The really ancient times are lost in the mists of history. The Endless War has eaten up so many realms that there's little left except for a few tidbits of lore.
Lalindiel the Chronicler was the god of knowledge and wisdom. His angels were called the Wise and his people were the Lendehar, the Learned Folk. Even the oldest records list him as an ancient god, and it's believed that he has now outlived every other deity in existence.
Lalindiel ruled a mighty realm called Choronos, filled with temples and libraries (and most of the temples were libraries). Under his command, the Wise had pacified most of the realms, and the remaining deities served under his relatively benevolent rule. There are references to some demon realms which occasionally caused trouble, but their names are meaningless words now (the K'al'T'al seem to have been particularly feared) and all of their kind seem to be extinct.
His empire did not last. Like all long-lived gods, Lalindiel eventually succumbed to madness. His empire broke apart as his wise policies turned sour and his ineffable judgement began to fail again and again. Only the armies of Wise kept Choronos itself from being torn apart by his rivals. The borders were eventually sealed, and as many portals as possible were destroyed. The Wise became known as the Terrible as they grew ever more violent and fanatical in their defense of their lord.
The fall of Lalindiel's empire of peace marked a bitter struggle for control called the War of Ignorance. All of the lesser deities squabbled and fought amongst themselves. Lalindiel was furious, and began remaking the Lendehar into warriors. Many clans fled to other realms, terrified by the changes that their creator was working upon them. Those who remained were either destroyed or remade into demonic warriors in the service of the Wise.
The War of Subjugation began once Lalindiel's army was complete. They rushed out of his realm, invading those of nearby rivals. Their first goal was the subjugation of the other realms and the destruction of their deities, but the Wise also viciously exterminated any surviving Lendehar that they could find. It's believed that even some of the demon realms that had once been the Empire's enemies ended up allying with Lalindiel's former subjects to resist his attack.
The War of Subjugation slaughtered dozens of deities and destroyed entire realms. It took centuries before his opponents were finally able to break the Wise and scatter their armies, and even then it had more to do with Lalindiel's continued descent into madness and irrationality than their own prowess. In the end, his contradictory and often pointless orders crippled his own forces to the point that the War of Subjugation was finally ended when all of Lalindiel's forces retreated back to Choronos.
He chose to bottle up his surviving forces in Choronos and fortified it heavily. His opponents soon gave up trying to take it and fell back to squabbling amongst themselves. But Lalindiel was too far gone to take advantage of their disorganization; it's believed that he spent the next few centuries inventing new punishments for his subjects, gradually exterminating all of his demonic slaves and turning the Wise into mindless monsters.
Now Choronos is a ruined wasteland filled with the crumbling ruins of ancient temples. What structures survive are mostly monuments to pain and suffering, filled with the ancient remains of Lendehar and other creatures who were tortured to death by their lord. The occasional treasure hunter still ventures here to search among the ruined libraries for ancient lore (it's said that more knowledge was lost with the fall of Choronos than exists in all of the other realms put together), but they must be very careful. While the demon-spawn that replaced the Lendehar have been hunted almost to extinction, the Terrible Ones still guard their master's land. Any intrusion that attracts their attention will bring all of their power, and often the power of Lalindiel himself to bear upon the trespassers.
But so far the Lord of Madness has shown no interest in other realms, and his Terrible Ones never travel elsewhere. It's believed by some that he has gone so far that he has tried to forget the very existence of the other planes and now regards anyone from them as a painful reminder to be expunged as quickly as possible.
Posted by Kiz at November 19, 2004 02:20 PMCommentsPost a comment