The Calamity
A Powerful wizard named Quedlin rules the continent. Capable of raising an island from the ocean, his need for knowledge becomes an obsession as he begins studying the Negative Planes. After neglecting his duties as ruler, his people went hungry. Four people; Ethos, A Sah Shi, Amori Ehn, and Chlorethro organized a rebellion to take back their freedom.
Fearing losing his power, the wizard sends soldiers out to quell the rebellions and begins the rituals to summon three demon lords ( Yeenoghu, Zuggtmoy, Jubliex) and one Primordial Evil (Dendar, the Night Serpent), in hopes to bind them to his will and rule Onallivorac with absolute power.
Summary
The Demon Lords were not so easily bound by a mortal though, and devoured him before tearing through the land, destroying all life or changing it drastically from what it once was. People died by the tens of thousands every single day. The leaders of the rebellion quickly had to reorganize to defend the people from this threat. After defeating Zuggtmoy, they decided to split their forces to take down each demon as quickly as possible.
Fearing the Primordial the most, Chlorethro and Amori Ehn moved to the north to contain Dendar
A Sah Shi, and her Dragon, Cagalos flew to the East to defeat Jubliex
Ethos left to head off Yeenoghu to the south
After disappearing for a month, they returned to what is now Stregoth to engage with Dendar. Nobody is sure what happened to them, but new divine magic started appearing in the world to those who were close with the Heroes, including their children.
After disappearing for a month, they returned to what is now Stregoth to engage with Dendar. Nobody is sure what happened to them, but new divine magic started appearing in the world to those who were close with the Heroes, including their children.
Historical Basis
The event is universally accepted as fact, due to various signs seen throughout the realm:
Maernigh
Maernigh was once a deciduous forest Pre Calamity. It was never referred to as the "Nightmare Forest" by the wary travelers of today. The soft songs of birds softly echoed everywhere, the land locked in the permanent light of dawn during the day.
After the Calamity had begun, Zuggtmoy and Dendar started influencing the life of the forest, changing it drastically in just a few months. The once temperate forest started becoming humid, mushrooms and other fungi grew rapidly, the trees crawling wtih vines. The citizens of the Forest began experiencing horrific nightmares, thrashing and screaming in the night. Some, didn't survive the night or long after.
Dreilgard
Before the Calamity, Dreilgard was a sprawling meadow that gave way to a lush jungle near the ocean. The two volcanoes, the Everlasting Spire, and Moradin's Grasp were active, feeding the growth of the land to the south.
After the incursion had begun, Yeenoghu tore through the forest with his army of Gnolls, uprooting every tree and killing every living being that couldn't escape his wrath. The land, now exposed to so much sunlight, quickly became a desert. Yeenoghu continued north, only to be met by Ethos. A great battle ensued, and Ethos cast Yeenoghu back to the abyss, preserving the plains (now named after the god who saved it) of Pre Calamity Dreilgard.
Galatrica
The physical landscape of Galatrica doesn't differ much Pre and Post Calamity. The main difference is the magic suffused into nearly everything from the battle with Dendar in the icy peaks. The fight seemed lost to the two Heroes, Dendar was just too powerful for them. Her magic clung to them like the frost on their coats lulled them in and out of consciousness, their armies turning on them seemingly overnight from some madness in the air. They were forced to retreat.
Stregoth
Pre Calamity Stregoth was a temperate grassland beyond the Dragon's Spine mountain range. Seemingly untamed wilds gently rolling along the hills that held untold numbers of wild animals and a few nomadic tribes that chased them.
Post Calamity brought the Demon Prince Jubliex into this wild paradise. Quickly, the demon grew and poisoned the landscape. The grass wilted away, the animals became twisted and feral, and the people grew grotesque and rabid. A Sah Shi and Cagalos arrived to see a sea of black, dead earth before her. The two fought Jubliex in an epic battle, creating massive storms from the lightning of Cagalos' maw and sent the demon back to the Abyss. Not much is known about where the four Heroes went in the interlude before their final showdown with Dendar, but they disappeared for a time. The battle took place in what is now Stregoth. Dendar was still too powerful for the Heroes, even with their combined power. They had opened an Arcane Gate to drive her back to her plane, but she was holding her ground. In a last ditch effort, Amori Ehn attempted a ritual to raise every dead body, every pile of bones within a ten mile radius, to fight against the Primordial. Unfortunately, something went wrong with the spell, and instead, he suffused necromantic magic into the land, spreading it like a cancer. All the life in the initial spell was immediately snuffed out, and a black smoke started to billow out of the twenty mile circle, the decaying remnants of what lived. The gasses mixed with the ever present thunderstorms since the battle with Jubliex, and formed into a storm that rained poison onto whatever it touched.
After that act, the four Heroes and Dendar were gone. No trace of the Arcane Gate remained, nor the Primordial.
Maernigh was once a deciduous forest Pre Calamity. It was never referred to as the "Nightmare Forest" by the wary travelers of today. The soft songs of birds softly echoed everywhere, the land locked in the permanent light of dawn during the day.
After the Calamity had begun, Zuggtmoy and Dendar started influencing the life of the forest, changing it drastically in just a few months. The once temperate forest started becoming humid, mushrooms and other fungi grew rapidly, the trees crawling wtih vines. The citizens of the Forest began experiencing horrific nightmares, thrashing and screaming in the night. Some, didn't survive the night or long after.
Dreilgard
Before the Calamity, Dreilgard was a sprawling meadow that gave way to a lush jungle near the ocean. The two volcanoes, the Everlasting Spire, and Moradin's Grasp were active, feeding the growth of the land to the south.
After the incursion had begun, Yeenoghu tore through the forest with his army of Gnolls, uprooting every tree and killing every living being that couldn't escape his wrath. The land, now exposed to so much sunlight, quickly became a desert. Yeenoghu continued north, only to be met by Ethos. A great battle ensued, and Ethos cast Yeenoghu back to the abyss, preserving the plains (now named after the god who saved it) of Pre Calamity Dreilgard.
Galatrica
The physical landscape of Galatrica doesn't differ much Pre and Post Calamity. The main difference is the magic suffused into nearly everything from the battle with Dendar in the icy peaks. The fight seemed lost to the two Heroes, Dendar was just too powerful for them. Her magic clung to them like the frost on their coats lulled them in and out of consciousness, their armies turning on them seemingly overnight from some madness in the air. They were forced to retreat.
Stregoth
Pre Calamity Stregoth was a temperate grassland beyond the Dragon's Spine mountain range. Seemingly untamed wilds gently rolling along the hills that held untold numbers of wild animals and a few nomadic tribes that chased them.
Post Calamity brought the Demon Prince Jubliex into this wild paradise. Quickly, the demon grew and poisoned the landscape. The grass wilted away, the animals became twisted and feral, and the people grew grotesque and rabid. A Sah Shi and Cagalos arrived to see a sea of black, dead earth before her. The two fought Jubliex in an epic battle, creating massive storms from the lightning of Cagalos' maw and sent the demon back to the Abyss. Not much is known about where the four Heroes went in the interlude before their final showdown with Dendar, but they disappeared for a time. The battle took place in what is now Stregoth. Dendar was still too powerful for the Heroes, even with their combined power. They had opened an Arcane Gate to drive her back to her plane, but she was holding her ground. In a last ditch effort, Amori Ehn attempted a ritual to raise every dead body, every pile of bones within a ten mile radius, to fight against the Primordial. Unfortunately, something went wrong with the spell, and instead, he suffused necromantic magic into the land, spreading it like a cancer. All the life in the initial spell was immediately snuffed out, and a black smoke started to billow out of the twenty mile circle, the decaying remnants of what lived. The gasses mixed with the ever present thunderstorms since the battle with Jubliex, and formed into a storm that rained poison onto whatever it touched.
After that act, the four Heroes and Dendar were gone. No trace of the Arcane Gate remained, nor the Primordial.
Spread
People who were inspired and believed in the rebellion with all their being or fought alongside the Heroes during the Calamity were responsible for the story being spread across the realm. After the Four Heroes disappeared along with Dendar, those who were the most devout to the cause started being able to harness divine magic. The children of the Heroes also discovered that they were "blessed" with newfound abilities, those they likened to the child of a God.
Variations & Mutation
There are variations to the myth of how the four leaders of the rebellion against Quedlin actually ascended to Godhood, most of it being hearsay. While the Heroes were very strong in their own right, they grew in power very quickly. Scholars theorize they may have come upon a massive amount of arcane energy and augmented it to their own, while the common people who survived said it was through sheer force of will that they defeated the Demons. Nobody is exactly sure how it happened, and the debate continues on in universities around the realm.
Cultural Reception
The story is widely accepted as fact by most in the realm. The Dwarves of Wyvernmout are firm in their beliefs though, and while recognizing that the four Hero-Gods were real people, they prefer to worship their own gods and accept that the leaders of the rebellion merely died after defeating the Demons
In Art
Those that follow the religion that sprung forth from the calamity create epic realism art akin to the Renaissance of Europe on Earth. They mostly depict warriors clad in divine light fighting off a great shadow serpent. A statue of A Sah Shi and Cagalos was erected in modern Magmasa.
Date of First Recording
5 PC
Date of Setting
0
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