The Lightfall Cataclysm
Prologue
"Good morning, students. Please open your textbooks to Chapter 19: Divinity, on page 273. Before I designate your reading assignment for this particular chapter, please answer the following question: Can gods die? Please explain your answers using your own words and place your papers face down on my desk in fifteen minutes."
Divinity Rebuked - Are They Dead?
Roughly two thirds of the way through the planar conflict known as The Empyrean Schism, several divine beings seemed to die or cease all known activity at around the same time. These supposed deaths included, but are thought to not be limited to:
- Marëanna, goddess of water and peace
- Celethys, goddess of darkness and loss
- Faulneroth, god of rot, decay, and corruption
Marëanna is thought to be the first deity that was slain during the Schism, but it has since been concluded by many scholars that her death is not connected to The Lightfall. However, her death has been connected to the mass evacuation of the once-bustling port city known as Bornahm, as the waters in which her physical body was thrown have since been contaminated and corrupted by her divine ichor. Much of the sealife in this region have since developed more aggressive tendencies, and certain species have increased in size. There is a hypothesis that has been floated around that she was never truly slain, and is biding her time at the bottom of the sea.
Celethys was the second to fall during the conflict, and it was her death that sparked what is widely considered the first event that culminated in The Lightfall Cataclysm. During a large-scale combat in which all manner of mortal, celesital, and fiend was a part of, Celethys would have found herself pinned to the side of a hill by her twin sister, Idrastè. While the two goddesses struggled to gain the upper hand against each other on the ground, Jodmölin saw his one and only opportunity to rid this world of the de facto leader of The Astral Host. Shouting at Idrastè to hold her still, he struck through Celethys' chest using his war hammer known as Soulhammer. The Soul Forger's strike was true - the essence of Celethys was shattered in that instance, and the very air around them ruptured with a dark and necrotic energy. In her death throes, Celethys was able to rip open a portal, a rift, to her homeplane known as The Shadowfell. It is thought that a sliver of what remained of her escaped there, and she has since been waiting to take her revenge on those that killed her.
The last confirmed god to be slain during the length of this conflict was Faulneroth. He did not perish in open combat, but instead fell after Celethys' final battle to infighting with the rest of the Host. Harrox, Sceiron, and Thaldrin each played a pivotal role in the death of Faulneroth, and these three were only able to defeat him while he was distracted. Sceiron was able to cut a swath of rotten flesh from his back, Harrox grabbed his innards using The Black Hand, and Thaldrin was able to reduce the mass of the rotten god using various disintegration spells and scrolls. The remnants of Faulneroth were discarded into the portal the Celethys had ripped open in her final moments, and it was this action that officially marked the beginning of The Lightfall Cataclysm.
The Catalyst
After the disposal of the ever-rotting god, Faulneroth, through The Rift created from the death throes of Celethys, the mists and low-hanging fog that poured from the open maw of The Rift began to darken. Any plants that this miasma lingered over would wilt, die, and begin to decay within minutes. Hardier plants, such as trees, would instead be twisted, warped, and mutated into something altogether unrecognizable from its original self. Animals and unfortunate mortals caught in this mist, later called The Gloomfog, Wraith Mist, Celethys' Maw, or simply The Gloom, would not die in the natural sense. Their souls and bodies would undergo a similar, grim transformation as the landscape around them, ultimately turning into what is known as a Silhouette.
The Mutation of a Mutation
After a period of time, this Gloom would even mutate itself, with some of this haze breaking from the ground in a more rotten and vile state before taking to the skies. This new variant of The Gloom would go on to block out the skies, supernaturally targeting direct sunlight so as to not allow it through the murk. This new mutation, The Veil, did not seem to target indirect sunlight, such as from starlight or the sister moons Miccaro and Desolis. This lead "day time" to become darker than it was at night, and due to the new-found darkness, The Gloom could spread further that it could have before. The Gloom and The Veil worked in tandem, despite having no sentient convictions, and it spread to the oceans and seas surrounding Vasara. It would block out much of the weather that was common, and the air grew still on the continent. Some thought that the world had stopped spinning, but the only thing that betrayed that notion was the now pale dot that was once the sun continued its lazy arc across the sky.
It is known that True Sunlight is able to destroy and vaporize The Gloom, but due to the nature of The Veil, that sort of sunlight has not found its way to the surface of Vasara in over 1,900 years. The Gloom, as it is able to be destroyed by true light, seems to retreat when other forms of light are present, such as torch or lantern. However, should one venture out into The Gloom without an external light, it will become aggressive and attempt to swallow one whole - aiming for the light that a mortal soul gives off. Unlike The Gloom which had birthed them, Silhouettes are instead drawn to all manner of light, though it weakened them. The only form of light that does not harm Silhouettes directly is that of a mortal soul - something that can not be seen by mortals themselves.
Closing The Rift
Once again, due to the nature of its formation, The Rift proved difficult to close. As Celethys' home plane was the Shadowfell, she was able to use what little remained of her essence to prop it open. After Faulneroth perished and was disposed of through the portal, it seemed to imbue it with a near undying resolve to stay open. The remaining Prime Architects, aside from Belletrax who was busy commanding the fronts of the Schism, had come together to devise a plan to shut The Rift. Jodmölin, The Soul Forger, took a small blood sample - a single drop - from Solaurius, The Morninglord. This blood droplet gave off the light of a dim star on its own, and was the first component to something greater. Jodmölin would go on to smith a weapon, a spear of celestial proportions, using the blood of Solaurius as the tip and a fragment of Desolis as the spearhead. After nearly sixty (60) years of unchecked flow of The Gloom from The Rift, Jodmölin tasked Belletrax himself to use the spear, known as Dawnshard, to close it. Taking a moment from his war, he obeyed The All-Father, and drove The Dawnshard through The Rift. There was a moment in which nothing had happened before the portal violently imploded, leaving a larger crater than it had sat in for decades. Thus it was closed, and The Lightfall Cataclysm came to an end - though its effects had already done their damage. The Gloom and Veil did not seem to depart, and The Architects unilaterally decided that after The Empyrean Schism was over, they would no longer directly meddle in mortal affairs.
A Mortal's Mortal Mistake, by Aromon Holaralei
Grim Nights in the Garden, by Aromon Holaralei
Comments