War of Venom and Cinders

The conflict wherein the forces of Mandaz invaded the Garden of Sol, with the goal being to conquer or destroy it.

## Combatants

Garden of Sol

* Aspects Council
* Sol Guardians
* Sol Drakes
* Retributions
* Steadfast
* Emissaries: Foot soldiers
* Sol Entity: Was eventually forced to wake up.

Forces of Mandaz

* Snake People:
	+ Warriors: Armed with Black Iron sword, forged in black alchemy
	+ Priests: Illusion casting and fought with venom plasma bolts from their staffs.
* Battle Hydras:
* Sons of Mandaz: Giant snakes that can alter their size
	+ Rock Wyrms: snake like dragons with rocky skin, they breathe fire instead of using venom. Created to counter the fiery powers of Sol's forces.
* Sol Drakes Dreaded: Sided with the invaders due to their hatred for Sol, and the illusion powers of the Priest caste.

## Events

Excerpt from The Book of Sol:

It is now known that the Garden of Sol is a place of fire, lava and uncontrolled Cinders, floating and flowing as they see fit. What there is to behold, is held in the floating cities of marble and gold and in their true gardens where in the Flowers of Light may beheld. However, it was not always so.

In time long past, when the world of Sol was forged, Sol crafted matter and clumped it together like clay to shape and form as he desired. He create the space around it and the rules therein and he filled it life and beauty. Because the sun of this world, slept in its core, the natural source of light was the flowers, which soaked up the Cinder that enriched the soil and spew from them, wisps, little balls of living light, that would clump together to form Nymphs. Under the light red skies, the nymph flew and frolicked like maidens of heaven under the watchful eye of the Guardians and the Drakes. It was they who first dwelt in the floating cities.

This was not to last however. While the flowers kept the Cinder in balance, some of its still escaped, some of it still form portals to other worlds. One such world was inhabited by worshipers of a great snake named Mandaz, a serpentine eldritch thing. This was not the first time these beings had encountered the power of Cinders, it had been used by the natives of other realms to repel and/or to rebel against their horde.

Vexed were the serpents when they discovered that the exotic matter seemingly defied them, was repulsed by their touch. For Cinders would not allow themselves to be used for evil. This was brought to their god, who grew vexed with the idea that a power existed seemingly to counter the prosperity of his people. He saw a threat. With this he had his priests and engineers track the Cinders back to their place of origin and make a pathway through the portal.

Mandaz's incursion saw the world's natives, the Nymphs, maidens of light, dwindle in number as their poison ruined the fields, fall to their attack, or give up the ghost under their torture. Against the emissaries, the snakes caused much collateral damage. Even though they were made to fight such things, the Guardians could only slow down Mandaz, for his serpentine nature was not something they were designed to fight. His rocky hard scales back could even endure the lash of the Retributions.

The serpents filled the land with ruin and destruction as the Dark Drake of Sol, punished greedy and wicked mortals transformed, turned on the land of their jailer and fought the loyal drakes and burnt the lush fields that remain. Some of the draw took clumps of untouched earth and they were enshrined in the cities. This is where the last Nymphs took to dwell and it is where the last of them eventually perished.

As the battle rages, Mandaz mounted an assault on the Fountain itself, seeking to claim the source of the Cinders, or destroy it. Down the column of energy he went, down into the core of the mental, where he found Sol sleeping. It was the delight of the serpent, to sink his fangs into the sphere and possibly corrupt, or kill the sleeping Titan, in the end it was his mistake. The venom burned in the blue fire that cradled Sol, but that disturbance called the Titans mind back from parts afar and divided. While the aspects fell to slumber, Sol awoke.

The forced awakening caused seismic upheavals, the land cracked and molten rock and metal bubbled out of the ground, burning what little pastures were left untouched and the heat eroded away the red sky. Now all that enter live because the reality warping presence of the Cinders leaves them neither living or dead but between heartbeats until the return from where they came.

Sol arose, but he was not alone. Mandaz rose up beneath him and coiled around the Titan and again tried to lay him low with his venom. However, Sol was not a creature of flesh and blood, not like the Eldritch things who held some substance, or most Titans, mortals, or Ultranoids. He was fire and judgement. Thus, when Mandaz sank his fangs in his chest, the venom was vaporized and the fangs of the beast were super heated, causing it to recoil in pain. However, this was not the end of its torment. Sol grabbed that which had coiled around him, and and set himself and the beast on fire..

Sol's fire was not like normal fire, or even superheated plasma, it did not burn with heat, it simply burned and it can burn not just flesh and melt steel, but it can burn on a conceptual level. Sol burned his 'power' and his 'might' and the creature shrank. Sol put the beast's head on the ground and delivered a blow of pure mechanical force, force enough to shatter a continent. This is why one side of the planet is composed of islands surrounded by molten rivers and the exact opposite is a land of volcanoes.

With the dead done, Sol cast the snake into the pit, and the remnants of its forces fled. He cleared the skies and returned to slumber, for his death curse troubled him still. The emissaries went about rebuilding, the Nymphs died out, for their flowers no longer produce enough living light to create more. In time the Aspect Council arose to lead in Sol's absence and they build more cities, more emissaries and Guardians. The dark drakes were banished from the cities but could not escape the realm due to their curse and Sol's Garden has burned ever since.

## About

* The Garden Burns: A poem about the events of the war.