Difference between revisions of "Timeline: 200 AF to 299 AF"

Hashan calls upon Sharbrena, high Cleric of its Patron Twilight and beseeches her to summon Eseme once more. The cleric arrives and enters the dreams of Epicurus in an attempt to discern the nature of his malady. She is shocked to discover that during the repair of the Jade Icon, four years earlier, one of the nightmare spirits had been inadvertently sealed outside it, and the spirit’s bond to the statuette broken. The Icon itself has disappeared from the keeping of the Obeah Ecstasia again.

The nightmare spirit, Erinyes by name, kidnaps Epicurus and plans to use him to complete her plans, begun with her quest for sufficient power by gorging upon mortal dreams and planned to culminate in the destruction of her ancient prisoner. Epicurus, still besotted with unnatural sleep, is unable to aid Erinyes. Instead, the Jade Icon is broken by Gelphend, a mortal who has fallen under her sway. The remaining three nightmare entities are freed and great harm is loosed upon the mortal planes as both sleeping and waking nightmares consume the populace, driving many into insanity and loosing mayhem throughout the continent.

Without warning the hellish visions cease. Valnurana, Goddess of Sleep and Dreams has found Her own divine slumber disturbed by the unnatural flux and disruption in the dream patterns of the mortal world. She wakens and with Her power calls the nightmare spirits to Her, binding them and thus ending their reign of terror and once more taking Her place among the manifest Pantheon.

Sartan, Lord of Evil, after wreaking fearful havoc upon the world, declares that He intends to extinguish the last bit of power left by Aurora, Goddess of Light, before She left this plane for unknown destinations and for an unspecified length of time. He extinguishes Her Flame of Light, destroying Her links to the mortal world. Thus denying Her future return. However, deep within the keep of the Vampire Queen, Belladona, Dawn, the Keeper of Light has long guarded one of Aurora’s most potent artifacts, the Prism of Light. The Prism yet provides the Lightbringer a portal into this plane.

In the culmination of an old prophecy, first uttered by Choirmaster Handel of the Chrysalis Basilica, the essence of Aurora, Goddess of Light, is dispersed. Pentharian, God of Righteousness, takes Her mantle upon Himself and becomes God of Righteousness and Light.

Following new bridge construction on the Isle of Delos, and underwater city called Riparium is discovered. One of its inhabitants reveals that a specific herbal element will allow air breathers to visit there and many do.  

The Forest and the dwellers therein rejoice at the reawakening of Gaia, Goddess of Nature. A number of Druids and other devotees of the ancient Goddess meet to perform a Rite of Prayer in honour of the nature Deity. Although they do so with scant hope, their hopes and prayers are answered as Gaia once more walks among the millenia old trees of Sapience.

Several individuals attempt a rite to restore the essence of the Goddess Tarah. They fail.

Sartan, God of Evil, performs an act of extermination within the sacred confines of the Temple of Gaia. In retaliation He is enemied to the Forest. His minions, The Order of Evil, begin to decimate and burn the forests of Sapience. The Sentinels and Druids react by banning the sale or gift of all herbs, ointments, and elixirs to all Sapience. The Sorcerers Guild bans all enchantments using kola in a gesture of support for the forest folk and their cause.

Gaia refuses to intervene although many beseech Her for aid and succor. Many of the traditional allies of Nature refuse to be tainted by Darkness and refuse their aid as well. What is worse, for all Xandor’s words, it seems that the Children of Darkness have no true intent of helping the Forest. Orina changes her mind and seeks to undo that which she has done. The Children of Nature and their faithful perform a rite to rid the forests of Darkness, and the Darkenwood Rite is never completed. They succeed for the most part, but Gaia remains withdrawn and impatient and it is obvious that something abhorrent to Nature yet troubles the lands beneath the trees. The Children of Nature resort to oracles for assistance, but do not see that an imbalance has been created that they must right, preferring to place blame outside themselves rather than heed the words of wisdom given to them.

Strange creatures appear in the forests, harmed by sunlight and the places inhabited by the known races and their works. Calling themselves Arachnoi, and appearing in the form of humanoid spiders, they claim that Xandor and Orina are their grandparents and that they have been sent by their mother to plead with their grandparents to complete the Darkenwood Ritual by which their mother had been created. They are creatures with no natural habitat within the existing mansions of Nature, and they are dying as a result.  

A clan of professional Assassins forms. Though feared and secretive, these contract killers have yet to make much of a mark on Achaean society.

Rejecting what they see as the soiling of honour and justice by their more mercenary brethren, some Assassins form a new clan, calling themselves Champions. They accept no fees for their work and claim to exist solely to mete out justice for its own sake.

A blazing star appears in the heavens and plummets to ground. Soon it is discovered that the object is no star but is the Hammer of Phaestus. Fern, the Sentinel who discovers it, is visited by strange visions involving the image of a unicorn and great stones.

An attempt is made to unravel the mystery by a group of Magi and Sorcerers, gathering at the monoliths in the Temple of Gaia and focusing upon the unicorn known to contain the essence of the ancient traitor-God Agatheis, but nothing is revealed.

A second attempt is made, but is aborted when an Ashtanite Occultist makes away with the Hammer, taking it to Ashtan. A third attempt is made, and yet another Ashtanite steals the Hammer. After The Magi and Sorcerers agree to allow the Ashtanite Warlocks to participate in the Hammer is returned and the exercise proceeds.

Syvelium, guild tutor of the Paladins goes missing. When questioned about the disappearance, Pentharian and the other Gods deny that such an entity has ever even existed. Mortals begin to whisper among themselves that the Gods seem to have gone mad, and tremble in fear of what this means to the world. Soon the fabric of sanity begins to unravel throughout the continent. Mortalkind remember events and personages the existence of which are denied by the Deities. The madness moves throughout the populace and soon none are sure of life, memory, family or position. Or, indeed, are sure of things that cannot possibly be or never were. Many regress into infantile states or claim ancestries, histories or associations that go beyond the outlandish. Firefox of Hashan loses his Serpentlord abilities and finds that in their place he has attained a mystical knowledge previously unknown in the world. He calls himself a “Shaman” and forms a guild in Hashan. Events continue to spiral out of control.

It is discovered that the Great Mhunna, Lord of Moghedu holds what is likely the key to the chest. In his wisdom, and heeding the counsel of his ministers, he decides to keep the key where it may do no harm. Ashtan, Bastion of the North, eventually succeeds in murdering the Mhunna and gaining control of the key. Once the key is outside of Moghedu, it becomes apparent that it is of such nature that none may hold it for long. Eventually, Shakti Devi succeeds in opening the chest.

At the opening of the chest a massive arrow of flame strikes at the very heart of Shallam, utterly destroying the Chrysalis Basilica, leaving a massive crater in its wake. As this happens, a second and larger chest falls to ground in the Pash Valley. Even though this object is inscribed with even more clear and dire warnings than the first, Charlotte Voivre of Shallam manages to open it. As she does so, flames fly heavenward incinerating all in the vicinity. In the city of Hashan, many of the populace has gathered at Crossroads of the city, seeking safety from the flaming vortex that has moved to hover over the city. They are annihilated by the phenomenon.

Once Hashan has been destroyed the Other reveals His name to be Varian and vows to make all Creation His. As Achaea reels in the horror at His pronouncements that He is ruler of all, Sarapis, the Logos, reveals that He has all along been unaffected by the madness which has infected the other Gods, merely playing a waiting game to size up this almost-equal entity from outside His Creation. The Logos is unable to destroy Varian, but has the power to create a mirror image of Achaea and expel the Other from Achaea and into the duplicate world. Sarapis calls this new sphere of Creation “Aetolia” and dubs it the Midnight Age. He then severs its connection with Achaea and sets it on a course of its own.

In the aftermath of the coming of Varian, an Ashuran monk, Revelation Azon, discovers a long lost Human city called Cyrene. The citizens of Cyrene petition Czanthria Zuiho_sho to become the leader of their city and she accepts. She founds the guild of Runewardens.

What will become of this heretofore secluded city of Cyrene? Will it grow to rival Ashtan, Shallam, and Hashan as a fourth power on Sapience? How will it feel about Ashtan and Shallam particularly? (For it was founded thousands of years ago, in the times before Nicator founded Seleucar, in response to the endless Ashtan/Shallam wars.) Perhaps not even the Logos knows.  

For the first time in decades, the Spawn of the Unnamable Horror is unleashed on the land, by Lemon Ni'Choya and Khalid Yusef.

Ousting Sartan, Lord of Evil, Eris replaces Him as Patron of the city-state of Ashtan.

Many of the more neutrally aligned Orders banded together in a first-of-its-kind alliance, to combat the depredations of the Order of Sartan upon their shrines. Participating Orders included Caspian's, Phaestus', Lupus', Aegis', and Ourania's.

Oakstone declares that the Darkenwood belongs to the realm of Darkness.

Massive conflagrations break out in the Wilderness areas of the Northreach and Darkenwood Forests. In a credit to their ability to come together for the common good, people of ordinarily antithetical and inimical backgrounds and paths join in common cause to fight the inferno.

History is made as Eris and Aegis declare their commitment to one another and are allowed by the Logos to plight their troth. A truly spectacular wedding ceremony, presided over and officiated by Sarapis, culminates in a reception for the divine couple during which mortals are allowed to tread upon the ground the Garden of the Gods for the first time ever. Even amid the joy and celebration, there are many who wonder what this union between War and Chaos presages for the world at large.

Lorielan, the Enlightened, Goddess of Knowledge, returns to Sapience from a sojourn on the Crystal Plane.

Eris, Goddess of Chaos, in Her travels through time before returning to the Prime Material Plane, inadvertently unleashed a timequake. In the course of attempting to discover the effects of this phenomenon upon the Material Plane, Feliss, Firefox and Deonymus uncover evidence that leads them to believe that it might be possible to raise Kasmarkin, the dead and lost capitol of a once powerful empire of Trollish origin that existed before the Selucarian Empire. Many receive grim visions portending dire consequences should the attempt be made, but Andelas Ikari, a Troll of the Iron Citadel, is visited by visions and dreams counter to those received by others, and promising a much different outcome. He becomes obsessed with the idea that by raising the city he can aid his race in regaining their ancient glory. Pitched battles rage, at the site of a statue discovered in the Mannaseh Swamp, between Andelas and his supporters, chief among them his Infernal brethren, and those opposed to any salvaging of the ancient metropolis. Andelas, frustrated by his inability to ferret out the secrets he desires, turns to the Occultists in a desperate bid to learn that which he desires. His persistence is rewarded as Shakti and Silverstorm of the Occultists at last succeed in learning the magical keys necessary to make his dream a reality. As Kasmarkin comes once more into existence from the depths of the swamp, spectral voices warn all and sundry to depart lest death be their lot. Andelas however, now totally besotted with his dreams of glory seemingly just out of reach, leads a contingent of Infernals into the heart of the once-great city in a brazen attempt to wrest its secrets for their own. They are rewarded with the discovery of an odd magical artifact. Andelas realizes that the artifact lacks some essential element and sets about finding a way to make it complete and whole. Meanwhile, Shakti and Silverstorm discover that the source of power granted to the extinct Trollish was the gift of an ancient force, trapped in Kasmarkin. Their gift was two-edged, for in granting power it also gained power over the Trolls, bending their will to its own in time. Unraveling the tale, the Occultist scholars realize that a group of Troll Magi sought to restrain and subdue the ancient intelligence by constructing an artifact that would bind it to their will and end its growing power over their race and their Empire. Too late they were, for the intelligence destroyed Kasmarkin before their work on the artifact had reached completion. The two scholars seek to warn Andelas that in completing the artifact he is dashing his dreams, not realizing them. However, fate is not with them. Andelas completes his restoration of the artifact and, once activated, it binds the ancient force. The energies used to raise Kasmarkin do not sustain it indefinitely and it sinks once more into the mire of the Mannaseh. Shakti, her curiosity unassuaged, again raises the city and this time releases the ancient intelligence bound therein. Still, her power is not enough to keep Kasmarkin afloat and it sinks into the murky morass once again. Ill content to leave well enough alone, Shakti raises the city yet a third time, and this time is successful in controlling the ancient power residing in Kasmarkin. She enjoys her new found power over the entity, a giant, winged and befanged monstrosity, as it slays her enemies, until it turns upon her as well, much as it must have betrayed its ancient masters. None know what triggered the events that followed, but some say that it was the spirits of those long dead Trollkind whose voices soon rose from the ruins of Kasmarkin reborn, chanting in sonorous tones of power until, screaming its rage against its imprisonment, the entity was bound once more and Kasmarkin drawn down again to its murky, eternal grave.  

During the timequake caused by the Goddess of Chaos, a man who calls himself Silvestri Carnivalis is brought into our time from 600 years in the past. He claims, to the skepticism of many, that he is the personal jester of Queen Catarin de Sangre, who once ruled Selucar. He wanders the land confused and dismayed by the changes wrought by six centuries of passing time. His anguish grows when he learns that his line, once comprised of the most renowned entertainers in the Imperium, is extinct and that the art of Jestering has been lost, forgotten ages ago. He is, however, delighted to learn that one of the ancillary arts, that of Tarot, an art taught by his ancestors to the Occultists, has survived and evolved in ways not even imagined in his time. Heartened by this and refusing to grieve further, Silvestri decides that it is his destiny to return Jestering to its former rightful place among the arts and sciences. To this end, he intends to open a school of Jestering in Cyrene. His delight soon turns again to dismay when he learns of Cyrene's intended restrictions on who may or may not be a student of his school, based on their political, social and religious affiliations. Silvestri courts other city-states, but soon realizes that all of them indulge in the political intricacies so alien to him, who wishes only to teach and to entertain. He therefore decides that he will form his school on the Isle of Delos. After forming his school, aided by Llewellyn, Tay, and Ralph, Silvestri proceeds apace to begin his transmission of his ancient knowledge, offering it to all that desire to learn, without consideration of race, origin, or politics. Shakti, as Guildmistress of the Occultists, demands of Silvestri that he vow to keep the knowledge of Tarot secret from all but the Jesters. Silvestri, raised in the courts of Imperial Selucar, and unused to being treated so disrespectfully, takes umbrage at her, to his mind, crude and ungracious bullying. Subsequently, he is kidnapped by Shakti, Silverstorm, Mephisto and Mordyval. They torture him, breaking his limbs repeatedly and visiting foul torments upon the unfortunate jester until, in hopes of sparing torment to young jesters to come at the hands of the necromancers, he vows on behalf of the Jesters to abide by their demand. The experience leaves him broken hearted, bereft of joy, and despairing of our Modern Age. Silvestri, after placing his beloved school in the hands of Llewellyn, takes his leave, stating that he intends to wander, seeking what he may find of his beloved, lost Selucar. Despite these cruel events, both the Occultists and the fledgling Jesters Guild issue statements of intent to dwell together in harmony, and the Jesters reiterate Silvestri's pledge of secrecy. It may be that the Occultists may one day yet true their arrogance and lack of compassion toward a man out of place and time and be called to answer for their biting of the hand that fed.

Eris becomes Divine Patron of the Jesters.

On the eve of year 300, Malaclypse becomes leader of the Infernals. Deven Lucoster, Overseer of Ashtan accuses him of seeking to overthrow the government of Ashtan. The war of words between the Iron Citadel and the Bastion of the North threatens to burst forth into physical manifestation.

Tancred LaSalle, renowned as the greatest living historian of Achaea, publishes the second part of his planned trilogy on the history of the Selucarian Empire. All Sapience is abuzz with talk of interesting tidbits revealed in his treatise. It appears that there is something here for everyone, suiting all tastes from serious scholar to neighborhood gossipmonger.