Backstory

Eons ago, ere the creation of anything there existed The Void. Within in The Void there was but one existence, The All. And The All existed peacefully and alone without time until at once it didn’t. A cacophony rang out from The All and it shattered into nearly infinite, innumerable pieces that flung out into the fathomless deep of The Empty.

From this Scattering were born Nihilustrium, the Elements of Chaos, and Astrarium, the Elements of Order. The Astraruim bore Light, Consciousness, Will, and Spirit whilst the Nihiliustrium spawned Destruction, Volatility, Putrefaction, and Material. From the Astrarium rose the first Celestials who used it to create the First Realm. Shortly after the creation of this realm, a second surge from The All sent a new scattering of Astrarium and Nihilustrium throughout The Empty. As the latter crashed into the First Realm, the places where the elements collided were destroyed and the Plane was left in ruins. The Celestials had to build again. But from the Astrarium sprung new, younger Celestials who threw themselves at the work and aided their older siblings in their task.

After the Third Surge, a group of the firstborns and some of their followers decided it was necessary to fortify the walls of the First Realm to withstand the crushing blows of the Nihilustrium. But to do this they began converting other celestial beings into their building material. When the other celestials realized what was going on, they launched a battle against them, the first battle of Good v. Evil. But the Evil Celestials had gained too much power by siphoning off the life of their siblings. The Good Celestials held their ground until the Fourth Surge. This surge was the most powerful yet. In the chaos caused by the birthing of new Nihilustrium and Astrarium, the Good Celestials quickly constructed a wall around the Evil Celestials, imprisoning them inside the First Realm, which would come to be known as The Pit.

After the mayhem caused by the Fourth Surge settled and calm returned to The Empty, the remaining Celestials began the work of building a new home. This home would be called The World. There was a vast abundance of Nihilustrium and Astarium to be used for construction. The walls of The World were much stronger than anything The Pit had prior to the Fourth Surge. To ensure the safety of everyone in The World, the celestials sent out a party of beings to strengthen the walls around The Pit to ensure that the Evil Celestials could never escape their prison. When this work was done, there was peace in The World. The Good Celestials had learned from their Evil siblings that is was possible to transfer power between beings and they chose to pledge portions of their power to the strongest among them to ensure their protection. This became the first form of worship and the strongest among them became the first Gods. After millennia of peace and countless Surges, the Gods and their celestial brethren began the work of Creation and molded the first mortals from Astrarium. They taught them to worship and the power of the Gods grew.

This work continued for many ages until The World became too populated with the Mortals, and the Gods and Celestials sought a home of their own away from their creations. So they reached into The Empty and collected an immense amount of Astrarium and created the first Heavens, The Empyreal Plane. All the Gods and Celestial moved there and lived amongst themselves, removed from their creations. As the mortals continued to worship, the gods would grow in power. But some mortals began to worship other Celestials as gods, as well, and these Celestials power would grow until they were elevated to the level of Godhood. Some celestials grew jealous of the power of the gods and began to seek worship of their own to gain power, and would influence the realm of Mortals to such ends.

Fights erupted between the Gods and Celestials over who would rule and who had the right to worship. Jealous beings and would-be-usurpers attempted to assassinate the other Gods to take their place. These beings would be branded as Evil, no different that the first to Fall and would be sentenced to imprisonment in The Pit with the others. After all the Evil Ones were rounded up and sentenced, peace returned to The Empyreal Plane. But mortals continued to worship the gods of their choice. Even the ones in The Pit. As they did, their Evil Gods’ powers rose, and a tear in The Pit formed…