Empyrean War

Although it is believed the world has always existed the earliest stories are from a time known as the Empyrean war and the first calamity known as the Scouring which followed it.

Although nothing is known of them it is told that the lands were filled by people happily living their lives, and worshiping the gods in peace.

One day a whisperer spoke false words to the people, he convinced them to turn from their gods, that the connection they had with their gods was a threat to their peaceful ways. The whisperer showed them the joys of indulging in excess, the wealth to be gained by mining deeper, the pride of building bigger, the power of taking what you want. Society decayed and wars broke out leading to sorrow and fear in the people, the whisperer told them the gods had turned their back on them and were to blame for the people’s misfortune. The people became angry at the gods, and incited to violence by the whisperer tore down the houses of worship and structures which they had held as holy.

This destruction completed, the people were left with an emptiness where their faith had been, the whisperers' lies filled this space with a fear of divine retribution, the people believed the gods had seen what they had done and had decided to destroy them. In the depths of the peoples despair a great man appeared before them and spoke of a vision he had of how to survive the gods wrath; an army of united people marching against the gods to war. The war would be bloody, and much would be sacrificed but the prize would be worth it, a future where they would no longer have to serve the gods, and suffer for their whims. His words mellifluous mercury settled in the hearts of the people; they put aside their differences and joined hands to march against the gods in a heretical war and he became known as ‘the Beautiful Evenstar’.

The people’s forces were marshalled, the strongest warriors from across the lands were placed at the forefront of battalions of great warriors. Every able body was put to work for the war effort, and the Evenstar led the charge against the gods themselves.

The greatest war ever fought ensued, the very planes of existence were torn from each other as the Evenstar sought to weaken the power of the gods before he made his inexorable march into the divine realm. The gods supreme in their confidence underestimate the power of the army marshalled against them and in a crucial moment were betrayed by one of their own, turning a critical battle against them and suffering great losses. Caught out and pushed into a losing position the Gods retreat to their great stronghold, realising they will not be able to win in a straight fight. A last ditch plan is hatched; the Gods concede their mighty stronghold leaving just three Gods to defend it, the Sky God, the Sun God, and the God of Justice. The people's army seeing an opportunity to take their final great victory rushed in to take the stronghold, the Evenstar first into the foray with the betrayer close behind clashing with the three gods in a tumultuous battle. The three gods held their own as best they could and only once the bulk of the peoples forces had followed inside was the trap sprung; runes etched on the stronghold’s structure activate, a link is made to an outer plane and the stronghold along with the people inside it are ripped from the world traversing the space between planes to be forever banished from this world along with the Evenstar and the betrayer.

The final acts of the Sky and Sun gods before being eternally trapped in the stronghold was to erect a great wall of storm separating the divine realm from the remaining enemy forces and unleashing a sun storm scouring life from the world with anger and retribution and causing the first catastrophe in our cycle. With the Evenstar and the betrayer gone, fierce sun scouring the land and an impenetrable storm separating them from their goal, any chance for the peoples forces to rally to pose any kind of threat were denied. The war was over but the Gods' losses were great, too many of their number dead or caught with the enemy in the stronghold trap, they resolved to ensure that never again could they allow themselves to be threatened in the way that they had been.