reside there today.

#### The Ether and the Astral Plane

Despite the power of the primordial gods, there were some elements of the universe they couldn’t perceive. The most prevalent of these was the Ether. Like the Weave, the Ether is an energy field that permeates the entire universe. But unlike the Weave, the Ether can be traversed like another plane of existence. Its nature and its use aren’t fully understood, but it is known that one can travel from plane to plane through the Ether.

Another way to travel from plane to plane is through the Astral Plane. Scholars believe the Astral Plane formed from the rise of intelligent creatures and is a place where the collected consciousness of all intelligent creatures meets.

#### Rise of the Ethereal Gods

Once this world sphere was isolated from the rest of the universe, something strange began to happen. New gods were appearing in the primordials’ planes. They were bound by the aligning forces and they rivaled the primordials in power. Many gods clashed and many gods died. Scholars would later learn that these new gods arose from the Ether. Today, the Ethereal gods vastly outnumber the Primordial gods, but the remaining primordial gods are stronger than any Ethereal.

#### Life is Born

As the Ethereal gods grew in number over the millennia, something was happening on one of the planets in orbit around the four star system. Life had begun to develop. At first primitive and tiny, but over time larger, more diverse, and intelligent. These intelligent creatures would name their home planet Acala.

## A Brief History of Acala, Part 2 – Meddling Gods

#### Primordial Twins

Two Primordials were unique among their kind. They formed from the same pocket of energy very early in the universe’s formation. In mortal terms, they were siblings, or even twins. They also weren’t pulled toward law, chaos, good, or evil, but pulled to the center of the spectrum, making them neutral in most conflicts among the gods. Their followers would come to know them as Alfor and Qyndarronth. Alfor and Qyndarronth were the first two gods to send avatars to the Mortal Plane. Their avatars took very different forms. Alfor liked the appearance of the primitive humanoids, so he took the form of a humanoid, only 50 feet tall. Qyndarronth liked the ferocious appearance of reptiles but also the grace and agility of felines, so she combined them and took the form of what would eventually be called a dragon, with the size to match her twin.

You’ll notice I’m saying he and she here. Primordial and Ethereal gods don’t have genders or sexes, but the forms these two took did correspond to genders and sexes as they presented in the mortal world.

Alfor and Qyndarronth enjoyed exploring the Mortal Plane in person, especially the lively Acala. But they wanted more. They set out to create their own life in their images. Alfor created the Titans: humanoid-like beings that stood around 40 feet tall, with different types for different environments. Qyndarronth created the Wyrms: dragon-like beings large enough for Titans to ride as mounts, with different types representing different elements, metals, and gemstones. In time, they created more creatures, most notably the Giants and Dragons, smaller and shorter-lived counterparts to Titans and Wyrms, respectively. For reasons still unknown to sages and scholars, Alfor and Qyndarronth’s relationship soured and a war broke out between their people. A war that would last for millennia.

#### The First Ascension

Each side of the war between Alfor and Qyndarronth’s people had its generals. Alfor and Qyndarronth granted more and more power to these generals, hoping to gain every advantage possible in the war. Eventually, one of Qyndarronth’s generals, a Wyrm named Bahamut, was so infused with power that he began to experience cosmic dissonance. He was brought to the Fairlands where Qyndarronth realized Bahamut’s power now rivaled that of the gods. He had ascended to godhood. Qyndarronth repeated this for her other generals and Alfor copied her, ascending his generals, and their war extended to the Fairlands. Other gods would soon learn how to help mortals ascend, creating a new class of Ascended gods.

#### The Primal Race

Hundreds of thousands of years ago, on a small island continent untouched by the war between Alfor and Qyndarronth, the first intelligent thoughts were had by the newest generation of a humanoid people. These people would go on to form communities, culture, and societies. They gave names to their individual tribes and communities, though they never gave their species as a whole a name. Scholars today refer to them as the Primal Race, as most humanoid races of today are in some way descended from this first species.

#### Good vs Evil

Meanwhile, the Primordial god Orcus, bound by the aligning forces of chaos and evil, and the Ethereal god Faunus, bound by the aligning forces of chaos and good, had come into conflict. Unable to fight each other as aggressively as they wanted due to the alignments of their planes, they chose to take their war to the mortal plane. To the island continent where the primal race had evolved, the two gods sent their avatars: Faunus appearing as a tall, slim, copper-skinned, long eared humanoid, and Orcus appearing as a large, bulk, strong gray-skinned humanoid. They each divided the primal race and changed them into what they each considered the perfect form. Faunus’s people became elves and Orcus’s people became orcs. These two infant races started a war to defend their gods’ honor, and although the war ended after both side had shed far too much blood, the hatred between them carries on to this day.

## A Brief History of Acala, Part 3 – New People

### Humans

After Alfor and Qyndarronth, the Primordial God Sabur was the next of their kind to try to influence the Mortal Plane. Sabur was always infatuated by stars, and he took a particular interest in the Acala World Sphere’s largest sun. They allowed part of themself to enter the Mortal Plane and go into the sun, exerting some of their will on it. In turn, they allowed the sun to exert its will on them. Sabur’s aspect in the Mortal Plane became one with the sun.

Elves had long since diversified into sun, moon, wood, dark, and many other types of elves. A large population of sun elves had worshipped Sabur’s sun for millennia. Once Sabur merged their aspect with the sun, these elves became aware of Sabur and named the sun after them. Sabur became their patron deity. In time, Sabur would grow to love these elves, but he wanted to make them his own. He reached out to the spirits of his followers and asked if he could change them. Most of them agreed. He shortened their lifespans, giving them a greater appreciation for living in the moment. And he changed their appearance and other traits, creating the first humans. Humans would also go on to diversify, becoming plainsborn, desertborn, and iceborn humans.

### Goblins

The Plane of Faerie is a chaotic, energetic place. It can warp and change the minds and bodies of creatures not native to it. This is what happened to a nation of orcs that found themselves pulled to the Plane of Faerie. They became slimmer, stronger, and more keen minded. They became hobgoblins. Most of them made their way back to the Mortal Plane. They would later tap into the Plane of Faerie and use its magic to create two new castes of their kind: goblins and bugbears. Collectively, these people are known as goblins or goblinoids.

### Halflings

The Ethereal goddess Isaphina and her brother Orfyx loved to send avatars to the Mortal Plane and learn mortal games. They especially fell in love with gambling. A group of elves that worshipped them gambled quite a bit. And they made a bet with Isaphina that they could outsmart her brother Orfyx. They tried their best, but they couldn’t out game Orfyx. Their punishment for losing the bet wasn’t so much a punishment but a blessing. Isaphina changed the elves into forms she though were fitting for gamblers and gamers. She created lightfoot halflings. Tallfellow and stout halflings developed through intermingling with other creatures.

### Gnomes

Not wanting to be outdone by his sister Isaphina, Orfyx set about creating his own people. Orfyx was obsessed with gemstones. In the form of his avatar, he found an old dragon’s hoard of emeralds, rubies, and diamonds. He blessed these gemstones with souls. He planned to turn these gemstones into living creatures in time, but a group of halflings found the gemstones first. The souls bonded with the halflings, morphing them in different ways. They became gnomes. Halflings with emerald souls became forest gnomes, those with ruby souls became deep gnomes, and those with diamond souls became rock gnomes.

### Dwarves

Dwarves are the most recent of the so-called Primal Races to arise. A human named Randohr was the leader of a stone mining crew. When a cave in threatened the lives of his workers, he risked his life to get them out of the tunnels. He successfully rescued his crew, but died in the process. Sabur had never seen that kind of selflessness from a mortal and they were impressed. Randohr was resurrected and granted enough power to get out of the tunnels alive. He hadn’t quite ascended, but became a demigod. When Sabur resurrected Randohr and offered this power to him, Randohr made a request. He wanted to be granted the power to change himself and his people so they could work the tunnels faster, safer, and more efficiently as stonework was their passion and life’s work. He was granted this power and made his people shorter, stockier, and more resilient. He created dwarves. His dwarves were known as hill dwarves, and some descendants would move into the mountains and become mountain dwarves.

## A Brief History of Acala, Part 4 – Time & Nature

Let’s take time this week to cover something we missed. The birth of time and nature. Yes, that’s right, I said the birth of time and nature. As the ethereal gods grew out of the Ether, two gods in particular were responsible for the conditions that led to the development of life on Acala. Let’s start with the god of time.

### The Birth of Time

Tantai was the first of the gods to become aware of the passing of events as a phenomenon in itself. He became obsessed with it, eventually quantifying it and creating what we know today as time. Because of this, it is impossible to tell how much time passed from the beginning of the universe to the birth of time, but Tantai is a fairly young god. It is believed that time was born around one million years ago.

### The Birth of Nature

Amma was born at the same time as Tantai. And while Tantai noticed the passage of events, Amma was the first to see the essence of things, the very nature of the universe. No pun intended. She created the universal pathways to let nature develop and run its own course. Once time and nature were born, things on Acala settled into a sort of ordered chaos, allowing life to develop and grow into the diverse array we have today.

### Jotun Time

Sentient life on Acala generally traces the beginning of the planets’ history using Jotun Time. This is time measured from the year the first Titan was born, which was over 800,000 years ago. The Primal Race and the races derived from it came about over time since then, with the dwarves being created around 100,000 years ago.

## A Brief History of Acala, Part 5 – Oltar (the planet)

#### A Dead System

When life began to emerge on Acala, the other planets in its solar system weren’t so lucky. While time and nature did take hold of them, their effects did not make them habitable for life. Sages and scholars have identified four other planets in the Acalan system that are dead, dying, or too hot for anything to happen on the surface. One of those planets would become home to new life.

#### Oltar

Oltar is one of the oldest Primordial Gods alive today. Being one of the oldest, he is also one of the strongest. He wasn’t happy with how crowded Acala was with different forms of intelligent life and the influence of the gods. So, he took one of the dead planets in the Acalan system, blocked out the influence from all other gods, and gave it life. He watched life evolve in a way similar to how it had on Acala, but watched it carefully and made changes to suit his pleasures or to help the creatures along. These creatures, once they developed language, would name the planet after Oltar. Eventually, Oltar’s influence dwindled to that of the other gods on Acala due to the amount of life that had developed. It was still to Oltar’s liking, however, and he began to take a passive role, watching and letting things happen naturally. He had made sure his favorite species from Acala developed on his planet: orcs, elves, humans, gnomes, dwarves, dragonborn, and vedalken. All with some changes that made Oltar happy.

#### Invasion

Millenia after Oltar created his planet, with his influence fading, a portal from the Astral Plane opened in the vedalken kingdom. An army of Githzerai led by the dark witch Helzira invaded, searching for the Great Powers of Oltar, and killing anyone that stood in her way. The vedalken led the fight against her, eventually locking her back in the Astral Plane. But the damage had been done. Most of the vedalken were wiped out in the conflict. The ones who remain stand vigilant in case she returns.

## A Brief History of Acala, Part 6 – Death, Heaven, Hell, & The Fallen Angel

### Haron

Out of the eight Primordial Gods alive at this point in our story, we’ve discussed five of them. Let’s talk about the other three, starting with Haron. Haron was the god of death and the dead. He was lawful but not evil, as he took a keen interest in the process of mortal death and the fate of the mortal soul. He took it upon himself to judge souls and determine where they should go in the afterlife, sending them to the appropriate plane of existence, or bringing them to Decretia where they would wander in deep contemplation before facing judgement again.

Haron eventually became tired of his duties, training his underlings to take over the work for him. In time, he came to envy mortals for their ability to die of old age and set about finding a way for him to peacefully end his existence. He created three artifacts that, when joined together by a worthy mortal successor, would transfer all of his cosmic power to that mortal, ascending the mortal and killing Haron. Satisfied with his plan, he sent the artifacts to three random place on Acala, and began to wait.

### Bane

In an series of events we will cover in a later episode, a human named Bane would be the one to take on the mantle of death. Travelling with two companions, they planned to share the power. Bane, a loyal soldier, would soon lose his comrades to a group of heroes defending the innocent. Bane pledged his loyalty to them as the victors and they saw to bringing him to the side of good. They had collected the three artifacts and in a moment of trust, gave Bane access to them. He gathered them and took the power of Haron, defeating a creature trying to kill the heroes and pledging to be a fair judge of souls. He would later aid them in their fight to save the world.

### Asmodeus & Kukul

Our last two primordials have a long history of conflict with each other. As Kukul was lawful good and Asmodeus was lawful evil, they tried an almost infinite amount of times to kill each before life ever developed on Acala. And once it did, they used it to their advantage. They took similar avatars – Kukul a winged serpent and Asmodeus a fanged serpent – which grew their hatred for each other even more. They amassed followers that went to war with each other a number of times, neither side ever gaining an edge over the other. Eventually they drained most of their power fighting in this way, and they now reside in their respective planes - Kukul in Sama and Asmodeus in Infernus - waiting for the chance to gain more power and go after each other again.

Kukul would go on to create the couatls – winged serpent creatures made in its own image. Asmodeus would go on to become an archdevil, the lord of his plane and of all devils, and the torturer of lost and damned souls.

### Sabur and the Celestials

As the human race grew more numerous and widespread, Sabur wanted to protect them. They created a new race of creatures from the Ether, a race which they called the Celestials. These creatures served Sabur’s will, protecting humans and their allies while fighting against the forces of evil. Kukul’s couatls would also be endowed with power from the Ether, as Sabur recruited them to become part of this new race of Celestials. The most well-known of the Celestials were the angels. Sabur created three types of angels of varying levels of power. The strongest of these were the Solars. And the strongest of the Solars were Almikael and Hasâtan.

### Rival Brothers

Almikael and Hasâtan constantly competed for Sabur’s favor, despite the fact that Sabur favored all of their creations equally. This rivalry eventually turned into bitter jealousy on the part of Hasâtan. This jealousy tarnished his soul, turning his eyes red, his skin pale, his hair black, and his wings black and tattered. Hasâtan corrupted and recruited other angels in order to launch an attack on Almikael while they were on Kukul’s plane of Sama. Almikael and the other Celestials put up a fight, but the ambush was too much. As Hasâtan’s followers became corrupted, turning into the first devils and demons, he killed his brother, shedding his blood as the final step in a corrupted spell that would open a portal to Infernus. Hasâtan threw Almikael’s body down to Infernus, and he and his fiendish disciples followed.

### The Rise of the Fiend King

Now on the plane of Infernus, Hasâtan introduced himself to Asmodeus and gave the first devil, named Pit, to him as gift. Hasâtan had grown as powerful as a god and was more powerful than Asmodeus. Through a connection between the evil planes, Hasâtan travelled to the Abyss, where he did the same with Orcus, except he gave the first demon, named Balor, to Orcus. Orcus was stronger than Asmodeus, but similar to the war between Kukul and Asmodeus, Orcus’s war with Faunus had taken its toll. Hasâtan then went to Hades, whose Primordial had long since died, and made the plane his own. Now the King of Fiends, Hasâtan took rule over the evil planes, the devils, the demons, and all other fiendish creatures.

While the Fiend King had as much power as any god, the other gods refused to recognize him as a god and they thwarted his attempts at connecting with mortals and doing anything gods are typically able to do. This was the first time that the gods of Acala ever got political. It wouldn’t be the last.

## A Brief History of Acala, Part 7 – Alfodriki

Titans, Wyrms, giants, and dragons covered the whole of Acala save for the small continent made of up two large islands and many smaller islands where sapient life had evolved without the influence of the gods. Alfor and Qyndarronth thought it best to leave them to develop on their own. At first the twin Primordials named their vast nation Driki, a word Alfor had begun to use to mean "land", and the small continent Brordrik, meaning "brother land". Alfor, Qyndarronth, and their people shared Driki like family for millennia, but that was about to change.

### The First Great War

As mentioned in episode 2, Meddling Gods, Alfor, the Titans, and the giants went to war with Qyndarronth, the Wyrms, and the dragons. Alfor and Qyndarronth themselves fought as avatars on the Mortal Plane while their true forms remained in the neutral godly plane of the Fairlands.

Also mentioned in episode 2, Qyndarronth’s general Bahamut ascended to godhood. Two more of her generals, Manakkal and Tiamat, would also ascend. They would later become the patron gods of metallic, gem, and chromatic dragons, respectively. Six of Alfor’s generals – Hvall, Bjarg, Kaldr, Eldr, Skyguth, and Hregg – would also ascend, becoming the patron gods of hill, stone, frost, fire, cloud, and storm giants, respectively. With these new gods, the First Great War extended to the Fairlands.

For thousands of years the sides were evenly matched, but eventually Alfor's side gained the edge. Qyndarronth's numbers started plummeting and she eventually had to retreat. She found her people a small unsettled portion of the already small Brordrik, and she took her people there, calling their new home the Aerie Dracos. Alfor and his people had won the war and rechristened their homeland Alfodriki, Land of the All-Father.

### The Great Receding

With Alfor’s power and influence fading after the war, he needed a way to safeguard his people's homeland. He instructed the Titans to use their innate magic to push back the shores of the land, giving them more space to live on, and to imbue the waters with magic that would block out any creatures unwanted by giantkind. By this point, elves, humans, and orcs had already immigrated to Alfodriki from Brordrik by hopping from island to island across the ocean. However, with the waters being pushed back, the sea level on the rest of the planet rose, drowning most of the small islands between Alfodriki and Brordrik and shrinking the shore of Brordrik. Countless people died, but as giantkind is primarily concerned with giantkind, it was of no consequence to Alfor or the Titans.

This Great Receding would only hold as long as the Titans were alive. They were nearly immortal, but not fully. So when all but one storm Titan, Omdius, had died, Omdius's fate became political.

### Titanfall

In the year 802671 Y.A. (Year of the All-Father) Omdius was dying. A group of storm giants led by Tombog recruited a group of half-giants to kill Omdius. More accurately, they believed Omdius wanted to die and they asked the party of half-giants to grant him his wish. But as Omdius was under heavy guard by a faction that wanted him to live as long as possible, preserving the magic that isolated Alfodriki from the rest of the world, they would need a way to infiltrate. Tombog sent them undercover as trade couriers.

They successfully infiltrated the storm giant capital and fought past the faction guarding Omdius. Omdius told them that his fate was in their hands, that no matter what they chose, he would accept his fate. The half-giants ended Omdius’s life, ending he millennia long isolation of Alfodriki and returning the shores and lands to their natural states.

## A Brief History of Acala, Part 8 – Ineuberon & High Willibrord

We’ve covered the birth of the universe, the formation of World Spheres, time and nature, the Primordial Gods, and some of the key Ethereal and Ascended Gods. We’ve gone over the ancient history of the planet Acala and the origin of the most widespread intelligent species: giants, dragons, and the primal races. We’ve even gone over recent events concerning the giants and how they affected the whole of Acala. Now its time to focus on the primary campaign settings for the World of Acala: the pair of islands that form the small continent known as Brordrik: Ineuberon and High Willibrord.

### The Frost Council

Before it was called High Willibrord, the southern half of Brordrik didn’t have a general name, but its people shared a history. The Primal Races originated in what is now the Orc Lands and spread across the island, creating multiple cultures, nations, and societies. One of these societies was formed by a group of moon elves, dwarves, and humans who preferred the frigid weather of the colder months of the year to anything else. They wanted to live like that all the time. This group made the first migration to the northern island, where they set up their new nation of Ineuberon and founded the capital city of Whitewall. They prayed to Gald, the god of ice, snow, and the cold, to change the climate and landscape of their nation to perpetual winter. They formed a small council that would spend all of their waking moments praying. This council was made up of four elves, four dwarves, and four humans. After years of prayer, Gald finally answered. As long as they worshipped him, he would grant their wish and turn Ineuberon into a frozen snowscape. He also altered the dwarves and the humans that lived there, allowing them to adapt better to the climate, turning them into arctic dwarves and iceborn humans. He offered to do the same with the moon elves, but they declined the offer. Because of its climate and the attitudes of its people, Ineuberon would be isolated from the southern island, what they called the Southlands. This isolation led to a xenophobic culture in Ineuberon that exists to this day.

### The Willibrords

The first major nation to form on the southern island was called Alethnor: an elven nation that occupied the northwest part of the island. This nation was led by a racist, tyrannical regime that enslaved anyone who wasn’t an elf. This regime lashed out at any neighbors it had, including a budding civilization to the east, wiping out all of its people and leaving its castle vacant.

Eventually, a resistance movement formed, led by the half-elves Aravae and Neldor, children of human slaves. The specifics of this story are unfolding in the Freedom Fighters campaign. You can watch the first two episodes of that on the channel now. Aravae and Neldor would escape Alethnor with a group of slaves, setting up a base for their resistance in the abandoned castle to the east. As their numbers grew, they founded a new nation, Blencathra. They recruited people from other cities and nations that had been hurt by Alethnor and took the fight to the elves. After a bloody, violent war, the rebels defeated Alethnor and took down its tyrannical regime. They founded a new elven nation in its place, Kefelion, ruled by elves who were sympathetic to the rebels. With this founding, a new era had begun, the Era of Liberation.

Aravae and Neldor took the last name Willibrord, a popular human last name at the time, and named the continent High Willibrord. Their sons, an elf name Luthais and a human named Colton, would go on to become the kings of Kefelion and Blencathra, respectively. Their daughter Brenrora would take the pseudonym Argwynn Alykaen and become one of the most feared pirates of her time. As for Aravae and Neldor themselves, after passing the rule of Kefelion and Blencathra to their sons, they lived out the rest of their years in peace, going into the afterlife having made the world a better place.