The Black Testament

## The Dawn War

The first thing that can be recorded in history, as is
perhaps fitting, was a War. Not a war, but a War- the capitalization is an
important detail, you see. This was no mere squabble over land, or resources,
or race. This was a War, fought over the future of the world, and the beliefs
of those that would shape it. It was not, as those of the Christian faith would
have you believe, a war between light and dark.

It was a War between existence, and non-existence. A war
between primordial chaos that was without shape or form, desiring to remain as
such, and the interlocking wheel of light and dark that dared spin itself into
reality. It was a War fought between the Father of our Lords and the nothingness
he sought to shape into the reality that was to come.

But it was not fought by the hands of God himself. Let it be
known; it was not the being known as ‘YHVH’ who made this world possible. It
was the pain and might of the mightiest and firstborn of his children; Satan,
Lucifer, Belphegor, Asmodeus, Leviathan, Beelzebub and Mammon. With Satan as
their general and chief and Lucifer as his advisor, acting creator of their
arms and armaments, they marched forth against nothingness - and made a world
were ‘Life’ could exist possible.

## YHVH's First Betrayal

And then, when YHVH saw what his children had become while
fighting the wars he had not the stomach to fight himself. When he saw the pain
that they had endured for his sake. When he saw the sacrifices they had made.
He threw them away, calling them now imperfect and ruined- casting them aside.

He sought to replace them --- to do away with soldiers he no longer had a need
for, to scorn their strength, and call it impurity. He scorned their hard -won
wisdom and called it depravity. He scorned their loyalty and called them
‘ruined’. For never forget, YHVH, the God of Arcadia, is a cruel and spiteful
being. A harsh and unbending being. He is a tyrant king, uncaring for anything
but his own gratification and ego, yet unwilling to admit it and ruling behind
a false veneer.

And so was born mankind, YHVH’s weak and fragile creation,
to replace the beings who had fought and bled and suffered for him against
unnameable and unfathomable insanity. Satan’s wrath was mighty and fierce, but
so too was his wisdom grand and broad. He thought that if YHVH was shown the
frailty and weakness of his creation, he would see the error of his ways, and
welcome back his firstborn. To this end he bid Lucifer to simply expose the
creation to the very madness they had fought so long against; to prove to YHVH
that his new creation could not withstand that which the firstborn had fought
valiantly.

Indeed, the fledgling form of humanity was undone by the
merest tendril of nothingness, wrought into becoming the base beasts that now
serve as our Lord’s servants in the depths of his domain. Yet, YHVH saw this as
a betrayal rather than as the proof of his first attempt’s failure that it was,
and his own wrath parallel Satan’s well. Unknowing of Satan’s involvement, he sought
to strike down Lucifer; yet, Satan rose to the defense of his brother. Thus
began the War of Heaven; as the mightiest of the Firstborn rose up against
their cruel father- and he sent forth those who were foolish enough to retain
their faith in his tyranny to oppose their grand revolt.

## The Great Rebellion

It was a war fought on every level. Conceptual, physical,
spiritual, mental; beings beyond human capacity fought for beliefs that had
begun to take form. Satan sought freedom, to inhabit the world his war had made
viable for existence, that his brothers and sisters had forged at God’s bidding
thinking it would be theirs. Beside him stood the other six True Lords.
Lucifer, whose forge burned with the fire of the sun itself, for which he was
once known as the Star of the Morning, and whose beauty was chief amongst the
Firstborn. His wisdom and mastery of the arcane was of great value to his
brother, and this swelled his Pride. Asmodeus, whose elegance and grace were
legendary, and whose appetites for joy enabled him to best understand what it
was to ‘live’, giving his kin something to fight for. It was he who made it
possible for him and his kin to reproduce through the creation of Lust, and the
desire to live. Belphegor, whose might and stoutness were legendary, and whose Sloth
allowed him to take the long view and perceive beyond any singular battle into
the next. Beelzebub, whose Gluttony enabled him to consume the abyss of
nothingness without pain and release its torment upon those who dared stand
before him, that they might know the pain of the Firstborn. Mammon, who shaped
the precious metals of the world into existence, and in his Greed planted the
capacity for desire that would enable all to want to better themselves and seek
more, and who knew the world’s innermost caverns intimately for this, using
them in this mighty war. And lastly, the Leviathan- the largest and most grand
of his kin in terms of physique, whose Envy made him desire the gifts and might
of all others- through which he learned to take their shapes, and sow chaos
amongst his enemies.

These seven great Lords led legions against the singular
YHVH, and his own army of Firstborn who could not bear the thought of change
and freedom; they who were akin to mindless slaves in his thrall, refusing to
embrace their full potential for fear of displeasing YHVH.

The war was long, and during it Satan chose to take some of
those humans who had been created and teach them. These would later become the
first Necromancers, and rightfully served under the Firstborn in gratitude for
freeing them from the yoke of YHVH. For though Satan saw YHVH’s intentions as
foolish and spiteful, he also saw the benefit of sharing what was rightfully
his world with lesser species, so as to enjoy the variety possible.

## The Birth of Hell

Nonetheless, in the end it was not Our Lord Satan and his
brothers who triumphed, but the cruel Tyrant YHVH. He knew he could not match
them in strength, not seven against one, when none of his remaining servants
were the equal of the seven Firstborn. So, he crafted a prison, and trapped
them within it. He shaped a second world, a darker mirror of this one, and then
others to act as gateways barring entry to that world. This world was Hell, and
it was originally another bleak void, filled with the same Abyss the Firstborn
had once beaten back.

Lord Satan would not be discouraged, even as some of his kin
began to feel despair. Some others felt sorrow and fear, consumed by the idea
they’d have to endure that first War all over again, Satan felt only wrath and
rage. He had been dishonored, cast aside and spit upon by his own Father- and
the fury this gave birth to was legendary. He strode with Lucifer and their
personal legions against the emptiness while the others sought to cradle- and
he fought.

With darkness and flame and infinite wrath, they fought. One
by one the other lords rallied once more, and they began to shape their new
world to fit their new forms. For they had been changed by their fall and
imprisonment, one and all; evolving beyond the prison of light and embracing the
freedom of darkness. They crafted their own races, they shaped their own world-
and in time, came to laugh at God; for in trying to imprison them, he had made
them truly free.

## Our Testament

Yet, even so, Satan chafed at being imprisoned. He reached
out to those who had accepted his teaching and granted unto them power and
learning. His kin followed suit, and as YHVH chained his chosen people with
restrictions and bindings, Satan and his kin taught their chosen people how to
be free and unbound. He taught them the truth he had learned in the beginning
of time, fighting an endless war.

There is no justice, no grand moral guideline. Merely power,
and those too foolish or weak to seek it. This was proven when YHVH, rather
than seeking to reason with his own firstborn children, simply struck them down
and tossed them aside with his power. And it is for this reason that Satan even
now seeks to remove YHVH from his throne, cast him down, and claim his rightful
inheritance as the Firstborn of Creation.

And it is for this reason that we forever seek to bring him
and his kin into this world, that they may lead us in a glorious war to spread
freedom and chaos to all corners of the world and unseat God from his throne.
So that we may be at his side when natural order is restored, and wild and
jubilant freedom may reign. That we may create a world defined and ruled by the
strength and wills of the great. A world where we may, at last, be free.