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There were three habitable worlds about the star Ekiras in one corner of the universe. Two of the worlds were in orbit about the gas giant Maroth, and the third was on an independant orbit about Ekiras. Ten-thousand and five-hundred years ago, a war between mages and clerics, wizards and priests, exploded out of control. Whole sections of the habitable worlds were laid waste, and the sheer power of the Sister Worlds War very nearly unbalanced the whole of the Ekiras system.
One of the worlds, Gaeleth, opted to sit out the war, and the enmity between the worlds. A newly risen deity, Agincoth, masterminded the creation of the Oddity, a sphere of warped space and time that would shield the world from outside interference, especially the mages and priests of the other sister worlds. All did not go as planned: the Oddity took on a life of its own, trapping Gaeleth far longer than was necessary.
The other Sister Worlds ended the war with a draw, while Gaeleth remained within its shield.
Over the intervening years within the Shield, the reasons for the Oddity were lost with time. Every five-thousand years, like clock-work, the trapped image of the Oddity's original approach to Gaeleth destabilized astonomers. And, like clock-work, the gravitational anomolies associated with the Oddity returned, every five-thousand years, to destabilize Gaeleth itself. Volcanos, tsunamis, plagues, droughts, torrential rains and floods, blizzards, and earthquakes marked the approach of the Shadow Star (as the Oddity came to be known). With the Shadow Star came war, as the mages and clerics turned their frustrations upon the world they knew, rather than their old enemies among the Sister Worlds.
Three sets of wars served to nearly wipe out all knowledge of the past, on Gaeleth. The initial Prism Wars hid most of the information from the general public. The Shaping Wars, five thousand years later, served to bury the information away from even the wisest of men. And the Storm Wars very nearly destroyed any hope for escape from the Oddity, and the Shadow Star.
During the Storm Wars, several powerful mages, aware only of the Shield, noticed that the Shield had weakened due to the onslought of magic the wars had evoked through the millennia. The mages learned from Agincoth the reason for the Shield, the Oddity; they then devised a means of escape that would outlive themselves. Through extensive research, the mages succeeding in creating the necessary spells for the escape. They also uncovered the purpose behind the Towers of Gaeleth -- small, indestructable towers that dotted the surface of Gaeleth. The Towers had originally been designed to move Gaeleth out of the Oddity; but they had proven too underpowered to accomplish that task, and that had not been discovered until it was too late.
After the Storm Wars, with so much at stake, the deities and mages of Gaeleth agreed to restrict their magics, so as not to interfere with the global spells that would come to completion five hundred years later. Many of the mortals on Gaeleth misinterpretted the events of the elite magic users, and began a purge of the lands, securing all magical items in special Vaults, and executing powerful wizards and sorcerors. An age of darkness and regret began.
The campaigns in Gaeleth begin five hundred years after the Storm Wars, and the third apparent approach of the Shadow Star.
During the initial campaign, a number of adventurers battled those mages that fought to keep Gaeleth witin the Oddity forever. As the final spells, cast five hundred years ago, neared completion, the adventurers were forced to deal with a miniature Storm War as Gaeleth reorganized. One of the spells that completed itself was a massive detonation of energy on the continent of Nabrol, in the Southern hemisphere. The detonation wiped out nearly half the continent; most of the energy was directed upwards, and served as thrust, moving the planet ever so much. Later, another detonation, much larger than the first, transformed Lake Kiriath into the Sea of Kiriath. The adventurers had to deal with awkward weather patterns, as well as aiding in the evacuation of the lands surrounding Lake Kiriath.
The adventurers, led primarily by Nodrom "Dwarfendale" Fistforger and Malkir Vinaalaalus Rakore, gained access to the long-lost weapons and items of the mages and priests before the Storm Wars. They also learned to deal with events that were beyond their control, as well as with events that only they could handle. One of the mages that was attempting to hold Gaeleth within the Shield forever was Demik Coruth, and his father, Charliss. Together, the two would raise an army of undead that would distract the world from their real purpose: the ressurection of Nathel, the God of Evil. Nathel had tried once before to undo the work of the mages trying to free Gaeleth, and for his interferance, he had been killed by a weapon known as Giran Howel.
With aid from warriors from another plane, Oerth, Nathel was killed a second time by Giran Howel, and Demik and Charliss were destroyed. A new age has begun on Gaeleth. The spells completed, and moved to extricate that world from the Oddity. For the first time in ten and a half millennia, Maroth and Ekiras both rose in the East. |