The Gods
The gods do not have a presence in the world during this age.
Instead, mortals are worshipped after their death, referred to as Saints, Convergents, or later The Convergence.
| Saint | Deed |
| Selene Dawnbreaker | sacrificed herself stopping an undead horde |
| Dura "Eyes Wide" Mougrain | denounced Gruumsh's teachings of hate and led the Orcs down a path of peace |
| Linus | developed a way to grow food without soil |
| Mordriel Fledger | "invented" Geo-tech |
| Jorgunthr, the Warlike | good at killing |
Known History
Before the Fog
At the beginning of time, the races lived in isolation, with their gods, and at peace. The moment they discovered the others' islands, war broke out. The fighting ended with the formation of the Council, created to keep the peace.
Hundreds of years into Council rule they had become corrupt and served only their own gains. They had come to believe the gods were beneath them and sent a group of adventurers to challenge their authority. No one knows exactly what this party did, but their actions angered the gods so much that the all-powerful divine abandoned this world. The people rebelled and overthrew the corrupt officials, replacing them with the first saints.
The Mist Rises
Then came the fog. Ever present and ever rising, everyone needed to escape.
Those on the island of Eard migrated to Ricyning, repurposing the skyscrapers to be contained cities. It wasn't long before overpopulation led to starvation and death. Their salvation came when Linus, a Dwarven horticulturalist, developed a food cultivation method capable of sustaining the populations. He was named a saint for his discovery.
The fog covered the land, starving the trees of the light they need. The druids of Melamar collectively decided to save a single tree, pouring into it all of their life energy. Thus, the great tree Ingald was able grow to an outstanding size, towering above the fog.
Wary of the world after the last Council's folly, those in the Verndari Mountains decided to abandon the surface. They sealed themselves in their halls, with only a few mountaintop trading posts open to the outside world.
Some even escaped the world altogther. A large contingent migrated to the Feywild in hopes of a happier life, and others journeyed to even more exotic locations.
Technological Revolution
By all accounts, Mordriel Fledger was a barely adequate wizard. Driven to prove himself to his peers, he spent most of his efforts hiring mercenaries to explore various artifact-rumored surface ruins. One of these expeditions brought back a set of strange schematics, seemingly drawn up by the infamous Geo. Mordriel spent decades reverse-engineering the technology, finally creating a working version in the last years of his life. He dubbed the technology "Geotech", both in secret homage to the original inventor and in reference to the crystals required to function.
The flying technology was an overnight sensation. It wasn't long until the Ricyning leaders realized this could be their salvation. They attached Geotech to houses and interconnects building, creating floating cities. Using the "original" design, they created flying transportation. Many different vehicles were created, from train-like travel on a beam of light to large dirigible-esque cruises, to private (orgy-optional) jets. Mordriel was named a saint for saving everyone.
People became so reliant on this technology that the controlling company, TNR, was able to sieze control of the governments and begin their conquest of the world. A ruthlessly Human-centric organization, they viewed all the other races as unworthy and limited their use of Geotech. Resentment was high, but a tense peace still existed in the land. That is, until it was discovered that Orc blood was a cheaper fuel source for Geotech than expensive crystals...
The Great War
Everything came to a head when TNR struck against the Orcs. Knowing the Humans would probably lose a drawn out conflict, they decided to strike all Orc cities simultaneously and hard. No longer could the rest of the world sit idly by. Led by Marquez Mougrain, granddaughter of Saint Dura, the
Delegation of the People was founded to rout out TNR and wrest back control of the world.
Calling on the Dragons for aid, TNR fought back. The flying cities spread out across the world became battlegrounds for the evenly matched forces.
Evolution of Faith
Prior to this war, through the centuries of rising fog, "Convergents" slowly became "Convergence". Instead of worshipping individual saints, faith leaders pushed the worship an ideal state of being. While the saints were still honored and venerated, the combination of all their good deeds formed this theoretical perfect human.
Suddenly, in the middle of this great war, the most devout of the Humans began to experience an odd power. Their faith in the Convergence began to manifest small miracles. It wasn't long before this became weaponized, resulting in Human victory all but assured.
End of the War
Just when all seemed lost for the Delegation of the People, the Dragons decided to not fight anymore. Overnight, they collectively abandoned the war effort and flew off over the horizon. No one knows why they left, nor has anyone seen a Dragon since.
Without their powerful ally, the Human armies quickly fell. TNR was driven underground, and order was restored once more. A central government was reformed under the Delegation of the People, but with none of the unity of years past. Local governments were left relatively autonomous, with few laws affecting all peoples.
The Restless Dead
Stories survive from a time before the clouds, when people walked on the ground and the gods cared about the world. The most frequent commonality between the stories is death being referred to as "rest" or "sleep" or "peace". But this is not the world anymore. Now, once the breath has left a corpse it rises again. Ever moving, ever violent, ever unfeeling, these undead are a constant threat.
This problem was especially rampant during the Great War, leading to even more bloodshed and death. But through the years, different cultures have created different ways of dealing with them.
Capitalizing on the new Convergents religion (and then later Convergence), the New Ricyning leaders devised a solution to the undead problem. They enacted laws and ran a propaganda campaign to remove all deference of dead bodies. They emphasize the soul over the body, mandating that the deeds and life of a person are what matter. Any corpse is thus treated as unclean and abandoned into the fog.
In Ingald, the recently deceased are offered to their home. The tree grows itself around the corpse, holding it in place and immobile while the nutrients are slowly leached out.
Still wanting to honor their brethren, the leaders in the Verndari Mountains founded a city deep within the underdark. Named Kal'Kavir, it is here the dead are sent, acting as the first line of defense against threats from the deep.
