Lux Tenebrae

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.” – H.P. Lovecraft, opening of “The Call of Cthulhu.   Lux Tenebrae is a dark fantasy setting revolving around themes of Lovecraftian Horror and Conspiracy. Somewhere in the D&D multiverse lies a distant planet called Valith where the gods are suspiciously silent and the Mythos reigns unchallenged.   Valith is a devastated world, the result of a great ice age called the Aeon of Night which turned the planet into a frozen wasteland. The Aeon of Night brought ruin to the advanced civilizations of old world and pushed the civilized races to the brink of extinction. The survivors huddled around vast generators that burned coal to keep the cold at bay. Others sought refuge in vast tunnels deep beneath the planets surface. For years the survivors stood against the Aeon of Night like pin pricks of light in a seemingly endless blizzard. In time the howling winds dissipated and the ice began to melt. A generation of survivors that had never known anything but the grey unforgiving landscape came out of their shelters to gaze upon the sun for the first time.   What followed the Aeon of Night was the Aeon of Dawn and Aeon of Day, five centuries of rebuilding and rebirth. Much had been lost during the Aeon of Night, technologies that would never be regained, entire cultures destroyed, and histories where forgotten. Using what little remained of the old world the survivors founded new civilizations, relearned how to build engines, rediscovered magic, and spread across world like wild fire. In time these fledgling civilizations would come into conflict over resources and differing ideologies, starting feuds which would spark further conflicts in later years.   As industrialization took hold the climate changed again. The glaciers that had threatened the civilized races during the Aeon of Night receded further, revealing things from bygone eras that should have been left frozen in the ice. Monsters, profane relics, devastating arcane weapons, and secrets that where not meant to be known. Men of science would study these phenomenon and learn of the ancient evils that still slumbered above and below Valith. Some among them fought to develop weapons and magic to counter these ancient horrors, while others fell to the dark forces, forming cults and secret societies to further their own ambitions. Ideological wars where fought in secret bellow the fog choked cities and back alleys between the organizations that formed around the ancient evils. Meanwhile the rest of the world remained blissfully ignorant the existential horror that threatened the safety and sanity of common folk.   In later years ancient grudges that had started in centuries past would spill over, sparking the Great War. A conflict fought between two vast empires, the Usilin Imperium and the Hielegian Hegemony and their network of allies. The Great War last six long bitter years and heralded the end of entire empires and monarchies that had stood for centuries. During the war new devastating technologies where deployed such as automatic weapons, aeroships, tanks, and Golems. Millions died in the trenches as the battle lines shifted back and forth. Both sides where caught in an endless stalemate. To insure victory the empires consorted with dark powers to create new arcane weapons, and in the process they unknowingly paved the way for further horror in latter years, drawing the attention of ancient evil. Although their secret machinations did not achieve them victory, the covenants they made remained and the secret conflicts that plague the world have been brought closer to the forefront, threatening to plunge Valith into a new age of darkness.