I: The Beginning of True Chaos...
The Rise of the Dubhaimid
It was 272 years after Hy-Brasyl's inevitable drowning, in the year of Danaan 1703, that the fifth element of darkness was discovered. A mere two years afterwards, the exact cause of which left under speculation to this day, the vile and evil beings known as the Dubhaimid appeared. All of which would mark the beginning of a long age of suffering for Temuair. Though history, with many of its details lost in passage of time, has succeeded only in telling the basis of its records. However, throughout the generations, stories, myths, even personal recollections were passed down. And, though like history these stories too lost their edge of accuracy, one can only take it hold at least a spark of truth...
Out of an obscene understanding
of the elements
was wrought a fifth element:
darkness. From it,
atrocious creatures were born.
Some which died or
vanished with only a lingering
sense remaining, and
others that the foolish summoned
would wish that
they had vanished. Their towns,
too, would be eaten
by the monstrosities.
As it happened,
with the discovery of darkness, hideous and grotesque creatures were born.
With the bondage of the elements, darkness had been added to the servitude
as the other four elements before it. However, its effects proved to be
far more sinister in use as compared to what could be wrought with earth
or fire. Foolish Wizards saw darkness as a means of crushing others involved
in the fierce elemental wars.
Those who tried
succeeded only in conjuring bizarre creatures, hideous and grotesque in
form, but not even strong enough to remain in existence for more than a
breath's time. Wizards more skilled in their craft, grown tired of the
havoc they could manifest with the four most basic of elements, turned
to try their hands at the manipulation of darkness. The creature's
they produced through their magicks, as it happened, were far more powerful
than those the lower of the magicians could bring about.
These advanced
demons did not disappear upon their creation, rather they grew strong.
No amount of magickal skill could control these such monsters, and they
quickly turned upon their creators who foolishly wished to be their masters.
And, feeding off the fear and terror they evoked in those who called them,
the makers of these obscene creatures soon met untimely ends by their own
powers. These experiments with such an unknown and mysterious element,
would ultimately drug many an innocent mundane, even a slight more deserving
war-goer, to meet similar and ever more unspeakable deaths...
Eventually, as
the strife and malice increased amongst participants of the mindless struggles
for power, the creatures born of darkness too seemed to gain strength.
The demons that had been summoned by so many in a effort to turn the tables
of the insane battles thrived in both spreading and feeding upon the chaos
that reigned. Towns were ravaged as the intellects of the dark beings evolved,
leading them to gather in large groups and crush those who sought to right
the wrongs of their existence in destroying them. Still the blind mortal
struggles for power continued on.
It was said,
amongst many a oracle, scholar, and philosopher that dare research such
dark subjects, that as the angst hatred of those who fought reached it
peak, so did the society and logic of the fearsome demons, all of which
fed upon the chaos that was raged amongst the power mad inhabitants of
Temuair. The creatures of darkness, by the unfortunates they tormented
from beginning their creation, had fearfully come to be called the Dubhaimid.
It was during
this climax of vile progression, when those involved in the war lusted
more than ever for a hold over the land, and when the innocents wrought
between the maddening struggled feared more than ever for their lives,
that the Dubhaimid assumed a level which could nearly be a twisted parallel
to mortals. From the meager, pathetic ooze they had first been conjured
as, the Dubhaim had risen to assume far more terrifying forms, human in
guise but horribly distorted by the hate and loathing the demon race so
thrived and flourished upon. It became so that mortals were gripped by
the Dubhaimid's greedy manipulation of their darker emotions, feasting
upon the fear the produced from inhabitants of the cities they ravished,
and thriving further upon the even more fervent hatred amongst the tyrants
and warlords or the lands. Thus, their reign of terror grew...
II: Darkness' Eclipse
The Underworld & Chadul
The dubhaim knew the secrets of
life and death; which
meant death for all mortal races.
They created and
stocked the underworld, land
of terror and darkness.
This was nothing like the final
resting place, Grinneal of
Hy-brasyl. Souls screamed without
rest in the underworld
of the dubhaimid.
As it would be
an even more tragic factor for humanity, the Dubhaimid were endowed with
the ancient secrets of life and death. Some wise men say this sacred lore
was embedded within the demon's foul minds from the moment they were first
create, the darkness holding all the long forgotten or crushed secrets
of the realm that all shadows within the land could tell.
However, other
philosophers would insist that it was later when the Dubhaim discovered
the forgotten lore, which came during the time of the evil race's high
point. Those few who refused the other theories said that their possession
of such secrets came from the tapping into the very souls and minds of
the unfortunate they preyed upon. Their victims of course, included those
from all walks of life, and between them all, as knowledge long ill-used
sense the fall of Hy-Brasyl, the Dubhaim discovered and defiled the divine
knowledge.
It was through
these discoveries that the Dubhaim overthrew the realm of Grinneal, replacing
it with their own foul underworld, one which was built upon the terror
and darkness the demons thrived upon. Now, even in death, the creatures
of darkness could feed upon the souls of the mortals they plagued in life.
As their soul prison became accumulated by more and more souls to torture
as they pleased for eternity, the Dubhaimid had literally created an oasis
of suffering and torment to benefit themselves. The anguished screams of
poor souls the demons fed upon grew so loud and came in such strength that
even in the world above their cries could be heard clearly by the still
leaving, evoking more fear into the hearts of mortals who still lived,
and driving those who had warred amongst themselves so long to near insanity
from the never ending screams. All activity within Temuair seemed to come
to a halt at the Dubhaimid's twisted hands.
Perhaps they screamed too loudly,
or perhaps the
thoughts of the living were too
strong. The eighth
aeon of Temuair was known. Wise
men, described
it by the being that was born:
Chadul, the ruler of the
third realm: the underworld.
The wise returned to the
worship of Danaan, goddess of
the light.
In the year of
Danaan 1813, Chadul, rule of the underworld, was born. The ruler of the
Dubhaim's foul realm marked the final decay of Grinneal, leaving all souls
within Temuair within the twisted hands of the beings that reigned amongst
the third realm. As it still remains today, no mortal can say for
sure what Chadul himself was borne of, or why it was he that took reign
over the Dubhaim's unspeakable land. All that is known is that the new
lord Chadul was the product of all the hatred and sin the world had bore
in all the past centuries, raised upon the Dubhaim's torment of mortal
souls, and fed by the screams that rang across the air day in and day out.
Whether it was
out of the knowledge the Dubhaimid themselves had of life (knowledge which
had since been ill used from their preference of death), or out of the
own torment the mortals of the land were put upon, Chadul had come into
being. All of which would again mark a new turning point in the age
of Temuair, one even more twisted and corrupt than the appearance and rise
of the demons the Dubhaimid. Under Chadul's new reign, the suffering of
the world reach a new high. It was this such woe of ultimate levels that
let those not yet taken by death or complete madness to return to the worship
of Danaan, the goddess of light. And so came the beginning of the
war between light and darkness, a war between the very aspects of good
and evil within Temuair.
For the first
time in more than 2,000 years, Temuair was given a chance to fight back
against the chaos and strife that gripped it by the likes of Chadul and
the Dubhaimid....
III: Temuair's Revenge
The War of Light & Dark
A war rose up of light and darkness,
the armies
amassed under Danaan or Chadul.
Danaan
convinced the other beings aid
to her, and Chadul
was defeated in three days. Chadul
was held at bay
at the darkness. Not without
casualties. The mortal
world was ravaged by hail, earthquakes,
floods, fire,
and the fingers of the dubhaimid.
In Danaan 1980,
the war between the followers of Danaan and Chadul began. Those who followed
Chadul were all the minions of darkness, even including many a corrupt
mortal once to be trusted to Danaan's ranks. By the dark lord Chadul's
command, the Dubhaim wreaked havoc anew across the land, ravaging cities
and terrorizing villagers as they had in their earliest days of existence.
Danaan, however, was quick to retaliate, gathering the aide of all beings
that remained pure of heart in Temuair.
In the end, the
forces of light were stronger of number and determination to push back
the dark, and Chadul and his forces were taken back and defeated within
three days of the new union's forming. For the first time in ages, those
in defense learned to ban together in their efforts as opposed to protecting
solely themselves foolishly, it was this change of strategy by Danaan's
hand that at last led to victory. Though as it had happened... All was
not solved by Chadul's defeat, which would be realized all too late. The
other beings Danaan had gather in aide of the mortals could do nothing
once the battles were finished, the unfortunate mortal inhabitants of Temuair
were alone in the eventual suffering...
The beings realized what was done
and wept for
mortality. Mortal spirits wandered
the land, and
slipped into the darkness of
Chadul's realm.
Darkness spread.
It had happened,
despite the triumph that was at last gained, the settlements of the mortals
had been all but destroyed in the battles. The combination of force from
the Dubhaimid and the elements was too great, and it was a mixed victory
at best. Though Chadul no longer had such a power over the realm above
the underworld, those who survived the war were left with nearly nothing,
and hopes again dropped even shortly after the war's end. The following
years would again be ones filled with woe and hopelessness, given Chadul
the chance to rise again to make another crushing blow to the mortals realm.
Danaan could not save those who lost hope and faith in this time, and the
mortal realm too began to fall into the darkness of the underworld...
In Danaan 2230,
when the civilization of Temuair had only just begun to pick itself back
up, the 9th Aeon became known, one which serve a strange twist in the lives
of the mortals. In the centuries following the world's submersion in darkness,
some learned to use the fifth element to their advantage, which would lead
to the eventual forming of the legions of darkness.
It would be in
this era that some form of order, no matter how foolish corrupt
the leader's intention were, could be brought upon the realm. Nonetheless,
strife and tension continued in the land as it had before Chadul's chaotic
appearance. However, this time such things seemed well hidden behind politics
and social reforms of all kinds. It would be during the 9th era, when mortality
at last began to learn to live amongst the hold of darkness, that the very
span to be called the Dark Ages would begin...