A History

5,000,000,000 Years Ago

The planet Arai forms, orbiting a yellow star far from Sol, and begins its long cooling process. An impact breaks off the piece that will become Cradle, the bright moon, shining silver in its night sky. From parts unknown, the dark moon, Grave, falls into its own orbit, appearing on the darkest of nights with its phosphorescent blue glow.

3,000,000 Years Ago

On the grasslands of Urd, a genus of bipedal, omnivorous horned mammals evolves into the first ancestors of the raun.

5,000 Years Ago

Raun begin building cities in Urd's northeastern hill country. They use bronze tools and keep records on clay tablets.

2,000 Years Ago: The Age of the Gods

Human interstellar craft arrive on Arai. Humans and raun experience first contact. Surviving myths present conflicting accounts of the results.

Humans build megastructure Towers as laboratories, factories, and vaults for valuable technology, as well as smaller installations. They are aided in their works by daemon AI constructs. Dust nanites are introduced to Arai's environment. The bulk of construction takes place in northeastern Urd, where six Towers are built, the primary facility serving as an orbital elevator under the control of the Throne-class daemon Metatron.

1,500 Years Ago: The Collapse

An unknown disaster causes the humans on Arai to be cut off from their interstellar homes. Their society quickly collapses. The loss of records from raun civilizations at the time suggests they are also affected.

1,400 Years Ago: The Age of Sorrows

The survivors of the collapse, human and raun, fall into a dark age. Knowledge of humanity's old technology is lost. Pollutants, invasive species, and engineered lifeforms breach containment, wreaking havoc on ecosystems. Daemons rampage uncontrolled. Countless thousands perish.

1,000 Years Ago

In the northeast of Urd, now known as the Tower Lands, survivor communities have become tribes using iron tools, speaking dozens of languages. Warlords fight over territory, slaves, and surviving artifacts, now viewed as divine relics of the First Ones, the primordial gods who made the world. Dust has become endemic to the environment, causing strange phenomena and warping life unpredictably. The ruins of the pre-collapse period are considered holy ground, forbidden on pain of dire curses or execution by ageless metal guardians.

400 Years Ago: Rise of the God-King

A slave of the Halish tribe ascends to become its chieftain. Daring to attempt what many have died trying, he leads his army to attack the Throne Tower. He conquers it, subduing its guardians, facing Metatron itself and emerging victorious. Claiming the Tower's relics and treasures and the fealty of its daemon guardians, with Metatron as his familiar, he takes the Tower itself as his citadel and crowns himself King of Halas.

Through study of the Tower's archives, he rediscovers many secrets of the past. He learns techniques of immortality and becomes the first of the Deathless. He unlocks the long-lost power of Dust, pioneering the art of tuning. His followers declare him inheritor of the First Ones' will, and so name him King and God.

350 Years Ago

The God-King turns his gaze to the rest of the Tower Lands. Sending his armies forth, he begins conquering his neighbors. Nearby tribes are little match for his forces, now empowered by relics from the Throne Tower and the sorcery of his apprentice tuners.

In some regions, other rulers have claimed Towers of their own. They prove stronger adversaries, but not strong enough.

300 Years Ago: The Old Kingdom

From the Throne Tower, the God-King rules over a land that now bears the name of his city, Halas. His Deathless vassals hold the lesser Towers in his name. For the first time in centuries, the tribes of the Tower Lands speak of themselves as one people.

Wealth, literacy, and life expectancy are at their highest in centuries. Roads link distant cities; people travel without fear of beasts, bandits, or worse. The Thronecult oversees the myriad priesthoods of local gods, channeling tributes from across the kingdom into grand public works. The blood and sweat of the slaves who build these monuments are honored as holy offerings.

260 Years Ago: The Zoah War

The Zoah invade Halas from the southwest, in the province of Doros. The Deathless Lord Magor, master of the Silver Tower, leads the campaign against them. His exploits cement his reputation as the greatest warrior and general in the Tower Lands at tremendous cost in lives. The war ends with his conjuring of the Stormwall, halting the Zoah's advance and transforming most of Doros into a barren desert. This feat earns Magor the title of Stormruler.

250 Years Ago

No one outside of the God-King's innermost circle has seen him in decades. Deep in seclusion within his Tower citadel, he combs the ancient archives for new means of expanding his power.

He finds what he seeks. A path of metamorphosis, unlocking potential slumbering within the human genome, shedding the human form to become something truly godlike.

It is a long path, paved in blood. As he walks it, fewer and fewer are permitted to lay eyes on him, to see the changes that slowly overtake him. Slaves are diverted by the dozen to the capital, then by the hundred, taken into the Tower and never seen again.

200 Years Ago: Calamity

A cataclysmic explosion annihilates the Throne Tower. Out of the ashes flies an immense winged beast, hide armored in impenetrable scales, breath unleashing furnace flames. In a night of horror, it burns the capital to the ground.

Beheaded, the kingdom falls apart. Calamity strikes with impunity, leaving slagged, smoking ruins.

Four of the Deathless, masters of their own Towers, forge an alliance. Ioanna of the Black Star, Lady of Astos and mistress of the Glass Tower, prophesies Calamity's defeat. Sariel, the Lady of Teeth, Regent of Kyria and mistress of the Green Tower, develops a poison to undo the beast. Magor Stormruler wields the Spear of Heaven to strike Calamity out of the sky. Finally, Kalis the Afflictor, Lord of the Weeping Cities and master of the Unseen Tower, delivers the poisoned thorn into the beast's breast.

Calamity's remains are sealed in a hidden tomb on an unmapped island off the northern coast. Unknown to the Deathless, it is not truly dead, but in a state of regenerative hibernation, fighting the poison.

Fearing that someone else will discover the God-King's research, the Deathless begin obliterating all record of his name, identity, and life. Those survivors of the Thronecult who manage to escape assassination are forced into hiding.

198 Years Ago: The Succession War

Dozens of local lords declare themselves rightful ruler of Halas. Civil war erupts across the Tower Lands.

194 Years Ago

Raedric of Kyther, a backwater lord in the province of Saldis, claims the Pale Tower, declaring himself Deathless and rightful successor.

191 Years Ago

The factions involved in the civil war have coalesced under the Deathless masters of the five remaining Towers. All refuse to give up their claims.

100 Years Ago: The Interregnum

The Succession War is not ended, but the worst of the fighting has died down, the belligerents exhausted. The Deathless Lords of the Towers remain locked in a five-way stalemate, each unable to fully conquer any of the others without leaving their own holdings vulnerable.

Scholars estimate that since the Calamity, at least half the realm's population has been wiped out.

In secrecy, a new cult foments resistance against the Lords with a whispered rallying cry: Metatron lives.

Now

The Deathless Lords war still, each claiming their right to rule all of Halas. Surviving villages shine as scattered points of light in dark wilderness, surrounded by their ruined neighbors. Armies march on campaigns spanning generations, devouring all in their path, all memory of who and what they fight for long lost. Corrupt temples bleed the people of tribute. Hungry beasts, daemons, and sorcerous horrors prowl the wilderness. Few brave the roads.

In the ruins of the First Ones and countless ages since, forgotten treasures, wondrous relics, and secrets of the shrouded past lie in wait. Those who dare seek them may fall victim to divine guardians, vicious traps, and starving bellies...or perhaps become as gods themselves.