Avernia

Avernia, version 2

Avernia was an empire of undead that ruled varying regions of Cyregnor & terrorized the globe throughout several centuries of the Mortal Age. Avernia was ruled & governed by the Shadow Triad, a trio of powerful undead who lived in Luxevor during the Divine Age & survived the OmniWar. While Avernia is all but destroyed by the modern day, it's legacy, ruins & dark secrets would shape the world's geopolitical structure for generations beyond. After the undead horrors that decimated countless civilizations during the OmniWar, the Avernal Empire cemented that fear & perception into the Mortal Age, with anti-necromancy laws in place by most modern civilizations & being a requirement for member states of the League of Gaion.

Table of Contents

1. Current Structure
2. The Divine Age of Gaion(???-0 BC): Mortal Life, OmniWar & Fall of Luxevor
3. The First Avernal Age (300-500 AC): Undead Life, First Reign of the Shadow Triad & Bloodfrost Wars
4. The Second Avernal Age (500-890 AC): Banishment, Second Reign of the Shadow Triad & Collapse
5. Legacy

Current Structure

Avernox was a Luxevorian archmage from the Divine Age, known for his mastery of arcana & the Daidrin Gaioforce during the OmniWar. In the climax of the war & waning days of their society, Avernox & his associates (Lady Gaelica & Lord Zalcophet) hatched a nefarious plot to achieve necromantic immortality through the power of Umbramancy. While their society fell, they rose as the terrible Shadow Triad, unleashing the wrath of their dark undead empire on the living world for centuries. While banished during the 6th century (500-600 AC), the Shadow King himself continued spreading his influence & hatching nefarious plots through Gaelica’s Roving Shadows, the Zalcovian Church, and the Eyes of Umbra.

In 890 AC, Avernox was betrayed by the other Shadow Triad members and defeated during his divine apotheosis. He is currently sealed separately within three phylacteries:

•   The Zaelikos Blade: an Aetherfrost longsword containing Avernox’s raw power & void-like hunger. Crafted from dark ichor & shadow, this blade can transform into any weapon the user likes, including dual weaponry. Regardless of form, the Zaelikos Blade possesses a dark hunger, corrupting the user’s body & consuming aether & life itself as it carves through it’s foes. When a creature is reduced to 0 HP by this blade, they are killed as their soul is consumed by the Umbraweave. Their corpse then rises as an umbral ghoul, a shadowy undead monster with a ravenous hunger for flesh. The Zaelikos Blade pushes it’s wielder towards violence & death, transforming their body into an undead husk of their former self. If the user is killed while wielding the blade, their soul is consumed as their body reanimates as a vicious wight.

•   Crown of Whispers: an Aetherfrost crown containing Avernox’s raw knowledge & magical intellect. Crafted from the soul crystal containing Zalcophet’s tortured soul, this crown can call upon Avernox’s entire library of spells & magical knowledge, whether arcane, pseudo-divine, Daidrin or umbramantic in nature. The Crown of Whispers possesses a dark force of will, corrupting the user’s mind & consuming the knowledge/intellect of its user’s victims. When a creature is reduced to 0 HP by this blade, they are killed as their soul is consumed by the Umbraweave. Their magical knowledge is stripped from them and consumed by the crown, allowing the user full access to any spells or magical effects they once knew. The corpse then rises as an umbral ghast, a shadowy undead monster with a hunger for flesh & desire to spread undeath & dark magic. The Crown of Whispers pushes it’s wielder towards evil & their darkest tendencies, emitting an aura of undeath, dream & darkness wherever they go. If the user is killed while wearing the crown, their soul is consumed as their knowledge is consumed by the crown.

•   The Umbralux: an Aetherfrost vortex/web containing Avernox’s divine soul & conscious mind. The destroyed fragments of the Avernal Throne are frozen around the Umbra King’s dark spirit (resembling a small event horizon) in a 20-by-20 web of frozen tendrils, with the veins of his corruption spreading throughout his Aetherfrost binds. When directly channeled through the Eye of Entropy (Daidrin Gaiostone), the Umbralux can manifest as a terrifying shadow lich-wraith, capable of casting umbramantic, Daidrin arcane & pseudo-divine magic at the full potency of his true divine form. Otherwise, the Umbralux remains frozen in place, constantly screaming Avernox’s wrath through the distorted souls of his victims.

Other Leading Figures

• Lady Gaelica, the Lux Reaper: deceased, with a fragment of her soul forged into the Zaelikos Blade
• Lord Zalcophet, the Frost Pharaoh: deceased, with his tortured & broken soul forged into the Crown of Whispers
• Soyla, the Caring Pharaoh: deceased, reborn in Aurofae
• Darkjaw, the Wrathful Pharaoh: deceased, reformed in Aurofae as a vengeful revenant of nature

Factions

•   The Eyes of Umbra (political/magical cult)

•   Zalcovich Academy (magic institution)

•   AverTech (business)

•   The Umbral Army/Blightguard (inter-dimensional military

•   The Roving Shadows (mortal-realm military)

•   The Avernal/Shaded Path (religion/cult)

The Divine Age

Luxevor & The OmniWar

Like a well-known novel in a reality beyond Gaion, scholars consider the Divine Age of Gaion to have been the best & worst of times. The gods ruled their Divine Empires over Gaion & the Five Realms unchallenged, while their mortal subjects brought magic to the heights of its potential. Global magical arms races kept civilizations on their toes, either rising to match their geopolitical rivals or face conquest or decimation. While many societies competed & conflicted with other civilizations or the Divine Empires, some were unfortunate enough to face the wrath of the gods themselves. Whether through their cultural defiance of the god(s) or the a personal vendetta from the divine, these atheist magocracies were forced to develop countermeasures beyond any mortal society on Gaion, known in history as the Forsaken Cities (not to be confused with the five Divine Cities of Gaion). Luxevor was one of the five Forsaken Cities of Cyregnor, alongside Fraisokovia, Isjiak, Norzekaar & Soelkrya.

Most Divine Age civilizations on Cyregnor worshipped Cyr as their matron goddess, either as their savior of the Gigadragonomy or, in the case of some Frost Giants & Frost Dragons, out of fear. Even before she took the domain of Death at the start of the OmniWar, Cyr believed in a brutalist & cruel approach to worship & life, believing that only the strongest of her people should survive. She constantly tested her worshippers resolve with the harsh blizzards Cyregnor would be known for, rewarding their resilience with divine power & punishing their weakness with cold death. As such, Luxevor & it's counterparts grew to despise or otherwise "forsake" Cyr during the Divine Age, leading to many conflicts with her divine forces. Once the terrors of the OmniWar began, the Forsaken Cities were under constant besiege from Cyr's forces of death, with nearly all outlawing necromancy in some form to prevent her corruption from spreading within their walls.

Unlike its counterparts, Luxevor was also known as the last Moon Elf stronghold on Gaion, who had been hunted to near extinction by Dahli’s followers. As such, the magocracy focused heavily on development of arcana, Gaioforce & magitech weapons/defenses against the Solternian forces of the south (Dahli) & Umberfrost forces all around them (Cyr). This magical might allowed them to outlast all but Fraisokovia during the divine carnage of the OmniWar, which claimed Isjiak, Nozekaar & Soelkrya at varying points of the war.

Within the walls of Luxevor, mages of many disciples competed in a magi-capitalist arms race, scheming against each other to grab political power by developing the greatest arcane/Gaioforce powers to win the war. Unfortunately, the constant advancement of magic came at the expense of nonmagi citizens, who were enslaved or otherwise treated as second-class citizens in service to Luxevor’s grand mission. The most influential of these figures would each play a small role in the city-state’s downfall & legacy; Archmaester Avernox, Lord Zalcophet & General Gaelica.

Lord Avernox, Archmaester of Mysteries

Avernox was a powerful archmage & Daidrin Sorcerer who lived in Luxevor during the Divine Age. He was a child prodigy in the Gaioforce & was incredibly intelligent, leading him to study arcana at Moonbreath University. He graduated top of his class and is widely regarded to have been the school's best student, memorialized through at least a statue, portrait & award in his name. After graduation, he travelled for years to discover the secrets of arcana across the world, collaborating with countless mages & arcane institutions to make invaluable contributions to Old Arcane theory. Through these travels & his trips home, Avernox spent centuries mastering arcana & the Daidrin Gaioforce, pushing both past the brink of possibility while simultaneously studying the world's magical capabilities (and defenses).

At this time, Avernox was a master of arcana, specializing in all magical schools with exceptional work in Abjuration, Conjuration, Evocation, Transmutation & Arcanotech. As a Daidrin Sorcerer, Avernox had mastered Tractomancy & Cryomancy. With these skills at hand & legendary tales of his adventures, Avernox was considered to be one of the most powerful mages of the Divine Age. Scattered legends of the Divine Age tell of him killing several of the era's most powerful mages, divine champions, dragons, divine & arcane monsters, both prior to and during the OmniWar.

Avernox permanently returned to Luxevor just prior to the OmniWar, sensing the tensions of global conflict & the shadows of war across his travels. At some point during the war, Avernox was elected to served on the Lux Pentorum as Archmaester of Mysteries, holding this title for at least a century & right up to the city's destruction. With these skills at hand, Avernox was considered to be one of the most powerful mages of the Divine Age, having killed several of the other powerful mages, divine champions, dragons, divine & arcane monsters of his time.

Avernox's accomplishments as a mortal only fueled his hatred for Cyr, eventually extending to all the gods for their "audacity" to stand above them. He believed that if mortals could push magic beyond the bounds of reality, they could push themselves beyond the bounds of the divine throne. As the Archmaester of Mysteries, he was responsible for researching & developing new spells/types of magic beyond the known limits of arcana. This eventually led him to experiment with Umbramancy, attempting to craft the Umbra into his connection to the Daidrin Gaioforce. However, despite his masterful spellcraft, all instances of his casting led to uncontrollable corruption & death, consuming all living beings it touches and nearly consuming him several times. This naturally led to the dark field of necromancy, despite his nation's successful & strict laws against its use, but knowing that its use would help him withstand the Umbra. Using his political positions & "field experiments" on the battlefield to hide his dark actions, Avernox pushed necromancy to new heights by the end of the OmniWar, eventually believing it to be the key to fully controlling the Umbra.

·      Position: Archmaester of Mysteries, member of the Lux Pentorum. Responsible for researching & developing new spells/types of magic beyond the known limits of arcana.

·       Arcane specialties: Abjuration, Conjuration, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Transmutation, Arcanotech

·       Daidrin specialties: Umbramancy, Tractomancy, Necromancy (in secret), Cryomancy

·       Goals: Magical supremacy over the gods of Gaion

Lord Zalcophet, the Frost Pharaoh

Zalcophet was a powerful archmage & Daidrin Sorcerer/Druid who lived in Luxevor during the Divine Age. After an exceptional educational career at Moonbreath University, Zalcophet spent the first decade of his magical career travelling the tundras of Cyregnor, living amongst the druids & studying their ways of magic. He studied different cultures of Frost Elves, Frost Giants & Mammodons to learn the nature of faith & how it powers divinity. During this study, Zalcophet grew immense hatred towards Cyr's faith & the other gods, believing that a religious institution should grant mortals the same access to a Divine Domain as any god. By applying his cross-cultural & druidic studies to his own arcane knowledge & Daidrin Sorcery, Zalcophet adapted his magical style into a unique blend of arcana & psuedo-divinity.

At this time, Zalcophet was a master of arcane, Daidrin & psuedo-druidic magic, with specialties in Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Transmutation, Cryomancy & Tractomancy.

Shortly after his return to Luxevor, the OmniWar began, leaving two Wild Domains of divinity unclaimed: Life (The Allheart) & Shadow (The Umbra). Biomancers (sorcerers of life) & Umbramancers (weavers of shadow) began popping up throughout the world as the deaths of Aurovi & Denothok bathed it with their essence, peaking Luxevor's curiosity in both magical disciplines. Zalcophet obtained a research position at Moonbreath University, planning to utilize arcana & the Daidrin Gaioforce to develop a psuedo-divine tether between the mortal realm & the Umbra for Luxevor to exclusively control. Through his studies, he learned that without a natural-born connection to the Umbra, its corruptive shadows will kill & consume any living being it touches for longer than a brief few moments, believed to be an after-effect of its former fusion with the Elder God of Death. As such, the only true way to access the Umbra is beyond death, through a practice forbidden within Luxevor's walls: Necromancy.

• Poistion: Grand Hierophant of the Shadow's Touch, a psuedo-divine connection to the Void through unknown Old Arcana magic. This connection allowed him to cast divine spells (like clerics, paladins or druids) that would normally be inaccessible to arcane & non-divine Daidrin casters.
• Arcane specialties: Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Transmutation
• Daidrin specialties: Umbramancy, Cryomancy, Tractomancy
• Divine Domain: Shadow
• Goals: Mastery of godless divinity

Commander Gaelica, the Lux Reaper

Commander Gaelica was a powerful warlord & Daidrin Sorcerer who commanded all (or a portion) of the Lunar Guard's Atheknight Core during the Divine Age. She was known as the most brutal & legendary warrior of the Lunar Guard, having slaughtered thousands of Solternians, Denothian & other enemies of Luexvor even prior to the OmniWar. Her accomplishments earned her the title ofthe Lux Reaper, crafting weapons through the forge & Daidrin Gaioforce & slaughtering enemies with them & her dark powers. Her Daidrin magic was perferctly honed to amplify her combat prowess while her arcana is focused into magical strikes that negate & counter her opponents' divine or arcane magic.

At this time, Gaelica's arcane specialties were Evocation, Transmutation, Atheknight Arcana, Arcanosmithing (crafting magic weapons, armor & equipment) & Potioncraft, with Daidrin Specialties in Tractomancy & Cryomancy.

When the OmniWar began, Gaelica led her forces in a brutal, never-ending conflict against their enemies & gods themselves, losing countless soldiers around her over centuries while continually coming out alive. Her survival aged her elven mind & body in different ways, remaining in her physical/magical prime while slowly losing her humanity. As the war raged on & her own vitality/wounds began to overwhelm her, Gaelica eventually turned to the whispered, forbidden art from the third pillar of the Daidrin Gaiforce: Necromancy, amplified by the presence of umbramancy & death in the world. She continually used its dark power like a drug, healing & enhancing her physique while reanimating her fallen soldiers in the heat of battle against her foes. As her gradual mastery of necromancy led to the Lunar Guard winning battles far from home while turning the tide of the war, the anti-necromantic authorities of Luxevor's government didn't notice or care about her dark acts. Through the combination of her necromancy & Daidrin Gaioforce, Gaelica used combat & the darkness around her to channel spurts of umbramancy, having slain several umbramancers in battle to develop this power.

• Position: Commander of the Atheknight Core
• Arcane Specialties: Evocation, Transmutation, Atheknight Arcana, Arcanosmithing (crafting magic weapons, armor & equipment), Potioncraft
• Daidrin Specialties: Tractomancy, Cryomancy
• Goals: Survival & glory for Luxevor, genocide of the faithful

Origins of the Shadow Triad (sometime between 0 & 100 BC)

Avernox, Zalcophet & Gaelica met at some point during the last century of the OmniWar, aligning in secret over their use of Necromancy & mixed use/study of Umbramancy. They compared notes to develop new strategies to channel the dark power of the Umbra, playing off their respective connections to the dark art. Eventually, they formed the idea of the Shadow Triad, a microweave of psuedo-divine magic between the three of them that draws upon arcana & the Daidrin Gaioforce to encapsulate a small portion of the Umbra into a controllable entity: the Umbralux. Their connection to this Umbralux would grant them permanent access to Umbramancy without posing a risk to their safety, but with a dire cost. In order for them to survive the ritual and continually channel the weave's power, they would need to die while tethering themselves to unlife, using their methods of undeath as the channel for their nexus. After consideraton & research, the three developed their ideas for what they would become.

1. Avernox would become a lich through the Rites of Umbral Lichdom, sacrificing his humanity to entrap his own soul within a phylactery via a dark & evil ritual. This phylactery would be his tether to the Shadow Triad, representing the Mind of the Umbralux.
2. Zalcophet would become a mummy lord through the Rites of the Umbral Heart, carving out his own heart & embalming it within an urn via a dark & evil ritual. This heart would be his tether to the Shadow Triad, representing the Soul of the Umbralux.
3. Gaelica would become a death knight through the Oath of the Umbral Knight, impaling her with Aetherbane (her sword) to entrap her own soul within it via a dark & evil ritual. This sword would be her tether to the Shadow Triad, representing the Body of the Umbralux.

The Shadow Triad, now collectively named, began collaborating to achieve their respective goals, secretly forming the Clave of Shadows to operate within their respective institutions. TheClave of Shadows spreading their influence throughout the war-fatigued Luxevor while making progress towards their eventual rites of undeath. During their years of collaboration, they accomplished legendary feats on their respective fronts of success, becoming dark heroes of Luxevor & much of the world's last glimpse of the great society.

Avernox’s War Crimes

When fighting living armies, Avernox began joining Gaelica in her battles, casting unyielding shadows in entire regions of the battlefield, then unleashing his horrific dark magic & experimentation on the unfortunate enemy soldiers within the shroud of obscurity. His reputation grew as he clashed with powerful Solternian mages & clerics on the battlefield, killing them in horrifyic ways to test his power while corrupting & tearing into the humanity of his soul. He used Zalcophet’s anti-divination magic to conceal his undeath from Luxevor’s strictest security measures, but the greater his corruption, the harder it got. While he remained on the Lux Pentorum up until the city’s demise, much of the population believed that his suspicious nature was linked to powerful dark magic & the rising Clave of Shadows. In these circles, he became known as the Shadow King. Through his dark works & mastery of necromancy, Avernox eventually developed the knowledge necessary to craft the Rites of Umbral Lichdom, a ritual that would sever his soul from the mortal path while allowing his body to reform if it were ever destroyed by his enemies.

Zalcophet’s War Crimes

While Avernox committed atrocities abroad, Lord Zalcophet committed horrors at home. While the above-ground floors were dedicated to his public work with Arcano-Divine Umbramancy, the subterranean dungeons told a darker story. Without the silencing wards separating these floors from the surface, the tortured screams of Zalcophet’s victims would haunt anyone residing in or near his temple. Zalcophet would perform dark biopsies on the souls of living victims, testing their limits for pain, corruption, exposure to Umbramancy, and eventually, soul experimentation with necromancy & the Daidrin Gaioforce. He would sometimes trap his victims in combat arenas to unleash horrible ghouls & undead/Umbramancy monsters upon them, testing how traumatizing & agonizing death affects the transition of the soul into the Ethereal Plane & whether one can siphon its direction to a conduit on the mortal plane. He would conjure shadow monsters that take the form of his victim’s loved ones, ensuring they are convinced of their authenticity as the monsters viciously maul & consume them.

To guard these chambers in his absence, Lord Zalcophet turned many of his victims into his first mummies, imbued with the frosts of Cyregnor’s climate, dark pseudo-divine necromancy & the remaining fragments of their soul. As such, the poor test subjects of Zalcophet (often prisoners of war & enemy clerics/paladins to test the effect of pre-existing divine connections) would often remain cursed to serve the dark lord after their horrific torment. Through his mastery of these dark curses, powerful necromancy & existing mastery of pseudo-divine Umbramancy, Zalcophet would eventually develop the Rites of the Umbral Pharaoh. This ritual would allow him to become a mummified lord of undeath, participating in a mummification process in which his blackened corrupt heart (drained of its empathy long ago) & other organs are removed by his cursed mummy servants, bound to his will. The heart would be embalmed in an urn of Aetherfrost (Daidrin cryomancy & necromancy attuned to the soul) while his remaining organs would aligned as material components for the ritual, positioned around his ceremonial death bed. When the ritual is complete, his soul would be tethered to the mortal plane by his undead heart, which would become his most precious & protected possession. The loyal mummies performing these rites would become the first Zalcovian Priests, bound to eternal servitude under their dark tormentor.

Gaelica’s War Crimes

With enhancement of her Arcanotech, Atheknight Arcana, Daidrin Gaioforce (Umbramancy, Tractomancy, Cryomancy) & practice of Aetherfrost Magic, Gaelica became a legendary terror on the battlefield, slaughtering her enemies in droves while drawing dark power from their fading lifeforce using the Aetherfrost. She would use this power to develop new potions, arcanotech & healing & other enhancements for her soldiers, the most loyal of which did not question her methods & cruelty in war. These loyal soldiers would become the first UmbraKnights, joining Gaelica in her genocidal slaughter of Dahli & Cyr’s followers. While hr & her forces went toe to toe with Cyr’s forces without dark reputational waves, Dahli’s followers & living enemies of her wrath referred to her as the Lux Reaper in their recounted horrors. The continued slaughter of humanoid (faithful or otherwise) life & undeath channeled through the power of the Aetherfrost would eventually lead to her development of the Rites of Umbral Knighthood. This ritual would remove her bloodthirsty warrior’s soul from her body & imbue it within her blade, Aetherbane. The sword would use the Aetherfrost to channel the lifeforce of the creatures it carves into Gaelica’s soul, feeding the dark warlord’s spirit & healing any wounds on Gaelica’s body. If the body were to be destroyed in battle, her soul would call to any living create and beckon them to wield it, promising their greatest desires to trick them into their dark prize. Once a living creature wielded the sword, Gaelica would corrupt them for three days & permanently possess them, bringing her back to the battlefield on a new front.

The Fall of Luxevor (Year of The Cleansing)

Around 5 BC, Zalcophet had a vision of Luxevor’s destruction at the hands of Cyr, promptly sharing this with Avernox & Gaelica. Together, they carried out a plan to slowly turn the city’s arcana grid into a power source for their collective Shadow Triad rituals. These rituals would be bound together, simultaneously set off by Cyr’s destruction & sacrificing the lives of every Luxevorian (except the Clave of Shadows). This event would be the catalyst of dark energy needed for their respective necromantic rituals.

As predicted, Luxevor’s reckoning came at 0 BC/AC (The Cleansing) at the hands of Cyr herself. With only one day to enact her will on the world due to new restrictions placed on the gods by the Divine Accords, Cyr unleashed her divine wrath on the entire continent of Cyregnor. The Frost Reaper rained terrible blizzards across Cyregnor & launched simultaneous invasions of undead & devils to every living society remaining, even those loyal to her. However, with only two Atheist societies left who dared to defy her faith, Cyr sent Cyrofel to decimate Fraisokovia while she personally besieged Luxevor. In the battle for their lives & legacy, Luxevor’s anti-divine forces gave everything they had to counter Cyr’s assault, managing to hold her off her divine power & conjured monsters until the last moments of the Cleansing. During the battle,

• Avernox rallied & led the mages of Luxevor on a collective counter-assault against Cyr, attacking from behind the city's anti-divine barrier. Avernox unleashed the peak of his magical mastery against Cyr in an epic display that could be seen for miles across the tundra and felt across Cyregnor. Meanwhile, he ordered the Clave of Shadows to get in position across the runic stations they had set up over the years. After a devastating final attack against Cyr, Avernox teleported back to his castle while crafting an illusion of his death, hiding from Cyr's gaze long enough to prepare his Rites of Umbral Lichdom.
• Zalcophet joined the beginning of Avernox's assault on Cyr from a supporting role, amplifying their forces & attacking Cyr with powerful umbramancy & pseudo-divinity. When he sensed the battle was nearing its climax, Zalcophet teleported to his temple& allowed the Zalcovian Priests to prepare his body for the Rites of the Umbral Heart.
• Gaelica led the Lunar Guard in defense of the city against Cyr's divine forces, going toe-to-toe with Cyr's most powerful undead & devil warriors. The Atheknights of Luxevor fought & slaughtered countless foes with brave ferocity & powerful Atheknight Arcana, with Gaelica herself slaying several death knights & fiendish generals. Some legends depict her killing a powerful Pit Fiend by herself, though these accounts are unverified. As her troops slaughtered the dark forces against them, the necromantic & umbramantic wards cast upon them by Gaelica absorbed the negative energy into their bodies, empowering & corrupting them in battle. With every kill, Gaelica amplified her own power & life, preparing to eventually fall on her sword while swearing the Oath of the Umbral Knight.

Angered over their continued defiance, Cyr used her last act to channel the dark magic errant in Cyregnor’s skies into a singularity above the city, centered on the Daidrin Gaiostone (embedded into her gigantic scythe). She then hurled the scythe at the city’s center, decimating the remnants of their arcane shielding and imploding in the heart of the arcana grid. The resulting detonation created an unstable black hole & extradimensional tear at its epicenter, pulling Luxevor & everything within several miles into its dark maw. As such, Luxevor was wiped off the map and destroyed, leaving little traces of its history in the mortal realm and believed to be the final extinction of the Moon Elves.

Rebirth of the Shadow Triad & Stasis in the Gaioforce (0 - 300 AC)

Unbeknownst to Cyr, her divine wrath granted ultimate power to the Shadow Triad, giving them the dark energy they needed to complete their rituals. The souls of all Luxevorians in the city were consumed by the Triad's dark runes, inscribed directly onto the Arcana Grid by the Clave of Shadows. The Clave of Shadows spoke the rites through the city's destruction, disintegrating into powerful wraiths as the ritual's dark energy & souls coursed through them. Upon the Arcana Grid's destruction, the resulting dark energy & magical/living aether was rapidly frozen into the Umberlux; a new weave of arcane, Daidrin & umbramantic magic accessible only to the Shadow Triad. The Umbralux was formulated in an arcane triad to represent their pact, placing Avernox, Zalcophet & Gaelica as its three points of nexus. This allowed them & their undead servants to survive the city’s initial destruction.

• Avernox successfully completed the Rites of Umbral Lichdom, becoming a lich with the Eye of Entropy as his phylactery. From this day, he would be known as the Shadow King. The Clave of Shadows wraiths became the first Annali Sages, a class of magewraiths that explore arcane, Gaioforce, divine & other magical secrets of the cosmos to serve the Shadow King's agenda.
• Zalcophet successfully completed the Rites of Umbral Heart, becoming a mummy lord with his dark heart sealed in an Aetherfrost urn. From this day, he would be known as the Void Pharaoh. All mummies within his temple were infused with the dark power of the Umbralux, becoming the next generation of Zalcovian Priests. The first generation become more powerful archpriests of the Umbralux, answering only to Zalcophet himself while supervising & training the new generation.
• Gaelica successfully completed the Oath of the Umbral Knight, becoming a death knight with Aetherbane (her sword) as the tether for her soul. From this day, she would retain her wartime epithet as the Lux Reaper. The Lunar Guard soldiers who survived until Cyr's blast were reanimated as wrathful wights, devoted to the Lux Reaper & wielding varying degrees of the Umbra. The dead Lunar Guard soldiers were reanimated as vicious ghouls, serving Gaelica only to slaughter & consume the living.

While the Shadow Triad & the Umberlux took hold in their new forms, the singularity from Cyr's blast sucked Luxevor’s ruins into a pocket dimension within the Daidrin Gaioforce itself, a place where time does not flow in sync with reality. As such, the Shadow Triad & Clave of Shadows were trapped in suspended animation, held in indefinite stasis by the Reaper’s Claw (Cyr's scythe housing the Daidrin Gaiostone) at the crash site in the mortal realm. They would remain here until 300 AC, when the Reaper's Claw was disturbed...

Geopolitics of Cyregnor from 0 - 300 AC

During the Cleansing, Cyrofel beseiged and nearly destroyed Fraisokovia, with the latter considering it to be their darkest day. However, through superior arcana & Atheknight weaponry, the Fraisokovians drove off the vampires, fiends & other undead deployed by Cyrofel. Fraisokovia ended the conflict with an experimental superweapon, shunting Cyrofel through a temporary wormhole that sent it crashing into the Nairvithone Mountains of the North Pole. The city was not completely destroyed, but the impact shattered its foundations into an uninhabitable ruin nestled within the mountains, never to fly again. The vampires who survived consolidated Cyr's faith & their remaining imperial power upon these ruins, rebuilding as the Sangrovien Empire. While maintaining a leadership structure amongst their ranks, they could not decide on one clear ruler, leading the empire to suffer constant in-fighting in its early years.

During the 300 years of Luxevor's absense, the power balance of Cyregnor shifted constantly. Fraisokovia quickly became a continental superpower, taking in many refugees from the fallen societies across Cyregnor while capitalizing on their unique Divine Age knowledge & magic/magitech. Meanwhile, the vampiric empire grew in near equal strength, undermining colonization attempts by infiltrating & turning victim villages & townships before Fraisokovia could get them. Frost Giant & mammodon tribes grew across the tundras, providinig both feeding grounds & conflict for the vampires while causing conflict for Fraisokovia.

Regardless of attempts, neither side could successfully navigate the Reaper's Wrath, a space-time distorting blizzard surrounding the destruction site of Luxevor. The blizzard's subzero temperatures & harsh winds were deadly to any living being without the strongest of resistance to such conditions, while the gravitational forces & tears in space-time made travel near-impossible for both the living & the dead. Teleportation magic was impossible to control within the blizzard, almost always resulting in death via tracto-eviseration. The Fraisokovian & Sangrovien Empires both had competing military R&D outposts controlling every inch of the storm's perimeter. They sent regular expeditions to explore the potential ruins of Luxevor, but none could ever find them before being frozen or torn apart.

One fateful expedition from the Sangrovien Empire battled the environment & powerful monsters of Umbra/Old Arcana hiding in the blizzard, successfully reaching the eye of the storm. Time & space was more distorted than ever, with the fabrics of the dimension swirling around the Reaper's Claw (Cyr's scythe) while keeping the immediate area out of dimensional sync. The vampires used their necro-divine magic & command of frozen magicks to pull the rift apart, maintaining it long enough to remove the Claw from its imbedded post. This ritual tears all but one of the vampires apart. The survivor, Lord Daedrius, used their sacrifice to retrieve the Reaper's Claw himself, managing to pull it free right as his last companion disintegrated. A powerful Daidrin master, Lord Daedrius struggled but eventually took full control over the Reaper's Claw & Daidrin Gaiostone within it, teleporting back to Cyrofel to claim dominion as king of the Sangrovien Empire.

Upon the Daidrin Gaiostone's removal, the Reaper's Wrath ceased over time, leaving a hole between the mortal realm & the pocket dimension containing the Shadow Triad & ruins of Luxevor. While not freeing them from their prison, time began to flow normally, allowing the Shadow Triad to awaken & come to terms with their new reality. Not much else is known about the specifics, but the Shadow Triad built up their dark forces & reforged Luxevor's ruins into the dark city-state of Avernia. Their eventual empire would soon be known as the Umbral Dynasty.

The First Avernal Age (300 - 500 AC)

Spread of the Umbral Dynasty

In the early years of the fourth century (300-400 AC), the Umbral Dynasty grew in the shadows, by design. Each member of the Shadow Triad took responsibility for a faction of the empire’s growth.

The Eyes of Umbra

The Shadow King sent his Annali Sages (magewraith spirits from the Clave of Shadows) on dark & secretive experiments across the Five Realms, pushing magic beyond boundaries in the name of his own vision. On Gaion, he formed the Eyes of Umbra, the successor cult to the Clave of Shadows. The Eyes of Umbra would be responsible for spreading the political & magical will of the Shadow King from the dark corners of society & influence. However, unlike the Clave of Shadows, the Eyes of Umbra’s reach would span across the globe.

The Shadow King started by appearing to powerful mages holding influential positions within their society, promising them power & secrets of the Divine Age & Old Arcana that has been lost to the Mortal Age. In exchange, these power-hungry mages would enact policies & commit acts/secret atrocities in the name of the Shadow King’s goals. The Shadow King granted his power & knowledge through Warlock pacts, inscribing a rune resembling the Eye of Entropy (his phylactery) on the forehead of mages who passed their “trials” to become official Eyes of Umbra. Due to powerful illusion enchantments, the Eye can only be revealed by magic if the Shadow King (not the wearer) wills it so. The Eye will either not appear or could appear as something else when viewed by Detect Magic, TrueSight & other forms of detection or divination magic. If the wearer is compelled by magic or other means to tell the truth about the Eye, the Eye forces them to tell a lie that reads as true by all forms of magic.

The Shadow King used the Eyes of Umbra to slowly corrupt global societies from the inside out, spreading the Umbral Dynasty in silence. By the time non-corrupted authorities realized what was happening, it was too late. The Shadow King would institute a coup d'état over sufficiently corrupted territories, collapsing or reforming their governments into an installment of the Umbral Dynasty. For sufficiently powerful civilizations, the Shadow King would often collaborate with the Lux Reaper to initiate his coups while the Blightguard besieged their capital cities. The Eyes of Umbra members who successfully completed a coup would be installed as magocratic leaders of their territories. While these members handled day-to-day governance of their territories & instilled authoritarian oppression where needed, the Zalcovian Church enforced their religious worship to ensure compliance with the Umbral Dynasty’s needs.

The Zalcovian Church

Zalcophet used his mummy priests & slaves to form the Zalcovian Church, the religious body of the Umbral Dynasty. The Zalcovian Church would maintain religious authority in conquered territories by demanding ritual sacrifices of their populace. These sacrifices would in turn feed souls to the Umbraweave, which would collectively maintain the undead longevity of the Shadow Triad without its individual members needing to sustain it themselves. The Zalcovian Church would automatically be installed within civilizations after Umbral Dynasty occupation, whether by the Eyes of Umbra or the Blightguard.

When dealing with smaller settlements, the Zalcovian Church spread their faith through “missionaries” of the church. Zalcovian Priests & Priestesses would mimic the behavior of Cyr’s “Dreadmother Coven” from the Divine Age, promising protection & “rebirth” of their faith in exchange for the routine sacrifice of their individuals. They were typically given a few days to a week for their decision:

1. If they agreed to join the Zalcovian Church, they would participate in the Rites of Rebirth, where they would sacrifice their existing religious leadership & artifacts in the name of the Umbralux (the “god” worshipped by the Church/Umbral Dynasty). This would represent the “death & rebirth” of their previous faith within the shadows of the Umbralux. They would continue their worship by making regular sacrifices, but the selection of their sacrificed people was left to their own authority. As such, many conquered societies would pressure their leadership into sacrificing the criminals of their societies to meet the Zalcovian Church’s demands, often forcing “tough on crime” approaches that caught more innocents than guilty in their desperations.
2. If they refused to join the Zalcovian Church, the Blightguard would arrive in a shadowed blizzard of “divine” judgement, besieging & decimating their society until their surrender or extinction.

Zalcophet would oversee his church from Zalcovia, a ziggurat temple built from the ruins of his original temple in Luxevor. Zalcovia was located in the high annals of Avernia (New Luxevor), protected fiercely by the Zalcovian Guard (mummy servants turned into powerful “divine” sentinels. The Zalcovian Guard would occasionally be used as a special strike force against anti-religious uprisings within the Church’s territory, where the strength of the Church was more important than quick & easy solutions from the Blightguard. However, the primary military force of the Umbral Dynasty could be reasonably called in whenever opposition proved to be too much, whether for the Zalcovian Church or the Eyes of Umbra…

The BlightGuard

When secret coups & religious takeovers failed to “persuade” a nation to submit, the Shadow Triad employed its last yet reliable resort against its defiers; the BlightGuard, the military arm of the Umbral Dynasty. Led by the Lux Reaper & manned with wights from the original Lunar Legion (Luxevor’s Atheknight Core), the BlightGuard was a force of undead soldiers that couldn’t be matched by any one conventional military, other than Fraisokovia or similarly powerful nations. Those who fell to the BlightGuard would rise as undead depending on how they were killed:

1. Those killed by the Lux Reaper directly would rise again as wights, their last moments twisted into anger & hatred towards life itself. If their bodies were destroyed upon their death, they would be reanimated as wraiths with the same resentment towards the living.
2. Those killed by the Umbral Knights (wights of the BlightGuard) would rise as vicious ghouls & ghasts, poised to devour the living at any opportunity. Their souls would rise as corrupted Shadows in service to the wight that killed them.
3. Those killed by ghouls or other forces of the Blightguard would rise as zombies or skeletons, depending on their remains. Their souls would pass into the Umbraweave.

Through advanced magitech/Old Arcana weapons & constant recruitment via bloodshed, the Lux Reaper maintained steady ranks in the BlightGuard, allowing it to maintain dominance & sustained warfare across the globe.

The Umberfrost Wars (300-500 AC)

While the Umbral Dynasty spread their influence, King Daedrius, the Dusk Emperor consolidated power & absolute authority over the vampires of Cyregnor. As the sole survivor of the Daidrin Gaiostone’s deadly power from the Sangrovene Expedition, he absorbed much of their residual essence, arguably becoming the most powerful vampire of his time. But with command of the Daidrin Gaiostone for the entirety of his rule, this question was no longer argued. The Dusk Emperor built up the political, religious & military of his empire with full central authority.

The Sangrovene Council

was a council of seven vampire lords responsible for overseeing governance of imperial territory. The vampires of individual townships & cities maintained direct control of the blood supply (the mortal populace), answering directly to the Council who, in turn, reports directly to the Dusk Emperor. The Dusk Emperor would hold elections for the council every seven years, in which incumbent & inspiring vampire lords alike campaign for his favor. In the end, the Dusk Emperor selects seven vampire lords from the candidate pool. Any incumbent vampires who lose their seats are considered to have lost their value to the empire, facing either execution (at best) or eternal punishment (at worst). Regardless, the new council would get to work immediately on executing the empire’s vision.

The Reaper's Faith

as the new church of Cyr, the Frost Reaper. As the first vampires were the undead rebirths of Cyr's clerics, paladins, champions & clergy, their curse bound them to enforce the will of their goddess. The church was used to grant "hope" to the oppressed subjects of the empire, promising "salvation" (vampirism) upon death if they serve the faith in life. Those not deemed of true faith to the Reaper would not be chosen for vampirism when a vampire drained them of blood, leaving their corpse to be reanimated as a ghoul of the Sangrovene Army.

• Bleeding Angels: elite vampire warriors specialized in martial combat, Sangromancy, Daidrin & divine magic, representing the vampiric wrath of Cyr herself. Bleeding Angels are sent after defiers of the Reaper's Faith, with their prey being corrupted into dark monsters by the will of Cyr & the Dusk Emperor.
• Dreadmothers: winter druids of the Reaper's Faith tasked with commanding the elements & ecology of their empire. They were responsible for the living winter beasts, yetis, giants & even young dragons that served the empire as allies.
• Dread-Touched: victims corrupted by the bite of a Bleeding Angel, creating horrifying monsters of the night, shadow & death.

The Sangrovene Army (The Bleeding Fangs)

An army of vampires, undead & dark creatures that served as the conquering military of the Sangrovene Empire. The army consists of the following ranks, with true vampires holding officer ranks & vampire spawn holding enlisted ranks. Only officers can wield the Gaioforce.

Sangrovian Army Rankings

1. Fang Lord: The most powerful Grand General of the Sangrovene Army, chosen to surpass the rest as the only officer worthy to report directly to the Dusk Emperor.
2. Grand General: The five most powerful & senior generals of the Sangrovene Army, each entrusted to oversee a Grand Legion of undead (1,000,000 troops) across multiple war fronts. They convene regularly as a war council & advise/report to the Fang Lord.
3. General/Goremonger: Powerful vampires that serve as generals of the Sangrovene Army, commanding Legions of undead (200,000 troops) on a given war front. These vampires were considered the best of the best in martial & magical combat across all disciplines. They report to the five Grand Generals of the Sangrovene Army.
4. Sentinel: Vampires deemed to have mastered all schools of the Gaioforce, commanding Divisions of undead (40,000 troops). As such, they are deemed worthy to carry the divine power of Cyr herself, granting them access to divine spells & greater vampiric magic.
5. Colonel: Vampires that command Brigades of undead (10,000 troops) and have mastered one or more schools of the Daidrin Gaioforce.
6. Captain: Sangromages that have been chosen to become true vampires, allowing them to serve as officers of the Sangrovene Army. As true vampires, they are allowed access to the Daidrin Gaioforce, working to master cryomancy, tractomancy, umbramancy & necromancy over their careers. They command Batallions of undead (2,000 troops).
7. Sangromage: Sangroknights that have advanced in their magical prowess to include Arcane magic. They command Companies of undead (400 troops) & each focus on an arcane specialty
8. Sangroknight: Fangtroopers that have proven worthy to learn the art of Sangromancy, applying it in combat to enhance martial prowess & cast combat spells. They craft weapons of their choice from Bloodfrost, using the undrunk blood of their victims on the battlefield. They also learn the art of necromancy, allowing them to perform the rites necessary to raise the dead as ghouls.
9. Fangtrooper: By order of the Reaper's Faith, faithful members of the empire's living populace could be granted the right to reanimate as vampire spawn upon their violent, blood-draining death. Upon acceptance of Cyr's vampiric curse & it's spiritual trials, new vampire spawn had the choice of joining the Reaper's Faith or the Sangrovene Army. Fangtroopers would be given command over a Squad of undead (10 ghouls), serving as field officers for smaller missions.
10. Ghouls: Blood-drained corpses of the empire’s populace that were not selected for vampirism, They serve as the foot soldiers of the Bleeding Fangs ( were either reanimated as ghouls or warped into “Creatures of the Night”, dark monsters created by the Emperor’s Daidrin experiments.
11. Undead Giants, Yetis & Dragons
12. Undead Beasts of the North: white wolves, polar bears, ice hawks (arctic bats), saber-tooth tigers, mammoths,

The Hundred Year Night

While conflicts between Umbral Dynasty & Sangrovene Imperial territories began in the early 300s, the official war was not declared until 347 AC, when the Dusk Emperor used the Daidrin Gaiostone to the planet in an endless night, much like the ancient moon god Neviros. This allowed them to spread their reign across the planet without concern for the sun’s lethal effects. Nstually, the Umbral Dynasty benefited from this new domain of shadow as well, triggering most of their coups & takeovers while engaging in brutal warfare against Sangiovese territories. While often masked as “Liberation” by the Zalcovian Church, mortal life was terrible & deadly under either undead ruler. As such, the living societies of the world lived under what is now known as the Hundred Year Night, fighting viogorously for survival against hordes of divine & arcane undead alike.

Attempts by either world superpower to kill the Dusk Emperor or Shadow Triad proved fruitless. While combined special forces from global superpowers were able to fell each member of the Shadow Triad at least once, no mortal force could kill the Dusk Emperor while he wielded the Daidrin Gaiostone. Additionally, the felled members of the Shadow Triad would reappear within days or weeks of their supposed death, leading many to believe that the only end to this war would be the death of humanity. While shadowed in perpetual doom & darkness, small vines of hope began branching together, with seven global superpowers (Fraisokovia, Banatar, Grettania, the Seregan Islands, the Warian Collective, the Dolgarian Empire & a currently unnamed undersea superpower) becoming the founding members of the League of Gaion.

The Battle of Nairvithone (460 AC)

During the climax of the war, the Shadow Triad led Avernia & the Blightguard on a besieging assault of Cyrofel using Avernia's own teleportation grid to lock the Divine City in place over the Nairvithone Mountains. The battle was devastating, unleashing powerful dark magic that would curse the North Pole well into the modern day. The Shadow Triad, each legendary on their own, fought to take down the heads of each faction of power:

• The Shadow King fought & killed the entire Sangrovene Council, displaying magical power & combat prowess beyond any mage of the Mortal Age, both then & now.
• The Void Pharaoh fought & killed the archpriests of the Reaper's Faith, displaying divine magical mastery rivalling those chosen by the gods themselves.
• The Lux Reaper fought & killed the Fang Lord & Grand Generals of the Sangrovene Army, displaying magically martial power ranking her as one of the most powerful warriors of the Mortal Age.

Having cut the heads from each faction, the Shadow Triad regrouped in a final assault on the Dusk Emperor, with witnesses describing it as the single-most epic & devastating magical battle of the Mortal Age. However, in the end, the prowess of the Shadow Triad overcame & destroyed the Dusk Emperor through a ritual that broke the Reaper's Claw, releasing the Daidrin Gaiostone's full power into the Dusk Emperor's now-unstable connection. Through his death, they cast the Rites of the Umbralux, which encapsulated the Daidrin Gaiostone within their original triad of the Umbraweave & allowed them to access it's power equally.

Late War Period (460-500 AC)

With the Umbralux in the Shadow Triad's arsenal, the Umbral Dynasty turned the tide of competition against the Sangrovene Empire, rapidly reducing their hold on the planet. With rising revolutions and liberations from living populations, the Sangrovene Empire was finished by 500 AC, with remaining vampire territories reduced to scattered pockets of Cyregnor & large islands between Cyregnor & Dalterra.

While the Umbral Dynasty annihilated the Sangrovene Empire, the League of Gaion gained momentum from their reconquered territories, uniting their strength into greater assaults on Umbral Dynasty territories. However, the Dynasty countered these gains by releasing horrifying umbral monsters into their forces, created from the Shadow King's & Void Pharaoh's experimentation with arcana, umbramancy & the Gaioforce. By the final days of the war, the living societies had grown greatly war-fatigued, with some on the point of near collapse.

The Battle of Norkath & Fall of the Umbral Dynasty (500 AC)

On the final days of the war, the League of Gaion led a massive invasion force against Cyrofel while it was besieging the isle of Norkath, an ally state (but not yet member) of the League. As the hordes of undead & umbral monsters overwhelmed the Norkathian Army & devoured the citizens within its walls, the League Army set a perimeter around the island using all means of magic, with Fraisokovia using a new creation, the Fractal Anchor, to keep Cyrofel from teleporting away. The battle was considered the bloodiest of the war, with most of the League Army perishing as they bravely reduced the Blightguard's horrendous numbers. Powerful mages, clerics & mageknights of the League infiltrated the city hoping to lay waste to Zalcovia, slaughtering much of its guard & clergy while taking out much of the other undead populace.

While the League & Dynasty fought, the Shadow Triad was engaged directly by a team of the League's most powerful champions, consisting of one from each founding member state:

• King Narvon I, Emperor of Dolgaria. Wielder of the Warden's Gavel, the legendary weapon containing the Goultani Gaiostone. Primarily engaged the Lux Reaper.
• (champion of Fraisokovia), the most powerful living Daidrin master of his time & one of its most powerful arcanists. Primarily engaged the Shadow King in an epic wizard duel against his impossibly powerful dark magic, becoming the only mortal wizard that Avernox ever viewed as a threat.
• (champion of undersea kingdom), wielder of the Aurotriton, an Arm of the OmniWar imbedded with a gem/core of pure Blauri Gaioforce/dark matter. Primarily engaged the Shadow King with dark matter magic beyond even his grasp.
• (champion of Banatar), Queen of Banatar. Wielder of Entropy's Maw, the legendary weapon containing the Rouzhai Gaiostone. Primarily engaged the Lux Reaper.
• (champion of Serega), the most powerful living Garonis master of her time & chosen to bear a Seed of Akimara (raw connection to the Garonis Gaiostone). The Void Pharaoh greviously cursed the Seregan champion with a powerful Mummy Rot, leading to her later death despite attempts to heal
• St. Alathor, an archcleric of the Warian Collective & most powerful biomancer alive. Primarily engaged the Void Pharaoh, countering his pseudo-divine necromancy & umbramancy with their own biomancy & near-divine power.
• (champion of the Orskan Empire) most powerful living master of Sangromancy & greatest martial combatant of the group. Trained to combat vampires & undead. He killed the Lux Reaper, but was slain by the rest of the Shadow Triad. His soul was used as the component of the Banes of Avernia, sacrificing his chance at an afterlife.

Upon the Orskanian champion’s death, the remaining champions quickly drove a final assault against the surviving Shadow Triad members. Together, they destroyed Zalcophet & weakened Avernox enough to directly target his phylactery. Unable to destroy it due to the Daidrin Gaiostone repelling any attempts, they instead combined the magic of their Gaiostones, Warian Biomancy & the soul of the fallen champion to successfully cast the Banes of Avernia. However, when Avernox launched one final attack to stop their ritual, St. Alathor sacrificed his own life to counter & destroy his form, completing the banishment of Avernox, the Eye of Entropy & Cyrofel itself.

1. The Shadow King: overloaded the power of the Daidrin Gaiostone, innately connected with his phylactery, to permanently tether the lich’s essence with an inescapable pull of death & entropy. While not killing or weakening the Shadow King’s true form, it prevents him from manifesting it anywhere outside of Cyrofel. When the Banes banished Cyrofel to the Astral Fog, the “Lich’s Leash” dragged the Shadow King with it, preventing him from physically entering the mortal realm.
2. The Void Pharaoh: cursed his body upon destruction, preventing rejuvenation unless one of his Zalcovian Priests (preferably an Archpriest) offers themselves as a host near, required to be near his heart to do so. As such, the Void Pharaoh’s immortality was based on the strength of his following, which was near-completely culled in the decades following the Umberfrost Wars.
3. The Lux Reaper: previously, anyone who had slain the Lux Reaper would be cursed with an unyielding desire to wield the sword, even going as far to risk their own life or kill anyone who tried to stop them. If slain in this process, the curse would then pass onto whoever killed them or first interacted with their corpse. Now, the Lux Reaper’s voice can only be heard by those who are near, and it only curses those who wield it and cannot/do not resist its influence.

With a strong connection to the Daidrin Gaiostone thanks to the Ichor of Entropy (melted ice from the Reaper’s Claw), Aetherbane could not be destroyed. Instead, the Fraisokovian, undersea & Seregan champions encased it in a specialized crate, then sealed it away in a secret dungeon to prevent anyone from wielding it again. Unbeknownst to the champions, the remaining Zalcovian Hierophants (mummy arch-priests) cast a ritual that would send Zalcovia (containing the Heart of Zalcophet) elsewhere into the mortal plane. Howevr, with the Blightguard banished & the tide turned in favor of the League, the Shadow Triad was defeated & prevented from ever rising to full power in the mortal realm again.

The Second Avernal Age (500-890 AC)

The League of Gaion led a massive campaign against the remaining Eyes of Umbra & Zalcovian Church holdouts within their respective nations. The Zalcovian Church was eradicated, leaving only a small holdout of Zalcovian Priests (along with the Heart of Zalcophet) hidden within the tundra mountains of the North. The Eyes of Umbra were nearly eradicated, with the few survivors fleeing their posts on their own religious mecca to the final Church holdout. Meanwhile, the fallen members of the Shadow Triad navigated their defeats in their own way.

The Shadow King

With his power completely banished from Gaion, Avernox had no way to reach or empower new followers. However, those who fought fervently in his name during the League’s purge campaign gained new power through a warlock pact, forged purely through their faith in the Shadow King and survival of the purge. These Eyes of Umbra members received visions in shadow from their King, guiding them to flee their respective societies & migrate to Zalcovia for the promise of their greater purpose.

Meanwhile, the Shadow King could only commune with Zalcophet through the enhanced communion chambers of Zalcovia. Together, they designed the arcano-divine models for the Avernal Gate & the Divine Veil, magical rites that would allow the Shadow King to project small amounts of his power & consciousness into the mortal realm while hiding their activities from all divination magic, even the eyes of the gods themselves. Meanwhile, he continued to build up Cyrofel in the shadows of the Void, renaming it Avernia without the knowledge of Zalcophet or Gaelica. He recruited & imprisoned several dark beings of the Void, sparing them in exchange for worshipping himself as a deity.

The Frost Pharaoh (formerly the Void Pharaoh)

After the Battle of Norkath, Zalcophet’s urn was sent to a hidden mountain range within Cyregnor. With Avenox & Gaelica out of the picture, Zalcophet didn’t have the manpower to fight the combined militaries of the League. As the Zalcovian Church was destroyed temple by temple, Zalcophet constructed a new temple from the icy mountains around him, establishing the Ziggurrat of Zalcovia on Corvemak’s Peak (tallest mountain in the remote arctic mountain range). He created a raging blizzard around Zalcovia & cast a powerful anti-divination ritual to magically hide it from mortal eyes, using his power & the natural climate to keep the storm going indefinitely. This spell would be his first draft of the Divine Veil, which would be developed later by himself & Avernox. To maintain his anonymity, Zalcophet shed his original identity and referred to himself as the Frost Pharaoh.

The Frost Pharaoh communed regularly with the Shadow King on methods & experimentation to bring him back to the mortal realm, using their combined magical prowess to eventually develop the Divine Veil & Avernal Gate. However, the Frost Pharaoh secretly rebuilt the Zalcovian faith around himself as a deific figure, unbeknownst to Avernox or Gaelica. The Zalcovian Clergy swore this loyalty to Zalcophet, rather than the Shadow Triad itself. They kept this a secret from the surviving Eyes of Umbra members, who made the Mecca to Zalcovia as part of the Shadow King & Frost Pharaoh’s machinations.

The Lux Reaper

Unlike her colleagues, Gaelica remained sealed within her own blade after her initial defeat. The Fraisokovian Army constructed a temple within a pocket dimension, its entrance concealed deep beneath the icy terrain of Cyregnor. This temple would contain Aetherbane’s power within an enchanted coffin at the heart of this dark temple, guarding this chamber with deadly physical/magical traps & OmniWar-level constructs that would activate against anyone who entered. After completion of the League’s clean-up campaign, all records & artifacts of the Umbral Dynasty were either sealed within this temple or permanently destroyed. While the destroyed artifacts were studied extensively prior to their demise, the rest of the temple & its contents were abandoned forever, with only a select few Fraisokivan officials knowing of its existence or location. With Zalcophet’s limited clergy & no mortal-realm presence from the Shadow King, the Lux Reaper would not resurface for centuries.

Creation of the Divine Veil

Zalcophet relocated Zalcovia to the jagged peaks of the Nairvithone Mountains, concealing its location beneath the raging winds of Artassa's Everstorm. Using it's divine nature, Zalcophet & Avernox cast the Rites of the Avernal Gate, creating the Divine Veil from the everstorm's winds & a pathway between Cyrofel (Avernia) & Zalcovia.

Upon the Veil's completion, Avernox sent his first true communion through Zalcovia, speaking directly to his followers & the Zalcovian clergy. Commending them for their work, the Shadow King tasked the remaining Eyes of Umbra with their final test; a fight to the death, with the final two survivors becoming his top lieutenants in the new age: the Avernal Hands. After a long & bloody fight of dark magic & death, two champions remained as the Avernal Hands, their original names scrubbed into their new identities: The Death Minister & The Shade Walker. The Eyes of Umbra members who failed were reanimated as wraiths & wights with their original spellcasting/combat capabilities. To redeem their purpose in the eyes of the Shadow King, these cultists were tasked with finding Aetherbane & releasing Gaelica into the world again, spending over a century on this task while avoiding Fraisokovian spies & the League of Gaion. Meanwhile, the Death Minister & Shade Walker began their work under the Shadow King, rebuilding the Eyes of Umbra as a new secret society in worship of Avernox.

Eventually, the fallen cultists locate the dangerous Fraisokovian dungeon that contained Aetherbane & the Umbral Dynasty's dark history. In a joint operation led by the Death Minister & Shade Walker, the Eyes of Umbra fought their last great fight against the security forces of the dungeon, successfull liberating Aetherbane at the cost of their undead lives. The Death Minister & Shade Walker survived, bringing Aetherbane & the buried history/artifacts of the Umbral Dynasty back to Zalcovia. In the throne room of the ziggurat, Zalcophet forced a captured Frost Elf warrior to claim the blade, who then violently transforms into the dark-clad Lux Reaper herself.

A Change in Plans

Avernox summoned the Avernal Wraiths & Wights to Avernia. He organized the wraiths into the Annali Sages, powerful magewraiths that would perform dark magic research & experimentation on behalf of the Shadow King. The Annali Sages answer directly to the Death Minister, who receives the Shadow King's will & delegates their work accordingly. Avernox then organized the wights into the Umberknight Council, death knight generals of the Blightguard stationed in Avernia. The Umberknight Council answers directly to the Shadow King, leading their forces accordingly. This was in direct violation towards the Lux Reaper, who was the original commander of the Blighguard prior to her defeat.

Avernox, Zalcophet & Gaelica met in Avernia to discuuss their situation. With the League of Gaion's growing international strength & Fraisokovia's close monitoring of the North, large-scale activity was no longer practical. In addition, Gaelica could not bring the Blightguard back into the mortal plane, accusing Avernox of intentionally detaining it.

Climax of the Second Avernal Age (890 AC)

In the climax of the second Avernal Age, Avernox prepared a ritual aimed at breaking his banishment and becoming a deity of the Umbral Domain. To do this, he required the following elements: the soul of a divine or near-divine dragon (Thallagar), a Gaioforce soul from each aura (Obu, Fork, Balcazar, Draconius & MB), raw divine energies from a divine being (Artassa’s Wrath, the Northern Everstorm), the souls of his undead worshippers, the Daidrin Gaiostone & Eye of Entropy (his phylactery). This ritual was performed within the Avernal Gate, the inter-dimensional portal between Necropolis & Cyrofel, channeled through the magical fabrics of the portal itself. Most sages believe that without interference, his ritual would have succeeded, transforming him into an unkillable god of undeath & shadow. However, his ego & path to success was littered with obstacles from his enemies, including those closest to him.

 

Gaelica, displeased with the Shadow King’s treatment of her over the years & plans to keep her in his service upon his ascension, plotted with Solya & Darkjaw (Zalcophet’s replacements) to corrupt the Shadow King’s ritual and seal him away forever. They planned to split Avernox’s form into three pieces at the moment of his ascension, right after his previous phylactery was destroyed. They wished to seal these three pieces into new phylacteries, ones which would be impervious to destruction or escape & could not be opened with Avernox’s own power. To be successful, an entity deeply connected to Avernox would need to be sacrificed to the phylactery (Shade Walker, Death Minister & the Avernal Throne). Gaelica’s Fist, undead recreations of the Gaiobros, would assault the Shade Walker/Death Minister as the Roving Shadows besiege Cyrofel, all while Gaelica, Solya & Darkjaw fight Avernox at the Avernal Throne.

 

Gaelica’s Fist

1.     Wrazzloth: Wight, Daidrin Barbarian & team leader (martial). Formerly Chazzle, a Berserker Barbarian who died fighting Lady Gaelica in the End Games Colliseum. Upon death, she twisted hims soul & body into the perfect agent of wrath, aimed directly against Avernox & his empire. He wields the Pentaphant’s Wrath, modified by Gaelica with her own dark enchantments & bound to his essence permanently. If he is slain, the spirit of Wrazzloth will attempt to possession the next wielder of the Pentaphant’s Wrath with every kill.

2.     Spork: Ghast, Daidrin Monk/Rogue & assassin/stealth operative (martial). Formerly Fork, a Goultani Monk who died fighting Solya & Darkjaw in Zalcovia. His soul was claimed by Solya & Gaioforce aura claimed by Avernox. He wields specialized blades & projectiles designed by Gaelica herself, and his monk abilities are tailored towards antimage defense. For example, instead of stunning the target for one round, his Stunning Strike freezes a target’s ability to cast spells or magical effects during said round.

3.     Dreadonius: Ghastmage, Daidrin Wizard/Sorcerer & arcane specialist (caster). Formerly Draconius Moanius, a Rouzhai Wizard who died fighting Solya & Darkjaw in Zalcovia. His soul was claimed by Solya & Gaioforce aura claimed by Avernox. The head on his corpse was replaced with Queen Medusa’s head & the Thugoran Callstone as a third eye, granting him access to the Daidrin Gaioforce, arcane & Thugoran spells. He also has the Antimage Glare, an ability that freezes a target’s ability to cast spells or magical effects for one round (DC 20 Con save)

4.     Ghobu: Skeleton, Daidrin Cleric & unholy healer/support (caster). Formerly Master Obu, a Daidrin Cleric tortle who died fighting Solya & Darkjaw in Zalcovia. His soul was claimed by Solya, Gaioforce aura claimed by Avernox & flesh consumed by Darkjaw. With nothing but skeletal remains in a huge shell & a sundered holy symbol to Danos (a false god), Gaelica reanimated Obu’s skeleton by tethering the holy symbol to the Umbraweave, granting him access to the Daidrin Gaioforce & pseudo-divine magic.

5.     Mechazar: Magitech Skeleton, Daidrin Fighter & mage warrior (martial-caster). Formerly Balcazar, a Garonis Sorcerer lizardman who died fighting Solya & Darkjaw in Zalcovia. His soul was claimed by Solya, Gaioforce aura claimed by Avernox & flesh consumed by Darkjaw. With nothing but skeletal remains & magitech armor, Gaelica tethered the suit’s power to the Umbraweave using the Claw of Madrakor as a channeling focus, fusing his bones to the armor itself and reanimating him as an undead magitech warrior. Gaelica rewired his body to produce Necrotic Blasts from his claws & feet, flying through Daidrin levitation, and expelling Frost Breath from his mouth. Up close, Mechazar relies on vicious bites & claw attacks, each riddled with ghastly negative energy.

The Battle of Cyrofel

Avernox unleashed the full might of his Divine Age magic on his traitorous colleagues, with Gaelica utilizing her Atheknight magic to counter him while Solya & Darkjaw assaulted his essence directly. Meanwhile, Gaelica’s Fist engaged the Shade Walker & Death Minister during their siege of the city, assaulting the Daidrin Fighter & Wizard/Warlock with their combined forces of sorcery (Balcazar), wizardry (Draconius), clericry (Obu), paladinship (MB) & monkship (Fork). Both fights were incredibly close, but eventually concluded decisively. Gaelica’s Fist destroyed the Shade Walker & Death Minister, successfully planting the Nectopic Trammels onto their fading corpses.

 

Meanwhile, Solya & Darkjaw’s bodies were destroyed, with Solya seconds away from capture & imprisonment. However, in a moment of betrayal, Solya cast a Soul Swap spell on herself & Darkjaw, forcing him to take her place in the Shadow King’s Fractal Cage. She then activated her own ritual, the Rites of Feybirth, to sever her soul from Darkjaw’s (breaking the mummy lord curse, but killing her tether to life) & permanently transcend into the Everwild, restarting her new life as a budding fey spirit. Meanwhile, Darkjaw’s hateful essence swirled chaotically in the Shadow King’s cage, cursed to linger with resentment in his corrupted heart. On her way out, Solya tossed her Scepter of Zalcophet into the Shadow King’s chest, spreading dark vines across his body and beginning to bind his essence into Cyrofel itself. As his final act before she left, Avernox tethered the Fractal Cage to Solya, sending Darkjaw’s wrathful spirit to reform in the Everwild.

 

Gaelica’s ferocity & antimage techniques allowed her to bring Avernox low, nearly defeating him herself with Solya & Darkjaw’s aid. Once they fell & Solya completed her part, Gaelica “locked in”, going 1v1 with Avernox & tearing up his dark form with ferocity not seen since the OminWar. With both of them giving it their all, the two finished each other off with a tie; Avernox landed a killing curse on Gaelica, while Gaelica tossed a final blow from Aetherbane (in scythe form) into the Shadow King’s chest. The resulting explosion destroyed Aetherbane & Gaelica along with it, while splitting Avernox into three phylacteries:

•   the Crown of Whispers (divine omniscience): previously worn by the Death Minister

•   the Zaelikos Blade (divine omnipotence): previously wielded by the Shade Walker

•   The Umbralux (divine omnipresence): shattered remains of the Avernal Throne.

 

Cyrofel was shunted deeper into the Void when the Avernal Gate was consumed/destroyed, while the Zaelikos Blade & Crown of Whispers were shunted into Necropolis.

Avernia, version 1 & older

Government & Structure

Leading Figures

Avernox, the Void Emperor

• Spellcasting: Daidrin Gaioforce (Shadow Lich)
• Primary Masteries: Umbramancy, Necromancy, Tractomancy, Cryomancy, Old Arcana
• Secondary Masteries: Arcanotech, Psuedo-Divine Magic, Inter-Gaioforce Arcana
• Avernal Anchor: Eye of Luxevor (Heart/Soul of Avernox)
• Emperor of Avernia

Lord Daedrius, The Lux Minister

• Spellcasting: Daidrin Gaioforce (Tractomancer)
• Primary Masteries: Tractomancy, Old Arcana
• Secondary Masteries: Necromancy, Umbramancy, Cryomancy
• Arvenal Anchor: Crown of Whispers (Mind/Knowledge of Avernox)
• The Shadow’s Hand: Political & Religious Leader of Avernia
• Replaced Lord Zalcophet from the original Shadow Triad

Vailstrom, The Shade Walker

• Spellcasting: Daidrin Gaioforce (Umbral Fighter)
• Primary Masteries: Umbramancy, Atheknight Arcana
• Secondary Masteries: Necromancy, Tractomancy, Cryomancy
• Avernal Anchor: Claws of Entropy (Body/Power of Avernox)
• The Shadow’s Fist: Military Leader/Enforcer of Avernia
• Replaced Lady Gaelica from the original Shadow Triad

Factions

The Eyes of Umbra

• Overseer: The Lux Minister
• Governing Body: The Penumbral Court (five Umbralords)
• Members: Mortal mages (mainly wizards, sorcerers & druids) who've sworn a warlock pact with the Umbra King
• Purpose:

The Umbral Sages

• Overseer: The Void Emperor
• Governing Body: none; each sage answers directly to the Shadow King
• Members: Undead spirits of powerful mages who served the Avernal Empire in life, rewarded for their loyalty after death
• Purpose:

The BlightGuard

• Overseer: The Shade Walker
• Governing Body: The Lords of Ichor (five Umbraknights)
• Members: Wights, powerful undead & shadow monsters
• Purpose: to spread the Shadow King's reign & influence in the Five Realms

The Avernal Path

• Overseer: The Void Minister
• Governing Body: The Veilmother Coven, 12 High Priestesses of the Avernal Path (mummy clergy) led by the Pallmatron (mummy lord, heart kept in Necropolis), wearing cold shadow-draped veils & robes. The Pallmatron answers directly to the Void Minister.
• Members: The Pallmatron, Veilmothers, The Coven's Watch (mummies of people killed by the Veilmother Coven or mummy rot, guard Necropolis & the Veilmothers during missionary work)
• Purpose: to maintain the worship & spread of the Umbra King's faith across the mortal realm.

The Roving Shadows

• Overseer: The Veilmother Coven
• Governing Body: Zaelikos, the Frost Warden
• Members: zombies, skeletons (ranged), ghouls, ghasts (leaders of ghoul units) wights captains to lead entire companies (200 soldiers) of undead. Souls of creatures killed by the wights are claimed by Avernia, while the bodies of those mortals rise as ghouls & ghasts depending on how powerful they were in life. The bodies of creatures killed by the rest of the army are reanimated as zombies & skeletons depending on the state of the corpse, taking any weapons they once had or were near them in death. Creatures killed by Zaelikos are reanimated as wights, their souls twisted from the pain of death into hatred for the living.
• Purpose/Goals: spread the Eyes of Umbra & Shaded Path's will throuigh violence in the mortal realm.

Special Agents of the Shadow King

Zaelikos, the Frost Warden

A dark soul combination of the other two original members of the Shadow Triad prior to the Umbra King's ascension; Lord Zalcophet & Lady Gaelica. After Zalcophet's betrayals, Avernox claimed his soul and ripped his vast knowledge away from him, keeping his remaining tattered soul for endless torture. While Gaelica's betrayal succeeded in breaking the Shadow King (pre-Ascension Avernox) into three pieces, Avernox extracted the small remnants of her soul from his new phylactery binds (shards of Aetherbane formed into arcane/umbral chains) & warped it into Zalcophet's with dark magic. The result was Zaelikos, a powerful wraith of cold & shadow with Zalcophet's magic & Gaelica's martial skill. Avernox cursed them to continually possess wights of the Roving Shadows, acting as their leader. When possessing a wight, the body is imbued with blackfrost armor & bone-horned helmet with Corinthian-like slits in front, containing a dull purple glow instead of a face. Zaelikos can create blackfrost weapons from the shadows & frost around them, seemingly materializing from thin air. When Zaelikos is destroyed, their spirit returns to Avernia for one day of torture by Avernox. Afterwords, the Umbra King's magic automatically sends the spirit into the most powerful wight of the Roving Shadows, beginning the cycle anew.

• Magical Specialties: Cryomancy, Necromancy
• Martial Specialties: Greatsword, Glaive, Daidrin Cryofighter

Darkjaw, the Prowling Wrath

A former ally of the Umbra King prior to his Divine Ascension. After his betrayal, the Umbra King tortured and warped his hateful soul with powerful dark magic. Darkjaw was turned into a Death Warden, a horrifying shadow of his former self & powers. He prowls the mortal plane in search of powerful monsters for his prey, specializing in large beasts, dragons, giants & monstrosities. While hunting in places far remote from civilization, Darkjaw kills every humanoid he comes across in the wilds. Whenever Darkjaw is killed, his dark spirit emplants into the earth, poisoning & rotting the surrounding 30 ft AoE for one day until every living creature is drained of life. Upon the start of next night, Darkjaw will burst from the ground like a zombie, fully regrown into an undead, draconic-humanoid monster. His coloring & physique will match the region. After releasing a horryfying howl/cry into the night, Darkjaw will sprint off into the wild, hunting for his next quarry.

Draconic Forms of Darkjaw: Jungle, Forest, Mountain, Tundra, Desert, Swamp, Cavern, Riparian/Littoral (Rivers, Streams & Lakes), Saltwater, Deep Sea

History

Scheming in the Shadows (partially canon)

As the divine brutality of the OmniWar raged on, Avernox exploited the war fatigue & desperation of Luxevor’s populace to cut moral & legal corners on magical development, while secretly mastering necromancy for his ultimate goals. Zalcophet expanded his research in creating new pseudo-divine connections to the Void, often performing torturous experiments on captured enemy clerics & paladins to draw upon the magic of their faith. Gaelica enhanced her soldiers with powerful potions & weapons, albeit with questionable effects & methods of creation (ex. blood of living or fallen enemies/magical creatures, occasionally obtained through torturous methods). They also formed the Cult of Shadows, a secret organization dedicated to carrying out the Triad’s work within the shadows of Luxevorian society. In addition, the Shadow Triad gained new knowledge & skills through their collaboration:

·       Avernox: enhanced study & understanding of Pseudo-Divine Magic, applying it to his work with umbramancy, necromancy & the Daidrin Gaioforce. This allowed him to develop the Rites of Shadow Lichdom, hoping to become an immortal master of Umbramancy, Arcana & the Daidrin Gaioforce.

·       Zalcophet: enhanced understanding of necromancy, applying it to his work with Pseudo-Divine Magic & the Daidrin Gaioforce. This allowed him to develop the Rites of the Umbral Pharaoh, hoping to become an godless master of the Void

·       Gaelica: enhanced mastery of War Magic & development of the Aetherfrost, a blend of necromancy & cryomancy that allowed Gaelica to draw magical power from the lifeforce of her fallen enemies & add unique arcane effects to her cryomantic spells (ex. Frostfire, Cryoshock). This allowed her to develop the Rites of Umbral Knighthood, hoping to become the ultimate champion of the Aetherfrost.

Geopolitics of Cyregnor as of 300 AC

In the centuries following the Cleansing, the surviving ashes of society banded together & warred against each other to secure resources & territory in this ruined world. The cold, hostile environment of Cyregnor ravaged the exposed survivors of Cyr’s continental destruction, forcing many to migrate south to Faelaria (southwest) & the Dragon’s Tip (southeast). Over time, the following factions warred for dominance in Cyregnor:

·       Fraisokovia: the last living atheist magocracy of the Divine Age (anti-god, not that they don’t believe they exist). Dominated by Frost Elves, who used this period to expand their empire over the surviving Frost Elf populations & territories. During this time, the Fraisokovians are considered to be one of the most powerful magocracies in the world, with only peers like the Dwemish Empire & the Seregan Islands to contend with. Fraisokovia has undisputed dominance over the Northwest portion of Cyregnor & any Frost Elven society on the continent.

·       Mammodon Nomads: tribes of nomadic mammodons and their mammoth-kin, with cultures based in hunter-gathering, arctic combat, and druidic magic. The mammodons hold no permanent territory or dominance, but their sheer combat power from magic & might alike allows them to move within other areas of dominance freely.

·       Frost Giant Strongholds: tribes of Frost Giants wielding powerful Garonis-Frost magic, controlling the blizzards around them to hinder any assaulting forces & brutally annihilate them in the chaos. Mainly smaller tribes led by local chieftans, as giant numbers are limited & large groups struggle to get along/keep in order. However, after millennia of the Gigan Genocide & subsequent conflicts with the dragons of Vulsemar, giantkin have learned to band together if they wish to avoid total extinction. By 300 AC, Frost Giant Strongholds are most dominant in the Mid & Southeastern region of Cyregor.

·       Undead Strongholds: With the presence of their Reaper diminished, the undead armies across Cyregnor began to wither & crumble as her magic faded. Vampires, death knights, lichkings & other powerful undead consolidated pockets of power around these available undead forces. They warred with each other for ultimate control, eventually thinning out their numbers enough for the vampires to take ultimate control of the Undead North by 300 AC. Undead control desolate regions that can’t support life, such as the unhospitable Northmost region that includes the North Pole.

While some forces attempted to pass through where Luxevor once was, they were racked with terrible blizzards, reality tears, dark distortions & unstable singularities. Over time, a coven of five vampire lords navigated this nightmare and pulled the Reaper’s Claw from its frozen sheath, unknowingly opening a tear to the Daidrin pocket dimension containing the ruins of Luxevor. While not immediately freeing them, this tear allowed time to flow again in the realm, eventually leading to the Shadow Triad regaining temporal consciousness.

Birth of Avernia

While Avernia rose in the shadows of the Gaioforce, the vampires used the Reaper’s Claw to reanimate the fallen city of Cyrofel, using it as the capital of their new Darkfrost Empire. They killed or subdued the remaining lichkings, death knights, mummy lords & wightlords. When lichkings held up in their impenetrable strongholds, the vampires used the Daidrin Gaioforce to fractally seal the area from escape, forcing the lichkings to become demiliches when devoid of too many souls.

Meanwhile, Avernox, Zalcophet & Gaelica plotted their return to the mortal realm, with the early forces of the Blightguard (shadow wights of Gaelica’s army), Zalcovian Church (mummies of Zalcophet) & Cult of Shadows (dark mage-wraiths & loyal servants of the Shadow King during Luxevor’s final decades) at their disposal. Choosing to press their stealth advantage while developing more power in the shadows, the three would gradually introduce themselves to the new era under the names they earned//created through their dark reputations; the Shadow King, the Void Pharaoh & the Lux Reaper. Through these factions of power, the Shadow Triad unleashed a deadly reign of terror on the mortal societies of Cyregnor, Dalterra & Hythenos, while also waging wars of annihilation against the vampiric Bloodfrost Empire. This reign of dark power lasted from 300-500 AC, forcing the global superpowers of the reconstructed world to combat both undead scourges.

The Shadow King & the Cult of Shadows

The Rites of Umbral Lichdom turned Avernox into a lich, using the pseudo-divine connection between the Aetherfrost & the Void to bypass any need for Cyr’s or an unholy blessing. He channeled the deaths of Luxevor into the newly crafted Eye of Entropy, a magical artifact created to channel & contain the power of the Daidrin Gaiostone. The ritual drained his corrupted soul from his arch-magical body & into the Eye of Entropy, fusing the two with the screams of the dead Luxevorians. As such, the Eye became Avernox’s phylactery. Upon his new existence, Avernox reserved his true name for “sacred” context, choosing to re-enter the world as his moniker; the Shadow King.

The Shadow King refromed the Cult of Shadows to include his loyalists, the powerful magewraiths that sacrificed their lives for the Aetherfrost Ascension. These wraiths permanently possessed influential mortals & powerful mages within living societies around the world, corrupting their societies from the inside. These wraith-possessed mortals would recruit ambitious mages to the Cult of Shadows through the promise of magical power, ancient knowledge & dark secrets of Old Arcana. Eventually, when enough dark mages become one with the Cult of Shadows, they would stage a coup against the remaining citizenry & institutions, toppling the society as the living once knew it. Cult of Shadows members would be rewarded in death by becoming new magewraiths in his service, continuing his work anew. The souls of other citizens not loyal to the Shadow King would either be claimed for torturous dark experiments or consumed in his void-like hunger.

Meanwhile, the Shadow King spent his time dueling & killing powerful mages across the globe, eager to test the magical prowess of this new era & steal magical knowledge from his victims. His dark reputation built alongside the rise of the Cult of Shadows, supporting his role as their mysterious & powerful patron. Many powerful mages rose to challenge him, eager to prove themselves as arcane & Gaioforce champions of the era. They all failed, surrendering their life & knowledge to the Shadow King & proving his magic to be far beyond the skills of any one mage in the Mortal Age. Unlike other souls claimed by Avernia, the Shadow King would immediately consume the knowledge-stripped souls of the mages he killed, with surviving witnesses describing him as a predatory force of undeath & magic, rather than a man.

The Void Pharaoh & the Zalcovian Church

The Void Pharaoh would spread the faith of the Shadow King & his church to enhance the Aetherfrost’s pseudo-divine magic, allowing the Shadow Triad to continue functioning between its three members. Veilkeepers, dark mummy priests & priestesses of the Zalcovian Church, travelled with Zalcovian Knights as “missionaries” of the faith, coercing societies into worship by providing regular “tithes” of souls & magical items/knowledge. Failure to subject to this worship results in a week-long plague of curses:

1. Nightmares
2. Drought
3. Famine
4. Insect Swarms
5. Disease
6. Madness
7. Violence & Death, upon which the Blightguard annihilates the society in a horrific slaughter.

After these devastating battles, the Veilkeepers would patrol the cursed ruins for survivors, offering them “life” in service as a member of the Zalcovian Clergy. Refusal leads to immediate cursing & mummification of the victim, becoming the next Zalcovian Knights as temple sentinels & unholy warriors.

The Lux Reaper & the Blightguard

Whether at the direction of the Zalcovian Church or an act of standard conquest, the Lux Reaper unleashed true battlefield horrors upon the mortal realm when called. Oftentimes, she would teleport her forces to a surprised enemy front for decimation, often after a recent battle when her opponents are at their weakest, Once upon her targets, she unleashes an unbridled slaughter of heartless psychopathy, testing the limits of her masterful Atheknight & Daidrin Magic on an underprepared world. As she annihilated her enemies, she cursed them beyond death to become vengeful wights (if their body survives) or wraiths (if their body is destroyed). Those killed by her Umbraknights (original shadow wights from the Atheknight Core) were reanimated as wights, their souls twisted from the final pain & agony of their death into hatred for the living. Those killed by other wights were reanimated as ghouls & ghasts, with their souls being claimed by the Aetherfrost. Those killed by ghouls & ghasts will become zombies (if killed directly), skeletons (if completely devoured), or ghouls/ghasts (if killed by ghoul fever). Those killed by zombies or skeletons will become zombies or skeletons, depending on the state of the corpse upon reanimation.

League of Gaion & Banishment of the Shadow King (500 AC)

The Bloodfrost Wars

The Avernal Empire spread & fought through the shadows of the mortal realm for centuries, their corruption spread in nearly every society of the North and many others across the globe. Even when members of the Shadow Triad were killed, the mortal realm would soon learn that they wouldn't remain that way for long. For Avernia, it was a war of attrition. There would always be more dead to replenish their ranks, but mortal societies would eventually run out of life. They suffered heavier causalties against the Bloodfrost Empire, leaving the Shadow Triad to shift the war focus against them to obtain the Daidrin Gaiostone by the second century of their wars. Both sides slaughtered each other near-endlessly, using their wars against other living societies across the world to replenish their forces.

Eventually, Avernia beseiged Cyrofel from multiple interdimensional points while the Shadow Triad invaded the imperial palace. After defeating the Sangromien Council, the Shadow Triad faced off against the Gaiostone's current wielder: King Valekor, ruler of the Bleeding Throne. Valekor unleashed a vicious bombardment of power from the Reaper's Claw onto the Shadow Triad, while the triad unleashed the pinnacle of their magical masteries to counter him. As they fought, both sides realized they had met their respective matches, knowing that the winners of this fight will define the fate of the mortal world forever.

The Lux Reaper unleashed the full might of her Atheknight & Daidrin magic to disrupt Valekor's most devastating spells, while viciously assaulting him with Aetherbane, the Deathstorm Lance, the Shadowsun Greataxe & the Everstorm Longbow. The Void Pharaoh unleashed his dark divine Shadow & Aetherfrost magic upon Valekor, attempting to bend his will with divinity beyond what the vampire king could conjure. The Shadow King unleashed a masterfully powerful display of Old Arcana & Daidrin Magic upon Valekor, with this & later feats in his unlife eventually earning him a reputation as one of the most powerful mages of all time.

After a fight that raged across the entire city, the Shadow Triad killed & permanently destroyed King Valekor, claiming the Daidrin Gaiostone & the throne of Cyrofel for themselves. They sealed off the throne room and performed a new ritual, one that would bind their Pact of the Triad to the Gaiostone & grant them equal power over it. The ritual would consume the magical bindings of the Reaper's Wrath to its Gaiostone core, splitting the weapon into three pieces: the dragonbone (Artassa's) shaft (Zalcophet's tether), the aetherfrost blades (Gaelica's tether) & the Gaiostone itself (addition to the Shadow King's phylactery). Gaelica forged her tether into the Necrofrost Blades, Daidrin & Aetherfrost weapons resembling frozen blach ichor. Zalcophet crafted his tether into the Dreadspyre, a dark & powerful scepter imbued with Daidrin, Old Arcana & Umbra-Divine magic while seething with necromancy & Daidrin Gaioforce.

While the Lux Reaper & Void Pharaoh descended upon the city to trap & annihilate the remaining vampires, The Shadow King prepared his ritual to enclose the Eye of Entropy over the Daidrin Gaiostone, successfully adding the stone to his phylactery. While he succeeded, the ritual came at a permanent cost: as the Daidrin Gaioforce entered his corrupted soul, it left a tear that cursed Avernox's void-like hunger for power & aether to never truly cease, even when he doesn't need it. Regardless, the Shadow King & his fellow Triad now wielded the most powerful artifact they could desire & a new city to rule.

The Leauge of Gaion

While the Shadow Triad solidified their rule of Cyrofel, & slaughtered or brought the scattering vampires to heel, the mortal superpowers of Gaion most affected by the Shadow Triad formed the League of Gaion, a global alliance coordinating military strikes against the Avernal Empire & promising to jump to each other's defense if one is attacked. The League of Gaion was made up of five member states:

• Fraisokovia (Daidrin, frost elves & drow)
• Banatar (Rouzhai, sun elves)
• The Warian Collective
• Grettania (Goultani, humans)
• Seregan Islands (Garonis, Seregans)
• Dolgarian Empire (Goultani, dwarves)
• Orskania (Rouzhai, orcs)

In the climax of the war, the League of Gaion issued a joint military siege against Cyrofel, which was telekinetically locked to the Naivirthone Mountains of the North Pole by a powerful Fraisokovian superweapon. While their forces engaged the Blightguard, the League Champions, the most powerful mages & magical warriors of the League of Gaion (often the heads of state themselves) faced off against the Shadow Triad, with only 5 surviving until the climax of the fight: the champions of Fraisokovia, Banatar, Grettania, the Warian Collective & Seregan Islands. While they knew they couldn't kill the triad permanently, these champions had developed special Rites of Astral Banishment, which would banish the Shadow King & Cyrofel itself to the Astral Fog using the lead caster's soul & strong imbuements of the Gaioforce from each champion (all auras except Blauri, which the Warian Soul replaces). As such, Alathor, Warian Founder & Champion of the Barknight Order, sacrificed his soul as he dealt the final blow to the Shadow King, banishing him and his dark city to the Astral Fog. This left Zalcophet, Gaelica & the Fraisokovian, Banatarian, Seregan & Grettanian champions floating in the air where the city & its undead forces once were.

Zalcophet issued a tactical of his remaining clergy, knowing they were outnumbered without Cyrofel & needed to regroup & conserve their forces. Gaelica, enraged at the champions for shattering their empire, unleashed her wrath on their exhausted opponents & ordering her remaining troops (those on the ground when Cyrofel vanished) to kill every soldier they see. Gaelica brutally slaughtered the Seregan & Grettanian champions, but eventually falling to the Banatarian & Fraisokovian champions. However, the Fraiokovian wanted to secure the sword deep within the vaults of her city, while the Banatarian wanted to bring the sword to Banatar for study & eventual destruction. As such, the two fought for the sword, with the Banatarian eventually killing the Fraisokovian with the blade itself. This began the attunement process for the sword, which developed its bond with the Banatarian as he led the survivors in battle against the remaining undead, eventually defeating them all.

However, after a few days, the sword eventually possessed him with the dark spirit of Gaelica, leading him to slaughter the remaining survivors in the night after exhaustive travel. Reanimated as vengeful wights, they became the first soldiers of the Roving Shadows, Gaelica's new army. They traveled the wastes until Zalcophet revealed his new sanctuary to her, joining him at the ice temple of Zalcovia. While Zalcophet worked to re-establish connection with the Shadow King while keeping Zalcovia masked from mortal & divine eyes, Gaelica began training & building her Roving Shadows, preparing for the day they would war on the living again & harboring a special hatred for Fraisokovia & Banatar. While the League of Gaion endured the loss of nearly their entire attack force, they finally defeated the Avernal Empire, with its mortal presence all but destroyed. As such, the living got to know a few centuries of peace, at least from roving undead armies.

Rise of Necropolis, the Eyes of Umbra (500-890 AC)

After the fall of the Shadow Triad & Avernia's banishment from the mortal world, the mortal world recovered and refortified against future threats of undeath. The Shadow Triad, however, was severely weakened, but not fully gone:

• The Avernal Path: The remaining Zalcovian clergy rebuilt their holy fortress under Zalcophet's union, becoming the first followers of his own sect, the Zalcovian Faith. While driven by their holy devotion to the Shadow Triad, their sect held true loyalty to Zalcophet. Over time, Zalcophet built a stronghold of "faithful" by bringing on deadly blizzards on travelers of the tundra, then assaulting them with dark magic until they submit or are slain. Those who submit become mummy clerics of his faithful, while those who died were cursed & reanimated as mummies. He became known as the Frost Pharaoh, allowing his original title to die with the original Avernal Empire.
• The Roving Shadows: The Lux Reaper & her first generation of wights stalked the frozen wastes of Cyregnor with a vicious thirst for violence & death. While not an individual threat to any one nation, the Roving Shadows slowly grew as they killed tribes & travelers across the wastes.
• Those killed by Gaelica became wights & wraiths
• Those killed by wights became ghouls & ghasts
• Those killed by wraiths became specters & ghosts
• Those killed by ghouls & ghasts became zombies & skeletons, while those who die from ghoul fever became ghouls & ghasts.
• The Cult of Shadows: With their leader gone from this world, many sects of the Cult were hunted down and extinguished across the globe, leaving the remainders to hide or denounce their faith/try to move on in the new world. The true fanatics, however, united for a full-scale uprising againgst a moderately powerful North Dalterran city, led by Daedrius (Daidrin archmage) & Zor (Daidrin warrior). They successfully destroyed the society & turned most of its inhabitants into undead. While this got the attention of the Frost Pharaoh, it also drew focus from the Warian Collective, who led a collaborative strike with Banatar to annihilate this last remnant of the Darkfrost Wars. All but Daedrius, Zor & the most powerful mages & warriors survived long enough to be teleported away by Zalcophet, believing that their prowess in their final moments would prove whether they were worthy of the faith.

Meanwhile, the Shadow King grew mad in his Astral Fog prison, unable to leave or project himself/voice outside of Avernia. He was, however, able to communicate with the Shadow Triad, their connection not severed or blocked. While they rebuilt the Avernal Empire, the Shadow King used his immense magic & the Gaiostone to develop powerful dark magic & weapons for his upcoming wars, all while testing the boundaries of his banishment.

Before a powerful cosmic solstice, the Frost Pharaoh used his dark religious power & magic to hover Zalcovia over the tundra to the Naivithorne Mountains, with the Lux Reaper & Roving Shadows slaughtering any opposition in their path. After destroying the Fraisokovian forces stationed at the North Pole, the Frost Pharaoh constructed the Rites of the Umbral Gate, drawing power from the eye of the Everstorm while converting the inner winds into the Divine Veil. The Shadow King performed his side of the ritual, and with both sides using the power of the solstice, they successfully created a permanent wormhole between Zalcovia & Cyrofel. The Shadow King could now step into the world again within Zalcovia's hallowed boundaries, but not the mortal realm itself. Conversely, the Frost Pharaoh & Lux Reaper could step into Avernia once more, and while the Shadow Triad could convene in-person again, it was clear that their dynamic would be different now.

Formation of Necropolis (~690 AC)

Once the Shadow Triad was reunited, they constructed their holy city of Necropolis, nestled in the normally uninhabitable valley at the inner base of the Nairvithone Mountains. Zalcovia, now floating in the air between the mountain peaks, conjured the winds of the Everstorm into a permament storm of snow & shadow. As such, the city of Necropolis remained in magical darkness, allowing all forms of undead to live there without hinderance from the curse of daylight. As the Shadow Triad slowly grew it's influence in the mortal realm again, they restructured their roles accordingly.

The Shadow King dismantled the remaining Cult of Shadows & rewarded it's surviving members with undying Avernal service, granting one of four roles in a fight to the death amongst themselves (split between full casters & mage warriors). Once the tournament was complete, the Shadow King folded his faithful into the newly formed Eyes of Umbra (mortal cult), Annali Sages (cosmic coven) & Knights of the Avernal Star (undead knight order).

Gaelica used her military might to slowly slaughter the remaining societies in Cyregnor, buidling up a large force of undead until all the living remained in Fraisokovia & lesser strongholds. Vampire strongholds were besieged & forced to surrender, agreeing to being overseen by the new Lux Minister. Powerful mages in key positions were assassinated by the Shade Walker, with occassional support from the Lux Reapoer for particularly strong archmages. While Gaelica used her Roving Shadows for her own goals of enforcement in the mortal realm, she later grew resentful & paranoid of the Shadow King's encroachment on her goals (ex. the Shade Walker replacing some of her work & taking the BlightGuard from her).

Meanwhile, Zalcophet used the power granted by a direct pathway to the Gaiostone to evangelize his dark faith amongst global societies, sending his Zalcovian Priests/Priestesses to "recruit" societies into their faith ("tithes" are ritual sacrifices of people & magic items/knowledge). Those who resist their faith would be visited by a terrible blizzard & besiegement from the Lux Reaper & Roving Shadows. If survivors surrendered to the Zalcovian Faith when visitied upon/before death, they would join the Zalcovian Faith as mummy priests/priestesses. Survivors who directly defied the Faith were killed & cursed to be Zalcovian Knights, mummies serving the Zalcovian Priesthood as bodyguard & holy soldiers. The Zalcovia Faith was heavily centered around Zalcophet the Void Pharaoh as its divine figure, rather than the Triad itself.

While the ultimate religion of the Shadow Triad was centered around the same source of magic, it became clear over time that the Shaded Path operated under three distinct sects of loyalty & philosophy for the Avernal Empire while resurfacing strategies from the old days. The Shadow King & the Eyes of Umbra sought to spread their magical & political influence throughout the cracks & shadows of society, gathering knowledge from both sources to develop his own dark magic & eventual freedom from Astral Banishment. The Lux Reaper wished to spread terror through undying warfare, while the Void Pharaoh sought to spread evangilization of their dark faith. These differences led to occassional failures from disalignment, such as Gaelica's failed invasion of Fraisokovia that cost her a majority of her Roving Shadows & limited their conquest to defense of territory by 890 AC.

Ascension of the Void Emperor & End of the Shadow Triad (890 AC)

After tricking & killing the Gaiobros, the Shadow King began crafting his Rites of Umbral Ascension, a ritual that would make him a god by fusing his soul with the Wild Divinity of Umbra. This would require the following ingredients:

1. Daidrin Gaiostone, channeled through the Eye of Entropy
2. Non-Daidrin Seed of Divinity, or the soul of a demigod-like creature infused with divine energy (Hytherian, Aurovian, Ominoran, Thugoran or Denothian).
3. The divine winds of Artassa’s (frost Wyrmking) Everstorm, which the ritual consumes & ends the storm.
4. Goultani Aethercrux: created from the soul of Fork, which was artificially linked to the Goultani Gaioforce. Due to the artificial nature of the connection, the entirety of Fork’s soul was required to construct the Aetherlock, claimed at the time of his death.
5. Garonis Aethercrux: created from the soul of Balcazar, which was artificially linked to the Garonis Gaioforce. Due to the artificial nature of the connection, the entirety of Balcazar’s soul was required to construct the Aetherlock, claimed at the time of his death.
6. Blauri Aethercrux: created from the soul of MB, which was artificially linked to the Blauri Gaioforce. Due to the artificial nature of the connection, the entirety of MB’s soul was required to construct the Aetherlock. The Gaioforce portion was claimed by Avernox during their initial deal, while the rest was acquired at the time of MB’s final death. To keep the Gaiobros from catching on, the Shadow King crafted an illusion of MB being dragged to “sex hell”.
7. Rouzhai Aethercrux: created from the soul of Draconius, which was artificially linked to the Rouzhai Gaioforce. Due to the artificial nature of the connection, the entirety of Draconius’ soul was required to construct the Aetherlock. The Gaioforce portion was claimed by Avernox at the time of his death, but the remains were claimed by Thalonius & reincarnated as a winged kobold in service to his champion Stonius. Avernox sent the Shade Walker, the Death Minister, Gaelica, Solya & Darkjaw for two objectives:
8. Kill Draconius Moanius (the Shade Walker) and claim his soul, thus completing the Rouzhai Aethercrux
9. Kill Thalonius Moanius (all) and trap his soul within a Thugoran Soul Gem (Solya, Death Minister & Gaelica)
10. Daidrin Aethercrux: created from the soul of Obu, which was artificially linked to the Garonis Gaioforce. Due to the artificial nature of the connection, the entirety of Obu’s soul was required to construct the Aetherlock, claimed at the time of his death.

Second Reign of Avernia (890-996 AC)

Fall of Avernia & Death of the Umbra King (996 AC)

Legacy

The Rites of Avernal Bane, the secret ritual developed by Zalcophet/Gaelica/Solya to split & seal Avernox into multiple phylacteries would inspire GaioCorp members Kiara & Hana to develop the Rites of Divine Binding. They would eventually use this ritual to seal Thatos, the Lord of Ruin, within the deepest pit of the abyss right as his re-ascension was complete

Disorganized Notes from Notebook

Tranche 1

Type of Government: Authoritarian Magocracy

Leading Figures

Current

·       The Shadow King: High King of Avernia, Lesser Deity of Magic & Shadow

·       The Death Minister: Grand Hierophant of the Eyes of Umbra

·       The Shade Walker: Commander of the Umbral Army

Former

·       Gaelica, The Lux Reaper: killed by Avernox for betraying him, her soul permanently sealed within Aetherbane as punishment. The Shade Walker now wields Aetherbane as his primary weapon, a black-frost blade which can shapeshift between a longsword, heavy scythe or twin sickles.

·       Zalcophet, The Void Pharaoh: killed by Solya & Darkjaw, his soul permanently sealed within an Aetherfrost Crystal by Avernox after it was shunted from his own mummy lord heart. After extracting everything Zalcophet knew into his own archives, Avernox forged the crystal into the Arcanist’s Crown, granting it to the Death Minister & allowing him full access to Avernox’s magic/Old Arcana spells.

·       Solya, the Caring Pharaoh: killed by Avernox for betraying him, but her soul was shunted to Aurofae for rebirth by swapping ethereal spaces with Darkjaw’s. While Solya escaped, Darkjaw was subjected to the Shadow King’s punishment.

·       Darkjaw, the Wrathful Pharaoh: killed by Avernox for betraying him, his soul suffering on behalf of his punishment & Solya’s. Avernox tortured the fabrics of Darkjaw’s soul until he was reduced to nothing more than his darkest, wrathful instincts blended with demonic & umbral essence. Avernox enlisted Darkjaw in the Umbral Guard and sent him on missions in Thugora, using him as a conduit to draw Thugoran magic into Avernia.

Factions

Current

·       The Avernal Hands (Shade Walker, Death Minister)

·       The Umbral Army (military of Cyrofel/cosmic Avernia)

·       The Roving Shadows (military of Necropolis/mortal Avernia)

·       The Eyes of Umbra (political & religious cult managing Avernia’s faith & influence across the world)

Former

·       The Zalcovian Church (destroyed/souls consumed as part of Avernox’s ascension)

·       Citizens of Necropolis (destroyed/souls consumed as part of Avernox’s ascension)

·       Cyrofel Royal Family (Amon & Sevira destroyed, Shade Walker & Death Minister promoted out)

Tranche 2 (Shadow King backup, 12-23-25)

I: FORMATION OF THE SHADOW TRIAD

I.a: MEMBERS

I.a.1 AVERNOX

During the OmniWar, Avernox was a powerful Daidrin archmage serving as one of the Grand Archmasters of the Lux Pentorum, ruling council of Luxevor.

Prior to the fall of Luxevor, Avernox was a master of the following arcane & Gaioforce schools of magic:

1. Daidrin Cryomancy
2. Daidrin Spatiomancy
3. Daidrin Necromancy (in secret)
4. Umbramancy
5. Abjuration
6. Conjuration
7. Enchantment
8. Evocation
9. Illusion
10. Transmutation

Avernox sought to uncover secrets & arcane capabilities from the Wild Domain of Shadow, a sphere of divine power & influence left untamed after Denothok’s destruction. Seeking to counteract Cyr’s & Dahli’s magic, he used his resources as Archmaester to spearhead arcane research & development into Umbral Arcana. He would use the magi-arithmetic components of Necromancy (negative energy) & the Daidrin Gaioforce to write Umbramancy spells.

I.a2: ZALCOPHET

During the OmniWar, Zalcophet was a powerful Daidrin archmage serving as Luxevor’s Grand Hierophant of artificial divinity & the Umbral Realm.

Prior to the Fall of Luxevor, Zalcophet was a master of the following arcane & Gaioforce schools of magic, cast from a blend of Wild Divinity & Old Age arcana:

1. Cryomancy (Daidrin Gaioforce)
2. Spatiomancy (Daidrin Gaioforce)
3. Necromancy (Daidrin Gaioforce, hidden)
4. Umbramancy (Domain of Shadow)
5. Abjuration
6. Conjuration
7. Divination
8. Evocation

Zalcophet spent his life researching Divine Magic & developing his own version of it, often referred to as Psuedo/False Divinity. This artificial source of magic was connected to the Wild Domain of Shadow, a sphere of divine power & influence left untamed after Denothok’s destruction. His achievements drew him into collaborate with Avernox, who sought to expand his understanding of Umbramancy & unlock new secrets through Zalcophet’s connection.


### FALL OF LUXEVOR

During the peak of the OmniWar that ravaged the end of the Divine Age, Avernox was one of the five Grand Luxmasters of the Lux Pentorum, the ruling council of Luxevor. While necromancy was strictly outlawed in Luxevor due to the dangers of Cyr & the whispers of a new god of undeath (Danos), Avernox used his resources & influence as Grand Luxmaster to practice the dark art in secret. He held special influence over Lady Gaelica, a general of the Lux Atheknight Corps, and Grand Hierophant Zalcophet, an archmage specialized in the school of divination & the study of deciphering & replicating divine magic. As a public figure, Avernox also rallied support for his own ideologies amongst the populace of Luxevor, developing a loyal following from those who shared his belief of unlimited magical freedom.

In the waning years of the OmniWar, Zalcophet foresaw the destruction of Luxevor at the hands of Cyr and reported his vision to Avernox. Rather than report this to the Pentorum, Avernox enacted a plan to grant power & immortality to himself and those loyal to him. As such, Avernox directed his cult & Zalcophet to place inconspicuous runes across the city’s magical power grid (the arcana grid) as part of a complicated arcane ritual. In theory, this ritual would activate if a sufficiently powerful force were to either:

* Destroy the city-wide magic shielding, or
* Destroy or compromise the arcana grid.

As predicted, Cyr herself attacked Luxevor while Cyrofel (her divine capital) beseiged Fraisokovia, hoping to wipe out the last of the remaining atheist city-states in Cyregnor. Luxevor put up a strong defense, using every anti-divine weapon in their arsenal to keep Cyr’s full divine might & undead forces at bay. However, upon the enactment of the Divine Accords, Cyr summoned a powerful black hole with the legendary Scythe of the Frost Reaper (Vessel of Gaios containing the Daidrin Gaiostone), pushing the dark energy levels beyond what the weapon could contain without damaging itself. Described by survivors & witnesses as the Blackstar Bomb, Cyr imploded the dark energy & threw the scythe at the center of the city, shattering the remnants of the shield and colliding directly with the arcana grid.

### Pact of the Shadow Triad

As designed, this activated Avernox’s ritual, which channeled the dark energy across the crumbling arcana grid to perform the follows rites & spells:

* Rites of Lichdom: Immediately prior to the destruction, Avernox constructed a magitech device known as the Eye of Entropy, capable of channeling as much of the Daidrin Gaioforce as the user could control. He performed the ritual & drank the potion required to transform into a lich, which was powered by the excess dark energy of Luxevor’s fall channeled through the Eye, turning it into his phylactery. This amplified his power in arcana & the Daidrin Gaioforce by connecting his essence to the domain of Shadow.
* Rites of the Mummy Lord: Immediately prior to the destruction, Zalcophet had the Cult of Shadows place his body into magical stasis while removing his organs/encasing them into special urns, finishing with his heart. When the destruction hit, the ritual channeled the souls of all Luxevorians killed by the blast through the arcana grid and through Zalcophet’s tomb, granting him a dark divine connection to the domain of Shadow as an archcleric/mummy lord to Avernox. These souls remained restless in the mortal plane as ghosts, wraiths, shadows, specters & other forms of incorporeal undead, shepherded by Lord Zalcophet.
* Rites of the Death Knight: During the siege of Luxevor, Gaelica fought with her soldiers on the front lines while secretly defending the magical integrity of Avernox’s runes. When the destruction hit & killed the soldiers & citizens, the destroyed bodies were reanimated as deformed shadow monsters, zombies, skeletons, ghouls & other forms of corporeal undead. Meanwhile, Gaelica plunged her sword Aetherbane (additionally marked with Avernox & Zalcophet’s runes) deep into her chest, becoming flooded with the same dark energy that impacted her fellow soldiers. As such, she became permanently bonded to Aetherbane as a death knight, serving as the direct commander of the now-undead Luxevor Army & citizenry.

The separate rituals bound Avernox, Zalcophet & Gaelica together through the Pact of the Shadow Triad, granting them the following artifacts as their tethers to the Pact:

* Avernox: the Eye of Entropy, his phylactery
* Gaelica: Aetherbane, her sword
* Zalcophet: Staff of the Void, his scepter

### Stasis in the Daidrin Gaioforce

While successful, the ritual had unintended consequences. The excess dark energy, crumbling arcana grid, conflicting magical activity within the city (mages attempting to Time Stop or Teleport away from the destruction) & collision impact of the Scythe of the Frost Reaper caused a city-wide surge of Wild Magic. The power of the Daidrin Gaiostone created a singularity at the point of impact, sucking the entire city into a newly-created pocket dimension in the Astral Fog. Luxevor was wholly destroyed, but chunks of its architecture & history remained intact, orbiting around the gravitational center of the pocket dimension. Most of the citizenry was killed outright, with the few survivors & the Shadow Triad frozen in a mass Time Stop for the next 300 years. Only the Scythe of the Frost Reaper remained in the mortal realm, imbedded in the epicenter of the blast and generating blizzards, spatial distortions & waves of negative energy in the region.

While Luxevor died on this day, Fraisokovia defeated Cyrofel & purged the city of undead, shunting the damaged city to the Nairvithone Mountains in the North Pole,

Tranche 3 (Avernia updates article, 12-14-25)

AVERNIA UPDATES

Table of Contents

I: Factions of Avernia
II: The Shade Walker
III: The Death Minister
IV: The Dreadmother
V: Necropolis
VI: The Shadow’s Hand Specialties

I: FACTIONS OF AVERNIA

1. The Shadow’s Hand: ruling council of Avernia, serving directly under the Shadow King’s himself. Consists of the Shade Walker, the Void Minister & the Duskmother. While they do not use the name, they are often considered to be the new Shadow Triad.
2. The Zalcovian Church: religious faction that maintains the Shadow King’s faith in the mortal realm. Led by the Duskmother.
3. The Umbral Army: military faction that fights the Shadow King’s extraplanar campaigns in the Five Realms. Led by the UmbraKnights, 15 (originally) death knights imbued with Atheknight magic (Daidrin Gaioforce & Shadow Magic), albeit not to the same extent as his personal apprentice (the Shade Walker). The UmbraKnights lead the day-to-day operations of the Umbral Army, but they ultimately answer to the Shade Walker.
4. The Roving Shadows: military faction that fights the Shadow King’s battles in the mortal realm. Commanded by Lord Drednok, veteran wightlord & ruler of Necropolis who answers to the Shade Walker.
5. The Shadow’s Eye: global cult that maintains the Shadow King’s eyes, ears & influence in the mortal realm. Led by the Death Minister, who occasionally lends out its members to the Avernal Sages or Zalcovian Church for special projects.
6. The Avernal Sages: 15 (originally) undead mages from the original Cult of Shadows. While they were not selected to be the Shadow King’s personal apprentice like the Void Minister, they have been entrusted with researching & developing Eldritch Magic projects in the Five Realms. They are the main faction working on building the Shadow King’s extraplanar tethers to the Five Realms, supporting his ultimate goal of becoming the God of Magic. Led by the Chief Arcanist of the Avernal Sages, appointed by the Shadow King himself.


II: THE SHADE WALKER

A shadow knight serving as Commander of the Umbral Army & a member of the Shadow’s Hand. Whenever he is reduced to 0 HP, his body is destroyed & Aetherbane remains behind in its scythe form. His dark spirit enters the killer’s shadow, tethering their essence together. The Shade Walker will force visions of paranoia, fear, death & temptation to use Aetherbane, cursing them to always wield the weapon in combat once they’ve attuned to it.

Every time they kill someone with Aetherbane or a spell cast from it, the total damage dealt by the killing blow is also healed to the Shade Walker’s shadow. When restored to max HP, the shadow attempts to possess the body & consume the soul of the wielder, requiring an Constitution and, if they fail, Charisma saving throw:

1. If the wielder fails the Constitution save, they take 6d12 necrotic damage & must immediately make the Charisma saving throw. If the wielder succeeds, they take half damage and do not need to make the Charisma save.
2. If the wielder fails the Charisma save, their soul is consumed by the Shade Walker and he permanently takes over their body, dissolving flesh into the shadows that hold his bones together. Victims who have been reduced to 0 HP by the failed Constitution saving throw have disadvantage on this one. If the wielder succeeds, the Shade Walker is exorcised from their body & returns to their shadow, only able to attempt possession again after 24 hours.
3. If the wielder is ever reduced to 0 HP while the shadow is at full HP, they will immediately attempt to possess them (Charisma save only, straight roll/no disadvantage), regardless of whether they’ve already tried that day.


III: THE DEATH MINISTER

A shadow lich serving as Grand Archmage of the Shadow’s Eye & a member of the Shadow’s Hand. Whenever he is reduced to 0 HP, his body is destroyed & the Reaper’s Wand remains behind. His dark spirit enters the killer’s shadow, tethering their essence together. The Death Minister will whisper blasphemous secrets of necromancy, Old Arcana & shadow magic, hoping to tempt the killer to use the Reaper’s Wand. Once they’ve attuned to it, they are cursed to wield it whenever they cast magic.

Every time they kill someone with a spell cast from the Reaper’s Wand, the total damage dealt by the killing blow is also healed to the Death Minister’s shadow. When restored to max HP, the shadow attempts to possess the mind & consume the soul of the wielder, requiring an Intelligence and, if they fail, Charisma saving throw:

1. If the wielder fails the Intelligence save, they take 6d12 psychic damage & must immediately make the Charisma saving throw. If the wielder succeeds, they take half damage and do not need to make the Charisma save.
2. If the wielder fails the Charisma save, their soul is consumed by the Death Minister and he permanently takes over their mind. Victims who have been reduced to 0 HP by the failed Intelligence saving throw have disadvantage on this one. If the wielder succeeds, the Death Minister is exorcised from their mind & returns to their shadow, only able to attempt possession again after 24 hours.
3. If the wielder is ever reduced to 0 HP while the shadow is at full HP, they will immediately attempt to possess them (Charisma save only, straight roll/no disadvantage), regardless of whether they’ve already tried that day.


IV: THE DREADMOTHER

A mummy lord serving as High Pharaoh of the Zalcovian Church & a member of the Shadow’s Hand. Whenever she is reduced to 0 HP, her body disintegrates & will reform within 5 ft of her disembodied heart. Unlike the previous High Pharaohs, however, her heart rests in a secured chamber in Cyrofel, subject to any punishments or actions deemed necessary by the Shadow King.


V: NECROPOLIS

The capital of Avernia’s presence in the mortal realm. Located deep within the Nairvithone Mountains of the North Pole, it is the birthplace of Soul-Touched Zombies, corpses reanimated by the High Pharaoh of Zalcovia using departed souls from the Ethereal Plane. These souls would be approached by an apparition of the High Pharaoh during the 1-minute limbo between Life & Death. The Pharaoh offers a second chance of life if they join the Shadow King’s faith. If they accept, the souls are “reincarnated” into a prepared corpse in Zalcovia, which is then teleported to Necropolis to live as citizens faithful to the Shadow King. Souls have occasionally been drawn from the Astral Fog, but they avoid lingering in the Ethereal Plane longer than the limbo period it takes to claim a soul.

In addition to Soul-Touch Zombies, other undead are welcome to reside in Necropolis, such as Count Volugard (a vampire who owns the magic shop Volugard’s Bounty), Argatha the death hag, the mindless skeletons that serve as the Necropolis Guard (armed with magitech weapons), and other undead who wish to avoid the wrath of the living. The undead here use Daidcoin to sustain their unlife, rather than their conventional means of doing so. Soul-Touched Zombies who do not maintain enough Daidcoin eventually revert into savage ghouls, seeking the flesh of the living & even fellow undead to stay animated. These ghouls are cordoned off in the lower districts until they are sent to fight for the Roving Shadows.





VI: Specialties of the Shadow’s Hand:

1. The Shade Walker - Daidrin Gaioforce (death) & shadow. Wields Aetherbane, amplifying his weapon strikes with shadow & necrotic energy while draining the lifeforce of those it injures/claiming the souls of those it kills. First Knight & Commander of the Umbral Army.
2. The Death Minister - Daidrin Gaioforce (death, space), arcana & shadow. Wields the Reaper’s Wand, amplifying arcane spell power while granting more power whenever it takes a life. Grand Archmage of the Shadow’s Eye.
3. The Dreadmother - Daidrin Gaioforce (death, cold), divinity, necrodruidicry & shadow. Wields the Veil of Entropy, amplifying Daidrin, divine & necrodruidic magic while granting her the ability to psychically control lifeforms she connects with. High Pharaoh of the Zalcovian Church.


Special Agents of the Shadow’s Hand:

1. Nezzarae - Wood Elf Ex-Warian Witch, member of the Shadow’s Eye working with the Dreadmother on necrodruidic magic, soul manipulation & reincarnating undead beings as new living creatures.
2. ??? - Cecaelian (Blauri) Arcanist, member of the Shadow’s Eye working with the Umbral Sages on the Blauri Gaiostone project


Wrazzloth is NOT a member of the Shadow King’s forces. Instead, he fought his way out of Zalcovia & unleashed a demonic rage to leap towards the ground, landing in the snow well outside of Necropolis. Managing to avoid the Ascension of Avernox, Chazzle wandered the tundra until he found a mammodon tribe, eventually finding a home here. Taking on the name Wrazzloth to signify the death of his old life, he trained with the frost Druids to gain greater power & fight the Shadow King, though they discouraged him from doing so after centuries of seeing what he can do. By around 900 AC, his druidic frost magic combined with the Pentaphant’s Wrath to create a Frostfire aura, granting him greater power. For the next 95 years, Wrazzloth traversed to tundra to unite the mammodons against the Shadow King’s forces. While he neither unites nor wars with the frost giant tribes & elven settlements, their collective conflicts with the Roving Shadows successfully locked them in a stalemate over control of Cyregnor. Old, grizzled, strong & rageful, Wrazzloth has grey-white fur & is known as the Bleeding Tusk. He brings localized snowy weather wherever he goes. He can summon/transform into mammoths & other arctic beasts. He has forged a demonic pact of hatred for the Shadow King, not allowing himself to die naturally until the king is dead.

Tranche 3 (older notes)

During the Cleansing, Cyr besieged the powerful Moon Elf magocracy/city-state of Luxevor, which was led by the Lux Pentorum. Avernox, a Moon Elf archmage of the Pentorum, was working on a coup to take over Luxevor as its new king, usurping power from the other archmages of the Pentorum. Utilizing his loyal allies (Zalcophet & Gaelica), Avernox created a city-wide

SHADOW KING UPDATES Table of Contents I: Cult of Shadows Restructure II: The Shadow’s Hand Restructure III: The Avernal Church III: General Notes I: CULT OF SHADOWS RESTRUCTURE Once the Death Minister, the Shade Walker & the rest of the Shadow King’s following was driven out and nearly culled by the Coalition’s forces, Zalcophet (having re-established connection with the Shadow King), summoned the survivors to Zalcovia for a sermon & communion with the Shadow King. As rewards for their loyalty while understanding they cannot return to life in their old societies, these last remaining members of the original Cult of Shadows were given a choice of how they would continue to serve the Shadow King’s mission. 1. Audition to serve as the Shade Walker, an undead mage warrior who would continue the work of the Shadow King as his personal champion & assassin to hunt his enemies. Five candidates survived the brutal training and were forced to fight each other to the death as their final test. The winner sacrificed their name, flesh & identity (scrubbed from the cosmic psyche) to become nothing but bone & shadow, an eidolon of death with mastery over combat-based Shadow & Daidrin Magic. Losers were reanimated as UmbraKnight officers, wights with a connection to Shadow & Daidrin Magic (albeit much less than the Shade Walker). The Shade Walker became a mythical assassin across the world, slaughtering the Shadow King’s enemies & keeping the fear of the wrath alive in the material realm. 2. Audition to serve as the Death Minister, an undead mage who would lead the Cult of Shadows & continue the work of the Shadow King as his personal apprentice. Five candidates who survived the training without going mad were forced to fight each other to the death with their magic. The winner sacrificed their name, appearance & identity (scrubbed from the cosmic psyche) to become the Death Minister. Losers were reanimated as Eldritch Sages, undead mages tasked with researching & managing the Shadow King’s special projects in the Five Realms & extraplanar magic. The Death Minister became a masterful political agent in the material realm while the Shadow King’s influence was far, keeping his empire alive through diplomacy & secrecy. Cult of Shadows members who die honorably in service to the Shadow King or during their audition to become the Shade Walker/Death Minister are granted one of three paths after death: 1. Service as an UmbraKnight in the Umbral Army, a wight with the power of Shadow Magic & the Daidrin Gaioforce. They lead their undead forces on extraplanar military campaigns in the name of the Shadow King. From 890 AC & onwards, they answer to the Shade Walker. 2. Service as a Zalcovian Priest or Priestess in the Avernal Church, a Zalcovia-bound mummy wielding the power of Shadow Magic & the Daidrin Gaioforce. They maintain the Avernal Faith & answer to Zalcophet the Frost Pharaoh (prior to 890 AC), Solya (890 AC) & the Duskmother (890 AC & onwards). 3. A restful afterlife as ghosts & spirits of Cyrofel, retaining full access to the magic & memories they held in life. In times of great peril or need, however, these souls may be recalled to active duty or straight-up sacrificed/consumed in the name of the Shadow King. Those who are slain by his forces are offered one of four paths, either by the Pharaoh of the church or the Shadow King himself. 1. Service as a wight in the Roving Shadows, their souls twisted to turn their animosity towards the Shadow King into hatred of the living. They serve as field officers commanding units of mindless undead, with some escalating to leadership over larger sections of the army. Regardless of rank, wights in the Roving Shadows answer to Gaelica, the Lux Reaper. 2. Service as an Averwraith, their souls twisted into a dark, incorporeal & unthinking servant of the Shadow King. They are permanently charged with collecting the souls of those who died by the Shadow King’s will, whether personally or by his forces. 3. Service as a mummy in the Zalcovian Guard, their souls bound to Zalcovia through the mummy’s curse. They serve as guardians of Zalcovia, bound by their curse to kill anyone who threatens or desecrates the temple or its clergy. Like the priests & priestesses of the temple, the Zalcovian Guard answer to Zalcophet the Frost Pharaoh (prior to 890 AC), Solya (890 AC) & the Duskmother (890 AC & onwards). 4. A torturous afterlife in the Shadow King’s realm, likely subject to his darkest experiments. II: THE SHADOW’S HAND RESTRUCTURE The Shadow King’s top lieutenants governing the day & day operations of his dark empire. Seeing his previous governing structure as inefficient for autocratic rule, the Shadow King considered these three to be the new Shadow Triad, with himself far above them. 1. THE DEATH MINISTER: The Shadow King’s greatest apprentice, mastering arcana, Shadow Magic & the Daidrin Gaioforce under his tutelage at the cost of scrubbing his original name & identity from history. After the Shadow King’s first defeat & banishment to the Astral Fog, the Death Minister went underground, using his wits, arcane & Gaioforce skills to gather the surviving members of the Cult of Shadows despite Avernox never revealing them to each other. Once he found the Shade Walker amongst these followers & recognized his power, the two led the new Cult of Shadows on a campaign of covert death & destruction in their king’s name, impeding the efforts of the Gaion Coalition to restabilize their battered territories. He was eventually recognized by the Shadow King for his efforts and granted a new role within his empire. 1a ROLES: Prior to 890 AC, the Death Minister served as the Shadow King’s greatest diplomat & political agent to govern Cyregnor’s undead societies & discover/exploit weaknesses in living societies. Secretly, he was also trained as a failsafe against Zalcophet, intended to replace him should that ever become necessary. From 890 AC onward, he serves as Grand Arcanist of the Cult of Shadows, overseeing their activities in the mortal realm & working on special magical projects for the Shadow King himself. 1b AVERNAL BANE: The Death Minister was bestowed with the Reaper’s Wand, an Avernal Bane with powerful arcane, Shadow & Daidrin Gaioforce magic created with the fabrics of Darkjaw’s punished soul. The wand allows its wielder to cast Old Arcana spells with their original potency/effects & can use the deaths of its victims to amplify spell power. Anyone killed by the Reaper’s Wand is claimed by Averwraiths after death. His essence is tethered to the Reaper’s Wand, allowing him to reform in the shadow of its wielder after they have used it to take a life. He must then defeat the wielder in combat; upon victory, he will permanently possess and transform the wielder’s body into his own visage. Upon defeat, he will lose his shadowy form until the wielder kills again. 2. THE SHADE WALKER: the Shadow King’s greatest soldier, mastering the combat aspects of Shadow Magic & the Daidrin Gaioforce under his tutelage at the cost of scrubbing his original name & identity from history. After the Shadow King’s first defeat & banishment to the Astral Fog, the Shade Walker continued to fight his war from the shadows, assassinating his master’s enemies while escaping notice or retaliation from larger forces. Once he was discovered by the Death Minister, the two led the new Cult of Shadows on a campaign of covert death & destruction in their king’s name, impeding the efforts of the Gaion Coalition to restabilize their battered territories. He was eventually recognized by the Shadow King for his efforts and granted a new role within his empire. 2a ROLES: From 300/500 AC to 890 AC, the Shade Walker served as the Shadow King’s greatest enforcer & assassin to claim the souls of his enemies & sow death within living societies, spreading fear and keeping the Shadow King’s presence alive. Secretly, he was also trained as a failsafe against Gaelica, intended to replace her should that ever become necessary. From 890 AC onward, he serves as High Commander of the Avernal Army, overseeing the activities of the Roving Shadows in the mortal realm while leading Cyrofel’s forces on destructive campaigns across the Gaion Multiverse. 2b AVERNAL BANE: The Shade Walker was bestowed with Aetherbane, an Avernal Bane with powerful Shadow & Daidrin Gaioforce magic created with the fabrics of Gaelica’s punished soul. The scythe uses its magic to amplify its strikes, can be teleported/telekinetically moved around the battlefield at will, and can absorb the souls & lifeforce of its victims. Anyone killed by Aetherbane is claimed by Averwraiths after death. His essence is tethered to Aetherbane, allowing him to reform in the shadow of its new wielder after they have used it to take a life. He must then defeat the wielder in combat; upon victory, he will permanently possess and transform the wielder’s body into his own visage. Upon defeat, he will lose his shadowy form until the wielder kills again. 3. THE DUSKMOTHER: the Shadow King’s most fanatic follower of the new Cult of Shadows. Prior to 890 AC, she was an archmage at a Magic Institute/Academy studying the research & attempts of Divine Age societies to replicate holy Divine Magic via Old Arcana. She believes that the Arcian & Dakian Gods are unworthy of their thrones, and that the title of God should only belong to those that deserve it. Her prayer & belief in the Shadow King’s righteousness flowed stronger through his veins than that of any other follower, leading him to select her for Zalcophet/Solya’s now-vacant position as leader of his faith. She gave up her life, original name & identity to become the Duskmother, being embalmed in the special rites of the Mummy Lord. Her heart, however, was claimed by the Shadow King, as he does not fully trust this position. The Duskmother, however, was fanatical enough to give up her heart to the Shadow King without question, further proving her loyalty to his faith. 3a ROLES: From 890 AC onward, the Duskmother serves as High Pharaoh of the Avernal Faith, maintaining the Shadow King’s worship in the mortal realm while scouring the globe for dead to reanimate/add to the Roving Shadows. She was also tasked with continuing Zalcophet & Solya’s research into pseudo-holy & necrodruidic Divine Magic, granting her Zalcophet’s prior knowledge/research & the resources of the empire to produce results in the Shadow King’s name. Zalcophet’s greatest secrets, however, remain is his secret lab, still hidden within Zalcovia’s walls & undiscovered by Avernox or the Zalcovian clergy. The Duskmother was known for visiting wounded soldiers on the battlefield the fog of war or after the battle, promising to “save them” from death in exchange for their service. Those who accepted the deal would be twisted into wights, slaughtering any surviving friends & foes alike in service to the Shadow King. Those who denied the deal would have their souls extracted and frozen into gems of ethereal ice, reserved to be test subjects or components for her experiments. 3b AVERNAL BANE: The Duskmother was bestowed with the Dreadmother’s Crown, an Avernal Bane with powerful pseudo-Divine & necrodruidic magic created with the fabrics of Solya’s punished soul. The crown can psychically & biologically connect with any organic life form, allowing the wielder to take physical and/or mental control of the creature while instantly affecting them with any spell they cast (if they choose). Anyone killed by the Dreadmother’s Crown is claimed by Averwraiths after death. Other Powerful Agents of the Shadow King 1. Nezzarae: Kiara’s mother & a senior Cult of Shadows member working on special necrodruidic assignments for the Duskmother. While she doesn’t lend herself fully to the Shadow King’s larger goals, she utilizes the Cult of Shadows to pursue the depths of her research & believes that they can destroy the Warian Collective, her ultimate obstacle. 2. Wrazzloth, The Bleeding Tusk: a demonic undead monster controlled by the Shadow King. Prior to the Perniam War, Wrazzloth was used to test the Shadow King’s demonic magic, successfully creating a tether that would force Wrazzloth to reform in Cyrofel upon death, rather than a wild demon in the Thugoran Chaos. During the Perniam War, Wrazzloth was stationed at the Thugoran side of the Rouzhanis Gate, instructed to kill every demon that tried to pass from either side. Wrazzloth wields the Pentaphant’s Wrath, a greataxe & Arm of the OmniWar previously holding loyalty to Pronoxus, the Pentaphant. Corrupted into Shadow Fire by Avernox, the greataxe now claims the souls of slaughtered demons for Avernox, reforming them in Cyrofel while allowing him to twist them into his own creations. Long-term, Wrazzloth’s actions are building a magical tether between Thugora & Cyrofel, which will be used to fuel Avernox’s final ascendence into true, Divine Accords-governed divinity as the God of Magic & Shadow. III: FACTIONS OF THE AVERNAL EMPIRE 1. The Umbral Army: the Shadow King’s divine military, stationed on Cyrofel. As of 890 AC, the army is led by the Shade Walker, with the First UmbraKnights (death knights) as his top lieutenants. The army is otherwise made up of UmbraKnights (wights), incorporeal undead (wraiths, shadows, specters, ghosts), large & powerful undead (giants, dragons), shadow monsters & and dark/shadow corruptions of celestials, fey, aqui & demons. The UmbraKnights employs all of the Shadow King’s developed magitech weapons & armor, much of it based on Old Arcana from the Divine Age. They are used on extraplanar military campaigns in the name of the Shadow King. 2. The Roving Shadows: the Shadow King’s forces in the mortal realm, stationed in Necropolis. The army is made up of wights & undead humanoids/beasts slain by the Shadow King’s efforts or other causes throughout the world. Prior to 890 AC, the army was led by Gaelica, the Lux Reaper. As of 890 AC, it is led by the Duskmother, as she regularly fills the Roving Shadows’ ranks with wights & reanimated corpses during her visits to battlefields. They are used on mortal plane military campaigns & religious crusades in the name of the Shadow King, teleported directly to their battlefronts via Zalcovia. 3. The Avernal Church: the Shadow King’s religious institution, stationed in their floating temple of Zalcovia. The Zalcovian Priesthood is made up of mummy priests & priestesses, led by the High Pharaoh (the Duskmother as of 890 AC). Outside of the clergy, Zalcovia is manned & guarded by the Zalcovian Guard, mummified victims of the Shadow King’s violence that are bound to protect the temple & kill anyone who threatens it or its clergy. The Zalcovian Priesthood maintains the faith of the Shadow King around the world, typically by visiting settlements at night to “evangelize” their faith amongst the residents. Oftentimes, the Priesthood or the Duskmother herself will convince towns & villages to worship by threatening to sacrifice the residents one by one in within Zalcovia’s walls to make up the difference. 4. The Cult of Shadows: a covert organization dedicated to spreading the influence of the Shadow King & pushing magic to its limits in his name. There are three ranks within the cult: 4a. ACOLYTE: standard member, warlock pact 4b. MAGISTER: senior member, warlock pact + additional magicks 4c. GRAND ARCANIST: leader of the Cult of Shadows; currently the Death Minister 4c. DEATH MINISTER non-canon: mages from the original Cult of Shadows who were granted undeath after the Shadow King’s first reign. They are shapeshifters with the ability to mask their undeath from the living without needing to use magic. Outside of the Grand Magister, there are five remaining Death Ministers out of the original 10, each overseeing a region of the Cult of Shadows’s operations. The rest were culled as part of a joint espionage/counter-terrorism operation by Fraisokovia & other Gaion Coalition member states. 4d. GRAND MAGISTER LUVOS: leader of the Death Ministers IV: THE SHADOW KING & THE GAIOCORPS The Shadow King observes the events of Season 2’s finale from his throne, noting the four brave heroes that nearly defeated Thatos before ultimately dying. Regardless, the Avernal Empire does not come into conflict with the GaioCorps until Season 3, paralleling the Empire’s themes of undeath/cheating death with the GaioCorps’ successful resurrections/transformations. 1. Season 3, Arc 1 1a VIKO: When Viko reaches the Thugoran side of the Rouzhanis Gate, he comes into conflict with the monstrous Wrazzloth, who is nearly the size of a balor & teeming with rageful demonic power. After a brutal fight at the Gate, Viko killed the demon & claimed the Pentaphant’s Wrath for himself, proving the power he gained this arc & escaping the Thugoran Chaos. While Wrazzloth reforms in Avernia (his native plane), the Shadow King takes note of his killer, recognizing him from Season 2’s finale. 1b. KIARA: When Kiara feels the call of a True Resurrection spell from the material plane, she psychically connects with Nezzarae, its caster, and is convinced to accept the resurrection. Their adventures lead to uncovering the truth of the Warian Collective’s genocidal origins, sparking a fight over how to best handle the news (reforming the Collective vs. tearing it down). The Duskmother takes notice of Kiara after she kills Nezzarae in this fight, having lost her most valuable agent working on the Necroflora Project. 1c. HANA: When Hana uses Ominoran Magic to reconstitute herself as a mermaid in the material plane, she eventually finds herself in undersea city-state/kingdom. As she slowly gets caught in the tumultuous political climate while navigating the city, she eventually comes into conflict with a Blauri Cecailean member of the Cult of Shadows. This member is working on a way to harness Eldritch Magic to reduce the dangers of navigating the Iramanis Trench, gathering such artifacts/research within the city and eventually taking notice of Hana’s extraplanar aura. The Death Minister takes notice of Hana after she kills this Cecailean during his plot to capture her, having lost his most valuable agent working on the Iramanis Project. 2. Season 3, Arc 2 2a. VIKO: Impressed by his power, the Shadow King orders the Shade Walker to hunt down and kill Viko, hoping to add his demonic soul to his forces. This eventually leads to a fight between the two, upon which Viko kills the Shade Walker & claims Aetherbane. While the Shade Walker tries reclaiming the weapon after each new kill, Viko’s growing demonic power allows him to defeat the Walker each time, preventing his resurrection. 2b. KIARA: Knowing about Kiara’s origins from Nezzarae, the Shadow King orders the Duskmother to capture Kiara and bring her to Cyrofel, wishing to learn more about her artificial existence. This eventually leads to a fight between the two in the wild (not in Zalcovia), upon which Kiara kills the Duskmother & claims the Dreadmother’s Crown. Angered by her failure & loss of the Crown, the Shadow King begins crushing the Duskmother’s vulnerable heart until he senses the defeats of his other lieutenants. Recognizing that he’ll need Zalcovia at full strength to defend the Empire & defeat the GaioCorps, the Shadow King warns the Duskmother that another failure will lead to her permanent end, before allowing her rejuvenation process to begin in Zalcovia. 2c. HANA: Intrigued by Hana’s extra-planar aura & believing her to being the key to claiming another Gaiostone & his tether to Ominor, the Shadow King orders the Death Minister to capture or corrupt Hana to their cause, manipulating her to his goals if he can. This eventually leads to a fight between the two, upon which Hana kills the Death Minister with the very Blauri Diadem he helped her craft to connect with the Gaiostone’s power. Despite the temptations of the Reaper’s Wans, she uses the power of her new diadem to seal the wand within a magical barrier, desiring to study it before use. This prevents the Death Minister from reclaiming it or possessing Hana, preventing his resurrection. V: GENERAL NOTES Whenever someone was killed by the Shadow King or his agents, their soul was claimed by him. In the early days of the Reign of the Shadow Triad (approximately 300 years into the Mortal Age), the Shadow King used the Cult of Shadows to find powerful mages who knew secrets of the Old Arcana; the Death Minister, one of his early followers, was particularly great at this. Desperate to recover more knowledge from his lost time, the Shadow King would appear to these mages & attempt to recruit them into the Cult of Shadows. Upon acceptance, the Shadow King would forge a warlock pact (bound by Arcane Contract) with the mage & claim the knowledge of their greatest arcane achievement as payment. So long as they remain loyal to the Shadow King, the pact remains & they have access to the magic he grants them, including the knowledge they gave as payment. If the mage breaks their end of the pact through disloyalty, the Shadow King retains the knowledge & the mage loses it forever. If the Shadow King breaks his end of the pact, the knowledge reverts back to the mage. Upon refusal of this pact, the Shadow King would kill the mage and freeze their soul into a Soul Gem, extracting everything they knew over time from the comfort of his castle. When he gathered Old Arcana, he stowed it in the Avernal Library. When he gathered New Arcana, he reverse-engineered the magic to convert it into Old Arcana variants, often more powerful than the original. IV: MOSTLY CANON OTHER NOTES Factions (Mostly canon) 1. The Roving Shadows: the military arm of the Avernal Empire. Made up of wights, wraiths, undead creatures made from powerful corpses (dragons, giants & dangerous beasts), shadow monsters & other dark magic creations. Led by the Shade Walker, a death knight who commands them in conquest across the Five Realms 2. The Avernal Church: the religious arm of the Avernal Empire. Made up of Zalcovian Priests (mummies with limited cleric magic), Zalcovian Knights (mummies bound in special armor) who reside in the temple, along with lesser undead (skeletons, zombies & ghouls) that patrol the Avernal Empire’s mortal realm territories. Led by Duskmother Vor, mummy lord & Pharaoh to the Shadow King. 3. The Cult of Shadows: the political & magi-intellectual arm of the Avernal Empire. Made up of the Shadow King’s mortal/living followers, who’ve sworn loyalty to him in exchange for warlock pacts & magical knowledge. They serve the Empire by operating in the shadow’s of mortal societies, tempting & influencing people in key positions with dark magic and/or the promise of power. They also serve the Empire by pushing the boundaries of magic and/or discovering it’s secrets. Led by the Death Minister, wightlord & Steward of the Shadow King. •Members of the Cult of Shadows prior to the Shadow King’s ascension were rewarded with eternal unlife in Cyrofel, becoming the Dark Nobiles. These nobles would first recruit replacements for their positions in the mortal realm, then supervise their successor/ as they spread the Cult’s influence/recruit more members/uncover magical secrets. •Nezzarae was a senior member of the Cult of Shadows during the ascension, but was instead rewarded the Dreadmother’s Crown and given a separate mission from her colleagues by the Shadow King himself. As such, she reports directly to the Shadow King, instead of the Death Minister. Perniam War missions mostly canon 1. The Shade Walker - besiege the Thugoran side of the Rouzhanis Gate as commander of the Avernal Army, which encompasses the original Avernal Army in Cyrofel & all the wights/powerful undead & magitech from the mortal realm division. The Shade Walker transferred the skeletons, zombies, ghouls, undead beasts & other lesser undead to the Roving Shadows in the mortal realm, led by Wrazzloth, the Bleeding Tusk. 2. The Death Minister - oversee the Cult of Shadow’s work to influence societies & control magic, with specific focus on using a Cecailean agent to obtain the Blauri Gaiostone. The agent is eventually defeated by Hana, drawing the Death Minister into a final conflict with her once she connects to the Blauri Gaiostone. 3. Nezzarae - push the boundaries of necrodruidic magic and find a way to corrupt fey creatures with undeath. This is how she finds & captures Haku in the Everwild, believing that tapping into the aspects of soul transcendence & the Garonis Gaioforce may be the key. 4. Duskmother Vor - maintain the faith of Avernox by placing her non-mummy foot soldiers (remnants of the original Roving Shadows) in patrols across their conquered territories. Meanwhile, she uses the Eye of Avernox to visit death-littered battlefields across the war-torn world, reanimating corpses for her forces while offering pacts of undeath to the dying/wounded. Those who refused her offer were drained of their souls, which were frozen in necromantic ice crystals & kept for future use in dark magic. Prior to the Shadow King’s ascension, Vor was a long-time mummy priestess of Zalcophet and spy for Avernox, allowing him to uncover enough secrets to defeat him 5. Wrazzloth, the Bleeding Tusk - General of the Roving Shadows, stationed on the mortal plane to enforce the Shadow King’s will. Avernox altered the rites of the Pentaphant’s Wrath, granting it the power of Frostfire & sending their deceased souls to Cyrofel.

300 AC - 995-996 AC

Type

Geopolitical, Empire

Alternative Names

The Avernal Empire, The Shadow’s Kingdom, The

Demonym

Avernians

Leader

Avernox

Founders

• Avernox
• Gaelica, the Lux Reaper
• Lord Zalcophet, the Frost Pharaoh

Location

Cyrofel

Related Species

• Undead