The Fall

"Everything, gone. Progress, people, gone forever..." -Journal of Derrig Jacobs, Smallfolk Scout.

The Fall stands as the catastrophic turning point in Gaiatia’s history, the harbinger of the Great Schism and the end of the Lost Ages. It began with the destruction of Xaethra, the eldritch embodiment of greed, jealousy, lust, and unrestrained self-indulgence. Taking the form of a monstrous dragon golem, Xaethra’s essence had been bound by her champion, Vile, within this towering vessel to lead her seemingly soon-to-be victorious armies in their final conquest of Gaiatia. During the final, desperate battle we were losing against her invasion, Xaethra’s vessel was rendered lifeless high above the clouds following a trecherous act from Vile, sacrificing his entire army through magick means in a ritual attempting to absorb her Godly power for his own, unwilling to play second fiddle to the Goddess any longer; Resulting only in fusing the two's souls in a horrific amalgamation before banishing them from our world. The golem vessel remained however, and fell from the heavens unleashing a cataclysm untold. The impact shattered the land itself, birthing earthquakes, tidal waves, and fiery eruptions that consumed entire kingdoms. What little already remained of cities following the invasion were reduced to molten craters, rivers overflowed with blood and ash, and the sky blackened under the weight of choking smoke to this day. The devastation was absolute. Entire nations vanished overnight, countless species were annihilated, and survivors faced a desolate, hostile world. With no infrastructure, dwindling resources, and the collapse of law and order, the remnants of society descended into chaos, The Great Schism, that would reshape the globe. The Fall was not just an event but an extinction-level calamity that echoed Xaethra’s insatiable hunger for domination. Its legacy despair, total destriuction of our world and nothing gained by the demons who caused it, a war waged for nothing, a harrowing prelude to the century of bloodshed that followed. Where Xaethra’s vessel fell, so too did hope and the old world in-turn.

The Conflict

Prelude

While as our fragmented records of history can say for certain were by no means a time without its share of conflict or strife, comparatively to now the world of old was a sprawling utopia. The Lost Ages, as they would come to be known, were towards their end a ceaseless renaissance of technological and magickal developments, an unprecendeted era of progress, advancement, and relative peace for all folk of the land, that is, until he arrived. His name was Vile, as we know him an ancient Tiefling general who during the Lost Ages united millions of demons under his banner, in a realm known as The Hells, a place of chaos and fire which went unbeknownst to Gaiatia for thousands of years, and Gaiatia in-turn to it. After this victory, Vile reveled in his absoute power over The Hells and it's people, yet secretly yearned for another war. Vile was renown as remarkably diligent in both studies and athleticism, a Tiefling who sought only to better himself, and was afraid he had simply nothing else to truly test him; Until the Goddess of greed, lust, and jealousy would come to him in a dream, with an offer he simply could not refuse. Strange to him at first (as Gods were strangers to all folk at the time, secretly dwelling their lands since the dawn of time before this very moment would introduce us to them) Vile would overcome his initial confusion to hear her plea. She, who referred to herself as Xythra, needed his agency on the world, proclaiming Gods were too powerful to directly interact with the physical world without potentially destroying it and subsequently themselves; To entice him, the Goddess alluding to Vile who's greatest love was war, of supposed knowledge of another realm beyond his own to conquer atop a way to reach it, that she would grant him if he met her demands to wage war on-it in, but in her name, not his. As this meeting progressed, they would seem to possess everything the other desired... She an Avatar to enact her will on the world without inadvertantly shattering it, Vile with an infinite lust for battle glad to spread war on her behalf with more than the means to do so. And-so Vile agreed, delightedly in-turn the Goddess showed him the way to Gaiatia and soon the whole of our realm Gods and all would have to fight for their survival.

Deployment

All conflicts with the denizens of Gaiatia were put on hold, their grievances and histories with another that necessitated their borders previously made paultry concerns in Vile's wake, as the world bravely, yet futily banded together to oppose him.

Battlefield

The entire world attacked in one-fell-swoop, portals with entire batallions designated to them opened from The Hells simultaneously across the whole of Gaitia; A thousand demons and siege machines at-a-time pouring out from them into one country while at the same moment another on the opposite side of the world, hundreds of times all-at-once with no warning whatsoever, a quiet autumn night giving way to all-out warfare with enemies that had no remorse.

Conditions

From the height of civilization, slowly with each ill-fated meeting with Vile's forces worsening more-and-more until wars raged with rifles and tanks gave way to swords and shields. Once abundant medicines entirely depleted, rations thinned or entirely denied from increasing scarcity of resources; For those who survived the entire conflict, a demonstrably intense collapse in every-facet of civilian and soldier life was evident with Vile's every victory, his next easier and easier until the end where his own mistakes were all but prevented our world's extinction.

Outcome

Vile would lose, barely, vanquished surely but not without eventually taking the world with him. His strategies daunting and efficient, his armies just-as-much, in-fact were it not for his own hubris at the cusp of his victory he would have conquered the plane with seemingly little effort. While the exact circumstances are vague from what was lost, sometime during the 30-year conflict with Vile, he grew tired of serving the Goddess, and attempted to claim her power for his own. Enacting a dark ritual at the final battle of the war, he sacrificed his unknowing armies currently fighting the last of Gaiatia's resistance; Using their souls to power what he allegedly believed to be magicks allowing him to absorb the Goddess, through a golem vessel resembling a dragon he created under the guise of allowing her to partially enter the plane  to bask in their coming victory; But this betrayal would only destroy him, his armies falling dead before he disappeared in plumes of smoke and fire, many of the confused resistance soldiers who's enemies suddenly died, growing mad or falling dead themselves from being exposed to this still drastically limited form of the Goddess being drawn into their world for even a few moments, such a powerful presence too much for their mortal perceptions. The Goddess though would come and go, now defeated yet otherwise unscathed, however the draconic vessel which she attempted to possess would not. She had while within it attempted to stop Vile's ritual, supposedly flying with him high into the air before he was destroyed, and the Goddess' influence over her vessel then left as she retreated. This vessel would then come lifelessly crashing back down from above the clouds like a meteor, creating an impact powerful enough to cause planet-wide volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis and the like which devastated the already beaten world. While not immediately the collapse of civilization, it would certainly facilitate it. The realm was broken, a perfect example of a pyrrhic victory over Vile and his armies. Institutions, factories, hospitals, either destroyed by Vile to deny his enemy any edge or looted after his defeat for resources no longer able to be provided to the victors' governments, as most of them no-longer remained. People were left without security, food, their cultures, and seemingly any hope... Everything from their homes to their entire lands left destitute or outright demolished by war, if-not the natural disasters it caused currently still raging on from the battle's conclusion; Immediately surviving folk were traumatized from the barbaric warfare waged by their demonic adversaries atop the weight of their tremendous losses. These circumstances made allies out of enemies, islands out of continents, leaving only a great vaccuum of power needed to be filled by the tired men and women still-standing if they had any hope to start again.

Aftermath

The Great Schism . Hatred, pain, and suffering for a century. The desparation caused by the Fall seemingly too great to surmount peacefully, fate would have it no-other-way than to subject the already broken plane to another hundred years of tormenting conflict; Conflicts we are lucky to have survived at-all.

Historical Significance

Remembered as the death of all that was, our ancestors' world and almost all they achieved over tens of thousands of years before ripped apart like wet paper in 3 meagre decades.

Legacy

The beginning of the end is an apt description, the events which changed Gaiatia forever, and ruined almost-everything our forefathers ever built, or at-least started the chain reactions for the Schism to finish the job

Technological Advancement

The peak of scientific progress, new inventions and amenities developed by the day. All swiftly eradicated by a mad demon and his army of murderous, rapacious zealouts.

Included Conflicts

• The Great Schism

Battlefield Type

Planetary

Start Date

Lost Ages, 1777 LA

Ending Date

Lost Ages, 1804 LA

Conflict Result

Nearly the entire world was left-in-shambles, and soon would have to fight for what little remained, or be wiped out by those that did.