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The Hollowed World

Written by Jeremiah The Wanderer, Great and Accomplished Dwarven Philosopher in 200 F.A

Created by

SunlessSkies

Genesis

A plane of existence forged, defiled and abandoned by the gods. When the Mother of all things, Aoina took from her flesh and created her many children she could not have imagined the sheer chaotic forces they would have showered the multiverse with. Even before the creation of the Leanai the children of Svenna's Tears and their realms, wars were raged above in the inky black beyond. In the space between the stars. The Altos, the holy children that believed that Aoina was the only truth within their existence, fought viciously against their antithesis the Profundos those of her children that felt that Aoina had no claim to them nor their power and wished to slaughter her and their kin to be free to do what they wished with the multiverse. This clashing of ideas and power pushed the multiverse to the precipice of its end. The amount of energy expelled from these powerful beings carved the planes of creation into existence, moved stars and created rifts in the magical weave of the multiverse. The wars waged on for what would be millennia in the minds of mortals but were only a drop in the sea of time for Aoina's children. When the multiverse began to crack and fold one Holy Child an Altos named Svenna the Lover extended her hand to her scorned kin in the hopes of peace. The most beloved sister of all of Aoina's children she slowly began to sew peace into her sibling and when peace had been found they looked upon the creations their war caused and begun to care and mold them into works of their wills. But one child still grew to hate all his kin for he was left out of his mother's light. Gavnir the Idiot looked upon the creation of his kin and grew jealous and plotted and waited. For when Svenna laid her head upon a bed of stars weary from the toils of creation Gavnir took her life and cast her blood across the multiverse cursing all that was forged by his deific kin. War once again raged and Aoina looked upon the creations of her children and felt her heart grow heavy with grief, for she saw what her children could create for not the chaos that was their birthright. Peace could not be wrought from the eternal battleground of the gods and Aoina shed tears as she cut a rift between the gods casting the Profundos into the very Abyss they created and locking the Altos into the realms of light between the stars. Aoina then looked upon Gavnir as he hid in the dark corners of the multiverse and she plucked from his many faced head his eyes and cast them into the abyss so that he could not see the chaos he had wrought. She took from him his wolf-like teeth and his tongue so he could not scream his anguish and burned them creating the light that would touch multiverse and she took his heart and cast it into the Light Between the Sky so that his kin could guard it for all time. She then laid upon her throne and laid her hand upon Svenna's still body gave unto her daughter her own life for she was the most loved of all and she could not bear to see the stars weep in her absence. Svenna looked upon the empty stars, not devoid of creation or life but of kin, of her mother. She looked upon the throne of Aoina and saw naught but her mother's still body and she looked out into the darkness and saw nothing but Gavnir's tortured visage. She could do little but weep for she was the gentlest of her kin and could only look upon the lonely dark sky and feel the emotions inside her well up and spill upon the creations of her siblings. Her tears flowed forth like the waves of the sea upon the shores of time and they washed over the creations of her kind and gave to them life and gave to them love and all the emotions Svenna could give. Her woe filled cries however did not fall upon deaf ears for Gavnir heard them. Aoina did not take from him his ears for she wished for him to hear to her hate-filled voice. Gavnir grew angered hearing the sorrowful cries of his sister and his anger seeped into the very core of the multiverse. Giving upon creation his evil, hatred, sorrow, and jealousy. From his defiled eyes, he bled his emotions mixing with the tears of Svenna and sprung forth the Fomorians, debauched evil visages of Gavnir's fears. Monsters, daemons, and fiends sprung forth from the abyss where his eyes could see naught but the darkness that would permeate the creations of Aoina's children.

Birth

The Leanai, the races of Man, Elf, Halfling, Dwarf, and Gnome all sprung forth from the wet and muddied ground after the wave of Svenna's tears. Man crawled from the earth of the plains and planted their feet firmly upon the grasses. Elves pulled forth from the hot sands their skin grew dark and glistening from the heat of the sun. Halfling emerged from the canopy of the forest and jungles they grew to be welcoming and happy. Gnomes crawled forth the depths of the world where darkness and secrets became their trade. And Dwarves raised from the snowy mountains their hair took upon the color of the powdery sky and their demeanor just as gentle. But from their nests of creation sprung the Fomorians evil twisted beings bent on creating strife and anguish among the Waking Realm, they pulled themselves from the Abyss also know as the Hollowed Halls. They waged war against the Leanai while the foolish children of Svenna began to fight amongst themselves. Thousands of years of war, strife, and loss crafted the Waking Realm into what it is now. The Leanai waged pointless wars against one another over land, resources, and beliefs and all the while the denizens of the Hollowed Halls crawled forth from their hellish home and sewed the seeds of chaos as their Father wanted. The Fomorians caused great loss and it was not until the Leanai looked upon the world around them that they took the blades from one another's throats and turned them against Gavnir's bastard children. The lands were never the same after the Great Fomorian Wars, there was no victor in these wars; those brought from Svenna's tears could only function to force the Fomorian threat into the great wilds that covered the Waking Realm and this is were the hellish spawn of Gavnir would rest and wait, while the Children of Svenna began to flee from their ramshackle homes and villages. They began to build new kingdoms, not because of the promise of peace or innate altruism and want to coexist but for survival. Small battles still raged on the fringes of society, but before long all of the Leanai began to live in their bastions of safety so that they could stand against the Fomorians in times of dire circumstance and disaster. But as the threat of the monsters that lied in wait outside their protected walls, diminished the power of the monsters within those very same walls grew. Cultists who spoke of the coming of Gavnir and the Profundos, zealots who championed their beliefs with steel, blood, and fire. The xenophobic fearmongers who threaten the common folk with violence based on nothing else but the evil of difference and the stuffed nobles who do nothing but profit upon this villainous behavior.

Truth

One could say that this is the birthright that Aoina intended for all her children, war, strife, sadness, and death. It is neither the noble nor the commoner that can escape the brutal and violent reality of their life no matter how they fight tooth and nail the world is an all-consuming hellfire and it is coming. The safety of walls mean nothing with the threat of demons and monsters both inside and outside and when your neighbor could be the very thing to kill you, trust is hard won. Most will be lucky to die of old age and not in the jaws of a monster or on the knife of a desperate cutpurse. The kingdoms and their Irons, large trains built to ferry people from one city to the next, do little to staunch flow of anguish from the wound left by Gavnir. Svenna may sit on the throne of stars but does she listen? Does she care? Or has the pain she had endured jaded her beyond care. The common man prays for a hopeful tomorrow perhaps we all should....