Aetheus Terra Aether

Aetheus, a world that has existed since the birth of the Elemental Chaos. Once dominated by primordial titans of desolation and nature, until the arrival of the Prime Divinities upon their apotheosis. These gods made combat with the titans and used their bodies to manifest their vision of the world and create the people in their own image. But the Gods were arrogant, and bickered and fought with one another, causing their children pain and suffering. Feeling pity to the mortal races, they granted them the power of magic so that they may thrive and have peace within their lives. But in their arrogance at this awesome power, they stretched beyond their means and sought to accomplish great things in their name. In their hubris and their bid for unlimited power, they meddled with powers they did not truly appreciate and invited dark forces upon their reality. The chaotic demons of the Abyss soon swarmed the world and a war between the divine and the diabolical ensued, causing a great calamity that rendered the world in destruction. After sealing away the darkness of the Abyss, the gods that watched over the mortal realm sacrificed their power to build a gateway to divide the divine from the mortal realm, and thus seal the evils of the Abyss and all other deities away from the realm of mortals. From the ashes, came the prosperity and independence of a number of kingdoms across the different continents. Though the chaos of the Great Cataclysm reverberate in the peoples of the land to this day. The Dragons have been reduced to a small number, their once mighty empire broken and grounded from their sky-faring citadels, now laden in ruin. The Elves, abandoned by their god and at war with one another, they sought asylum across the planes with their magical Arkspire cities - but through a terrible error, the cities disappeared across the planes, with only one returning after centuries of asylum within the Feywild, returning to a world that had forgotten the grandeur of the elves and their magic. The Dwarves, in their eternal quest to unlock the secrets of the elements became arrogant, selfish and greedy, fighting amongst themselves beneath the surface of the world until their exploits nearly rendered the world itself, with different gateways to the elemental dimensions inviting powerful elementals and causing ceaseless war, those who remained came to an accord to resolve their disputes and put an end to the elemental chaos seeping into the world. Humans rose and spread across the world in this time of desperation, thriving in a century of broken magic, inspired by the past and ambitiously martialling forward to newer horizons. But not many forget that it was they who invited the chaos through their ceaseless ambition, and the hubris that once thought that they were mightier than the gods through their great exploitation of magic.   For 700 years, the world moved on after the Divine Gate was created, prospering and growing. Only when a terrible incident occurred that the sky itself tore open and through it, the infinite horrors and twisting alien reality of the Far Realm bled into the world. The Rift opened, most believing it was due to the actions of the abuse of magic by the mortal races to try and attain godhood, or even create a new god to rule over Aetheus. Despite this, the world succumbed to a century of terror and horror and war - many of the last Dragonaughts that survived the Cataclysm were destroyed and sacrificed to combat the eldritch horrors from the Rift, and put at bay the hungry and eldritch-evil known as Hadar, the Dark Hunger. It was through a last ditch effort, and a desperate alliance of friends and foes, that they soared into the skies and sealed the Rift. The Skyclasp Sealers have been heralded as heroes to this day, but after a century the world is still recovering from the horrors unleashed, and dealing with those that were invited to the mortal plane from the great beyond - the crystal sages of the Astral Sea, the Shardminds, wish to rebuild the Living Gate and reunite with one another. The Gith seek to exterminate all traces of the Illithids that have claimed asylum across the world, leaving bloody traces wherever they go.    The floating dragonaught cities have fallen, the elves are divided from their Arkspires, the dwarven strongholds recover in isolation... the world is crawling back to an era of light and peace, in this new age of opportunity. Will the mortal races be doomed to repeat the past, will the Diabolicals return from their banishment, what repercussions can be felt from the Rift Schism? Who knows... a new day comes.