Planar War

## Participants

### Binturian Allies

Death, Avani, the Chesire Brothers, Encelagon, Pixie Grant, Azarath, and Zinthos

## Common Knowledge

For a period of time in spring of 10,015, being from other planes of existence began appearing more frequently on the Material Plane. Celestial Dragons, Fae, Archfae, Elementals, Spirits, and Reapers slowly became more and more common in the world, often wreaking havoc as they travelled. As the spring drew to a close, their numbers skyrocketed for five minutes, throwing the world into chaos as each waged war against each other and the local mortal races, before each was pulled back into their respective plane. Scribes and minstrels would go on to say the Binturians had sent the beasts back to their planes, saving the world.

## Contributing Factors

### Ancient Prophecy

A long-forgotten prophecy, whose origins surely date back to the early days of the Binturian Kingdom, predicts a time in the future where the planes collide with one another and end the world. This tale surfaced once again in the aftermath of Darkfell.

### Beast Sleeping Too Deeply

In 10,012, the Beast Below, a monstrous titan of unimaginable power, began to snore louder than it had up until that point. The sheer force of these snores killed many, tearing their souls from their bodies. In an effort to stop this, the Binturian party journeyed into the deepest corners of Temporis to reach the Conduit: the Beast’s resting place. Carefully placing six wardstones upon the Beast’s body, it fell into a much deeper slumber.

Though the sudden deaths the Beast had caused ceased, the force of its snores also radiated out across reality to keep the other planes of existence at bay. Without this force repelling them, the Phantasmal, Celestial, Elemental, and Soul planes slowly converged upon the Material in a collision course.

## Binturian Involvement

### Beast Waking Up

Upon the realization that the snores of the Beast Below were killing people, the Binturian party travelled into the Underforest and placed six wardstones on its body, stopping its snores and preventing further destruction. This action caused the planes to begin to converge on the Material Plane.

### Locating and Absorbing Pillars

Upon deciphering the prophecy and secrets absorbed from the universe itself, the Binturians determined the identities of the four pillars needed to lock the planes in place: Avani, the Greatest Earth Spirit; Encelagon, a golden Celestial Dragon; the Pixies Chesire Brothers, in conjunction with the Archfae Pixie Grant; and the Greatest Reapers of Life and Death, Azarath and Zinthos.

### Depositing Planar Anchors

Crossing the Void, the inhospitable between-space of the planes, the Binturians travelled to each plane on course to strike the Material Plane and placing within it a powerful artifact. These relics would keep the planes locked into their original place once activated.

### Disturbing the Beast

In order to repel the incoming planes, the Binturian party journeyed once more into the Underforest to reach the Beast’s resting place. After tweaking the wardstones ever so slightly, all but two Binturians departed to reach a safe distance. Hand in hand, they shouted the Beast’s true name awakening it for just a moment before the wardstones put it back to sleep once more, returning the planes to their previous trajectories.

### Planar War

With the Beast’s name spoken and the anchors in position, all that remained was the actual collision of the planes themselves. Celestial Dragons, Dragons, Fae, Archfae, Elementals, Spirits, Reapers, and Ghosts poured out from fractured pieces of planes of reality, unleashing absolute mayhem across Temporis for five minutes.

## Order of Events

### Beast Put in Deeper Sleep

The Binturians put the Beast Below into a deeper sleep, as its snores were killing people on the surface. Using six wardstones and a slight awakening of the Beast, its slumber deepened.

### Darkfell Begins

Vierfrynn and Metrion attempted to take over Orelisle using the power of an undead army and the void. Many countries are devastated.

### Prophecy Discovered

Over the course of Darkfell, scraps of an ancient text were uncovered by members of the Binturian party, eventually forming a completed prophecy spelling cosmic doom.

### Lore Uncovered

Shortly after Vierfrynn’s defeat, the Binturian Party was visited by Death himself who explains that the planes are colliding and the world will end by the end of spring if not stopped. This leads to quests to discover the truth behind the prophecy and how to deal with it, including a vision of the ancient past where they witnessed the creation of the Beast.

### Som, Son of Sognar, takes over 9th Terraform of the Abyss

The Shade form of Som, a powerful orc businessman in life assassinated by Aiurian mages in the Abyss, gained control over the 9th Terraform of the Abyss, party through chauvinism and partially through the local Sloth Demons’ apathy. He was later killed permanently by the Binturians, ending this mild inconvenience.

### Creation of Pillars

In order to keep the planes from colliding again, four magical “pillars” were constructed, one for each plane of magic. Each plane consists of a magical anchor on a plane of magic, a powerful being made from that same magic (such as an archfae, celestial dragon, greater spirit, or greater reaper), and a descendent of one of the ancient Binturian Mortal Mages. The Being and the Mortal would be bound forever, and in turn tasked with preventing another planar collision. Coincidentally, all available descendents of the Mortal Mages happened to be modern Binturians.

The Archfae Chesire Brothers and Pixie Grant combined with the psion Kazane to form the Mind Pillar; the Greater Nymph Avani combined with the thief Meerafet to form the Elemental Pillar; the Gold Celestial Dragon Encelagon combined with the wizard to form the Sorcery Pillar; and the Greater Reapers Azarath and Zinthos combined with the animus Syl to form the Life/Death Pillar.

### Galkador rendered Inhospitable

An influx of undead from the Life/Death Plane flooded the already-annihilated wastes of Galkador soon threatened other nations. Before joining with their pillar Mortal, Azarath and Zinthos presented Syl with a choice: fill Galkador with life magic or death magic. Choosing death, Zinthos imbued Galkador with enough death magic to kill the undead in the area permanently and imbue that same energy into the land itself. Left alone, nothing would ever grow or sustain life in Galkador again.

### Pillars Fuse

As the Planar War drew near, all of the extraplanar beings but Avani fused with their mortal companions. The remaining Binturians journeyed into the void to place the magic anchors into their needed positions in the planes themselves. It is also at this point that the planes begin to actually collide, and their inhabitants began spreading chaos across the material plane

### Beast is Disturbed

Another team of Binturians travelled to the conduit once again to slightly awaken the Beast and force its snores to repel the planes. With the anchors in place, Finn the Destroyer and Eirwynn of the Winter Court called the Beast’s name. Its eye opened, and reality flashed into white light.

Incalculable moments later, reality was restored, the planes were in their proper places, and the Beast Below resumed its slumber at acceptable levels. Eirwynn did not survive.

## Aftermath

Aside from countless casualties felt by all people across Orelisle and perhaps all of Temporis, the Planar War led to the following:

### Creation of the Pillars

During the events of the Planar War, one of four possible solutions was devised, which ended up being one of the two solutions implemented. This solution involved four mortals whose bloodlines could be traced back to the Mortal Mages that created the Beast Below gaining a connection with powerful extraplanar beings. Each of the four mortals would become an anchor on the Material Plane, while the four beings would anchor to the other Planes in the Void.

These four mortals were all Binturians: the Mortal Soul Pillar was named Syl; the Mortal Elemental Pillar was a ferret-folk named Meerafet; the Mortal Phantasmal Pillar was a half-gargoyle named Kazane; and the Mortal Celestial Pillar was a human named Larkeicus. The Planar Soul Pillar were the Greatest Reapers Azarath and Zinthos of Life and Death; the Planar Elemental Pillar was the Greatest Earth Spirit Avani; the planar Phantasmal Pillar were two Pixies known as the Chesire Brothers, and the Archfae Pixie Grant; and the Planar Celestial Pillar was the Golden Celestial Dragon Encelagon.

During the events of Planar War, each of the pillars ventured out into the void and fought powerful beings from the other planes. During these fights, each of the Mortal Pillars fused with their Planar Pillar counterparts, except for Meerafet and Avani, who remained separate.

As a result of the creation of the Pillars, the Planes are held apart such that they can no longer collide. In the event that the Beast Below stops snoring, the Pillars will hold the planes apart.

### Beast resumes sleeping at acceptable levels

During the events of the Planar War, the Binturians “poked” the Beast Below, reducing the intensity of its slumber. During this event, the Binturian party travelled to the Underforest to weaken the wardstones they had previously installed so that they would keep the Beast Below at its proper resting intensity. In order to reset to Beast’s slumber, however, the Binturians Finn and Eirwynn shouted the Beast Below’s true name to wake it for a moment, which returned the planes to their previous trajectories. Tragically, Eirwynn was unable to be resurrected following this act of sacrifice, and her body was buried beneath an orange-leafed tree beside a previous Binturian, starting a Binturian tradition that continues to this day.

### Slight Weakening of Elemental Magic

During the events of the Planar War, Cinead, the Greatest Fire Spirit, aggressively fought the Elemental Pillar and Binturian known as Meerafet out of a desire to fight Avani. Throughout the fight, Meerafet refused to fuse with Avani and continuously ran away, which enraged Cinead to the point of self-immolation. With the death of the Greatest Fire Spirit, spirits’ elemental connections were weakened for a time until Emberara, the daughter of Cinead, took up her father’s mantle and reforged that connection.

### Galkador rendered Inhospitable

During the 86th Galkadorian Age, the country had been plagued by an undead army following a state of anarchy brought on by the assassination of the Queen of Galkador during a military coup and the murder of the leader of said coup. The Pillar of the Soul Plane and Binturian known as Syl was tasked with deciding on either Life Magic or Death Magic; she decided on Death Magic, which destroyed all of the undead, but also destroyed the land and rendered it inhospitable. Some believe that the alternative would have had worse long-term consequences, as imbuing the land with Life Magic may have instead vastly increased the intelligence and power of the undead hordes.

## Further Information

This information was documented several years after they  actually took place. Though these events largely took place in-game, many members of the LARP Club who participated in them have moved beyond the club. As such, this document records second-hand accounts based on what was written down about this plot after it was completed, which were then distorted further by subsequent changes to the setting’s lore. If you participated in this plot and are interested in furthering Lore Committee’s understanding of it, please reach out to us at binturianlore@gmail.com.

-Darkfell

-Beast Below

-Galkador