Plot

Once, long ago, Tellacene was a world of perfect peace and prosperity. The Celestials were the only creatures that inhabited the land, heavenly, gentle beings of vast power and intellect that spawned from The Light of Existence. The Celestials built up the world to be a beautiful and peaceful home.

One of their ranks, a winged Celestial named Aida, was granted the gift of prophecy. She used her vast power to help lead her people in wise and judicial decisions. One day, however, she was stricken with visions of calamity, of beings from an unknown and distant home coming to destroy all that they had built. The people dismissed Aida's concerns, however. They looked upon Tellacene and saw only the long standing peace and beauty and could not fathom it being any other way. Indolent and complacent, they took no steps to protect themselves nor investigate the visions that Aida repeatedly suffered under.

When the day of calamity came, the sky darkened and seemed to tear open, pouring forth monstrous and hideous beings. These were the Blighted Ones, and they spread through the universe, conquering all they encountered, bringing it under their destructive and terrible rule. They set upon the world with their magic and weaponry, whole armies quickly blanketing the world. The Celestials fought back as best as they could, but unprepared as they were, it was not a fight that they could win and they were swiftly defeated. Some Celestials were able to flee and go into hiding, finding rare pockets of the world in which they could lay low and unharassed. But the vast majority found themselves in chains, enslaved under the Blighted Ones. Their beautiful cities were destroyed, leaving ruins that stand to this day, and artifacts spread throughout the land, forgotten to time. In their place were the Twisted Kingdoms, where demons, devils, eldritch beings, and other Blighted creatures ruled in tyranny.

Hundreds of years passed, and new races began to appear, offspring of the Celestials and the variety of Blighted Ones. First were the humans, elves, and dwarves, all of which were kept in chains along with their Celestial parents. As the Celestials began to disappear, bred out of existence slowly but surely and replaced with their mixed offspring, the other known races began to come into existence, some showing their bloodlines more clearly than others, and treated accordingly. The Celestials became rare to see, and were elevated in their positions to that of being exotic pets, the rest of the races kept under the yoke to serve their Blighted masters.

But in the hearts of the mortals beat the drums of revolution. Though they had never known a life other than the one they were born into, the last Celestials would discreetly whisper stories to their mortal children, who in turn would tell others, of a time when Tellacene knew something other than hardship and a life spent in service of cruel masters. The mortal races began to put together a resistance and they waited, biding their time for the perfect moment. It came in the form of the majority of the Blighted army gathering and finally leaving Tellacene, glutted on the long-ago victory and hungry to conquer again. They tore the sky asunder again and left en masse, leaving a fraction of their numbers to continue to rule Tellacene in their absence. This was when the resistance struck, mortals rising up and casting off their chains to fight against their masters. The few remaining Celestials joined in, many of them dying in order to protect the mortal races so that their children may know of the freedom that they had taken for granted so very long ago.

Although it was a bloody campaign, mortals triumphed, striking down the Blighted Kings and their private armies. Celebrations raged around the world at the freedom they had won. But it was a short lived happiness, for afterwards the people began to divide up the lands. Not all the Blighted Kings were held equal and some had smaller holdings than others. Some of the newborn nations felt that they were being cheated out of their due, having sacrificed as much as others but forced to settle for less land and less resources. One hundred years after the Blighted Kings were defeated, the mortals began to turn on each other in what became known as the Border Wars. Skirmish after skirmish was fought, alliances forged and forgotten in a heartbeat. As many died in these wars against their mortal siblings as they did when fighting against the Blighted Kings. Behind the scenes, the last Celestials did their best to counsel wisdom and peace, kindness and forgiveness, but those lingering servants of the Blighted Ones who had ventured from their hiding places were doing much the same, goading rulers into giving into the greed that had them setting their eyes to their neighbors covetously.

It wasn’t until the arrival of the greatest hero and king in history: Anadorei Flamehart. The son of the elven king and queen of the Kingdom of Estelidh, Anadorei was born not as an elf but as the first Aasimar. With eyes of gold and great, feathered wings upon his back, his resemblance to the ancient Celestials was too great to ignore. He was given a privileged upbringing, even for a prince of the land, and seen as a sign. Although it was a burden to live up to such expectations, Anadorei did not fail, becoming a master swordsman and mage both. But rather than use his charisma, strengths, and popularity only for the benefit of his kingdom, he began to travel the lands, sometimes openly and sometimes in disguise, and sought out the rulers of each land. Through diplomacy and charm, trickery and guile, or sometimes simple intimidation and shows of strength, he managed to convince each ruler to recall their armies and to keep to the borders that were currently drawn up.

After this, more Aasimar began to be born into the lands. But along with them came the Tieflings, who were treated as cursed children, many being abandoned or killed at birth, all of those surviving being treated as monsters, beaten and enslaved or simply banished. It wasn’t until Hicaun Eveningstar, a tiefling born into poverty and taken in by the Church of the Light, that this was changed. Hicaun became an incredibly devout follower of the church’s tenants of compassion and slowly gained fame as the Blessed Tiefling as he traveled the lands performing great acts of healing and performing small miracles, attributing all of his abilities to his faith in the church. Although he was slain in his travels by superstitious villagers who could only see the devilish appearance he bore, he was elevated to the level of sainthood and held as a shining example that Tieflings were like all mortals and it was what was in their heart that would determine their place.

Since the end of the Border Wars, the various lands of Tellacene have had a relatively stable and calm period of peace again. But ominous warnings have begun to pop up from those gifted, or perhaps cursed, with sight of the future--the Blighted Ones have not forgotten their previous acquisition and will return one day, and perhaps soon.

It is up to you, adventurers, to prepare for the storm that is coming and to help the kingdoms of the land to not make the same mistake as the Celestials before them.