History of the World

The history of Aruen, the world, begins with the creation of All Things, the Universe. In the beginning, the Universe was devoid of order, and chaos reigned supreme for untold millennia in the swirling vortices of raw energy that permeated following its formation. Eventually, order was created out of natural balance to counteract the omnipresence of chaos. Within the enclaves of order throughout the Universe, the broken spirits and energies that were in the beginning were given time to fuse and form into beings of sentience.

The most powerful of these spirits would be known as Rivatha, first of the Gods and the Goddess of Order, Magic and Civilization. Rivatha, with the aid of other like-minded spirits, dispelled the chaos of creation over countless eons, only to turn upon each other until only the Six remained. The Six fed off of the residual energies of their fallen brethren, integrating their power and skill within their own. Those spirits that were too damaged or too undesirable were met with a worse fate; lobotomized and forged into lifeless stone, metal and earth, the Titans. These mindless automatons represented the physical, real aspects of the world, while the Six were concerned with the metaphysical (for example, Lidas is the God of Life and Fertility while the titan Komra is the lord of Mountains and Metallurgy.)
It was Rivatha who weaved the boundaries of the Stream, a realm containing whatever energy remained from the time of Creation, out of which arcane magic extracts its energy as well as the final resting place of “unworthy” souls. The Six could not, however, lay claim to the creation of the world of Aruen, for that honor was left to the Titans. Driven by their masters, the Titans forged Aruen, filling its seas and raising its mountains.

Aruen consists of five continents separated by deep oceans, where the Sea Titan Rulem supposedly slumbers and is, in myth, purportedly home to entities that escaped the hungry eyes of the Six. For purposes of this story, the only continents relevant to this setting are Barinak and Somsil, the latter of which will contain the majority of this setting’s campaigns.
The land of Somsil in the beginning was relatively peaceful; the Elves and Dwarves, creations of the Titans Zaruha and Komra respectively, were initially sculpted to perform the more intricate duties the Titans were simply incapable of doing. Since a Titan is incapable of breathing sentience into its creations, Rivatha showed pity to these creatures, and gave them intelligence. The origins of Man, however, were not from the hand of a Titan but, unusually enough, at the hands of the Six. For reasons unknown to all but the Gods, they created Man and spread them across the continents of Aruen.

The Humans that called Somsil home eventually grew into a continent spanning empire known as the Conclave. An oligarchic theocratic magocracy, the Conclave believed it was their manifest destiny to spread the religious dogma of their leaders (the Archons) and ideals throughout Aruen.

The Humans that inhabited the plains of Barinak, however, grew insular and reserved in their quest to make a better world. Calling themselves the Hayal, meaning “Old Ones” in their tongue, they mutated their bodies with magic both dark and conventional in a mission to perfect what they perceived as an imperfect form.

This was not enough for the Hayal however, as they believed there to be a natural inefficiency in the order of the cosmos. Seeking to rectify this, they set their minds towards what would be considered unfathomable heresy to almost every other sentient being on Aruen; the creation of a god unlike any that have dwelt in this Universe, a hybridization of both metaphysical spirit and those that were used in the formation of the Titans. This God, Salanel, was God of the Sun and Moon, Pride and Innovation, it’s shell of sculpted obsidian and forged steel in the form of something never before seen in Aruen; a Dragon.
Salanel was almost immediately worshiped as the God she was by the Hayal, who cared for both her and her own constructs (true dragons similar in form to those seen in standard DnD adventures, although the males are for this universe modified Wyverns) as they gained their strength, feeding off the energies of the Stream. Salanel recognized that eventually she must continue the mission of the Hayal and bring about the fusion of God and Titan, forcibly if it comes to it. For the next half millennia, she mended the broken minds of the spirits within the Titans, so for the first time since their formation they realized their plight as slaves and machines to the Six.

The Six’s response once Salanel was discovered was both swift and merciless; the War of Creation that resulted caused the destruction of Salanel, much of the Titans and the entire Pantheon in the process (for information regarding the fate of the Dragons, refer to the section titled “Concerning Dragons.”) As their last dying decree however, the Six released onto Barinak a terrible creature from beyond Creation, a horrific monster known only as The Great Worm. The Great Worm ravaged the continent of Barinak in its unfathomable madness, with the surviving Hayal and the remaining dragons barely surviving it’s fury as those who remained traveled to the shores of South Somsil, where the Hayal had already built a reflection of their homeland centuries prior. Unfortunately for them, they learned too late of the threat posed by the other power of Somsil; the Conclave.

It did not take long for the Conclave to recognize the cause of the Six’s demise was due to the Hayal, and the response was nothing short of religious genocide; the Conclave’s jihad against the refugee Hayal nations was out of a rage and pain unseen in the world today. The war did not end with the dying breath of the last Hayal nor the signing of a peace accord, however, it ended with a disaster only dwarfed by the release of the Great Worm. It is unknown which side caused it, but near the end of the war a tear was created in the planes that divided Aruen and the Stream. Known as the Maelstrom, the surge of raw magical energy that spewed forth from the rift tore the lands of the Hayal asunder, annihilating much of the Hayal and the Conclave’s armies in the process while warping the creatures of the Hayal lands with its radiation, spawning much of Somsil’s monsters in the process.

Weakened by the loss of so many legions, numerous nations of the Conclave rebelled and managed to free themselves from the rule of the Archons, most notably the Bier Empire. The Bier Empire compromises much of the southern half of Somsil and is less a monolithic empire and more a collection of vassals, kingdoms, city-states and merchant republics united under the rule of Malvar Bier, a previously unnoticed and former Conclave captain who led the rebellions of the south to victory against their occupation forces. Given the Varkath Mountains which divide the north and south halves of Somsil and the rebellions north of the mountains, the Conclave was powerless to stop the Bier’s secession from their nation.
That was two millennia ago. Today, the continent of Somsil rests on a knife’s edge as the Conclave and Bier continue to glare at one another from across the Varkath Mountains, rattling their spears and shields over the existence of the other. The Hayal continue their wandering of the Malestrom in massive tribes, pecking over the ruins of their long-since destroyed civilization and searching desperately for a way to return back to Barinak, where The Great Worm still broods and squirms. The Bier Empire is in a state of crisis; being only held together by the charisma and expertise of their immortal emperor Malvar Bier, who must contend with not only the threat of Conclave invasion and the near constant state of unrest and war amongst the Empire’s states, but the raids and attacks from the island-based Orc and Goblin kingdoms, who have begun arriving on the shores of Somsil from a continent long since inaccessible following the War of Creation. The Conclave continues to mourn the loss of their gods, committing to an endless hunt for the Six who supposedly contain the essence of their destroyed gods and, if killed and safe from the influence of the remaining Titans, would bring back their shattered pantheon.

In the midst of all this is the wealthy Dwarven city of Corum. Located in one of the few major passes of the Varkath Mountains, Corum grew from a strategically advantageous trading post into one of the wealthiest cities of Somsil, second only to the Conclave capital of Tarean. It has endured in the past minor attempts at conquest by both the Bier, rival Dwarven kingdoms and the Conclave, but have all been beaten back against its granite walls by the might of its garrison and the legendary Sentinel of Corum, an ancient construct long since forgotten in contemporary culture outside of legend or myth. Today, Corum is the glittering gem of the Dwarven kingdom of Kirhadmen, where traders from all nationalities can trade unconcerned with the other’s national ties. The city also boasts embassies for the major nations of Somsil, and it’s not uncommon for a Conclave soldier to be seen competing in a friendly drinking game with a soldier from the Empire.

It is in this world that the campaigns begin, but now that you’re caught up with the history of this world, I imagine you want to know some of the things that make it different then a normal DnD campaign, yes? We shall begin with Dragons.
Concerning Dragon

The Dragons of Somsil are at first glance identical to those of other universes, until you try to speak to one. Following the War of Creation, the Dragons were stripped of their intelligence by the Goddess Rivatha, with only a scant few being able to regain intelligence via natural mutation (the eggs that carry these dragons, however, are always rejected by the mother due to their unnatural odor, and must be picked up by a traveler and raised amongst non-dragons if it is to have hopes of survival. These dragons are classic DnD dragons, although they are entirely female.)

There is clear male/female dichotomy with this universe’s dragons, with the females being the classic four-legged winged “true” dragons and the males being heavily modified Wyverns (no poisonous tail and access to fire breath.) All Dragons with the exception of the few intelligent ones are treated as having an Intelligence Score of 3, but with a Wisdom Score relatively unchanged from that of a normal DnD dragon’s (is open to revision later.)
Draconic as a language is now all but extinct, and reserved for the translation of runes and inscriptions even the Hayal find ancient. That being said, it’s an incredibly useful and extremely important language to have if you are to hope to reliably translate the more powerful artifacts you may uncover if you explore the Maelstrom. Speaking Draconic amongst dragons will also improve your ability to handle them, giving you a +6 bonus to Handle Animal (Draconic) and Ride when dealing with male and female dragons.

The Pantheon of the Gods

Rivatha: Goddess of Knowledge, Civilization, Law and Magic
Lidas: God of Creation, Fertility and Life
Val’Kala: God of War, Bravery, Violence and Honor
Credal: God of Art, Medicine, Grace and Beauty, he is also considered the unofficial God of Business

Malus: God of Death, Beginnings and Ends, there is debate amongst Conclave philosophers as to whether or not he is simply another form of Lidas, or another deity altogether.
Ithar: Goddess of Luck, Chaos, Secrets and Vile Trechery.
State of the Pantheon: The Gods as they once existed are long since dead, having been slain by the Titans and Salanel during the War of Creation. However, they are not truly gone. Clerics, Paladins and others who draw their power from the divine note their abilities are still functional even though they should be defunct, which draws us to talking about the Soulborn.

Once a God or Goddess died during the war, their essence escaped the Etheral planes and entered the nearest available vessels to them, in their cases the unborn children of Somsil. These children supposedly possess some of the abilities of their parasitic godly hosts, but have yet to reveal themselves following the disastrous attempt to separate Lidas from his host, a man named Casamir. After revealing himself to the Conclave, Casamir willingly allowed himself to be killed with the belief doing so will release Lidas.

To the horror of Casamir and the Conclave, he was only partially correct. Due to the continued existence of the Titans who slaughtered the Gods, Lidas’s soul rebounded upon being released back into his mortal form, only corrupted and maddened. The enraged Casamir butchered spectators of his death (which included several Archons) before being restrained and imprisoned in an unknown location. After this disaster, it is now known that the Pantheon can only be restored following the destruction of the remaining Titans, each of whom corresponds to one of the Six.

Work in Progress, more will be added whenever.