The Eldritch Incursion
“The Incursion has affected every soul in Asteria, whether they know it or not”The sun never rose on the day they came. In the center of Ionin millions woke to a flash of light and then the eternal silence of death. The fires that spread from the rip between dimensions spread for hundreds of miles. None survived. After the fire came the darkness. Black clouds of ash blotted out the sunrise for all of Ilucin, and no one was prepared for what came with the darkness. Out through the portal connecting their world to ours poured monstrosities beyond comprehension. Those who survived the flames had their minds erased at the sight of The Great Old One. Far away none knew what was to come. The wastes created became their staging ground, and millions of Orcs poured forth, besieging all who stood in their path. Those who could fight were cut down with ease, and the great Titans that led their forces were unstoppable by the mortals of Asteria. Over the next year they would push back the forces of all who called this place home, halting at a point called The Line. In a bout of desperation, three leaders emerged to lead the fight against the Great Old One and his forces. Brisit Greyshore, a military genius from Ionin, was the first to begin organizing a resistance to oppose this push across the world. He saw this war as a numbers game: whoever threw more lives at the other would win. Osonia Meiavaris, heralded to be the most powerful mage of the time, rallied the casters under her power. This was a war that could not be won by conventional means, as magic was driving the enemy forces forward. Baldrich, later called The Great Dawn, drew power from the gods of the this world to defend their domains on the material plane. These three were real, despite being figures of countless legend and myth. Under them Ilucin came together to fight for their right to this world. And what followed would decide everything for years to come.- Torvus Gran'nuk Malgari, Headmaster of Ridweth School of the Arcane
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Scholars have pinpointed the origin of the Eldritch Horrors after years of research post Crimson Eclipse. The portal seems to have originated somewhere in the positive and negative planes, often referred to the Space Between the Planes. They are headed by the Great Old One, a god theorized to be more powerful then any of the deities that reside over Asteria. Unlike the gods in Asteria, the Great Old One seemed to be able to manifest himself on the Prime Material Plane, a feat never before accomplished by the Twelve. Similar to the Twelve, those mortals who looked upon the Great Old One in his full form had their minds wiped in a defense to the surge of power emitted.
Beneath the Great Old One were his ten Titans. Monstrosities of epic proportion they lead the armies of the enemy. Their size alone made it almost impossible for the Ilucin forces to hurt them, not counting there immeasurable strength and magical power. The arrival of the Six was instrumental in their demise. The titans each had lieutenants under them of lesser statute. Their power was still great, but an effort could be made to kill them in battle. The foot soldiers of the Great Old One were what we now call Orcs. Bred to fight, their strength was only matched by their toughness. While their numbers were less than the Ilucin forces, they decimated the foot solders of the material plane.
Other than this, the portal also allowed monsters from every plane to flow into Asteria. This was both a blessing and a curse, as the alignments of these monsters dictated what side they decided to fight for. Celestial angels fought along side humans and dragons in a way that modern people can hardly comprehend. The gods realized they could not assist on the Prime Material Plane, and so they split off three being from each of them. These Emissaries embodied a single ideal of their god, and even those of the evil tendency assisted the forces of Ilucin. The loss of this world would mean a loss of their domain.
While great in power, the people of Ilucin had the numbers that allowed them to stay in the fight. If one Orc would kill four men before being slain, Brisit decided that all they needed to do was send five men. While sadistic in logic, this mindset is what allowed the Ilucin to survive.
To prevent the flow of monstrosities into Ilucin, Osonia devised a brave plan to close the portal for good. Each of the ten Titans were in possession of an item that kept them linked back to their home. By collecting some, she figured that their planar magic could close the portal, with the assistance of the most powerful mages the world had to give. Much of the midpoint of the war was spent sending small groups of elite troops into enemy controlled territory to obtain these items. The missions were considered suicide, but understanding what was at risk many still signed on.
It took years to accumulate enough magic items to attempt the plan. Osonia teleported a division of troops to the location of the portal, along with great mages and every one of the Six. While defending Osonia, she successfully closed the portal. Almost all who made up the defending forces died to make this happen.
With the flow of enemies stopped the Push began. Over years of time the Line was closed in onto the wasteland that surrounded the closed portal. As the door closed in around the enemy, Balderich called on enough divine energy to raise a great mountain range around the wastes. The act of divine energy was fueled by the power of every god, and his body disintegrated with the effort. The Risen Peaks became a wall to prevent the forces of the Eldritch monstrosities from returning to the world.
The incursion ended in a final effort inside the Wastes. While the Risen Peaks prevented many of the enemies from leaving the wastes, there were still too many of them. A dark ritual was devised to end the war once and for all. Drawing on the power of their enemy, a second cataclysm was planned to eliminate the remaining forces. As the moon rose the night of the attack, it shone crimson red. An explosion of similar power to the one that started the war was started in the wastes. It spread out, killing most of the enemy inside the Wastes. The forces of evil that had invaded Ilucin had been decimated.
As the last titan had been slain the Orcs outside the Wastes threw down their weapons in surrender. Many were killed, but hundreds of thousands took up a new life in the world of Ilucin. The corpses of the great Titans and their Lieutenants littered the world, and years later only the bones remain. A period of rebirth followed the war, as much had to be rebuilt. History before the Incursion is hard to come by, as the world changed so much during the event. The echoes of the war affect every person in the world, even a thousand years after.