The Age of Fire

Civil action

When the serpent breathed the poison of his pride, the desire to be as God, into the hearts of our first parents, that they too fell from their high estate into all the wretchedness in which man is now sunk. In heaven and earth, pride, self-exaltation, is the gate and the birth, and the curse, of hell.   ― Andrew Murray, Humility

The departure of the gods marked the beginning of a strange new era: Still armed with tools from the reclamation wars, the ruling Incarnates could lay claim to territories that spanned entire continents, enforcing their rule with airborne armadas and terrible spellcraft. Yet such powers fell often as quickly as they emerged; victims of plague, warfare, or their own misguided ambitions. Conflicts became larger and more cruel as monarchs began to draw on forces beyond their proper control: Take the Ronkan and Palakian Empires for example, whose mutually assured destruction was absolute.   There were other problems brewing too: Though billions of souls had been put back into the hands of Syol thanks to the crusades; with greater population made it harder for the blood of the Scions to spread. Dynasties ran thin and weak within a few centuries. And soon the other Incarnates, who were chosen at the behest of the gods, were the only ones able to reliably rise to power.   But the hearts of men are fickle. Truly, the demons must have infected them all along, for their minds are so easily swayed and corrupted by power. Many new Incarnates abused their office to oppress their own people or to wage pointless wars over lands they couldn't realistically maintain. They wasted great artefacts. Burned books. Enslaved entire nations. And built cults of worship to themselves.   Moreover, since the Incarnates were functionally immortal; those that had died and reincarnated in new bodies were quickly oppressed so that they could not have the opportunity to rise and become new enemies to the despot rulers. Then some of the longest-lived Incarnates began ascending to become demigods—only to be immediately drafted into various heavenly conflicts—further instilling the impression that all might and magic was abandoning the world. It was inevitable then, perhaps, that it is in the midst of this tumultuous era that some great calamity would escalate and ruin everything once again.