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Story Synopsis
Around five billion years ago, the Aion produced the universe, releasing nigh infinite energy, and from it came the first Gods, the Primaevals— the first was Vivek'tir, God of Infinity, and after came Ma'akali, Goddess of Time, and Isold'ekir, God of Space. The three were, at first, alone in the universe, but in the vastness of Infinity, Time, and Space, other concepts came into being, and the Creator asked all of them to produce various worlds, to bring life. The Primaevals embodied concepts and were physical manifestations of them, however, they could not be everywhere, and so they produced two lesser forms of Gods— Nephi, beings of light; and Abrorik, uncanny entities beyond mortal comprehension. The Nephi and Abrorik were meant to be chosen of the Primaeval, limited avatars of the sapient concepts that gave them power, and they were meant to produce, protect, and care for mortals. Not all Gods, however, wanted to be caretakers— some were embodiments of things like warfare, and thus, they had dark urges to slaughter and maim that they could not control; others were embodiments of things like manipulation and it was not in their nature to nurture. Some resisted these dark urges, but others gave into them, and they brought about the concept Old Gods believed in— the idea that mortals were meant to be manipulated, controlled, harnessed to the whims of the Gods.
Some, however, opposed them— they called themselves New Gods and they wanted mortals to possess free will, however, some were rather extreme, believing that Gods should not interfere, even when civilisations faltered and buckled, turning to corruption, slavery, and worse. These two types of Gods began to fight amongst themselves and many Primaeval, distracted by the vastness of the universe, hardly paid them any mind. This conflict began with the Gods, but it slowly began to incorporate mortals, and it raged on for so long that it began to be known as 'the Eternal Conflict,' for few ever thought it would end. With their raging conflict, the universe began to separate, unable to hold together, and it divided into two— the Higher Planes and the Lower Depths. Three Primaevals, however, did pay the Eternal Conflict mind— the same three that spawned first within the world. Isold'ekir, in particular, who had created most of the planets being used as battlegrounds, was particularly bothered by it— he could not enter the Higher Planes nor the Lower Depths as a Primaeval, however, so he entered the Inbetween and attempted to commune with the Gods of the Dead who lingered there to ask for it to halt.
Whilst the Gods of Death agreed with him, they could do nothing. One, however, showed him a project that they had been working on, a form of magic that could reverse Death, and Isold'ekir considered it a potential option to assist mortals who were dying for the sake of a Divine conflict. Isold'ekir tried to speak to the Creators, as they could surely reign in the Gods, but they told him there was naught that could be done. In the end, he resolved himself to simply continue making worlds, as that was what he was best at, and so long as he made enough of them, their destruction would prove to be meaningless. He periodically ventured into the realms of the Dead with his wife and 'brother,' eventually making them his permanent domicile, as there he could speak to mortals, even if they were dead. One Nephi, however, came to Isold'ekir with a proposal— it was Ireakh, a Goddess of Creativity. It was for the creation of a specific world, one which she hoped to raise her children on, away from the Eternal Conflict. She had persuaded various other Gods to join her and so, Isold'ekir, Ma'akali, Vivek'tir, twelve Nephi, and twelve Abrorik decided to work on a project known as Asla'nir.
Together, these twenty-seven Gods worked to produce Asla'nir— Adonius helped Isold'ekir pull the continents together; G'hira flooded its oceans with water; Vastar produced the Underworld for its mortals to rest in upon dying; Fyjra planted the World Tree and breathed life into the world; and Selira and Kinyokar helped produce Asla'nir's celestial bodies and regulated their rising and setting. Ma'akali and Fyjra worked together to produce a grand spell to enable the world to develop properly, manipulating time and nature magic to enable rapid evolution and to stabilize time within the pocket dimension. The Gods began to settle down once the world was developed further, settling down in two major nations— Isigkir and Udoxa in Stelateria— and over time, their population would increase as various Gods joined the first settlers of Asla'nir, new Gods were born and the first mortals were produced. Eager to see the full progress of the world but unable to enter the mortal planes, Isold'ekir, Ma'akali, and Vivek'tir underwent the same process proposed to Isold'ekir by those Death Gods years ago and brought the first Daiesthai with them to Asla'nir. From those early first three nations came many more, as city-states became larger nations and as those splintered apart and merged together— Aldweivyn formed in Aleria; Kinyokar founded Furukame upon the back of Long Gui, father of all Kaiju; Nuralahib came about in Aaliya Bara; and on the outskirts of Nuralahib formed the city-state of Alnabi. Their development and flourishing, however, would soon be interrupted by various conflicts, with the first major one of note taking place in Udoxa.
The First Udoxan Civil War was a landmark in history— it resulted in the ousting of Old Gods from Asla'nir, was the first war between Gods on Asla'nir, and led to the rising of Isold'ekir as the King of Udoxa. In the end, however, it signalled to Old Gods who were better situated and capable of hiding that they were under attack and they would bring about a grand scheme to remove the New Gods from Asla'nir and take it over for themselves. N'ghora, Goddess of Corruption and Manipulation, in particular, worked with Sseth'ak, who became the new God of Betrayal in the absence of the previous one, and they used their Divine Titles to pull the strings of a few key figures— Isold'ekir and Adonius were driven mad and N'ghora began to manipulate one of Vastar's children, Nasrin. Through these few individuals, N'ghora began a butterfly effect that resulted in a second major war between Gods, the Nephi War, and a Second Udoxan Civil War that resulted in most of the Gods being wiped out. Those that did not perish were decimated by the First Plague— it brought death to Gods and resurrected mortals that died to it as little more than zombies. Isigkir crumpled and split apart into Vasterioth and Arkeum and most of the Gods on Asla'nir had perished. A few Gods remained, however, with N'ghora proving to be a great threat and making herself more obvious, many took it upon themselves to seal her away and to then abandon Asla'nir, leaving it behind to the Demigods to care for as they returned to the Eternal Conflict to pursue the Old Gods who had partaken in the scheme.
Ireakh decided to perform one final act in order to ensure the safety of the mortals— she produced a grand barrier known as Sanctuary and projected it across Asla'nir, however, in doing so, she disrupted the spell Ma'akali had worked on, distorting space-time. Alyriana took advantage of this fact to seal N'ghora and many of the Old Gods who worked with her away forever in Liranon before cursing the world to forget the nation. The world was left behind, forsaken by the Gods, and without them, only Sanctuary could protect them from the Old Gods proper— in time, however, the mortals of Asla'nir began to centralize themselves. They formed eleven nations, each splintered across six continents and one archipelago, and the age of mortals came. In the absence of the Gods, much of the world receded into a Dark Age, however, the few Gods, Demigods, and Pseudo Gods that remained worked together to keep the world balanced and with the safety of Sanctuary, the world was protected from external Old Gods, only periodically experiencing incursions.
That was until one faithful day.
Around four and a half thousand years ago, the Dar'nikian Empire was attacked by Old Gods and its interstellar Empire was being destroyed— there was a last stand at a tiny portion of Dar'nik, an area known as Tir'anor. In a last ditch effort to save the planet's inhabitants, Alyr'kri and Akharic'tl channelled their magic together— Alyr'kri, having once been the Goddess Alyriana on Asla'nir, knew that it would be safe there as Sanctuary would protect it. Tir'anor was teleported onto Asla'nir, displacing portions of the ocean and causing earthquakes around the world, but it had been done too hastily— it disrupted Sanctuary, weakening it. Tir'anor, however, was being disrupted by the barrier, as it had not been designed to accommodate Tir'anor. They could not reach out to the other nations quite yet, as they needed to repair their technology— over the past several thousand years, they attempted to recover their technology, identify potential ways to communicate with the other nations, and worked tirelessly to seal the various rifts opening across their continent and put down any incursions. Quite recently, they finally managed to send envoys to Stelateria, but only one nation had an individual was capable of actually speaking a language they understood who was potentially capable of assisting them. Over the past several thousand years, Tir'anor had been besieged by rifts across space and time that were disrupting its attempts to recover from nigh extinction, but they hoped that by adjusting Sanctuary that they might be freed of them.
Archon Lennox spoke to God Emperor Arsinoe'heka and agreed to assist them in attempting to expand Sanctuary in the hopes that it would alleviate the presence— instead, they accidentally shattered it due to how fragile it had become from Tir'anor's presence. The two agreed to never inform anyone of what had happened, but the results were disastrous— with Sanctuary gone, there was now no barrier to protect Asla'nir from any future Old God intrusions and Tir'anor's teleportation onto Asla'nir would certainly attract extradimensional presences. With the Gods' absence, there are few Divine Title holders on Asla'nir— it will now be up to mortals to defend themselves against the Old Gods. With almost all twelve nations being juxtaposed due to conflicts over the years and in the midst of a dark age, however, they will need to find a way to stand united against such a powerful threat— will the people of Asla’nir stand together when the time comes and the end is nigh or will they fall apart, tearing each other’s throats out for their own selfish needs?
Further Reading
Credit
Primarily contributed by @fallenarkhein.