Ab Aeterno

Ab Aeterno. The world of Myth defined by its calamities. The planet lies in the midst of its seventh age, set in motion and racked by the rising of an accursed, wicked light. Though the light is but the most recent in a series of disasters. Seven times has the world been changed, five smaller changes known as fracturings, and two great changes known as sunderings. This seventh age, the Age of Falling Light, was brought on by the second of these sunderings almost two centuries past.   From this sundering was birthed the celestials; beings whose mythic balance has been thrown so far in the direction of light that it is all they are, just as the sundering of darkness millenia ago spawned the infernals. These celestials now harry the realm of Atlesia and beyond from their heaven on high, borne from the former island nation of Tehillah, set adrift in the skies over the western waves by the full might of the Twelvefold; the foremost gods of Atlesia. In Tehillah’s shadow, a massive abyss now lies.   This is to say nothing of the troubles brought on by the fifth fracturing, now only exacerbated by the more current disasters. It brought the Age of Deific Reckoning. The primal tribes, mankind's distant, bestial cousins now summon their gods from the Mythic to either defend themselves, or advance on their enemies. Be they beast, beastman, or more often, mankind itself. These Archons, as the beast-man gods are known, are possessed of an ability to bend the minds of those they choose, forcing them to serve their wills. And after a certain period of time, even the affecting Archon’s demise will not release those afflicted from their faithful malediction.   But this is not the end of the world's woes. In the wake of the Second Sundering, an empire rose from the disperate northern wastes of the great continent of Raethalnd; the former battlegrounds of the conflict which resulted in the First Sundering. Over the decades since the calamity of light, the Arkaen Empire has expanded its borders through fire and war, swallowing up the small nations that once made up the southern half of the continent, converting each into provinces that make up their grand empire. They believe all gods to be false, the gods of mankind no different than the gods of the primal tribes. They see the faith in and indeed reliance upon them as a weakness to the world and its people. The entirety of Raethalnd now under their flag they set their sights outside the bounds of their half-blasted homeland.   Though the world now lies on the brink between ends of different makings, still there are those who struggle against. the eastern continent of Ornaska, though divided, is as of now free of the empire's tyranny, as they have been from outside reign since the days of their first rebellion. And three of the six great city-states of the realm of Atlesia have begun to reforge their old alliance in order to stand against the empire should they bring their black steel against them.   In this world, where the echoes of Myth travel far and resonate in the hearts of many, a few wandering souls find themselves somehow drawn together. Their destinies uncertain, will their path lead them to what they seek? Whatever the outcome, the road will be winding indeed...