Dae

**Dae** is the name given to the blood of the God of Radiance, DIV and the magical enemy derived from it. Upon her destruction in the Holy City of Atlas, parts of her corpse were spread across Io, just like her counterpart VOID. Though the pieces of VOID sought to consume and corrupt all around it, the blood of DIV manipulates life, causing it to undergo drastic changes. Several groups throughout history have found a means to harness the power of Dae as a source of magic, giving them access to powers once beyond any mortal.

## Properties

Dae is normally manifested as a red mist or red liquid. When an area is concentrated with Dae, it tends to take on its properties, leaving to uncontrolled enhancement and corruption of life. Creatures, plants, even the very soil takes a reddish hue when infused with too much Dae. Creatures born of Dae do no always display these feature though, as the Flumphs and Ishtarian Goblins re very distinct from one another.

## History

### Death of a God

The Age of the Gods ended violently, with the destruction of the reigning deities DIV and VOID at the hands of the Fallen Heroes. The death of DIV lead to the distribution of her dismembered corpse across all of Io, a fate that also befell VOID. The blood of DIV became infused into several parts of Io, creating what would become known as Dae. These pockets of Dae actively promoted life in the immediate area tough not always in a manner that benefited them.

### Dawn of Daemancy

During the 500 years since the death of DIV, people began to discover the power of Dae and began to experiment with it. According to Dmitirius Valiensworth, a group of savages used the magics of Dae to attack The Old Academy, though it is unclear as to why. These Dae savage destroyed the school, killed many of its staff and students and scattered the rest all across Ishtar. Valiensworth and his surviving students began to research the power they had been exposed to. They got their revenge upon the savages, freeing some captive students and discovering the source of their powers. After an inquiry, Valiensworth was exiled by the Kingdom of Brysben for his failure. Rather than respect this punishment, Valiensworth reintegrated himself into Brysben society by assuming the identity of Gloria Chronos. With his loyal followers, he established a cult who devoted themselves to unlocking the mysteries of the Dae in order to advance their magic and attain power.

### The Tragedy of the Highlands

Not long after the establishment of the Daemancer Cult, Valiensworth and his followers triggered a massive efflux of Dae as part of their experiments. This deluge spread south into the Ishtar Highlands, a mixture of jungles and swamps. The Dae energy permeated the entire peninsula and began to suffuse into the very land itself. All of the inhabitants of the Highlands were slowly killed by the Dae mist, leading to an unprecedented massacre. The Daemancers went to see the results, choosing a village near the border called Phiam to investigate. There, Valiensworth and his Daemancers found a young woman who had actually survived the effects of the Dae cloud. However, they were not the only ones who came to investigate, as the soldiers of Brysben arrived on scene not long after. With no time to study the girl, Valiensworth killed her and put on his disguise to meet with the soldiers.

Valiensworth managed to cover up his crimes, but the lasting effects of the Dae were felt for generations afterwards. The Kingdom of Brysben abandoned the Highlands as it was now next to uninhabitable due to the Dae. However, this did not mean life could not return. In an unexpected turn of events, the original residents of the Highlands were reincarnated by the Dae-infused mud as goblins, with no memory of their past lives. From now on, any humanoid that died in the swamps and jungles of the Highlands was reborn as a goblin, and those goblins would constantly be reborn over and over again. A new society of anarchy came into being, as lives were recycled constantly in constant chaos and violence. Some goblins recognized the nature of the Mud and began to treat it as an object of worship. In addition, a swamp that was extremely concentrated in Dae energy was discovered. It was named the Swamp of Life, and was claimed by one of the largest and most powerful chieftains in the Goblin Lands; Chief Big Belly.

### Rise of the Daemancers

With the establishment of the Exodus Academy, the Daemancer Cult now had a veil of legitimacy and a significant powerbase within the continent of Ishtar. Valiensworth and his followers continued to research and experiment with Dae magics, developing techniques such as Dae Bolt and Dae Blade. Valiensworth himself made Dae his primary source of power, replacing the conventional source that is the Astral, which made his magical prowess grow exponentially. In the Year 722, Valiensworth's son Nigel was born. The boy was exceptionally gifted in manipulating Dae energies, potentially due to exposure to his father's experimentation. However as a result, the boy was unable to manifest a familiar. By the year 735, Valiensworth's cult had grown significantly and continued to make breakthroughs. To further his research, Valiensworth enlisted the likes of Aria Wanderlust to seek out artifacts of DIV and other sources of Dae to better understand the extent of what Daemancy was capable of.

## Phase 2 Story

### The Light of Dae

In the Year 735, Nigel Valiensworth was enrolled in the Exodus Academy. Nigel swiftly made friends in the form of Tremmer Kushions and Gideon Snowfall, while also impressing his classmates with his magical knowledge and ability at such a young age. However, some few weeks into the school year, a serious incident occurred that led to the deaths of three students. Nigel went to investigate alongside his acerbic classmate, Aelith Malcolm. Nigel and Malcom learned of the cover-up implemented by senior members of the Daemancer Cult and went deeper in an attempt to save the students. Not only had they arrived too late to help, they were discovered and had to flee from one of the Daemancers, Instructor Mayliera. The two students were cornered in the Wishing Room below the Academy, along with a lost familiar. With Malcolm wounded intercepting a spell meant for Nigel, the young wizard desperately utilized the power of the captive djinn to teleport them to the Old Academy.

Mayliera however, followed them easily. Nigel then attempted to use his Dae powers to summon the familiars of his friends to defend him. However, the Old Academy was saturated in Dae and caused Nigel's power to go out of control. Seeing the boy loosing control, Mayliera used her own power to accelerate the process and left Nigel to his fate. The rampant Dae energy caused Nigel to fuse with the five familiars, becoming an abomination. The room became flooded with Dae energy, from which Nigel was barely able to keep from killing the unconscious Malcolm.

The absence of their familiars prompted their owners to seek Nigel out. Though their journey to the Old Academy was not straightforward, Tremmer, Gideon, Elenora and Aldoras arrived not long afterwards. There, they discovered the fate of the Old Academy at the hands of Dae-wielding outsiders and the Academy's own experimentation with the substance. Guided by a spirt of their deceased classmate, they were able to find Nigel in the midst of a Dae cloud. The students engaged Nigel in combat, during which the Dae magics constantly interfered with their magics. The students learned how to manipulate it to heal themselves and replenish their energies. With Nigel telepathically instructing them, they were able to combine their power to weave the Dae energy around them causing it to separate Nigel and their familiars and dispel the remaining Dae.

### Cutting Loose Ends

The victories of the students were short-lived, as Valiensworth arrived via teleportation and weaved a powerful enchantment to polymorph his wayward son into a book. The scope of this spell relied heavily on the Headmaster's Dae-fueled power, to the point where he gave up a significant portion of it as part of it, permanently weakening him. With Nigel now safe in hand, the Headmaster took steps to prevent the exposure of his Daemancers to the higher authorities. This initially began with keeping the students that rescued Nigel under surveillance, isolating them from the rest of the student body. This proved to be a temporary solution, as Valiensworth opted to employ a more through method: assassination. He had his Daemancers capture a yeti from the surrounding mountains and begin to empower it using Dae energy. The Dae granted the Yeti unnatural regenerative properties as well as the ability to weaponize the energy within in a manner similar to dragon's breath. The four students were then assigned to slay the yeti as part of an assignment, foiling the Headmaster's scheme by emerging victorious once more.

### The Flumphs

Meanwhile on the continent of Qethos, a resurgence of the godly energies once wielded by DIV and VOID began to engulf the continent. Initially, VOID appeared to be in ascension, with the pieces of its corpse begin to corrupted the land and its inhabitants while also dissolving the earth itself. In response to this, a new form of creature began to be born from the blood of DIV. These parasites possessed limited Radiant powers which they used to fulfil their primary objective; to eliminate the VOID wherever it occurred. These creatures took to calling themselves the Flumphs.

The Flumphs' crusade against the VOID went poorly to start with, as any attempt to purge it led to them sacrificing their lives. However, as a hivemind, this was of no real deterrent. The existence of the Flumphs was eventually uncovered by the Deep Gnomes, who captured them and began experimenting on them. One such experiment involved supercharging the Flumphs in order to better combat the VOID, while another led to the actual corruption of a Flumph. While in captivity, two Flumphs reached out to a party of adventurers who invaded the facility. With their aid, they purged the VOID infecting the place and invited them back to their home. The warriors followed though they were briefly sidetracked by a familiar Magi, who offered to grant them similar power to that of the Flumphs. With the sacrifice of their guide Jason, the Magi fashioned pills of Dae that would grant them the ability to use Radiant magics.

Eventually, the warriors made it to the Flumph village, where they were offered to bathe in a Radiant pool, likely a font of Dae, to remove their impurities. The warriors accepted and over the next two months, they were routinely submerged in the pool to engage the manifestations of their impurities. During the final engagement, the sorcerer Sachi, in a reckless act, consumed a Dae pill. Having already consumed one and being present in a Dae-rich environment, Sachi triggered a transformation, changing her physical form and permanently attuning herself with the Radiance of DIV.

The cleansing process ended poorly, forcing the Flumphs to use their limited power to revive the group. During the resuscitation, the young Petra was bonded with a Flumph which kept her heart alive. Such a bonding process was the first of its kind in Io. The group decided to leave the Flumphs and return the way they came, back through the now abandoned Deep Gnome laboratory. There, they discovered both the VOID-corrupted Flumph and the supercharged Flumph. Slaying the former and liberating the latter, they brought the Radiant Flumph back to the Flumph Village, were its enhanced powers With this boost in their powers, the Flumphs were able to finally hold their own against the VOID without losing their lives. They also gained the capacity to fuse more readily with other beings and with one another. This eventually led to the Flumphs seeking out other creatures to host them, giving rise to the Flumphkin.

### Seeking a Source of Dae

In preparation for the fight against Kaasma Khara, the Astral Academy came under attack by the same goblins they had previously hired to aid them. All goblins were sustained by Dae, a fact they learned from the Academy's substitute Headmaster, the Inevitable. One of the goblins in particular, Peekel, utilized Dae as the source of her magics. During the fight, she used a banishment spell on the Inevitable in order to secure their escape. The Inevitable returned shortly afterwards, having been teleported to a space station in the Prime Plane. The Inevitable regrouped with the Academy's task force, which included Tremmer Kushions and Gideon Snowfall, who were familiar with Dae from their previous adventures. To reverse engineer the banishment spell to identify where the Inevitable had been sent, it tasked the task force with finding a strong enough source of Dae magic. To this end, it teleported them to the Ishtar Highlands, a place replete in Dae energy. It also provided them a device that could measure the strength of Dae.

While there, the Academy's task force came face to face with two powerful sources of Dae; a colossal purple worm and an elderly goblin woman. They assisted the grandmother goblin in defeating the worm. While chunks of the worm were carved off its corpse to give to their robotic Headmaster, the elderly goblin, who went simply by Granny, was approached by the wizards. Being the strongest source of Dae by far, they managed to convince her to come with them back to the Academy, under pretense of being reunited with the goblins she was previously accompanying. When they brought her before the Inevitable, the construct used its power to polymorph the old goblin into a circuit board. Inserting it into itself, it gave the Inevitable the power to manipulate Dae. Using this new ability, it was able to manifest concentrated Dae mist and store them in vials, which it gifted to the task force to aid them as a source of power and healing. It was also able to reconstruct the banishment spell in order to teleport itself and the task force to the unknown space station.

### Blood and Sacrifice

In the Kingdom of Llwendolyn, a community of worshippers lived in seclusion. These worshippers were the descendants of refugees from the Holy City of Alabaster, which had been destroyed in the Crusades. One of the members of the congregation was Leask Laell. In his youth, Leask learned the ways of DIV from the clergy of the Church of DIV , including its high priest Ingra Kaz. Though this gated community seemed peaceful and stable, the constant striving towards the light of a dead deity began to radicalize its people. Following the abduction of Leask Laell by the Deep Gnomes, the Church of DIV finally went off the deep end. Under the mad ravings of Ingra Kaz, members of the community were sacrificed and their blood drained from them. By accumulating Radiant blood, the priests were able to manufacture artificial Dae, which they then began to use to warp and mutate their congregation and themselves in order to become closer to their god. This flagitious practice did not succeed in that end, but it still continued unbated until only Ingra Kaz was left alive.

Leask Laell eventually returned along with his new allies to find his community destroyed, and hideous mutated beasts wandering the chapel. Evidence of this bloody ritual was scattered everywhere, including the remains of his mother among others. In the basement the found the high priest conducting a ritual. His sanity well and truly gone, Ingra Kaz had accumulated as much Radiant blood as possible and with it crafted a golem made of Dae. What he wished to do with this golem is unclear, and his reasons died with him at the end of the blades of Nissa Wanderlust. The Dae golem went on a rampage and was eventually stopped by the combined efforts of the Qethosian warriors. After some time recuperating, the warriors found the remaining reservoir of Radiant blood. They were able to use its power to scry their quarry, Terasolum, and deduced that it was heading to the Crater of Atlas. With the remaining Dae energy, they managed to manifest a two-way portal between the church and the Crater, allowing them to wait in ambush for the djinn.

### The Secrets of the Highlands

After the defeat of Kaasma Khara, the goblins involved in the battle came to the attention of the Archmagister of Brysben. He approached them in the guise of Gloria Chronos in the village of Hillsborough. Inviting them into his magical mansion, he gifted them with several magical items, including a crown, a spellbook and a Bag of Holding. Little did the goblins know that the items were in fact cursed. Valiensworth had been running low on his Dae supply and was being forced to seek new sources. The goblins who saved Brysben were deemed suitable sources, and the cursed items began to gradually sap their Dae energy and store it in the Bag of Holding. Unaware of this, the goblins ventured into the bag to investigate the strange goings-on with it, which accelerated the process. Within the Dreamscape inside, an illusion of Valiensworth explained what he had done and delivered an ultimatum; deliver the bag (now saturated with Dae energy) to him or they would die from it sapping their lifeforce.

Refusing this on principle, the goblins made their way back to the Ishtar Highlands, where they had been born from the Dae. Looking for the strongest source of Dae, they discovered that Cheezle's nemesis Chief Big Belly was enticing goblins into his service with liquified Dae in the form of red mud. The group decided to seek out the Chief to learn more, resulting to them travelling to Chief Big Belly's Fort and Dae Spa. Many of the goblins and ogres serving the chief were infused with the Dae of the surrounding swamp, granted them innate regeneration. The goblins deceived and killed their way through the facility, learn that Chief Big Belly believed he had attained immortality. After a particularly unsettling assassination, they found that this was no exaggeration. As the iterant ruler over the Swamp of Life, an area of extremely high Dae content, the chief was able to revive himself continuously throughout the battle, using the Dae infused mud to change his size and duplicate himself. However, the Dae of the swamp could only stave off death so many times and the chief eventually fell to his old rival.

Upon the defeat of Chief Big Belly, Cheezle claimed ownership of the Swamp of Life. After being dragged deeper into the mud, they arrived at the swamp's epicenter. There, they were greeted by a revived Randall Mud, an old adversary. Randall confirmed their theories that bathing in the swamp would restore their Dae energy and stop them from dying. The goblins did as they were bid, going to sleep submerged in the swamp for several hours. In that time, they remembered their original lives as humans of the village of Phiam, and of the horrific actions of Valiensworth. The Swamp of Life lived up to its name, restoring them to health and granting them the strength to face Valiensworth in the name of vengeance.

### Father and Son

Following the transformation of Valiensworth into the Devil Lord Asura, Aelith Malcolm and Alice came to decision to release Nigel Valiensworth from the book her had been polymorphed into, in the hopes he would aid them in the battle against his father. With the aid of Klernt and Aldoras Thelerian, they released Nigel from his confinement no worse for the wear. During their brief explanation, Asura arrived, having sensed Nigel's presence. Realizing they had come for Nigel, the young boy resolved to help Alice, Aldoras and the goblins to defeat the Lord of Deception. Nigel manifested a Dae cloud around himself that the other spellcasters could draw upon. By using the Dae energy, they were able to wear down the spiritual barrier preventing Asura from being banished to the Shadow. With the barrier destroyed, Alice banished the Devil Lord, ridding Io of one of its most dire threats for centuries to come.

## Uses

While in an uncontrolled state, Dae appears to primarily manipulate life in various ways. The Ishtar Highlands see a wide variety of what rampant Dae can do, resulting in perpetual rebirth of its inhabitants as goblins, the mutation and gigantism of certain creatures such as the purple worm, and instilling enhanced durability and accelerated healing as seen at the Swamp of Life. In rare cases, Dae can even create life on its own, such as the Flumphs. Uncontrolled Dae can also be highly dangerous, particularly in its mist form. It is highly volatile and extremely toxic to most life forms without the proper protection, as seen in the massacre at Phiam and in the Old Academy where Nigel was fought as an abomination. High levels of Dae can also interfere with spellcasters, occasionally causing their magic to go wild, inviting unexpected and often unwelcome outcomes.

Daemancy is the application of Dae energy in a controlled manner. So far, only the Daemancer Cult, Nigel Valiensworth, Ingra Kaz and certain goblins like Peekel are able to draw upon Dae as their primary power source. Daemancy has a number of applications outside of regular magic. Daemancers often use offensively through spells such as Dae Bolt and Dae Blade. Dae can also be used to fuel powerful spells and rituals beyond the caster's usual capabilities, as seen with Valiensworth's use of True Polymorph, the attempted summoning of Kaasma Khara, or the creation of the Dae portal at the Church of DIV. Dae energy can also be used to heal wounds, as seen through Peekel's clerical magic or via the manipulation of Dae by the Astral Academy. However, using Dae is not without its risks. Dae magic can go wild, or its power can overwhelm the caster, just as it did to Nigel when he fused with his friend's familiars. Dae also can affect the internal essence of a person in the cases of Sachi and Valiensworth. In Sachi's case, it changed her essence to align with Radiance after she overdosed on its energies. For Valiensworth, his overuse of Dae made him reliant upon it, meaning without a consistent source of Dae at his disposal, he could be rendered next-to-powerless if it was not replenished. So while the application of Dae is multifarious and boundless, it should be harnessed with extreme caution, if at all.

## Mechanics

Main article: Technical Details

The world of Io is a heavily homebrewed setting with many experimental mechanics working at the same time. As an example, there are mechanics that apply only to certain campaigns, and there are mechanics that can be or are shared between multiple campaigns.