Children of Avernus
You will know Avernus as the Hell Beneath, the dark caverns in recesses below our feet, stretching down until the world no longer makes sense. It is said that it claims souls, as well as children that do not eat their vegetables, and countless other common-folk superstitions. The truth is much more frightening.
In millennia before the Burning of Erinion, long before man first set foot upon Evandyr, Avernus was the God-King of the First Jeriec Empire. When Hell still walked the earth. We discovered this during the first diplomatic relations with The Second Jeriec Empire. It appeared at first that they simply worshiped the Hell Beneath, but soon it was revealed it was more than even that. The Goblinoids of Jeria claim direct descendants from Avernus himself, when he was not woven flesh-caverns under our feet, but a being on Sartova. He is so depicted in the holy sites, the most astounding being the Talon's Gate, a massive statue that has been standing for millennia. Since the dawn of time, the Jerians say.
Avernus was said to craft men from the mud, as well as stone, fire, and other materials. These are the Children of Avernus. The process of giving dirt a soul is beyond our Arcanists, but a breakthrough in the process seems imminent. Regardless, the Children of Avernus revert to their natural state upon death, turning to stone or air or whichever material they are crafted from shortly after final death. In battles of Jeria, you will often see mounds of earth around pieces of armor, where the fallen Hobgoblins lie.
Now, before you go off to murder every Hobgoblin you see, shouting of cleansing the world of the Avernal Demons, remember that the Second Jeriec Empire has been around for centuries longer than Golryon, and are a very civilized people, their philosophies based on science and self-improvement. To say that they are anything like the Demons of Avernus, is to get an abrupt fistfight in every tavern which doesn't turn away Jerians. To understand this, we can only follow the Jeriec retelling of history, which is purely oral tradition, so take it with a grain of salt, and perhaps a grain of Uliun. The Lord-Seeker and his cult in Jeria vehemently lecture on the fact that Avernus was defeated in the war with the Titans of Jhar'gorn, in ages past, and so his dogma of fighting for power and killing to survive was proved to be a path doomed to failure. However, it is difficult to kill a God, and therefore even buried underneath the world, the psychic power of his mind spawns forth more creations. Those that were made by Avernus before his death are the three species of Jerians, or the others of his Children. Those that are made by the post-mortem fever dreams of a dying God, spewing forth from the blood-tunnels below, are the Avernal Demons. Demons are not to be taken lightly, and all represent a specific form of hate, sin, or malice. Weakness: none. The weak die to the strong in the arenas inside Avernus' mind, and the strong are fashioned from Cthonic Ebony afterwards. They are power. They are hunger. They are fear. But that is why there are the Wardens. We don't fight the easy fights, we fight the hardest wars to keep the people of Gol alive; Against the Children of Jeria, if needed, those that found civilization with the Elves of Erinion, and later founded the Second Jeriec Empire.
Against the Wandering Children, those that have lived upon Evandyr since the dawn of time, ferocious and honor-less folk that believe wholly in the The Olde Faith, or in nothing but themselves.
Against the Lost Brothers, those that have long succumbed to their worst impulses, forsaking all higher thought and becoming nothing more than a common beast.
Against the Avernal Demons, those crafted from the fever dreams of the slumbering god, which crawl form from the blood-tunnels of Avernus to see the light of day only when their fiendish desires lead them to torment and feed off our people. Through history, we have been helpless to these foes, but with the dawn of the Simonian Age, we can protect ourselves against the Children of Avernus, and we can make this world our own. IN AETERNUM. AD INFINITUM.
Now, before you go off to murder every Hobgoblin you see, shouting of cleansing the world of the Avernal Demons, remember that the Second Jeriec Empire has been around for centuries longer than Golryon, and are a very civilized people, their philosophies based on science and self-improvement. To say that they are anything like the Demons of Avernus, is to get an abrupt fistfight in every tavern which doesn't turn away Jerians. To understand this, we can only follow the Jeriec retelling of history, which is purely oral tradition, so take it with a grain of salt, and perhaps a grain of Uliun. The Lord-Seeker and his cult in Jeria vehemently lecture on the fact that Avernus was defeated in the war with the Titans of Jhar'gorn, in ages past, and so his dogma of fighting for power and killing to survive was proved to be a path doomed to failure. However, it is difficult to kill a God, and therefore even buried underneath the world, the psychic power of his mind spawns forth more creations. Those that were made by Avernus before his death are the three species of Jerians, or the others of his Children. Those that are made by the post-mortem fever dreams of a dying God, spewing forth from the blood-tunnels below, are the Avernal Demons. Demons are not to be taken lightly, and all represent a specific form of hate, sin, or malice. Weakness: none. The weak die to the strong in the arenas inside Avernus' mind, and the strong are fashioned from Cthonic Ebony afterwards. They are power. They are hunger. They are fear. But that is why there are the Wardens. We don't fight the easy fights, we fight the hardest wars to keep the people of Gol alive; Against the Children of Jeria, if needed, those that found civilization with the Elves of Erinion, and later founded the Second Jeriec Empire.
Against the Wandering Children, those that have lived upon Evandyr since the dawn of time, ferocious and honor-less folk that believe wholly in the The Olde Faith, or in nothing but themselves.
Against the Lost Brothers, those that have long succumbed to their worst impulses, forsaking all higher thought and becoming nothing more than a common beast.
Against the Avernal Demons, those crafted from the fever dreams of the slumbering god, which crawl form from the blood-tunnels of Avernus to see the light of day only when their fiendish desires lead them to torment and feed off our people. Through history, we have been helpless to these foes, but with the dawn of the Simonian Age, we can protect ourselves against the Children of Avernus, and we can make this world our own. IN AETERNUM. AD INFINITUM.
Love this sentence! "You will know Avernus as the Hell Beneath, the dark caverns in recesses below our feet, stretching down until the world no longer makes sense. It is said that it claims souls, as well as children that do not eat their vegetables, and countless other common-folk superstitions. The truth is much more frightening"