War of Burning Skies
The war of burning skies was a war in humanity's ancient history, now mostly lost to time. Only very involved historians care to even research it and sources are sparse.
It describes the fall of humanity to betrayal and law.
Humanity's world of origin was Kar-Kut, where most of their population lived. Other examples are worlds like Neter.
In those times, humanity was visited by a figure shrouded in mystery. They are now known only as 'the wanderer'.
The wanderer's influence: The Wanderer seemingly appeared on Kar-Kut one day and begun ingratiating himself to the people in power. He brought many advances in arcane nagic with him and quickly gained signifficant political favor.
He founded the order of Witches and gave humanity the arcane technology of the aether-siphon.
Aether siphons: Aether-Siphons were large constructions with a strange purple substance at their core that allowed the creation of massive amounts of arcane energy, allowing for the cheap manufacture of arcane magic items, mass synthesizing of Riftstone and a general quality of life improvements for the populace due to the massive cost reduction of infrastructure.
What the Wanderer hadn't told humanity was that the aether siphons did not truly create this energy out of nothing but instead siphoned it from the divine machine.
Humanity refused, the leadership of Kar-Kut walking lock-step with the wanderer and refusing the commands of Mechanus. The aether siphons had become too vital a part of humanity's infrastructure to replace quickly.
This was then quickly followed by a declaration of war from the envoy.
In the beginning, humanity was arrogant, organizing daring strikes against the invading forces, destroying thousands of mechanoids at the cost of only a few hundred human soldiers.
What they failed to realize is that even those actions were victories for the divine machine.
Where a human soldier takes decades to raise and equip, a hundred mechanoid units can be made in just a few hours. To lose a hundred mechanoids to kill a human soldier was a net victory for Mechanus.
Despite simplistic tactics and brute-force application of their forces, the mechanoids began to overwhelm humanity due to sheer attrition. The mechanoids fought through night and day, rain and sun, wind and weather. Where numbers wouldn't suffice, specialist units were deployed to crack fortifications, place ambushes and perform assassinations.
Humanity's strategy quickly changed to hunkering within defensible fortifications and fighting for their lives as the mechanoids surrounded them, cut off their supply lines and broke through their defenses.
The unfeeling constructs did not take prisoners, they killed the combatants, destroyed any infrastructure they found and killed any who resisted.
However it never came to that.
Instead, the wanderer revealed his true colors as an enemy of humanity as the aether-siphons spread across kar kut suddenly and simultaniously detonated in cataclysmic explosions. As these aether-siphons were often placed at the center of cities, this killed hundreds of thousands.
This sudden loss of crucial infrastructure and massive loss of live effectively destroyed kar-kut. Their leadership was dead or missing, many cities were lifeless husks and most survivors were in rural, disconnected communities.
Many of the survivors of humanity tried to make their way off-world, by use Gateways
Some escaped, many didn't. When the forces of primus arrived on kar-kut they were not merciful. As an example to those who would refuse their will, they beheld the ruined world of Kar-Kut and destroyed it, turning the once verdant world into a buring asteroid belt.
Survivors remain, havign made it to the worlds of Lucelain and Haven. There they rebuild.
Still, thousands of years of history and culture were lost, uncountable amounts of knowledge now only found in the library of the grand archivist.
Notably, nowhere in the remaining accounts of the war are humanity's gods mentioned. Presumably they were destroyed as the war raged on, leaving humanity's origins shrouded forever in mystery.
It describes the fall of humanity to betrayal and law.
The Prelude
Humanity was a fledgeling civilisation in ascendance. They were just starting to spread beyond their homeworld and into neighboring worlds.Humanity's world of origin was Kar-Kut, where most of their population lived. Other examples are worlds like Neter.
In those times, humanity was visited by a figure shrouded in mystery. They are now known only as 'the wanderer'.
The wanderer's influence: The Wanderer seemingly appeared on Kar-Kut one day and begun ingratiating himself to the people in power. He brought many advances in arcane nagic with him and quickly gained signifficant political favor.
He founded the order of Witches and gave humanity the arcane technology of the aether-siphon.
Aether siphons: Aether-Siphons were large constructions with a strange purple substance at their core that allowed the creation of massive amounts of arcane energy, allowing for the cheap manufacture of arcane magic items, mass synthesizing of Riftstone and a general quality of life improvements for the populace due to the massive cost reduction of infrastructure.
What the Wanderer hadn't told humanity was that the aether siphons did not truly create this energy out of nothing but instead siphoned it from the divine machine.
The War is announced
One day, an envoy of the Mechanoids arrived on Kar-Kut. He demanded that humans on Kar-Kut cease operations of the aether siphons immediately, condemning humanity for making use of them.Humanity refused, the leadership of Kar-Kut walking lock-step with the wanderer and refusing the commands of Mechanus. The aether siphons had become too vital a part of humanity's infrastructure to replace quickly.
This was then quickly followed by a declaration of war from the envoy.
The War
The actual war stretched on over several years, with humanity quickly beginning to lose due to the mechanoids' sheer numbers.In the beginning, humanity was arrogant, organizing daring strikes against the invading forces, destroying thousands of mechanoids at the cost of only a few hundred human soldiers.
What they failed to realize is that even those actions were victories for the divine machine.
Where a human soldier takes decades to raise and equip, a hundred mechanoid units can be made in just a few hours. To lose a hundred mechanoids to kill a human soldier was a net victory for Mechanus.
Despite simplistic tactics and brute-force application of their forces, the mechanoids began to overwhelm humanity due to sheer attrition. The mechanoids fought through night and day, rain and sun, wind and weather. Where numbers wouldn't suffice, specialist units were deployed to crack fortifications, place ambushes and perform assassinations.
Humanity's strategy quickly changed to hunkering within defensible fortifications and fighting for their lives as the mechanoids surrounded them, cut off their supply lines and broke through their defenses.
The unfeeling constructs did not take prisoners, they killed the combatants, destroyed any infrastructure they found and killed any who resisted.
The Betrayal
After the destruction of Neter and the war being on Kar-Kut's footsteps, humanity's leadership was forced to strongly consider surrender.However it never came to that.
Instead, the wanderer revealed his true colors as an enemy of humanity as the aether-siphons spread across kar kut suddenly and simultaniously detonated in cataclysmic explosions. As these aether-siphons were often placed at the center of cities, this killed hundreds of thousands.
This sudden loss of crucial infrastructure and massive loss of live effectively destroyed kar-kut. Their leadership was dead or missing, many cities were lifeless husks and most survivors were in rural, disconnected communities.
Many of the survivors of humanity tried to make their way off-world, by use Gateways
Some escaped, many didn't. When the forces of primus arrived on kar-kut they were not merciful. As an example to those who would refuse their will, they beheld the ruined world of Kar-Kut and destroyed it, turning the once verdant world into a buring asteroid belt.
The Aftermath
Humanity was effectively destroyed by the war of burning skies.Survivors remain, havign made it to the worlds of Lucelain and Haven. There they rebuild.
Still, thousands of years of history and culture were lost, uncountable amounts of knowledge now only found in the library of the grand archivist.
Notably, nowhere in the remaining accounts of the war are humanity's gods mentioned. Presumably they were destroyed as the war raged on, leaving humanity's origins shrouded forever in mystery.
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