The History of Theopetros
These are some of the broad historical events in the world of Theopetros.
Unknown Date- The Perfect Ones
The Prime elements emerge from the chaos of the void as some of the first beings in existence. With the powers of creation, they set about building a world unto themselves, each claiming their realm.
Unknown Date- Perfection shattered
Jealousy emerges among the Prime elements as each watches the creations of the other grow and prosper in the world they have created. this jealousy eventually leads to the Primordial war.
In the course of the war, the chaos from which everything was spawned returns tainting and twisting the creations of the Prime elements.
The Prime elements expend all of their energy in the battle against one another. As their blood flowed over the world, it began to change the creations again bringing even more variety. Where the blood of two or more Primes met their forces clashed again tearing reality and splitting the planes apart from one another.
Unknown Date- The Ancient One
The being known as the All High emerged from the blending of Chaos and the blood of the Prime Elements. Examining the planes and worlds before him, he began the long process of organizing everything he saw into the first semblance of creation's current form.
He built bridges across the newly created planes as he worked. The All High scoured existence for beings and environments of a common order, and set each aside in it's place.
Unknown Date- The Elder Ones
To assist him in his work, the All High created the first gods setting each over a specific area of creation. After millenia of work, the tear between the planes was finally mended, resulting in the formation of the Prime Material plane. Unlike all of the other planes which could trace their origin to the Prime Elements, the material plane was the first wholly new creation since primordial times. Each god hoped to claim a piece of this new realm for themselves. They unleashed their own powers of creation upon this new plane. During this time, the power of the gods became linked to the number of their followers.
Unknown Date- The Divine War
The gods took up residence on the Material plane to live with their creations. The gods lived in peace with their creations and life thrived on the plane. The peace did not last. Jealousy reared it's head once more as gods began to covet the power held by others. This led to the divine war.
Unknown Date- Evil is Born
While battling one another, the gods first begin to notice that they could weaken another god by destroying their followers. In the intervening struggle, many gods and races were destroyed. The blood of slain gods soaked into the world, bringing with it their diluted power.
The All High had kept himself out of the conflict. During that time he found himself enamored with a demonic princess. The resulting union bore Dramdaus The Demon Lord, a being utterly corrupted by the evil in his mother's heart, a heart he himself consumed shortly after birth.
Unknown Date- The Deific Exodus
The divine war turned to a stalemate with the armies of the surviving gods deadlocked. With the eventual intervention of the All High, the gods put aside their quarreling and enacted the deific pact to never again interfere directly in the events of the material plane but to rely on the use of followers and Avatars as proxies.
In the aftermath of the war, the plane slowly began to heal itself.
The gods left the plane. Two gods did not leave with the rest, the dwarven god Tork, and the elven god Arun were left comatose from the divine war.
1 S.E. (Sealed Era- 2987 years before the Free Era, F.E.)- The Seal
While the gods pursued agendas on the other Planes, the Demon lord brought his forces to bear on the material plane and conquered everything that had been.
At the very beginning of the Demon Lord's reign, all portals to the outer planes were locked severing the link between the gods and their followers. The Demon Lord went about killing off Celestial that were trapped on the material plane. The essence of these celestials was fed to the great gem known as the Seal, the gem powering the spell that locked off the plane.
With their followers cut off from them, the gods were no longer able to draw power from those loyal to their cause. Thus weakened, they fell prey to the Demon Lord who traveled the outer planes hunting the gods. The essence of the gods was fed to the seal to give it strength.
When his cleansing was done, only three of the gods still lived. The All High, the demon lord's father, had never drawn power from followers and as such was not weakened by the Seal, while Arun and Tork still slumbered on the material plane.
The Sealed Corruption was a consequence that possibly even the Demon Lord hadn't predicted. With the plane completely sealed off from every other, no one ever left, not even through death. Fully half of the planes inhabitants were turned into some kind of undead within days of their death, most of the rest were turned into planar petitioners or some other kind of native outsider.
In the almost three thousand years that the demon lord ruled, this lack of any souls leaving soon led to the plane becoming rapidly overcrowded. This overabundance of souls led to the creation of many cults to the demon lord which ritualistically practiced sacrifice, sending the victim's souls to be placed in the seal.
1740 S.E.- Awakening
Arun and Tork finally roused from their slumber to find a world drastically different than the one they had left behind. Rallying their forces, the two gods fought side by side trying to break the Demon Lord's strangle hold on the plane.
1745 S.E.- Fall back
After five years of fighting, the godly duo were both becoming severely weakened as their followers continued to die off in battle. Retreating into the lands held by their respective followers, Arun and Tork had to bide their time again regaining their strength as their followers turned purely defensive keeping the forces of the Demon lord as much as possible out of their lands.
2986 S.E.- The Hero's Rise
In a world oppressed by demonic forces, five heroes rose in secret to face the Demon Lord. Calvin Mikdrivin, Lyle Lightfingers, Allistar Marcsh, and the Twins Kara and Sara worked in secret with the celestial resistance while they convinced the demonic forces that they were loyal followers.
They worked slow at first winning minor victories for their cause while they continued to advance in skill, until at a banquet for Deraius, the Demon Lord's son, Kara and Sara caught the eye of Lord Rain Drakaal, an Incubus and lord of his own tribe. The five heroes went to work for Lord Drakaal, and finally succeeded in turning him to their cause after finding out about his unusual ancestry, he was the great grandson of one of the few surviving celestials.
With Lord Drakaal's army backing them, the heroes went to the hidden nations of the Elves, Dwarves and Avans on missions to bring these formidable forces into the fold of their ever expanding army. Once the three free nations were allied with them, the heroes went about drawing every individual they could from the demonic nations and training them for the final assault on the Demon Lord's Tower.
Lord Rain Drakaal and the heroes managed to keep their treachery secret for nearly a year while the army trained. Kara and Sara were turned into celestials by an act of latent divine power left after the divine war. The twins became the wives of Lord Drakaal.
In the year that they had to prepare, Kara and Sara the warrior twins of bow, headed up the training of the army. Calvin the Paladin, with the help of the celestial council, trained others in the divine might of their own spirits. Lyle the trickster thief turned his skills at assassination toward the cause of good drawing disciples to learn his art of the shadows. Allistar the mage had the hardest task of all.
Allistar was the one responsible for breaking the Demon Lord's hold over the planes. Having died once himself, Allistar had come the closest of any spirit to escaping into the true afterlife before finally being brought back as an outsider by the celestial council. This experience left him with a unique understanding of the way that the Demon Lord was keeping the planes closed. He, along with his most gifted followers, spent many months researching the very essence of the planes in an effort to break the spell that was keeping the material plane closed off from every other. There was only one problem, for the new spell to work it had to be cast directly on the Seal, which was located on the uppermost level of the Demon Lord's tower.
2987 S.E. until 1 F.E.- The War of Freedom
After a year of preparations, the resistance’s luck finally wore off. The Demon Lord had become aware of Lord Drakaal's betrayal, and was preparing to crush this insurrection once and for all. As a preemptive strike, the Demon Lord Sent a team of assassins to rid himself of Lord Drakaal and the heroes. It is a credit only to their great skill and care for each other that these six managed to survive when arrayed against ten of the Demon Lord's most prized assassins.
After their narrow escape from the attempt on their lives, the heroes decided that their only chance for victory lay in attacking the Demon Lord's tower before he could muster all of his forces. The army of the resistance marched on the dark tower descending on the Demon Lord's great army in a little over a month. The free army had been preparing for a year, and as such had the initial advantage over the enemy army that only had a month's warning to begin drawing it's recruits.
The enemy army arrayed around the tower was ill prepared for the assault that soon came at them as natives and redeemed outsiders alike rushed their forces with a ferocity that hadn't been seen in centuries of battle. After the first two weeks of battle, the Demon Lord's remaining forces were barricaded in the tower itself and it seemed that the free army would soon win a decisive victory. It was in this second week that the two great forces of Dragons arrived to vie for the victory of their chosen side. Even though both armies grew almost equally in strength with this addition of some of the world's oldest inhabitants, the free army took great joy in this sign that they swore would mean their victory.
Their joy was short lived however as in the third week they were set upon by the armies of the demon tribes. Having come to the Demon Lord's call, the remaining forces had finally arrived, bolstered by their Orc and Ogre allies.
Now faced with an army that nearly doubled theirs, and pressed back against the forces still in the tower, the free army began taking heavy casualties and seemed they wouldn't hold out the month. Their misfortune seemed to grow near the end of the fourth week as many of the giants came from their safe havens and joined with the side of the demon armies.
The free army was almost broken, bolstered barely by the few giants that had chosen to join their side, they seemed defeated until Lyle Lightfingers' people, the halflings and gnomes, arrived with a great army that almost surpassed the demons themselves. In the three millenia of the Demon Lord's rule, the little people had avoided the most harm by going to ground in hidden groves and secret forests among the hills. Their prosperity during this time had not gone unwasted as they secretly prepared for the day that the Demon Lord would fall. The armies of the little people fell in a devastating wave among the Giants that had chosen the demon's side. The free people were saved from many of the world's largest inhabitants by an army of many of the world's smallest inhabitants. The armies had now reached a stalemate arrayed on the field of battle across from one another with the tower as an imposing pinnacle in the center.
On the final day of battle, Lord Drakaal faced Deraius in single combat within the shadow of the tower while the heroes launched their final assault on the Demon Lord's stronghold. As armies slaughtered each other outside, the five heroes battled even greater horrors in the dark place as it became evident that each floor of the tower was a pocket plane unto itself with it's own horrors and denizens.
Finally coming upon the highest level of the tower, the Five heroes and their retinue stood against the great Demon Lord himself. Dramdaus had prepared well, to the misfortune of the heroes, as they found themselves arrayed not just against the lord, but a force of ancient dragons. The specifics of that final conflict in the tower are known to only a few. What is known is that sometime around the twilight hours, while the armies still warred outside, a great explosion rocked the tower sending stones from the top floor crashing down into both armies below. An unknown wave of power swept across the armies banishing demon and celestial alike to outer planes. Though not all outsiders were forced from the plane, this sudden loss broke the back of the demon army as the remaining forces retreated into the wilds of the world hiding from the vengeance of the free army.
It was unknown then what had caused this sudden explosion and surge of power. Survivors later revealed that is was caused by the breaking of the seal that had held the plane closed. In the aftermath of that final battle, only three of the heroes emerged from the tower. Lyle led the way as Kara and Sara came out behind him. They explained that Allistar had taken the opportunity to leave the plane and explore the multiverse to delve deeper into the secrets of the planes. Calvin the Paladin however was not as lucky. The exact facts were never told about how he died, but his death was mourned in every free nation of the world. Kara and Sara left soon after with Lord Drakaal, and their house has flourished ever since. It is not known whether they are still living on this plane or one of the upper planes of the celestials. Lyle the halfling now heads the largest assassins guild in the world bent on keeping the free nations free.
25 F.E.- Joyful homecoming
An expedition to the Demon Lord's tower brought back reports of wealth, undead, demons and a great joy. The Paladin Calvin, thought lost forever at the end of the War of Freedom, ascended to godhood becoming the first Tier of the youngling gods. Accepted as an ally and friend by both Arun and Tork, Calvin rose quickly in power as a favored god among the free nations.
27 F.E.- The Demonic wave
While digging into the past on the Isle of Versen, archaeologists uncoverd one of the demonic gates that was used as an escape route after the war of Freedom. The human nations Cathra and Canate warred with one another over control of the gateway leading to the activation of the portal. Both nations suffered heavily as the Isle was overrun by demon hordes. Three Heroes rose during the fighting, though not all on the same side. These three saw the need for law and order and drove back the hordes. In the aftermath of Calvin's ascension, these three were the next in line becoming known as the tribunal.
153 F.E.- the War of the Stones
Infiltrating the governments of the free nations, the Ancient Wyrm Karios and his partner the Great Wyrm Red Thelket begin searching for the secret of Calvin's Ascension this investigation uncovered the power of the deity stones. The events that followed are known as the war of the stones. The end of the war heralded the ascension of the second tier of youngling gods including Karios himself as well as Valic Lightfooted, Callus, Dariat, Farlen, and Pierken.
Though there was an overwhelming majority of good aligned gods, evil beings seemed to have no problem gaining the power they needed from other dark forces..
210 F.E.- The Demon Lord returns
Through the use of agents in the other planes, the Demon Lord began regaining power, and collecting his own supply of deity stones. Before the youngling gods and the free nations could stop him, Dramdaus put his plans into action. Aware that sealing the plane would not work a second time, the Demon Lord instead ascended, rising in power almost immedietly to counter balance Calvin and the good gods.
250 F.E.- The Green Tide Cometh
Powerful undead began to rise all over the planes. At first they appeared to be a major threat until it was discovered that these undead were in fact the ghosts of the gods that the Demon Lord had slain. Through the work of many loyal followers, Grodge was brought back to life and returned to his position as the Orc deity. With their divine backing, the Orcs launched an enormous invasion force concentrating mostly on the worlds largest continent, but hitting every landmass at least a little bit. When the orcs were pushed out of their lands, the other races launched their own crusades to the main continent under a pretense to help the humans there. The resulting war saw chaos and strife in abundance as alliances formed and fell and each race ended up carving out some of the land for themselves taking much of the human's domain.
423 F.E.- The Shadow Elves
The shadow god Dariat enacts a plan against his rival Valic, and begins setting himself up as an elven deity. Dariat corrupts the ruling class of a great elven nation, promising them power and wealth. When Valic discovered the corruption he sent loyal elven armies against the corrupted nation. The followers of Dariat proved stronger than expected. They were not easily defeated, and many survived to flee to the ashen lands. These survivors became the shadow elves.
554 F.E.- A Powerful Tome
A divine ghost was discovered bound to an ancient tome of power. The massive source of evil drew many followers in search in search of power. These followers unleashed a powerful curse upon the nation, overwhelming much of the capital with an undead army. Enemies joined forces to fight back, eventually destroying the divine tome and taking the power for themselves.
1017 F.E.- Date of Previous Campaign
1020 F.E.- Date of Current Campaign
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