The Fall of Feallor
The Divine named Feallor fought by his brother’s side, despite holding a deep resentment for mortals: his love for his brother was too great and if his brother fought for mortals he would too. Feallor sought more power however, seeing that the combined forces of the Primordials and the Traitor Divines would soon exceed the Precursors. Despite the peace, Feallor mistrusted the Primordials and Traitor Divines greatly and journeyed beyond Iontas to find more power. Feallor saw many things, many of his dead Divine brethren floating in the Astral Sea. However, he heard a call and followed it. The call lead him to the edges of the universe itself, the edge of the Far Realm where it bordered Voidharrow. Voidharrow had dreamt for so long, dreaming of unlife, and it corrupted Feallor, making Feallor his avatar. Feallor lured the Divine of the race of Giants and a young Primordial into the Far Realm. There, Feallor killed and ate them both in a profane ritual, erasing their names from history becoming the first Divine to ascend to Godhood. Using this newfound power, Feallor took a fragment of Voidharrow and placed it within the Primordial Chaos. That fragment grew and corrupted, creating the Abyss, the centre and bottom of which was a vast black hole, a dark portal to Voidharrow itself.
The Time of Betrayal
The Abyss grew and grew and eventually Feallor struck, striking the Crystal Palace that had become known as the Divine Palace, shattering it. This shattering allowed the combined forces of the Abyss and Voidharrow to invade Iontas, creatures known as Demons forming from the corrupt or trapped souls of mortals and aberrations ascending through the black hole at the centre of the Abyss. In this chaos, the Shardminds were formed, one of which was myself, Eshunu. I witnessed the already chaotic world descend into pure madness and destruction. The Primordials, Traitor Divines and the Precursor Divine’s banded together to battle against the infinite forces of the Abyss and Voidharrow. However, even their combined might was not enough.
Diabhal, Cruthu’s former lover, saw that the Abyss and Voidharrow would soon consume them all, and then all of reality itself. He took his new lover, Toir who’s greed had become apparent and triumphed over her personality, created the Nine Hells in order to combat the Abyss: The souls of the corrupt would no longer only be claimed by the Abyss, and a stream of souls entered the Nine Hells to become Devils: lawful soldiers who would serve his whim. Other Traitor Divines flocked to him, and Diabhal granted them power over his Devils. Toir and Diabhal visited Toir’s Sanguine Calamity and Diabhal gave him a gift, marking the Sanguine Calamity with his Sigil. This gift allowed the Calamity’s flames to break through even the most powerful of fire resistances. The Sanguine Calamity was unveiled and proved a key asset, along with the devils, in combating Feallor. Other Traitor Divines saw the Abyss as a potential asset, descending into it themselves and imposing their will on layers of it. Chief among these were Ollpheist and Dorcha, Dorcha’s betrayal causing her mother, Eado, to become so distraught that her grief gave birth to the Shadowfell: a dark reflection of Iontas with no joy. To help Eado, Taig took the joy of his people and created the Feywild: colourful and emotional. Eado left the Shadowfell and took refuge in this plane, in an attempt to become joyous once more. Mortals began to twist and warp magic from the once beautiful essence of creation into a weapon: creating terrible arms, armour and spells to strike down their foes.
The Rise of Heroes & the Sealing of Feallor
The creation of the Nine Hells and the usage of demons to fight demons were both seen as a betrayal by the Precursor Divines, but the threat of Feallor was too great. With these reinforcements, the war grew to almost a stalemate for thousands, no, hundreds of thousands of years. Eventually Feallor was defeated thanks to a group of mortal heroes who journeyed into the Halls of Sinew, Feallor’s divine domain, and, along with the assistance of 3 Solars, 3 Pit Fiends and 4 Archnomentals. These combined forces managed to do the impossible and strike down Feallor’s avatar. The two weapons sang together a song of binding, sealing Feallor’s conscience within 3 gems. However, the creation of the gems to continue their sealing power required 3 powerful beings to be sealed with Feallor. The 3 solars, Es’Uriit, Thielel and Karlel quickly forfeited their souls to the ritual, their bodies, like the Avatar of Feallor, becoming statues and their minds being imprisoned with the Chained God. Feallor’s intense power was blasted from the Halls. Cruthu struck his power with a thousand spears of pure sunlight, and the Divine Leigheas used chains of Sunlight to wrap and bind it within. The avatar’s body was contained underneath the desert within a labyrinth of great power. A mortal bloodline was given the task of ensuring that Feallor would never again escape from his bonds, and so this bloodline forged the city of the Carn Cabal above Feallor’s Avatar’s prison, to ensure none would ever trespass into it. Every 50 years one mortal from this bloodline, the Ashglades, must venture into the labyrinth and give their life to keep the magic holding Feallor at bay, leaving the mortal's body behind as a statue that cries tears of blood. With Feallor’s fall, the demon lords retreated into the Abyss to avoid annihilation, and the demons on Iontas were destroyed.
The Ascension
The Precursor Divines however saw this opportunity to turn on the Primordials, surprising and slaughtering the Dawn Titans in their weakened states. The Dawn Titans were destroyed and their essences banished, creating the Four Elemental Planes that encircled the Material Plane. Taig however was disgusted and furious with the brutality of the other Divines and left the Material Plane, taking a segment of his elves into the Feywild. The remnants of Primordial Chaos melted into the Astral Sea as other Planes of Existence began to form. The remaining Divines then fell to infighting, Divines absorbing the remaining Primordials into their own beings to become gods as Feallor did. Cruthu used this power then to banish his former lover, Diabhal, into his very own creation. As another war began to erupt, mortals were caught up within it. Mortals began to use magic to prepare themselves and their cities to survive another onslaught of war. The now Gods realised that if another war was to be waged, Iontas would not survive: the Sacred Cataclysm had destroyed 78% of all life upon the planet already.
The Exodus
Duine at this point had created a new race, Humans. These were to have shorter lives, but would spread across the world of Iontas quickly and help other races rebuild. Duine, wanting this new race to even have a chance at survival, went to Leigheas and hatched a plan. Duine had come to the realisation that in order for mortals to live and survive, the Gods must not live upon their world. Additionally, Duine knew that mortals could not be trusted with the full extent of magic, or they would slaughter each other in the millions. Leigheas agreed, and helped Duine take the Flow and restrict it. Duine crafted a bronze tetrahedron and placed it around the Ortus Tree to harness its power. The Flow was funnelled through this Tetrahedron, called the Ortus, and was channelled into rivers of magic that spread across Iontas forming a river delta across the planet. Magic was limited for mortals and the Flow Rivers sent streams of Flow across the planet, forming a weave-like prison which forced the Gods off the planet. The Gods were banished from Iontas and some banded together and helped each other live in Celestial Planes, whilst others were banished to the Abyss or to the Nine Hells. And so, the mortals of Iontas were left to rebuild their world, the planet finally theirs to own.
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