The Ichormachy
The gods of Faerie, Elf, and Jötunn and more descended from the firmament, chasing after the rain of blood they had excised from the God Before. Man could only watch as their forms, as large and proud as mountains, stood over our cities. And their legions followed after.
-Lament for the God Before
To see their god die scarred humanity. So terrible was the strain that as the holy orders of these invader gods, many men and women did not react. They simply stared at the sky, lips barrel moving in prayer that had no one to hear it. Even as Elven swordlords and Jötunn huskarls tore homes apart, looting and pillaging as they went, the did not try to defend themselves or their families. Even as the murderous gods threshed souls, those little seeds of faith, from bodies, they did not scream. The only thing that roused them was the appearance of another god. One that appeared, in both form and figure, to resemble the god that all of man had seen die. A prayer for safety heard? In a sense, and yet not at all. You see, faith is an interesting thing. It's...reactive. Moldable. It empowers and sustains gods, but also makes them who they are. It is a concept and a material both, which can be to influence a god, or as showcased Man's current god-industry and gods such as myself, bring one into being. Man did not know this yet, and so it seemed to be a miraculous revival of the species beloved god. It was not so. A topic for another time, but know this, to revive a god is to see a shambling corpse. The ideas and memories of all those that attempt to funnel faith back into a familiar form all become mangled, entangling together and mixing until only the strongest ideas and Tenets remain. Not as the god was, but an exagerated form. Gods of fire and warmth become pyroclastic, burning everything. Gods of protection become paranoid and frazzled, only able to think of protecting, but every failure to do so standing so starkly in opposition to their nature that it can be driven mad. Such as it was with Man's god. The god that had appeared, the God After, was made from the desire for protection that all of Man felt at the time and formed to take the comforting figure of their beloved god. Her sudden appearance stunned the invading gods, providing an opportunity for her to launch herself at them, a flaming sword in hand. Slátrhöggr, a Jötunn god, took the first blow on the chest, thinking nothing of it. The blow nearly cut him in two, and he bears the scar to this day. Man did not know it yet, but they were torturing that beloved diety. She tried to be everywhere at once, protecting every home, every person, ever piece of art that held a place in Man's heart. Too much, even for a god. In the end, she could only cry. Her tears are held as relics by Man, even now. Reminders of their accidental sin. The invading gods would eventually corner her and through sheer divine weight, kill the God After. For them, it was the death of something they had never seen before, or at least not something so fully formed. It seems unlikely to me that they would not have encountered something similar as the moulding of faith into a god is not an ability only available to Man in the entierty of their eon-long lifespans. For Man, they had to see their god die a second time, but this time it was a mix of of guilt and relief. Guilt that they had failed their god a second time, and had functionally condemned her to such an end. Relief to see the poor diety's struggle finally end. Her tears could finally end. Most would consider that the end of a conflict, but as the invading gods looked up from their second kill, they were met with a legion of Man and a legion of gods. Newborn, rough around the edges, and only anchored to only one or two Tenets, and only one Domain. War. The invaders scoffed, for these little gods paled in comparison to their power. A thousand little bundles of faith, easily torn apart by gods with a whole species faith behind them. The first few were batted aside, easy enough, only landing a few stinging blows here and there. They could have kept it up forever, honestly, but the failed to realized that their mortal followers could not. Gods of war and battle plunged into the mortal invaders, killing swaths as they go. Gods of death pulled life from those that wandered into their inhuman perceptions. It did not take long to route the many hosts, and they fled back to their ships, only standing their ground beneath the shadows of their gods. Then the newborn gods of man could turn their full attentions to the invaders, and only then did those gods feel the true sting of swarms of gods striking them with flame clad swords, the might of storms, monsters, and spirits. No matter how many the invaders destroyed, there were always more to continue the attack. Slátrhöggr, injured by the God After, was nearly brought low by the sheer weight of numbers he faced. Their legions routed, and now facing a constantly replenishing pool of Faith dead set on killing them all, the invading gods decided that they would leave, for now. They had a prize large enough to say they gave more than what they god in the form of what Soul they had already pulled from the Throne. So they left. They did not yet realize what would reveal itself to them in short order, but they and their armies also carried the idea that Man had discovered back with them alongside their war-prizes. Regardless, the war was finished. It had only lasted for three years. The first following the death of the God Before, the second started by the creation of the God After, and the third was a year of roughshod Godcraft. The consequences of that war last until now, and will last far in the future.
The Conflict
Battlefield
Most of Canvas saw some part of the conflict. Some, the outer reaches of human civilization, escaped relatively unscathed. Many of the cities of the time were ravaged completely.
Outcome
The invading gods left Canvas alone, and returned to their worlds to like their wounds and deal with what had beened learned.
Left in the ruins of their homeland, and now left leaderless, humanity started to experiment further with the idea of making a god.
Aftermath
The God-Industry of Man is eventually established and spreads across the totality of cultures on the surface of Canvas. Now, tendrils of the industry have started to probe the Thrones of other gods, but that is likely to start much broader and perhaps open conflict.
Many of the gods that invaded have face diminished faith in the intervening 200 years, a symptom of the scars that they suffered during the war.
Conflict Type
War
Battlefield Type
Planetary
Conflict Result
Status Quo peace, the death of Man's god and the first crafted god. The wounding and scarification of several primordial gods.
Location
Comments