History
From Crucible
What becomes of those left behind after the end of the World?
Although much of the great lore was lost in the Shattering, through the arduous work of sages these past six centuries we have been able to piece together the following:
Contents |
The Old World
Originally, in the path where our world journeys around the life giving blue-white sun, there were two worlds, exactly opposite each other. At that time, the collected peoples of Crucible dwelt not on this world, but on its idyllic opposite, a world known as Vana.
Many eons ago on Vana, great conflict raged as opposing forces vied for control of the planet, with a coalition of benevolent and neutral gods finally triumphing over the cadre of malevolent deities. Unable to expunge their evil, the coalition imprisoned the malicious forces deep within Vana’s tiny moon, where their influence was limited to occasional bouts of madness and the dreaded affliction of lycanthropy. The forces of immorality and corruption largely banished, life flourished and prospered on Vana, with agrarian and metropolitan dwellers existing in harmony.
Discovery of the New World
Eventually, the great learned men and women of Vana discovered the existence of this one, and with the help of their deities constructed an incredibly powerful gateway, the first Henge of the Journey Stones, to better explore this new world. Finding the planet an inhospitable and uninhabited wasteland, they primarily used Crucible for logging and mining operations, as well as for a dumping ground for any lingering dangerous criminals, monsters, cultists, failed magical experiments, or other such “undesirables.” Once it became too dangerous to retrieve materials from Crucible, even traversing the sophisticated portal network they had built across its face, the people of Vana decide to change the operation of the great portal between worlds to prevent passage of any kind back from Crucible; a decision which would serve to spare it from the backlash of Vana’s eventual cataclysm.
Beginning of the End
While the exact timeline is unknown, it is generally agreed upon that roughly a millennia ago a schism occurred within the Great Elven Host. Ever obsessed with perfection and filled with the righteous zeal of their god Tyr, the militant arm of the Host accused the impartial Elven worshippers of the neutral pantheon of, as they saw it, condoning and even coddling evil. Subjecting the neutral Elves to ever harsher restrictions and inquisitions, eventually all who would not swear fealty to Tyr were branded with blackened skin, declared forever exiled from the lands of the elves, and marched en masse through the portal to Crucible. Free of moderating influence, the Host began what would become known as the Elven Purification Wars. Anything not explicitly considered “good” was unacceptable, and banishment was too kind a reward for evil. The armies of the Great Elven Host scoured the land, expunging all who would not embrace righteousness. Unable to stem the tide of Elven aggression, and faced with the annihilation of their chosen races, and ultimately, themselves, the deities of neutrality employed their final remaining option, granting freedom to the long quiescent gods of evil. The deities aligned with the axis of good, hesitant to intervene with Tyr's holy purge until this time, became outraged by the release of their ancient adversaries. The final battle of Vana was joined.
Details of the War
The Exodus
After centuries of unrelenting warfare, the neutral deities began to see there would be no clear victor in this conflict, and very likely their world would never recover from the terrible wounds inflicted upon it. Secretly beseeching their ancient allies, the four Elemental Stewards, they forged a clever pact in an attempt to preserve as many mortal souls as possible. In exchange for the majority of the neutral deity’s divine energy, the stewards would evacuate through the Great Henge any mortal creature who desired to be free of the war, while simultaneously shielding their activities from the discerning gaze of the good and evil deities. Foreseeing the inevitable destruction of Vana, and the backlash it would create throughout their own realms, the Elemental Stewards transferred all connections to their respective planes from the old world to the new, and donned the more durable forms of dragons to better sheppard their new charges through the transition.
