War in Heaven
The War in Heaven is a celestial war that gripped Rakuen and all of Realmspace at the end of the 6th Age. Primarily as a conflict between the newly resurrected The Vestiges, the Eidololatria, the conflict spiraled even further out of control with the advancement of The Eternia who joined the battle. This marked only the latest in a series of dramatic, and ultimately destructive, events within Rakuen that occurred on such a grand scale. It is seen as the downfall of the Eidolons from power, and the resignation of the Old Gods, who are now known as the Pantheon of Caitiff. It is also a moment hailed as a great success of the Pantheon of the Eternals, who are the current dominating celestial force in Rakuen.
The Conflict
Prelude
The prelude to the War in Heaven occurred many millennia ago, upon the end of the First Halcyon, and the rise of power of The Eternia. During this time, the Elvish race embarked on a grand project to summon Elysium Fields - a part of their ancient homeland - into the Prime Material, a crowning achievement said to be a capstone upon their age of control within the First Halcyon. The event dramatically failed, causing a rift to form, which is now known as The Dirge, and alternate plane of existence similar to that of the Feywild and Shadowfell. The Vestiges saw this as a great error on their part, having not hemmed in the Elves. In penitence of their actions, they sought out their home in the Hereafter to meditate on their mistakes. It was then that the Eternia seized power by force. The Vestiges were locked away in a portion of the Hereafter known as The Nevermore, and sealed away from the Prime Material forever. This remarkable betrayal by The Eternia came as a great shock to the cosmological world, as they had originally been ascended to power by The Vestiges. Now in control of Realmspace, the Eternia sought to enforce their vision of the multiverse, attempting to reshape the space into one of Law and Order. They were met with an onslaught of problems by the creation of The Dirge, which is be detailed in The Defiance of Eternity. When all was said and done, The Eternia were the victors, and had enacted their will upon Rakuen and subsumed complete control, ending the First Halcyon and beginning the Mandate of Humanity and the 1st Age. During the Mandate of Humanity, The Eternia was beset by an extreme conflict between themselves and the imprisoned Eidololatria. The Moon scarified its many bodies to imprison the Eidolons; however, their chaos proved strong, and their breaking free of their prison resulted in many Moon's Cry, which brought about great chaos and destruction upon Rakuen. Slowly, during this time, The Vestiges maintained the faith of their most loyal adherents, namely The Masters of the Shrines in the region of Ezo, pushed forward through ancient traditions of the Threads; this ancient prophesy was a failsafe for The Vestiges, whereupon they would attempt to use a chosen few of mortals to complete a grand ritual across Rakuen that would empower them; if the ritual were ever completed, they would be able to break through the seal upon the Nevermore, and return to Rakuen. This ritual became complete in the 7th Age, just as Hazard attempted to annihilate the world by force of pure chaos. Completed by Odd, Ren, Lance, and K'rist, Zoe Miyamizu was able to bring about the completion of the ritual and the reassertion of The Vestiges upon the Prime Material. The Vestiges, furious at their imprisonment and aghast at the destruction of the realm, mustered their powers and forces, and sought to engage in an all-out battle for supremacy before a worse fate befell the realm.
Deployment
Hazard had been preparing for battle for some time. He destabalized the majority of human nations, corrupting them from within, giving him a great deal of power. The opening of The Dirge instituted a flood of demons and devils upon the realm, increasing his power even further. His chance to slay Ikigai and Nil further gave him the opportunity to rise to a cataclysmic threat, and although The Patron began to follow his own designs, they only further bolstered Hazard's powerful position.
The Eternia rushed to find dominance in this world of chaos. Because of their lawful nature, and their hiding for the last several thousand years, they were relying on their stockpile of faith-based energy to muster an all out assault against any who stood in their way. Their biggest rivals, the Eidolons, were on a back foot. They had already suffered the death of The Boundary, which caused an internal crisis. In a council overseen in accordance with Brydan Gulli, Korva Thorne, and Garroth Hellsturn, they were advised not to replace The Boundary. However, the seams between their alliances easily cracked, showing that Shay'áthe the Wounded had no interest in alliance. Inevitably, the majority of Eidolons sided with The Vestiges.
The Vestiges made their stand in Realmspace, awaiting any who dared contest their dominion at The Sun. They were joined by the Heirloom of the Eiður, The Vagrant, Trist the Minstrel, and The Triad, while Neive, Daughter of the Grove was sent to contest The Arbor on Rakuen, and The Balance was sent to diminish further problems caused by all-out war amongst the Lesser Eidolons.
The Engagement
The Vestiges and The Eternia met on the field of battle. To their shock, Hyperion and Selene came in their pure forms. Seeing them as weak Unmei begged they retreat form hostilities, but they rejected this. The Raven Queen used this moment to attack The Moon, unleashing a horde of Shadowfell warrior and attempting to steal her domains. As The Core and The Moon retreated, they were also attacked by Shay'áthe the Wounded, who wished revenge upon The Moon.
Meanwhile, Tyrant approached with a demon army. These events are recorded in the story Three Sisters and the Tyrant, where Tyrant inevitably overpowers The Triad, who ascends individually as Morrígan, Caelia, and Timoria.
The Heirloom and The Vagrant fought against Shay'athe and many other gods. They defeated Shay'athe, but ultimately met their own end. After The Moon and The Core's successful retreat, the Eternia turned their attention to protecting Rakuen and the rest of their domains. Thalassa entered into celestial combat with Rhea and Iapetus, while The Sun met in conflict with The First Flame. The First Flame, Rhea, and Iapetus all won their conflicts, and demanded the cessation of hostilities, which was agreed to.
The rest of the Eidolons began an all out war for dominance, stealing each others domains, killing one another, and causing mass chaos in Realmspace and upon the Prime Material. Once the battle between The Sun and the First Flame concluded, The Eternals sought a conclusion to various battles and the overall end of hostilities by others gods. Any god who wished to continue fighting was punished by extermination.
Outcome
The events of the War in Heaven caused a sea-change among the celestials of Rakuen. With The Eternals unilaterally in charge, they lurched the realm back toward neutrality, and away from the extremes of chaos and law. This gave them not only bargaining power, but also raw celestial power, allowing them to better command lesser gods throughout the realm and broker peace. Their power only continued to ascend as the war's end came to its final conclusion. All lesser deities either devoted themselves directly to The Eternals, or simply agreed to their rule without protest.
Aftermath
The level of destruction incurred by the War in Heaven was truly cataclysmic, particularly for Rakuen and the Prime Material, bringing about the Age of Eclipse, a time where the sky was blotted out by treacherous clouds, descending the world into a multi-year winter for many hundreds of years. The war also drastically affected the shape of Rakuen; many of the oceans upon the planet shifted, as did the terrain itself, forming new continents, while also splitting and sinking the primary supercontinent on Rakuen.
Part of the terror for those on the Prime Material were the Pillars of Salt, erected by The Patron during his affairs of the War in Heaven where he attempted to forcibly ascend innocent humans. They were created by a mixture of chaos, earth, and souls, and towered from the ground into the sky, as if to hold up the clouds above, calcifying into magnificent, tower-like structures. These large pillars became breeding grounds for terrible beings and new bred creatures of The Gloom, but because of their ubiquity, could not be avoided by the people of the land. In time, these Pillars of Salt gave way to their own weight, and fell to the earth below. Sometimes they would crush into powder, spreading toxic ash, dust, and salt upon the landscape, killing plants indiscriminately. Other times, they would fall in their hardened forms, as if tremendous sky-scrapers; they would pummel the land below in massive chunks, killing all underneath, and causing mass panic as creatures began to filter out and destroy all of the surrounding landscape.
The Eidolons were forcibly split from their unified contingent as gods by The Eternals, for better regulation. They were instead made into various broader categories: quasi-gods, demi-gods, and lesser gods. Seeing the chaos caused by gods roaming the land, The Eternals instituted a new rule upon gods where they were not allowed to take their celestial forms to Rakuen; any celestial being that wished to walk the Prime Material could only do so with the form of an avatar.
An additional conflict came in the Draconic gods. Having always been independent as celestial beings, with no relation to the other celestial beings, they refused to bend a knee to The Eternals, and were prepared for a fight. However, in a meeting between The First Flame and Alexander, they were able to put aside their differences, and work toward a common goal amongst gods that would guide both of them in the future. The dragonic gods were granted their freedom and independence, but had to promise in return to not institute another Draconic Age, and leave mortals to their own devices without subjugation.
The Eternals also sought to put restrictions on Tyrant and the others beings that came from The Dirge. Wanting to limit the already massive damage done to the Prime Material, and fearing an invasion from The Abyss and potentially The Rift, they sealed away The Dirge once more, creating easier methods of passage through, so as not to trap anyone into that realm permanently.
Historical Significance
Legacy
The War in Heaven is marked as one of the most traumatic, but also one of the most potentially positive changes that has occurred in the history of Rakuen.
This conflict ended the Mandate of Humanity, a time ordained by the gods for success and favoritism of the human race by the gods. In the coming centuries, humanity as a race dramatically began to wane in power, without the immediate aid of gods coming to save them collectively, while also their nations fell into complete disarray. The great human empires and kingdoms that spread across Rakuen fell into ruin, until most were lost to time forever. Few pockets of humanity remained to carry on their cultures, but these were extreme rarities, especially given the pervasiveness of monstrosities, demons, devils, and all manner of other creatures that roamed the Prime Material.
In the centuries that followed, Human society collapsed, and all people's returned to a period of subdued agrarian lifestyles. Most communities became deeply tribalistic, operating in very small units, and began to return to a more horse-based, rural culture among the wastes of cities left behind.
In this time, Orcish society began to thrive. Among the harsh conditions of the Age of Eclipse, the orcs - already having spent years of subjugation and discrimination, were able to claim dominance over the less organized races of the world. Massive cities or Orcs began to rise, based around a constant war drum of imperial conquest and massive wars. Orcish invasion was a way of life for other cultures, and many did their best to protect themselves from invasion by either submitting to the Orcish war machine, or fleeing their homelands, causing great waves of migration all throughout the realms.
Elf society, already a sliver of its former self under the disregard of the Mandate of Humanity, were going through a major transition. Having reclaimed their ability to reincarnate through Talrina, and regaining the ability to see their past lives via their Reverie, began to reconsider their view of Rakuen and their role in it. Many withdrew from the world in an event known as The Hegira, retreating mostly to the Feywild, Underdark, and Shadowfell. Those who did stay behind were met with a generation of great strife, with colonialist Elves returning mostly from the feywild to check on conditions within Rakuen.
However, after time and the healing of the planet, more Elves began to migrate from their retreats and recolonize the lands. They did so in the traditional ways of Elves, using their newly reclaimed Elven High Magic, and focusing on societies based around Elven culture as a fundamental, doing away with traditional notions of Human civilization. Slowly, Elves gained their foothold back in Rakuen, through toil and tribulation, and began to form large city-states which quickly grew into empires. The biggest conflict came between the growing Elven nations and the hordes of Orcs that roamed the land. But through strategic use of Elven High Magic and their inherently longer lives brought the Elves into dominance against the Orcs. Eventually, Elves took dominance of Rakuen, and claimed that they were part of the Second Halcyon, eventually instituting the Xirasía which decimated Orcish culture for centuries to come.
This would begin the larger period of The Second Halcyon: a world of elves, ruled by elves, and one of gods in general unity, with true harmony and neutrality understood to be a fiction.
Conflict Type
War
Start Date
1750 6e
Ending Date
200 7e
Conflict Result
The Vestiges emerge victorious, and assume their formal role as The Eternals.
Belligerents
Strength
Having been locked away in the Nevermore for nearly 10,000 years, and only just having been restored by the ritual completed by Zoe Miyamizu, the Eternals were still extremely weak, and had few adherents to bolster their power. Nevertheless, their power was ancient, and they attempted to use this power to gather allies and defend the Realm, rather than their own interests.
Casualties
Nil and Ikigai were slain in the events that precipitated the War in Heaven, slain by Hazard and The Patron, in a coordinated plan to weaken the Eternals and strengthen the chances of Hazard's sublimation of the Realm.
Objectives
- Return to power.
- Defend Rakuen and Realmspace from destruction.
- End Chaos and Law, and return the space to Neutrality.
Strength
The Eternia were exceptionally weak after the events of The Day of Fallen Sky. They had gone into hiding for nearly 2000 years awaiting a chance to use all of their powers at once to try to reassume control, although they had no inherent plan to accomplish this goal. It would be a hail mary attempt to use all of their gathered strength all at once against whoever would stand in their way.
Casualties
The Eternia suffered no deaths, but were greatly weakened in the conflict. The Moon was dealt grievous wounds, and The Core found himself wounded as well. The Sea and The Sun were most severely injured, losing much of their power and domains to Rhea, Iapetus, and The First Flame respectively.
Objectives
- Reclaim order in a chaotic world.
- Imprison the Eidololatria.
- Counter and reimprison The Vestiges
Strength
Hazard had grown in strength to a remarkable degree. Thriving on both the perpetuation of pure chaos, and then forcibly bending the world toward chaotic evil, Hazard sought only warfare, domination, and dominion over all. His raw power was unrivaled. Despite his enemies being numerous, he found many allies along the way to bolster his cause, including The Patron and Emperor Caldus.
Casualties
Emperor Caldus was slain before the beginning of the conflict. He was eventually resurrected and turned into a dracolich by Tyrant, but was defeated once again by Tiamat.
The Patron split from Hazard's designs, to officiate his own cataclysm. He was destroyed later on despite his immense power.
Hazard also was felled by Lance, Odd, Ren, and K'rist, among conflict with many more individuals. He lost all of his power and domains in his defeat, but ascended once again, forming into Mischief.
Objectives
- Let chaos consume everything.
- All-out battle royale for supremacy.
- Unleash The Void.
- Kill as many gods as possible.
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